tion, j. The pena' longer than tlr, of ten cents for 4. Every memb^ ^ for all damages done t in his possession. 5. Should a memb shall either pay tV> the Librarian, c of the same kin value. 6. Should f longing to a', he shall pay th OUR LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. FROM OFFICIAL AND ORIGINAL SOURCES. BY JOHN SAVAGE. PHILADELPHIA: CHILDS & PETERSON, 602 ARCH ST. 1860. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by CHILDS & PETERSON, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. STEREOTYPED BT L. JOHNSON & CO, PHILADELPHIA. BEACON & PETERSON, PRINTERS. Bancroft Ubraijr PREFACE. THIS work embraces memoirs of the lives and public services of those statesmen, soldiers, and politicians who have been prominently suggested for the Presidential suc- cession in 1861. The endeavor has been to make the work useful in matter rather than ornamental in style, to give a graphic and comprehensive record of the public acts of our public men, free from any partisan influence, and to present each in the position accorded to him by his party and attained by the advocacy of the principles to which he has devoted his powers of intellect. Thus the acts and words of each man are allowed to define his own position. Each man speaks for himself, through the history of his public career, of whose utterances I am but the recorder and not the In bringing together the lives of so many contempo- raries, men who have been engaged on the same great field of politics, it is, of course, impossible to avoid fre- quent allusion to the same topic under different heads. To make each memoir as nearly perfect in itself as pos- sible, no other bourse could be pursued. But it will be found that allusions to the same general topic or debate are modified by the extent to which the subject under notice made the one or participated in the other. iii IV PREFACE. The opinions and speeches of every statesman on all prominent subjects of public interest are indicated or ana- lyzed so as to present the principal features in the most unmistakable manner, in the hope that the volume will be the most useful, as it is the most extensive, of its kind, and a work of reference indispensable to men in every walk of life. In the collection of the multitude of facts and dates to be found here, I have had, in addition to the authority of the ponderous archives of the Government, efficient aid from numerous distinguished political and literary gentle- men. Besides valuable references and documents, they furnished me with elaborate and authentic original details, which I have used with, I trust, impartial freedom. Throughout the work many acknowledgments of indebt- edness for such assistance are made; and I regret that the modest generosity of many prominent correspondents compels me to remain their silent debtor. It may be proper to add that the articles describing certain scenes in the Senate during the great Kansas debate of March, 1858, were written on the spot, in full view of the occurrences related, by the present writer, during his connection with the Washington journal from which they are extracted. J. S. WASHINGTON, D.C. CONTENTS. NATHANIEL P. BANKS, OF MASSACHUSETTS Page 17 Personal Character of the Literature of the Day No Detailed Account of Mr. Banks's Career His Birth Waltham, Lowell, and Manchester Childhood, Factory-Life, and Youth Gerald Massey's Glimpse of Children in the English Factories Tasting of Knowledge Village Debating-Society N, P. Banks as Democratic Editor Non- Success Determines to go to California Elected to Massachusetts Legislature First Speech on Slavery Question Success Speaker of the Legislature Agent of the Board of Education On the State Valuation Committee Simultaneously elected to the State Senate and House Presides at Constitutional Convention Elected to Congress, in 1852, by a Junction of Democrats and " Know-Nothings" Sympathy with the new Republican Party Increasing Prominence His Views on the Ne- braska-Kansas Bill, Missouri Compromise, and the Eights of North and South in the Territories Explanation of his Previous CareerConstitutionality of the Mis- souri Compromise Opposes Military Supervision of National Armories On the Temporal Power of the Pope Replies of Mr. Keitt, of South Carolina, and Mr. Chandler, of Pennsylvania, thereto Favors Revision of the Naturalization Laws State of Parties at the Opening of the Thirty-Fourth Congress The Candidates for Speaker The Test Questions The Black and White Races Election of Mr. Banks Remarks Conduct while Speaker His Self-Possession In Favor of Fremont Speech on the Monetary Crisis of 1857 Thirty-Fifth Congress Opposes the Trea- sury-Note Bill On the Message and Utah Elected Governor of Massachusetts, and resigns bis Seat in Congress Twice re-elected Governor His Studious Habits. EDWARD BATES, OF MISSOURI 34 Mr. Bates's Reputation in the West His Birth and Ancestry Quaker Revolutionists Sketch of his Father's Career Edward, left an Orphan, is taken care of by his Brothers Early School-Days An Accident which leads to a Library Desultory Education Going to Sea Warlike Propensities Volunteers for the Defence of Nor- folk Goes to the West St. Louis in 1814 The French, Spanish, and American Settlers and the Indians Studies Law, and is admitted Various Offices of Trust held by him in Missouri Elected to Congress The Friend of Clay and J. Quincy Adams Marriage Liberates his Slaves Marriage Career in Congress Blown out of Public Life by the Jackson Storm Retirement for Twenty Years Internal- Improvement Convention in Chicago in 1847 Great Speech there Declines a Seat in Mr. Fillmore's Cabinet His Letter on Public Affairs in reply to the New York "General Whig Committee" Its Details on Home and Foreign Policy Is opposed to the Acquisition of Cuba and General Houston's Protectorate over Mexico Reviews the Buchanan Administration Public Expenditures and no Improvements The Philadelphia Platform and his Views Letter to the Memphis Convention- Sunday Laws Last Exposition of his Views in the " St. Louis News" Approves of the Fugitive-Slave Law. V yi CONTENTS. JOHN BELL, OF TENNESSEE Page 46 Proposition to place Mr. Bell at the head of the " United Opposition" His Birth and Education Admitted to the Bar when Nineteen Years old Enters into Public Life, and is elected to the State Senate Retires for Nine Years to his Profession Elected to Congress over Felix Grundy in the Election of 1827 Congressional Career Enters Public Life friendly to GeneralJackson and John C. Calhoun Differs with the Bank Policy of the one and the Nullification Doctrine of the other Alienation from tho Jackson Democracy Elected Speaker over James K. Polk Opposes Mr. Van Burou Declares in favor of Judge White for the Presidency Carries the " Hermitage District" In favor of Receiving Petitions for the Abolition of Slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia Secretary of War in Harrison's Cabinet Resignation In Stato Senate In United States Senate Favors Com promise Measures Opposes Nebraska- Kansas Bill On Territorial Expansion Improvement of Mississippi River Increas- ing Prominence of Mr. Bell Refuses to be instructed by the Tennessee Legislature Position in the great " Lecompton" Debate Minnesota Bill Against the Utah Policy of the Buchanan Administration Elaborate Argument on the Fifteen-Milliou- Loan Bill In favor of Ten New Steamships and a Pacific Railroad On Agricultu- ral Colleges "National Intelligencer" on Mr. Bell's Career. JOHN M. BOTTS, OF VIRGINIA...... , 57 Birth Loses his Parents Education Licensed to practise Law after Six Weeks' Study Becomes a Farmer Anti-Jackson Man Elected to the State Legislature Elected to Congress in 1839 Again in 1841 Reapportionment of the Districts- Arduous Canvass Defeated, and contests the Seat in Congress with John W. Jones Election of Jones to the Speakership Action of tho House on Mr. Botts's Claim Carries his District for Henry Clay Apathy of the Whigs and Triumph of the Demo- cracy Mr. Botts again, nominated, and defeated by Mr. Seldon Re-elected in 1847 by a large Majority Adheres to Clay in 1848, until the Action of the Philadelphia Convention Supports General Taylor for the Presidency Effect of his Speech Defeated for Congress Declines Nomination in 1851 Advocates the Repeal of the " Twenty -First Rule" Defence of John Quincy Adams, and Disruption with Presi- dent Tyler Invitation to New Jersey Banquet Speech Writes against the Ne- braska-Kansas Bill, and emphatically refuses to adopt the Views of Southern Members of Congress Wise's Proposal to hang him Speech in the African Church in Richmond History of the Missouri Compromise Vote on that Measure in the Senate and House The American Party recommend Mr. Botts for the Presidency in 1856 Address in the Academy of Music, New York Review of the Measures of the Buchanan Administration The American Order Protection to Naturalized Citizens Recommended as Opposition Candidate for the Presidency in 1SGO. JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE, OF KENTUCKY 67 Ages at which Vice-Presidents were elected Mr. Breckinridge the Youngest of tho most Prominent Statesmen Birth of Mr. Breckinridge Education Goes to Iowa Returns to Lexington and the Law Goes to Mexico Returns Elected to the Legis- lature To Congress " Democratic Review" on "Old-Fogy" Democracy Mr. Breck- inridge reviews the Reviewers, and defends General Butler Reply of Mr. Marshall, of California Speech on the Death of Henry Clay Epitaph on Cemetery for the American Dead in Mexico Retorts on Messrs. Giddings and Cartter, of Ohio Debata on Nebraska Bill Difficulty with Mr. F. B. Cutting, of New York Reference of tho Matter to General Shields, Colonel Monroe, Colonel Hawkins, and Mr. Preston Non- intervention Views touching the Nebraska-Kansus Bill and the Repeal of the Mis- souri Compromise President Pierce offers him the Mission to Spain Declines Delegate to Cincinnati Convention Nomination for the Vice-Presidency, and Speech At Home W r hat the Democratic Organization pledged itself to in 1856 Elected Vice-President Takes his Seat in the Senate-Chamber Address at Florence, Ken- tucky The Extravagance of the Republicans The Slavery Question und the old CONTENTS. Vll Whig Party Sympathy for Douglas in the great Illinois Contest with the Repub- licans Speech on the Removal of the Senate into the New Chamber Elected United States Senator to succeed John J. Crittenden in 1862. ALBERT G. BROWN, OF MISSISSIPPI Page 78 Birth in South Carolina His Father emigrates into the Mississippi Wilderness His Youth on the Farm Education Law Studies Admitted to the Bar Marriage Mississippi Politics, and the Opposition to him Great Success, notwithstanding his Youth Speaker pro tern. Re-election Famous Report against the Constitution- ality of a National Bank Manoeuvres of the Bank Party Mr. Brown instructed to favor it or resign Resigns, addresses the People, and is re-elected Nominated for Congress Elected after an Exciting Canvass In the House of Representatives Severe Review of the Whigs and the National Bank Retrenchment vs. National Honor Military Chieftains, Jackson and Harrison Tributes to Webster, Clay, and Calhoun Retires from Congress Elected Circuit Judge Nominated for the Gover- norship Union Bank Bond Controversy Elected over Colonel Williams and Mr. Clayton Twice Governor His Administration Re-Election to Congress The Mexi- can War, and the Cause of it Texas and Taxes Taxation Logic of the Opposition Its Effect on the Poor Man Bounty-Land Bill Acquisition of Cuba would abolish the Slave-Trade-in the United States Senate Kansas Lecompton English Bill Against " Know-Nothingism" On the Pacific Railroad Opposed to Territorial Sove- reignty Character No Aspirations Re-Election to the United States Senate. SIMON CAMERON, OF PENNSYLVANIA M 90 Every Man his own Father Mr. Cameron's Birth and Parentage His Great-Grand- father His Father Apprenticed to a Printer Exchange Papers Starts for South America, but getsEmploj'ment in Harrisburg InDoylestown Journeyman Printer on Gales & Seaton's " National Intelligencer" Returns to Harrisburg and joins the " Intelligencer'' there Active in Democratic Politics In the Banking Business Probable Conflict between Pennsylvania and the Polk Administration on the Tariff Election of United States Senator George W. Woodward nominated by the Demo- cracy Protectionists interrogate Cameron His Reply, and Election to the Senate over Woodward In the Senate Renominated by Whigs and Americans, but defeated by Governor Bigler Re elected in 1&57 over J.W.Forney On Finance and Printing Committees His Views Extracts from Speeches Reply to Senator Sevier on Penn- sylvania Petitions Pennsylvania Laborers and Southern Labor Views on Slavery Mexican War Wilmot Proviso Lecompton Constitution Scene in the Senate with Mr. Green, of Missouri General Character, and Connection with Pennsylvania Im- provements. SALMON P. CHASE, OF OHIO 102 His Birth Death of his Father Taken to Ohio Enters Cincinnati College Returns to his Mother Graduates at Dartmouth College Teaches the Classics in Washing, ton, D.C. Studies Law with William Wirt, and is admitted to the Bar Returns to Cincinnati Collects the Statutes of Ohio Business United States Bank Solicitoi First Appearance against Fugitive Slave Cases Defence of Birnc.y Further Argu- ments Unsettled in Politics Supports Harrison The Time fcr an Anti-Slavery p ar ty Anti-Slavery Convention and " Liberal Party" of Ohio National Liberty Convention at Buffalo Opposes the Nullification of the Third Clause of the Consti- tution Address to Repeal Association in Ireland Southern and Western Liberty Convention in Cincinnati Party History relative to Slavery Overthrow of the Southern Institution Defence of Van Zaudt Argument under the Ordinance of 1787 Buffalo Convention of 1848, and Nomination of Martin Van Buren Elected to the United States Senate Against the Compromise Measures of 1850 Contro- versy between Freedom and Slavery Where is Jefferson's Monument ? Denies Wrboter's Views on the Formation of New States from Toxas Slave-Trade between Vlll CONTENTS. the States Amendments to Compromise Measures Opposed to the Nebraska-Kansas Bill, and Failure of his Amendments to it Elected Governor of Ohio His Inaugural Re-elected Named for the Presidency Address at Saudusky On the Speech of A. H. Stephens Homestead Bill Reply to Governor Wise touching the Pursuit of Invaders of Virginia. HOWELL COBB, OF GEORGIA Page 114 His Birth, Parentage, and Education At the Bar Solicitor-General of the Western District of Georgia Georgia Bar in those Days Sides with Jackson against Nulli- fication Elected to Congress Re-elected Supplies Drurngoole's place as Parlia- mentary Leader of the Democracy Vinton, Stephens, Schenck, and Hudson, Whig Leaders Speech against the Reception of Petitions Southern Whigs responsible for the Growth of Northern Abolition Free Trade Texas Annexation Speech on the Mexican War Vindicates Jefferson's Doctrines against the Federalists Meeting of Southern Members, and Issue of an Address Mr. Cobb does not sign it Issues a Counter- Ad dress, with Messrs. Lumpkin, of Georgia, and Boyd and Clarke, of Kentucky Why he did not Sign the Calhoun Address Tribute to the Northern Democracy General Taylor elected Cobb in the Opposition Thirty-First Congress State of Parties in the House Exciting Election of Speaker The Candidates- Combinations Discoveries of Correspondence between Mr. Brown, of Indiana, and Mr. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania Election of Mr. Cobb, by Plurality Rule, over Mr. Winthrop Duties as Speaker Longest Congressional Session His Labors in favor of the Compromise Measures of 1850 Elected Governor of Georgia Returns to his Profession Supports General Pierce Re-elected to Congress Endorses Mr. Bucha- nan Great Speech at West Chester, Pennsylvania " Southern Doctrine" and " Squatter Sovereignty" The People of a Territory decide the Slavery Question for themselves In the Buchanan Cabinet On the Slave-Trade Lafitte & Co., of Charleston, and the Ship " Richard Cobden" Heads of the Treasury Department Secretary Cobb's Visit to New York. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN, OF KENTUCKY 128 Episode in the Lecompton Debate Appearance of Senator Crittenden Interest felt in him Reply to Senator Green, of Missouri The School in which he studied The Oldest Senator in the Chamber His Contemporaries His Birth and Youth Prac- tises Law in Russellville Volunteers for the War of 1812 Actively participates in the Movements on the Wabash and Northwestern Frontier Aide-de-Camp to Gover- nor Shelby at the Battle of the Thames Mentioned by General Harrison Returns to his Profession In the State Legislature Speaker Elected to the United States Senate Moves the Reimbursement of Fines under the Sedition Law Other Measures Moves to Frankfort, and practises Law from 1819 to 1835 Nominated by President Quincy Adams to the United States Supreme Court Rejected by Senate Re-elected to United States Senate Opposes Calhoun and the Remission of the Jackson Fine Aliens and the Public Lands Resigns the Senatorship to enter the Cabinet of Pre- sident Harrison Resigns on the Death of the President Re-elected to fill Clay'fj Unexpired Term Continued in the United States Senate Views on the Oregon, Texas, and Mexican- War Questions Relief for the Irish Famine Congratulates the French Republic Yucatan In Fillmore's Cabinet Again in the United States Senate Opposes the Lecompton Constitution as a Southern-Rights Man Scene in the Senate Reply to Senator Toombs "Crittenden-Moutgomery Bill" compared with the Senate Bill Action on the Measures Passage of the " English Bill" Desires to increase the Duties of the Tariff of 1857 On the Minnesota Senatorship British Aggressions, and General William Walker's Arrest by Commodore Paulding General Review of Senator Crittendeu's Opinions French Spoliations SlidelPs Cuba Bill Railroad Improvements Speech on the Removal of the Senate to the New Chamber Union Speech at Chicago Presides at the Formation of the new Union Party Reasons for it. CONTENTS. IX CALEB GUSHING, OF MASSACHUSETTS Page 143 Mr. Cushing as a Scholar, Statesman, &c. His Industry and Versatility Education at Harvard Tutor of Mathematics at Nineteen Studies Law and Marries The Essex Bar and Choate In the Massachusetts Legislature Goes to Europe He and his Wife write Books Contributes to the " North American Beview" Death of Mrs. Cushing In the Legislature In Congress Cushing's Reply to Mr. Hardin, of Kentucky Defends Massachusetts Debate on the Arkansas Bill with Henry A. Wise Cushing's Speech Oregon Difficulty Elaborate Argument on the United States Eights as a Discoverer Adheres to John Tyler, and Defends him in the "National Intelligencer'' Confronts Clay's Policy Nominated Secretary of the Treasury Rejected Minister Plenipotentiary to China Vessel burned at Gibraltar Proceeds to China by way of Egypt and India Makes a Treaty, and returns Home through Mexico Explores the Northwestern Territories Again elected to Massachusetts Legislature Raises a Regiment for the Mexican War Brigadier General Nominated for Governor by the Democracy Defeated Mayor of New- buryport, &c. Justice of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts Attorney-General in the Pierce Cabinet Action in the Enlistment Difficulty with Great Britain Again in the Legislature Speeches on Naturalization On Harper's Ferry Affair Brings the Case home to the North As a Writer in Periodicals. GEORGE M. DALLAS, OF PENNSYLVANIA 156 His Father Secretary of the Treasury and War of the Federal Republic His Relation- ship to Lord Byron Born in Philadelphia Education Studies Law Volunteers for the War of 1812 Accompanies Albert Gallatin, as Secretary, to St. Petersburg- Sent to London with Despatches by J. Q. Adams, United States Minister to Russia- Ghent Travels in Europe Bears Confidential Despatches to President Madison Bhidensburg and Washington Dismay and Pillage The President and the De- spatches Receives an Office in the Treasury Returns to Philadelphia and the Law Taste for Politics First Speech and its Results First Solicitor of the Bank of the United States Deputy Attorney-General of Philadelphia Chosen by Governor Find- lay to defend him Proposes Calhoun for the Vice-Presidency Exertions in Behalf of Jackson Mayor of Philadelphia District Attorney Elected to the United States Senate Webster and Clay Introduces the Memorial for the Renewal of the Bank Charter, but will not advocate it Exertions in Behalf of his Friend Edward Livings- tonTariffNullificationRelations with General Jackson Retires to his Profes- sion Governor Wolff appoints him Attorney-General President Van Buren appoints him Minister Plenipotentiary to St. Petersburg Returns, and declines a Cabinet Position Elected Vice-President His Influence on the Texas, Oregon-Boundary, and Tariff Questions Imposing Scene on the Passage of the Tariff Act of 1846 His Firmness The Result Directs Attention to a Tehuantepec Transit Polk and Buchanan on that Subject Sympathy with Irish Revolutionists in 1848 Succeeds Mr. Buchanan as Minister to England Complications Dallas-Clarendon Treaty Resolutions of the Philadelphia Democracy nominating Mr. Dallas for the Presidency in 1855. JEFFERSON DAVIS, OF MISSISSIPPI 168 Son of a Revolutionary Soldier Birth and Education Graduates at West Point, and serves with Distinction in the Northwest In the Black-Hawk War Affection of Black Hawk for him In the Expeditions against the Comanches, Pawnees, and Tribes on the Western Frontier Becomes a Planter Political Studies Elected to Congress Prominent in the Debates on the Tariff, Oregon, and Military Matters Resigns to assume Command of the Mississippi Rifles in Mexico Gallant Charge on Fort Teneria Davis, McClung, Campbell, and the Mississippians and Tennesseeans in the Storming of Monterey Appointed :i Commissioner to arrange Terms of Capi- tulationAt Buena Vista Wounded His Movement there, and Sir Colin Camp- bell's at Tnkermann Sobriquet of " Buen-v Vista" Return Home Elected to the I* X CONTENTS. United States Senate Prominent Southern States-Rights Leader On Compromise Measures and Rights of Slavery in the Territories Territorial Legislatures should protect all Kinds of Property Re-elected, but resigns to contest the Governorship with Foote His Defeat claimed as a Victory In Retirement until 1852 Advocates the Claims of Pierce Secretary of War in the Pierce Cabinet Useful Measures projected by him Re-elected to the United States i- enate Speeches at Yicksburg, Jackson, Pass Christian, and Mississippi City Compromise Measures " Know- Nothingism" Cuba, General Walker, and an American Policy In the Thirty-Fifth Congress Free Trade, Army Increase, and Repeal of the Fishing-Bounties Ou the Death of General Pinckney Henderson Favors Lecompton Visit to the North His Reception and Speeches in Maine, Massachusetts and New York Every Community has the Right to choose its own Institutions On the Pacific Railroad and French Spoliations Letter to the Webster Festival in Boston Speech at Jackson City on the Contingency for a Dissolution On the Slave-Trade Senator Davis in the Cham- berWhat Quincy Adams said of his Debut. WILLIAM L. DAYTON, OF NEW JERSEY Page 181 His Ancestors Birth, Education, and Study for the Law Peter D. Vroom, a Jacksou Democrat, his Pupil Dayton a Whig Democrats decline and Whigs rise Dayton elected to the Legislative Council Governor Pennington Reform of the County Courts Elected a Judge of the Supreme Court After three years, returns to the Bar Appointed by Governor Pennington to fill a Vacancy in the United States Senate Elected by the Legislature Nine Years in the Senate Supports the Tariff of 1842 and the Ashburton Treaty On Judiciary Committee Effect of Repudiation of State Debts on Federal Credit President Tyler fails to negotiate a Loan in Europe Senator Dayton's Vindication of Federal Credit Condemns the President's Propo- sition Reduced Postage and Free Circulation of Documents to Editors Opposed in every way to the Instruction of Members of Congress by State Legislatures On the Oregon-Boundary Question Protective Tariff Replies to Woodbury and Silas Wright Opposed to Texas Annexation and Secretary Walker's Non-Protective Tariff-of 1846 Against the Mexican War, but votes Supplies Favors the Wilmot Proviso, but disclaims Invasion of Southern Rights Reply to Webster on the Mexi- can Treaty On the Clayton Compromise Fraternity between North and South Petitions for Dissolution Grinnell Expedition First Session under Taylor's Admi- nistration Clay brings in the Compromise Resolutions Admission of California Fugitive Slave Law Webster's Amendment not taken up The Constitution and Slavery-Extension New Mexico and Utah Nominated for Vice-President Attor- ney-General of New Jersey Declines the United States Senatorship Fremont and Fillmore Parties unite in New Jersey Dayton aids the Combination. DANIEL S. DICKINSON, OP NEW YORK , 200 His Birth and Parentage His Father a Jefferson Democrat Removes to the Valley of Chenango The Common School and the Farm At a Trade Chooses the Law as a Profession Teaches School Admitted to the Bar Success Removes to Bing- hamton Politics and Law In the State Senate New York Politics of the Time Bank Laws Erie Railroad and Canal Extension Defeated for Lieutenant-Governor Hard-Cider Campaign and Whig Success Elected in 1842 His Duties as President of the State Senate, of the Court of Errors, and of the Canal Board Elected to the United States Senate His Career during Seven Sessions Anticipates Cass's Nichol- son Letter and Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Bill Popular Sovereignty On Mexico, Oregon, California, and New Mexico Clayton's Select Committee Dickinson's Defi- nition of their Report The Debate at Daybreak Further Views on Slavery and the Question of Territorial Government Congress has no Power to legislate for a Territory Opposed to either a Northern or Southern Sectional Government Excit- ing Discussion on Senator Jeremiah Clemens's Resolution Reply to Clemens's Attack on the Northern Democracy Tribute by Jefferson Davis Influence in the Senate Measures advocated by him Banquet in his Honor in New York Web- CONTENTS. XI ster's Letter on his Career during the Compromise Era Letter on Webster Vir- ginia Delegation nominate him for President at the Baltimore Convention With- draws hia Name The Reason Refuses the Collectorship of New York Retirement. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, OF ILLINOIS Page 215 Public Interest felt in Senator Douglas's Views His Life an Illustration of American Influences His Birth An Orphan at Two Months old Education at a Common School Apprenticed to a Cabinet-Maker Bad Health Study At the Law Starts for the West Stops in Winchester, Illinois Clerk to 3>n Auction School-Teaching and Law Rapid Rise at the Bar Attorney-General of Illinois In the Legislature Register of the Land-Office Quibbled out of Congress Advocacy of Van Buren in 1840 Secretary of his State Judge of the Supreme Coiirt Election to Congress Elevation to the United States Senate Oregou Controversy Texas Mexican War Reasons for opposing the Mexican and Clayton-Bui wer Treaties English Friendship for America Cuba Action on the English Outrages of 1858 How to meet them Legislation respecting Territories Opposes the Wilmot Proviso Desires to extend the Line of 36 3')' to the Pacific The Secret History of the Compromise Measures of 1850 Mr. Clay adopts the Bills reported by Douglas Change made by the Com- mittee of Thirteen Action of Senators Foote, Jefferson Davis, and Chase Tho Powers of Territorial Legislatures on Slavery To have the same Authority over Slavery as all other Questions of Internal Policy Action of the Ultras North and South City Council arid Mobs of Chicago Speech to them Introduction of Kansas- Nebraska Bill Its Fundamental Principle Great Speech in the Senate Replies to Seward, Sumner, and Wade More Mobs in Chicago The Kansas Bill in the Bucha- nan Canvass The famous Lecompton Debate Senator Douglas opposes " Lecomp- tonism" Description of the Senate on the Occasion of his Speech against it The Illinois Contest Slave-Code in the Territories Letter to Colonel Peyton African, Slave-Trade Continuous Narrative of his Course on the Naturalization Question since 1839 His Arguments Levin's Proposition Contested-Election Case of Botts and Jones, of Virginia The First Speech against " Know-Nothiugism" The Koszta Case discussed with European Statesmen Recent Declarations Paper in " Harper's Magazine" on " The Dividing Line between Federal and Local Authority" Contro- versy with Attorney-General Black His Withdrawal at the Cincinnati Convention in favor of Mr. Buchanan Letter to J. B. Dorr on the Contingencies which may be presented by the Charleston Platform Resolution for the Protection of States and Territories against Invasion. EDWARD EVERETT, OF MASSACHUSETTS 240 His Birth, Parentage, and Education Latin Tutor at Cambridge Succeeds Mr. Buck- minster " Defence of Christianity," in reply to " The Grounds of Christianity Ex- amined" Accepts the Eliot Professorship and starts for Europe Travels in England, France, Holland. Prussia, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Austria, &c. Returns and edits the " North American Review" Defends America against the Vilification of English Writers Compliment to him by Thomas Campbell in the " New Monthly Magazine" Judge Story on his Sermoiila- the Capitol Literature and Ancient Art The Cause of the Greeks Speech and Welcome to La Fayette at Cambridge- Elected to Congress Service on Important Committees Opposes Jackson's Indian Policy Madison addresses his Paper on Nullification to him French Controversy of 1834 Elected Governor Prosperity of the State under his Care Defeated by Judge Morton Travels in Europe Appointed to succeed Minister Stevenson at the Court of St. James His Fitness for the Post Difficulties of the Position at the Period Changes of Administration here and there Business transacted by him Effects the Release of American Prisoners in Van Diemen's Land Honors conferred by the Universities of Dublin, Cambridge, and Oxford President of Harvard Secre- tary of State in Fillmore's Cabinet Splendid Reply to France and England on the Proposition to make a Treaty relating to Cuba Argues for an American Policy for America In the United States Senate Central-American Affairs Presents Xll CONTENTS. Massachusetts Memorial signed by Three Thousand Clergymen against the Kansas Bill Leaves the Senate through 111 Health Tour in the South Eulogy of Webster Lecture on Washington and Writings in behalf of the Mount Vernon Fund Large Amount produced by his Patriotic Exertions. MILLARD FILLMORE, OF NEW YORK Page 260 His Ancestry Birth At the Common Schools At the Clothing and Wool-Carding Business At the Village Library Attracts the Attention of Judge Wood Advised to study Law Judge Wood takes him into his Office and defrays the Expenses At Law, Literature, and Surveying Teaches School to defray some of his Expenses Eemoves to Buffalo Elected to the Assembly His Business Capacity Imprison- ment for Debt repealed Elected to Congress Retires to the Law In the Twenty- Sixth Congress The Broad-Seal New Jersey Election Case Chairman of Ways and Means Brings Order out of Confusion Retires Defeated for the Governorship of New York Comptroller of the State Popular Sentiment in Favor of General Taylor Selected as Whig Candidate over Clay and Webster Fillmore for Vice-President Elected As .President of the Senate Death of Taylor Fillmore President His Cabi- net Message on the Texas and New-Mexico Boundary Dispute Tariff Question Pacific Railroad Fugitive-Slave Case Recommends an Agricultural Bureau The North- American Fisheries Cuba Reception of Kossuth The Compromise Measures Expiration of Presidential Term Tour in the South Reception in Europe Con- ventions of the American Order Platform on which Fillmore was nominated for the Presidency over George Law. JOHN C. FREMONT, OF CALIFORNIA 273 His Birth and Parentage .Designed for the Church Teaching and Surveying Teacher of Mathematics in the Navy Engineer on Railroads Surveying in the Mountains of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee Accompanies Nicollet to the Upper Mis- sissippiAppointed a Lieutenant in the Topographical Engineers Explores the River Des Moines Marries Jessie Benton T. II. Benton and Fremont First Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, in 1842 Incidents Kit Carson's Will causes a Panic At La Platte Saves Kit Carson's Life Plants the Stars and Stripes on Fremont's Peak Second Expedition, in 1843 Hardships and Sufferings Results of the Expedition Brevetted Captain Third Expedition, in 1845 Crosses the Great Basin and reaches California Secretary Marcy's Report of Fremont's Movements consequent upon the Difficulties with Mexico Conquest of California Insurrection Fremont surprises San Luis Obispo Pico, the Insurgent Leader, condemned to Death Spared by Fre- mont Capitulation of Cowenga Commodore Stockton appoints Fremont Governor Difficulties with General Kearney Kearney Governor Reception of Fremont in St. Louis Charleston presents him with a Sword Tried at Washington on Charges preferred by Kearney Found Guilty Penalty remitted Resigns his Commission Benton and Fremont on the Slavery Issue Disastrous Expedition to explore a Route by the Cochatopee Pass Purchase of the Mariposas Tract Chosen First United States Senator from California In Congress The Mariposas Grant in the Courts Offered a Million for his Title Reception in Europe Survey Expedition in the Winter of 1853-64 Nominated for President by the Republican National Conven- tionThe Platform of 1856 Defeated Horace Greeley's Account of Fremont at Home. JAMES GUTHRIE, OF KENTUCKY 290 Birth and Parentage Flat-Boating to New Orleans Studies Law with Judge Rowan His Manner of Study Admitted to the Bar Removes to Louisville in 1820 Suc- cess Prosecuting Attorney Illustration of his Firmness Causes of his Success at the Bar Difficulty with Mr. Hayes Guthrie severely Wounded Kentucky Politics at that Period " Old Court" and "New Court" Guthrie a Jackson Democrat In the Legislature and State Senate President of the Constitutional Convention Log- CONTENTS. Xlll Boiling Feat in his Elect ion-Contest with Frank Johnson Guthrie and the Bullies Acts as a Posse Comitatus Guthrie's Advocacy of the "Internal Improvements of Kentucky Railroads and Financiering Circumstances attending his Appointment to the Treasury In President Pierce's Cabinet The Era of the Galphin and Gard- ner Claims Dismissal of Secret Inspectors Management of the National Finances $40,000,000 Debts paid, and $20,000,000 Balance in the Treasury when his Term expired Reforms perfected in the Department The Secretary and Greene C. Bronson, Collector of New York The Treasury Bureaus, and their Management The Sub- Treasury Act Reply to Remonstrances against it Senate Committee on Retrench- ment The Secretary's Reply to Senator Adams Cushing's Anecdote of Guthrie in Cabinet Meeting No Politician. JAMES H. HAMMOND, OF SOUTH CAROLINA Page 304 Birth and Parentage Careful Education Admitted to the Bar Editor of the " Southern Times," Columbia Ably supports the Nullification of the Tariff' Policy of 1828 Retires to a Plantation on the Savannah Elected to Congress On the Reception of Abolition Petitions by Congress Hammond's Effective Opposition 111 Health Travels in Europe Return General of Brigade Elected Governor Mes- sages Famous Letters on Domestic Slavery, in reply to Thomas Clarkson, the Eng- lish Philanthropist Letters of Dr. England, Bishop of Charleston, to Hon. John Forsyth, on Catholic Theology and Slavery Hammond's Positions to Clarkson Armies and Free Labor in Europe Harriet Martineau's Scandalous Stories Slave- holders not Irresponsible or Cruel Their Interest to treat Slaves well How " Fel- low-Citizens" are treated in England Extracts from the Parliamentary Commis- sioners' Report State of Men, Women, and Infants in the Mines and Factories of England Governor Hammond retires Address Oration on Calhoun Elected to the United States Senate in 1857 Speech in the " Lecompton" Debate of 1858 Sup- ports that Instrument Reply to Senators Douglas and Seward King Cotton Northern Slaves and Southern Slaves On the Death of Senator Evans On the Bri- tish Aggression^^-No Alarmist Speech at Barnwell Court-House Full Views on Kansas Questions The South should have kicked Lecompton out of Congress Change of Views touching Disunion and the Slave-Trade On South Carolina and Massachusetts Mitchel on Hammond. SAM HOUSTON, OF TEXAS 318 His Ancestry Early Orphanage Thirst for Knowledge Life among the Indians Becomes a School blaster Enlists in the United States Army Battle of the Horse- ghoe Skiff- Voyage down the Cumberland Resigns his Lieutenancy Studies Law, and is admitted to the Bar Elected Major -General Sent to Congress Chosen Gover- nor of Tennessee Resigns his Office, and again takes up his Abode with the Indians Goes to Washington to investigate the Conduct of Indian Agents Triumphs over his Opponents Is elected to the Convention of San Felipe de Austin Commence- ment of the Texan Revolution Houston elected Cotnmancler-in-Chief of the Texan Army Difficulties with which he had to contend He is elected President of the New Republic Extract from his Inaugural Address Chosen to the Senate of the United States His Congressional Policy Recommended, in 1854, as a Candidate for the Presidency His Proposition for the Establishment of a United States Protector- ate over Mexico and the Central- American States Response to Senator Iverson, of Georgia Returns to Texas, and becomes a Candidate for the Governorship Is tri- umphantly elected Benton's Opinion of Houston. R. M. T. HUNTER, OF VIRGINIA 329 Mr. Hunter's Early Political Course Elected to the Virginia Legislature Votes for Judge White for the Presidency Elected to the National House of Representatives by the States-Rights Whigs Extract from a Speech on the Causes of Financial Dis- tress Attributes it to the Banking-System Introduces a Bill to relieve the Country XIV CONTENTS. His Political Position under the Administration of Van Buren Elected Speaker of the Twenty-Sixth Congress The Whips in Congress repeal the Independent Trea- sury Act Mr. Hunter's Speech against the Loan Bill Denounces the National Bank Project and the Distribution Bill Defends the Veto of the Temporary Tariff Bill, and opposes the Tariff Bill of 1842 Is defeated at the Election for Member of the Twenty-Eighth Congress Re-elected to Congress in 1845 The Oregon Boundary Question Mr. Hunter advocates a Compromise Renewal of the Slavery Agitation The Wilmot Proviso Mr. Hunter is chosen a Senator of the United States Is placed on the Committee of Finance Opposes the Resolutions offered by Senator Cass, December 24, 1849, to suspend Diplomatic Relations with Austria His Ideas on the Territorial Question Chairman of Finance Committee Invitation to a Pub- lic Dinner in New York City Re-elected to the Senate Opposes the Bill for the Protection of the Emigrant-Route and Establishment of Telegraph-Line and Mail- Route between California and Oregon His Views on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill Speech against "Know-Nothingism" Advocates the Admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution His Argument on the Subject of Tariff-Revision Elected to the Senate for the Third Time His Literary Powers His Personal Appearance. ANDREW JOHNSON, OF TENNESSEE Page 347 Brrth and Parentage Is left an Orphan at the Age of Five Years Apprenticed to a Tailor in Raleigh His Adventures at Lawrence Court-House Goes to Greenville, Tennessee His Marriage Receives the Rudiments of Education from his Wife Becomes the Mouthpiece of the Working-Classes of Greenville Is elected to the Office of Alderman Chosen a Member of the State Legislature Canvasses East Tennessee for the Democrats in the Presidential Campaign of 1S40 Elected to the State Senate Nominated and elected Representative to Congress Opposes the Tariff of 1842 Advocates the Annexation of Texas Defence of General Jackson's Character Reply to Mr. Clingniau's Assertion that the Foreign Catholics, as a Body, supported the Democratic Candidates in the Presidential Contest of 1844 Texas and the Cotton-Culture His Course in the Twenty-Ninth Congress On the Oregon Question, he sustains President Folk's Adjustment Denounces the Tax on Tea and Coffee Introduces a Bill taxing Capital Re-elected to Congress in 1847 Argument in favor of the Veto Power Defends the Mexican-War Policy Elected Governor of Tennessee in 1853, and again in 1855 Chosen United States Senator- Speech at Murfreesborough against "Know-Nothingism" Denunciation of Proscrip- tion for Religious Opinions His Course in the Thirty-Fifth Congress Introduces a Resolution of Scrutiny into the Expenses of the Government Opposes the Pacific Railroad Measure His Position on the Slavery Question Speech on the Harper's Ferry Resolution of Senator Mason Mr. Johnson's Character, as succinctly sketched by an Intimate Friend. JOSEPH LANE, OF OREGON 357 Lessons of Childhood Goes to Warwick County, Indiana, at the Age of Fifteen Mar- ries in 1820, and settles in Vanderburg County Elected, in 1822, to the Indiana Legislature His Popularity and Hospitality at Home Public Service Character as a Legislator Opposes Repudiation An Instance of his Sense of Justice Opinion of Mr. Yulee Supports Jackson, Van Buren, and Polk Resigns his Seat in the Legislature at the Commencement of the Mexican War. and enters Caytain Walker's Company Chosen Colonel by the Men Receives a Commission as Brigadier-General Is impatient of the Delay at the Brazos, and demands a Share in Active Military Service, but is compelled to remain on the RioGrande for Several Months Is ordered at length to Saltillo His Vigilance as a Commander Ordered to join General Taylor Battle of Buena Vista His Phalanx repels the Mexican Charge Further Service on the Field Major-General Wool's Testimony to his Gallantry arid Ability Return to the United States Is transferred to Scott's Line Sets out for the City of Mexico Capture of Huamantla Arrival at Puebla Raising of the Siege Pursuit of Rea CONTENTS. XV Fight at Atlixco Battle of Tlascala Surp rise of Matamoras Reports himself to the Commanding General at Mexico Expedition against Zenobia Marches into Orizaba Takes Cordova Defeats Colonel Falcon Pursuit of Jarauta Battle of Tehualta- pl an Returns to Indiana at the Close of the War Appointed Governor of Oregon Parts with his Guide, and pilots his Party to Santa Cruz Arrival in Oregon City- Chastises the Indians, and secures a Lasting Peace with them Is elected Delegate from Oregon Territory to Congress His Course as Delegate Enunciation of his Principles Oregon admitted as a State He is named for the Presidency by the In- dianapolis Convention lor re vising the State Constitution Governor Wright's Review of Lane's Career Extract from a Communication by John Dowling, Esq. JOHN McLEAN, OF OHIO Page 373 Parentage Removal of the Family from New Jersey to the West Limited Resources of the Family Early Education His Independent Spirit Obtains Employment in the Clerk's Office of Hamilton County Studies Law under Arthur St. Clair Mar- riage Is admitted to the Bar and commences Practice at Lebanon, Warren County Is elected, in 1812, to Congress from Cincinnati Identification with the Demo- cratic Party Jlis Impartiality and Integrity as a Legislator Measures originated and supported by him during the Session at which he entered Congress Re-elected, in 1814, by a Unanimous Vote Is placed on the Committees of Foreign Relations and Public Lands In 1816. is elected to the Supreme Bench of Ohio, and resigns his Seat in Congress Appointed Commissioner of the Land-Office by President Monroe In 1823, is made Postmaster-General His Success in performing the Duties of the Office His Salary raised from Four to Six Thousand Dollars Remarks of Ran- dolph and C.J.Ingersoll Appointed by President Jackson to a Seat on the Supreme Bench of the United States Account of the Circumstances leading to his Appoint- mentSenator Benjamin's Estimate of the Character of Judges of the Supreme Court Decision of Judge McLean in regard to aiding Combinations of our Citizens against Friendly Powers Death of his Wife in 1840 Marries again in 1843 Opinion on the Question as to the Abolition of Slavery His Doctrine regarding the Jurisdic- tion of Congress over the Territories The Dred Scott Case Judge McLean's Dissent from the Decision of the Court as given by Chief-Justice Taney Extract from his Argument in the Case Degrees conferred on him by various Universities and Colle- giate Institutions. JAMES L. OUR, OF SOUTH CAROLINA 383 Birth and Ancestry Education Studies Law His Diligence and Proficiency Is admitted to the Bar Establishes the "Anderson Gazette" Elected to the State Legislature Advocacy of Popular Rights In 1848, elected to the National House of Representatives Denounces the Agitation of the Slavery Question Opposes the Compromise Measures of 1850 Secession Party in South Carolina Mr. Orr arrays himself against it Attends, as Delegate from Anderson, the Convention of tho Southern-Rights Association His Speech published by Committee of the Co-Opera- tion Party Is elected to Congress over the Secession Candidate Services on the House Committee on Public Lands Supports the Action of the Baltimore Demo- cratic Convention Chairman of Committee of the Whole upon the Civil and Diplo- matic Appropriation Bill Bill to domesticate the Semi-Civilized Indians Addresses the Democracy in Philadelphia in 1854 The " Know-Nothings'' Mr. Orr's Views on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill Squatter Sovereignty Opposes the French Spoliation Claims Is a Candidate for the Speakership Letter to Hon. C. W. Dudloy Appeal to South Carolina to send Delegates to the Democratic National Convention Nomi- nated for Speaker of the Thirty-Fifth Congress, and elected Responsibility of tho Speaker's Position Closing Scenes of the First Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congro.a Retires from Public Life Speech at Craytonville Opposes the Reopening of the Slave-Trade His Character as a Lawyer Orations and Addresses. XVI CONTENTS. JOHN M. BEAD, OF PENNSYLVANIA Page 397 Revolutionary Ancestry His Grandfather, George Read Lieutenant Bedford Ilia Father, John Read Family Connections of his Mother Public Offices filled 1-y his Father Education at the University of Pennsylvania Admitted to the Bar Ap- pointed Solicitor for the Philadelphia Bank Increasing Business and Responsibi- lities Diligence and Ability Elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives His Colleagues during the Succeeding Term Declines further Service in the Legis- lature Is appointed City Solicitor Elected a Member of the City Select Council His Labors in that Body Appointed United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge-Advocate in the Court-Martial for the Trial of Commodore Elliott Nominated to the Senate as a Judge of the United States Supreme Court His Nominal ion not confirmed by the Senate Appointed Attorney- General of Pennsylvania Resigns after holding the Office Six Mouths Diligent Study of the Law during his Retirement from Public Life Speech in the Case of the United States vs. Ilanway Attends, in 1849, the Democratic Convention at Pittsburg Advocates the Adoption of a Resolution against extending Slavery into the Territories Speech in Favor of the Admission of California as a Free State Acts with the Republicans in 1856 Elected Judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania Character as a Judge Summary of his Political Position. * WILLIAM H. SEWAKD, OF NEW YORK 404 Birth Early Education Graduated from Union College Studies Law, and is admitted to the Bar in 1822 Removes to Auburn, and forms a Partnership with Judge Miller Early Devotion to Politics His Labors in Behalf of the Greeks in 1827 Presides at the Utica Convention in 1828 Sympathies with the Anti-Masonic Party Elected a State Senator Measures supported by him while in the Senate Makes a Tour in Europe Nominated for Governor, but defeated The "Crime" of being young Elected Governor over Marcyin 1838 Re-elected in 1840 Character of his Adminis- tration Opposition to the Increase of the Slave-Power Laws on the Subject passed during his Administration Controversy between Governor Seward and the Governors of Virginia and Georgia He is sustained by the Whig Legislature, but denounced upon the Accession of the Democrats to Power Alexander McLeod arrested by Authority of the State of New York The British Minister demands his Release Governor Seward refuses to accede to the Demand Reforms instituted by him His Independence of Judgment in the Exercise of the Appointing and the Veto Powers Resumes the Practice of the Law at Auburn Case of William Freeman Appears as Counsel in the Van ZandtCase Counsel for the Defence in a Conspiracy Case at Detroit His Power as a Political Speaker Speech at Utica in 1844, in which he condemns the Outrages lately committed on Foreigners in Philadelphia Opposes the Annexation of Texas and the Mexican "War Sustains President Polk's Admi- nistration on the Oregon Question Favors the Revision of the Constitution of the State of New York In 1847, delivers an Oration on the Life and Character of O'Con- nell Delivers, in 1848, a Eulogy on John Quincy Adams before the New York Legis- lature Supports General Taylor for the Presidency Principles enunciated in a Speech at Cleveland Elected United States Senator Opposes the Walker Amend- ment Concurs with President Taylor's Policy Opposes the Compromise Measures "The Higher Law" His Position on the Subject of Slavery Speech on the Land- Distribution Question Advocates the Principle of the Homestead Bill Offers a Resolution welcoming Koseuth Speeches during the Thirty-Second Congress Views on the Question of the Acquisition of Cuba Defeat of the Whig Paity in the Presidential Election of 1852 Measures advocated by Mr. Seward in the Thirty- Third Congress Speeches against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill Defends the Right of Petition Eulogiums upon Clay and Webster Oration before the Literary Societies of Yale College Receives the Degree of Doctor of Laws Argument in the McCor- mick Reaper Case His Labors during the Second Session of the Thirty-Third Con- gressOpposes Senator Toucey's Bill to secure the more effectual Operation of the CONTENTS. XV11 Fugitive-Slave Act Re-elected to the Senate Manifestations of Joy by his Friends- Speeches in 1858 at Albany, Auburn, and Buffalo Oration at Plymouth Speeches on the Kansas Difficulty in the Thirty-Fourth Congress Assault by Preston S. Brooks on Senator Sumner, in the Senate-Chamber Mr. Seward moves the Appointing of a Committee of Inquiry into the Matter Unfairness in selecting the Committee The Presidential Canvass of 1856 Speeches at Auburn and Detroit Eulogium on John M. Clayton Claims of Revolutionary Officers Atlantic Telegraph Overland Mail- Route to San Francisco Pacific Railroad Tariff Revision Importance of the Iron Interest of the United States He reviews the Dred Scott Decision His Speeches in the Thirty-Fifth Congress Debate on the Lecompton Constitution Sketch of Senator Seward's Speech on the Subject Appointed on the Senate Committee of Conference Dissents from the English Bill Scene in the Senate-Chamber on the Occasion of Seward's Speech on the Bill Favors the Strengthening of the Army in Utah Condemns the Aggressions of British Cruisers on American Vessels in .the Gulf Eulogiums on Senators Rusk, Bell, and Henderson Canvass of 1858 Ro- chester Speech Speeches in the Second Session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress Seconds the Recommendation of President Buchanan with Regard to the Tariff Mr. Seward's published Speeches and Writings His Views respecting the Presidency. HORATIO SEYMOUR, OF NEW YORK Page 428 Birth and Ancestry Commences the Practice of the Law in Utica, but soon aban dons it Chosen Mayor of Utica Elected to the State Legislature His Character as a Legislator and Debater Rapidly acquires Influence among the Democrats Dissensions in the Party Michael Hoffman, the Leader of the Opposition in the Democratic Party Courtesy and Manliness of Mr. Seymour His Ability and Tact The Report of the Committee of Canals on that Part of the Governor's Message referred to them Extract from Judge Hammond's " Political History of New York" on the Subject Silas Wright elected Governor Mr. Seymour Speaker of the Assem- blyElection of Daniel S. Dickinson to the United States Senate Mr. Seymour's Appeal to the Minority in the Nominating Caucus Debate with John Young, the Whig Leader Extract from Mr. Seymour's Speech on this Occasion Judge Ham- mond's Estimate of him as a Legislator The Divisions in the Democratic Party in New York Action of the National Convention of 1848 Mr. Seymour the Consistent Advocate of Peace Nominated for Governor Union of the Party Seymour elected Character of his Administration Reasons for the Veto of the Prohibitory Liquor Law His Views as to the Proper Mode for the Suppression of Intemperance Rejoicings among the Democracy on account of the Governor's Decision Is re- nominated, and declines Is kept in Nomination nevertheless The Republican Candidate Successful Extreme Closeness of the Contest Expression by the Demo- cracy of Continued Confidence in Mr. Seymour as their Leader Evidences of his Popularity in the Party Conventions His Labors for the Party outside of New York State Mr. Seymour secures the Re-Nomination of Judge Denio in the State Convention of September, 1857 Testimony of an Admirer. JOHN SLIDELL, OF LOUISIANA 439 Birth Embraces the Law as a Profession Goes to New Orleans Appointed United States District Attorney at that City Elected Representative to the Twenty-Eighth Congress Appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico Failure of the Attempt to avert the Impending War Is tendered, but declines, the Mission to Central America Appointed Senator from Louisiana Prominence in the Senate Falling- Off in the Sugnr-Crop of Louisiana Necessity of Introducing New Plants Bill to improve the Channel of the Mississippi The President's Reasons for vetoing it Debate on its Reconsideration Opinions of Various Senators Substance of Mr. Slidell's Remarks Passage of the Bill Views on the Question of Reopening the African Slave-Trade Introduces a Resolution to dispense with the Squadron off the B 2* XV111 CONTENTS. Coast of Africa Participation in the Debate on the Lecompton Constitution Review of the Neutrality Laws Slidell's Construction of the Act of 1818 Citation of In- stances in which European Powers have permitted Armed Intervention by thoir Citizens in the Wars of Other Nations The Policy of England in this Regard lid condemns Paulding, but is also severe upon Walker His Views on the Cuban Question The Thirty-Million Bill Withdrawal of the Measure Slidell's Efficiency as a Working Member of Congress. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, OF GEORGIA Page 451 Physical and Intellectual Contrast Birth and Ancestry Loses his Mother in Infancy An Orphan at the Age of Fourteen Prepares himself for College Enters the Uni- versity of Georgia Becomes a School-Teacher Relinquishes this Employment Commences the Study of the Law Examined by Chief-Justice Lumpkin, and ad- mUted to the Bar The Pocket-Book Success in Practice Growing Reputation In 1836, elected to the State Legislature Advocacy of Internal Improvements Delegated to the Commercial Convention, at Charleston, in 1S39 Impression pro- duced by his Speech In 1842, elected to the State Senate In 1843, nominated and elected Representative to Congress His Right to a Seat denied The House decides in his Favor Votes for the Annexation of Texas History of the Resolution guaran- teeing that four Future Slave States shall be formed from Texas Views regarding the Mexican War Course on the Compromise Measures.of 1850 Advocates the Kansas- Nebraska Bill Speech on the Question Reiteration of his Views in Subsequent Speeches Combats the Know-Nothing Organization Letter to Hon. T. W. Thomas against the Order True Americanism Effect of this Letter Prominence in the Thirty-Fifth Congress Tribute to Senator Butler Position on the Neutrality Laws The Lecompton Discussion Mr. Stephen's Part in it Speech on the Admission of Oregon into the Union Retires from Congressional Service Complimentary Din- ner tendered him Address by Mr. Stephens reviewing his Political Career The Sound Condition of the Republic Cuba The " Higher Law" Mr. Stephen's Kind- ness of Heart and Deeds of Practical Benevolence Sketch by John Mitchel. HENRY A. WISE, OF VIRGINIA 473 Birth and Ancestry An Orphan at the Age of Seven Placed under the Care of his Aunts Progress at School Sent to Washington College, Pa. Dr. Andrew Wylie * High Game" Graduates in 1825 W. H. McGuffey Studies Law at Winchester- Marriage Settles in Nashville, Tennessee Returns to Accomac CasJ;s his First Presi-" dential Vote in Favor of General Jackson Opposes the Nullification Principle Elected to Congress Duel with Hon. Richard Coke, his Opponent in the Canvass Secession from Jackson Death of Judge Bouldin, the Successor of John Randolph in the House Wise is re-elected in 1835 and in 1837 The Graves and Cilley Duel Origin of the Affair Mr. Wise's Connection with it His Questions on the Subject addressed to Henry Clay Nomination of Tyler for the Vice-Presidency Wise opposes the Schemes of the Whig Leaders Death of President Harrison Re-elected to Congress in 1843 Appointed Minister to Brazil Returns to the United States in 1847 Rise of the " Know-Nothing'' Order in Virginia Their Committee of Correspondence ad- dress Wise as a Public Man Outline of his Reply Nominated to the Governorship by the Democrats Letter from Bishop McGill, of Richmond Opening of the Cam- paign He is charged with Inconsistency His Reply Speech at Alexandria Ex- tent of his Labors Elected Governor Rejects, emphatically, an Invitation to deliver a Lecture on Slavery, in Boston His Position on the Slavery and Territorial Questions Views on the Kansas-Nebraska Bill On the Missouri Compromise Letter to Col. J. W. Forney on the Lecomptou Question Publishes a Treatise on Territorial Government Object of this Production Denial of the Rumor that he desired the Post of United States Senator The Harper's Ferry Conspiracy Promptitude and Energy of Governor Wise on the Occasion Remarks of a Political Admirer. CONTENTS. XIX JOHN E. WOOL, OF NEW YORK Page 493 Birth Patriotic Services of his Ancestors A Self-Mado Man Takes Charge of n, Stationery-Store, but is deprived of Employment by a Fire Enters a Law-Office Obtains an Appointment in the Army as a Captain His Regiment ordered to the Niagara Frontier Operations of General Van Rensselaer Queenstown Attack by the British They are repulsed Wool volunteers to storm the Heights His Offer being accepted, he succeeds in carrying them Complete Rout of the British under General Brock Universal Admiration of Wool's Gallantry Promoted to the Rank of Major Further Services in the War of 1812 Appointed Inspector-General of the Army John C Calhoun's Opinion of the Value of his Services Reports on Military Matters Sent to Europe by Government to inspect the Military Systems on the Continent Visits France and Belgium Cordial Reception on the Part of those Governments Reports on the Defences of the Coast and the Western Frontier Appointed to superintend the Removal of the Indians from the Cherokee Country to Arkansas Reconnoissance in Maine for Defensive Purposes His Services in the Mexican War General Taylor's Appreciation of them Letter from General Cushing Opinion of Colonel Curtis and of General Lane Promoted to the Rank of Brevet Major-General Close of the War Returns to New York Public Honors Presen- tation of a Sword by the Citizens of Troy Marks of National Gratitude Appointed to the Command of the Department of the Pacific Special Duties assigned to him in this Capacity Operations in his New Sphere Restoration to the Command of the East Returns to New York. OUR LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. NATHANIEL P. BANKS, OF MASSACHUSETTS. THE life of Mr. Banks, like those of Patrick Henry, Andrew Jackson/ 1 Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, Henry Wilson, and others who have risen to honorable place and power, in the United States, from the forest, the plough, and the workshop, affords an ennobling illustration of the character of the institu- tions under whose sheltering and encouraging bounty the people can be represented from their own ranks. It holds out bright inducements to every youth of energy, industry, and a healthy ambition, to remember how humble soever his origin or his means that " A man's a man for a* that," and that to him, as a man, the brightest prospects are open, and the highest offices of a great Republic within the legitimate scope of his intellect and ambition. There are no trammels either to the one or to the other. From the number of books published of a personal, sketchy, and biographical character, it would seem that this age takes a greater interest in its public men than any of its predecessors. It would seem that the world grows fonder of its offspring, of every class, and delights to parade before its eyes the faces and faculties, the lives and labors, of those who have sprung from its necessities. B 2* 17 18 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Yet, although Mr. Banks occupies a very prominent position in the politics of the country, the curiosity of the reading world has not been very extensively gratified by any detailed, or even comparatively full, account of his early days. We have little save the leading fact that he made his first appearance in the humblest path of life, and continued in its trying but instructive course for years. A brief sketch, written by Mr. Ben Perley Poore, gives us a suggestive view of his youth, and supplies in part our facts. Nathaniel P. Banks was born in Waltham, a town of Massa- chusetts, on the 30th of January, 1816. Waltham was the parent of Lowell and Manchester. In point of time, it was the second manufacturing town in the Union, and supplied the machi- nery and laborers for the now more famous towns just mentioned. As the birthplace of Mr. Banks, however, it will retain, in the eyes of Massachusetts, and perhaps of those of the whole Union, an importance which to the vision of some is more ennobling than the successes of the loom and the anvil, the spindle and tho steam-power. Even now, on the margin of the Charles River, sentinelled by old-fashioned machine-shops, gossipers of the bygone enterprise from which sprung Lowell, a dilapidated tenement is respectfully pointed out as the house in which tho subject of this sketch was born. That fact in itself is fame. The son of poor operatives, little Banks began to work out an appa- rently dismal destiny of poverty and hard work amidst the whirr of the loom and the spindle, the clank and roar of engines, and the bustle of unresting industry. Gerald Massey, the people's poet of England, who went through a somewhat similar novitiate in the labor of life, gives a disheartening glimpse of child-expe- rience in the factories, rising at early dawn and toiling till evening; "seeing the sun only through the factory-windows; breathing an atmosphere laden with rank, oily vapor, his ears deafened by the roar of incessant wheels ; " Still all day the iron wheels go onward, 'i Grinding life down from its mark, And the children's souls, which God is calling sunward, Spin on blindly in the dark." The children of the poor, when they are of an age " to do something for a living," are too useful to be allowed to attend NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 19 school. They have to contribute to the family means. Of course the boy Nathaniel had scant opportunities for education; but what he snatched was deposited in a fruitful soil. The three months which poor boys in his condition annually devote to the common schools must have been most faithfully enjoyed and carefully cherished. There are those, it is stated, who still remember the diligence with which he conned his tasks at spell- ing or figuring, and the heroic and characteristic air of stoicism with which the ragged, bare-footed little fellow maintained his place among comrades who enjoyed an accidental superiority of fortune. Notwithstanding, however, a certain natural reserve, which straitened circumstances and peculiar family afflictions had contributed to strengthen, it was not long before his force of character, and those other qualities of a leader to which he is in- debted for the success of his manhood, were fully recognised. As he grew older, the increasing strength of the stripling was needed to wholly support himself; and thus ended his brief career as a school-boy. He had tasted of knowledge, however, and he hun- gered for more. The appetite had to be appeased ; and, when his body was tired in filling out the factory-hours, he set to work to satisfy his mind. All his hours " not occupied in the factory were devoted to the grave and important studies of history, political economy, and the science of government." A village debating- society was the field on which he mano3uvred the little army of facts that he had collected in his brain, capturing others, and using them in turn. Here he gained a knowledge of the rules of debate. It was, so to speak, the parliamentary class in which he took his first honors, and which gave him that first insight into the modes of a discussive assembly which culminated in the Speaker's seat of the national House of ^Representatives. So desirous was he of participating in these youthful debates, and so sensible was he of the benefit in discipline as well as incen- tive to public speech to be derived from them, that, when re- siding in a town nine miles distant from the place of meeting, he used to walk there and back, rather than miss an evening at the society. Mr. Banks's first public position was as editor of a newspaper in Waltham. It was the debating-society on a more extended scale. The excitement pleased and the influence flattered th 20 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. boy who had made himself. He continued in the occupation, as editor of a journal in Lowell, expanded into politics, advo- cated the principles of the Democratic party, then in an Oppo- sition minority in Massachusetts, and gained the good opinion of citizens in general by his enthusiastic labors in favor of popu- lar education, temperance, and all other topics upon which those who differed with his politics could heartily agree with him. He studied law, likewise, but did not practise much. It would seem that his success was not commensurate with his zeal and industry. For six years he was a candidate for a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature, and was defeated every succes- sive year. Chagrined, and probably disheartened, he looked abroad for a more suitable field for his future, and had almost determined to seek the then recently-acquired El Dorado on the Pacific. He wanted an arena for political exertion ; he felt that to be his fo rte y and was on the point of emigrating, when, by one of those chances which often make or unmake a whole career, he thought that something was due to those friends who had so con- stantly supported him, and who still desired him to await another trial. He received renewed courage from the thought, remained, and was elected in 1848 to represent Waltham in the Legislature. In this body he soon signalized himself as a Democrat, and, on the 23d of February, 1849, he made a notable speech on the pre- sentation of certain resolutions on the Slavery question, and in reply to the attacks of a Free-Soil member upon the Democratic party. This was the first speech of Mr. Banks, and it at once gave him position. Its purport was to show that the Democratic party, in the extension of territory, was not influenced by any desire for the extension of slavery. The time and the topic of the speech were equally auspicious for the speaker, and especially in Massa- chusetts, so far as publicity was concerned. He was listened to with great attention, and impressed the Democrats so strongly that he was regarded as a leader. He served in both branches of the Legislature, acted some time as Speaker, and took an active and influential part in the public business generally, serving on the very important committees on Railroads and Canals, and on Education. Among the speeches delivered by him at this period, those on the proposition to enact a plurality law with re- ference to the election of members of Congress, and on questions NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 21 connected with the railroad-interests of the State, are especially referred to as noteworthy. If the career of Mr. Banks had been to some extent dis- heartening in the years previous to his entry into the Legisla- ture, it now progressed in a manner eminently gratifying to his most attached friends. Honors followed quickly on the recogni- tion of his talents and energy, and even various places contended for the honor of being represented by him who a few years pre- vious had suffered such persistent discomfiture. In 1850, the Board of Education appointed him Assistant Agent, thinking that an effective means of procuring certain changes in the laws covering the educational system of the State. Mr. Banks de- livered many addresses on the subject, and resigned in Septem- ber of the same year, having accepted from the Legislature a seat on the State Valuation or Census Committee, which then commenced its sittings. A couple of months afterward, he was simultaneously elected to the State Senate by the Demo- cracy of Middlesex county, by a majority of two thousand, and to the House by his old friends of Waltham. At the meet- ing of the Legislature, he decided to remain in the latter, and was chosen Speaker by a large majority on the first ballot. He held this position for two successive sessions, and did not derogate from the dignity of a seat which had been occupied from time to time by some of the most distinguished sons of Massachusetts. On the assembling of the Convention, in 1853, to revise the Constitution of Massachusetts, Mr. Banks was chosen President, and sustained his reputation as a presiding officer. Having thus indelibly stamped his name on the records of his native State, Mr. Banks was destined to extend his reputation and political importance. He had previously declined a nomina- tion to Congress, in the laudable desire, doubtless, of perfecting his home reputation before he went abroad, but acceded to the proposition in 1852, and was elected to the national House of Representatives. In a reply to a member from Mississippi, during the excitement at the commencement of the Thirty- Fourth Congress, Mr. Banks avowed that he was returned by an affiliation of the Democrats and " Know-Nothings." " When I was elected to this House," said he, " as a member from the 22 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. State of Massachusetts, I was elected on the nomination of the regular Democratic party, and of the American party of the dis- trict. The American party was very largely in the majority. I avowed my sentiments freely and fully." He soon, however, transferred to the newly-organized Republican party whatever sympathies he had had with the Democratic, and has been twice re-elected to Congress, serving through the Thirty-Third, Thirty-Fourth, and a portion of the first session of the Thirty- Fifth Congresses. The Congressional career of Mr. Banks brought him into striking prominence before the whole country. It is not remark- able for the number of his speeches so much as for their pith and point, and for the effect they produced on his com- peers. He forcibly opposed the Nebraska-Kansas Bill and its non- intervention principles, arguing (May 18, 1854) that wherever the Government obtained the right to acquire territory, there they got the right to control it. He contended that the then Congress could not say upon what terms additional territory should be acquired. The people hereafter would determine the question for themselves. He would let the past stand, and let the future, when it came, be decided by the people who should then have the power and control. They were called upon to repeal the Missouri Compromise because it was said to be unjust to the South. All he had to say in reply was, that the South made it; and he denied that it was unjust or unequal as regarded the South. Every Southern man had the same right to carry his property to these Territories as the North had. But then Southern gentlemen said that they had a class of property which was only made so by local or municipal laws, and that they were prohibited from taking this kind of property to these Territories. On this he would only say, that the prohibition was their own, and for this prohibition they had already received their advantages. They of the North did not believe it was the right of the Southern States, under the Constitution, to carry this species of property to these Territories unless there was a statute there, either of Congress or of the people, establishing it. He was anxious that the people of the United States, and not an isolated Territory, should solve this problem ; alluding to which ; and his NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 23 own political course and that of his State thereon, Mr. Banks said, "I desire to say, Mr. Chairman, in reference to my own political course, that I haVe not heretofore advocated this policy on the part of Congress. In the local politics of my own State, I have sustained the policy I thought best adapted to promote its welfare. In national politics, I have supported the policy of the Democratic party. I advo- cated the annexation of Texas in 1844. I supported the doctrines of the 'Nicholson' letter in 1848, that Congressional legislation was un- necessary to exclude slavery from the Territories of New Mexico and California. I ' acquiesced' in the adjustment measures of 1850. But I go no farther in that direction. I will stop where I am. I will begin no new crusade until I know where it is to end. It will not be expected of me that I should defend every legislative act of my native State. She needs no defence. Massachusetts is a progressive and just Common- wealth. Whatever has been wrong in her policy she has labored to re- form. And whatever remains of that character she will have wisdom and strength to remodel and change. She has been wise and patriotic in her day, and will, I trust, still retain her high position in the column of free States as time advances." He held that the just cause of complaint was with her, and not with the States that condemn her course on the Slavery question. He complained that Government was changed from its original purposes, not merely to a recognition, but to a propa- gandism, of slavery. Every question of finance, trade, foreign relations, elections of officers, or the enlargement of our bounda- ries, had been seized upon to strengthen and expand an institu- tion unacceptable, if not oifensive, to a vast majority of the American people. He argued to prove the constitutionality of the Missouri Com- promise of 1820, and said that although the bill before the House admitted the right of the people to govern themselves, it prac- tically denied them the power to do so. In July (17th) of the same year, Mr. Banks supported an amendment offered by Hon. Mr. Staunton, of Kentucky, for the repeal of all laws authorizing the appointment of military officers to superintend operations at the national armories, and the ap- pointment of well-qualified civilians to such offices. The armories at Springfield and Harper's Ferry were established, upon the recommendation of General Washington, in 1794. 24 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. The only officers provided for by the Act of April 2 of that year were a superintendent and one master armorer for each establishment. Until 1841 the superintendents were elected from among citi- zens ; and the change was then made by Mr. Bell, at that time Secretary of War, because there were officers of the army who had no employment. Mr. Banks was in favor of the abolition of military supervi- sion, because the armories were not military, but mechanical, establishments. He did not see any more connection between the manufacture of arms and the military departments of Govern- ment, than between the manufacture of the cloth for uniforms, or of the paper on which the bulletins were printed, and the same departments. He showed that the Government wanted officers, and they were not wanted at the armories. In reply to inquiries by Hon. L. M. Keitt, of South Carolina, the gentleman from Massachusetts took the ground that the substitution of military men for civilians educated to the business was not economical, and instanced in favor of his position the course pursued by Eng- land, showing that its great military depots and magnificent steam navy were not the creations of military or naval officers, but of practical artisans and ship-builders. Hon. Win. S. Barry, of Mississippi, seized an opportunity on the 18th of December, 1854, to avow his opinions relative to what, "in common parlance, was called Know-Nothingism," then re- cently sprung into existence. He had some difficulty in finding out the purposes and character of the new society. It was not like other political organizations here, avowing principles, and meeting and daring the responsibility of the avowal; and if, in attempting to find out the purposes of the Order, Mr. Barry did it injustice, he desired to be corrected by any members holding the new faith. He was willing and anxious to be supplied with the information. What he knew of it led him to condemn it as intolerant, offensive, and tending to narrow the liberty of man. On the same day, Mr. Banks replied to the gentleman from Mississippi ; and his speech is regarded by his friends as one of his best and most prominent Congressional efforts. Although Mr. Banks was not altogether prepared to partici- pate in such a debate, so suddenly called up, yet he did not NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 25 regret its introduction, as the subject embodied the great ques- tions of government, touched the fundamental rights of the people of this Union, and went to the heart of every nationality on the face of the earth. He started by taking issue with Mr. Barry on the proposition that a man in the United States was bound to promulgate his political views. The Government springs from the people, is republican in its nature ; and Mr. Banks held that no man who discharges his duty as a member of the social compact, and, according to the forms of law, im- presses his convictions upon the political institutions under which he lives, is accountable for his actions or opinions to any other man. He is not even accountable to the Government. He is accountable to God alone. A citizen voting for President, or any officer of delegated trust, has the right to give his vote in pro- found secrecy. The association spoken of, he said, was composed of people of the United States. It was popular in its nature, and every citi- zen had a right to join what society he pleased. After discussing the right of secrecy, though he would not say he approved of it, Mr. Banks said he had no objection to any man of the Catholic Church or faith : "It cannot concern me," said he, "and it can concern no man, that, as a matter of faith, any person cherishes the doctrine of transubstan tiation, accords the full measure of Catholic veneration to sacred relics or images, and accepts every article of the Nicene Creed. Each man is accountable for his own faith, as I for mine." It was a current belief, however, that the Pope, as vicar of God, had temporal control over the allegiance of his spiritual fol- lowers. He was aware it was disputed ground. It was asserted in England under Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and was never disavowed there, nor in Spain, nor in any other land, Catholic or Protestant, by the authority of the Roman Church. If the Pope had such power, it was not strange that men should hesitate to support his followers. " I," said Mr. Banks, " would not vote for any man holding to that doctrine." He had no enmity to foreigners ; but if they understand that their interests are separate from those of American citizens, if they take direction from their spiritual guides in political matters, they have no claim for sup- port. He would not stop the tide of immigration ; but the pros- 26 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. pect was that such people as tile Chinese would pour in, like swarms of locusts. There may be uses for them in the economy of God's Providence, but they had not a Christian character adapted to the nation . " Would you," he asked, l( endow them with citizenship at the end of five years T' Mr. Banks held that the Constitution was prescriptive, even When immigration did not attain more than fifty thousand in ten years. Its framers unani- mously declared that, after a brief period, no man but a native could be President; that nine years' citizenship should be required for eligibility to the United States Senate, and seven to the House of Representatives. They took from the States the power to confer citizenship, which the States then exercised. u There is nothing," he continued, "to show that they entertained the idea advanced here, that foreigners had a right to participate in the highest prerogatives of the Government." He was not for the repeal, but for the revision, of the statutes of naturalization, and was not sure, but that an extension of the term of residence to twenty-one, twelve, or ten years, would be justified. Hon. Lawrence M. Keitt, of South Carolina, made a very able speech (January 3) in reply to Mr. Banks, and in review of his positions on "American" politics, religious toleration, and " Know- Nothingism ;" from which, however, but a brief extract, on a point of considerable historical interest, can be made: "Are Catholics under civil subjection to the Pope, as the member from Massachusetts intimated ? What is there in the Catholic creed to war- rant this imputation ? In 1789, Mr. Pitt, then Prime Minister of England, before he would relax the disabilities of the Irish Catholics, propounded to the great Catholic universities the following inquiries: " '1. Has the Pope, or Cardinals, or any body of men, or any indivi- dual of the Church of Rome, any civil authority, power, jurisdiction, or pre-eminence whatsoever, within the realm of England? " '2. Can the Pope, or Cardinals, or any body of men, or any indivi- duals of the Church of Rome, absolve or dispense his majesty's subjects from their oath of allegiance, Upon any pretext whatsoever ? "'3. Is there any principle in the tenets of the Catholic faith, by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics, or other persons differing from th^m in religious opinions, in any transaction, either of a public or a private nature ? ' "The Universities of Paris, Louvain, Alcala, Douay, Salamanca, and Valladolid declare that neither the Pope, Cardinals, nor any individuals in the Catholic Church have any civil authority ; nor can they dispense NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 27 with an oath ; nor are Catholics justified in not keeping faith in any transaction, either of a public or private nature. " Thus it will be seen that all the Universities promptly and unequi- vocally declared that Catholics were under no civil or temporal subjection to the Pope. The Catholic Bishops in Great Britain, in the year 1826, declared that ' No power in any Pope or Council, or in any individual or body of men invested with authority in the Catholic Church, can dispense with any oath by which a Catholic has confirmed his duty of allegiance to his sovereign, or any obligation of duty or justice to a third person,' "* XjHon. J, R. Chandler, of Pennsylvania, also reviewed and re- plied to Mr. Banks, on the " current belief " touching the dis- ability of Catholics to be good citizens, owing to spiritual inter- ference in temporal matters. An effective point was his quoting from the late Dr. England, the justly-esteemed Roman Catholic Bishop of Charleston, who said, "'We deny to Pope and Council united any power to interfere with one tittle of our political rights, as firmly as we deny the power of interfering with one tittle of our spiritual rights to the President and Congress." He also alluded to the fact that "kings and emperors of the Roman Catholic Church have frequently been at war with the Pope. Yet they did not cease to be members of the Church, and sub- ject to his spiritual jurisdiction, although they resisted his war- like attacks." The first session of the Thirty-Fourth Congress commenced on the 3d of December, 1855. The opening of this Congress was unprecedented in parliamentary history in the excitement pre- ceding the election of a Speaker. For nine weeks the organiza- tion of the House of Representatives was protracted by the dogged obstinacy of party men, the complications of party views, and the manoeuvring of party loaders. The year had been fruitful in political disasters to all parties, as distinctly recognised by the people. Party principles had been invaded, disguised, or suppressed; party names had bowed to emergencies suddenly sprung upon politicians ; and politicians had hurriedly bent the knee to clamors which they thought indications of popular will. Old-fashioned party men could scarcely recognise their isolation ; and new-fashioned party men soon lost their definitiveness, ,or were unable to master or serve it, in the jumble that took place. * Appendix to Cong. Globe, 2cl Sess. 33d Cong. p. 68. 28 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Thus, when the elements of the House of Representatives assem- bled in Washington, there was much machinery at work, of a bold though unobtrusive and elaborate though apparently im- promptu nature. The House was called to order by the Clerk of the previous House, John W. Forney, Esq., on the 3d of December, at noon ; and until that able, eloquent, and fearless gentleman vacated the position of presiding officer, on the 2d of February following, a succession of scenes of the most exciting importance took place on the one hand, while on the other, all the business of the ses- sion requiring the co-operation and concurrence of the House was suspended. The complexion of the candidates put in nomi- nation for the Speakership is thus truly reflected : William Richardson, of Illinois, Democrat; Lewis D. Campbell, of Ohio, Free-Soiler; Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, Republican and Know-Nothing; Humphrey Marshall, of Kentucky, Demo- crat and Know-Nothing ; and Henry M. Fuller, of Pennsylvania, Whig and National Know-Nothing. To these may be added, as prominently brought out during the struggle, Alexander C. M. Pennington, of New Jersey, Republican ; James L. Orr, of South Carolina, moderate Southern Democrat; and William Aiken, of South Carolina, 'ditto. Campbell rose to 81 votes, and withdrew on the 7th of Decem- ber. On the 19th, Fuller, making an explanation, said he would have voted against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill had he been in Congress, and that he would admit Kansas without reference to the admission or prohibition of slavery. A member from Penn- sylvania declared that if he had known those to be Mr. Fuller's views, he would sooner have cut off his arm than have voted for him, and "all his Free-Soil adherents at once deserted him." On the 24th of January, Richardson withdrew, having reached 122 votes, and the Democrats brought out Orr. Banks soon led the anti-Democrats. On the first ballot, he received but 21 votes ; but in a few days he rose to 86, to 100, on the llth of Decem- ber to 107, and remained close upon that vote until the finale. On the llth of January, the House resolved to put test-ques- tions to the candidates, in reply to which Mr. Banks defined his position with great force and clearness. He did not regard the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as promotive of NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 29 the formation of free States, inasmuch as it repeals the prohibi- tion of the institution of slavery over the sections of the country to which that statute applies. He believed in the constitutionality of the "Wilmot Proviso, that it is within the power of Congress to prohibit slavery in a Territory of the United States. He did not believe that the Constitution carried slavery into the Territories. He based his view on Webster's declaration, that even the Constitution of the United States itself does not go to the Territories until it is carried there by an act of Congress ; that Congress was wrong in repealing the Missouri restrictions of 1820 ; and that he was in favor of restoring the Missouri restrictions. In reply to a query of Mr. Barksdale, of Mississippi, touching the races, Mr. Banks, so far as he had studied the subject, believed the general law to be, that the weaker is absorbed. " Whether," said he, " the black race of this continent, or any other part of the world, is equal to the white race, can only be determined by the absorption or disappearance of one or the other ; and I pro- pose to wait until the respective races can be properly subjected to this philosophical test before I give a decisive answer." This, of course, elicited roars of laughter. A motion to elect a Speaker by a plurality of votes had beefi. negatived ; but, weary with the struggle, it was agreed on the 2(1 of February that if, after three ballotings, they should fail (< elect, the one having the greatest number of votes should be declared Speaker. Mr. Orr then withdrew, and was replaced by his colleague, Mr. Aiken. Mr. Fuller withdrew also; and now the certainty of terminating the terrible struggle led to an anx- iety, an excitement, and a personal and political fervor more intense than ever. The result on the last (the 133d) ballot according to the rule adopted was, N. P. Banks, 103; W. Aiken, 100; and 11 scattering votes. And thus these marvel- lous scenes terminated with the election of the member from Massachusetts as Speaker, and his being escorted to the chair by a committee of the leading rival candidates. After thanking the House for the honor conferred, Mr. Banks said, " I have no personal objects to accomplish. I am animated by the single desire that I may in some degree aid in maintaining the well-esta- 3* 30 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. blished principles of our Government in their original and American sig- nification ; in developing the material interests of that portion of the continent we occupy, so far as we may do so within the limited and legitimate powers conferred upon us." During the two months which were occupied in the attempt to select a Speaker, the Clerk of the previous House, John W. For- ney, Esq., was the presiding officer; and the historical importance of the period renders it becoming and necessary to make more than a mere allusion to the manner in which he performed the duties of his office. Those who will peruse the official record of the struggle above indicated cannot fail to be struck with the prompt energy, the elevated but respectful dignity, and the clear analysis of complications growing out of the exigencies of the hour, exhibited by Mr. Forney. His decisions always met with the con- currence of the House; and when it is considered that in addi- tion to his arduous duties as presiding officer demanding all the alertness of his intellect and all the endurance of his body he had also to keep the Clerk's department in working order with official precision, and at the same time conduct and write edito- rials for the Government organ, the Union, of which he was the chief, some idea of Mr. Forney's force and energy may be arrived at. Conflicting as his position in the House and that in the Union was, and liable as his articles in the one were to be made the sub- ject of attack or denial by the Opposition in the other, it is grati- fying to remark that he conducted himself with such a delicate and manly sense of his own strength that he received from all sides tokens of approbation. His impartiality drew from Mar- shall, of Kentucky, Harrison, of Maryland, Paine, of North Ca- rolina, Trafton, of Massachusetts, Campbell, of Ohio, and other prominent members of the Opposition, tributes of esteem ; and after Banks was sworn in, a resolution of thanks was unanimously passed to Mr. Forney "for the distinguished ability, fidelity, and impartiality with which he has presided over the deliberations of the House of Representatives during the arduous and protracted contest for Speaker which has just closed." Gentlemen of all sides of politics accord to Speaker Banks the fullest meed of approbation for his conduct during his term of service in the eminent position to which fortune aided or made by his own judgment, tact, and will had elevated him. It is NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 31 conceded that he possesses in a very remarkable degree the qua- lities necessary for a presiding officer: and the celerity and pre- cision with which he despatched the business of legislation have been the subject of earnest commendation by gentlemen who, though differing from him in politics, benefited by his know- ledge of parliamentary rules and the promptitude with which he made them paramount. His self-possession is a striking feature of his character. A close observer narrates the following : " While on the subject of his non-committalism, I cannot help telling an instance related to me by a member of Congress who suffered from its effects. This gentleman wanted to obtain from Mr. Banks the chairman- ship of an important committee as an equivalent for his vote for him as Speaker. Pending the Speakership contest, therefore, he waited upon Mr. Banks, beginning as follows : ' Mr. Banks, you know I have no ob- jection to your being Speaker, but your election hangs on my vote. Now, I suppose you will understand me when I tell you I shall not vote for Mr. , [the Opposition candidate,] for I don't believe he will place me on any committee worth serving in. What do you think of that?' Mr. Banks, having heard the statement and the interrogatory, remained quiet a moment, as if collecting his thoughts for an important proposi- tion ; but after a preliminary clearing of his throat, and with an air of grave astonishment, he only responded, ' Mr. , is it possible ?' It is needless to say that the applicant transferred his suggestion and his support to another quarter." In proof of the fairness w.hich characterized his decisions, a writer in Harper instances the fact that a Democratic member from Georgia, in advocating the vote of thanks with which Speaker Banks was honored on the last day of the session, eulo- gized his impartiality in reference to the sectional struggles of the House, with the remark that Mr. Banks " stood so straight that he almost leaned over to the other side." In the fall of 185G, Speaker Banks made a great speech in Wall Street, New York, by invitation, and advocated Fremont for the Presidency. In the recess after the Thirty-Fourth Congress, and during the financial crisis, Speaker Banks delivered a speech in Fanueil Hall on the absorbing topic of the day, and, in view of the suf- ferings of working-people in consequence of being paid in paper money, advocated the reimbursement of labor with specie, and believed the time not far distant when the small notes given in 32 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. compensation for labor and of which there were fifty millions of fives and under in circulation would no longer exist; but gold and silver, in the hands of the working-classes, woul$ give " stability of a solid character to our currency." The general view presented was of a hopeful nature, and tended to prove that the universal disability of the times would be but tempo- rary. He based his conclusions on the facts that the agricul- tural crop was estimated at a value of two thousand millions of dollars, and the product of manufacturing industry at about fif- teen hundred millions. He took his seat in the Thirty-Fifth Congress, and opposed the Treasury Note Bill, on the ground that it was the opinion of all statesmen that a resort to a loan in the form of Treasury notes was a matter of doubtful expediency and of dangerous character; that Government should not have recourse to such means unless it had ascertained that necessary relief could be obtained in no other way, as it did in 1837, '41, '42, and '46; and that, fur- ther, it was his belief that the country was richer than ever, and had more gold and silver coin in it than at any time when the Treasury Note question had been presented. In the debates on its merits, he persistently combated the bill, of which Messrs. Glancy Jones, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, G. B. Adrain, of New Jersey, and Letcher and Smith, of Virginia, were the prominent supporters. Mr. Banks also strenuously opposed the passage of the pre- amble and resolutions directing the Committee on Territories to inquire into the propriety of excluding the delegate from Utah. The preamble gave the reason, by stating that, judging from Brig- ham Young's proclamations as well as from the President's Mes- sage, Utah was in open rebellion. Mr. Banks reminded the House that the President's Message said, " Unless he (Young) should re- trace his steps, the Territory of Utah will be in open rebellion." He was willing to aid the proposer of the resolution, Mr. War- ren, of Arkansas, in any legitimate course touching Utah ; but he protested against assaulting the rights of a delegate or a mem- ber from a State except upon a statement of facts touching his direct acts as a member. Having been elected Governor of Massachusetts in November by a plurality of twenty-four thousand, Mr. Banks resigned his NATHANIEL P. BANKS. 33 seat in the House of Representatives, (24th of December,) and ascended the Gubernatorial chair of his native State. To this position he did such honor in the eyes of his fellow-citizens, that they re-elected him the following year; and he will pro- bably be retained in the dignity of this office, as at the Repub- lican State Convention, which met at Fitehburg on the 20th of September of the present year, he received, on the first ballot for nomination for Governor, 627 out of the 712 votes, and was afterward nominated unanimously. The resolutions passed by the Convention which may be taken as the latest de- finition of the principles upon which Governor Banks is not only before Massachusetts, but the Union declare that the Repub- lican party was originated in opposition to the slave power, and is necessary for the preservation of State rights ; and denounce the Buchanan Administration for extravagance, for truckling to the slave power, for allowing the reopening of the slave-trade, and for refusing protection to naturalized citizens.* Governor Banks occasionally, as is usual with gentlemen whose recognised talents and position give dignity to public celebrations, has addressed meetings and societies on occasions of historical in- terest. Among his latest efforts in this line may be mentioned an eloquent address on the laying of the corner-stone of the national monument in commemoration of the Pilgrims, and that of the canopy designed to cover the u Forefathers' Rock" at Plymouth and his still more recent speech at the inauguration of Powers' s statue of Daniel Webster, on the two hundred and twenty-ninth anniversary of the settlement of Boston. The acquirement of suitable and various knowledge has kept pace with the progressively successful career of Governor Banks. He has made himself acquainted with the chief languages and literatures of Europe, and is an earnest and assiduous student ; all his spare time being devoted to his farm and his books, in the heart and home of his family, in his native town of Waltham. * Since the above was written, Governor Banks has been re-elected. 34 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. EDWARD BATES, OF MISSOURI. ALTHOUGH Mr. Bates has served but one term in the United States Congress, and that more than a quarter of a century ago, his name and counsel are dearly prized by those who have abiding faith and hope in the principles of the Whig party. He is one of the most distinguished citizens of the State of Missouri, and, as De Bow's Review* observes, a man who has been active in the cause of Western progress and improvement j who pre- sided over the deliberations of an important convention held in the Northwest for their promotion; and who, for his high and liberal views, enjoys a reputation in this particular second to none on that side of the mountains. Edward Bates is a Virginian by birth, having been born in Goochland County, the 4th of September, 1793. His family is of the plain Quaker stock, which for several centuries dwelt in the low countries between James and York Rivers. His ances- tors came from the west of England to the Jamestown settlement in 1625, about eighteen years after Bartholomew Gosnell had made his second and successful expedition for its colonization, and brought with him Captain John Smith, of ever-famous memory. The descendants of the Bates settlers remained in this region until the war of the Revolution, when the younger branches, taking up arms against the king, forfeited, as did Na- thaniel Greene in Rhode Island, and others, their membership in the peace-loving Society of Friends. If, however, they were dis- owned by the "Friends," they found a host of other friends in the country. Among those who took up arms were Thomas Fleming Bates, the father of Edward, and several of his uncles. Thomas Fleming Bates was a man of fair talents, had a store * To which I am largely; indebted in the preparation of this sketch. . Vol. xii., New Orleans, 1852. EDWARD BATES. 35 of practical information, and was educated to habits of business in one of the best mercantile houses in the colony. In proof of his capacity, it may be stated that he was several times sent to England, Spain, Portugal, and Madeira, as supercargo and purchasing agent. About the period of the Revolution, believing himself in com- fortable circumstances, he settled up his accounts in Henrico (or Charles City) County, and moved to a new plantation on James Eiver, in Goochland. He soon discovered that his claims and book-accounts were of no value, the times were so out of joint, and the Continental money so depreciated. To add to his di- lemma, the British army, in one of its marches, destroyed his plan- tation. His heart, however, was not a broken bank. Like all of the strong and sturdy men whose disinterestedness and devo- tion made what the Annual Register called the " Rebellion in America" a war of independence, Mr. Bates was above personal despondency; and, despite his Quaker coat, he was a soldier and a Whig. It is related of him that when the British army was encamped on his plantation, and the lower story of his house occupied for twenty-four hours as head-quarters, he was called into the pre- sence of Lord Cornwallis, and there a written protection was handed to him by an aid-de-camp. He read it deliberately, and reflected sorrowfully on his wife and six young children, who had been ordered to the upper apartments. He rapidly con- sidered their claims on his safety, but more seriously thought of the disgrace he would bring on them by accepting a protection that would compromise his patriotism, and, folding the paper into a narrow slip, thrust it among the burning coals in a chafing- dish standing on the hearth to furnish his lordship's tea. In his mind's eye he beheld certain arrest, and the prison-ship, awaiting him as the result of his course ; yet he pursued it. Cornwallis, in a spirit inspired by that of his Quaker prisoner, with a calm countenance, only said, " Mr. Bates, would to God that you, and all such men as you, were loyal subjects !" A few months subsequent, our Quaker was a volunteer soldier in the ranks under Lafayette, and at Yorktown, October, 1781, witnessed the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his army. His eon Edward has the gun with which his father helped to bring 36 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. about that result, " still as good a deer-gun as can be found." At the close of the war the British debts of Bates remained, and they sufficed to break up his worldly prospects. He died in May, 1805, leaving no estate, but a widow, five daughters, and seven sons, Edward being the youngest of the twelve children. Thus left an orphan, Fleming Bates, of Northumberland, Va., one of his brothers, all of whom were industrious, prospering, and generous men, took Edward in charge. He sent him to Charlotte Hall Academy, Md., "a very good school for boys who were anxious to learn, but a very poor one for those who required compulsion," where he attained, among other things, the elements of mathematics, with some knowledge of the Latin and French languages. An accident unfortunately broke off his regular course of study ; and, having fractured a leg-bone, he was obliged to return to his brother's, to suffer a painful confinement of nearly two years. In this state he found solace in a good library and writing- materials at discretion. Without advice or assistance to guide either his taste or judgment, he plunged into the books, devour- ing every thing that bore the name of poetry, from Homer and Shakspeare down to Peter Pindar, and all manner of histories, from "Weems's Revolutionary Worthies" up to Livy and He- rodotus ; allowing his hand also to run a race with the acquire- ments of his head, scribbling with a ready and unresting quill. In this way he accumulated a heterogeneous mass of ideas, and fused them into shapes of his own unguided moulding. Looking forward from boyhood to the sea as his business in life, his kinsman, James Pleasants, then the representative in Congress of his native district, procured for him, in the winter of 1811-12, the promise of a midshipman's warrant; but the tears of his mother overcame his boyish ambition to win fame in the threatened war with England, and he renounced the sea. On the other hand, he now prepared to turn his steps far inland, and go to St. Louis, at the invitation of his brother Frederick, and study law. But he was not quite rid of his warlike propensities. Just as he was getting ready to start for the West, in the winter of 1812-13, a British fleet made its appearance in the Chesa- peake, and troops were called for the defence of Norfolk. En- rolling himself in a company of volunteers; he marched to Nor- EDWARD BATES. 37 folk, was a sergeant in Captain Hopkins's infantry, and for six months ate the public rations there, rendering no particular service, save aiding in the digging of several broad ditches. In the spring of 1814, he went to St. Louis. A few years earlier, the surrounding region is described as a howling wilder- ness, inhabited only by wild beasts and merciless savages, and St. Louis, as a small town, its inhabitants consisting almost wholly of French and Spanish settlers, who were engaged in trafficking with the Indians the commodities of civilization, such as fire- water, beads, blankets, arms, ammunition, &c., for peltry.* When Bates arrived at St. Louis, it had about two thousand inhabitants, chiefly French, who discountenanced the settlement of Americans among them, as they considered it an invasion of their monopoly of the traffic with the Indians. The Indians, too, thinking themselves better dealt with by the French and Spanish, united with the latter in their hostility to the influx of the Americans. f From this period Mr. Bates has been identi- fied with the growth of the great West. He commenced the study of law in the office of Rufus Easton, the best-read lawyer at the bar, and a Delegate from Missouri Territory to Congress from 1814 to 1816. He applied himself with diligence, working fourteen hours a day for six days in the week, and in the winter of 1816-17 took out a license, and com- menced the practice of the profession. Several years of Mr. Bates' s life were thus occupied, he also having attained, in the interim, various offices of trust under the Territorial Government. He was a member the youngest but one of the convention which formed the State Constitution, July 19, 3820, and successively Circuit (prosecuting) Attorney under the State Government, Attorney-General under the United States Government, and District Attorney for Missouri. Mr. Bates has likewise at different times served in both branches of the State Legislature, and for one term from 1827 to 1829 represented the State in the United States House of Representatives in the * Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth, Mountaineer, Scout, and Pioneer, fec. &c. Written from his own dictation, by T. D. Bonner. New York, 1856. ~ Beckwourth. 38 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Twentieth Congress. He was the friend of Henry Clay in tho Presidential contest of 1824, and united with him in supporting the Administration and re-election of John Quincy Adams, and was elected to Congress as the friend of that Administration. He concurred also with Mr. Clay's general views on the subject of emancipation, and exemplified his principles by manumitting all his slaves and sending them to Liberia. In May, 1829, he married Julia D., fifth daughter of David Coulter, formerly of Columbia, S.C., by whom he has had fifteen children, eight of whom survive. In Congress he was opposed to the occupation of Oregon, con- sidering, says De Bow's Review, that country essentially foreign, and the occupation of it by the United States the entering wedge to a system of foreign colonization, conquest, and domination. Then we had no railroads and telegraphs, which at this day have for many purposes annihilated both time and space. He was, from beginning to end, against the Mexican War, and the acqui- sition of Mexican territory by either arms or money, and expressed his ideas on the subject in the St. Louis papers. The writer in "De Bow," January, 1852, acknowledges the receipt of a recent letter from Mr. Bates, in which he says, "Were it not proved by constant experience that the currents of so- cial life often drift men into courses quite opposite to those they attempt to steer, I should be astonished to find myself, in some sort, a public man, in spite of my efforts to the contrary. In youth I was ambitious, and sought distinction with some avidity. But the popular storm which blew General Jackson into the Presidency blew me out of the track of public life. In the canvass for a second term in Congress, I was so thoroughly beaten that I was content, as the Kentuckians say, to ' stay whipped,' and never again to worry myself with the attempt to climb the slippery heights of politics. Thenceforth T looked only to profes- sional labor for the means of supporting and educating a numerous family, and to the domestic circle for all my enjoyments. A practice of more than twenty years in this scheme of life has destroyed whatever of appetite I may once have had for public distinction ; and now all I desire is, (I hope it is in my reach,) for my children the means of edu- cation, and a fair start in life, and for myself the quiet esteem of good men." Mr. Bates had devoted himself so exclusively to his profession for the last thirty years that he was little known out of Missouri EDWARD BATES. 89 when the Internal Improvement Convention met at Chicago, in 1847. That convention is now chiefly memorable from the open- ing speech made by Mr. Bates, as its presiding officer, in which, in striking contrast with the brief, non-committal letters of Mr. Cass and other political aspirants, he explained and enforced at length his views of the duties imposed by the Constitution upon the Federal Government to execute great national works for the development of the country. The convention was large, and embraced persons of all shades of political opinion ; but all were impressed with the wisdom, integrity, and patriotism of their president, and returned to their homes commending him for those high qualities, as well as for his eloquence and dignified manners. Efforts were then renewed to bring him again into political life ; but he could not be induced to allow his name to be presented for political station in Missouri, and he declined a seat in the Cabinet at Washington, tendered him by Mr. Fillmore. Mr. Bates has been an occasional writer for the public press, chiefly on political topics, and those, for the most part, such as concerned the interpretation of the Constitution. In February of the present year, (1859,) the New York " Gene- ral Whig Committee," in conformity with a resolution of that body, addressed Mr. Bates on the inexpediency of agitating the Negro question, and the desirability of turning public attention to topics of general importance, such as foreign relations, territorial exten- sion, building of railroads for national uses, harbor-improve- ments, river -navigation, the currency, the tariff, "and other means of developing our own internal resources" and fraternally binding together the sections of the Republic. The committee requested Mr. Bates's opinion on the subject, and his views on the signs of the times. He complied with the request ; and his reply was deemed of great value, as the " interesting and dispas- sionate" view of one of the most conservative and prudent politi- cal counsellors in the country. The able gentleman prefaces this " definition of his position" by stating that his opinions, right or wrong, are his own, and do not belong to this or that party, ready to be abandoned or modi- fied to suit a platform; they were deliberately formed in the 40 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. retirement of private life, free from the exigencies of official re- sponsibility and from the perturbations of party policy. He believes, as he has often declared, the Negro question to be a pestilent question, " the agitation of which has never done good to any party, section, or class, and never can do good." He considered it a dangerous vortex, into which good men are drawn unawares ; but when he beheld a Northern or Southern of mature age and some experience persisting in urging the question, after the sad experience of the last few years, he could attribute his conduct to no higher motive than personal ambi- tion or sectional prejudice. He did not, and would not, doubt the power and duty of Go- vernment to raise taxes when necessary for the protection of the country and the prosperity of the people. A Government that has not such a power is a weak, poor, impotent Government, and not at all such a Government as our fathers thought they had made when they produced the Constitution. " The people do not derive their right from the Government; but the Govern- ment derives its powers from the people j and those powers are granted for the main, if not the only, purpose of protecting the rights of the people. Protection, then, if not the sole, is the chief, end of Government." As to foreign policy, Mr. Bates avows himself " not much of a progressive, being content to leave it where Washington placed it, upon that wise, virtuous, safe maxim, ( Peace with all na- tions, entangling alliances with none.' " He has little sympathy with the greedy and indiscriminate appetite for foreign acquisi- tion which makes us covet our neighbor's lands and devise cun- ning schemes to get them. To him it appeared as a sort of poli- tical gluttony, as dangerous to the body politic as gluttony is to the natural man, producing disease certainly, hastening death probably. The case of Louisiana was different. "Louisiana was indispensable to our full and safe enjoyment of an immense region which was already owned ; and its acquisition gave us the unquestioned control of that noble system of Mississippi waters which Nature seems to have made one and indivisible." He does not believe that the United States is not an independent and safe nation because Cuba is not a part of it. On the con- trary, he thought we could defend ourselves if it belonged to EDWARD BATES. 41 England, France, or Russia, much less to a feeble power like Spain. " In fact/' says Mr. Bates, " I cannot help doubting the honesty of the cowardly argument by which we are urged to rob poor old Spain of this last remnant of her Western empire, for fear that she might use it to rob us." Neither does Mr. Bates agree with Senator Slidell's projects attached to the Thirty-Million Bill, nor with Senator Houston's plan of a protectorate over Mexico. He says, " A leading Senator has lately declared (in debate on the Thirty-Mil- lion Bill) that we must not only have Cuba, but all the islands from Cape Florida to the Spanish Main, so as to surround the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, and make them our ' mare clausum,' like the Medi- terranean in old times, when the Roman Emperor ruled both its shores, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Hellespont. This claim of mare nos- trum implies, of course, that we must own the continent that bounds our sea on the west, as well as the string of islands that enclose it on the east, that is, Mexico, Central America, and all South America, so far south, at least, as the Orinoco. In that wide compass of sea and land there are a good many native governments and provinces belonging to the strongest maritime Powers, and a narrow continental isthmus which we ourselves, as well as England and France, are wont to call the high- way of nations. To fulfil the grand conception and perfect our tropical empire, we must buy or conquer all these torrid countries and their mongrel populations. As to buying them, it strikes me we had better wait a while, at least, until the Government has ceased to borrow money to pay its current expenses. And as to conquering them, perhaps it would be prudent to pause and make some estimate of the costs and contingencies before we rush into war with all maritime Europe and half America. Supposing that we possessed the whole country, continental and insular, from the Rio Grande to the Orinoco and from Trinidad to Cuba, he doubts whether we could govern it wisely. The attempt to govern Kansas and Utah has neither maintained the dignity of the nation nor secured the prosperity of the subject people. How, he asks, can we do better with the mixed races of those countries, some of which for fifty years have in vain sought to establish republican governments on our model ? He would grieve to see his country, like Rome, become a conquering and dominant nation ; nor was he willing to inoculate our body politic with the hereditary diseases, social and political, of the mixed races alluded to. 4* f ' 42 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Mr. Bates severely reviews the present Administration, with no malice against Mr. Buchanan, but because " of the danger- ous change which is now obviously sought to be made in the practical working of the Government, the concentration of power in the hands of the President, and the dangerous policy, now almost established, of looking abroad for temporary glory and aggrandizement, instead of looking at home for all the pur- poses of good government." The rapid increase of public expenditure presented to him an alarming sign of corruption and decay, as he did not see that it bore any fair proportion to the growth of the country, but looked rather like wanton waste or criminal negligence : "The ordinary objects of great expense are not, materially augmented; the army and navy remain on a low peace-establishment ; the military defences are little, if at all, enlarged ; the improvement of harbors, lakes, and rivers is abandoned ; and the Pacific Railroad is not only not begun, but its very location is scrambled for by angry sections, which succeed in nothing but mutual defeat. In short, the money, to an enor- mous amount, (I am told at the rate of $80,000,000 to $100,000,000 a year,) is gone, and we have little or nothing to show for it. In pro- found peace with foreign nations, and surrounded with the proofs of national growth and individual prosperity, the Treasury, by less than two years of mismanagement, is made bankrupt, and the Government itself is living from hand to mouth on bills of credit and borrowed money !" In conclusion, Mr. Bates felt there was reason to fear that some of his ideas were "so antiquated and out of fashion as to make it very improbable that they will ever again be put to the test of actual practice." This personal platform, and the policy indicated, were received with much enthusiasm by those who hope to reconstruct on them the old Whig party. The passages in this letter which express the writer's regret at the existing agitation of the Slavery question have been con- strued by the pro-slavery party to reflect on their opponents, and some of the Republican journals have admitted this construc- tion; but such obviously was not intended. He could not reflect upon the Republican party without stultifying himself; for he openly advocates every principle of the Philadelphia platform, and the restoration of the Government to the policy of its founders with respect to slavery. EDWARD BATES. 43 The agitators denounced by Mr. Bates are those who repealed the Missouri Compromise and " inaugurated the new policy of slavery-extension." This appears also by his letter, dated St. Louis, August 20, 1859, to the Memphis Convention, wherein he urges the Opposition in the South to co-operate with the Re- publicans, which is as follows : "It pleased me very much, gentlemen, to find that you designate the band of patriots who have lately done the good work in Tennessee as the ' Opposition Party S The name implies that the party is made up of the good men of other parties, Democrats, Whigs, Americans, Re- publicans, all who can no longer brook the wild extravagance and wanton disregard of principle in an Administration and a party which, emboldened by former unmerited success, vainly imagine that they ' can afford to disregard the censures of the world,' and to despise the judg- ment of history. The party in office (I will not say in power) is of itself a weak and helpless minority. It has no chance of renewed success but the hope (I trust a vain and fallacious hope) that we will be so unwise a.nd unpatriotic as to waste our strength in party bickerings about old party names and subordinate questions of policy and convenience, and to split up our forces into sections, as if for the very purpose of enabling our inferior enemy to beat us all in detail. If we be so unwise as that, if we allow the adversary to form the plan of our campaign, to marshal our troops, to tell us when to march, where to camp, and how to fight, of course we shall get what we earn and deserve, defeat; and we shall add to the humiliation of defeat the sting ofshame, in the consciousness that we had in our hands the means of victory and the assurance of the peace and prosperity of the nation, but wantonly threw them away. Your recent victory, (in Tennessee,) and similar successes in other Southern and Western States, embolden me to hope for the like good result all over the Union. The spirit of conservative patriotism is aroused throughout the nation by the dangerous misgovernment and bold inno- vations of the last few years ; and, in view of the great national interests now in peril, a better feeling a feeling of harmony and mutual confi- dence, of kind forbearance on minor points, of generous concession in favor of peace and unity is visibly increasing in all the elements of the Opposition. Those who foster and advance that good feeling, and ripen it into cordial union, will be great public benefactors. Such union alone will constitute the victory without the necessity for another blow ; for the Democracy, as now enervated and demoralized, will be no match for the united Opposition. And such a victory ! in which all, even the van- quished, will have cause to rejoice, because it will restore peace and harmony to the excited sections, law and order to the disturbed Terri- tories, moderation and justice to the Government, and prosperity and 44 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. honor to the nation. Such, at least, is the earnest hope of your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, EDWARD BATES." One of Mr. Bates's latest appearances in public was in the shape of a short letter, which has met with much commendation from those who are in favor of enforcing the Sunday-laws. Many of our chief cities have been agitated by the question, among others, St. Louis. To a meeting recently held there on the subject, he addressed the following letter : " I am very sorry to hear that there is any occasion for a popular demonstration to uphold an institution so ancient, so sacred, so lawful, and so necessary to the peace, the comfort, and the respectability of society. Its religious character, as a holy day, ought alone to be suffi- cient for its protection in a Clmstian community ; but, that failing, surely the laws of the land, made for its security, ought to be as strictly enforced as the laws made for the protection of persons and property. Vice and crime are always progressive and cumulative. If the Sunday- laws be neglected or despised, the laws of persons and property will soon share their fate and be equally disregarded." Mr. Bates has acquired a wide reputation in his State and the West as a ready, forcible, and eloquent speaker; yet, although he has been a public speaker for nearly forty years, there are ndlie of his speeches in^print. A few notes and sketches have been published; but he never wrote out a speech for the press. He has attempted it once or twice, upon Solicitation, but never could satisfactorily recall the spirit that animated the oral de- livery. - An authoritative exposition of Mr. Bates's views on the Sla- very question has just been issued in his home organ, the St. Louis Ncivs. His position, as thus expressed, embraces the views originally set forth by the Republican party at the Pittsburg and Philadelphia Conventions. It completely discountenances the more extreme characteristics of that party as at present known. It approves the Fugitive-Slave Law, and announces Mr. Bates as desirous of framing a new one if the present is un- equal to the intention of its framers, one which will have the desired effect. He would also enforce if Congress passed a law protecting slavery in the Territories : though he does not believe that the Constitution carries it into Federal territory. N EDWARD BATES. 45 He does not believe slavery a blessing; is glad that Missouri is becoming free; and thinks the.National Government ought to en- courage the colonization of free negroes, for the purpose of aiding such States as may desire to get rid of them. This document, it is thought, will strengthen Mr. Bates's position with the con- servative men of the country, as being more broad and general in its character than the views propounded by the recognised leaders of either the Republican or the American party. 46 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. JOHN BELL, OF TENNESSEE. IT has been observed by a writer in Tennessee, that, in conse- quence of the distractions which it is feared or hoped will nullify the efforts of both the leading parties, the political indications from all parts tend to the formation of a united Opposition that tc the conservative, Union-loving, law-abiding, and Constitution- observing people of the country are being fully aroused to the importance of a united and thorough effort to crush out sectional- ism everywhere." At the head of this party it is proposed to place Mr. Bell, Senator from Tennessee, and long known as a public man, a ready and at times powerful debater, his mind stored with the resources acquired in official position, as well as much practical knowledge of political economy gleaned in the course of a prominent and active public career. John Bell was born near Nashville, Tennessee, February 18, 1797, of parents who, though in moderate circumstances, be- stowed upon him the benefits of a sound education at Cumber- land College, the present Nashville University. He chose the law as a profession, went through the usual studies, and at the early age of nineteen in 1816 was admitted to the bar. He was no sooner before the people in the practice of his business than public life opened to him; and his political influence was acquired and recognised at a period of life when the majority of youths are but entering college. Settling at Franklin, Wil- liamson County, he v;as elected a State Senator in 1817, when only twenty years old. A brief experience, however, enabled him to estimate properly this flattering testimonial to his youthful talents; and, after the first term of service, he judiciously de- clined a re-election, and retired to his profession, in the active practice of which he remained for the next nine years. Entering the field against Felix Gruwdy for Congress, in 1826, JOHN BELL. 47 he achieved a signal and memorable success. It was Andrew Jackson's State; and Mr. Grundy was not only exceedingly popular on his own account, but was shielded by the influence and cheered by the support of the hero of New Orleans, then a candidate for the Presidency against the younger Adams. As may be imagined, the canvass was most exciting, and retains a place in the general political history of that day. It was carried on for twelve months; and Mr. Bell, in the face of the powerful odds against him, was elected, in 1827, by a majority of one thousand. The hold thus won on the people of his district suc- cessively elected Mr. Bell to the House of Representatives for fourteen years, during which period his name was prominently before the country in connection with the most important debates and measures. He entered into national politics in a spirit friendly to General Jackson and John C. Calhoun; but he differed from both on their most favorite projects, to wit, the removal of the bank-deposits in the case of the former, and the South Carolina doctrine of nullification of the latter. Mr. Bell was in favor of a United States Bank, but voted against its re-charter in 1832; in the first place, believing that the agitation of the subject at that time was conjured up to promote the defeat of General Jackson's chances in the ensuing- Presidential election; in the second place, because it was four years before the old charter would expire; and again, because he was convinced the President would as he did veto the bill. His firm protest against the removal of the deposits was followed by as firm a refusal to vote for the resolution ap- proving that measure; and thus the alienation of Mr. Bell from Jackson and the Democratic party was initiated. At first Mr. Bell was energetically opposed to the protective system, and made a speech against it in 1832; but more extended reflection and study of the matter wrought a change in his opinions, and he has ever since, when the question has arisen, devoted his ability and influence to the support of the policy of protecting American industry. Mr. Bell has also advocated the improvement of the great rivers and lake-harbors, and opposed indiscriminate appropriations for "internal improvements" on roads and canals, except in an instance such as that of the Pacific llailroad. Opposing the nullification doctrine, he was appointed 48 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House, with special reference to the questions connected with that subject which might have to be considered and reported on. He was also Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs for ten years. Mr. Bell's secession from the Democratic and co-operation with the Whig party, which commenced with his refusal to vote for the removal of the deposits, was much accelerated by his election to the Speakership of the House of Representatives in 1834. Mr. Speaker Stevenson, having been appointed Minister to Great Britain, resigned the presiding chair of the House, and Mr. Bell was elected to succeed him, in opposition to James K. Polk. It was a great personal triumph for the successful candi- date, and widened the breach already made; as Polk, besides being a Tennesseean, was the nominee of the Democratic party and had the recommendation of the Administration. Those Democrats who were opposed to Van Buren as the successor of President Jackson joined with the Whigs in opposition to the Administration candidate, and thus secured the elevation of Bell to the Speakership of the popular branch of the National Legislature, the third office of the Government. The principal ground of Mr. Bell's opposition to Mr. Van Buren was his strong disapproval of the system of removals from subordinate offices for merely political reasons, a system which Mr. Van Buren had zealously promoted in the party conflicts of the State of New York, and which it was supposed he intended to carry out to its full extent in the administration of the Federal Govern- ment. Mr. Bell had vivfdly portrayed the tendencies of such an exercise of Executive patronage, in a speech in the House on the freedom of elections ; and he had made frequent though ineffec- tual efforts, in successive Congresses, to procure the enactment of laws calculated to check the policy.* The rupture between Mr. Bell and Jackson culminated in 1835, when the former completely threw off all allegiance to the latter by opposing Van Buren and declaring for Judge White as the Presidential successor. Tennessee had thus far gone with Jackson's administration; and it could scarcely be anticipated that the agitation of White and his associates could lift itself * New American Cyclopaedia, fec., edited by George Ripley and Charles A. Dana,N.Y. Vol. III. JOHN BELL. 49 into a stalwart opposition, or that, if it did, the personal and political influence of " the Great Chief" could fail to quell it. But the ways of the politician are inscrutable. White carried Tennessee by a large majority; Bell was re-elected to Congress even from the Hermitage district by as great a vote as before ; and thus was commenced and fostered that opposition to the Democracy in that State, which so potently arrayed itself in the several succeeding Presidential elections, and which has so strongly manifested itself under the leadership of Mr. Bell in the recent elections there. Mr. Bell favored the reception of petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and in 1836 and 1838 dis- tinguished himself in speeches upon that question. In 1841, he went into the Cabinet of General Harrison as Secretary of War, but resigned in the autumn of that year, when Mr. Tyler who had succeeded to the Presidency on the death of Harrison separated from the Whig party. The next Tennes- see Legislature, in consideration of Mr. Bell's consistency as a Whig, offered him the United States Senatorship; but he declined the honor in favor of Ephraim H. Foster, whose services to the Whig party Mr. Bell thought deserving of such eminent recog- nition. Foster was, therefore, elected; and Bell retired into privacy for nearly six years, when, at the desire of his county, he entered the State Senate, (1847.) The same year, a vacancy occurring in the United States Senate, he was elected to that office, and subsequently, in 1853, re-elected for the term which expired March 4, 1859. In this national arena Senator Bell acquired large repute, and his position on the leading questions cannot be omitted from the history of the times. He favored the Compromise Measures of 1850, and desired to see the issues fully settled by a division of Texas into States. He opposed the Nebraska Bill, and on the 3d of March, 1854, gave his objections at length, and with such force as to draw replies from Senators Dawson, Douglas, and other leading advocates of the measure. Senator Bell had opposed the Nebraska Bill of the previous session when it con- tained no provision relative to the Missouri Compromise. He had not heard of any proposition to repeal the latter until it was offered in direct terms by Senator Dixon, of Kentucky. Mr. D 5 50 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. .Bell's first objection was, that there was no necessity for the measure. It was an anomaly to establish Governments to extend over immense Territories in which there was no white popula- tion whose wants required such Governments. He thought the demand for Territorial Governments should be proven in antici- pation of an increase of population by emigration and other means ; that provision ought to be made for the tribes beyond Wind Hills and in the Rocky Mountains; that information of the number of necessary military posts should be laid before Con- gress; and full details of this policy of extending the Govern- ment so far beyond the present limits of civilization. There were 300,000,000 acres in these Territories. They would support an empire. It was a magnificent idea to build up an immense empire ; and he knew not which most to admire, the genius or boldness displayed by Senator Douglas in the conception of, and the press- ing of the measure to carry out, his grand idea. He thought the Senator from Illinois had for some time had a mania for establish- ing new Governments. He was the author of the New Mexico and Utah Bills, and also of Washington Territory. He had already laid the foundation of three powerful Governments, and now proposed to erect two more. Not content with the glory of being Conditor Imperii, the Senator was emulous of the fame of Clarissimus Conditor Imperiorum. Mr. Bell's next objection arose out of the provisions touching the Indian tribes. Those Indians who had been carried to this Territory from east of the Mississippi had been guaranteed a home never to be surrounded by any Territorial Government. He had examined the bill, and held that, as it stood, it was a clear, explicit violation of the Indian treaties. In this connection, he condemned the course of those who made such ado about breaking faith with the African race, and did not say a word in behalf of the Indians. " The Wilber- forces of the Senate/' said he, "had no word of sympathy with any persons if they were not Africans." In 1856, (May 27,) Senator Bell took a decided stand on the Mississippi River Bill, introduced by Senator Slidell, for the opening of the mouth of the Father of Waters. The bill, which had been vetoed by President Pierce, led to a warm dis- cussion on its reconsideration. Mr. Toombs having taken a leading part against the bill and in favor of the veto, Mr. Bell JOHN BELL. 51 thought the Senator from Georgia commenced at the wrong point in attempting to prevent any appropriations for the removal of obstructions from the mouth of the river which concerns a large valley and the whole interior of the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies, to say nothing "of the navigation upon the lakes, between the ports of the Northeast and the Northwest. The expenditure of one, or even two millions an- nually in keeping open the great river, would be no more than an equivalent for the expenditures on the Atlantic coasc. "Sir," said Mr. Bell, "we have the Mississippi washing Tennessee on one extremity ; we have the Cumberland running through our State to float off our heavy produce, our cotton and tobacco. The Senator from Georgia will allow no improvement for the Mississippi River, because he thinks it unequal ; and he alludes to the fact of Tennessee having spent $10,000,000 in order to enable the people from the interior of that State to send their products to foreign markets, by making a connection with the Georgia roads. Georgia reaps a great benefit from that trade. Charleston shares a portion of it; but the greater benefit of it goes to Augusta and Savannah. We are forced to take our cotton to Savannah and Charleston, at an expense of two or three dollars a bale ; when, if we could take it down the Mississippi, the cost would not be more than one dollar, or one dollar and twenty-five cents."* In the Thirty-Fifth Congress, Senator Bell's course on the leading topics brought his name still more prominently before the country. In view of the recent success of the Opposition in Tennessee, it is interesting to know that the Legislature, early in 1858, passed resolutions instructing its representatives in Con- gress to vote for the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. On the presentation of these resolutions to the Senate, Mr. Bell reviewed them at length with his accustomed piquancy, and justified his opposition to them. His colleague, Senator Johnson, replied, defending the instructions of the State Legislature; and, Mr. Bell taking exception to some of Mr. John- son's remarks, a debate sprung up which occupied the whole of the 23d of February, 1858. Unpleasant results were anticipated ; but, on the 25th, both gentlemen made personal explanations, each evincing a spirit becoming the Senatorial character. In the great Lecompton debate of March, 1858, Senator Bell * Cong. Globe, 1st Sess. 34th Cong. p. 1310, Ac. 52 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. still further, and in a very elaborate speech, extending through the day and evening sessions of the 18th, gave expression to his views in opposition to the measure. He addressed himself largely to the issues, doctrines, and arguments promulgated by Senator Toombs, which no man could pass unnoticed who took the views he did. The Senator from Georgia said in substance that it was a question of union or disunion ; it was no sectional question, but one which concern eel the whole country, the North as well as the South. He proclaimed to the Senate that he had estimated the value of the Union. " With him," to use the language of Bell, " it is a myth, a false idol ; and he fears that the State of Kentucky, which my honorable and eloquent friend (Senator Crittenden) so well represents, has worshipped and loved, not wisely, but too well. He has brought the question to a point, an issue which it becomes us all to ponder." Mr. Bell had feared that there were such calculations as Toombs suggested, founded on the possible result of the question in debate; but he had no evidence of it before. A vague dread had been resting on his mind ; but now he had to meet it as an admitted fact. It was placed before the country openly, boldly, directly ; and he felt called on to notice it in every aspect to which his attention had been called by the Senator from Georgia. In a similar spirit of openness he investigated the question, and showed that the rejection of the Lecompton Constitution would not be a fit pre- text for Southern men to agitate disunion ; and that its accept- ance would be an actual overturning of the fixed principles of our Government. On examining the question on every principle connected with the inalienable rights of the people, announced by the President and his principal supporters in the Senate, Mr. Bell could not discover that there was really any application for the admission of Kansas into the Union with the assent of the people of that Territory. He also opposed the " English Bill," because he could not find in it the basis of a speedy and perma- nent adjustment. In fact, it seemed to him a new evidence that neither of the two political confederations who were parties to this sectional contest had any sincere desire to close up the question. In the discussion of the Minnesota Bill (April 8, 1858) the Senator from Tennessee participated, and especially with refer- JOHN BELL. 53 ence to the provisions of the Constitution of the new State touching alien suffrage. He thought them violative of the spirit of the Constitution of the United States ; the framers of which, in investing Congress with the power of passing uniform natu- ralization-laws, had manifestly never contemplated this bestowal of suffrage one of the highest and most distinctive rights of citizenship upon unnaturalized aliens. In former years he had raised his voice against this doctrine, and had pointed out the abuses to which it might lead ; but a contrary opinion having seemed to prevail in the councils of the nation and among the people, both of the North and of the South, it only remained for him to repeat his convictions of public policy and propriety in tho matter, without pressing them so far as to vote against the admission of Minnesota under a Constitution open to these ob- jections, especially since, under the construction now admitted by a majority of the Senate, he could have no guarantee that if the Constitution were amended in this regard, while before Congress, it would not be forthwith altered by the people after their admission and made to conform to their wishes in respect to alien suffrage. He regretted to find in this, as in other political developments of the time, the indications of an increasing ten- dency toward a wild and unregulated liberty. In the debates on financial matters, Senator Bell opposed the propositions of the Administration. He supported Senator Fes- senden's amendment, curtailing, as far as practicable, the enor- mous expenditures to which the Administration had committed the Government, by the inopportune advance of the troops into Utah, inopportune, because undertaken at a time when it must have been foreseen that they would have to winter in the gorges of the Kocky Mountains. Again, it was questionable whether the President had the legal authority to order our troops into Utah, to act as an escort for Federal officers, under the name of a posse comitatus. But, even if he had the power, its exercise in the premises was a great abuse. The Fifteen-Million Loan Bill, reported from the Finance Committee, drew from Senator Bell an elaborate argument. Re- viewing the circumstances which ostensibly and actually created the necessity for money, he said, Twelve months ago we had a 5* 54 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. surplus of twenty millions in the treasury. Now the treasury is bankrupt, and we are running rapidly in debt, without pro- viding any certain means of liquidation. Should not such a prospect rouse the people to inquiry into the financial policy of the Administration ? In what other free country would such a condition of affairs be regarded with acquiescence ? No British Ministry would so far presume on the toleration of a British public as to come before Parliament with a loan bill like that now pending in the Senate of the United States ; for, since the Revolution of 1688, no British public would have allowed such management of the national revenues to pass unchallenged. An unparalleled financial revulsion had recently swept over the civilized world. It was the duty of our rulers to have been among the first to descry the coming storm, whereas they seem to have been among the last, if we may judge from the dispositions taken by the present Secretary of the Treasury in buying up on its eve the bonds of the Government at exorbi- tant premiums. Powerless to avert, they confessed themselves equally incompetent to remedy, the disasters which have befallen the trade and industry of the country. While the Naval Appropriation Bill was before the Chamber, a spirited debate sprang up on the motion of Senator Mallory, who reported from the Naval Committee an amendment author- izing the construction of ten steamships. Senator Bell endorsed the amendment, believing, ever since the acquisition of posses- sions on the Pacific, that the Navy should be increased. He is strongly in favor of a Pacific Railroad. He argued that it now costs the Government more than two millions of dollars per annum to convey the mails to California by the pre- sent routes, while the expenses of the army on our remote Western frontiers amounted during the last year to ten millions of dollars ; and there was every prospect that our army would be needed in that quarter. He therefore thought ten millions, as proposed by Senator Davis, of Mississippi, too small a quota for the Government to contribute to the enterprise. Seven years ago, he had said that a hundred and fifty millions were not too much; and he was of the same opinion still. He intro- duced an amendment authorizing the Secretary of the Interior JOHN BELL. 55 to advertise for proposals to construct three routes, a Northern, a Southern, and a Central, leaving Congress at a subsequent day to choose between them. He particularly remarked on the singular fact that those who doubt the propriety of building a Pacific Railroad, because of their constitutional scruples, uncon- sciously adopt, in advocating the acquisition of Cuba, the same line of argument which is held to be so unsound when urged by the friends of the railroad. If it was lawful and proper to ac- quire Cuba because that island was necessary to the military defences and commercial aggrandizement of the country, why was it inadmissible to employ the same reasons in advocacy of the Pacific Railroad ? On putting it to a vote, the amendment was rejected ; but, having been subsequently renewed by Senator Simmons, it was passed. The right of Congress to donate lands for the purpose of founding agricultural colleges being questioned by several lead- ing Senators, Mr. Bell could see no difference between the con- stitutional power of Congress to pass such a bill and that exer- cised in the case of the numerous grants made to the several States for the purpose of aiding in the construction of internal improvements. Such is an outline of Mr. Bell's career and opinions. Of the character of his usefulness and ability, the "National Intelli- gencer" of March 7, 1859, in announcing the expiration of his Senatorial term, said, "We are sure that we do but give utterance to the voice of a large portion not only of the people of Tennessee, but of the country at large, when we say that the withdrawal of the Hon. John Bell from the body which he has so long instructed by the wisdom of his counsels and adorned by the dignity of his demeanor deserves to be regarded as a serious loss to t,he public service. Uniting to habits of patient study those cardinal qualities of mind which constitute the conservative statesman, he had, moreover, acquired, by his long services in different branches of the Government, an experience which fitted him in a sin- gular degree for the high functions he has lately discharged with so much credit to himself and usefulness to the counti'y. It is to be hoped that his withdrawal from public life will prove only temporary, and that our National Councils may still share in the benefits to be derived from the signal ability he brings to the discussion of all great public mea- 56 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. sures. That ability has been sufficiently illustrated in the able speeches he has delivered on the topics of political concern which have occupied the attention of Congress during the last few years; and we venture to express the hope that a selection from his Senatorial efforts on great questions of State policy may be gathered into a permanent form, as we are sure they would compare favorably with similar productions of the leading statesmen who have shed lustre on our Parliamentary annals." JOHN M. BOTTS. 57 JOHN M. BOTTS, OF VIRGINIA. JOHN MINOR BOTTS was born in Dumfries, Prince William County, Virginia, on the 16th of September, 1802. His father, Benjamin Botts, was the youngest man engaged in the defence of Aaron Burr, and was then already eminent at the bar. His specialty was courage, nerve, the " bravest of all possible men," I have heard him described by a contemporary. Losing his parents at the early age of nine, by the memorable conflagration of the Richmond Theatre, in December, 1811, young Botts, then but a child, was left to his own care. He attended various schools until the age of eighteen years, and acquired a knowledge of Greek, Latin, French, and mathematics. He then studied law, entirely under his own direction, and was licensed to practise the profes- sion after a six-weeks' acquaintance with it, a feat which it is claimed but one other achieved, and that one the immortal orator of the Revolution, Patrick Henry.* * After devoting himself for six years to the practice of the law in Richmond, he became dissatisfied with the confinement it imposed. Purchasing a farm in Henrico County, in 1828, he tu ;ned his attention to agriculture, and in a few years became famous for producing the largest crops, acre for acre, of any farmer in the county. While turning the soil, he did not allow his political sympa- thies to stagnate. It is recorded that he was the twelfth anti- Jackson man in Henrico in 1828, and that he was then seized with the desire and intention of revolutionizing the political sen- timent of the county, formidable as it was. Five years after, the fruit of his labor and enthusiasm in the Whig cause was * A large portion of this sketch is adopted almost verbatim from material fur- nished by a capable gentkmuu, who is intimately acquainted with the subject. 58 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. manifested in his return to the State Legislature, (1833,) it. which he sat, by successive re-elections, until 1839 ; and in the latter year he received the nomination of the Whigs for Con- gress in a district which had never elected any other than a Democrat since John Marshall* had represented it. Mr. Botts being regarded as the only adversary whom the Democrats had reason to fear, they selected for his opponent the most popular man of their party in the district, who resigned an official position he then held in the State, and took the stump against Mr. Botts, under the assurance that, if defeated, he should be placed in a better situation in Washington than that he relinquished. In this contest Mr. Botts succeeded, by the handsome majority of over 200 votes ! In 1841, he was again triumphantly elected to Congress over the Hon. Wm. H. Roane, whose term in the United States Senate had just expired. In 1843 the State was re-apportioned and the districts very much enlarged. The Democrats had a large majority in the Legislature, who avowed that their purpose in enlarging the Richmond district was to make it as 'Democratic as possible, in order to defeat Mr. Botts in the future. They, therefore, struck off two of the four Whig counties that had been represented by him, and added three others, two of which were very largely Democratic, and the other about equally divided. This made the Democratic majority between five and six hundred in the district ] but, fearing this might not thoroughly effect their pur- pose, they proposed to attach another Democratic county to it, which then gave 350 majority, and which was publicly pro- claimed on the floor of the Legislature to be the " cap-stone" upon Mr. Botts's political grave, from which he could never rise. His opponent was John W. Jones, afterward Speaker of the House, a gentleman whose great personal and political popu- larity promised a majority of 1000 votes. In addition to this disadvantage, Mr. Botts had but six weeks to canvass the district. His courage, however, not only did not fail, but received a vital fervor from the odds against him. He met his opponent face to face wherever and whenever possible. He arraigned the Demo- cratic party, and especially the Democratic Legislature, for the * Afterward the celebrated Chief Justice, and biographer of Washington. JOHN M. BOTTS. 59 injustice and wrong done to all the rest of tlie State by its de- sign to punish him for his fidelity to those principles which he believed essential to the welfare of his country. When the elec- tion took place, the Democrats were astounded to find their anti- cipations of a majority dwindled down to 32 votes. A convic- tion resting on the minds of some that Mr. Botts was actually elected, a public meeting was held, by the voice of which he contested the seat. The Democrats were as powerful in the House of Representatives as in the Legislature of Virginia. In order, therefore, to avoid the possibility of defeat, they re- sorted to the extraordinary expedient of electing Jones Speaker of the House, with the contested election hanging over him. Mr. Cave Johnson moved a resolution requiring the committee to which the case was referred to consist of six Democrats and three Whigs, instead of five to four, as had been the uniform custom up to that period. When, at last, Mr. Botts forced this committee into action, and they found from the investigation that there was serious reason to fear for the safety of the Speaker, they reported against him before having gone through one-third of the evidence. When it came before the House, the same ap- prehension was manifested. The hour-rule was applied, and no entreaty on the part of the Whigs could induce the Democrats to extend the time, so as to allow him to expose the corrupt course the House and committee had pursued toward him.* He went home and took the stump for Mr. Clay, and by his almost unaided efforts he succeeded in revolutionizing the district, which gave that great patriot a majority of about 250. In 1845, just after the defeat of Mr. Clay, the most unpa- ralleled apathy seemed to possess the Whigs over the whole country, the result of which was the Democracy in Congress obtained a majority of 80 in the House of Representatives. Mr. Botts was again unanimously nominated by his party for Con- gress. Mr. Jones declined a re-election, declaring on the floor of Congress that he would rather run against any twenty-five men in the district than meet Mr. Botts. Mr. Sedden, a stran- ger in the district, was elected, " for the simple reason that the * " Ilancock," in the " New York Express," July, 1859. 60 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. loss of JMr. Clay's election had carried dismay into every Whig heart, and it was impossible at that time to rally." The confidence of the party in Mr. Botts was, however, in- creased j and, in 1847, he was again unanimously called into the contest, and, to the great delight of the Whig party through- out the State and country, he was re-elected to Congress by a majority of 596 votes. Thus was the " cap-stone" removed, and the dead restored triumphantly to life in the short space of two terms. While Mr. Botts was removing obstructions almost insurmount- able, no competitor appeared before him ; but his friuniph brought many aspirants forward, all anxious to have him set aside, that their chances for the succession might be equalized. That oppor- tunity was presented in the year 1848, in the memorable contest between the friends of Mr. Clay and Gen. Taylor. The State of Virginia declared in convention for Gen. Taylor, when it was known that the party in the State were for Mr. Clay. Mr. Botts adhered to the fortunes of Mr. Clay until the action of the Phila- delphia Convention destroyed the last hope of success. Mortified and grieved by what he considered the folly of the proceeding, as well as the injustice done to the founder of the Whig party, he was slow in coming to the support of Gen. Taylor. But at last he did, and made a speech at Vauxhall Garden, in the city of New York, when, at the request of Mr. Clay himself, he withdrew his name, and urged the numerous Clay organizations in the State to surrender their favorite and rally upon Gen. Taylor. This they did, and thus secured the vote of New York, and the election of Gen. Taylor, as was admitted by the "New York Herald", at the time. The speech of Mr. Botts on that occa- sion made a profound impression upon the thousands who lis- tened to him, and a visible emotion seemed to thrill every heart. As Mr. Botts closed his speech, the supporters of Gen. Taylor gave vent to their exultation, which the friends of Mr. Clay could not then hear without pain, and they demonstrated their displeasure by hisses. Mr. Botts reminded them of what was staked upon the result, and urged them to be magnanimous. The " New York Tribune" immediately hauled down the Clay banner, and next morning ran up Gen. Taylor's colors, a course which was soon followed by all the Clay adherents in that State. JOHN M. BOTTS. 61 Those who were secretly opposed to Botts in Virginia managed to get a " Taylor" man in the field for Congress, and by that means the district which Mr. Botts had won from the Democracy fell back to it. His defeat, however, still served to show his popularity among the Whigs. In a three-days' contest the Taylor candidate received but 317 votes, those of Mr. Botts amounting to 2500. In 1851, he was again unanimously called by the convention of his district to take the field. He reluctantly obeyed. But, satisfied that the causes of the dissensions in 1848 were not yet entirely removed, he subsequently declined the nomination and invited the convention to choose another candidate, the election having been postponed from May to October. The convention re-assembled and insisted that he should run. Mr. Botts has been fourteen times, by party conventions, placed before the people, and triumphantly elected ten times out of the fourteen. And when defeated, it took the whole power of the Legislature to overcome him, aided by the lower House of Congress ; and then, like Mr. Clay in 1840 and 1843, he was beaten by his own household, whom he had so faithfully served in every trying contest. Since 1851, Mr. Botts has positively refused to allow his name to be presented as a candidate for any office in the State. His career has been singularly consistent and fearless in the advocacy of what he deemed the best and broadest views of statesmanship. Soon after the Southern Democracy had changed its issue from the tariff to the Slavery question, the Abolitionists at the North began to petition Congress against slavery. This led to the passage of the twenty-first rule, forbidding the recep- tion of such petitions. The denial of this right aroused universal indignation at the North, and the petitions increased a hundred- fold. The North resolved upon the abrogation of the rule, and the South threatened a bloody dissolution of the Union as the consequence of its repeal. Mr. Botts came boldly forward and advocated its removal; while a storm of denunciation from friend and foe was poured upon him from every quarter of the South. He saw clearly the necessity of the abrogation, and he defied all injurious constructions placed upon his motives, and persevered until tiie obnoxious rule was rescinded. The wisdom of his con- 6 62 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. elusions was manifested at the next session of Congress, when but six Abolition petitions were offered, instead of about six thou- sand, as at the previous session. Mr. Botts's defence of John Quincy Adams and his disruption with President Tyler, with whom he had been on terms of pecu- liar intimacy, are cited by his friends as striking evidences of his characteristic reliance on and advocacy of sterling principle. In both instances he almost stood alone ; and it is the boast of, his admirers that Southern opinion, then so fiercely opposed to him, now concedes him all credit for the motives which prompted his action. To his course in the Tyler case, even Mr. Clay hesi- tated to yield his approval; but Mr. Botts stood* firm. He was compelled to stem the torrent of an almost universal opinion ; but he did not falter. In his own party he found no support. The Cabinet condemned him, the press censured him, Congress blamed him. " Still, solitary and alone, he agitated public opi- nion, and in a few weeks he had thoroughly transformed it." In the House of Representatives, where at first Mr. Botts had not one supporter, one hundred and nineteen eventually joined him in a severe rebuke of the President, and eighty-nine voted to im- peach Mr. Tyler, as the highest possible measure of national condemnation. In September, 1853, Mr. Botts was invited by the venerable Ex-Chief-Justice Hornblower, Hon. A. C. M. Pennington, Wil- liam E. Robinson, D. T. Clark, and several other leading Whigs, to a public dinner at Newark, New Jersey. It resulted in a flattering success. On every side were to be seen those who had battled through good and evil report, in storm and sun- shine, for the success of the Whig cause. In proposing the health of the guest, Mr. Pennington said he was " a Whig who has been ever faithful and ever true, a man who, whether in success or defeat, in storm or sunshine, in glory or in gloom, has ever stood by the Whig party, a man, I may add, who is a Whig because he loves the Whig party, and not because he wishes to profit by it. He comes from the good old State of Virginia, a State said to be the mother of Presidents. She certainly has been the mother of statesmen, and, not the least of them, of him in whose honor I rise to propose this sentiment. Our guest, Hon. John Minor Botts, of Virginia, independent JOHN M. BOTTS. 63 in his opinions and fearless in advocating them : the Whig party are proud of him as a champion of the good old "Whig cause." In reply, Mr. Botts made a lengthy speech, exposing the "spurious Democracy/' and arguing that the Whig party still existed. " If dead," said he, " it died on the 3d of November, 1852 ; and on that day it recorded one million three hundred and eighty-five thousand true, genuine, undismayed Whig votes, such a vote as was never given before for that or any other party since the foundation of the Government ; and it only required about thirty-five thousand votes, properly distributed, to have secured success to its candidate." In relation to himself, he said he was tired of political life, and would never again seek public station. If, however, services were demanded of him in a posi- tion where he could uphold the position of the people against the power of the politicians and selfish office-seekers of the land, he would obey the call. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill is another striking exemplification of the characteristic qualities of Mr. Botts. From the moment that question was mooted, it seemed to find unqualified approval in the Southern mind. Not a Southern Senator in Congress opposed that bill, but either enthusiastically supported it, or re- mained silent. Every Southern member of the House followed the same, programme. Every Southern paper either lauded or said nothing. Every petty orator and politician declared that the bill was the only thing to save Kansas to the South. It was at this period that Mr. Botts came out with his letters of utter con- demnation. The result of this course again brought upon his head the united animadversion of the people. The press and politicians south of Mason and Dixon's line denounced his oppo- sition to the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, without regard to party dis- tinction. Almost every paper condemned him ; and the Whig and Democratic journals seemed for a time to vie with each other in the measure of abuse showered upon him. About this period, certain distinguished gentlemen of the Whig party called upon the editors of an influential paper and tabooed the further issue of his mischievous letters in their columns. As time passed on, Mr. Botts not only refused to recant his views, but reiterated his abhorrence of this "popular Baal;" and the popular clamor against him was lashed into fury. Whig papers essayed to 64 " LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. expel him from the party. Democratic editors were ecstatic in indignation at his " traitorous proceedings ;" and Henry A. Wise proposed to hang him in the summer of 1856. But all this never had the slightest effect toward causing Mr. Botts to recede from a single position he had assumed. One of Mr. Botts's most telling public addresses was that delivered at the African Church in Richmond, on the 8th of August, 1856. In it he vindicated his past action, and, among other points, traced the history of the Missouri Compro- mise, and showed what were its fruits, by whom they were en- joyed, and what had been the effect of its repeal. It was not, said he, as has been commonly stated, a measure imposed upon the South by the North. It was proposed on the part of the South to the North, " that if you will allow us you being in the majority, and having the control if you will permit us to carry slavery up to the line of 36 30', we will pledge ourselves not to attempt to carry slavery beyond 36 30'." They said, " We will allow every State south of 36 30', that chooses, to adopt slavery or reject it as they please; but if they apply for admission, as Missouri has done, as Slave States, then you shall make no objection to their admission because they recognise slavery." Thus, the South, with a few Northern votes, carried the measure. It was voted for by twenty out of the twenty -two Southern Senators in Congress. Macon, of North Carolina, and Smith, of South Carolina, were the only Southern Senators who voted against it. In the House it passed by 134 to 42 ; forty Southern Representatives voting for, and thirty-seven voting against, it. The history of that day will show it to have been a great Southern triumph. The repeal of it he held to be a cunning device to reopen agitation on the Slavery question, and, in a cir- cumstantial series of statements, he essayed to show that the De- mocratic party never sanctioned any thing that would produce peace and harmony } that it was their intention to agitate and keep up agitation on the subject, and provoke resistance to the Eugitive-Slave Law. In the same year, a committee of the American party of Rich- mond addressed the Americans of the Union, recommending Mr. Botts for the Presidency, as an honest, true, courageous, pure, and able man, one who had been so pronounced by Mar- JOHN M. BOTTS. 65 shall, Gallatin, Webster, and Clay. " We are aware," said the authors of the Address, "that our candidate is not Wxthout ene- mies bitter and vindictive, but, we trust, impotent, enemies at home and abroad. We are aware that among the most bitter and vindictive of these are men of our own State and city. But in this position he stands not alone. Everett, in Massachusetts, Fillmore and Dickinson, in New York, Cass, in Michigan, Bu- chanan, in Pennsylvania, Wise and Hunter, of Virginia, and Houston, of Texas, have, in the vicinity of their own homes, men of their own party equally bitter." On Washington's Birthday, 1859, Mr. Botts addressed the Order of United Americans in the Academy of Music, New York. His speech, which drew down high encomiums from his party, is a continuation of his previous expositions of the Demo- cracy. It was especially severe on the Administration of Mr. Buchanan and the complications arising from the attempted en- forcement of its chief measures, such as the Lecompton-Kansas affair, the Loan Bill, the Thirty-Million Cuba Bill, the Mormon War, and the difficulties with the Central American States. He only less condemned the "Black Republicans," and, alluding to the "Americans," denied that it was proposed to interfere with the subject of religion or the religious worship of any por- tion of the people of the United States. The Order was not, and never had been, mixed up with any question relating to the Church ; and the other organizations sought nothing more than resistance to any union of Church and State. Their purpose was to permit no ecclesiastical order to govern the civil authority, nor force any particular religion upon the people by legal enactment, and to oppose the exclusion of the Bible from the common schools. "For my own part, [to use the words of Mr. Botts,] I should be more than willing that every foreigner now upon our shores, or arriving here within any given future day, within a limited period, should be allowed to go at once to the proper tribunal, and by declaring his intention, upon oath, to become a permanent citizen, take the oath of fidelity to the United States, and become at once invested with every civil and religious privilege enjoyed by a native citizen ; but I would withhold from him all political power, and let him wait patiently until his children, raised under republican institutions, nursed, as it were, by the milk of liberty from its mother's breast, should stand forth and claim, as we do now, that he has E 6* 66 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. rights and privileges at home that do not belong to every travelling vagrant that, from charity, he might choose to take into his household to protect from want and cold." On the question of protection to naturalized citizens, which sprung up in the summer of this year, (1859,) Mr. Botts came out in a most emphatic manner, arguing in favor of a thorough protection, inasmuch as the naturalized citizen, by the form pre- scribed by the Constitution of the United States, withdraws all allegiance to foreign Governments. He did not dispute that there was an international European law which does not recog- nise the right of expatriation. Operating ' among those who recognise it, that law was fair and equal, because mutual and reciprocal ; but that the United States had no voice or agency in establishing that international law, and that this Government has always repudiated and condemned it, and refused to be go- verned by it, was equally indisputable. It was not necessary to go beyond the Constitution itself to prove it by the authority there given to Congress to establish a uniform rule of naturaliza- tion, which, under the international code denying the right of expatriation, could not have been authorized or justified. Such is a succinct view of the opinions of Mr. Botts. That they meet with favor from a large and respectable portion of his fellow-citizens is undeniable. He has been recently recom- mended by several meetings at leading places, including New York, Brooklyn, and Richmond, as the candidate of the Opposi- tion party for the next Presidency. Few gentlemen in public life have had more bitter enemies or warmer friends. In ap- pearance he is portly, in manners blunt, but courteous, and his talents are of a positive and eloquent character. JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 67 JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE, OF KENTUCKY. THE most fortunate gentleman connected with politics in our country is certainly the young statesman whose name I have just written. I say fortunate, in a sense complimentary to the nation as well as to him; for it is rare to find a man of his talents and capacity so profoundly appreciated at so early a period of life. John Adams was fifty-four years old when elected to the Vice- Presidency; Jefferson, fifty-three; Aaron Burr, forty-four; George Clinton, sixty-five ; Elbridge Gerry, sixty-nine ; Daniel D. Tompkins, forty-three; John C. Calhoun, forty-three; Mar- tin Van Buren, fifty; Richard M. Johnson, fifty-seven; John Tyler, fifty-one ; George M. Dallas, fifty-three ; Millard Fillmore, forty-eight; William B. King, sixty-six; while the subject of this sketch was elected to the high office he now holds at the age of thirty-five. He is by far the youngest of the most prominent men in the country, and it is with no little pride that his State and his friends throughout the United States may point to that fact. The man whose career inspires such reliance that it can meet, as his has safely done, the rivalry of more experienced cele- brities, and harmonize all into an approving satisfaction at his elevation, has achieved that which in our day and nation is one of the highest testimonies to his capacity and merits. The man whom the assembled wisdom of the Democracy agreed to elevate to the second place in the nation is a man to be judged not by his years, but by his suitableness to the age in which he lives. In this connection, it is a noteworthy fact that the two young- est of the really prominent men of the Democratic or any other party Messrs. Breckinridge, and Orr, of South Carolina at the same time presided over the two Houses of the National Legislature. John C. Breckinridge is a native of Kentucky, and was born 68 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. near Lexington, January 16, 1821. He received his education at Centre College, enjoyed the benefits of some months at Prince- ton, and, after going through the requisite law-studies at Tran- sylvania Institute, was admitted to the bar at Lexington. Hoping to find a fruitful field in which to sow his knowledge, he emigrated to the Northwest, but, after something less than a couple of years spent in Burlington, Iowa, he returned to his native State, and took up his abode at Lexington, where he still resides. He entered immediately on the practice of his profes- sion, and met with a well-merited success. The trump of war, however, excited the military ardor of our young Kentuckian, and the result was creditable service as a major of infantry during the Mexican War. He also distin- guished himself as the counsel for Major-General Pillow in the celebrated court-martial of that officer. On the return of Major Breckinridge from Mexico, he was elected to the Kentucky Legislature, and created so favorable an impression as a legislator that he was elected to Congress from the Ashland District, and, being re-elected, held his seat from 1851 to 1855. It was not long before the name of Mr. Breckinridge was in the mouths, so to speak, of all reading people. It is not so far back but that his difference with the " Democratic Review" is familiar to most readers; but the high station attained by Mr. Breckinridge since, makes it imperative to record as matter of history the occasion which gave him his first prominence. The " Democratic Review" for January, 1852, burst upon the political world with a startling fury. Old jog-trot politicians were aghast. Canvassing the question of the Presidency, so soon to come up, the Review said that, while the fathers of the people personally lived, it was an easy task to select the candidate most worthy of success and most certain of attaining it. Now it was somewhat different. Looking at the defeat of the Demo- cracy, in 1848, after the brilliant Denfttcratic administration of Polk, it believed that "if it were impossible for the old politi- cians, the surviving lieutenants of the days of Jackson, to agree, in 1848, on the election of a candidate, it was ten times more impossible for them to agree on the nomination of any one of JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 69 be well if they could agree, thought the Review, for they had had a the control of the destinies of the country and the party, but, by lack of statesmanship, lack of temper, lack of dis- cretion, and, most of all, by lack of progress, they brought into our ranks discord and dissension; and the party they received united, strong, and far in advance, they left a wreck a mutinous wreck struggling in the slough of questions settled by the federal compact of the United States/' To meet the exigencies of the times, the Review advocated and announced a new gene- ration of statesmen, not trammelled with the ideas of an anterior era, men who would bring not only young blood, but young ideas, to the councils of the Republic.* Mr. Breckinridge was in favor of progress, liked young blood and young ideas, but objected to the course of the Review. The Review had been most extensively circulated : indeed, no Re- view in America, before or since, made any such sensation as the <( Democratic" did in 1852. t( Politicians were in a nervous fever in the breathing-time from month to month, between congratu- lating themselves on not having been noticed in the last number, and fear of being scarified in the next, The newspapers were eager to get an early copy, to extend the obituary of some decapi- tated ' Fogy/ or contradict the rumor that the f Democratic Review' had killed him. Being always in a rage itself, the Review soon created a like feeling in the public : it became the rage. Comic papers caricatured its writers, and revivified its victims into ludicrous notoriety; comic versifiers squibbed on its suggestions; leading journals, all over the country, poured out praise and denunciation with equal heartiness; and the 'wise heads of Congress even took to criticizing and debating on its merits and men."f Deeming that the article in question was generally considered "an attack upon almost every man in the Democratic party whose name had been mentioned in connection with the Presidency," Mr. Breckinridge felt bound to notice it in the House. The February number followed up the denun- * See article "Eighteen-Fifty-Two and the Presidency." Dem. Review, Jan. 1852. Written by the late Thomas Devin Reilly. f See Memoir of Thomas Devin Reilly, by John Savage, in " '98 and '48," p. 373. 70 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. ciatory promises and premises of the January issue, and gave the gentleman from Kentucky still further grounds of objection, es- pecially as General Butler, of Kentucky, had been described by name as an "old fogy." In March, he bitterly and boldly reviewed the reviewer, and denounced the publication and its conductors, as attempting to promote particular interests by traducing the most honored names in the ranks of the Democracy. It was conceived by some prominent men and journals that Mr. Breckinridge's speech was an indirect attack on Judge Douglas, he being the only prominent man not assailed by the Democratic Review. Mr. Breckinridge also rather implied that the Review was the organ of the Senator from Illinois, and that it was for that reason he was exempted from denunciation in its pages. Hon. Mr. Rich- ardson authoritatively denied that Douglas had any connection with the publication; and Hon. E. C. Marshall, of California,- made a very vigorous reply to the gentleman from Kentucky, in defence of the Review, " a periodical in which he felt no spe- cial interest, except in so far as it was ably edited." The Review continued to create great anxiety among the poli- ticians and newspapers, and, in view of the debate in Congress, placed both Messrs. Marshall and Breckinridge on record in its pages, the former in a very fine steel-plate portrait, and the latter in an equally elaborate, but tantalizing, review of his speech. The newspapers taking up the debate in Congress, and reviewing the Review, bestowed upon Mr. Breckinridge a large share of notice in the discussion of the affair. The prominence thus derived, other circumstances helped to sustain. Introducing (on the 30th of June, 1852) the resolutions of respect to the memory of Henry Clay, who had died the day previous, Mr. Breckinridge laid the fulness of his young heart on the grave of the great Kentuckian, in whom " intellect, per- son, eloquence, and courage united to form a character fit to command." Standing by that grave, and with the memories of the great dead about him, "the mere legerdemain of politics" appeared contemptible to him. What a reproach was Clay's life on the false policy which would trifle with a great and upright people ! " If I were to write his epitaph," said Breckinridge, JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 71 " I would inscribe, as the highest eulogy, on the stone which shall mark his resting-place, < Here lies a man who was in the public service for fifty years, and never attempted to deceive his coun- trymen.' " In the Thirty-Second Congress, Mr. Breckinridge was instru- mental in securing an appropriation for the completion of a cemetery near the city of Mexico, in which the remains of the American officers and soldiers who fell in battle or otherwise in or near the city of Mexico should be interred. He also favored an appropriation for a weekly mail with the Pacific, and advo- cated putting these contracts out to the lowest bidder. Though Mr. Breckinridge did not seek to be constantly before the House, he took a very distinguished position, and sometimes in debate was sharp and effective. Hon. Mr. Giddings, in the course of a speech (16th of March, 1852) on the Compromise Measures and Fugitive-Slave Law, denied that the Federal Government had power to pass laws by which "to compel our oflicers and people to seize and carry back fugitive slaves." Mr. Breckinridge briefly pushed him into an enunciation of his most extreme doctrines, and then said, "Against the impotent ravings of his baffled fanaticism I place the plain words of the Constitution. To his coarse and offensive language I have no reply." Again, toward the close of the discussion about the " Democra- tic Review/' Mr. Cartter asked him some questions about that periodical, when Breckiuridge retorted, " I did not suppose the gentleman from Ohio would omit a favorable opportunity to ring himself into the debate, and say something which might go upon the record." This turned the laughter of the House on the gentleman from Ohio, who did not get an answer to his inquiry. With the debate on the Nebraska Bill, in March, 1854, Thirty-Third Congress, Mr. Breckinridge's name is intimately woven. It was during this discussion that his difficulty with the Hon. Mr. Cutting, of New York, took place. On the 21st of March, Mr. Richardson, desiring to reach the Nebraska Bill, heretofore reported by him, moved the House to go into Com- mittee of the Whole on the State of the Union. After some slight discussion, this motion was lost. Having proceeded with the business on the Speaker's table, several smali bills were taken 72 LIVING REPRESEN'IATIVE MEN. up and referred, and the Nebraska Bill reached by title. Much feeling was manifested, and all seemed to regard this as a crisis. Mr. Richardson and Mr. Cutting rose together. The former moved to refer to the Committee on Territories ; the latter moved to refer to the Committee of the Whole on the Union. The Speaker recognised the member from Illinois, and the member from New York raised a point of order. Richardson said his purpose was to amend the bill, and that Cutting's course would kill it. Mr. Cutting persisted in his motion, and supported it by a speech, disclaiming any disrespect to Mr. Richardson as Chair- man of the Committee on Territories, and stating that it was understood that that committee had already discussed and elabo- rated the subject. He was opposed to putting it again through the circuitous mode of referring it to them, and having it on the Speaker's table as it was to-day. The North was in a state of civil insurrection since the introduction of the bill; and he thought it was a time, not for parliamentary tactics, which give rise to suspicion, but for full, frank, and manly discussion. He was in vain appealed to : he would not withdraw ; and, his motion being passed, he clinched the vote by moving to recon- sider, and then laying the motion on the table. Mr. Millson, of Virginia, having brought up the Nebraska matter in a discussion on the Indian Appropriation Bill, on the 23d, was followed by Mr. Hunt, of Louisiana, "two enemies of the bill" having precipitated the debate on the House. Mr. Breckinridge entered the lists in a memorable speech, in which he strongly stigmatized the course of Mr Cutting. " The gentle- man may be for the bill," said he, " but his voice is that of an enemy." He warned the friends of the measure from following the member from New York, whose course would kill it; and preferred to have a score of open enemies than a professed friend who struck in the manner he did. On the 27th, Mr. Cutting replied at great length to the impu- tations thrown out by Mr. Breckinridge, when, the latter retort- ing, a scene of great excitement took place. The difficulty was carried out of the House, and for some days public curiosity was aroused at the prospect of a duel, the preparatory steps for such a settlement having been taken. On the 3 1st, however, Mr. Preston informed the House that Mr. Cutting had left the mat- JOHN C. BRECK1NRIDGE. 78 ter in the hands of Colonel Monroe, of New York, and General Shields, United States Senator from Illinois, and Mr. Breckin- ridge had referred to Colonel Hawkins, of Kentucky, and him- self, (Mr. P. ;) and he was authorized to state that a settlement had been effected mutually satisfactory and honorable to both parties. On the part of both gentlemen he also offered an apo- logy for any violation of the rules of the House which had taken place in the excitement of debate. Tn Mr. Breckinridge's speech of the 23d, he declared himself in favor of perfect non-intervention, and said that he would not vote for the bill if it proposed to legislate slavery into Nebraska and Kansas. " The right to establish," said he, " involves the correlative right to prohibit; and, denying both, I would vote for neither. I go further, and express the opinion that a clause legislating slavery into those Territories would not command one Southern vote in this House." Alluding to the restriction of 1820, and its inconsistency with the Compromise of 1850, he said the effect of the repeal of the former was " neither to esta- blish nor to exclude, but to leave the future condition of the Territories dependent wholly upon the action of the inhabitants, subject only to such limitations as the Federal Constitution may impose." "Sir," he said, in continuation, " I care nothing about refined distinc- tions or the subtleties of verbal criticism. I repeat the broad and plain proposition, that if Congress may intervene on this subject it may inter- vene on any other; and having thus surrendered the principle, and broken away from constitutional limitations, you are driven into the very lap of arbitrary power. By this doctrine you may erect a despotism under the American system. The whole theory is a libel on our institutions. It carries us back to the abhorrent principles of British colonial authority, against which we made the issue of Independence. I have never acqui- esced in this odious claim, and will not believe that it can abide the test of public scrutiny." In recognition of Mr. Breckinridge's identification with the views of the Administration, President Pierce tendered to him the mission to Spain ; but the honor was respectfully declined, family matters compelling Mr. Breckinridge to this course. He was a delegate to the Cincinnati Convention in June, 1856. After the nomination of Buchanan for the Presidency, several names were offered for the second office, among others, that of 7 74 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. John C. Breckinridge, proposed by the Louisiana delegation, through General J. L. Lewis. Acknowledging the flattering manifestation of good will, Mr. Breckinridge begged that his name would be withdrawn. On the first ballot, however, the Vermont delegation, through Mr. Smalley, believing that no Democrat has a right to refuse his services when his country calls, cast its five votes for Breckinridge. Many other States followed, and of the total he received fifty-one votes, second on the list, and only eight under the first, General Quitman. On the second ballot, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont led off for Breckinridge ; Massachusetts followed with eleven out of thirteen votes; llhode Island followed with her four; then the New York " Softs" gave him eighteen. Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia voting in the same way, it became quite obvious that he was the choice of the body; and though several of the remaining States voted for other candidates, they quickly, one by one, changed their votes, the several delegates making neat and appropriate speeches in announcing the change. The names of other candidates were withdrawn, and the whole poll went for John C. Breckinridge, at which the Convention rose, and with waving of handkerchiefs and the loudest vocal demonstrations directed its attention upon the tall and graceful delegate from Kentucky, who had been so unexpectedly nomi- nated for so exalted a post. It was long before the demonstra- tions subsided so as to allow a word to be heard. At last, the commanding figure of Mr. Breckinridge stood fronting the mighty triumph. It certainly was a time to try a young man. He spoke briefly and becomingly. The result just announced was unexpected, and his profound gratitude was without words. He gave the Convention the simple thanks of a true heart; and, expressing his appreciation of their first choice, and linking his humble name with that of the tried statesman of Pennsylvania, cordially endorsed the platform, and sat down amid the booming of cannon and the vociferous applause of the multitude outside breaking in upon and almost overpowering the loud cheers within the hall. Three days after this exciting and gratifying scene, his neigh- bors gathered to congratulate him at Lexington, and he then, in an address to them, reiterated the views of his Nebraska-Kansas JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 75 speech and the platform upon which he was placed before the people. "The whole power," said he, "of the Democratic organization is pledged to the following propositions : That Congress shall not interpose upon this subject in the States, in the Territories, or in the District of Columbia; that the people of each Territory shall determine the question for themselves, and be admitted into the Union upon a footing of perfect equality with the original States, without discrimination on account of the allowance or prohibition of slavery." He was elected Vice-President, having received 173 Electoral votes, being 59 over William L. Dayton, the Republican candi- date for the same office. Thus, at the age of thirty-five, he had served his country abroad, had been a legislator in his State and in the National Legislature, had been tendered the representa- tion of the Republic in Europe, and elevated to the second office in the gift of the people. Truly might the lines of the poet be applied to him : " He is almost sunk Beneath the weight of trusts and offices Not merely offer'd, but imposed upon him."* As President of the United States Senate, he took the chair of that eminent body early in the first session of the Thirty- Fifth Congress, December, 1857, and, with some intermission, caused by the illness of his family, presided during that stormy session. At Florence, Kentucky, on the 24th of July, 1858, the Vice- President, then being in rustication in his own State, attended, by invitation, a meeting of his fellow-citizens, and addressed them in an eloquent speech on the topics of the day. He defended the Administration against the charge of extravagance, showing that the "Americans" and "Republicans," who clamored so much about extravagance, were the very parties that attempted in the previous session to add several millions to the budget; that the extravagant and objectionable appropriations were made by a " Republican'" House, and that the only resistance made against them was by Democrats. He reviewed the Slavery question up * Goldsmith of Padua : a Drama; by Thomas S. Donoho, Washington, D.C., 1858. 76 LIVING. REPRESENTATIVE MEN. to 1820, when intervention against Slave States commenced, followed with a rehearsal of the Wilmot Proviso movement, and the reaction that followed, expressing the belief that the people of Kentucky had not appreciated the scope and force of the Anti-Slavery movement, which was broadening and deepening at the North. He showed them how the Slavery question had killed the old Whig party, an organization that was bold, open, gallant, full of pluck and fire; how the American party had died, partly of the same issue, and partly of an inherent weakness in its constitution, and thought that the gentlemen who caused the death of the last party left afloat in Kentucky would and should become Democrats, to enable the State to cope with the Repub- licans. It was impossible to remain neutral. The Democratic party was not a destructive but a conservative party, based upon the Constitution, and the rights of citizens and States. It alone had survived the agitation, and was now vital, untamable, and unconquerable. The speech gave great satisfaction. In the great struggle in Illinois between Senator Douglas and the Republicans and seceders from the Democracy, the Vice- President sympathized with the former. Though he did not endorse the course of Senator Douglas in the session of Congress then recently closed, on the Lecompton question, he sympathized with him, and desired his success, " being the leader of the De- mocracy of Illinois in their present fight against Black Repub- licanism." On the removal of the Senate from the old and time-honored chamber, which had been the scene of so many great events of American history, to the new one, the Yice-President made a feeling address. He gave an historical outline of the exigencies to which Congress was put in its early days, holding its sessions, as the chances of war required, at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Lan- caster, Annapolis, and Yorktown, and, during the period between the conclusion of peace and the establishment of the present Government, at Princeton, Annapolis, Trenton, and New York. He followed with a history of the choice of the present locality, the foundation of the city, the building of the Capitol, and the onward career of our legislature, with suggestive memorials of the great men who had made the place they were leaving im- mortal. It was a chaste and suitable farewell to the old chamber, JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 77 and will be treasured among the archives recounting its dear old memories. In the recent (August) election in Kentucky, a majority of the members of both branches of the Legislature were returned favorable to the election of the Vice-President to the United States Senate, as successor to the Hon. John J. Crittenden, whose term expires in 1862.* After such a record, it is needless to dwell upon the popularity or merits of the man ; or to commend the appreciation which has thus carried out the recommendation in favor of an infusion into our political life of some young blood and intellect. * Mr. Breckinriclge has since been elected Senator by twenty-nine majority, on joint ballot of the Kentucky Legislature. 78 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. ALBERT G. BROWN, OF MISSISSIPPI. SOUTH CAROLINA has the honor of his birth, and the future historian of that State will have to credit the Chester District with at least one more name on its list of eminent men;* for in that district, and on the 31st of May, 1813, Albert Gallatin Brown was born. The granite region of his birth, not less than the sturdy stock which dwell there,f seem to have lent their characteristics of stability and fervor to the future career of the legislator. When Albert was about ten years old, his father, Joseph Brown, emigrated to Mississippi, and settled in what is now Copiah Count}-. He went into the woods and wilderness, not to mend but to make his fortune. One of the first to disturb the solitudes, for the pur- pose of pointing out to his boys a pathway to competency, com- fort, and civilization, the elder Brown surmounted the difficulties of the new locality, overcame the hardships of poverty and the lack of those aids which make the tangled forest a smiling farm as if by magic, and after a few years of stern industry and economy be- held the fair fortune he had labored to propitiate. During this period the boys Edwin and Albert were not idle, but to the ability of their strength helped to open the farm. The young pioneer, the subject of this sketch, was a bright and active boy. "It was his business to mind the stock, work a little on # Mills, in his "Statistics of South Carolina," under the head of "Eminent Men" of Chester District, gives one name, that of Colonel Lacy, who so highly distinguished himself at the battles of Hanging Rock, King's Mountain, and Blackstocks. f "The settlement of this part of the country was as early as 1750, principally by emigrants from Pennsylvania and Virginia; after the peace of Paris, in 1763, n considerable accession of emigrants from Ireland took place, which increased for several years ; so that the major part of the inhabitants of this district may be said to be descended from the Irish." R. MILLS. ALBERT G. BROWN. 79 the farm, go to mill on Saturday, and attend school occasionally, when there was nothing else to do/' This course of life not only strengthened the limbs, but expanded the mind, of the boy. It is, no doubt, owing to his recollections of this era, and to the lessons imparted by the experience of his family, that Mr. Brown, as a legislator, has ever been an earnest advocate of the Homestead Bill. Nearly thirty years after his farmer-boy expe- riences and his Saturday mill-journeys, he said, in the House of Representatives, " I claim to have been among the earliest, as I have certainly been among the most steadfast, friends of the wise and humane policy of providing homes for the homeless." As poverty retreated before the energy of the Browns, Albert's love for books unfolded itself, and the youth received such en- couragement and rough trimming as the neighboring frontier schools could give, the mill-journeys and farm- work, however, claiming his first attention in time of need. In February, 1829, he was sent to a school known as Mississippi College, under the management of Rev. D. Comfort. Three years' residence here endeared him to his classmates, and especially to his teacher, to whose parental care and counsel Mr. Brown, with gratitude, refers, as having placed him on the road to distinction and fortune. In the winter of 1832, he was transferred to Jefferson College, where he remained but six months, hoping to enter on a regular collegiate course at Princeton or Yale, a hope never fulfilled, the resources of his father on the one hand, and his numerous family on the other, not warranting the outlay. Disappointed, but not despond- ent, he went to the village of Gallatin, made an arrangement with E. G. Peyton, a lawyer of high standing, and the next day commenced the study of the law. Thus, at the age of nineteen, Albert G. Brown has closed his accounts with the academies and opened one with the world. In less than a year, Mr. Brown stood an examination before the Supreme Court of the State, and was admitted, being then scarcely twenty years old, the bench omitting to put the question, i{ Are you twenty-one ?" Having undergone a course of military training at Jefferson College, his county elected him a colonel of militia on his return therefrom, and the next year he was chosen brigadier-general of militia. In the autumn of 1833, Mr. Brown commenced the practice of his profession. It cannot be said that 80 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. success followed him : it was immediate, and kept up with him. His personal popularity at once gave himself and others confidence in "his position and powers, and placed him honor- ably among the oldest and most distinguished gentlemen at the bar. In October, 1835, Mr. Brown was married to a Virginia lady of worth and accomplishments, Elizabeth Frances Taliaferro, who, however, survived but five months. A month after his marriage he entered upon his political career. His very first step displays the extent to which he had won fhe popular affection. It was a stirring time in Mississippi politics, and the competition for seats in the Legislature may be imagined, when it is stated that for the three seats to which Copiah County was entitled there were nine candidates, nearly all of whom were on the same side, that is, Democrats, or, as they were then called, "Jack- son men." In this melee the opposition of candidates to young Brown was energetic. Those looking to the future did not like to give him a step in advance. His youth was brought against him; but, that being a weak invention in the face of his already great success, a stronger argument was sought in the alleged unsoundness of his political views, the foundation for this being the attachment of his father to the old Federal school. The election came off, and Brown was sent to the Legislature, being second on the list, and leading the third member for the county by 75 votes. This settled the matter of his youth and his poli- tics; and his conduct in the Legislature so completely determined the question of his capacity that he was chosen Speaker pro tern., to fill a vacancy, and at the next election he was returned with- out a struggle. About this time, Governor Lynch, first and last Whig Governor of Mississippi, entering in a message into an elaborate argu- ment in favor of a National Bank, recommended the Legislature to give an opinion on the subject. Mr. Brown was chairman of the committee to which it was referred, and his report took strong ground against the bank, inasmuch as, first, " the Government of the United States has no constitutional right to charter a National Bank;" and as, secondly, "it is inexpedient and improper to charter such an institution at this time, even if Congress had the constitutional right to do so." After reviewing the unconstitu- ALBERT G. BROWX. 81 tionality of the proposition, he replied to the arguments of its friends. If the bank did not render labor more valuable, what was its use to the working-man ? But when, on the contrary, the redundancy of paper-money swelled the value of every horse, plough, harrow, and all the articles for field-use or home-con- sumption needed by the laborer, then, said Mr. Brown's Report, " Then we find it is an institution which, instead of lightening the poor man's toils, in fact levies a heavy contribution upon the wages of his industry. It is an institution which makes the weak weaker and the potent more powerful, even niching from the poor man's hand to replenish the rich man's purse. Your committee have mistaken the duties of legislators, if it is their province to guard over the peculiar interests of the speculator and the gambler, who live by the patronage of banks, to the detriment and ruin of the honest yeomen, whose toils have raised our happy Republic from a few dependent colonies to the highest pinnacle of national fame ; causing Indian wigwams to give place to splendid cities, and the whole wilderness to bloom and blossom as the rose." These bold and vigorous views attracted wide-spread comment at the time, being as warmly defended by the anti-bank journals as bitterly denounced by the opposite side. Mr. Brown's faith in the principles of his now famous Report was soon and unex- pectedly put to the test. In the autumn of 1838, the pecuni- ary panic in Mississippi afforded the alert bank party a chance to create a reaction. Taking advantage of the excitement, and of Mr. Brown's absence from the State, they succeeded in getting up written instructions requiring him to vote for a United States Senator favorable to the bank, or resign. Mr. Brown promptly ac- cepted the alternative, and resigned; but as promptly presented himself to fill the vacancy caused by his resignation, although 750 out of 900 voters had signed the instructions. This was a bold course, but quite characteristic of Mr. Brown's faith in the people. He told the people he should not feel contented in his seat if they no longer desired him, but he should like to know their determination through the ballot-box, and wound up a brief and manly address to them by saying, " All I ask is a free conference with the people. Come, sit ye down, and let us reason together." It was a coup d'itat. He was returned by about 150 votes over the bank candidate. The effect of so direct a course, and the ability with which the 82 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. canvass was conducted, was not lost on the Democracy of the State. It was impossible to overlook either; and the result was that the Democratic State Convention, which met soon after, una- nimously nominated the young victor for Congress. Now his energies were doubled, and all that he could muster were needed. The Whigs had had it all their own way at previous elections, and the bank interest was in its meridian in Mississippi. He was met, step by step, with all the resources of the ascendant party; but Brown, proud of his past, and feeling that he must sustain it, went gallantly on, accompanied by his colleague, Mr. Jacob Thompson, the present Secretary of the Interior; and by the time of election November, 1839 the friends had met and held open discussion with the leaders of the other side in nearly every corner of the State. The result was another coup d'etat. The whole Democratic ticket was elected by an average majority of 3000, Mr. Brown leading the Congressional ticket by several hundred votes. Thus has the whilom bright boy who gave a helping hand to the farm and went to the mill on Satur- days raised himself, in a very few years, to the front of his party in the State, and into a seat in the National Councils, at the early age of twenty-five. The career of Mr. Brown in the State Legislature is said to have been brilliant and useful. It can only be known by its fruits ; for in those days, unfortunately for the political history of the State, no reports of debates were kept by the Legislature of Mississippi. "A record of these debates would exhibit in relief, admirable and bold, the political forecast of General Brown."* He took his seat in the United States House of Representa- tives, December, 1839, and during his first term preferred chiefly, in his own words, " to listen to the views of other gentlemen than to present any of his own." He was not silent, however; and, when he did speak, he effectively supported the measures in * Democratic Review, Nov. 1849, vol. xxv. p. 459. "Speeches, Messages, and other Writings of Hon. Albert G. Brown, Senator in Congress from Missis- sippi. Edited by M. W. Cluskey, Postmaster of the House of Representatives of the U.S.:" Phil. 1859. The volume contains the memoir from the Dem. Rev., with additions by the editor. To it the present writer is indebted for many useful references. ALBERT G. BROWN. 83 advocacy of which he had won his laurels, and to sustain which he had pledged himself. His effort of the session was a full and fervid review of Mr. Van Buren's Administration, and an equally zealous and keen dissection of the Whigs and their measures generally. He was especially severe on the National Bank. Instead of giving up the powers of Government to be exercised by an invisible moneyed aristocracy in the form of a National Bank, he proposed to give them to the President of the United States, " whether he be William Henry Harrison or Martin Van Buren, or even, sir, in the language of Mr. Clay, if it be Thomas H. Benton, Amos Kendall, Francis P. Blair, or the Devil." In reply to the cry of the Opposition, that such powers would constitute the President a king, he said, "If we are to have any king or tyrant in this country, I want that he inny be a living, creeping thing, something that I may see, that I may feel, into whose face I can look, and upon whose brow I can place my burning curses, as he binds about these uncaptive limbs the fetters of despotism, and not a soulless, unfeeling corporation, an invisible, intangible, and immaterial thing, a thing not responsible to man on earth, or God in heaven." To the cry of " economy and retrenchment/' he replied that he was for both, but he spurned them at the expense of national honor. "If," said he, "the disease, the extravagance, the profligacy of which you speak exist in the War Department, go there with your remedy; if in the Navy, go there ; and if in the Treasury or Post-Office, go there. But do not, I pray you, stretch the Government on the Procrustean bed, and, under pretence of curing a diseased part, cut off a leg on this side and an arm on that, until you have so mutilated its fair proportions that it withers and dies, or hobbles out a miserable existence, ' the pity of its friends and the scorn of its enemies.' " With telling irony he reviewed the "Whig sins," and, in anticipation of the Presidential election, dealt some hard blows at the candidate of that party, and its inconsistency in adopting him. " Of General Jackson it was said that it were better that war, pestilence, and famine should visit the country, than that a military chieftain should be chosen to ride over it. And yet," said Brown, " by the same men we are exhorted to vote for General Harrison because he is a military chieftain.' ' He concluded this exceedingly effective speech by dignified 84. LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN allusions to Webster and Clay, with whom he had no sentiment in common, but whom, as Americans, he was proud to honor, and by a striking and more passionate tribute to the genius and patriotism of Calhoun. I have dwelt on this speech; for it was, to a great extent, the platform on which Mr. Brown presented himself, not alone to his State, but to the Union, and that upon which he entered with his accustomed vigor into the Presidential contest. " Many of his speeches were remarkable specimens of stump oratory ; and, though they failed to carry the State under the weight of Mr. Van Buren's name, they did not fail to add greatly to General Brown's character as a speaker." On the 12th of January, 1841, Mr. Brown contracted mar- riage for the second time, the lady being Miss Koberta E. Young, youngest daughter of the late General Robert Young, of Alexandria, Va. Taking fresh cares upon himself, and his personal interests having been neglected, Mr. Brown declined a re-nomination to Congress. He felt confidence, however, in the Democracy of his State; he felt that the defeat was but temporary; and the elec- tions in November, 1841, sustained his views. Though barely eli- gible, on account of his youth, he was elected a Judge of the Circuit Court, men of every shade of opinion supporting him; so that his distinguished competitor, Judge Willis, was beaten by nearly three votes to one. Serving as Judge for two years, he resigned upon accepting the nomination for Governor. For this position he again being just thirty years old was barely eligible, ac- cording to the Constitution of Mississippi. The Gubernatorial campaign was conducted on the " Union Bank Bond' 7 controversy, which grew out of "a difference of opinion in regard to the State's liability to pay a class of bonds issued in her name/' Judge Brown held that the people should not pay them by taxa- tion, as they were issued in violation of the Constitution. He had two competitors in the field, one Colonel Williams an ex-United States Senator from that State, and an independent bond-paying Democrat, and Mr. Clayton, the regular Whig nominee. The fight was a great one, but just such as Judge Brown could desire. The odds seemed greatly against him ; but it is enough to say he was elected, beating both competitors together by 2300 votes. ALBERT G. BROWN. 85 As Governor during two terms, his administration was for- tunate and memorable. His triumphant election put an end to controversies that had greatly delayed internal progress. When he entered upon his office, the State officials were paid in paper called "Auditor's warrants," then depreciated fifty to fifty-five per cent. ; at the end of two years the warrants were at par with specie. He found the treasury bankrupt ; and at the close of his second term he left in it a surplus of several hundred thousand dollars. The cause of education and the establishment of the common- school system commanded his most zealous advocacy ; and, though not completely carried out by the Legislature, his recom- mendations had most healthful results. Under his direction, the State University was set in motion j and so fruitful in other re- spects was his first term that at its close no one would enter the field against him. His second term being about to close, Go- vernor Brown was, without opposition, elected for the Fourth Congressional District. When he took his seat, in the latter part of January, 1849, the House of Representatives was in the midst of the excitement growing out of the Mexican War. He defended the war. He admitted that the annexation of Texas caused it, although Mexico had no right to complain of the annexation. Daniel Webster had said that, after the events of 1836 and the battle of San Jacinto, Mexico had no right to regard Texas as one of her provinces ; that it must be fairly admitted that Texas was by this and foreign countries acknowledged to be an independent State among the States of the earth j and that he therefore would not admit that Mexico had any cause of complaint. Governor Brown gave a vivid history of the growth and cause of the war, and scornfully held up the Opposition, who refused to raise money to carry it on by a loan, an issue of treasury-notes, and a duty on tea and coffee. He thought the logic and sympathy of Mr. Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, Mr. Smith, of Indiana, Mr. Marsh, of Vermont, and others, strange and incomprehensible. They would tax the poor man's hat, shoes, shirt, plough, axe, every thing, in fact, for the benefit of the manufacturer; but their sympathetic hearts would not permit them to tax his tea and coffee to support their Government in a war. 8 86 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. " You would," he cried, addressing the Opposition, "send him shoeless, hatless, shirtless, to cultivate his ground without implements, unless he pays tribute to the manufacturers ; only give him tea that is not taxed, and you are satisfied. You would lay his diseased body on a pallet that is taxed ; give him taxed medicine from a spoon that is taxed ; give him untaxed tea in a cup that is taxed ; he dies, and you tax his winding- sheet, and consign him to a grave that is dug with a spade that is taxed, and then insult his memory by saying that you gave him un- taxed tea. . . . For me and my people, we go for the country. We wi-ite on our banner, 'Millions for defence, but not one cent for tribute.' " From that time to the present, Governor Brown has been a prominent member of Congress, increasing in strength and influ- ence, and giving his opinions and counsel on all the leading topics which have agitated our political world. He was in favor of the Bounty-Land Bill, believing that if any class of the public servants are better entitled than another to the special regard of the law-making and bounty-dispensing power of Govern- ment, it is the soldiers. He has no objection to the Government selling land to those who are able to pay for it, at a moderate price; but he protests against "national land-jobbing/' To his mind " there is a national nobility in a republic's looking to the comfort, convenience, and happiness of its people ; there is a national meanness in a republic's selling a poor man's home to his rich neighbor because that neighbor can pay a better price for it." In the discussion of the Cuba question, in 1853, Governor Brown very markedly denned his position relative to the acqui- sition of that island. A strong reason for the acquisition was that it would result in the instantaneous abolition of the foreign slave-trade. He desired an outlet for slavery, because he desired its extension, beholding in such extension " safety to the South and no harm to the rest of the Union." Rhode Island, Massa- chusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania "were slave-holding States ; but they sent their slaves South and sold them, and then boasted of making their States free." Virginia, Maryland, and the border States were undergoing the same process. The slave population was multiplying rapidly ; and, said Governor Brown, "when they have become profitless or troublesome, we, too, want a South to which we can send them. We want it; we cannot do without it ; and we mean to have it." At the close of the Thirty-Third Congress, Governor Brown ALBERT G. BROWN. 87 desired to retire to private life and his profession ; but his State demanded his presence in a still higher position. The Legisla- ture elected him a United States Senator, a vacancy occurring from the failure of the previous Legislature to elect a successor to Senator Walter Brooke, whose term expired in 1853. He took his seat as Senator on January 26, 1854. Governor Brown voted for the Kansas Bill in the Senate of the United States in May, 1854, although he expressed himself not entirely satisfied with it. He respected the Constitution more than a compromise, and, as he said, acquiesced in the Compro- mise of 1850, just as we all did in the Compromise of 1820, without approving it; and in February, 1858, supporting the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, he said, " I accepted the Compromise of 1854, I say, reluctantly in the beginning; but, having accepted it, I made up my mind, as a man of honor, to abide by it." He voted for the so-called Eng- lish Bill, desiring " to see this question settled on the terms pro- posed," although he did not like the terms. He believed, how- ever, the bill had a tendency to heal pending difficulties, and give peace, to some extent, to the country. In 1855, an expression of Senator Brown's views in reference to the American party having been invited by J. S. Morris, Esq., editor of the Port Gibson Reveille, the result was the " Letter against Know-Nothingism," in which the Senator from Missis- sippi reviewed the new organization, and most eloquently and emphatically denounced it as tending to revive the worst charac- teristics of the Jacobins, the S tar-Chamber, and the Inquisition. The effort to excuse secrecy by citing the example of Free Ma- sons and Odd-Fellows, Senator Brown showed to be weak and futile, for " things to be compared must have some sort of resem- blance to each other. Free Mason and Odd-Fellow associations are purely charitable ; Know-Nothings are exclusively political. We have the highest Christian example for dispensing charities in secret, but the same authority teaches us to govern openly." The next paragraph is the index to the spirit and tone of the whole letter : "I am American enough to prefer my own countrymen to any other, nnd Protestant enough to prefer a follower of Luther to a disciple of Loyola. But my love of country will forever keep me out of any asso- 88 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. elation that (if fame speaks truly) binds its members by terrible oaths to sustain American Protestants for office, though they maybe fools, knaves, or traitors, in preference to Irish or German Catholics, though they may have genius, honor, and the highest evidences of patriotic devotion to our country a-nd our institutions. All other things being equal, I should certainly prefer an American Protestant to an Irish Catholic. But I will take no oath, nor come under any party obligation, that may compel me to sustain a fool or a knave in preference to a man of sense and honor. While I assume no censorship over other men's thoughts or actions, I am free to say, for myself alone, that such oaths and such obligations are, to my mind, palpably at war with man's highest aud most sacred duty to his country." Senator Brown lias declared himself in favor of the abolition of the franking-privilege. Touching the Pacific Railroad, he doubts the constitutionality of its being done by Congress, "unless there be direct and immediate necessity" for it as a means of national defence, and he believed (January, 1859) that no such necessity existed. He believes in the protection of slavery in the Terri- tories, on the basis of the Dred Scott decision by the Supreme Court, that slaves were property, and that slaveholders had the same right to carry their slave property to the Territories that any other citizen from any other State had to carry any other kind of property ; and that, when there, the Government should protect it. In the running discussion consequent upon his speech on this subject, (February 23, 1859,) and in reply to interroga- tories from Northern Senators, Senator Brown declared that he utterly, totally, entirely, persistently, and consistently repudiated the whole doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty, by which, said he, " I mean Territorial Sovereignty. I utterly deny that there is any sovereignty in a Territory." Senator Brown is very much beloved by his State, and the great secret which is no secret of his success and influence is the direct and energetic manner in which he carries out what seems right and just. His speeches strongly partake of those characteristics which have led him to the front rank of Southern statesmen, a prompt eloquence and a disregard for policy when " weighed against conviction. The following passage, concluding his speech at Hazlehurst, Mississippi, in September, 1858, on his return from the exciting scenes of the first session of the Thirty- Fifth Congress, may fitly conclude this personal and political sketch : t ALBERT G. BROWN. 89 "I have no silly aspirations for the Presidency, and therefore have no occasion to suspect that my judgment has been warped by ambition. I am ambitious, but my ambition does not lead me toward the Presidency. That is the road to apostasy : I would rather be the independent Senator that I am, and speak for Mississippi, than be President, and be subject to the call of every demagogue and compelled to speak for a heterogeneous mass with as many opinions as the rainbow has hues. Whenever the South can no longer rely on the National Democracy, and feels that the time has come for her to go it alone, I will stand for her if she can find no son more worthy of her confidence. But I never will consent to compromise my principles, or flatter Free-Soilers for their votes. When it comes to that, I stand out." One of Governor Brown's biographers, before quoted, says, As a Senator he has been eminently national in his course. If to the casual observer he has sometimes appeared a little sec- tional, it must be borne in mind that he comes from the South, a section against which Abolition has directed its batteries, and that it was his duty, as it was his pleasure, to defend that section. Senator Brown was re-elected for six years, commencing March 1 of the present year, (1859.) 8* 90 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. SIMON CAMERON, OF PENNSYLVANIA. IT is one of the happiest results of our institutions, that none can claim respect or command public confidence on account of parentage. No prominent position can be gained by inheritance : every man must, so to speak, be his own father. The history of Simon Cameron is an illustration of this fact. He is one of the large number of our public men who, besides the disadvantage of early orphanage, have had to struggle against poverty and ob- scurity. All he is he has made himself. Descended from the hardy Cameronians of Scotland, the sub- ject of this sketch possesses many of the acute and persistent characteristics of his race. His great-grandfather, Donald Came- ron, was among those who sided with the unfortunate but chi- valrous Charles Edward. He took part in the famous battle of Culloden in 1746, and soon after that disastrous fight emigrated to America. Arriving here, he served in the army, and was present at the storming of the Heights of Abraham, at Quebec, under the gallant Wolfe. On the maternal side his grandfather was a German Huguenot, who, being subjected to religious perse- cution, sought in this country that toleration which he could not find at home. He soon actively engaged in the service oi his adopted country, took a distinguished part in the Indian wars of those days, and became the intimate friend and compa- nion of the famous Captain Sam Brady, whose great achieve- ments as an Indian fighter are so well known. The father of Senator Cameron was in an humble occupation, but had the reputation of being an honest, industrious, highly-in- tellectual, and much-respected citizen. In consequence of the financial revulsions about the beginning of the present century, he was overwhelmed in ruin, in the crowding shadow of which he sank into the grave, leaving his family in very destitute cimimstances. SIMON CAMERON. 91 / At the death of his father, which occurred in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron was about nine years old, having been born in 1799, at Lancaster in the same State. Thus de- prived of their natural guardian and protector, and left in a state of almost absolute destitution, it was impossible for the children to enjoy even the poor advantages of the then existing system of school-education. The mother, though possessed of great energy and a courage the most unfaltering, had more than enough to do to feed and clothe and keep together her little ones until they might be able to provide for themselves. Discouraging and un propitious as were these dismal circum- stances, they had no disheartening effect or influence on the mind of Simon ; on the contrary, they stimulated him to exer- tions proportionate to the obstacles to be overcome. He thirsted for knowledge, and, having once found the way to satisfy this growing appetite, spent, from his boyhood, every leisure moment in reading. He soon devoured every thing in the shape of a book he met with, and, there being then no well-furnished libraries accessible to boys, as there are now, he directed his attention to the village printing-office. The exchange newspapers contained a mine of information, and from it he determined to dig out the jewels. The knowledge to be obtained in this was of a useful and practical character, and he eagerly devoted himself to its acquisition. An opportunity offering, he apprenticed himself to the printer, and for a couple of years enjoyed the benefits of his position. At that time (in 1817) his employer succumbed to financial reverses and closed his establishment. Having arrived at the age of eighteen, and acquired a good stock of practical knowledge, he was emboldened to commence life with a confident reliance upon himself. Almost penniless, and with a little bundle of clothing under his arm, the youth started out, with the intention of working his way how, or in what manner, he hardly ventured to imagine to South America, and joining in the struggle for independence which was then going on between the South American colonies and Old Spain. His intention was frustrated. When he reached Harrisburg, he found his feet so blistered, and his energies so exhausted, that he could proceed no farther, at least for several days. To sub- sist during this period, was the next consideration. Having a 1)2 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. letter of introduction to James Peacock, Esq., editor of a paper in the town, Cameron applied to that gentleman for employ me nt. There was no vacancy; but Mr. Peacock kindly offered him a place for a few days, to enable him to recruit. This was all the young man desired ; but the editor, finding him an expert work- man, and being otherwise pleased with his demeanor, offered to take him as an apprentice in the printing-office, which was promptly accepted. Thus our young hero settled down to "sticking type" instead of sticking the Spaniards; and so fulfilled the terms of his apprenticeship. Having arrived at his majority in 1820, Mr. Cameron left Harrisburg, and spent the greater part of that year in a printing- office at Doylestown. The next year he was employed as a journey- man printer in the office of Messrs. Gales & Beaton's " National Intelligencer," in the city of Washington. In 1822 he returned to Harrisburg, and entered into partnership with his former em- ployer, Mr. Peacock, in the publication of the "Intelligencer" of that place, which was then the organ of the Democratic party at the Pennsylvania seat of government, and enjoyed the official patronage of the State Administration. Thus has the graduate of the printing-office placed his foot firmly on the ladder of fortune. With what skill and ability he performed the important duty he thus assumed, his success in the undertaking, and his rapid rise to influence and power in the State, will sufficiently demon- strate. He took a very active part in the contest for the Gubernatorial nomination of the Democratic party in 1823, and was mainly instrumental in dominating and electing John Andrew Shultz. In return, Governor Shultz appointed Mr. Cameron Adjutant-General of the State. While he had editorial charge of the " Intelligencer," he efficiently advocated the protection of American industry. During the memorable contests in Congress on the subject in 1823-24, and again in 1827-28, the columns of his paper were filled with articles "proving the Democratic cha- racter of a tariff for the protection of American labor, and show- ing that no nation ever flourished that did not encourage and protect its own labor and develop its own resources." Relinquishing the charge of the " Intelligencer," General Ca- meron turned his attention to business matters. In 1832, the Middletown Bank was established. He then became, and still SIMON CAMERON. 93 continues to be, its principal officer. Though chiefly occupied for the next thirteen years in his banking-business, he ever took a lively interest and active part in the political movements of the day. During this period, he was repeatedly urged to be a candi- date for public position, and on one occasion was unanimously nominated for Congress by the Democratic party of his district, but on all occasions declined the proffered honors. In 1845, when James K. Polk, the President elect, tendered the State Department to Mr. Buchanan, and the latter gentleman resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States, an election to supply the vacancy became necessary. The* Democratic party, having a majority in both branches of the Legislature, then in session, counted with confidence on selecting a Senator who would sustain the new Administration at Washington. But it became apparent, even before the President was installed in office, that the policy of the Administration would conflict with the position of Pennsylvania on the Tariff question. Great difficulty arose in the caucus of the Democratic members. A majority were dis- posed to nominate a Senator who would sustain the National Ad- ministration; while a minority were determined to refuse anyone not pledged to the industrial interests of Pennsylvania. After much discussion, George W. Woodward finally became the caucus nominee, which was regarded by all as a Free Trade triumph in the State, and rendered it certain that some other Democrat, known to be devoted to the Tariff policy of the State, could be elected by a union of the Whigs and the Protection Democrats. In view of this condition of affairs, Ja"mcs Cooper, John P. San- derson, Jasper E.Brady, Levi Kline, John C. Kunkel, and other Whig members of the Legislature, on the morning of the day fixed for the election, addressed a note to General Cameron, pro- pounding certain queries as to his views on the subject of the Tariff, and the course he would pursue if elected Senator. In reply, Mr. Cameron said, "I have long since matured and avowed my opinions. During the recent Presidential election, the Tariff of 1842 was much discussed. The Democratic party of this State took a decided stand in favor of this measure. The leading interests of the State are involved in its preser- vation. The people, without distinction of party, concur in desiring that its provisions should remain unaltered, and regard any attempt to 94 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. change them as hazardous to the interests of American industry. Sup- ported by the Democratic party of the State in my views, and feeling the importance of the measure to Pennsylvania, I have no hesitation in de- claring that I am in favor of the Tariff of 1842 ; and, if elected to the Senate of the United States, I will sustain it without change. " The amount received into the Treasury from the public lands will not, for many years, be of much importance. Whether the proceeds of such sales should be distributed among the States, is a question that, in my opinion, will not for a long period be of much practical moment. The public lands are held in trust, however, for the benefit of all the States. In my apprehension, the best application that this State can make of her share in that trust would be its employment in the discharge of the State debts. I am, therefore, in favor of the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, and, if elected, will support that measure." These views being satisfactory, the Whigs and the Americans then representing the county of Philadelphia went into the Convention determined to support him in case he should receive a sufficient number of Democratic votes with this to secure his election. On the first ballot, Judge Woodward received 54 votes, being 13 less than a majority; Cameron received 11 votes, all De- mocratic. On the fifth, Cameron received 67, and Woodward 55 votes; 6, scattering. This unexpected result greatly distracted the Democracy, but proved a death-blow to the further progress of Free Trade in the State, and led to the overwhelming defeat of that party in the State elections of 1846. General Cameron took his seat in the Senate, and occupied it until the 4th of March, 1849. During the term of his service, he distinguished himself as an active business member, and in consequence wielded a personal influence not surpassed by that of any other Senator. It is claimed by his friends that he not only remained true to the great interests of the State and the principles upon which he was elected, but that he fearlessly reflected, by his speeches and votes, the sentiments of the industrial classes, "whose rights and interests were about to be sacrificed/' In 1855 the Whigs and Americans having united in the fall of 1854 and elected a Governor and secured both branches of the Legislature Senator Cameron became the caucus nominee for re-election. Owing, however, to internal feuds and divisions among the majority, the election was postponed, and finally held SIMON CAMERON. 95 over until the succeeding session of the Legislature, when, the Democrats meanwhile having obtained a majority, Ex-Governor Bigler was elected to the United States Senate. In the session which opened January 1, 1857, Mr. Cameron was the nominee of the entire Opposition for the vacancy to occur by the expiration of Senator Brodhead's term on the 4th of March. The Democratic caucus, with great confidence, nomi- nated John "YV. Forney, Esq.; but internal divisions in that party rendered it impossible to unite a sufficient number of Demo- cratic members to elect him. The result was, Mr. Cameron was elected for a second term, and took his seat in the Senate on the 4th of March, 1857. As a member of the Committees on Finance and Printing, his great practical qualifications and habits have secured him an enviable influence in all matters of legislation. Though reared in the Democratic ranks, he has been all his life the constant and devoted advocate of Protection. His position may be gleaned from a speech delivered by him in the Senate in July, 1846. He then felt proud of being a Democrat and the son of a Demo- crat. He represented a Democratic State, and he objected to the mode of filing principles on the party. "I was taught in early life," said he, "to believe that the Democratic party was the friend of the poor, of the laboring-classes j that its principles were calculated to elevate the masses; but the principles of this Southern Democracy would rob the poor man of his labor and make him dependent on the capitalists of England for his scanty subsistence. Such was not the doctrine of such Democrats as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, or Jackson." In the same speech he defined his position and that of his State. Pennsylvania was deeply interested in the development of her resources and in fostering the industry of her citizens. She had expended more than $150,000,000 in making those resources available. She had expended more blood and treasure in two wars, and for the common defence, than any other State in the Union. She had never asked any favors from the Union, and had received but little benefit from it: even the fort built for tlie defence of her city, with the money of her own citizens, had been suffered to fall into decay by the General Government. Sbo was proverbially Democratic, so much so that no Democratic 96 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. President was ever elected without her vote : nay, she never gave a vote against a Democratic candidate until she believed that there was a settled design to desert her dearly-cherished rights. He was astonished that she should be charged with a want of Demo- cracy because she opposed the bill before the Senate, (the Tariff Bill of 1846.) From one end of her domain to the other she did oppose it: and he justified her; for, so far as she was con- cerned, the bill could produce evil, and evil only. "No man/' he said, " has ever presumed to ask her favor without admitting the justice and propriety of her views upon this subject; and I may add, Mr. President, woe betide the man who raises his hand against her now in the hour of her extremity." During this month of July, Senator Cameron had presented several petitions from counties in Pennsylvania against removing the duties on coal, imports, &c. On the 23d, after the presenta- tion of some others in the same strain, Senator Cameron dwelt on the fact that they came from counties which had given Demo- cratic majorities. Senator Sevier, of Arkansas, said he regretted to find the Senator from Pennsylvania engaged in " panic- making;" but, said he, to do justice to the Senator, he (Mr. S.) was bound to admit that he did it with a pleasant smile, as though it was all a first-rate joke. A good deal had been said about coincidences; and there certainly was something like a coincidence in what was going on then. On the meeting of the Senate every day, first they had prayers by the Chaplain, then the reading of the Journal, and next an hour and a half consumed in the recital of a sort of funeral dirge from the pensioners of Pennsylvania. He had sat quietly and patiently while all that was going on, because the Senator himself appeared to think the whole thing a good joke. Was there, he asked, an intelligent man in Pennsyl- vania who at the last Presidential election did not know per- fectly well what were the opinions of Mr. Polk in regard to the Tariff? Was there a single individual who did not then know that Mr. Polk was a Free-Trade man ? Mr. Archer, of Virginia, said, " They thought him a better Tariff man than Mr. Clay: that's all;" and, after some further remarks from Mr. Sevier, Senator Cameron replied. He always smiled when his friend the Senator from Ar- kansas addressed the Senate on this subject. His wit was so SIMON CAMERON. 97 irresistible that it excited his risibilities, no matter how solemn the mood in which it found him. But he could not per- mit his friend to charge his State, or her citizens, with being dependants or pensioners on the Government. They were not^ like Arkansas, or other States that he could name, constantly appealing to Congress for aid from the Treasury ; for whose bene* fit some twenty bills were now on our files, asking for aid ; and for whose benefit we had been called upon only yesterday for some $50,000, without even a voucher, except that the money had been drawn for and expended. Alluding to some quotations made by Senator Sevier from previous remarks, Cameron said injustice had been done him. He did not say that a single person in Pennsylvania controlled 900 workmen. The workmen of that State were not controlled by their employers : they were freemen, and they could stand erect before their God, without being con- trolled by any one. The Senator from Arkansas had much mis- taken the character of these petitioners when he compared them to the slave laborers of the South, as he did when he said that " laborers were the same everywhere." The laborers of Penn- sylvania were white men; they were freemen; they were intelli- gent men ; and they asked no favors from the Government but to be let alone in the enjoyment of their labor. The Senator from Arkansas had charged the Senator from Pennsylvania with acting on this question with Mr. Webster. Mr. Cameron admitted that on this question they were together, and reminded Mr. Sevier what seemed to have escaped his memory that he (Sevier) and the Senator from Massachusetts had stood shoulder to shoulder on a question which was perhaps of still greater magnitude than this; which dismembered the nation ; which took from this country and gave to Great Britain several degrees of latitude in the Oregon country. He wished his friend to reconcile that coalition before he charged other Senators with acting in the company of Whigs. As for himself, he was acting with the Democracy of his own State; and he de- sired to learn no new Democracy from gentlemen who compared his laboring fellow-citizens with the negro laborers of the South. A rumor was abroad about this time that letters had been re- ceived from Pennsylvania advising the repeal of the Tariff of 1842. Senator Cameron denounced the writers -if any letters G 9 95 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. had been written as men who would barter principle for office. He had heard, also, that the bill then pending was to become a law by the casting vote of the Vice-President, Mr. Dallas. Cameron denied it, saying it could not be that "a native Penn- sylvanian, honored with the trust and -confidence of his fellow- citizens, could prove recreant to that trust, and dishonor the State that gave him birth. His honorable name, and the connection of his ancestry with her history, forbid it. His own public acts and written sentiments forbid it." "Truly national in his principles, views, and feelings," writes John P. Sanderson, Esq., of Philadelphia, to me,* " General Cameron has yet never been so forgetful of the rights of freo labor as to lend himself to its surrender to appease the aggressive spirit of slavery. Nor would he, on the other hand, lend himself to the infringement or violation of any constitutional rights of those enjoying the benefits of slave labor. He is no extremist on any subject. Schooled in the political creed of the Demo- cratic party of Pennsylvania when it had for its main pillars such men as Simon Snyder, William Findlay, Abner Lacock, and their like, he has consistently maintained the principles of those great men." On the Slavery question, his friends claim for him the same position "which John Sergeant, James Buchanan, and other eminent men held in 1820, and have held until the introduction into Congress of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill by Senator Douglas." Recognising all the compromises of the Constitution, and willing to concede to the South all the rights he thinks guaranteed by them, "he cannot and will not lend himself -to slavery beyond the requirements of those compromises." He recognises the power of the Federal Government to restrict slavery within its present limits, and deems it expedient to exercise that power if need be. During the Mexican War, though acting generally with the party in power, he voted for the Wilmot Proviso. Senator Cameron opposed the Lecompton Constitution, and participated in the famous debate thereon in March, 1858. At * Mr. Sanderson was one of the members of the Pennsylvania Legislature to whom Mr. Cameron owed his first election to the Senate. From him I have received valuable materials for this sketch. SIMON CAMERON. 99 one of the night sessions of that memorable debate, quite a scene took place, which gave rise to much newspaper gossip and expec- tation. Late in the night of the 14th of March, Mr. Green, the Senator from Missouri, who had charge of the Leconipton Bill, desired to perfect the last amendment he had to offer, and call a vote. Cameron objected to this hurry. He said he had striven to conciliate the opposite side, until he was disgusted. " Who is the gentleman from Missouri," he asked, "that he should dictate terms to us ? Is he any thing more than our peer ? He is cer- tainly not the commander of the Senate. What right has he to come and say the question shall be taken now, or to-morrow, or any other day? This bill, I believe, came up here on the 18th of February. On the 20th, his side adjourned the Senate over until Tuesday of the next week, to attend a political pageant in the State of Virginia."* Mr. Green denied the truth of this statement, and recrimina- tions were speedy and mutual. The Vice-President interfered. Both Senators strove to speak, but the Vice-President called both to order. Though restrained, they were not silent, and, in the heat of debate, Cameron said Green told an "untruth;" and Green retorted by calling Cameron "a liar." Of course this created great excitement. Order having been restored, Mr, Cameron begged pardon of the Senate, avowed himself responsible to the Senator from Missouri for what he had said, and repeated that the whole matter before the Chamber had been carried out in a dictatorial and improper manner. In reply, Mr. Green denied that he arrogated to himself any superiority or command not properly belonging to him. He was merely the organ of a committee, and the responsible agent of the party on the question. The Senate sat all night until after six o'clock on the morning of the 16th, the night having been consumed "by innumerable motions to postpone and to adjourn, on which the yeas and nays were taken. An occasional speech diversified the scene, until the majority yielded and allowed an adjournment. The rumors of "the difficulty" between the Senators from * It was the occasion of the inauguration of the Washington statue in the city of Richmond, Feb. 22. 100 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Missouri and Pennsylvania brought quite a crowd to the Capitol on the following morning; but the lovers of excitement were disappointed, as the offensive expressions were withdrawn, and graceful interchanges of mutual respect took the place of the duello. In conclusion, it is just, perhaps, to give the opinion of his friends upon his general position : His aspirations are to build up, not to tear down. He has a profound reverence for all the safeguards which long experience and sound wisdom have thrown about individual rights. His reliance is upon great and enduring principles. He confides in those which have formed the rule of his public life. No crisis, however fearful, surprises or disarms him. Cool and self- possessed, with a sagacity that can see, through the mists of the hour, the future to which it leads, he is ever prepared for any emergency. Ardent and spontaneous as are all his Demo- cratic impulses, and strong as are his feelings of humanity, he never could be brought to lend himself to the destruction of established order, regardless of the happiness of those most nearly concerned. Nor would he do so with ruthless violence upon institutions which might stand in his way even in the asser- tion of right. His earliest political sentiments were formed under the instruction and in the intimate companionship of the wisest and most patriotic men of Pennsylvania. The principles he then imbibed from them have been his unerring guide through life, and are still those of the people of his native State, who have served so long as a moral breakwater between the opposing sentiments and passions of the Northern and Southern people.* Senator Cameron has been connected in some degree with most, if not all, of the improvements in Pennsylvania. He pro- jected the Harrisburg and Lancaster Railroad. To his energy its construction is largely indebted. The same may be said in connection with the Lebanon Valley Railroad; the Northern Central, from Harrisburg to Sunhury; the Tide-Water Canal, * Address of the Philadelphia Cameron Club, an advance copy of which in MS. T have been kindly furnished with. SIMON CAMERON. 101 and a number of other valuable improvements. His business capacities are of the highest order, and enable him to perform a great amount of labor. As an illustration of this, it need only be remarked that he was at one and the same time president of two important railway-companies, cashier of a bank, and president of an insurance-company, all in successful operation; and the duties assigned to him in each were faithfully dis- charged.* * Address of the Philadelphia Cameron Club. 102 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. SALMON P. CHASE, OF OHIO. THIS widely-known and distinguished leader of the Repub- lican party was born in the State of New Hampshire, at Cor- nish, January 13, 1808. About 1815, his father removed to Keene, with which place the earlier school-boy days of Chase are associated. But two years, however, had rolled over until our boy was an orphan ; and a few years later he was taken to that great State of the West with which his name is now an historical boast. At twelve he was taken to Worthington, Ohio, and his uncle, Philander Chase, then Episcopal Bishop of that diocese, with whose entertaining " Reminiscences" the general reader is acquainted, undertook and superintended his education. He was prepared for, and entered at, Cincinnati College, of which the bishop had accepted the presidency. He only remained a year in Cincinnati, when he returned to his mother's home in New Hampshire, and in his sixteenth year entered the Junior Class of Dartmouth College, where he was graduated in 1826. Determined to turn his acquirements to immediate account, he proceeded to Washington, and opened a classical school for boys, and was patronized by many eminent men, among others, by Henry Clay, William Wirt, and Samuel L. Southard, whose sons were intrusted to his care. Having studied law under Mr. Wirt while earning a livelihood as a teacher of the dead languages, he closed his school on attaining his majority, in 1829, and was ad- mitted to the bar of the District of Columbia. He practised little, if any, here, but, thinking the West afforded a better field for his talents and ambition, returned to Cincinnati in the spring of the following year, and took up his permanent residence there as a practitioner at the bar. The inducements which attract young men of energy and cul- tfvation to the West also render competition in that region, in SALMON P. CHASE. 103 almost every phase of life, very great. As a consequence, the embarrassments are not few, and the difficulties to be sur- mounted task the best energies of the best men. If Mr. Chase had his share of embarrassments, he also had more than the ave- rage amount of intelligence, and the industry to make it avail- able. Hence, while looking out for cases, he was also looking up the laws of the State, and, not finding them as he thought they ought to be found, he set to work and prepared an edition of the Statutes, accompanied them with copious annotations, and prefixed to them an historical sketch of the State, the whole occupying three large octavo volumes. Success attended his labor : his edition soon superseded all other editions of the Sta- tutes, and is now the received authority in the courts. The necessary reading and study for his work brought him valuable acquisitions of available knowledge, and its publication brought him reputation. Then, again, the latter won him busi- ness, and the former the power to hold it and make him success- ful. He thus acquired a valuable practice, and early in 1834 we find him solicitor of the Bank of the United States in Cincinnati, to which was soon added a similar position in connection with one of the city banks. Thus was the foundation of his fortune laid. In 1837, Mr. Chase came prominently forward in the advocacy of those ideas with which his name is now so widely identified. Acting as counsel for a colored woman who was claimed as a fugitive slave, he made an elaborate argument controverting the authority of Congress to impose duties or confer powers in fugi- tive-slave cases on State magistrates, " a position in which he has since been sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States, and maintained that the law of 1793 relative to fugitive slaves was void, because unwarranted by the Constitution of the United States." In the same year he defended James G-. Birney, who was prosecuted by the State for harboring a negro slave. The case was tried before the Supreme Court of Ohio, and Mr. Chase argued that slavery was a local institution, and dependent on State law for its existence and continuance ] and that the slave, having been brought within the territorial limits of Ohio by one claiming to be her master, was, in fact and by right, free. In 1838, he followed up these arguments by a review, in a news- 104 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. paper, of a report emanating from the Judiciary Committee of the State Senate, which took grounds against granting slaves the trial by jury. Outside of the political reference of the legal question he dis- cussed, Mr. Chase had taken but slight part in politics until 1841. He had not settled himself into a party man. Sometimes he voted with the Democrats, but more generally with the Whigs; and this because the Northern Whigs appeared more favorable to Anti-Slavery doctrines than their political antago- nists. He supported Harrison for the Presidency in 1840, but " the tone of his inaugural address, and, still more, the course of the Tyler Administration, convinced him that no effective resist- ance to the encroachments of slavery was to be expected from any party with a slaveholding and pro-slavery wing, modifying, if not controlling, its action. He had made up his mind. His day for giving a stray vote with the Democracy was gone, and the time for fully organizing a distinct party, pledged to Anti- Slavery views, had come." He, with others, in 1841, called a convention of those opposed to slavery and slavery-extension. The convention met in December of that year, organized the " Liberal party of Ohio, nominated a candidate for Governor, and issued an address defining its principles and purposes." Mr. Chase wrote and reported this address, which has an historical importance in being one of the earliest expositions of the politi- cal warfare against slavery. In 1843, Mr. Chase was an active participant in the " National Liberty Convention," which assem- bled at Buffalo. He was on the Committee on Resolutions, to which was referred, under a rule of the Convention, a resolu- tion proposing " to regard and treat the third clause of the Con- stitution, whenever applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitution of the United States, whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it." This resolution was opposed by Mr. Chase, and was not reported by the committee. Having been moved, however, in Convention, it was adopted by that body. Senator Butler, of South Carolina, afterward charged the authorship and advocacy of the resolution on Mr. Chase, and denounced the doctrine of mental reservation apparently sanc- tioned by it. Chase replied, " I have only to say I never pro- SALMON P. CHASE. 105 posed the resolution : I never would propose or vote for such a resolution. I hold no doctrine of mental reservation. Every man, in my judgment, should speak just as he thinks, keeping nothing back, here or elsewhere." In the same year, "the great Repeal year," as it was called, Mr. Chase was designated to prepare an address on behalf of the friends of Liberty, of Ireland, and of Repeal, in Cincinnati, to the Loyal National Repeal Association of Ireland, in reply to a letter from Daniel O'Connell. In it he reviewed "the relations of the Federal Government to slavery at the period of its organi- zation, set forth its original anti-slavery policy, and the subse- quent growth of the political power of slavery, vindicated the action of the liberal party, and repelled the aspersions cast by a Repeal Association in Cincinnati upon anti-slavery men." The Southern and Western Liberty Convention held in Cin- cinnati, June, 1845, originated with Mr. Chase. He desired to embrace " all who, believing that whatever is worth preserving in republicanism -can be maintained only by uncompromising war against the usurpations of the slave-power, are, therefore, resolved to use all constitutional and honorable means to effect the extinction of slavery in their respective States, and its reduc- tion to its constitutional limits in the United States." There were two thousand delegates present, and over twice that num- ber of spectators. As chairman of the committee, the pro- jector of the movement drew up the address, embracing a his- tory of the Whig and Democratic parties in their relation to the Slavery question, recommending, as a political necessity, the formation of a party pledged to the overthrow of the Southern institution, and showing what to the writer seemed the natural and necessary antagonism between Democracy and Southern interests. Mr. Chase was now a widely-known champion of the grow- ing anti-slavery party. He was associated with the Hon. W. H. Seward in the defence of John Van Zandt, who was arraigned before the United States Supreme Court for aiding in the escape of slaves. In this case Seward made one of his most eloquent efforts; and Chase followed up the arguments suggested by the u should commemorate the acts of those who have surrendered 108 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. vast Territories to slavery ; who have disappointed the expectations of the fathers of the Pvepublic ; who have prepared for our country the dangers and difficulties which are now around us and upon us ? It is not for me, sir, to say what that inscription should be. Let it remain a blank forever." He continued his speech on the following day, in review of the resolutions under discussion. He concurred in the decision to admit California with the boundaries claimed by her and the Con- stitution which she had adopted. He could have wished that she had been divided into two States. He opposed the propositions to connect the admission of California with the general settle- ment of the Slavery question, and to give the Utah and New Mexico Bill precedence over the California Bill. In regard to Texas, he thought the questions connected with the erection of new States within her limits, the liability of the United States for her debts, and the determination of her western and north- western boundaries, might be disposed of when they arose. He did not concur in any way with Mr. Webster in regard to the obligation to admit new slave States out of Texas. Webster had opposed the admission of Texas and denied the constitution- ality of the resolutions of annexation. He was therefore startled when he heard the Senator from Massachusetts declare not only that he regarded the constitutionality of the admission of Texas as a matter adjudged, and not now open to question in any way, but that, when the proper time for the enactment should arrive, Congress would be bound to admit four new slave States out of Texas. Senator Chase denied the obligation. It was, he said, known at the time that the resolutions would not have passed except upon the assurance of Mr. Polk, President-elect, that he would adopt the alternative presented by them, which contem- plated negotiation and a treaty. But Tyler, in the last days of his official power, took the matter out of the hands of the in- coming President. He was in favor of the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and was surprised by the proposition " That Congress has no power to prohibit the slave-trade among the States. " " Why, sir," said he, "that trade is prohibited now, except upon certain conditions. It is prohibited in vessels of less capacity than forty tons. Not a slave can be shipped coastwise without a permit from aii officer of the United States ; not a slave shipped SALMON P. CHASE. 109 can be landed without a permit." Congress has a constitutional right " to regulate commerce among the several States ;" and he thought, " if they can prohibit the trade in vessels of less than forty tons, they can prohibit it in vessels of one hundred, five hundred, altogether." He argued that the legislative power of Congress did not extend to the subject of the extradition of fugitive slaves, and, in his peroration, said, " I have never cal- culated the value of the Union. I know no arithmetic by which the computation can be made. We of the West are in the habit of looking upon the Union as we look upon the arch of heaven, without a thought that it can ever decay or fall. With equal reverence we regard the great Ordinance of Freedom, under whose benign influence, within little more than half a century, a wilderness has been converted into an empire/'* He followed up this speech with others on the specialties con- tained in the Compromise resolutions in detail during the session, and moved an amendment against the introduction of slavery in the Territories to which Mr. Clay's bill applied; but it was lost by 25 to 30. An amendment to the Fugitive Slave Bill, to secure trial by jury to alleged slaves, also failed, by 11 to 28. He also moved to amend, by striking out the second section of an amendment made by Senator Davis, to " conform the provisions," in the words of Chase, " of the bill to the provisions of the Con- stitution," and illustrated his point thus: "The Constitution provides that 'no person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in conse- quence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up/ The terms of the Constitution confine the right of reclamation to the taking of persons escaping from one State into another State. This section extends the remedy, or the right of reclamation, where it does not exist, to the Territories. That is the reason why I desire that it may be stricken out." After having been discussed, it was lost, by 1 to 44, Mr. Chase himself being the solitary "yea." When the Democratic Convention of Baltimore nominated Franklin Pierce, in 1852, and approved the Compromise of 1850, Senator Chase dissolved his connection with the Democrats of See Congressional Globe, 1st Sess. 31st Cong. Appendix to the same, Ac. 10 HO LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Ohio, and addressed a letter to B. F. Butler, of New York, sug- gesting and vindicating the idea of an Independent Democracy. He made a platform, which was substantially that adopted at the Pittsburg Convention in the same year. He continued his sup- port to the "Independent Democrats" until the Nebraska-Kansas Bill came up. His action at this crisis is well epitomized by Mr. W. S. Thayer.* In the general opposition to the Nebraska Bill, he took a leading part, and the rejection of three of his proposed amend- ments was thought to be of such significance as bearing on the Slavery question, that it may be well to state them. He first proposed to add after the words "subject only to the Constitu- tion of the United States/' in section 14, the following clause : " Under which the people of the Territory, through their appro- priate representatives, may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of slavery therein." This was rejected : yeas, 10 ; nays, 36. The second proposed to give practical effect to the principle of popu- lar sovereignty, by providing for the election by the people of the Territory of their own governor, judge, and secretary, instead of leaving, as in the bill, their appointment to the Federal Exe- cutive. This was defeated : yeas, 10 ; nays, 30. He then pro- posed an amendment of the boundary, so as to have but one Territory, named Nebraska, instead of two, entitled, respect- ively, Nebraska and Kansas. This was rejected: yeas, 8; nays, 34. His opposition to the bill was ended by an earnest protest against it on the night of its final passage. During his Senatorial career, Mr. Chase advocated economy in the national finances, a Pacific Railroad by the shortest and best route, the Homestead movement, Cheap Postage, and held that the national treasury should defray the expense of providing for the safe navigation of the Lakes, as well as of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In 1855, Mr. Chase was elected Governor of Ohio, by the op- ponents of the Pierce Administration. His Inaugural Address, among other things, recommended single districts for legislative representation, annual instead of biennial sessions of the Legis- lature, and an extended educational system. At the next * Author of the comprehensive article on Chase in the " New American Cyclopedia." SALMON P. CHASE. Ill National Convention of the Republicans, the Ohio delegation, and several from other States, desired to nominate him for the Presidency; but, at his own request, his name was withdrawn. T n his first Annual Message, after touching on the usual topics, he recommended a bureau of statistics, which was adopted. Governor Chase was re-elected to his high office by the largest vote ever given for Governor in Ohio. Governor Chase is a ready and able debater. On his specialty he is powerful, and never fails to impress his hearers. He is forcible, eloquent, and wields a free and a copious diction. The last prominent exposition of his views on public questions is contained in an address delivered, August 25, 1859, to the peo- ple of Sandusky, in which, after elaborately discussing matters of State policy, he branched out into a review of national questions. He referred to Mr. Buchanan's letter of a few years ago, in which he said that unless the Democracy put forth its strong arm and resisted the existing tendency to extravagance, the ex- penditures would, in a short time, amount to one hundred mil- lions a year. Mr. Buchanan was elected in 1856. He put forth his strong Democratic arm, but it had an opposite effect to that which he had predicted. Instead of arresting extravagance, it propelled it ; and in the first year of his Administration the expenditures of the Government were about sixty-five millions of dollars. They had already reached the enormous sum of fifty millions when he went into office. Now they were raised to sixty-five millions. In 1858, the strong Democratic arm was still extended and still in action, and the expenditures of the Govern- ment went up, instead of down, to eighty-one millions of dollars. In 1859 this year this strong Democratic arm still extends, and the expenditures, according to the estimates, go up to ninety- one millions of dollars. Next year, when this strong Democratic arm will be still extended for the last time, there is every reason for the encouraging expectation that Mr. Buchanan's prophecy will be fulfilled, and the expenditures will be raised to over one hun- dred millions of dollars. Reviewing the Slavery question, he believed the Lemmon case would be decided as the Dred Scott case was, if the Democrats gained the next Presidency. He severely criticized the Legis- lature of Ohio for repealing the acts against the Fugitive-Slave 112 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Law. Reviewing the history of the Missouri Compromise and the growth of the Kansas agitation, he pictured President Pierce as completely at the mercy and direction of the South. When the South found that the Presidential patronage and the repeal of the Missouri restriction did not serve their purposes, they wanted a constitutional sanction for slavery everywhere. "This," continued Governor Chase, " came from the Dred Scott deci- sion. Now you have certainly got sufficient. You have got the Dred Scott decision, by which slavery is sanctioned in all the Territories ; you have the Government so organized as to enforce these decrees. Then surely you are satisfied now, ' Oh, no : what is the use of having sla- very established in all the Territories unless we have negroes to put there ?' So Mr. Stephens said the other dny in Georgia. Said he, ' I don't see that we have gained much unless we have negroes to put into the Territories. If you want,' said he, 'to put slavery in the Territories, you must have negroes to put there. 5 So they have revived the slave- trade already. The Government made some poor, puny, and ineffectual attempts to repulse it by a judicial proceeding at Charleston. What was the result? The slaveholders in the jury-box said, 'We don't recognise any law or Constitution which condemns the slavery which exists among us; and if you condemn the traffic in slaves in Africa, you equally con- demn that traffic at home.' That is true. You cannot get away from that. Everybody has to admit that, and so these South Carolina men said, * We are not a-going to condemn it at home, and therefore not abroad ; and therefore we shall acquit these men.' And acquit them they did." He held that the slave-trade was actually revived ; and the question was, Would the Democracy consent to the repeal of the laws prohibiting it ? They would say that they would not ; but they had said so of the Missouri Compromise and of the Fugitive- Slave Law, and yet they did consent. If they had not an Afri- can, they had an American, slave-trade. People might deem his views but as imagination, but he did not dream when, in the Senate, he resisted the Fugitive-Slave Law, and foretold that the Democracy would inscribe it on their Presidential banner. He branded as false the statement that the Republican party were unfriendly to the foreign-born citizens, and challenged scrutiny into his own career on the subject. His every act and word breathed the broadest spirit of liberality for all, regardless of the country of their birth ; and in common with the Repub- lican party he protested against any such discrimination as the Government proposed in the Cass letter. SALMON P. CHASE. 113 In the name of the Kepublican party he also stood by tlie Homestead Bill; that is, he and they stood by the principle that it was a great deal better that the public lands of the coun- try should pass into the hands of settlers ; that they should have all opportunity to take up those public lands with little or no price, and cultivate them, the country looking for remuneration, not to the price of land, but to the increased wealth resulting from the settler's industry. It was the policy of the Republican party to have free homes for all. He avowed that the Democra- tic party in the State Convention endorsed it too ; but what did they do at Washington ? In solid phalanx they voted against it. All the slaveholders in the South, aided by a great- body of the Democracy of the North, united in voting down that proposition. Governor Wise, having been informed that certain combina- tions were being made in Ohio to follow up the attempted inva- sion of Virginia commenced at Harper's Ferry in October, wrote to Governor Chase on the subject. The reply of the Governor of Ohio was laid before the Legislature on the 6th of December, 1859. The following embraces the chief points : "Whenever it shall be made to appear, either by evidence transmitted by you, or otherwise, that unlawful combinations are being formed by any persons or at any place in Ohio for the invasion of Virginia, or for the commission of crimes against her people, it will undoubtedly become the duty of the Executive to use whatever power he may possess to break up such combinations and defeat their unlawful purposes ; and that duty, it need not be doubted, will be promptly performed. " I observe with deep regret an intimation in your letter that necessity may compel the authorities of Virginia to pursue invaders of her juris- diction into the territories of adjoining States. It is to be hoped that no circumstances will arise creating, in their opinion, such a necessity. Laws of the United States, as well as the laws of Ohio, indicate the mode in which persons charged with crime in another State, and escaping into Ohio, may be demanded and must be surrendered ; and the people of this State will require from her authorities the punctual fulfilment of every obligation to the other members of the Union. They cannot consent, however, to the invasion of her territory by armed bodies from other States, even for the purpose of pursuing and arresting fugitives from justice." For one who has been but one term in Congress, Governor Chase, like Mr. Bates, of Missouri, has a paramount hold on the affections of his party. His ^rvices there and elsewhere have done much to combine and elevate it. II 10* 114 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. HOWELL COBB, OF GEORGIA. HOWELL COBB was born at Cherry-Hill, Jefferson County, Georgia, on the 7th of September, 1815, and is the son of John A. Cobb, who, when quite a boy, removed from Greenville, N.C., with his father. The mother of the present Secretary of the Treasury, Sarah 11. Cobb, was the daughter of Thomas Rootes, of Fredericksburg, Va. His uncle, Howell Cobb, after whom he was named, represented a district in Congress up to the second war with Great Britain, in which he served with distinction as captain ; and a cousin, Thomas Cobb, having been a Representa- tive from 1817, with slight intermission, to 1824, was Senator in Congress from that year until 1828. At the age of nineteen, in 1834, the subject of this sketch was graduated at Franklin College. On the 26th of May of the following year he was married to Mary Ann Lainar, daughter of the late Colonel Zachariah Lamar, of Milledgeville. In 1836, Mr. Cobb was admitted to the bar; and the best proof of his immediate success and the confidence inspired by his abilities is to be found in the fact that, though barely of age and but a year in practice, he was in 1837 elected by the Legislature to the office of Solicitor-General for the Western Circuit of his State. In this position he had to meet the most competent and able gentlemen of the bar, and no doubt owes much of his present prominence to the cultivation of the re- sources he found in himself during this arduous but gratifying period of his career. It is said that his naturally cool judgment and almost intuitive legal perception made amends for want of experience ; and certain it is that such information as I have oeen enabled to consult credits Mr. Cobb with having conducted the office with skill, vigor, and unvarying success. He held the place three years, and left it taking rank with the chief lawyers HOWELL COBB. 115 and advocates in the State; and he failed not to avail himself of his prominence and reputation. For the next three years his attention to professional labor was unremitting and productive. Gifted with a quickness of perception, rapidity of thought, and force of expression engrafted on a sympathetic disposition that vehemently adopted his clients' rights and wrongs, Mr. Cobb's appeals to a jury were naturally strong and effective. Human nature has more power than legal technicalities. The crotchetty few can understand the latter, the large-hearted many acknow- ledge the former. This was a chief secret of Mr. Cobb's success. Speaking of the Georgia bar and the period at which Mr. Cobb " won his spurs" at it, a writer in the " Democratic Review" for 1849 says, " As a professional man, his character has been moulded by the combined influence of his own temperament and the customs of the country in which he for the most part prac- tised. The Western (his) Judicial Circuit of Georgia has never been distinguished for devoted application to books. Situated in a broken and, in part, mountainous country, with a sterile soil and wretched roads, the people are simple and primitive in their ideas and habits, and to this day remain untouched by the pro- gress of luxury or refinement. The character of its bench and bar has, as usual, assimilated itself to that of the country, and the proceedings of the court have been characterized by the same features. The f viginti annorum lucubrationes' have never been much valued there. Courts and juries in that region, there- fore, are more influenced by the arguments of a strong though rough common sense than by the refinements and subtleties of legal learning. The bar, consequently, have been distinguished by a quick and clear apprehension of the prominent and controlling points of a case, and by force and eloquence in presenting them to courts and juries, rather than by the display of professional re- search and nice discrimination of shades of principle. Of this general character of the circuit Mr. Cobb is one of the finest ex- amples, though, when forced by circumstances to resort to books, he readily shows that he can follow the law applicable to his case through the most intricate refinements, which, however, is not the usual method of his practice. In common with his profes- sional associates, he usually relies on a readiness and self-posses- sion of which no surprise can deprive him, on a perfect under- 116 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. standing of the facts, and on a forcible application of the broad and fundamental principles bearing on his case."* In the Nullification agitation which so distracted Georgia and South Carolina, Mr. Cobb sided with Jackson, and, having thus early won reputation as a Union Democrat, the people of his district sent him to Congress in October, 1842, it being his first entrance into any legislative body. In the early part of his Congressional career, he mingled sufficiently in the debates to master the details and duties of the new field upon which he was destined to achieve extended reputation. He was suc- cessively re-elected in 1844, '46, and '48, representing that portion of his State which, under the apportionment of the sixth census, was designated the sixth district. In the Twenty- Eighth and Twenty-Ninth Congresses, Mr. Cobb continued to devote himself to a perfect study of the management of the deliberations of the House. This information, necessary above all other to a man who would succeed as a leader in any legis- lative body, with the quickness of thought and readiness in resource which he possessed, began to direct attention to the young Georgian in moments of exigency. His business capacity acknowledged, the tenacity with which he clung to the policy of his party became of great service, and indicated him as a leader among much older politicians. In the Thirtieth Congress, from December, 1847, to March, 1849, Mr. Cobb's position was still more broadly defined. As the lamented Drumgoole, of Virginia, failed in health, it became necessary that some one should supply his place as parliamentary leader of the Democracy in the House, " which for ten years that gentleman had filled without even the semblance of rivalry." In the occasional contests over political points in the absence of Mr. Drumgoole, it was found that Mr. Cobb possessed more of the elements of a successful parliamentary leader than any other on that side of the House. Mr. Cobb is the first who, without previous service in a State Legislature, or long experience in that body, was suddenly, as^it were, elevated to a party leader- ship in the House. Yet, says one who claimed to have carefully noted his career at Washington, " we are by no means surprised * Democratic Review, September, 1849. HOWELL COBB. 117 at the rapidity with which he has acquired his influence in the Hall/' attributing his success to the possession of strong sense, never-failing good temper, an intuitive knowledge of men and things, general attainments, and an acquaintance with previous decisions upon mooted parliamentary rules and regulations far superior to those of any gentleman who had been a member of the House during the period alluded to. While Hon. Mr. Vin- toQ, of Ohio, was the business leader of the Whigs, Mr. Stephens their resource in a severe party contest, Mr. R. C. Schenck their ready spokesman in the often-occurring impromptu passages at arms, and Mr. Hudson, of Massachusetts, their reliance upon questions such as the Tariff or Independent Treasury, Mr. Cobb was the " ever-watchful, ever-ready, and competent leader of the Democrats on all mooted party points." In the midst of this absorbing duty, to which the representa- tive from Georgia was early called, he found time to deliver care- fully-prepared speeches upon leading questions from time to time. On the 14th and 18th of January, 1844, he made an able speech on the motion of his colleague, Mr. Black, for the re-adoption of the celebrated 21st rule. In this he upheld the South for its devotion to the Union, and the Northern Democracy for its con- stitutional position. Mr. Cobb held that " to refuse to receive petitions asking Congress to flagrantly violate the Constitution, or demanding the exercise of power notoriously not confided to it, was not an infraction of the fundamental principle of our political institutions, precluding the Government from passing any law by which the people should be prevented from meeting together in their deliberative assemblies, freely and fearlessly discussing the conduct and actions of their representatives and agents, and, if necessary, presenting the result of their delibera- tions in the form of a petition or remonstrance to any department of their Government." He also indicated the certain effects of the extension of Abolitionism at the North, and placed the responsibility of its growth on the Southern Whigs, who, for party purposes, refused to stand firmly against the measures of the anti-slavery advocates. In May of the same year, Mr. Cobb addressed the House in Committee of the Whole on the Tariff question, advocating free- trade doctrine, and accusing the Whigs of the South of deserting 118 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. the extreme anti-Tariff views common to them in the days of Nullification, to subserve the purposes of New England capitalists. On the 22d of January following, Mr. Cobb defended the con- stitutionality of the annexation of Texas in an elaborate speech. On the 8th of January, 1846, an auspicious day for the discus- sion of a national question, he supported President Folk's views % on the Oregon question, addressed himself forcibly to his ^ Southern colleagues, and besought them to sink all sectional ^sentiments in the prime duty of voting as Americans contending for their Bright with a foreign Power. In 1848, Mr. Cobb fol- lowed up these broad national views by taking an active part in defending Polk's Administration against the attacks of the Oppo- sition relative to the Mexican War. He demonstrated that the grounds upon which the Federalists in Congress were then under- taking to censure their own Government involved the grossest stultification ; for if any branch of the Government had caused th^ war, Congress alone deserved to\be h-SM,.. responsible. The original votes of the Whigs for annexation, notwithstanding the protest, of their leader* that it was equivalent to the adoption of a war wjth ^lexico, the first vote of rnenjj^nd jfconey for its * pYosecutitm^ wifti the various remarkable incfdentsjjf the legis- lation of Congress upon these two momentous questions, fur- nished Mr. Cobb with so ample data for the exposure of the Jboll^wness of the ar*^i-war pretences of the Federalists, that no memnef ' o the Opposition ventured to reply to him.* The speech was extensively published and made a deep impression, " identifying tl^e anti-Mexican-War spirit of the Federalists of our day with the animus of the Hartford Conventionists during the War of 1812. " This effort was greatly appreciated by the Administration, placed Mr. Cobb high in the confidence of Pre- sident Polk, "and secured for him the permanent and proud position, for so young a statesman, of being the leader of his party." In July, 1848, pending the consideration of the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, Mr. Cobb made another vigorous essay against the Federalists. He traced the rise and progress of the political organizations of the country, and showed what # Dem. Rev. 1S49, vol. xxv. HOWELL COBB. 119 danger would result from the actions of either party when in power, unless checked by the bold watchfulness of an independ- ent opposition. This speech was regarded as a triumphant vin- dication of the doctrine of Jefferson, that in party organization is to be sought the antidote for the evils threatening the Govern- ment and the people from the influences of demagogism and the encroaching spirit which, in all ages and under all systems, has characterized all rulers. The session of 1848-49 was especially eventful to Mr. Cobb as a Southern man and representative. The following clear account of the political movement from which, though a South- ern man, he thought it his duty to differ, is from an authentic source. It will be recollected that many of the Southern mem- bers, becoming alarmed by the more decided encroachments upon what they regarded as the constitutional rights of their con- stituents in the matter of slavery, manifested by several votes in the House of Representatives, called a meeting of Southern delegates in Congress, without distinction of party, to consider their common danger and deliberate upon the line of conduct proper on their part. This meeting or convention resulted in the promulgation of the Southern Address, signed by a large portion of the Democratic Senators and Representatives from the South. Mr. Cobb who, since the times when he manfully sustained the integrity of the Union, as involved in Jackson's Nullification crisis with Mr. Calhouri, had been emphatically a Union Democrat, with others from the South did not feel at liberty to sign that paper ; and, finding their motives misrepre- sented, he and his colleague, Mr. Lumpkin, with Messrs. Boyd and Clarke, of Kentucky, published a joint address to their con- stituents. This was understood to be from the pen of Mr. Cobb, and set forth the motives of the signers in refusing their signa- tures to Mr. Calhoun's address. The circumstances under which Mr. Cobb felt it his duty to pen this admirable paper were indeed peculiar. From his en- trance into Congress he had been the efficient advocate and defender of the rights of his own section, as involved in the strict maintenance both of the letter and spirit of the slavery compromises of the Constitution. Believing in the great consti- tutional truths insisted on in the Southern Address, it was of 120 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. course the wish of Mr. Cobb to have felt at liberty to take ground with the signers of that paper. To enable him to append his name to it, he urged that its recital of the grievances of the South from Abolitionism should be full and just. It was his opinion that the occasion should be used to show the people of the South precisely how parties at the North had stood for years past upon anti-slavery questions, and that full justice should be^ meted to the administration of James K. Polk for the noble stand it had early taken and to the last defended, in the matter of Southern rights under the Constitution. All this the Address failed to do, representing the late Executive and the Southern members who voted for the Oregon Bill to have abandoned the constitutional platform upon the Slavery question involved therein. Deeply sensible of the debt of gratitude due from the South to that portion of the Northern Democracy which had steadily defended their rights, Mr. Cobb could not bring himself to sign a paper effectually classing them with the Abolitionists and Northern Whigs, and drawing no line of distinction between their course in this connection, and that of those who, for so many years, had steadily maintained positions side by side with Mr. Giddings or Mr. Jacob Collamer. Still other reasons forbade him from becoming a party to Mr. Calhoun's Address. He believed that the South should look to the supremacy of a national Democracy, administering in the Government Mr. Jeffer- son's readings of the Constitution, as her safeguard, her only reliable shield against anti-slavery encroachments. Thus be- lieving, he was loath to join in a measure tending, evidently, to destroy the nationality of the Democratic organization.* The election of General Taylor threw Mr. Cobb into the Oppo- sition. The popular vote had gone against Cass, the Democratic candidate, not because it became dissatisfied with the war-policy of the last Administration, but because the manner in which General Taylor had carried out that policy captivated the people. The very election of the Mexican hero was a ratification of the Mexican War. Mr. Cobb had been the zealous friend and ardent supporter of General Cass for the Presidency. "Not only," says a recently-written biography of the present Secretary of the * See Dem. Eev. vol. xxv. HOWELL COBB. 121 Treasury,* "not only as the candidate of his party did he advo- cate his election, but he defended him upon every stump on the position he had taken upon the Slavery question in his letter known as the celebrated Nicholson letter ; and that, too, when others of his friends either faltered in their support, or openly denounced his principles." Taylor and the Whigs had been in power nine months when the Thirty-First Congress assembled in December, 1849. In the House the Whigs were divided on a policy relative to the Slavery question and the Territories. The Democratic party was also divided on the same subject. Northern Whigs and Southern Democrats both claimed that their respective organizations at the North were alone faithful to the Constitution, which guarantied equal rights to all sections. A climax had been reached ; the question was to be tested and settled between them. The Free- Soilers, though but few in number, held the balance of power. The published lists of the day gave the House thus : Whigs, 105; Democrats, 112; Free-Soilers, 13; and one vacancy in Massachusetts. From the 3d of December to the 22d, the House was engaged in the election of a Speaker, and the excitement which prevailed at Washington spread all over the country, and all parties were on the qui vivc. At first, and for several days, the struggle seemed to be between Mr. Cobb and Mr. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, the former leading in the ballotings, but with- out getting a sufficient number of votes. Mr. Cobb's name was withdrawn ; and the Democrats, on the llth of December, showed a disposition to unite on Mr. William J. Brown, of Indiana. On this day Mr. Winthrop withdrew; and on the 12th, a coalition having been nearly completed between the Democrats and Free- Soilers, Brown received 112 votes, none others receiving more than 26. A motion by Mr. Stanly, (Whig,) of North Carolina, to ap- point a committee to confer as to the choice of officers of the House, led to a discussion, which resulted in the election of Mr. Cobb. Mr. Bayly, of Virginia, placed the responsibility of the tedious contest for Speaker upon the Whigs, and the doubtful position their President held relative to the Slavery question. * United States Democratic Review. New Series. Feb. 1858. Edited by Conrad Swackhamer, New York. 11 122 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Stanly insinuated that something improper had taken place be- tween the" Democrats and Free-Soilers; and Bayly branded the rumor as without foundation. Mr. Ashmun, of Massachusetts, asked Mr. Bayly if a correspondence had not taken place be- tween Mr. Brown and a leading Free-Soiler, in which the com mittees were pledged to suit the latter. After some further denial, Mr. Brown and Mr. Wilmot denned their positions, and two notes were exposed which had passed between them, the latter pledging the Free-Soil vote if the Committees on Territories, Judiciary, and District of Columbia were constituted to suit him and his friends; and the former, in reply, accepting the propo- sition. Mr. Brown withdrew his name; Mr. Bayly, thanking Messrs. Stanly and Ashmun for leading to the discovery of the correspondence, declared he would not have voted as he did had he known of its existence; and the confusion was worse con- founded than ever. The ballotings proceeded Cobb and Win- throp being the leading men- until the 22d, when, a resolution having been adopted in favor of the plurality rule, Mr. Cobb was elected on the 63d ballot, having 102 votes; Mr. Win- throp, 99. At the period at which Mr. Cobb was elevated to the Speaker- ship, the duties of the position were calculated to test the nerve and the intellect of the strongest and the ablest. That first ses- sion of the Thirty-First Congress was the longest on our Con- gressional annals.* It was also, up to the period, the most exciting. In the Compromise measures Mr. Cobb took a deep and earnest interest; and it is claimed for him that to none, living or dead, is the country more indebted for their adjustment. His position as Speaker precluded the possibility of his taking eo prominent a public share in the arrangement as others, but he vras untiring, as he was instrumental, in bringing about the final fjcttlement. In nearly every Southern State, opposition to the Compromise measures was manifested by the organization of a "Southern Rights" party. Georgia was an especial battle-ground for " Southern Rights." This party demanded a settlement with a wider basis than had been conceded. Mr. Cobb, having with * It commenced on December 3, 1849, and continued until September 30, 1850, a period of 302 days. 'no WELL COBB. 123 the strongest convictions upheld the Compromise, was placed in opposition to what seemed the ruling spirit of his State. Yet on the issue he was run for Governor at the conclusion of his Congressional term. His competitor was the Hon. Charles J. McDonald. The contest was bitter and acrimonious beyond pre- cedent; and Mr. Cobb was elected as a Union man by the largest majority that was ever given in the State in any political contest. As Governor, his past experience was of exceeding benefit to Mr. Cobb, and his administration is admitted to have been able and acceptable. At the end of two years he retired from the Gubernatorial chair to the practice of his profession in the dis- trict where he had previously resided. In the contest which resulted in the election of Franklin Pierce to the Presidency, Mr. Cobb took an active interest. The Balti- more Convention endorsed the measures of 1850 ; old antagonisms were lost sight of in the union of the Democracy ; and Mr. Cobb and those who had opposed him for Governor were now thrown shoulder to shoulder in the same party organization from which the causes above mentioned had dissevered them. Mr. Cobb remained in retirement from the election of Pierce until 1855, when his old constituency again demanded his pre- sence in Congress. He served on the Committee of Ways and Means with his usual ability, and was one of the most prominent actors and leaders on the side of the Constitution and the Union. He fully endorsed the nomination of Mr. Buchanan, and at various places addressed the people on the issues upon which the Democracy carried the campaign. At West Chester, Pennsyl- vania, he made a speech in September, 1856, which attracted much attention, as defining the difference between what was called " Southern Doctrine" and " Squatter Sovereignty." He held to the principles which he had always advocated, the right of the people to self-government, and avowed that he would carry them out, no matter how they would operate as regarded the incoming of Kansas under a slave or free State Constitution. Principles were dearer to him than the results of any election. " I stand upon the principle," he said : " the people of my State decide it for themselves ; you for yourselves ; the people of Kansas for themselves. That is the Constitution : and I stand by the Constitution." 124 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Here a gentleman interrupted Mr. Cobb, with his consent, to inquire whether he meant that the people of the Territory, be- fore forming their Constitution, should have the power to exclude slavery, or that they should have the power to pass upon it when they form their Constitution. He also desired that Mr. Cobb would explain not only his view of the subject, but also the view which was advocated by those who stood with him in the Southern States in support of Mr. Buchanan. Mr. Cobb, resuming, gave this clear and direct reply : " Fellow-citizens, there never has been, in all the history of this slavery matter, a more purely theoretical issue than the one involved in the ques- tion propounded to me by my friend ; and I will show it to you. I will state to you the positions of the advocates of this doctrine of non-inter- vention, on which there are diiferent opinions held ; but I will show you that it is the purest abstraction, in a practical point of view, that ever was proposed for political discussion. There are those who hold that the Constitution carries all the institutions of this country into all the Terri- tories of the Union ; that slavery, being one of the institutions recognised by the Constitution, goes with the Constitution into the Territories of the United States ; and that, when the Territorial Government is organized, the people have no right to prohibit slavery there until they come to form a State Constitution. That is what my friend calls ' Southern Doctrine.' There is another class who hold that the people of the Territories, in their Territorial state, and while acting as a Territorial Legislature, have a right to decide upon the question whether slavery shall exist there during their Territorial state ; and that has been dubbed ' Squatter Sovereignty.' Now, you perceive that there is but one point of difference between the advocates of the two doctrines. Each holds that the people have the right to decide the question in the Territory : one holds that it can be done through the Territorial Legislature, and while it has a Territorial exist- ence ; the other holds that it can be done only when they come to form a State Constitution. But those who hold that the Territorial Legislature cannot pass a law prohibiting slavery admit that, unless the Territorial Legislature pass laws for its protection, slavery will not go there. There- fore, practically, a majority of the people represented in the Territorial Legislature decides the question. Whether they decide it by prohibiting it, according to the one doctrine, or by refusing to pass laws to protect it, as contended for by the other party, is immaterial. The majority of the people, by the action of the Territorial Legislature, will decide the ques- tion : and all must abide the decision when made. (Great applause.) " My friend, you observe that no matter what the issue which is pre- sented I stand upon a principle. There I planted myself in the com- mencement of this argument, the right of the people to self-government. I intend to maintain it, to stand by it, to carry it out, to enforce it. If IIOWELL COBB. 125 it operate to the exclusion of the people of my section of the country from these Territories, be it so ; it is the Constitution of the country, and they have no right to complain. If it operate in their behalf and for their protection, I call upon you to say, is it not right that they should have the benefit of it?" During the Presidential canvass Governor Cobb visited several of the Northern States, where he forcibly and successfully vindi- cated the principles and policy of the Democratic party. Long a personal and political admirer of Mr. Buchanan, the advocacy of his election was an agreeable labor. Upon the accession of Mr. Buchanan, one of his earliest acts was to tender the distin- guished Georgian the post of Secretary of the Treasury. The Democratic party throughout the country approved of the ap- pointment. During the financial panic in 1857, a writer in a leading Oppo- sition journal the New York Courier and Enquirer says, "I must do the Secretary of the Treasury the justice to say that he is doing all which expediency requires and the law permits at his hands to remove or mitigate existing evils. He is paying out money as fast as practicable and safe under the appropriation acts ; and he is redeeming stocks with a promptitude never before exceeded." On the 20th of April, 1858, E. Lafitte & Co., of Charleston, S. C., applied to the collector of that port "to clear the American ship Richard Cobden, W. F. Black, master, burthen 750i tons, for the coast of Africa, for the purpose of taking on board African emigrants, in accordance with the United States pas- senger laws, and returning with the same to a port in the United States." The collector requested the opinion of Secretary Cobb; and he, considering the matter important, gave the matter care- ful attention, and complied. The question was involved in some embarrassment by the form of application. The applicants de- sired either to import Africans to be sold as slaves or bound to service; or else bring them here as other emigrants, to be en- titled, on arrival, to the privileges of freemen. Secretary Cobb showed that the statute-books gave conclusive evidence of general opposition to the continuance of the slave- trade. He referred to and quoted from the Acts of 1794 and 1800, both of which contemplate in general terms the prevention of the trade in slaves. "When," he writes, in continuation, 126 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. "When, however, in 1807, and subsequent thereto, Congress undertook to prevent the importation of slaves into the United States, the language of the law was made more stringent and comprehensive. The first section of the Act of 1807 provides, ' That from and after the first day of Janu- ary, one thousand eight hundred and eight, it shall not be lawful to import or bring into the United States, or the Territories thereof, from any foreign kingdom, place, or country, any negro, mulatto, or person of color, with intent to hold, sell, or dispose of such negro, mulatto, or person of color, as a slave, or to be held to service or labor.' " Was it a cargo of free negroes the Messrs. Lafitte were going to import ? If so, they could not bring them to Charleston or any other port in South Carolina; for the laws were stringent and the penalties heavy against the introduction of free negroes into that State. Where were they to be landed, and what were the motives of the enterprise ? "It cannot be the profits of the voyage. There are no African emi- grants seeking a passage to this country ; and if there were, they have no means of remunerating Messrs. Lafitte & Co. for bringing them. The motive cannot be mere philanthropy ; for it would confer no benefit upon these negroes to bring them to our shores, where, if permitted to land at all, it would only be to occupy our pest-houses, hospitals, and prisons. To believe, under the circumstances, that there is a bona fide purpose on the part of Messrs. Lafitte & Co. to bring African emigrants to this country to enjoy the rights and privileges of freemen, would re- quire an amount of credulity that would justly subject the person so believing to the charge of mental imbecility. The conviction is irresist- ible, that the object of the proposed enterprise is to bring these African emigrants into the country with the view either of making slaves of them, or of holding them to service or labor." Mr. Cohb concluded by refusing a clearance. This course received the unanimous approval of the country. It has been aptly remarked that the national record exhibits a galaxy of names rendered illustrious as heads of the Treasury Department, commencing with Alexander Hamilton, appointed by President Washington, 1789. Jefferson had his Gallatin Madison his Dallas; Jackson his Taney and Woodbury; and Polk his Robert J. Walker. These have left behind them great examples; and the public career of Secretary Cobb indicates that " at the end of his term of service he will leave upon the record a name worthy of being classed as an equal with the most dis- tinguished of his predecessors." HOWELL COBB. 127 In September, 1859, the Secretary made an official visit to New York, where lie was warmly welcomed by the leading Demo- crats, and received the honor of a public serenade, which he accepted only on the condition that he would not be requested to speak. This visit was in connection with Mr. Cobb's "re- trenchment" measure, the reduction of the number of officials appointed to collect the public revenues there, and apropos of which the Government organ says, "The Secretary of the Trea- sury has already done enough to show his determination to pro- mote real economy in every branch of the service over which he can exercise any control. His reforms are acknowledged by those who at first doubted their efficacy and propriety to ' work well;' and he is among the last men in the nation to be diverted from what he regards as truly the public interest by ' interference' from any quarter." 128 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN, OF KENTUCKY. IN one of the interesting episodes of the famous Kansas- Lecompton debate of March, 1858, an allusion in the speech of Senator Green, of Missouri, brought to his feet the venerable Senator who occupied a seat immediately next the bar of the Chamber, and nearly on the extreme left of the Vice-President's chair. A man of medium height, and rather spare figure, his face is strongly marked, years and thoughtful experience com- pleting the original outlines of nature. There is a warm, healthy flush over his features, as though a strong heart contri- buted to their sedate enthusiasm, and making a pleasant and picturesque contrast with the white hair that decorates his head. His manner is as marked as his features, disclosing earnestness and pathos ; while his matter is presented with a freshness, vigor, and copiousness of language which command respectful attention. Even those who differ from the Senator's views yield to his elo- quence. But it is when, rising above the sectionalities of debate, he invokes a national inspiration, and gives voice to it, that he is peculiarly affecting and effective, evoking from his hearers the tearful solicitude he portrays himself. On the present joccasiou, he speaks of himself, and his words consequently are especially interesting. The eyes of the Senators of all sides are inquiringly turned to him. The full galleries are expectant, and many a political enthusiast who slept in the lobbies for it is the day after the midnight scene of splendor when Douglas addressed the Senate is thoroughly awakened by the voice of the "old man eloquent." He said the Senator from Missouri was surprised at his feelings, and intimated that he had had bad schooling. Briefly reviewing the political points made by Senator Green, he said he knew his own defects, but did not like them to be attributed to the school in which he had been brought up. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 129 "If niy education is defective," he said, "it is on account of some defect in me, and not in the school. The gentleman is a young man, and a young Senator. I hope and wish for him a long life of public usefulness. He may have learned much more than I have done; and, if so, it only shows the superiority of his capacity to learn, for I am sure he has not been in a better school. Sir, this is the school in which I was taught. I took lessons here when this was a very great body indeed. I will make no comparisons of what it is now, or was then or at any other time ; but I learned from your Clays and your Websters, your Calhouns and your Prestons, your Bentons and your Wrights, and such men. I am a scholar, I know, not likely to do much credit to the school in which I was taught; and it is of very little con- sequence to the world, or to the public, whether I have learned well or ill. It will soon be of no importance to this country or to anybody." This proud yet modest speech creates an interest in the speaker on the part of those strangers in town who do not know his person or career. They naturally ask who he is ; and a dozen voices, with some surprise and much gratification, reply, " Crit- tenden, of Kentucky." He is the oldest Senator in the Chamber. It is more than forty years since he first entered it in a representative character. He was a Senator before Webster, Calhoun, and Benton, long many years before Wright and Preston. He was not the pupil, but the contemporary, of those men. He learned with, and not, as he modestly says, from, them. In the space allotted here, it would be impossible to give more than an historical outline of a career so extended, and embracing so many topics interesting to Kentucky and the Union. Of those latter-day measures, how- ever, in which Senator Crittenden participated, and in view of which the positions of public men are now being canvassed, some detail is demanded. John Jordan Crittenden was born in Woodford County, Ken- tucky, in September, 1786. His father had been an officer in the Revolutionary Army, and was accidentally killed by the fall of a tree, about the year 1806, while the subject of this sketch was still a student of law, and under age. The elder Crittenden was an early settler in Kentucky, and continued a farmer to the I 130 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN.. time of his death. He had acquired a large estate in Kentucky lands, but it availed his family but little, and his children were left to the care of their mother, with but slender means of sup- port. Soon after his professional education was completed, J. J. Crittenden removed from Woodford to Russellville, in the county of Logan, and commenced the practice of the law. When, at the call of General Harrison, Governor Shelby raised four thousand mounted men in September, 1812, John J. Crit- tenden was among the volunteers. He soon was in active service. The British and Indians had laid siege to Fort Wayne, intending to push on to Fort Harrison and Vincennes. Crittenden accom- panied General Hopkins in his expedition on the Vi abash, and returned in a few months, at the conclusion of the campaign, to his profession. In the following year he was among the Ken- tucky volunteers who marched to reinforce General Harrison on the Northwestern frontier. At the battle of the Thames, (Octo- ber 5,) Crittenden served as aid-de-camp to Governor Shelby, who commanded an important point, and who, as Harrison wrote in his despatch to the Secretary of War, a at the age of sixty-six preserved all the vigor of youth, the ardent zeal which distin- guished him in the Revolutionary War, and the undaunted bra- very which he manifested at King's Mountain." In the same despatch, the services of Majors Barry and Crittenden are com- mended to the President's notice: "The activity of the two latter gentlemen could not be surpassed."* The war being closed, Major Crittenden returned again to the practice of his profession in Russellville and the surrounding counties. He was several times elected to the State Legislature from the county of Logan, and was the Speaker of its House of Representatives when he was elected to the United States Senate, in which he took his seat December 1, 1817, his term com- mencing at the same date with the Presidency of James Monroe, whom he supported. He served through that Congress, and, re- signing his seat, removed from Russellville to Frankfort, the State * General Harrison to Hon. J. Armstrong, Secretary of War. "Official Letters of the Military and Naval Officers of the United States during the War with Great Britain," &c. &c., collected and arranged by John Brannan, Wash- ington City, 1823. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 131 Capital, determined to devote himself to his profession. During his two years of service at this time, he moved the reimburse- ment of tines under the Sedition Law of 1798, known in the days of opposition to it as the "gag-law." The chief provisions of that law were, it made punishable " the defaming or bringing into contempt Congress or the President; exciting public hatred against them; stirring up 'sedition;' raising unlawful combina- tions for resisting the laws and lawful authorities; aiding and abetting foreign nations against the people or Government of the United States." Senator Crittendeu denounced the Sedition Law as unconstitutional. He also spoke warmly in favor of a bill introduced by Senator Morrow, of Ohio, the design of which w;is to throw open the public lands to actual settlers. A House bill, putting fugitives from labor on the same level with fugitives from justice, having been referred to a committee of which Mr. Crittenden was chairman, he reported it back with several amend- ments, one of which provided that the identity of the alleged fugi- tive should be proved by other evidence than that of the claimant. Returning to Frankfort, Mr. Crittenden filled up the period from 1819 to 1835 in the practice of his profession, occasionally representing the county in the State Legislature, and continually adding to his repute. In 1828, he was nominated by Presi- dent John Quincy Adams as an Associate Judge of the United States Supreme Court, but, failing of confirmation in the Senate, Mr. McLean was subsequently appointed to that position. In 1835, he was re-elected to the United States Senate. With Webster, Clay, and Benton, he opposed Calhoun's bill author- izing anti-slavery documents to be taken from the Southern mail, was in favor of a United States Bank, was against the Sub-Treasury system, and opposed the remission of the fine against General Jackson for contempt of court in declaring martial law in New Orleans. The extent of pre-emption right was a question which agitated Congress toward the close of Van Buren's Administration. A bill came up in favor of actual settlers on the public lands, to which the Senator from Kentucky moved an amendment, denying the privileges of the Act to aliens who had not made a declara- tion of their intention to become citizens, and urged his views in several speeches. 132 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Senator Crittenden was re-elected, Ibut resigned in March, 1841, having accepted the invitation of his former chief in the military field, General now President Harrison, to take the office of Attorney-General in his Cabinet. Having convened the Twenty-Seventh Congress for the 31st of May, 1841, to con- sider matters of great national importance, the President did not live to see it meet. He died April 4, and was succeeded in his duties by Vice-President Tyler. In September of the same year, Mr. Crittenden, with the rest of Harrison's Cabinet, except Daniel Webster, resigned, and retired into private life; from which, however, he was soon recalled to fill the unexpired period of Mr. Clay's term, that statesman having resigned, with the intention of finally retiring, on March 31, 1842, after the passage of the Tariff Act. During this session, (the third of the Twenty-Seventh Congress,) Senator Crittenden argued for the smallest ratio of Congressional representation, his belief being that with more representatives the House would be more democratic. Crittenden was re-elected to the Senate for the succeeding term, from March, 1843, and remained until 1848, when he resigned, having received the Whig nomination for Governor of Kentucky, to which office he was elected by a large majority. During this term, topics of great importance came under his consideration, the Oregon question, the Texas annexation, the Mexican War. These still more markedly than heretofore de- fined party lines, and excited the whole Union. Senator Crit- tenden spoke frequently. On the Oregon question he deprecated precipitation, and advocated peace, but not at the sacrifice of honor, and favored such measures as he thought would promote it. In his speeches on the annexation of Texas, he took the same ground, so far as national honor was concerned, but opposed the annexation as unconstitutional, unnecessary, and unwise. The Mexican War he strove to bring to an end as soon as compatible with dignity. In 1847 he introduced, and supported with cha- racteristic eloquence and feeling, the bill into the Senate, author- izing the purchase of food, and the use of the Government ships to carry it to Ireland and Scotland, to relieve those suffering from famine and fever. The next year, when the three days of February had lit the torch of revolution in Europe, he offered a resolution congratulating the French Republic, anticipating, as JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 133 almost all did, the establishment of a lasting republican govern- ment in that country. In the same year, he opposed Mr. Hanne- gan's bill for the military occupation of Yucatan. On the accession of Millard Fillmore to the duties of the first magistracy, on the death of President Taylor, Governor Critten- den became a member of the new Cabinet, (July 20, 1850,) as Attorney-General, and remained in that office until the close of the Fillmore Administration, March, 1853. The next year, he was again elected to the United States Senate, for the term ending in 1861. With the Kansas question Senator Crittenden's name is inextri- cably interwoven. He opposed the admission of Kansas under the Topeka Constitution in 1856, recorded his vote against the re- peal of the Territorial laws, and was in favor of Senator Toombs's Kansas Bill. It was far from being unobjectionable to him, but he regarded it as a peace measure. In March, 1858, in the famous debate in which he occupied so prominent a position, he opposed the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution. The scene on this occasion, as well as the views of the distinguished Senator, were among the leading topics of the day, and properly belong to the history of the Congress and the country. It took place on the 17th of March ; and in a leading journal of the next day the appearance of the Senate- Chamber and the pith of the speech were prominently given in the editorial columns. As that day's doings are among the chief of the causes which brought Senator Crittenden's name promi- nently before the people for the Presidency, the article is given almost entire : " The Senate presented the most brilliant spectacle on the occasion of Senator Crittenden's speech on the topic of the day. We have not seen the galleries so crowded this session. We have not seen so many ladies in them, or such a crowd of public men on the floor of the Senate, in ad- dition to a full attendance of Senators. The editorial gallery was jammed, and, we honestly believe, with editors and reporters, which is not always tfle case, though it is usually full. In the ladies' gallery Mrs. Crittenden commanded particular attention, even as her gifted husband was the chief object of attraction in the chamber. Among the number of ladies connected with the political notabilities of the day, Mrs. Governor Brown, Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Chandler, Miss Wise, and Miss Sally Toombs were recog- nisable. On the floor we noticed, among the crowd of visitors, Baron Stceckl, Lord Napier, Rev. Dr. Pyne, Judge Gilchrist, Reverdy Johnson, 12 134 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. J. Watson Webb, Duff Green, E. Whittlesey, and a large number of past or present members of the House of Representatives, including Harris, of Illinois, Keitt and Boyce, of South Carolina, Haskin and Cochrane, of New York, Barksdale, of Mississippi, Davis and English, of Indiana, Adrain, of New Jersey, Underwood, of Kentucky, Trippe, of Georgia, Giddings, of Ohio, Burlingame, of Massachusetts, Phillips, of Alabama, Waterson, of Tennessee, Otero, of New Mexico, and Kingsbury, of Minnesota. Indeed, as truthful chroniclers for some future historian of Congress, we may say that the crowd was of the most intellectual, elegant, and attentive charac- ter yet witnessed this session. "Senator Crittenden spoke for two hours and a half, with great clear- ness and force. Pie thought the consideration of the rights of the people to govern themselves was certainly not inapplicable in the present issue. The President had, with unusual earnestness, urged the acceptation of the Lecompton Constitution. The Senator from Kentucky differed with this view, because he did not believe the Constitution had the sanction of the people of Kansas. Whatever the prim a facie evidence to show that it was, he held that, on examination, it was clear that it was not the voice of the Kansas people. It was rather against the overwhelming majority of the people. To the extent of some six thousand votes it appears to have been sanctioned, but out of these six thousand votes about three thousand were proved to be fictitious and fraudulent. This is verified by the minority reports of the Committee on Territories, and is certified by the authorities appointed by Mr. Calhoun in Kansas to inspect the votes. This vote was taken on the 21st of December. Before that vote was taken the Legislature, elected in October and convened by Acting-Gover- nor Stanton, passed an act postponing the voting on the Constitution until January 4. On that day ten thousand majority was given against the Constitution, and the Legislature passed a resolution, the substance of which was that the Constitution was a fraud. How, then, can you say that this Constitution is the voice of the people ? Unless we shut our eyes to the election on the 4th of January, we see an immense popular vote against it. We also have the solemn act of the Legislature. "You will accept that which testifies to the minority, and reject that which testifies for the majority. You will accept the first expression of opinion, and reject the last, while it is a rule in law that the last enact- ment supersedes all others. Why is not the evidence of the 4th of Janu- ary entitled to our respect and confidence ? He believed the President was in great error. He had expressed himself in favor of submitting the entire Constitution to the people, and, in his message, regrets that it w,s not. The Governor, carrying out the then policy of the President, pro- mised that it would be submitted ; and the act of the Legislature, which the President desires to regard as a nullity, was actually carrying out the expressed will and desires of the President and the Governor."* * "States," Washington, March 18, 1858. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 135 The distinguished gentleman proceeded to inquire into the benefit that was expected from the admission of Kansas, and held that nothing was to be gained. He was a Southern man, as ready to defend any invasion of Southern rights as any man. But the same feeling which inspired him to defend his own rights inspired him to defend the rights of others. He believed that slave-labor could not be profitably employed north of 36 30'. Experience has shown the wisdom of the men who made the line of demarcation. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an evil measure. If it was not completely .constitutional, it was hallowed, in his estimation, by the good it produced and the peace it entailed on the country. During the debate the Senator from Kentucky had been de- lighted with the display made by Senators, North and South, of the resources of their sections. He heard them with great pride. One showed the mighty resources in product of the South; another exhibited the skill, labor, navigation, and commerce of the North. If a man might be proud of either as separate nations, how should he feel at their union? His allegiance was not to any particular section. He desired to be ruled by a spirit of justice. He did not vote on this matter in any sectional sense. He was anxious to aid in a settlement of all differences, and he would go for the admission of Kansas on the condition that the Constitution be submitted to a vote of the qualified voters ; if it was ratified, the President should proclaim Kansas a State; and, if not, that a new constitutional convention be ^authorized, an enabling act, in fact, be passed for its benefit. Senator Crittenden's speech "created a marked sensation, and the eloquent Kentuckian was warmly congratulated by Senators." On the next day, and in reply to some remarks on this speech by Senator Toombs, of Georgia, Senator Crittenden took occasion to impress still further on the South that she had nothing to gain by the passage of Lecompton. He held that slavery was not in the question. If the South could look at the question as he looked at it, he believed it would be for her benefit. You will [to the South] have two Senators immediately here, opposed to you. Are you in a hurry to precipitate such a result? Will you gain by it ? No. If the Southern men thought with him, they would place no estoppel on Kansas, but act a just part; and 136 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. only thus could they benefit the section of the country of which he, with others here, was a citizen and a Senator. He regretted that every man in the South did not agree with him. He had not enlisted under any banner. He thought he had grown old enough to disrobe himself of the prejudices of the partisan, and act the patriot. He was a true Senator, a true citizen, of the South. A loud burst of applause in the galleries anticipated the death of Lecompton.* Senator Crittenden offered a substitute for the bill admitting Kansas. It was defeated in the Senate by a vote of yeas 24, nays 34, but was introduced into the House by Mr. Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, and passed, yeas 120, nays 112. The "Crit- tenden-Montgomerv Bill," as it was called, provided for the sub- mission of the Lecompton Constitution to the vote of the people of Kansas. If it had a majority, the President was to be informed, who would, by proclamation, declare Kansas admitted on that Constitution, without further Congressional interference. If rejecte^ it provided for a convention, to be called at an early day, u^nder suitable guards, for the formation of another Consti- tution, and allowed the new State one Representative in Con- gress until the next census. The bill gave great satisfaction to the Anti-Lecomptonites. It was considered a national, and not a party, measure. On the 2d of April, on motion of Senator Green, the Senate passed a resolution disagreeing with the House bill, yeas 33, nays 23 ; and on the 8th, the House, on motion of Mr. Montgomery, "adhered to its amendment," by yeas 119, nays 111. Thus there was direct conflict between the branches of the National Legislature. The Washington journal already quoted confronted the bills thus: "The Senate bill dictates terms to a portion of the United States. The House bill but recognises the rights which every State enjoys. The Senate bill accepts, after altering, the Southern clause in the Lecompton Constitution. The House bill admits Kansas, and refers the instrument, untouched, to the people. The Senate bill illegally perpetrates a cheat on the South, and humbugs the North. The House bill honestly gives the whole thing, Southern clause * " States," March 19, 1858. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 137 and all, to the will of the people." April 13, the Senate in- sisted on its disagreement, and asked for a committee of confer- ence, by a vote of yeas 30, nays 24; and the presiding officer pro tempore (Senator Foot, of Vermont) appointed Messrs. Green, Hunter, and Seward as the committee on the part of the Senate. On the next day, Mr. Montgomery moved " that the House insist on their adherence/' which, after an excited dis- cussion, was negatived by 108 to 107, the Speaker voting in the negative. Mr. English, of Indiana, who, that morning, in caucus of Anti-Lecomptonites, had expressed his determination to accede to the Senate's request, moved that " the House agree to the con- ference," which was passed by 108 to 108, the Speaker voting in the affirmative. This result was received by the galleries with applause. The managers on the part, of the House were Messrs. W. H. English, of Indiana, A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, and W. A. Howard, of Michigan. On the 23d, Senator Green reported in the Senate, and Mr. English, in the House, a substi- tute agreed to by the majority of the Committee of Conference. This amendment was offered by Mr. English, and is now known as the "English Bill." On Friday, April 30, the bill passed both branches. In the House the vote stood, yeas 112, nays 103. In the Senate, yeas 31, nays 22. Senator Crittenden voted against the report. He agreed with it so far as the Senate had retreated from its position of not sub- mitting the Constitution to the people; but still the "EngHsh Bill" did not submit it in the bold arid honest manner of the House bill. The Committee referred a certain ordinance, and if the people accept the land therein spoken of, they accept a Con- stitution to which it is well known they are opposed. Qn the other hand, suppose they agree with the Constitution, but do not accept the land : they are considered, by the terms of the new bill, as not wishing to come into the Union under the said Con- stitution. "Is this," he said, "a fair submission ~bf the Consti- tution ? If it is to be submitted, the people are entitled to it by their own right, without any proviso whatever." He spoke for an hour, and was listened to with marked attention, the galleries being crowded, and a large number of members of the House being attracted to hear "the venerable Senator from Ken- tucky." 12* 138 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. During this session, Senator Crittenden made an unavailing attempt to increase the duties levied under the Tariff Act of the 3d of March, 1857. He made a persistent effort to have General Shields sworn in as Senator from Minnesota, in February, 1858, that gentleman having written him a letter arguing that there could be no such political anomaly as a State out of the Union, or not yet in the Union. He referred to the law of 1857, authorizing, in an absolute manner, the people of Minnesota to form a State Government and to come into the Union on an equal footing with the original States. The people performed their engagements in good faith, and expected a like action on the part of Congress. Minnesota had complied with every requirement; and her representatives were in a dilemma, not knowing whether they represented a State in the Union or out of it.* On motion of Senator Toombs, the matter was referred to the Judiciary Committee, which reported that Minnesota was not a State under the Constitution and laws,f (March 4, 1858.) On the resolutions concerning the British aggressions of 1858, Senator Crittenden was in favor of demanding reparation, but doing nothing rashly. England had done us wrong; but he would not have the world believe we were acting passionately. In like manner, in the debate on the New Regiments Bill, he was for giving the Government any men it demanded, but was opposed to Senator Pugh's amendment for the raising of com- panies in various States. They should, he thought, be raised in regiments. In v the discussion of Senator Doolittle's proposal to present Commodore Paulcling with a gold medal, for arresting General William Walker within the jurisdiction of Nicaragua, Senator Crittenden took a brief but decided share, vindicating the legality of Paulding's conduct. He held that in point of fact the sove- reignty of Nicaragua had not been assailed by the Commodore, it having been already nullified and suspended at the place in ques- tion by the occupation of armed invaders. In his mind, Paulding * See Letter of General James Shields to Senator Crittenden. Cong. Globe, Part 1, 1st session of 35th Congress. | Minnesota was admitted May 11, 1858, and Henry M. Rice and James Shields sworn in as Senators from that State on the 12th, and William W. Phelps and James M. Cavanaugh as Representatives on May 22. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 139 was a deliverer, and not a trespasser j and in the eye of reason as well as of national law, no violence was done to the territorial sovereignty of Nicaragua by his friendly interposition. On his return home, after his labors in the first session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress, his course was generously impeded by a series of ovations from the people. Senator Crittenden has always heen an ardent advocate of the settlement of claims of American citizens on foreign Govern- ments, and is chairman of the committee to which the French Spoliations were referred. He reported a bill in favor of claim- ants in the first session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress, and in the second session reviewed the history of the past legislation of Congress in favor of satisfying the claims of American citizens for the spoliations committed by the Government of France prior to the year 1801. A hill for this purpose had been several times passed by the Senate, and had once been enacted by hoth Houses of Congress, but had been vetoed by President Polk for reasons mainly based on considerations of contempo- raneous expediency. President Washington had officially recog- nised the validity of the^e claims, whose equity was also supported by the concurrent testimony of men like Lowndes, Webster, and Clay, to whose names might be added that of Judge Marshall, who was fully apprized of the foundation on which they rested. To his own mind, the Evidence in favor of their allowance by the Government was unimpeachable. Senator Crittenden opposed Mr. Slidell's bill to facilitate the acquisition of Cuba. In his speech on the subject, (Feb. 15, 1859,) he showed how unpropitious the time was for the pro- posed measure. The reference to the subject in the President's Message had resulted in dissent from Spain, and disfavor from France and England. He argued that in view of the vexatious reclamations held by us on nearly all the South American States - -with a Paraguayan expedition on hand and with a proposal to occupy Sonora and Chihuahua, for the security of Arizona it would be prudent to forego the immediate acquisition of Cuba. He thought it likely that Cuba would belong to us in time ; and, while he would not deny its desirability, he most decidedly would not admit its necessity to us. He was too proud of his country to admit any thing so humiliating. The domestic aspect of the 140 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. matter also led him to doubt the propriety of the time and the mode for accomplishing the object. It was estimated that $200,000,000 would be the least sum Spain would accept for this dependency, to which she so tenaciously clings. Last year our annual ex- penditures were $81,000,000. This year they would be nearly $100,000,000. He doubted, then, if this was a time to go two hundred millions in debt. Yet the Senator was willing that President Buchanan should undertake negotiations for the pur- chase of Cuba; and, if he succeeded, the difficulties of the task would only enhance the glory of the achievement. Upon the treaty, when formed, he could sit in candid judgment; but, under the circumstances of the case, he did riot feel authorized to place $30,000,000 of the public money in the hands of the President merely to enable him to commence the negotiation. Senator Crittenden has expressed himself as long favorable to liberal grants of land in the new States for purposes of im- provement, especially improvements by railroad, in which the whole community have an interest. He has all his life advocated the distribution, on some terms or other, of the proceeds of the sales of the public lands among all the States for the purposes of improvement. The removal of the Senate from the old to the new chamber in the Capitol was a very impressive sight, and was rendered particularly interesting by the admission of ladies on the floor, the galleries being over-crowded. On this occasion, Senator Crittenden made a short but touching farewell to the' scene of their labors, mingling with it memories of the great men who had left their impress on the very walls, and many hopes that the Senate would always maintain a powerful and conservative influ- ence for its own dignity and the glory of the country. Mr. Crittenden attended the National Agricultural Fair held at Chicago, on the loth of September, and was received with every demonstration of welcome. He made a speech advocating in the liveliest and most impressive manner a reliance on the Constitution and a love for the Union. He went to Chicago to forget that such a thing as a cloud of politics hung over the country, and he would not allow himself to be dragged into any political or party discussion. Party politics were very transitory affairs. We are made to regard them as of great importance, JOHN J. CRITTENDEN. 141 when to-morrow will bury them in oblivion. The tone of the eminent Senator's excellent remarks may be gleaned from a few sentences. "I am at "home here/' he said, "though I came with very few acquaintances and friends in this part of the country; yet the whole land is my country. The Union makes us one people : may God preserve that Union !" The impassioned earnestness of this invocation struck a chord in the vast assemblage, and the speaker was interrupted by loud applause, and cries of " Good ! good !" " Preserve the Union, and the Union will preserve you, and make you the mightiest people in the world I" The patriotic voice of the Kentuckian was frequently drowned by the enthu- siasm his sentiments created. In early life Mr. Crittenden was a Republican, and afterward a Whig. He is now called an "American." He was a devoted friend of Henry Clay, on the occasion of whose death he made one of his greatest efforts ; and on account of his experience and eloquence he always catches the ear of the Senate, of which he is sometimes denominated the Patriarch. The recent distractions of political parties have indicated to many leading men in the North as well as to the most prominent members of the u South American" party the policy of com- bining, with the view of holding the balance of power in the coming Presidential election. On the assembling of the Thirty- Sixth Congress, measures were taken to form an organization, and to confer with the Executive Committees of the "American" and National Whig parties, and such others as were favorable to the formation of a " national party on the basis of the Union, the Constitution, and the enforcement of the laws." The American arid National Whig Committees having fully concurred in these movements, it was resolved to hold a National Union Convention for the nomination of candidates for the Presidency and Vice- Presidency. A National Union Executive Central Committee was also formed, and the greatest activity manifested toward the furtherance of the objects stated. The first meeting, consisting of members of the various politi- cal parties, Senators and Representatives, journalists from the various States of the Union, was presided over by Senator Crit- tenden. In the subsequent movements, he has, by the unani- mous desire of the representatives of all parties, been accorded 142 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. the leading position. Among those members of Congress who actively participated in the formation of the new party were Senator Kennedy, and Messrs. H. Winter Davis, J. Morrison Harris, and E. H. Webster, of Maryland; T. Hardeman, Jr., and Joshua Hill, of Georgia; William C. Anderson, F. M. Bristow, Laban. T. Moore, Robert Mallory, and Green Adams, of Kentucky ; George Briggs, of New York ; John A. Gilmer, J. M. Leach, W. N. H. Smith, and Z. B. Vance, of North Caro- lina; H. Maynard, Thomas A. R. Nelson, R. B. Brabson, William B. Stokes, Emerson Etheridge, James M. Quarles, and R. Hat- ton, of Tennessee; A. R. Boteler, of Virginia; Edward Bou- ligny, of Louisiana, and others. In commencing this movement, the gentlemen who have taken the lead disclaim any spirit of presumption. Their circular takes the ground that " the exigencies of the country seemed to require the formation of a new party, founded on national and conserva- tive principles. They have reason to believe that such is the conviction, of a great and patriotic portion of the people, includ- ing very many members of the present dominant and contending parties, who have been made sensible of the dangerous and dis- turbing consequences likely to result from the further pursuit of their party controversies, and whom it is in the highest degree desirable to draw together into fraternal union and efficient political co-operation. In answer, therefore, to this apparent demand, the movement for a < Union party' has been inau- gurated." Of this party Senator Crittenden seems to be the central figure, if not the head. CALEB GUSHING. 143 CALEB GUSHING, OF MASSACHUSETTS. THE career of Caleb Gushing, as a scholar, author, lawyer, statesman, diplomatist, general, and judge, has been remarkably eminent for one who is still not past the meridian of life. As a man of industry and indomitable perseverance in whatever he undertakes to accomplish, it is conceded that he has no superior, if indeed an equal, among the leading men of New England. Nearly all of his peers the eminent statesmen and orators with whom he acted or contended on the hustings or in the halls of legislation within the last quarter of a century have passed into the realms of death or immortality. John Quincy Adams, Isaac C. Bates, Levi Lincoln, John Davis, Levi Woodbury, Leverett Saltonstall, Daniel Webster, and Rufus Choate have disappeared : of the brilliant group, Lincoln, Everett, and Gushing alone survive. " Among the leading men of New England who have flourished since Mr. Cushing's appearance on the public stage, it is doubt- ful if any one has exhibited more varied and profound know- ledge of the science of our own Government and of foreign Governments, of jurisprudence, of equity and maritime laws, of international law, of commerce, of common law, of art, science, and literature, and of the living and dead languages, than he. In foreign countries men generally become distinguished in some specialty, in parliament, on the bench, at the bar, as poet, editor, scholar, or general. In our own country we find men eminent in many walks ; but rarely does a man so versatile and so unquestionably able on all points as is Mr. Gushing, come before the public in any country. Caleb Gushing was born at Salisbury, Massachusetts, on the 17th day of January, 1800. He early evinced fine powers of intellect, and great fondness for study. After due preparation, 144 _ LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. he entered Harvard College when but thirteen years of age, and was graduated in 1817. His collegiate career was one of uncommon brilliancy. The opinion which the government of the college had of his capacity and learning was best exhibited in 1819, when he was appointed a tutor in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in that institution. He held this office two years. ^ The two years that elapsed between his graduation and his appointment to the tutorship were passed by Mr. Gushing as a law student at Harvard, under Asahel Stearns, first Law Professor. In 1821 he entered the law office of Ebenezer Moseley, Esq., at Newburyport, where he studied for a year, and was admitted to the bar in the following year. In 1823 he was married to Caro- line Wilde, daughter of Judge Wilde, of the Supreme Judicial Court, a lady of rare intellectual endowments. At the bar he at once gave evidence of great abilities, and rose rapidly into a lucrative practice. For many years he and Rufus Choate were generally considered by the public as at the head of the famous Essex bar; and many comparisons were made by their respective friends and admirers as to which was the more eloquent, able, and successful lawyer. Mr. Cushing's political life began early in the- year 1825, when he was chosen a representative from Newburyport to the State Legislature. In the next year he was elected a Senator from Essex County, and displayed powers which marked him at once as a promising man for the future of Massachusetts and of the Union. He continued in the successful practice of law till 1829, when he went to Europe with his wife, and travelled for two years. During this interval, Mrs. Gushing wrote a series of " Letters on France and Spain," which were printed for private circula- tion ; while her husband employed himself with unceasing in- dustry in obtaining a knowledge of the laws, institutions, sta- tistics, and literature of the countries which they visited. On his return, Mr. Gushing published his " Review of the Late Revolution in France/' and also his best book, " Reminiscences of Spain." Like others of our best writers, Irving, Prescott, Ticknor, and A. H. Everett, Gushing early exhibited a taste for Spanish subjects, and has done his part in paying back the CALEB GUSHING. 145 debt which the New World owes to Castile and Leon* He also contributed occasionally to the " North American Review." In 1832, about a year after their return from Europe, Mrs. Gushing died; and by her death Mr. Gushing lost a companion who tho- roughly appreciated his superior talents and active genius, sym- pathized with his objects, and encouraged him in all his labors. She left no child, and her husband, not marrying again, devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits and public affairs. In 1833 and 1834, Mr. Gushing again served in the Legisla- ture for Newburyport, and in the latter year was elected to Con- gress, and took his seat in that body in December, 1835. He was thrice re-elected, and sat in the House of Representatives until March, 1843. He made his first effort on the 26th of January, 1836, in a prepared argument in support of the right of petition. He avowed that, although he was, and had ever been, utterly opposed to the Abolitionists and their mischievous crusade against the constitutional rights of the South in regard to the question of slavery, yet he held to the sacred right of petition. He would have all respectfully-worded petitions received, referred, and reported upon. The 9th of February following, a debate occurred on the Naval Appropriation Bill, in Committee of the Whole, which led to an exciting scene, of a personal nature, between Mr. Gushing and Mr. Ben Hardin, of Kentucky. Mr. Hardin, an old and experienced member, a radical of great ability, who had the reputation of being " the terror of the House," and whose wit was once declared by John Randolph, of Roanoke, to be like a butcher-knife whetted on a brick-bat, had addressed the House against sundry repairs at navy-yards at the North, in a strain of emphatic severity. He had denounced the extrava- gance of members, who were, he said, forever proposing appro- priations for fortifications along the Atlantic coast, which would require, if their wishes could be gratified, two hundred millions of dollars and a standing army of eighty thousand men. Mr. Gushing, being a new member, and ambitious, no doubt, to distinguish himself in an impromptu debate, replied to the famous and much-feared Kentuckian in very decided and un- mistakable terms. He was courteous and parliamentary, but severe, r Witnesses of the scene say that the House was elec- K 13 146 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. trifled. Members on all sides looked up in sui prise to see who was the young speaker with the clear, ringing voice and confident manner. Mr. Hardin, himself looking amazed and surprised, obtained the floor after Mr. Gushing had concluded, and commenced a reply. At first he seemed in doubt where to begin, or what to say; but, recovering his self-possession, he proceeded in a characteristic strain of denunciation and ridi- cule of the Massachusetts member who had dared to cross his path, which made the House wonder what was coming next. He sneefed at Mr. Gushing for having prepared and read to the House his maiden speech. He accused him of hailing from the land of the Yankees, where the soil was barren, and rocky, and unproductive; where the inhabitants got their living by fishing, by peddling tin ware, wooden clocks, and wooden nutmegs, and where many of them indulged in eating pork, molasses, and codfish ; where blue-lights were held out to the enemy, and where the Hartford Convention was held, during the war with Great Britain. By the desire of a host of members, the floor was conceded to Mr. Gushing, for the purpose of making a rejoinder. Mr. Gushing, cool, collected, self-poised, and resolute, began by alluding to the parade of objections raised against him. He admitted that he had deliberately prepared his first speech. He had done so because he was not only a new member, but one of the youngest members of the House, and could not assume to address the assembled representatives and law-makers of the nation, for the first time in his life, upon a question of great importance, without preparing himself. If he had been anx- ious to imitate the habit of the gentleman from Kentucky, to take the floor, at any time, or upon any or every question under discussion, and commence speaking, no matter where, not knowing what to say or where to leave off", but running on in a helter-skelter style until he might exhaust himself, he doubted not that he could, like the gentleman from Kentucky, at least amuse if he could not instruct the House. It was most true, he said, that he had come from New England. He was proud of it. The soil of Massachusetts was, indeed, rocky and less productive than that of more favored localities; but then it was peopled by a hardy, industrious, and intelligent race of men, whose industry and perseverance had made it blossom *like the CALEB GUSHING. 147 rose ; had dotted it all over with beautiful cities, towns, and villages, with schoolhouses, colleges, and churches, all denoting how much intelligence and Christianity were fostered and che- rished in the region where dwell the Yankees, whom the gentle- man from Kentucky was pleased to sneer at. He maintained that the New England patriots who fought at Lexington, Con- cord, and Bunker Hill, and others of the same character, were the equals of the patriots in other sections of the country. And as for the last war against Great Britain, he said, it was a historical fact that the bones of New England men whitened the plains of every battle fought on the soil of the whole country; while every naval battle, on the ocean or on the lakes, was fought as well and as gloriously by the hardy sons of New England as by those of any other portion of the Union. In conclusion, Mr. Gushing, referring to Mr. Hardin's habit of quoting to the House from Homer, begged leave to refer to that celebrated author for an illustration apropos to the occasion. He regretted to observe upon that floor a disputant who, with neither the courage of Achilles for the combat, nor the wisdom of Ulysses for the council, yet, with the gray hairs of Nestor on his head, condescended to perpetually play the part of the snarl- ing Thersites ! The whole House broke out in a burst of admi- ration at this closing sally of the young orator, while the galleries sent up a loud shout of applause, accompanied with clapping of hands and waving of handkerchiefs by the ladies. A motion was made to have the galleries cleared. The Speaker, Mr. James K. Polk, was called from his room to resume the chair and preserve order. The committee rose; but, the men having all left the ladies' gallery, mean time, the motion to clear the galleries was lost. In the course of the debate in the House (in 1836) on the bill to admit Michigan and Arkansas into the Union, some objection was made by leading members from the North to a clause in the Constitution of Arkansas, requiring the people of the State to refrain forever from abolishing slavery. Mr. Henry A. Wise warmly advocated the clause, while Mr. Gushing as warmly opposed it. As a Southern man, Mr. Wise felt it his duty to take a stand for the institution of the South. In like manner, Mr. Gushing felt it his duty, as a Northern man, to take a 148 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. counter-stand, " Not/' in his own words, " to assail slavery, but to defend liberty." On the first introduction of the subject, Wise had made a declaration that if Northern members did not hold themselves engaged to the terms of the Missouri Compro- mise, Southern members would likewise disregard it, and that if the North sought to impose restrictions affecting slave pro- perty, the South might be impelled to introduce slavery into the heart of the North. Mr. Gushing denied that Massachusetts was a party to the Compromise; and, in reply to the alternative threatened by Wise, he protested against the idea of restricting liberty in one part of the Union in retaliation of the attempt to limit the spread of slavery in another. It was not within the rules of debate to pursue the subject at the time; but in alluding to it in the matter of the Arkansas Bill, Mr. Gushing concluded with this fervid burst of feeling: "I trust it was but a hasty thought, struck out in the ardor of debate. To introduce slavery into the heart of the North ? Vain idea ! Inva- sion, pestilence, civil war, may conspire to terminate the eight millions of free spirits who now dwell there. This, in the long lapse of ages in- calculable, is possible to happen. You may raze to the earth the thronged cities, the industrious villages, the peaceful hamlets, of the North. You may lay waste its fertile valleys and verdant hill-sides. You may plant its very soil with salt, and consign it to everlasting desolation. You may transform its beautiful fields into a desert as bare as the blank face of the sands of Sahara. You may reach the realization of the infernal boast with which AttUa the Hun marched his barbaric hosts into Italy, demolishing whatever there is of civilization or prosperity in the happy dwellings of the North, and reducing their very substance to powder, so that a squadron of cavalry shall gallop over the sites of populous cities unimpeded as the wild steeds on the savannas of the West. All this you may do : it is within the bounds of physical possibility. But I solemnly assure every gentleman within the sound of my voice, I proclaim to the country and to the world, that, until all this be fully accomplished to the uttermost extremity of the letter, you cannot, you shall not, intro- duce slavei*y into the heart of the North." Mr. Gushing ably and elaborately supported the right of the United States to Oregon, and, in moving to refer President Van Buren's Message to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, (May 17, 1838.) addressed the House at length on the subject. He went into the whole history of right, by discovery, purchase, and treaty, and fully exposed the illegality and inconsistency of the CALEB GUSHING. 149 claims put forth by Great Britain to the country watered by the Columbia. At the present day, a portion of this argument will be found instructive : * "It is a principle adopted by European nations in their settlements on this Continent, that priority of discovery, followed in a reasonable time by actual occupation, confers exclusive territorial jurisdiction and " sovereignty. It is also held that an establishment, once made, extends to contiguity into the neighboring regions. If the discovery be of an island, it has, in most cases, been regarded as giving a title to the whole island ; if on the coast of the continent, then as reaching indefinitely along the coast and into the interior, with limits to be decided by actual occupation, by compact, by conflicting claimants, or by force. Whether this be just or not as regards the Indians inhabiting America, is another question. I speak of it only as the conventional rule recognised in the negotiations, and practised upon in the colonial enterprises, of the chief nations of Europe ; and thus constituting a part of that somewhat uncer- tain mixture of conventions and of national equity which is called the Law of Nations. This general principle, which enters into the present question in all its parts, includes a particular principle which is more specifically applicable to it. The discovery of the mouth of a great river, or the exploration of it, followed in a reasonable time by the actual assertion of territorial sovereignty, gives an exclusive right to all the country watered by that river. Without referring to various foreign cases of the application of this doctrine, it will be sufficient for the satis- faction of the House to show how it has been treated by the United States. " In the letter of Messrs. Monroe and Pinckney to Don Pedro Cavellos, April 21, 1805, it is said, 'When any European nation takes possession of any extent of sea-coast, that possession is understood as extending into the interior country to the sources of the rivers emptying withia that coast, to all their branches and the country they cover, and to give it a right, in exclusion of all other nations, to the same.' "This position is adopted by Mr. Adams in his letter to Don Luis de Onis, March 12, 1818, and by Mr. Gallatin, in his discussion of the pre- sent question. (Executive Docs., Twentieth Congress, 1st Session.) " Now, whatever rights, more or less, are derivable from discovery, be- long to the United States alone. The river Columbia was first discovered in 1792, (excepting whether it may have been previously discovered by the old Spanish navigators,) by Captain Robert Gray, of the American ship Columbia, fitted out in Boston, and received from him the name of the ship he commanded. In the same year, but confessedly subsequent to this, and upon information derived from Captain Gray, it was visited by Vancouver in behalf of Great Britain. Priority of discovery, there- * It may be found complete Ln the Appendix to Cong. Globe, Twenty-Fifth Congress, Secoivl Session. 150 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. fore, is clearly with the United States, as against Great Britain. Indeed, Gray had previously, in 1788, explored the strait of Juan de Fuca, north of the Columbia. So that, leaving out of j'iev? the rights of Spain by dis- covery, and of Spain and France by contiguity and extension, the United States claim the Oregon Territory by right of discovery." By cession from France, in 1803, the United States acquired Louisiana and all the rights of France in that direction. What are the northwest limits of Louisiana? Extension by contiguity would carry the pretensions of France to the Pacific. By Great Britain herself, the possession of the hody of the continent was always treated as stretching across the entire breadth of the con- tinent. Her grants to Massachusetts, and to other colonies, reach to the Pacific. Conflicts of pretension thus grew up be- tween France and Great Britain, which were adjusted, in 1763, by the Treaty of Versailles, by which Great Britain ceded to France all claims to land west of the Mississippi; prior to which, by the Treaty of Utrecht, concluded in 1713, France and Great Britain agreed to appoint commissioners to describe and settle the boundaries between the French and English colonies in North America, which resulted in the establishment of the parallel of forty-nine degrees north as the northern limit of Louisiana. As between Great Britain and France, then, Louisiana was bounded east by the Mississippi, north by latitude forty-nine degrees north, and westward by the Pacific; and by the Louisiana Treaty the United States added to her own rights of discovery the pre- existing rights of France. Such were Mr. Gushing' s views on this important subject. On the death of President Harrison, and the accession of the Vice-President, Mr. Tyler, Mr. Gushing, notwithstanding Mr. Tyler's veto of the bill for another United States Bank, could not at the crisis give him up and accept the dictatorship of any other leader of the Whig party. Wise also stood by Tyler, and Webster was the only member of Harrison's Gabinet who did not resign. These gentlemen saw evidences of a revolution in the Whig party. President Tyler was read out of that party by a caucus committee of Congress in a Manifesto. Through the columns of the " National Intelligencer" Mr. Gushing replied to the Manifesto, and defended Tyler with his usual force and fervor. He also, with courteous boldness, confronted Henry CALEB GUSHING. 151 Clay, and charged him with pursuing or dictating a course which would inevitably tend to destroy the Whig party. In return for these great services, the President thrice nominated Gushing for Secretary of the Treasury, but on the 3d of March, 1843, the Whigs in the Senate refused to con- firm him. The President then appointed him Commissioner to China, and in the same year he was appointed Envoy Extraordi- nary and Minister Plenipotentiary to^the Celestial Empire. He sailed in July, 1843, in the steam-frigate Missouri. At Gibraltar, in August, that vessel was destroyed by fire, and Mr. Gushing, with his characteristic energy, and without waiting for instruc- tions from his Government, forthwith proceeded by way of Egypt and India to China, and in six months succeeded in nego- tiating a treaty and establishing regular diplomatic relations with that vast empire. Having accomplished, with unexpected expe- dition, the great object of his mission, he returned in 1844 to the United States through Mexico, having made almost a com- plete circuit of the globe by land and sea, within a belt of forty degrees, in less than one year. In 1845 he started on a tour to the Northwest Territories, and explored them in every direc- tion, particularly in the regions of the great lakes, He endured all the exposure and hardships incident to such a tour, sleeping in the woods week after week, and hunting or fishing for his daily food, far from all vestiges of civilization. Returning to his home in Newburyport in 1846, he in a few days found himself again elected, by both parties, to represent that town in the Le- gislature. The war with Mexico had broken out a few months previous, and Mr. Gushing proposed that a regiment of volun- teers should be raised, and that the State should appropriate the sum of twenty thousand dollars to aid in equipping it. The men were readily found, but, notwithstanding the impassioned ap- peals of Gushing, who invoked aid in uniform as colonel of the regiment, the Legislature, under a strong prejudice against the war, refused the appropriation ; upon which Mr. Gushing ad- vanced a large sum of money from his own funds, and with the aid of friends raised the rest. He led the regiment to the thea- tre of war. President Polk soon promoted him to the position of brigadier-general, and, though having no opportunity to lead his command into battle, he served with firmness and ability, and 152 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. held a high position on the Court of Inquiry ordered for the ex- amination of charges against Major-General Scott. In the year 1847, and while in Mexico, General Gushing, very unexpectedly to himself, received the nomination of the Demo- cratic party for the office of Governor of Massachusetts. He received the largest vote that had been cast by that party for several years. He was also a candidate for the same office in 1848. In 1850, he was, for the fifth time, chosen a member of the State Legislature, and served with distinction during the exciting ses- sion of 1851. He was elected Mayoi of the city of Newburyport in 1851 and 1852, and in the last-named year was chosen com- mander of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, the oldest military organization in the United States. The Legislature of Massachusetts, at the session of 1852, having created the office of additional Justice of the Su- preme Court, General Cushing was appointed to fill it. From this he entered the Cabinet of President Pierce as Attorney- General, and filled the station with eminent ability. His deci- sions, numerous as they are, show a most extensive erudition. Among the important cases before him was the Enlistment diffi- culty between the United States and Great Britain, which arose in the fall of 1855. The opponents of the Administration took exception not only to the tone of the Attorney-General's official opinion, but to what they called his interference in the matter. In reviewing the subject at the time, Mr. E. Kingman, the well- informed and experienced Washington adviser of several leading journals, said, "The instructions of the Attorney-General to the United States Dis- trict Attorney of Pennsylvania have been commented upon by the British press, and perhaps by the British Government, as rather irritating. Our own press seems to consider the instructions of the Attorney-General as a private act, for which he alone is responsible; and it has, therefore, in most cases, made an apology to the British Government for what it con- siders his presumption. It so happens, however, that the instructions were the act of the Government. They were not ' diplomatic,' that is true, for they are intended to be unambiguous. They were a matter of deliberate consideration, and were issued upon consultation and decision of the Executive Government, and were deemed necessary to call the attention not only of this country, but of Great Britain, to the dangerous aggressions of the latter upon our rights, and the apparent determination of Lord Palmerston to drag us into the present war." , , CALEB GUSHING. 153 The energetic action of Mr. Gushing in the discharge of duties not previously performed by the Attorney-General occasioned much comment ; and to understand the reasons why these duties had devolved upon him, it is perhaps best to look at con- temporaneous views. Mr. Kingman tells us that the labors of Secretary of State had become very burdensome, in consequence of the complications of foreign affairs, while the office of Attor- ney-General had become almost a sinecure. To create a division of labor, the judicial appointments, prosecution of offenders against the Neutrality Laws, extradition cases, and all cases coming under the Fugitive-Slave Law, were referred to Mr. Gushing; and the consequence was, "the business was efficiently done." After he assumed the duties indicated, foreign ministers came to the conclusion that the extradition treaties were a dead letter so far as the United States were concerned. ' 'The late (Fillmore) Administration did not break up any filibustering projects, nor obtain the conviction of any person on account of such en- terprises. The Neutrality Laws cannot now be violated with impunity, and every project of the sort has been broken up, except the last expe- dition of Walker, in which the prosecution failed on account of the re- fusal of the French Consul, Dillon, to appear as a witness in court. So in regard to the bark Maury. The Attorney-General took up the mutter upon the representation which was made to Mr. Marcy by Mr. Crampton on the llth of October, and his report was made on the 22d. The pro- secution of Hertz, Wagner, and others was, as we have seen, conducted under the direction of the Attorney-General with esuch efficiency that some persons are disposed to doubt his constitutional power on the sub- ject. But it will be understood, from the above statement, that he has the power under the order of the President, and of course this power is exercised under his direction ; and in regard to the Enlistment cases his proceedings, as is well known, are approved by the whole Adminis- tration."* At the close of the Pierce Administration, General Gushing retired into comparative privacy j but the voice of his ever-faith- ful constituency again and again pressed him into their service in the State Legislature. In that body he wields unmistakable influence, and even the journals politically opposed to him bear enthusiastic testimony to his being the legislator and orator. In * Letters in the New York "Journal of Commerce," Nov. 1855. 154 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. the discussion on the amendments to the Constitution of Massa- chusetts imposing disabilities on naturalized citizens, he greatly distinguished himself in opposition. It is impossible to condense his several efforts on this subject, but the point and force of his views may be gleaned from two brief paragraphs. On February 11, 1859, he said, " Mr. Speaker, I, you, we, gentlemen of the House of Representatives, belong to that ex- cellent white race, the consummate impersonation of intellect in man and of loveliness in woman ; whose power and whose privi- lege it is, wherever they may go and wherever they may be, to Christianize and to civilize, to command and to be obeyed, to conquer and to reign. I admit to an equality with me, sir, the white man, my blood and my race, whether he be the Saxon of England or the Celt of Ireland. But I do not admit as my equals either the red men of America, or the yellow men of Asia, or the black men of Africa." This was greeted with tumultuous applause in the galleries. As to the right of the State to enact such a law, he said, " The question whether the State has the power to enlarge the electoral basis of citizenship of the United States, is one that has been most earnestly debated, and is still debated; and we have now and here the reverse of that proposition ; and that reverse comes in the odious form of disfranchisement. Can a State deprive a citizen of the United States of his right of votership ? that is, can a State narrow and abridge the electoral basis in its relation to citizenship of the United States ? I am free to say that I doubt upon both these propositions. I will not undertake to speak dogmatically upon the question ; but I doubt the right of Massachusetts thus to impose disabilities, at least in respect to the election of Federal officers, upon citizens of the United States." In view of the disturbed condition of public sentiment and " the dangers which threaten our Union," growing out of the Harper's Ferry raid and the sectional discussion to which it gave rise, great " Union meetings" were called in the chief cities to maintain the Constitution. One of these, held in Fanueil Hall, Boston, December 8, was a powerful and gratifying demon- stration. Letters were read from ex-President Pierce, Judge Curtis, and other eminfit persons, and the assembly was ad- CALEB GUSHING. ] 55 dressed by ex-Governor Lincoln, Edward Everett, and Caleb Gushing. Mr. Gushing vigorously denounced the recent " inva- sion of the State of Virginia" by men from Northern States. He brought the case home to Massachusetts, and asked his hearers what would they say if there were organized bands of invaders in Virginia, armed by subscription societies in Rich- mond, and inspired by sentiments of deadly hatred against them? Would they not say open war was better than war in disguise ? It was unspeakably mean to insist on enjoying the benefits of the Union without participating in its burdens, and treacherous to demand the execution of the bond of Union by Virginia and not execute it in Massachusetts. " I say," continued Mr. Gush- ing, " it would be mean, treacherous, hypocritical, to pretend that that state of things is to continue; and therefore we are here assembled to discountenance all such sentiments, all such passions, and all such criminal enterprises on the part of the people of the Northern States against those of the Southern." The speech enchained the audience, and is characterized as " clear, forcible, and fairly overwhelming in its effect." The above outline denotes a life of varied action and power, crowned with unvarying success. Without taking into account his orations and occasional addresses before literary and scientific societies, his writings have been very numerous. Besides the works already alluded to, and a translation of "Pothier on Mari- time Contracts," he has been a prolific contributor to the " North American Review," the "United States Literary Gazette," the " Southern Review," the "American Review," the "Democratic Review," the "Annual Register," the "Knickerbocker," and other periodicals. He also furnished many of the articles in the " Encyclopedia Americana" on the geography, history, and insti- tutions of Spanish America, in relation to which no writer in either hemisphere has displayed more accurate or comprehensive knowledge. He stands in the foremost rank as a debater and public speaker, prompt, fluent, vigorous, and self-possessed. He possesses an intrepid and executive genius ; and there is work, resolution, and endurance in him, as well as learning, eloquence, and facility in literary composition. 156 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. GEORGE M. DALLAS, OS 1 PENNSYLVANIA THIS eminent citizen is a son of Alexander James Dallas, a native of Jamaica, and one of the most distinguished and useful of America's adopted sons. a Indeed, in but few families have so many members risen to distinction and eminent public usefulness as in that of the subject of this sketch. His grandfather, who emigrated from Scotland* to Jamaica about the middle of the eighteenth century, was one of the most prominent professors of the particular branch of science to which his energies were de- voted. Of his four sons, Robert Charles Dallas became one of the most voluminous and useful writers of his age ; and Alexan- der James Dallas, Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of War of the Federal Republic, deservedly acquired by his public services a commanding position in the eyes of the American people. Their sister, Miss Dallas, married Captain Byron, of the English Navy, and was mother of the present and seventh Lord Byron. To the same family belonged the distinguished brothers, Sir George Dallas, whose political writings were so warmly ad- mired by William Pitt, and Sir Robert Dallas, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas. Nor have the wisdom of the bench and the deliberations of the councils only been indebted to this house ; in the Church it is ably represented by those excel- lent religious instructors through the pulpit and the press, the Rev. Alexander Robert Charles Dallas, and the Rev. Charles Dallas, who, after gaining military laurels in the Peninsula and at Waterloo, under Wellington, are now zealously engaged in the promotion of the best interests of the human race."f * A memoir in the London " Illustrated News of the World," June 19, 1858, accompanying a portrait for which Mr. Dallas sat in that city, opens with this sentence : " The Honorable George Mifflin Dallas, the Minister of the United States at the Court of St. James, like his predecessor, Mr. Buchanan, is a gen- tleman of Irish extraction and parentage." | Allibone's " Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and Ame- rican Authors/' &c., vol. i., Phila., 1858. GEORGE M. DALLAS. 157 Alexander James Dallas, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1791, District Attorney of Pennsylvania under Jefferson, Secretary of the Treasury under Madison, and a leader and champion of the old Republican party, of which Jefferson was the head, had three sons. The eldest rose to the rank of Com- modore in the United States Navy; the youngest was the late Judge Dallas, of Pittsburg; and the second, the eminent gentle- man the leading features of whose prominent career I shall now group together. George Mifflin Dallas was born July 10, 1792, in the city of Philadelphia, around which cluster so many glorious memo- ries of our nationality. Pursuing his educational studies under Mr. DorfeuiDe, at Germantown, and under Provost Andrews, at Philadelphia, he was in due course entered at Nassau Hall, Princeton, N.J., as a student of arts and sciences, and, after a residence of three years, was graduated with the highest honors of his class. His academical studies completed, young Dallas entered upon the study of the law under the superintendence of his father. The ardor with which he pursued the elementary branches of his future profession was suddenly diverted into another course by the declaration of war against Great Britain, made by Con- gress, June 18, 1812, a date which, if it initiated a great military disgrace to England from America, was also made memorable three years after by the victory of Waterloo. Fired by the patriotism which the action of Congress excited, Mr. Dallas suspended his legal studies, and entered a volunteer com- pany. It was his intention to temporarily give up law, and fight for justice. But fortune decreed that his fighting should be of a mental instead of a military character. In 1813, the Emperor of Russia offered his mediation between the United States and Great Britain ; and Senator J. A. Bayard, of Delaware, and Albert Gallatin, recently Secretary of the Treasury under Jeffer- son and Madison, were appointed to proceed to St. Petersburg, to negotiate. Mr. Gallatin having selected young Dallas to ac- company him as Secretary, the latter of course accepted, was released from his military engagements, and having been admitted to the bar, April, 1813, as a special favor in view of the circum- 14 158 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. stances, three months before he was of age, departed on his mission. Gallatinand Bayard remained in St. Petersburg for six months without hearing from England. Mr. Dallas was despatched by John Quincy Adams, then Minister to Russia, to London, with despatches to Count Lieven, Russian Ambassador at the Court of St. James, the Emperor of course concurring. Bayard and Grallatin proceeded to Amsterdam, and arrived there in March, 1814, where they were informed that England would not accept the mediation of Russia, but had no objection to treat for peace with the United States direct. The overture conveyed by Mr. Dallas led to the designation of Ghent as the place of negotiation ; and, commissioners having been appointed on both sides, a treaty was effected after considerable delay.* During his residence in Europe, his observations in Russia, France, England, Holland, and the Netherlands, as well as his constant intercourse with some of the most prominent diplomats and statesmen, tended greatly to enlarge his mind. He was unexpectedly sent to the United States with confidential despatches to President Madison, and arriving in New York in October, 1814, proceeded imme- diately to Washington, and delivered his trust into the hands of the chief magistrate. The disgraceful affair at Bladensburg, a couple of months previous, had opened the way to the capital, which, then a mere village of nine hundred houses, easily fell a prey to the British. Pillage, plunder, and devastation was the result. The Capitol, the President's house, and the public offices were destroyed. The invaders, desiring to silence the official press, had even sacked the "National Intelligencer" office, broken the types, and burned its library in the streets.^ Affairs were in a dilapi- dated state when the bearer of the celebrated sine qua non de- spatches arrived. The President was in a private house, weak, care-worn, and apparently dejected. Seizing the despatches, he * It may not be out of place to state here that the Commissioners were: for England, Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams ; for the United States, Messrs. J. Q. Adams, Gallatin, Bayard, Henry Clay, and Jonathan Russell. f See Williams's "Invasion avl Capture of Washington," New York, 1857. GEORGE M. DALLAS. 159 broke the seal, and the very overbearing character of the contents immediately changed his appearance. "These will do/' said he, emphatically, rising with animation. "I hope so," replied Mr. Dallas; "for I know their contents." "Yes, these will do," continued Madison: "they will unite the American people, which is what we most need. No patriotic citi- zen of any party will hesitate a moment to reject conditions so extravagant and unjust." So confident was the President of the result, that " he departed from the established etiquette of diplomacy pending a negotia- tion," and at once published the British proposition; and the result proved the accuracy of his conclusions. Mr. Dallas did not return to Ghent, but was appointed Remitter of the Treasury, an office which he held about a year and a half, when he resigned it, and returned to Philadelphia to follow his profession.* The exciting events through which he had passed, and the nature of his recent occupation abroad, at a time when youth is moulding its course to manhood, naturally gave Mr. Dallas's mind a strong bias for politics. Cultivating them in the best society abroad, and upon the basis which Jefferson had given to his disciples, he was well calculated to arrest the attention of his fellow-citizens. Besides, his relation to a leading member of Madison's Cabinet, the divided state of public opinion, and the necessity for subduing the acrimonious spirit evoked thereby, would have made it a matter of great difficulty for him to ab- stain from politics, even had Mr. Dallas been inclined so to do. Gifted with decided talents and an easy, dignified, and copious eloquence, his associates and the partisans of the Administration found in him an able and efficient mouth-piece. On the 4th of July, 1815, he made his first appearance as a party politician in an oration, delivered by invitation. He re- viewed the differences between Great Britain and the United States, and vindicated the measures and policy of the Federal Government. This effort attracted more directly the favor of the Democratic party, and in 1816 he was appointed First Solici- tor of the Bank of the United States, an office at once of useful # For many details in this sketch I am indebted to " The National Portrait- Gallery," ANIEL S. DICKINSON. 213 Great as he was in noble deeds, his memory is greater still ; and when time shall have obliterated all traces of petty rivalries and disturbing jealousies which disfigure the surface of society, and have silenced the clamor of partisan jargon, he will 'still live,' with increasing admiration, as pure among patriots, eminent among statesmen, and eloquent among orators." Mr. Dickinson was the last Democratic Senator from New York. His term expired March 4, 1851. Since that period he has lived chiefly in retirement, devoting himself to rural and professional pursuits at Binghamton. In 1852, he was brought forward for the Presidency at the Democratic Convention in Baltimore. The influential vote of Virginia was cast for him,, and his nomination might have been the result but for his own chivalrous and delicate sense of honor. Senator Dickinson withdrew his name, because, being a delegate to the Convention and pledged to his friend General Cass, whose name was still before it, he thought it inconsistent with a manly friendship, not less than with a high sentiment of honor, to per- mit himself to be placed in competition with a man whom he had pledged himself to support. On the election of Mr. Pierce to the Presidency, Mr. Dickin- son was pressed for the office of Secretary of State. Mr. Marcy, however, received that place, and the former declined the Collect- orsliip of New York, to which the new President appointed him. Though his retirement is only occasionally broken by a letter or speech of public interest, Mr. Dickinson is still regarded as the head of the conservative New York Democracy. As an evidence of the vitality of his intellect, it is enough to state that his professional services are now in greater demand than at any previous time. At the Democratic State Convention, held at Syracuse on September 1, 1859, Mr. Dickinson made a speech which created immense enthusiasm and produced a healthy effect on the distracted party. In May, 1857, he visited Washington with his family. His hotel was crowded with the leading people ; and, on the evening of the 25th, a serenade was given to him, at which he made a brief and touching speech, alluding to the memories and friend- ships called up by the occasion. The earnestness of his words, and the picturesque whiteness of his long hair, surrounded the theme " as with a halo." At the commencement of Hamilton 214 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. College, July, 1858, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was conferred upon him. On that occasion he delivered an address to the graduating class of the Law department. Such is an outline of the career of one who is equally beloved by the Democracy as a statesman as by his neighbors he is es- teemed as a friend, " and whose reward (yet, we trust, to be fully accorded to him) can never be," says a New York journal, "let it take what shape it may, too great for the desert of his inestima- ble public services." STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 215 STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, OF ILLINOIS. THE name of no American statesman has been more familiar to the public ear for several years past than that which heads this sketch. The opinions of none have been more eagerly listened to, more violently attacked, or more gallantly defended than those of " the Little Giant" of the West. The anxiety to hear him in the Halls of Congress has been equalled only by the impa- tient desire of far-distant places to read what he had said. Newspapers of all shades of political opinion have found it to their advantage not only to state his views, but to chronicle them in his own words : consequently, none of those who may be called his contemporaries, of whatever party, have had such wide-spread publication. In the Democratic party, no one has attracted so much attention in his day ; and in the Republican party, Senator Seward alone approaches him in commanding the public eye and ear. His career has been exceedingly brilliant, the romantic details of his youthful struggles very fitly prefacing the chivalric boldness of his manhood. It is a splendid illustration of the developing influences of American institutions ; and the memoirs of Stephen A. Douglas in some future day will nerve many an orphaned youth for the battle of life, and give him strength to combat and to conquer when engaged in it. Stephen Arnold Douglas was born at Brandon, Rutland County, Vermont, on the 23d of April, 1813. His father, a native of New York and a physician of prominence, died sud- denly of apoplexy when his son Stephen was little more than two months old. The widow, Mrs. Douglas, who still survives to witness the greatness of her boy, took her infant and a daughter some eighteen months older to a farm which she had inherited conjointly with her unmarried brother. Stephen received such an education as a common school could bestow, and, arriving at 216 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. the age of fifteen, looked anxiously toward a college course. His family were unable to afford the requisite expense ; in which event he, thinking it time to earn his own living, left the farm and apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker, at which trade he worked, partly at Middlebury and partly at Brandon, for eighteen months. The now solid-bodied and sturdy Senator, who, buoyed up by the force of his intellect, can undergo any amount of fatigue in travel and public speaking, was then a stripling, and not over-hardy. The severity of eighteen months' application at the cabinet-maker's bench so impaired his health that he aban- doned the occupation, though not without some regret j for he has often since said that the happiest days of his life were spent in the workshop. Entering the academy at Brandon, he studied for a year, when, his mother, after a widowhood of sixteen years, having married Mr. Granger, of Ontario County, New York, whose son had previously wedded her daughter, he removed to Canandaigua with his mother and entered the academy at that place. Here he remained until 1833, studying law with the Messrs. Hubbell. The activity of his nature, which, no doubt, was the secret of his ill health under the trammels of the workshop, would not let him rest in Canandaigua. Young, and with the instincts which latent power creates, he desired a fresh field; and so, in the spring of 1833, he started West in search of an eligible place in which to woo and win fortune as a lawyer. The way to fortune, like the course of true love, does not always run smooth. Young Douglas was prostrated by a severe illness, and had to remain the whole summer at Cleveland. After his recovery, he continued his search for an " eligible place," visiting Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis in vain. At Jacksonville, Illinois, he was no better pleased, though the state of his funds now reduced to thirty- seven and a half cents offered some reason why he might not proceed. If his pockets were empty, however, his heart was full and gave him strength ; and applying this strength to the best use, he walked to Winchester, a little town sixteen miles distant, where he hoped to obtain employment as a school-teacher. At Winchester, a large crowd had collected around the stock of a deceased trader, which was about to be sold by auction. Instinctively, young Douglas was soon in the front rank of the STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 217 crowd, to see what was going on. The auctioneer was at a stand- still. He wanted a clerk to keep the sale-accounts. Douglas, looking like a man who could read and write, was invited to the clerkship, and promptly accepted it. For his three days' service in this position he received six dollars, with which capital he im- mediately opened a school and obtained forty scholars, whom he taught for three months at three dollars each. Spending his days in teaching the youth of Winchester, his nights were devoted to his own instruction. Borrowing some law-books in Jacksonville, he mastered their contents, and on Saturday afternoons displayed his book-learning with great effect while practising in petty cases before the justice of the peace of the town. After an examina- tion, he obtained a license from the Judges of the Supreme Court, and in March, 1834, opened an office and commenced practice in the higher courts. Henceforward the success of Mr. Douglas was marvellous. He immediately rose to distinction at the bar. The only stan- dard by which to measure his rapid progress in the esteem and confidence of the people is to be found in the fact that within a year after his admission, while not yet twenty-two years old, and not over eighteen months a resident of Illinois, the Legislature elected him Attorney-General of the State. In December, 1835, he resigned this office, having been elected to the Legislature by the Democrats of Morgan County. In the Legislature, where he was the youngest member, he continued to increase his reputa- tion, and to ingratiate himself in the affections of his colleagues and constituents. His reputation and power as a Democrat ex- tended, and in 1837 he was appointed Register of the Land Office at Springfield, Illinois, by President Van Buren, and held the office until 1839, when he resigned. In the mean time, although ineligible on the score of age, Mr. Douglas received the Demo- cratic nomination for Congress, in November, 1837. He at- tained the requisite age before the day of election, the first Monday in August, 1838, but lost the election by a quibble. His Congressional district was then the most populous in the United States; and the closeness of the vote shows how tho- roughly the canvass must have been conducted. Over 36,000 votes were cast, and the Whig candidate was declared elected by a majority of five, there being more ballots rejected by the 19 218 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. canvassers in consequence of the mis-spelling of Mr. Douglas's name than would have changed the result. Mr. Douglas now devoted himself exclusively to his profession, and distinguished himself especially in a case touching the rights of foreign-born voters, to which I will have occasion to refer hereafter. In 1840 he entered upon the Presidential contest in favor of Van Buren and Democracy with great ardor. He traversed the State for seven months, and addressed more than two hundred political gatherings, about one every day ; and to his great exertions is ascribed the adherence of Illinois to the Democracy in that eventful and exciting campaign. Illinois gave her full vote for Van Buren. In December of this year the labors of Mr. Douglas were rewarded by his appointment as Secretary of State for Illinois; and in February following he was elected by the Legislature a Judge of the Supreme Court, the title of which office has ever since remained associated with his name in the popular mind. In 1843 he resigned his seat on the bench to accept, against his known wishes, the Democratic nomi- nation for Congress. The acceptance of this nomination was urged on him on the ground that he was the only Democrat who could be elected. He was chosen by a majority of four hun- dred. In 1844 he was re-elected by a majority of nineteen hun- dred, and again, in 1846, by nearly three thousand majority. He did not take his seat under the last election, having been in the mean time elevated to the United States Senate for six years from March 4, 1847 ; in which high position he has continued ever since. In the House of Representatives Mr. Douglas took a promi- nent position on the Oregon controversy with England, main- taining our title to the whole of Oregon up to 54 40', and de- claring that he never would yield one inch of Oregon, either to Great Britain or any other Government. He was in favor of the resolution giving notice to terminate the joint occupation, and advocated with great fervor the establishment of a Territorial Government over Oregon, under the protection of a sufficient military force, and the immediate preparation of the country, so that, in the event of a war growing out of what he deemed the assertion of our rights, we might " drive Great Britain, and the last vestiges of royal authority, from the continent of North STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 219 America, and make the United States an ocean-bound republic." The foreign policy of Mr. Douglas as a Representative and Sena- tor has uniformly been of a bold, broad, and national character. He has not always agreed with the Administration in power ; but he has never swerved from the basis of a fearless and digni- fied American policy. He was an early advocate of the annexation of Texas, and was- one of those who introduced a substitute for the treaty to effect that object which had failed in the Senate. As Chairman of the Committee on Territories, in 1846, he reported the joint resolu- tion declaring Texas one of the United States ; and he ably sus- tained Folk's Administration in its war measures toward Mexico. Yet he opposed the treaty of peace which closed the Mexican War, on the ground that the boundaries were "unnatural and inconvenient' 7 and that the provisions in regard to the Indians " could never be executed." Our Government has since given ten millions of dollars to Mexico to alter the boundaries and re- linquish the Indian stipulations. In like manner, he strenuously opposed the ratification of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, upon the ground that it pledged the faith of the United States in all time never to annex, colonize, or occupy any portion of Central America. What was the use of making such pledges ? He asked the Senate to keep up with the spirit of the age, to look the future in the face, and prepare to meet that which cannot be avoided. It might not occur in our day, but he believed that, as certainly as the Republic exists, we shall be compelled to colonize and annex Mexico and Central America. He opposed the treaty for another reason : it was not reciprocal. Great Britain had possession of the island of Jamaica, which was armed, and commanded the entrance of the proposed canal. By the terms of the treaty, we could have no fortification there. He ridiculed Senator Clayton's idea of the friendliness of England to the United States, and showed that it was not in the nature of things that she could be our friend. "England does not love us," he said; "she cannot love us; and we do not love her, either. We have some things in the past to remember that are not agreeable. She has more in the present to humiliate her than she can forgive." He argued also that Mr. Clayton's negotiations recognised the right of Great Britain and all othor European Powers to interfere with the 220 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. affairs of the American States, and made the subject of Cen- tral America a European instead of an American question. Senator Douglas has declared himself in favor of the acquisi- tion of Cuba, when that island can be obtained in a manner consistent with the laws of nations and the honor of the United States. In the spring of 1858 the country was greatly agitated at the news that several American vessels had been visited and searched by English vessels-of-war in the Mexican Gulf and adjacent seas. The sanctity of the American flag had been vio- lated thirty-three times within four weeks. Senators wanted official information before they would act, and thought that the matter could be settled by negotiation. Senator Douglas was for sending a ship-of-war on the track of the Styx, the Buzzard, or the Forward, or any other English vessel that had been com- mitting the outrages, to capture her, and bring her into an Ame- rican port : then, he thought, would be a good time to negotiate. On the 24th of May, he introduced a bill authorizing the Presi- dent to employ such force as he might deem necessary to prevent the recurrence of the outrages, and to obtain redress for those already committed. The Committee on Foreign Relations smo- thered this with a substitute not touching the point at issue at all ; and the Senator from Illinois, before the close of the session, June 3, introduced a bill to revive and put in force the Act of the 3d of March, 1839, which placed at the disposal of the President, to be used when necessary to resist the unjust claims of Great Britain, the naval and military forces and militia, fifty thousand volun- teers, if necessary, and ten millions of dollars, the Act to con- tinue in force for sixty days after the next meeting of Congress. The proposition was to vest in President Buchanan the same power and discretion which he had moved into the hands of Pre- sident Van Buren nineteen years previous.* The bill was not adopted; but, in the extra session of the Senate, a series of resolu- tions reported by Senator Mason from the Committee on Foreign Affairs were adopted, which took cognizance of the outrages and condemned them, and promised further legislation if necessary. * On motion of Mr. Buchanan, the Act of 1839 passed the Senate unani- raously; the House adopted it by 197 to 6. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 22! Mr. Douglas's foreign polic}' has ever been such as would make our flag respected, if not feared. As Chairman of the Committee on Territories, first in the House and afterward in the Senate, he reported and carried through the bills organizing the Territories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Kansas, and Nebraska, and also "the bills for the admission into the Union of the States of Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, and Oregon. He early took ground touching the Slavery question as involved in the organiza- tion of Territories and the admission of new States. He held that Congress should not interfere one way or the other. With this view, he opposed the "Wilmot Proviso," in 1847, when it passed the House as an amendment to the $3,000,000 Bill for the peace treaty with Mexico, and afterward in the Senate, when introduced as an amendment to the bill for the organization of the Territory of Oregon. In August, 1848, he offered an amendment to the Oregon Bill, extending the Missouri Compromise line 36 30' westward to the Pacific Ocean, in the sense in which it was adopted in 1820 and extended through Texas in 1845. The amendment passed the Senate, having the support of all the Southern and several Northern Senators. In the House it was defeated by an almost sectional vote. In the month of January of the session of 1849-50, Mr. Clay offered his celebrated resolutions, which became the basis of the subsequent legislation of that session, known as the Compromise measures. On the 25th of March, Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on Territories, reported to the Senate two bills, one for the admis- sion of California as a State, the other for the establishment of Territorial Governments in Utah and New Mexico, and for the adjustment of the Texas boundary. On the 19th of April, on motion of General Foote, of Mississippi, a committee of thir- ,teen was appointed, of which Mr. Clay was made chairman, and to which was referred all the subjects pertaining to the question of Slavery. On the 8th of May, Mr. Clay, from the Committee of Thirteen, made an elaborate report, accompanied by a bill generally known as the "Omnibus Bill." By reference to the original bill, as reported by Mr. Clay and as it now appears on the files of the Senate, it will be seen that, instead of preparing a 19* 222 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. new bill, the Committee of Thirteen took the two bills reported by Mr. Douglas on the 25th of March, and converted them into one, by putting wafers between them, they had been previously printed by the Senate, making slight amendments, as Mr. Clay stated when he made his report, and erasing the printed words " Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on Territories/' and inserting " Mr. Clay, from the Select Committee appointed the 19th of April, 1850;" so that it read, "Mr. Clay, &c. &c. reported the following bill/ 7 This is an interesting historical fact. The most important amendment proposed by the Committee of Thirteen to the bills as reported by Mr. Douglas is found in the 10th section, where after the words " that the Legislative power of the Territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legisla- tion consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this Act, but no law shall be passed interfering with the primary disposal of the soil," they added these words, "nor in respect to African slavery;" the effect of which was to confer upon the Territorial Legislature power over all rightful subjects of legislation, excepting slavery ; whereas Mr. Douglas's bill conferred the same power on the Territorial Legislature, without excepting slavery. No sooner had this report been made by Mr. Clay than it was fiercely assailed by the ultraists North and South. Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, moved to amend by adding a proviso that nothing contained in the bill should be construed to deprive the Territorial Legislature of the power to pass laws for the pro- tection of slave-property in the Territories, and made several speeches in favor of that provision. Mr. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, proposed an amendment in effect declaring that the bill should not be construed to authorize the Legislature to establish and maintain slavery in the Territories; whereupon Mr. Clay stated to the Senate that the amendment reported by the Com- mittee of Thirteen, excepting slavery from the action of the Ter- ritorial Legislature, was incorporated in the bill by the committee in opposition to his vote and judgment. Mr. Douglas moved to strike out of the bill every thing in regard to slavery, so as to restore it to the form in which he had originally reported it, conferring on the Territorial Legislature power over all rightful subjects of legislation, without excepting slavery. This motion STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 223 was at first rejected, together with the amendment of Mr. Davis in favor of, and that of Mr. Chase against, protecting slavery. The discussion proceeded at great length upon the question whe- ther the Territorial Legislature should have the same authority over the Slavery question as on all other matters affecting the internal policy of the Territory, when, on the 31st of July, Mr. Norris, of New Hampshire, renewed the motion of Mr. Douglas, which was carried by a vote of 33 to 19 ; thus establishing, as the fundamental principle of the Compromise measures of 1850, the doctrine that the Territorial Legislature was to have the same power over the question of Slavery that it possessed on all other matters of domestic policy. No sooner had these measures been adopted by Congress than the Southern ultras appealed to the people of Mississippi, Ala- bama, Georgia, South Carolina, and other Southern States, to resist the action of Congress, because they had conferred upon the Territorial Legislature the right to prohibit as well as to protect slavery as they pleased. On the other hand, the ultraists of the North appealed to the anti-slavery feeling of their section to resist and repeal the same measures, upon the ground that they conferred on the Territorial Legislature the right to introduce slavery into, as well as exclude it from, the Territories, as the people might choose. When Congress adjourned, the friends of these measures re- paired to their respective homes to defend and justify their action. When Mr. Douglas arrived in Chicago, he found the city in a state of rebellion against the recent Acts of Congress. The City Council, in their official capacity, had passed resolu- tions denouncing them as a violation of the Constitution and of the higher law of God, and those Senators and Repre- sentatives who had voted for them as Benedict Arnolds and Judas Iscariots. In order to make their resistance effectual, the City Council passed resolutions releasing the citizens, offi- cers, and police of the city from all obligation to assist or par- ticipate in the execution of these laws, and declared that they (the laws) ought not to be respected by any intelligent commu- nity. On the next night, a mass meeting of the citizens was held for the purpose of approving and sanctioning the action of the Common Council and organizing violent and successful 224 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. resistance to the execution of the laws. A committee reported to this meeting a series of resolutions more revolutionary in their character, and going to a greater extent in resisting the au- thorities of the Federal Government, than those of the Common Council. Numerous speeches in support of the resolutions were received with boisterous and furious applause, pledging their authors to resist even unto the dungeon and the grave. At length, Mr. Douglas, being the only member of the Illinois dele- gation then in the city, appeared upon the stand, and said that in consequence of the action of the Common Council, and the frenzied excitement which seemed to rage all around him, he desired to be heard before the assembled people of the city in vindication of each and all of the Compromise measures, and especially of the Fugitive-Slave Law. He said he would not address them that night, because the call for the meeting was not sufficiently broad to authorize a speech in defence of the measures, but he would avail himself of that opportunity to give notice that on the next night he would address the people of Chicago on those subjects. He invited men of all parties and shades of opinion to attend and participate in the proceedings, assuring them that he would answer every objection made, and every question which should be propounded, touching those mea- sures, including the Fugitive-Slave Law. After further discus- sion and much confusion and opposition, the meeting was induced to adjourn. In the mean time the excitement continued to increase, and the next night, October 23, a tremendous concourse of people assembled, before whom Mr. Douglas delivered a speech, some impression of the power and effect of which may be formed from the fact that the meeting resolved unanimously to carry into effect the provisions of the laws of Congress, (the Fugitive-Slave Law included,) adopted resolutions repudiating the action of the Common Council, and then adjourned with nine cheers, three for Douglas, three for the Constitution, and three for our glorious Union. On the next night the Common Council of the city assembled, and repealed their nullifying resolutions, by a vote of 12tol. In this great Chicago speech, Douglas, holding himself respon- sible to his constituents for the Compromise measures, avowed STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 225 having prepared three of them with his own hand, and having voted for all. "If," said he, "there is any thing wrong in them, hold me account- able ; if there is any thing of merit, give the credit to those who passed them. These measures are predicated on the great fundamental principle that every people ought to possess the right of forming and regulating their own internal and domestic institutions in their own way. It was supposed that those of our fellow-citizens who emigrated to the shores of the Pacific and to our other Territories were as capable of self-government as their neighbors and kindred whom they left behind them ; and there was no reason for believing that they had lost any of their intelligence or patriotism by the wayside while crossing the Isthmus or the plains. It was also believed that after their arrival in the country, when they had become familiar with its topography, climate, productions, and re- sources, and had connected their destiny with it, they were fully as com- petent to judge for themselves what kind of laws and institutions were best adapted to their condition and interests, as we were, who never saw the country and knew very little about it. To question their compe- tency to do this, was to deny their capacity for self-government. If they have the requisite intelligence and honesty to be intrusted with the en- actment of laws for the government of white men, I know of no reason why they should not be deemed competent to legislate for the negro. If they are sufficiently enlightened to make laws for the protection of life, liberty, and property, of morals and education, to determine the rela- tion of husband and wife, of parent and child, I am not aware that it requires any higher degree of civilization to regulate the affairs of master and servant. These things are all confided by the Constitution to each State to decide for itself; and I know of no reason why the same prin- ciple should not be extended to the Territories. My votes and acts have been in accordance with these views in all cases, except the instances in which I voted under your instructions. Those were your votes, and not mine." At least half a million copies of this speech were circulated throughout the country. I have never yet seen or heard of any friend of the Compromise measures of 1850 who did not warmly applaud the speech, and express their gratitude to its author. The appeal to the people by the advocates of those measures met a hearty response from all the friends of the Union, North and South, as is attested by the fact that, in 1852, the ultraists of the Democratic party, who had opposed those measures and appealed to the people to resist, were forced by public opinion to assent to them and agree that the principles on which they rested should P 226 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. be incorporated in the platform of the party; and still further by the fact that the ultraists in the old Whig party, who had op- posed the measures, were in like manner condemned by the peo- ple, and compelled to acquiesce in a resolution in the Baltimore Convention adopting these measures, in substance and principle, as a rule of action for the future. Both parties having thus adopted the measures, it was hoped that the slavery agitation would cease, and that henceforward the people of each Territory and State would be allowed to decide the Slavery question for themselves. In accordance with this principle, Mr. Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Bill in 1854, declaring, as its fundamental principle, that "it was the true intent and meaning of the Act not to legislate slavery into any State or Territory, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." His speech in the Senate in support of the bill and against its adver- saries was regarded as "the greatest speech of his life." The "Union," then the organ of the Pierce Administration, in an article on the close of the debate, written by John W. Forney, said : "He took his opponents up one by one, answering every objection with a skill and an effect before which they could make no head. Even those who had observed and appreciated the intellect of the Senator from Illi- nois on other occasions were surprised at his exhibition of logic and genius on Saturday morning. We have vainly endeavored to recall the numerous striking points of a speech so useful in its facts and in its figures and so inspiring in its vigorous and surpassing eloquence. One of his retorts upon the Abolitionists will be long remembered. Alluding to the poor special plea that the Missouri Compromise was a compact, he said it was no compact. He defended the North against the allega- tion, which, if true, would deeply dishonor her. If it were a compact, she had violated it, nullified it, trampled it in the dust; and to say that was to insult and to degrade her, especially if now she could be seduced into demanding others to respect what she had never regarded herself. Turning to Mr. Seward, he said, what did the State of New York, in treating of this so-called, and falsely so-called, compact, which now, by her Whig Legislature, (another result of Democratic divisions,) she ap- peals to us to guard and to save ? For years yes, for more than thirty years she has sent men here to disregard it. It was no compact : for STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 227 when the Missouri Compromise of 1820 became a law, it provided that when Missouri was admitted into the Union she should be admitted as a slave State ; and eleven months after that chiefly because she had slavery in her Constitution New York refused to vote for her admission, and so disregarded the law, or the bargain, or what was then a sort of compact ! Mr. Seward attempted to answer this powerful point ; but he took his seat abashed and confused. Turning, next, to the trio of Abolition Sena- tors, he spoke to them, and of their unholy plots, and their appeals to violence, and the demonstrations against himself, with a defiant and scorching eloquence that cannot be reported. They quailed before his severe and withering rebukes. To Senator Sumner he said, alluding to the infamous attempt recently made to insult him in that city, * That Boston which closed Faneuil Hall to the immortal Webster for daring to defy her prejudices to the South, and turned him into the streets to vindicate himself and convince her, had also outraged him, not through her masses, but through the machinations of men sent here by corrupt and dishonorable combinations, men who affect the airs and graces of gentlemen, who aspire to literary distinction, while they coolly plot their country's ruin. I am honored by the persecutions and violence.of such men.' His allusions to another Abolition leader almost led us to antici- pate a Senatorial suicide ! And he was abundantly justified in this casti- gation ; for never before has a public man been so hunted and hounded as Judge Douglas. Not only his character as a Senator, but his reputa- tion as a man, has been vilely traduced ; and so far has this fiendish war been conducted that his enemies have not scrupled the foulest allusions to his recent domestic affliction ! His pungent retort upon Senator Wade has not often been equalled. ' That Senator,' said he, 'signed an address filled with the foulest aspersions; and yet he confesses he never read it!' 'But I have since read it,' replied the Ohio Senator, 'and found it true.' 'And now,' responded Senator Douglas, 'did you not say that a free negro was as good as a white man ?' 'Yes,' said Senator Wade ; ' espe- cially in Ohio.' 'Well,' said Judge Douglas, 'if three free negroes had signed that infamous document which preceded this discussion, I should have more respect than I have shown for it, endorsed as it has been.' "But it is vain to attempt a description of this really great effort of the Illinois Senator. The readiness of his replies, the correctness of his authorities, the extent of his information, the clearness of his views, the new points presented, have elevated it among the finest of forensic tri- umphs. It may well be ranked with those proud and memorable achieve- ments of intellect which have given to the American Senate the just renown of being the ablest deliberative body in the world. ' Sir,' said he to the President of the Senate, * the North and South have common and indissoluble interests. There are Tariff men North and South ; there are distribution men North and South ; there are Free-Trade men North and South. Slavery is the only link that divides us. Let us be just and gene- rous. Thus far, .the people have treated it with eminent wisdom and 228 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. sagacity. Congress has never acted upon it save to divide the people ; the people are always sure to unite and protect themselves. Let us leave it to them. They are the proper judges and the only jurors. The bill under discussion forever removes it from Congress, by reasserting that principle for the future which has been the only source of our happiness and glory in the past.' "* The Northern agitators succeeded in again raising a whirlwind of fanatical excitement. Mr. Douglas was fiercely and savagely denounced by all Abolitionists and interventionists for advocating the principle that the people of a Territory might have slavery if they wanted, and should not be compelled to have it if they did not want it. He was burned and hung in effigy in every town, village, and hamlet in the United States where an Aboli- tionist could be found. He could ride from Boston to Chicago by the light of his blazing effigy in the night, and in sight of his hanging effigy by day, upon every tree that he passed. When he arrived in Chicago, he was met by another mob, more savage, brutal, and numerous than the one which greeted him in 1850 when he made his great speech in defence of the Compromise measures. Mr. Douglas gave notice that he would address the people in the open square in front of North Market Hall, in de- fence of the principle involved in the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The Abolitionists and their allies determined not to allow him to be heard, for fear of the same result which had occurred on the former occasion, 1850. Hence it was determined to raise a mob and put him down by violence, rather than allow him to On the day of the meeting, the flags of the shipping in the harbor were hung at half-mast, in pursuance of a previous ar- rangement by the Abolitionists in their Know-Nothing lodges; and the church-bells were rung as a signal for the mob to assemble. They did assemble, ten thousand strong, armed with clubs, brickbats, bowie-knives, and pistols, and organized into companies, with their leaders, ready for violence or tumult at the given signal. When Mr. Douglas appeared upon the stand, he was greeted with the most unearthly howls ; when he commenced to speak, they threw eggs, stones, and clubs, and fired pistols to create a tumult and break up the meeting. He maintained his * Union," March 4, 1854. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 229 position for four hours, sometimes appealing to them, then ridiculing, then denouncing their cowardice in combining to put down with force and violence a single man, who used no other weapons than truth and reason. His efforts were futile. The mob grew supreme; and, having held them at bay from eight o'clock in the evening of Saturday till past twelve, in the midst of their imprecations and violence, he deliberately took out his watch, and, looking at it, said to the crowd, u It is Sun- day morning: I have to go to church, and you may go to h 1." He then retired, pursued by the mob, to his hotel. Immediately issuing notices making appointments throughout the State, he appealed to the people to rally in defence of the great principle that every community should govern itself in respect to its local and domestic affairs. He did not appeal in vain. The people of Illinois did rally, and, in the Presidential election of 1856, gave Mr. Buchanan a Democratic majority upon that dis- tinct issue. In 1858, the same principle was put to a still severer test. It was now attempted to be violated by the Democratic party and by those Southern political friends with whom Mr. Douglas had always acted. He did not hesitate, but struck a bold blow for the right of the people of Kansas to form and ratify by their own votes their own Constitution, and to have slavery or not, just as they pleased. In this contest Mr. Douglas was sustained by the entire No^th, and denounced by a Democratic Administration supported by a united South. He stood firm by his position, maintained it by argument in proof, and defied the consequences personal to himself. The debate in the Senate will long be remembered. The whole country was excited to a curiosity and anxiety without bounds. Nothing was talked of but " Kansas" and " Douglas." The debate on " Lecompton" continued from the 1st to the 23d of March. The closing scenes were peculiarly interesting. By day and night the galleries were crowded. Mr. Douglas's speech on the 22d was the climax of the debate. The " States" of the following day gave a description of the morning and evening sessions, from which, as it is a memorable chapter of the Con- gressional history of the times, I extract : 20 230 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. " If the immense mass of people who crowded the galleries, the lobbies, the stairways, and the ante-rooms of the Senate is any evidence of inte- rest in the question under debate, then Kansas is the most interesting topic of the day, in spite of all that is said against it as a dull, wearying, used-up, and stupid thing. Probably a large portion of the crowd came to show their delight at the approaching close of the debate ; numbers came to hear Douglas ; and there was considerable discontent outside of the galleries by those who could not get in. During the earlier part of the morning, the ill aspect of Lecomptonism might be read on the faces of the Senators in the interest of that unfortunate juggle. Green was very much nonplussed. As he sat there, quite bewildered, forced to listen to Anti-Lecompton, and feeling -that its ultimate triumph was certain, he illustrated that well-known Patience who, sitting on a monument, bit his nails, or in some other manner amused his grief. "Mason turned his back on Stuart, and, plunging himself into a news- paper, in vain sought to hide that restlessness which Stuart's protest against Pugh's amendment created. Bigler and Benjamin were much more interested in their own thoughts than those emanating from the Senator from Michigan. Consequently, they applied themselves to their desks and carried on private correspondence. Bayard was immersed in the notes of his speech to follow Stuart. King, Collamer, Foot, and Wade paid earnest attention ; and Jones, of Iowa, and Hale interchanged that pleasantry for which both are remarkable. "Senator Douglas entered the chamber just after a fainting lady had been carried out of the gallery, at about twenty minutes past twelve. He was congratulated by men of all parties, and was soon engaged in an earnest confab with Green, upon whose spirits, however, the Little Giant did not seem to work any special change. It was not until the arrival of the Secretary of War, some two hours after, that Missouri was seen to smile. " The arrival of the Turkish admiral, attended by two other Fez caps, elicited some attention. We looked in vain for the Senate to receive them in Eastern fashion. Cameron did not move ; Seward moved not ; and Stuart was too tired to salaam. Mason, however, as Chairman on Foreign Relations, entered into an impressive conversation with the Turks, sent for Clingman,* of the House, on whose arrival the two chairmen bowed the three Turks out of the chamber, and, we suppose, all round the Capi- tol, which was a proper courtesy. " At the evening session the scene presented in the Senate was one of the most brilliant and exciting we have ever witnessed. No sooner were the galleries cleared when the recess was taken, than the crowds who all the morning expected Douglas would speak, and patiently awaited a chance to get in, filled up the seats. At five minutes after five the gal- leries were empty ; in five minutes more they were filled with a brilliant, Then Chairman of House Committee on Foreign Relations. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 231 fashionable, and intelligent array. In the gentlemen's gallery the people were literally walking on each other. They formed a human pyramid reaching up to the windows, on the inside sills of which some persons were fortunate enough to be lifted. "The reporters' gallery was captured by gentlemen who made a press, though they did not belong to it, and rendered it utterly impossible for our friends of the quill, save with one or two exceptions, to more than preserve themselves from furnishing a local item of ' crushed to death' to their neighbors. For two hours the throngs of people were wedged together in expectancy of the great speech. Some ladies brought books, others their knitting, and thus, having early secured seats, industriously killed the time between five and seven P.M. "When the Chamber was called to order, Gwin and Seward simultane- ously arose with the same purpose, to move the admission of the ladies to the floor of the Senate. It was agreed to. The doors were thrown open, and a perfect flood of beauty, bearing on the tide all manner of broken hoops and draggled crinoline, poured into the chamber. In a few moments every spot was occupied, while on all the lobbies such discon- tent arose from the unaccommodated crowds of gentlemen and ladies there, that several times the Chair was called on to despatch officers to allay the disorder. " The appearance of Senator Douglas was the token for a round of ap- plause. The sight must have been deeply gratifying to him, as it was entrancing to that mother and daughter* who, from the reporters' gal- lery, looked upon the scene with that anxious pleasure which might tell the physiognomist that they, of all the great and brilliant crowd, had the deepest and most exalted interest in it. " For three hours Senator Douglas spoke. Commencing calmly, with an expression of doubt of his own physical strength to carry him through the duty before him, he warmed up by degrees, lifting the head and heart of the multitude with him, until one almost felt as if he were in Europe during the revolutions, listening to some powerful tribune of the people expounding their rights and inspiring them to such action as made Ame- rica a republic. He went through his public course. The period embraced some of the most prominent and vital acts in the history of American politics. He showed not as a defence, but in a proud, manly, and almost defiant spirit what his acts had been ; he echoed his own words ; he was proud of his deeds, deeds and words which were recognised portions of the policy of the Democratic party. "As he proceeded, with emphatic and measured dignity, to define his position in the present crisis, what the duty of a Senator from a sove- reign State was, and the responsibility he owed to the people whose voices culminated in him, he held the multitude chained with that peculiar elo- # Mrs. Douglas and her mother. 232 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. quence which, based on common sense and the rights of man, reaches its destination without the aid of winged rhetoric. Such eloquence does not dazzle, it convinces ; it does not stretch the fancy, but solidifies the head ; it does not hold the breath, but makes one breathe freer, for it cheers tho heart. "The great burst of applause which broke from the galleries and rolled over the chamber was a nobler testimony to the principles enunciated by the eloquent Senator than might be written. He was there the defender of the people, the Representative of a State, and not the vassal of the Executive, nor the valet of the Administration, to do its bidding without consulting his own judgment or the interests of his people. He stood forth as the champion of State sovereignty. This Union was not an empire or absolute monarchy, in which the States were but provinces without individual and distinct and different rights. It was a confederacy of nations, each one of which was equally represented in the Senate. "As he exposed the fallacy of making Lecomptonism a test-question with the Democracy, and claimed the right to vote against it, the expres- sion of the faces around gave a verdict in his favor. With admirable adroitness and force, he asked if Brown, of Mississippi, was read out of the party for differing with the neutrality policy of the Administration ? if Toombs was read out for opposing the Army Bill ? if Mason would be expelled for not swallowing the Pacific Railroad? Why, then, should he be expelled, read out, denounced as a traitor, because he, like those Senators, thought for himself on an Administration measure? The effect was electric, and was greatly indebted to the manner of the Senator from Illinois. He grew in enthusiasm with the progress of his subject; and up to the last sentence, in which he gracefully prayed the indulgence of ihe Senate to overlook the style of his argument, as his recent illness prevented it being more perfect and satisfactory to himself, up to the last word, the mass of people who heard him were not only patient, but delighted. It really was a study to behold the leaders of Lecomptonism." Having succeeded in defeating the Lecompton Constitution, Mr. Douglas returned to his own State. The elections upon which his seat in the Senate depended were to take place in November. He vindicated his position, and appealed to the Democracy to sustain him. In four months he made one hun- dred and thirty speeches, one hundred and twenty-seven of which were in the open air. He spent most of the time in rail- road-cars and carriages, on an average going to bed but three times a week. Once during the canvass he was five days and nights without having his clothes off or going to bed. It was a most exciting, hard-fought, and interesting canvass; and the STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 233 result was looked for with intense anxiety. Douglas was elected over Abraham Lincoln by 54 to 46 votes. When Mr. Douglas returned to the Senate after this brilliant triumph, unrivalled perhaps in the political annals of this or any other country, he found himself precipitated into another contest, against fearful odds and numbers, and in defence of the same principle of local self-government. He maintained his position, single-handed, against Senators Brown, Mason, Davis, Hunter, Green, Glwin, and others, and made a notable speech in reply to the first-named, in opposition to a slave-code for the Territories, and in favor of banishing from the halls of Congress all questions touching domestic slavery in the Territories, and remanding them to the people of the Territories, to be disposed of as they may see proper, subject to an appeal to the judicial tribunals, to test the validity of the Territorial enactments under the Constitution of the United States. On the African slave-trade Mr. Douglas is equally explicit. In a letter to Col. John L. Peyton, of Staunton, Virginia, dated August 2, 1859, he says, "That question seriously disturbed the harmony of the Convention which framed the Federal Constitution. Upon it the delegates divided into two parties, under circumstances which for a time rendered harmo- nious action hopeless. The one demanded the instant and unconditional prohibition of the African slave-trade, on moral and religious grounds ; while the other insisted that it was a legitimate commerce, involving no other consideration than a sound public policy, which each State ought to be permitted to determine for itself so long as it was sanctioned by its own laws. Each party stood firmly and resolutely by its own posi- tion, until both became convinced that this vexed question would break up the Convention, destroy the Federal Union, blot out the glories of the Revolution, and throw away all its blessings, unless some fair and just compromise could be formed on the common ground of such mutual con- cessions as were indispensable to the preservation of their liberties, union, and independence. "Such a compromise was effected and incorporated into the Constitution, by which it was understood that the African slave-trade might continue as a legitimate commerce in those States whose laws sanctioned it until the year 1808, from and after which time Congress might and would prohibit it forever throughout the dominion and limits of the United States, and pass all laws which might become necessary to make such prohibition effectual. The harmony of the Convention was restored, and the Union saved, by this compromise, without which the Constitution could never have been made. 20* 234 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. "I stand firmly by this compromise and by all the other compromises of the Constitution, and shall use my best efforts to carry each and all of them into faithful execution in the sense and with the understanding in which they were originally adopted. In accordance with this compro- mise, I am irreconcilably opposed to the revival of the African slave- trade in any form and under any circumstances." On the " Naturalization question" Mr. Douglas has not been less bold and consistent. His entire career has been marked by his defence and vindication of the rights of naturalized citizens and men of foreign birth who have made their homes in this country. As early as 1839, he argued a case in the Supreme Court of Illinois which involved constitutional principles of the highest interest. By the Constitution of that State at that time, all white male inhabitants above the age of twenty-one years, who had resided six months in the State, were legal voters. At the Congressional election of 1838, a man of foreign birth, who had never been naturalized according to the laws of the United States, but who was a legal voter in Illinois under the Constitution of that State, had voted for the Democratic nominee for Congress. A suit was brought against the judge of the election to -recover a penalty of one hundred dollars for permitting this man to vote; and the judge of the election, being a Whig, and anxious to pro- cure a decision which would deprive all men of foreign birth of the elective franchise, confessed on the trial that at the time he received the said vote he knew the person giving it was not a citizen of the United States, that he did not believe he was qualified to vote, because of being an alien, but that he received his vote in conformity with usage; whereupon the court rendered a judgment of one hundred dollars fine against the judge of the election, upon the ground that an unnaturalized foreigner could not be a legal voter, under the Constitution of the United States, for a Representative in Congress. Mr. Douglas volunteered in the case, and took an appeal from the decision of the court below to the Supreme Court, for the purpose of testing the question whether a State of this Union had not a right to confer the elective franchise upon whoever it deemed proper, without reference to the Naturalization Laws. Upon the argument, he maintained that, by the Constitution cf the United States, the elective franchise was reserved to each STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 235 State, with the right to confer it upon such persons, and only such, as each State should decide for itself, without the inter- ference of the Federal Government in any manner whatever, and that this right applied to the election of members of Con- gress as well as to State officers; that the second section of the first article of the Constitution provides that the House of Repre- sentatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature; that by this provision each State was to prescribe for itself the qualifications of voters for the election of members of its own Legislature, and was authorized to allow such persons to vote as it should see proper, for the said members of its own Legislature; and that, by the Constitution of the United States, all such persons who should thus be allowed to vote for members of the Legislature should be voters for Representatives in Congress in such State; consequently, if the State chose to allow foreigners to vote, whether naturalized or not, for its own local officers, the Consti- tution of the United States provided that the same class of per- sons should vote in that State for Congress. Mr. Douglas denied that it was competent for Congress to interfere with the elective franchise in any case or to any extent whatever, but that all things pertaining to the right of suffrage were exclusively re- served by the Constitution to each State for itself. The Supreme Court of the State of Illinois, although com- posed of a political majority in the ratio of three to one against Mr. Douglas, decided in his favor on this proposition, and affirmed the right of each State to regulate the elective franchise without reference to the action of the Federal Government. This decision is believed to be the first on record in which this doctrine was affirmed. Subsequently, in the House of Representatives, in 1844, when Mr. Levin, a Native- American member from Philadelphia, pro- posed in Congress to extend the Naturalization Laws to twenty- one years, for the purpose of depriving American residents of foreign birth of the right of voting, Mr. Douglas replied to his speech, and showed conclusively that Mr. Levin could not accom- plish his object in that way, for the reason that by the Constitu- 236 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. tion of the United States the elective franchise was solely within the control of each State to decide for itself; and that naturaliza- tion had nothing to do with the right of voting, neither con- ferring nor withholding the privilege; and that, consequently, each State would have the same right to permit men of foreign birth to vote before the twenty-one years expired as afterward, even if the Naturalization Laws should be abandoned in the manner proposed by the Native-American party. He maintained the same position successfully in the Committee of Elections in 184344, on the contested-election case between Messrs. Botts and Jones, of Virginia, when a large number of persons of foreign birth, who were legal voters by the laws of Virginia, but who had not been naturalized according to the laws of the United States, had voted for Mr. Botts. When " Know-Nothingism" made its appearance in the United States, in 1854, Mr. Douglas made the first speech ever delivered in America against it, at Philadelphia, on the Fourth of July of that year. In that speech which was published and widely circulated at the time he denounced Know-Nothingisni as anti-American and anti-republican on two distinct grounds : first, that it proscribed persons because of their birthplace; second, that it proscribed persons because of their religious worship. He contended that to proscribe a man on either of these grounds was contrary to the genius of our republican institutions, repugnant to the Con- stitution of the United States, and contrary to all the principles which led to the settlement of the American colonies, were vin- dicated by the Revolutionary struggle, and upon which our repub- lican system of government rests ; that these States had, from their earliest settlement, been declared a place of refuge for the oppressed of all nations; that Protestants and Catholics, Qua- kers and Huguenots, Cavaliers and Puritans, had each in turn been oppressed in their native land and forced by the spirit of persecution to seek refuge in the wilderness of America, in order that they might be permitted in peace and safety to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience; that after their arrival here, when the British crown attempted to invade their civil and religious rights and deprive them of the privileges of self-government in their respective colonial Legislatures in respect STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 237 to their internal polity and domestic concerns, they all united and made common cause, without reference to birthplace or reli- gious creed, in repelling the aggression and maintaining their rights of religious worship and of self-government, each person according to his own conscience, and each State according to its own internal policy. When their independence was achieved, they again united in establishing the Constitution of the United States, in which the same -principles which had brought their fathers to America, and which had produced the Kevolution, were affirmed and perpetuated. He denounced " Know-Nothing- ism" as an attempt to subvert those great fundamental principles, and called upon all the friends of free government and of reli- gious freedom to unite in crushing it out as the common enemy of our republican institutions. While Douglas was in Europe, he several times discussed this question with eminent statesmen. In the course of a conversa- tion with the Swedish ambassador to Russia, the latter emphatic- ally declared that every monarch in Europe would respond to the Austrian circular on the release of Koszta by Captain In- graham denying the right of any Government to naturalize the subject of another Government. Senator Douglas asked him if his royal master, King Oscar, would join in such a declaration, and was answered in the affirmative. Whereupon Douglas gave the interesting chapter of Swedish history which recounts the naturalization of Marshal Bernadotte, the Frenchman, by Swe- den, in opposition to the wishes of Napoleon. Bernadotte became king, and Oscar is his son. The Swede was embar- rassed, and a Russian nobleman, taking up the theme, asserted the "European" principle. For him the American had a chap- ter of Russian history on the subject. The first object which attracted his attention when he anchored in the harbor of Odessa was a beautiful statue at the head of a long stone staircase which stretched from the seaside to the boulevards. - It was erected to the Duke de Richelieu. Who was he ? A Frenchman who had fled to St. Petersburg on the breaking out of the French Revo- lution. He was welcomed by the Emperor Paul, and immediately naturalized, without the consent of France, and made a general in the Russian army. When Alexander succeeded to the throne, Richelieu was made governor of Odessa and vice-regent of the 238 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Russian dominions on the Black Sea, and on his death the inha- bitants of Odessa had, in gratitude for his services, erected the monument. Douglas then asked the Russian by what right was Richelieu naturalized, the only reply to which was " an invita- tion to champagne." Still more recently the Senator from Illi- nois has said : " Under our Constitution there can be no just distinction between the right of native-born and naturalized citizens to claim the protection of our Government at home and abroad. Unless naturalization releases the person naturalized from all obligations which he owed to his native coun- try by virtue of his allegiance, it leaves him in the sad predicament of owing allegiance to two countries, without receiving protection from either, a dilemma in which no American citizen should ever be placed."* In " Harper's Magazine" for September, 1859, Senator Dou- glas published an elaborate paper on " The Dividing Line between Federal and Local Authority," embracing a discussion of Popular Sovereignty in the Territories. It is a comprehen- sive application of his views to the Constitution, from which his positions are deducted. It is considered one of the ablest papers ever produced, and elevates the author, in the opinion of some of the foremost publicists, to the rank achieved only by the great constitutional lawyers and statesmen of the country. A week after its publication, Hon. J. S. Black, Attorney-General of the United States, issued, anonymously, " Observations on Senator Douglas's Views of Popular Sovereignty, as expressed in < Harper's Magazine' for September, 1859;" to which Senator Douglas issued a reply in pamphlet form in October. Judge Black returned the compliment, and Douglas, though suffering from an almost fatal illness, published a rejoinder in November. In 1852, the name of Stephen A. Douglas was brought before the Baltimore Convention for the Presidency, and again at the Cincinnati Convention, where, on the sixteenth ballot, he received 122 votes. After this he withdrew, by telegraph from Washing- ton, his name in favor of Mr. Buchanan. He was a thousand- fold more anxious for the triumph of the Democratic party than for his own elevation ; and, lest his continuance before the Con- vention might endanger its harmony, he desired Colonel Rich- * Peyton letter. STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 239 ardson to withdraw him, and begged his friends to vote for Buchanan, which they did, nominating him on the next ballot.* His name is again the most prominent one in the Democratic party before the country for the Presidency. Relative to the subject, Mr. Douglas, in reply to J. B. Dorr, Esq., of Dubuque, Iowa, asking if his friends were at liberty to present his name to the Charleston Convention for the Presidential nomination, gave the following contingencies, with which this sketch of the emi- nent statesman may aptly conclude rf "If as I have full faith they will the Democratic party shall deter- mine in the Presidential election of 1860 to adhere to the principles em- bodied in the Compromise measures of 1850, and ratified by the people in the Presidential election of 1852, and reaffirmed in the Kansas- Nebraska Act of 1854, and incorporated into the Cincinnati platform in 1856, as expounded by Mr. Buchanan in his letter accepting the nomina- tion, and approved by the people in his election, in that event my friends will be at liberty to present my name to the Convention if they see proper to do so. "If, on the contrary, it shall become the policy of the Democratic party which I cannot anticipate to repudiate these their time-honored principles, on which we have achieved so many patriotic triumphs, and, in lieu of them, the Convention shall interpolate into the creed of the party such new issues as the revival of the African slave-trade, or a Con- gressional slave-code for the Territories, or the doctrine that the Consti- tution of the United States either establishes or prohibits slavery in the Territories beyond the power of the people legally to control it as other property, it is due to candor to say that, in such an event, I could not accept the nomination if tendered to me." While this work was passing through the press, Mr. Douglas submitted the following important resolution to the Senate, with a view to prevent the recurrence of such outrages as recently dis- graced Harper's Ferry : , " Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to report a bill for the protection of each State and Territory of the Union against invasion by the authorities or inhabitants of any other State or Territory, and for the suppression and punishment of conspiracies or combinations in any State or Territory, with intent to invade, assail, or molest the Government, inhabitants, property, or institutions of any other State or Territory of the Union." * See " Official Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention held in Cincinnati, June 2-6, 1856. Published by order of the Convention." ^p. 46. f The letter is dated Washington, June 22, 1859. 210 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. EDWARD EVERETT, t *" OF MASSACHUSETTS. THIS eminent man, whom an eloquent admirer suggests is the " Raphael of word-painting,''* was born in April, 1794, in the old Puritan town of Dorchester, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, and is descended from one of the earliest settlers of Massachusetts Bay, who established himself at Dedham, where the family still remains. He is a younger brother of Alexander Hill Everett, eminent in literature and diplomacy, who died in June, 1847, at Canton, where he succeeded Mr. Gushing as Minister Plenipo- tentiary; and fourth child of Oliver Everett, who, commencing life as a carpenter's apprentice, entered Harvard at the age of twenty-three, became a minister of the gospel at thirty, retired, after ten years' service, from ill health, and at the age of forty- seven was appointed Judge of the Common Pleas in Norfolk County, and died in that office in 1802, at the age of fifty-two. The subject of this sketch went to the public schools of Dor- chester and Boston, attended for a year the school kept by Ezekiel, the brother of Daniel Webster, and was prepared for college entrance at the academy at Exeter, New Hampshire, when the distinguished Dr. Benjamin Abbott was head-master. He entered Harvard College when only a few months more than thirteen years old, and left it at seventeen, with its first honors. He now bethought him of a profession,' showed some preference for the law, but changed his mind at the instance, it is said, of President Kirkland and Mr. Buckminster and took to divinity. He pursued this study for two years at Cambridge, and acted as Latin tutor during a portion of that time. In 1813, not yet twenty years old, he succeeded Mr. Buckminster in the Brattle * "The Golden Age of American Oratory," by Edward G. Parker, Boston, 1857. EDWARD EVERETT. 241 Street Church, in Boston, and entered upon his arduous duties with such zeal as to materially impair his health. His discourses, even at this early age and succeeding so eloquent a preacher as Buckminster, drew very decided attention; and their hearty, honest eloquence created expectations which were not disap* pointed. In 1814, he published quite an elaborate treatise, (five hun- dred pages,) entitled "A Defence of Christianity," in answer to "The Grounds of Christianity Examined/' by George B. Eng- lish. The exposition is said to be complete, was regarded as a successful effort, and, considering the youth of the author, may be classed among " the most remarkable productions of the human mind." Dr. Kage, Bishop of Lincoln, quoted it with respect, as the work of an able writer. In this same year, the late Samuel Eliot, of Boston, established, anonymously, a foundation for a Greek professorship at Cambridge. Mr. Everett was invited to the new chair, with the tempting offer of leave to visit Europe to recruit his health. He took the chair in 1815, before he was twenty-one, and departed for Europe. On arriving at Liverpool, news was received of Napoleon's es- cape from Elba, which detained Mr. Everett in London until after the battle of Waterloo. He then went by the way of Holland to Gottingen, and entered the university there, famous in the eccen- tric verse of Canning. He remained more than two years, acquiring the German language, and making himself acquainted with the state of philological learning, the mode of instruction in the German universities, and those branches of ancient literature appropriate to his professorship. During the vacations he travelled in Prussia, Saxony, and Holland. Leaving Gottingen, he passed the winter of 1817-18 in Paris, in study, chiefly of the Romaic, preparatory to a tour in Greece. At this time he made the acquaintance of Adamantius Coray, or Coraes, whose writings and annotated editions of the old writers contributed so largely to the revival of Greek literature in Greece. In the spring of 1818, Mr. Everett went from Paris to London, passed a few weeks at Cambridge and Oxford, and made a tour through Wales, the lakes of Cumberland, and Scotland. During his stay in England he became on terms of intimacy with many eminent literary and political men, including Scott, Byron, Campbell, Q 21 242 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Jeffrey, Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Samuel Romilly, Sir Hum- phry Davy, Lord Holland, and Gifford. In the autumn of 1818, in company with the late General Lyman, of Boston, he set out on an extensive tour in the East of Europe. After visiting the most interesting portions of the South of France, Switzerland, and the North of Italy, they divided the winter and early spring between Florence, Rome, and Naples, Mr. Everett studying ancient art in its connection with ancient literature. Through Canova, he obtained constant access to the library of the Vatican. In March, 1819, the travellers passed through the lower part of the kingdom of Naples, and crossed from Otrauto to Corfu, thence to Yanina, the capital of Albania. Having letters from Byron to AH Pacha, and from Ignatius, the Metropolitan of Prevesa, to Muchtar Pacha, son of the aged Vizier and Governor of Albania, they received many civilities. Spending a few months at Yanina, Mr. Everett and his friend crossed Mount Pindus into Thessaly, visited Veli Pacha, second son of All, at Turnavo, examined Phar- salia and Thermopylae, went over the mountains, and passed to Athens by the way of Delphi and Thebes. After a stay of two or three weeks at Athens, they made the tour of the Morea, recrossed Parnassus into Thessaly, and took passage from the Gulf of Volo for the plains of Troy and Constantinople. Encountering a storm off Mount Athos, their vessel sprung a leak; and, leaving her at the island of Lemnos, they made the rest of the voyage to the Troad in an open caique; spent the month of June in Constanti- nople, returned through Wallachia, Hungary, and Austria, and in the autumn of 1819 were home in America, after an absence of four years and a half. This residence abroad was one of pecu- liar interest and advantage to Mr. Everett. Greece commanded his freshest memories of classic literature and history. In Italy and Sicily, even, the traveller is still in the modern and Western world. "But," says Mr. Everett, lc he realizes, with full con- sciousness, that he is indeed on his pilgrimage when his eyes rest upon those gems of the deep which the skill of the Grecian minstrel has touched with a spark of immortality; when he can say to himself, as he passes along, l On this spot Avas unfolded the gorgeous web of the Odyssey; from that cliff Sappho threw herself into the sea; on my left hand lie the gardens of Alci- nous ; and the olive and the grape and the orange still cover EDWARD EVERETT. 243 the soil; before me rises the embattled citadel which Virgil de- scribes ; on my right are the infamous Acroceraunian rocks of Horace; and within that blue mountain barrier which bounds the horizon were concealed the mystic grove and oracle of Do- dona, the cradle of the mythology of Greece.' " On his return, Mr. Everett diligently applied himself to his professorship, and, in addition to his regular lectures, published a translation of Buttman's Greek Grammar, from the German, and a Greek Reader, on the basis of Jacobs. About this time he joined the club of literary and scientific gentlemen who owned and edited the " North American Review," which had been esta- blished some years but could not boast of any positive success. Mr. Everett accepted the editorship, commenced a new series, and also a new era. The Review soon became somewhat famous; and a second, and even third, edition of some numbers was demanded. From his first connection with it, says the " American (Whig) Review" of 1850,* he attempted to give to it an American cha- racter and spirit. He made it a special object to defend the country against foreign tourists and essayists. During his long residence abroad, he had observed that writers of these classes assailed American principles while they affected only to assail American customs. America was vilified by them, that re- publican institutions might be disparaged and made contempt- ible. One of the ablest of these writers Captain Marryatt afterward substantially avowed this as the object of his work on the United States! The "North American Review," under Mr. Everett's charge, distinctly met such attempts. In his second number he began a series of papers in systematic vindication of our country. This was in commenting on " Walsh's Appeal from the Judgments of Great Britain." To this article, one of the contributors to the London "New Monthly Magazine" made a flippant reply. To this paper Mr. Everett rejoined; and, at the close of the year, Campbell, the poet, then editor of the " New Monthly," in the preface prepared for the annual volume, admitted that the article in question "was published without reflection," and that he was " dissatisfied with himself for liaving published * A very able monthly published at New York, which closed a brilliant career in 1S52, after what Horace Greeley called the death of the Whig party. 244 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. it, long before the fair and temperate reply which Mr. Everett made to it had reached him." Campbell went still further, and made a handsome defence of America against the charges of British writers. "It was a duty," he said, "particularly imposed upon him by the candid manner of Mr. Everett's reply ; and it was otherwise, as he felt in his heart, deservedly claimed by a people eulogized by Burke and Chatham, by a land that brings such recollections to the mind as the wisdom of Washington and Franklin and the heroism of Warren and Montgomery."* In February, 1820, Mr. Everett preached a sermon in the Capi- tol at Washington, which, judging from the testimony of Judge Story, must have settled the preacher's character as an orator among men of intellect. Judge Story writes, "The sermon was truly splendid, and was heard with a breathless silence. The audience was very large; and, being in that magnificent apart- ment of the House of Representatives, it had vast effect. I saw Mr. King, of New York, and Mr. Otis, of Massachusetts, there. They were both very much affected with Mr. Everett's sermon; and Mr. Otis, in particular, -\vept bitterly. There were some very touching appeals to our most delicate feelings on the loss of our friends. Indeed, Mr. Everett was almost universally admired as the most eloquent of preachers. Mr. King told me he never heard a discourse so full of unction, eloquence, and good taste." It would appear that Mr. Everett was now quite busy, yet it is remarked that his editorial duty on the " Review" was but an accompaniment to his regular labors as Eliot Professor at Cam- bridge. He prepared and delivered a course of lectures on the "Literary History of Greece," giving an account of the life and works of every Greek writer from the remotest period down to the Byzantine era. Among several shorter courses were two on " Antiquities and Ancient Art," which were repeated before large popular audiences in Boston. It is believed that these were the first purely literary lectures delivered there before general audiences. The custom is now a favorite way of impart- ing and receiving knowledge and entertainment. In 1822, the Messenian Senate of Calamata, the first organized * New Monthly," 1821, EDWARD EVERETT. 245 body of the Greek Revolution, through their commissioners at Paris sent their Appeal in manuscript to Mr. Everett, who, by request, translated it into English and published it in this country. In October, 1823, he had an article in the " North American/' accompanied by a translation of the Constitution of Epidaurus. His appeal created much interest throughout the 'United States, and many sympathetic meetings were held. At the next session of Congress, Daniel Webster lent the power of his genius to the cause; and in 1826, Mr. Everett communi- cated the correspondence of Kolocotroni, the military Greek chief, and Mr. Jarvis, an American serving in Greece with him, to Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia. That active and whole- souled philanthropist wrote " An Address on the Subject of the Greeks," " The Case of the Greeks Stated," and other appeals.* These efforts resulted in the despatch of several cargoes of cloth- ing and provisions for the suffering Greeks. On the 8th of May, 1822, Mr. Everett was married to Char- lotte Gray, daughter of Peter Chardon Brooks, one of the lead- ing men of Boston. During the four years of Mr. Everett's editorship of the " North American" he wrote fifty articles for it, to which may be added some sixty others contributed while it was under the management of his brother Alexander and those who succeeded him. The first oration which drew upon Mr. Everett the eyes of his countrymen at large was delivered at Cambridge, before the Phi- Beta-Kappa Society, August 27, 1824. The occasion was one well calculated to call forth the eloquence of the young orator. He stood in the presence of much of the genius and learning of the land, of those who had written their names in their coun- try's history, and whose fame was not confined to the vast re- public which claimed them as her sons.f La Fayette was among .those present; and the peroration of the discourse, which was addressed to the broth er-in-arms of the soldiers of the Revolu- * See "Miscellaneous Essays," rk, 1858. Vol. iii. 272 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. marked attentions. He embarked for home in the summer of the following year, and arrived at New York on June 21, 1856, when the city authorities and a large assemblage of public and private friends received him. In the mean time Mr. Fillmore had been nominated for the Presidency. The American or " Know-Nothing" party had been growing in importance and strength, and determined to offer a candidate on its principles. In June, 1855, " The Council of the Ameri- can Order," by a section of its platform then adopted, deprecated all further action on the subject of slavery. On the 18th of February, 1856, a national convention of the American party was held in Philadelphia. It was called " a special session of the Council of the American Order," and its principal object was the consideration of a national platform. It was here pro- posed to strike out the section of June, 1855, alluded to, as "it was neither proposed by the South nor accepted by the North." This motion created much debate and met with considerable oppo- sition from the Southern delegates. The result was the construc- tion of an entirely new platform, embracing sixteen articles, and adopted by a vote of 108 to 77. The leading features, outside of the anti-foreign elements, were the sixth and twelfth articles ; the former of which repudiated the expediency of Congressional interference with questions appertaining solely to the individual States, and deprecated the intervention of one State with the affairs of any other State ] and the latter of which (the twelfth) approved of all laws and their maintenance until they were repealed or declared null and void by competent judicial author- ity. These articles were a virtual recognition of the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive-Slave Law. Upon this platform Millard Fillmore was nominated for the Presidency by the National Nominating Convention of the Ame- rican party, which met on the 22d of February, immediately after the, adjournment of the Council. On a formal ballot taken on the 25th of February, out of 243 votes cast, Millard Fillmore received 179, and George Law, 24. The former accepted the nomination in a letter dated Paris, May 21. In the election which followed, the nominee of the Democratic party, James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, was elevated to the Presidential dignity. JOHN C. FREMONT 273 JOHN CHARLES FREMONT, OF CALIFORNIA. JOHN CHARLES FREMONT was born at Savannah, in the State of Georgia, on the 21st of January, 1813. His father, a native of Lyons, left France in the year 1798, intending to emigrate to San Domingo, but the vessel in which he was a passenger was captured by an English cruiser when near her destination, and taken into one of the British West Indies. After some years he reached Norfolk, Virginia, where, to maintain himself, he became a teacher of the French language. Here he became acquainted with and married the future mother of Colonel Fremont, Anne Beverly, daughter of Colonel Thomas Whiting, of Gloucester County, Virginia.* Colonel Whiting died while his daughter Anne was quite young, leaving her and her estate to the care of relatives, who first made away with most of her property, and then married her off, at the age of seventeen, to Major Pryor, a rich and gouty Revolutionary veteran, forty-five years her senior. The union proved unhappy : the parties were divorced, and shortly after- ward found themselves more congenial helpmates, the lady in the young and accomplished but penniless Frenchman, and the veteran major in his housekeeper. Mr. Fremont died in 1818. The widow declined the invitation of his brother Francis to go with him to France, and removed, with the remnant of her estate and three children, one daughter and two sons, to Charles- ton, South Carolina, where she resided till her death in 1847. The resolute character and vigorous intellect of her son John were soon manifested, and have been commemorated by Dr. # Colonel Whiting held high official positions both under the Royal Colonial Government and the Commonwealth, was possessed of large wealth, and nearly related to General Washington. Vide Sparks's " Washington," vol. i. 548 ; ib. v. 268; ib. vi. 296. S 274 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Roberton, at whose classical school he was entered when about fifteen years old, in the preface to his interlinear translation of Xenophou's "Anabasis," published in 1850. The design men- tioned by Dr. Roberton of educating Fremont for the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church was natural to the pious mother of a thoughtful and earnest youth, who at the age of six- teen had become a communicant of that Church. Though con- stant to the belief taught him by his mother, having had all his own children baptized in the Episcopal Church, and while he has grown even more earnest and thoughtful as life advanced, yet, as his character developed, it became apparent that nature formed him for a man of action. From 1830 to 1833 he was employed as an instructor of mathematics in the " Apprentices' Library," an evening school, in other schools at Charleston, and as a practical surveyor. Through Mr. Poinsett's influence, he obtained, in 1833, the appointment of teacher of mathematics on board the United States sloop-of-war Natchez, and made in her a cruise of two and a half years' duration. On his return, he was appointed professor of mathematics in the navy, and ordered to the frigate Independence \ but he declined the appointment. His tastes and acquirements led him to seek employment as an engineer, and he made his first essay in this character in an examination of the railway-line between Augusta and Charleston.* Afterward, and until the fall of 1837, he was employed as an assistant engineer, under General W. G. McNeill and Gaptaiu G. W. Williams, in making a preliminary survey for a railway between Charleston and Cincinnati. The exploration of the mountain-passes between South Caro- lina and Tennessee was the part of the line in which Fremont was engaged. The winter he spent with Captain Williams in making a military reconnoissance of the mountainous country in the States of Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In the spring he accompanied Nicollet to the Upper Mississippi, was # It is noteworthy that, when Colonel .Fr6mont was made the scapegoat in the controversy between the army and navy relative to the command in Cali- fornia, and dismissed the service by an army court-martial in 1848, he was of- fered the presidency of this road, with a salary of five thousand dollars per annum. JOHN C. FREMONT. 275 with, him as his principal assistant in the exploration of that year and also in that of the year succeeding, and was afterward employed, under Nicollet and Hassler, then head of the Coast Survey, in the preparation of the map and report of the explora- tion. While absent on this expedition, he was appointed, on the 7th of February, 1838, second lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers. Nicollet and Hassler were votaries of science, and recognised by the learned world as benefactors whom the places had sought ; and the reader can readily conceive the effect of familiar inter- course with them upon such a mind as Fremont's. It stimu- lated him to embrace the whole field of science in his labors; and the rapidity with which he mastered the various branches, and the respect with which his learned associates received his sug- gestions, inspired him with confidence in himself. Before Nicollet's maps and report were entirely completed, Fremont was unexpectedly ordered to explore the river Des Moines, after the execution of which, in the summer of 1841, he returned to Washington, and on the 14th of October mar- ried Jessie, the daughter of Thomas H. Benton, to whom he had been engaged for sonie years. The marriage had been deferred till the consent of Colonel and Mrs. Benton could be obtained. The objection to the match was only the youth of the lady, she being but fifteen years old when the engagement took place. Colonel Benton fully appreciated the character "and talents of his son-in-law, and wisely followed the dictates of his heart in pardoning the impatience of the lovers and inviting them to make his home their home. Benton and Fremont were very unlike in many respects ; but in the great design of exploring the Far West to facilitate its settle- ment and open communication with the Pacific, which Fremont had conceived while associated with Nicolet, he could have found no one more able or willing to cheer him on than Benton, to whose intimacy and affection his marriage had introduced him. As early as 1819, Colonel Benton had endeavored to fix pub- lic attention on Jefferson's policy of opening communication with the Pacific across the continent, in furtherance of which Jefferson had fitted out the expedition of Lewis and Clarke in 1802. As the first step in surveying the regions between the 276 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Missouri frontier and the Pacific, Fre"mont applied for and ob- tained an order in 1842 to explore the frontier as far as the Wind River peak of the Ilocky Mountains, which he executed before the 1st of November. It is impossible here to follow the details of that expedition, and it is scarcely necessary to repro- duce a narrative which has been republished in so many forms at home and abroad. The report was eulogized by Humboldt in his " Aspects of Nature/' and the London " Athenaeum'' con- trasted it favorably with British explorations and pronounced it a model production. Some incidents, however, which serve to mark Fremont's personal character and show how he obtained ascendency over the hardy mountain-men and the savage tribes, will be briefly related. When Fremont arrived at Fort Laramie, he learned that eight or ten of the Cheyennes and Sioux war- riors had been killed by the whites in a recent engagement, and that the Indians were consequently much exasperated. Much alarm prevailed among his men, and even Bridger and Carson, and others whom nothing could daunt, thought some sharp en- counters inevitable. Carson even made his will, which created a panic among the men; and a number of them asked to be dis- charged. It was feared that danger hung over Fremont's party if he proceeded. The chiefs at Fort Platte, assembled in coun- cil, formally warned him not to set out before their young men returned, and finally announced to him that they would detain him. Fremont asked some of their people to accompany him to prevent the collision, but, being refused, became satisfied that the object was to prevent him from going farther into the country. He believed the danger was exaggerated, and told his men so, but, as there was some danger in the service, he was unwilling to take with him any man upon whom he could not rely, and offered to discharge any man who wished to remain. Only one man accepted this offer; and so he started. They had journeyed but a week when a more formidable obstacle presented itself in the scarcity of provisions. The drought and the grasshoppers had destroyed the grass, and not a buffalo was to be seen. Bis- sonette, the interpreter, advised Fremont to return. Fremont again told his men that he would discharge all who wished to return, but that it was his purpose to go on. Not a man flinched. "We'll eat the mules," said Basil Lajeunesse; "and JOHN C. FREMONT. 277 thereupon/' says Fremont, " we shook hands with our interpreter and his Indians, and departed." A thrilling incident is told by Dr. Peters in his recently-pub- lished and interesting life of Kit Carson, which, though it occurred in 1846, after the men were killed in Fremont's camp on Lake Klanmth, may also be properly introduced in this con- nection. Determined to inspire the Indians with a salutary fear of Americans in future, Fremont pursued them, killed great numbers, and burned their village. There Carson had a narrow escape in an encounter with an Indian. " On arriving within about ten feet of the warrior," Dr. Peters says, " he drew up his horse and brought his rifle to his shoulder to fire, but the gun only snapped, and left its owner in a very precarious situation, as the red man had already drawn the string of his bow to plant an arrow in the body of his adversary. A moment more, and in all probability Kit Carson would have been breathing his last. Fremont saw the danger his friend was in, although Kit had tried to avoid the arrow by throwing himself on one side of his horse. With much forethought as well as personal exposure, Fremont plunged the rowels of his spurs deep into his horse. The horse started, and the rider knocked down and passed over the Indian, thereby causing his arrow to fly in a different direc- tion from the one intended. " Kit Carson was and is still very grateful to Fremont for thus interposing between him and almost certain death. In all his expeditions he had such command over his employees that little or no trouble ever occurred while on the marches, although they had privations and dangers to undergo sufficient to test the spirit and obedience of any men." On the 15th of August, Fremont clambered to the top of the loftiest peak of the Rocky Mountains, since known as Fremont's Peak, and planted the stars and stripes upon it. Early in the ensuing spring of 1843, having completed and published the map and report of the first expedition during the winter, Fremont organized and set out on his second expedition, from which he did not return till August, 1844. In this expe-^ dition his object was, first, to complete the survey of the line of communication between the State of Missouri and the tidewater region of the Columbia, which, though it had been traversed 24 278 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. before, had not been examined and mapped by geographers, or its characteristics made known by a man of science ; and, second, to explore the vast region to the south of the Columbia, the whole western slope of the liocky Mountains, a territory of which so little was known that on the existing maps the river Buena Ventura was laid down as traversing the whole distance from the mountains to the Bay of San Francisco, when, in fact, no river of that character existed at all, and the river of that name was but a small stream emptying into the Bay of Monterey. He set out from the town of Kansas on the 29th of May, and came in sight of Salt Lake on the Gth of September. Eight months afterward, he reached Utah Lake, the southern limb of the Great Salt Lake, having completed the immense circuit of twelve degrees diameter north and south and ten degrees east and west. He had in that time travelled three thousand five hundred miles, and had a view of Oregon and of California from the liocky Mountains to the Pacific, and of the principal streams which form harbors on that coast. The fortitude with which he and his comrades met the hardships and dangers encountered on this vast circuit has not been surpassed in the annals of human adventure. In the map and report of this expedition which he prepared and published on his return, the Great Salt Lake, the Utah Lake, the Little Salt Lake, the Klamath Lake, the Sierra Nevada, the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, the Great Basin, the Three Pafks, most of which were then unknown desert regions, now the homes of multitudes of rich and prosperous people, were revealed to the world. Fremont was rewarded for this service in January, 1845, on the recommendation of General Scott, by being brevetted as first lieutenant and captain. Fre"niont set out on his third expedition in the spring of 1845, and reached California in December, having crossed the Great Basin from the southern extremity of the Great Salt Lake. Knowing that the relations between Mexico and the United States were critical, he left his party on the frontier and went alone to Monterey to obtain permission from the authorities of the province to go to the valley of the San Joaquin to recruit. " The leave was granted," says Secretary Marcy, in his report of December 5, 18-16, "but scarcely had he reached the desired spot for refreshment and repose before he received information from the Ameri- JOHN C. FREMONT. 279 can settlements, and by expresses from our consul at Monterey, that Gene- ral Castro was preparing to attack him with a comparatively large force of artillery, cavalry, and infantry, upon the pretext that, under the cover of a scientific mission, he was exciting the American settlers to revolt. In view of this danger, and to be in a condition to repel an attack, he then took a position on a mountain overlooking Monterey at a distance of about thirty miles, intrenched it, raised the flag of the United States, and with his own men, sixty-two in number, awaited the approach of the commandant-general. " From the 7th to the 10th of March, Colonel Fremont and his little baud maintained this position. General Castro did not approach within attacking distance, and Colonel Fremont, adhering to his plan of avoiding all collisions, and determined neither to compromit his Government nor the American settlers, ready to join him at any hazards if he had been attacked, abandoned his position, and commenced his march for Oregon, intending by that route to return to the United States. Deeming all danger from the Mexicans to be past, he yielded to the wishes of some of his men who desired to remain in the country, dis- charged them from his service, and refused to receive others in their stead, so caiitious was he to avoid doing any thing which would compro- mit the American settlers or give even a color of offence to the Mexican authorities. He pursued his march slowly and leisurely, as the state of his men and horses required, until the middle of May, and had reached the northern shore of the great Klamath Lake, within the limits of Ore- gon Territory, when he found his further progress in that direction ob- structed by impassable snowy mountains and hostile Indians, who, having been excited against him by General Castro, had killed and wounded four of his men, and left him no repose either in camp or on his march. At the same time, information reached him that General Castro, in addition to his Indian allies, was advancing in person against him, with artillery and cavalry, at the head of four or five hundred men ; that they were passing around the head of the Bay of San Francisco to a rendezvous on the north side of it ; and that the American settlers in the valley of the Sacramento were comprehended in the scheme of destruc- tion meditated against his own party. " Under these circumstances, he determined to turn upon his Mexican pursuers, and seek safety both for his own party and the American set- tlers not merely in the defeat of Castro, but in the total overthrow of the Mexican authority in California, and the establishment of an independent government in that extensive department. It was on the 6th of June, and before the commencement of the war between the United States and Mexico could have there been known, that this resolution was taken; and by the 5th of July it was carried into effect by a series of rapid attacks by a small body of adventurous men, under the conduct of an intrepid leader, quick to perceive and able to flirect the proper measures for accomplishing such a daring enterprise." 280 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. The Secretary then enters into the details of Fremont's move- ments, the raising of the flag of the United States by him and his followers on hearing of the capture of Monterey by Commo- dore Sloat, his arrival with one hundred and sixty men at Monterey, the pursuit of the enemy by Commodore Stockton, with a force composed of Fremont and his men and a detachment of marines, the capture of Los Angelos, and the entire sub- jection of the country, and, in conclusion, says, " Thus, in the short space of sixty days from the first decisive movement, this conquest was achieved by a small body of men to an extent be- yond their own expectations, for the Mexican authorities pro- claimed it a conquest, not merely of the northern part, but of the whole province of the Californias." Fremont left Los Angelos in September for the Sacramento. In his absence an extensive insurrection broke out in Southern California. He immediately set about raising a battalion among the settlers on the Sacramento to suppress it, and several hun- dred had joined him, when a report came that the northern In- dians had become hostile, and that about a thousand of them were invading the settlements. He went immediately to the Indians, taking but three men with him, and not only pacified them, but recruited his battalion from their warriors. Fremont arrived at San Francisco in October, and sailed for Santa Barbara, but, hearing on his way that he could procure no horses there, he proceeded to Monterey, and there made prepara- tions for a winter march. The insurgents had defeated four hundred sailors and marines marching on Los Angelos. That place and Santa Barbara were in their hands. Colonel Fremont started with four hundred men on a dark night, surprised San Luis Obispo, an important place, and captured Don Jesus Pico, the leader of the insurgents in that quarter. Two days after- ward, on the 16th of December, Pico was tried by a court-martial and condemned to be shot for violating his parole. An hour before the execution was to take place, the mother, wife, chil- dren, and relations of the condemned came weeping before Fre- mont, and with natural fervor begged for mercy. He was affected, and wisely, as the result proved, yielded to their entreaties. Pico, who had hitherto been calm and defiant, now prostrated himself before Fremont, clasped his knees, and vowed JOHN C. FREMONT. 281 eternal fidelity. He was true to his pledge. This clemency toward a member of the most influential family in the province contributed greatly to conciliate the people. Fremont met no resistance afterward. On the 27th of December he entered Santa Barbara, and resumed his march on the 3d of January. Stockton had defeated the insurgents in an engagement, and re-entered Los Angelos. On the llth, Fremont learned that they were then within a short distance of him, and next day two of their officers came to his camp to treat for peace, and the u Capitulation of Cowenga" was made. He granted them liberal terms, and they agreed to return to their homes and aid in keeping the country quiet. This was done; and thus ended the war in California. When Fremont reached Los Angelos, on the 14th of January, 1847, he found General Kearney there, contending with Commo- dore Stockton for the right to command. Both, it appeared, had received instructions to conquer California and establish a civil government. But Kearney knew of the conquest by Stockton and Fremont, and of the existence of civil government there, before he left New Mexico, from Carson, on his way to Wash- ington with the information. Nevertheless, he turned Carson back to guide him and a small escort to California, where he ar- rived in the midst of the insurrection. Attempting to surprise a party of the insurgents at San Pas- qual, he was defeated, had thirty-three of his officers and men killed and wounded, and his entire party would have been cut off but for the timely assistance sent him by Stockton, which brought him and the remnant of his party safely into San Diego. Stockton then offered the command to Kearney, not because he thought him entitled to it, but because he thought him better fitted than himself for the land-service. Kearney refused to ac- cept it, but offered to serve under him, and accordingly did serve as his subordinate in the action which followed. Quiet being restored by the capitulation, he claimed that the government should be turned over to him by Stockton, and required Frd- inont to recognise his authority. Fremont had been appointed lieutenant-colonel of the rifle- regiment by the President, and had received his commission in October; but the California battalion had been previously organ- 24* 282 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE 'MEN. ized under Stockton's authority, and was not composed of enlisted soldiers, but of mountain-men, Californians, and Indians, and partly commanded by officers of the navy; and therefore, though friendly with Kearney, he thought it not right to turn over to him troops thus called into action by naval authority, and refused to do so. Stockton had appointed Fremont Governor, to take effect when he left the country. Thinking Fremont's refusal to recognise his authority pro- ceeded from a desire to retain this appointment, Kearney sought an interview, in which he assumed a most friendly tone, advising him, as an old soldier and as an old friend of Benton, to recall his decision, and concluded by saying that he designed leaving the country himself in forty days, and intended to devolve the government on him. But Fremont was accessible to no such suggestion, and adhered to Stockton. This drew upon him the enmity of Kearney and the army-officers generally, who were pre- disposed to regard him unfavorably because his was a citizen appointment. Instructions came in the spring to Stockton, directing him to relinquish the government to General Kearney, which termi- nated the controversy. Kearney, being now vested with authority, undertook to avail himself of it to mortify and humble Fremont.* He refused him permission to join General Taylor in Mexico, and, on the 14th of June, ordered him to attend him to Missouri, where they arrived on the 22d of August. He treated him with deliberate disrespect all the way, placed him under arrest on his arrival, and ordered him to report himself to the adjutant-general at Washington. Fremont's enemies had filled the newspapers with every species of slander against him; but the citizens of St. Louis, to whom he and his bold companions were known, hailed his arrival with enthusiasm. The citizens of Charleston, also, testified their admiration by presenting him a beautiful sword. He declined the public reception and festival offered him at St. Louis, and hurried to Washington to have the charges pre- ferred against him by General Kearney investigated, not sup- * For particulars, see Bigelow's "Life of Fremont," p. 204. JOHN C. FREMONT. 283 posing that an army court could be impartial between a general and a commodore, (which was the real controversy,) but anxious to go before any tribunal by which the facts could be brought authentically before the country. The court found him guilty of "mutiny," "disobedience of lawful orders," and "conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline," and sentenced him to be dismissed. A majority of the court, however, joined in a recommendation of clemency to the Executive. The President disapproved the finding on the charge of mutiny, and approved it as respected the remaining charges, but remitted the penalty. Fremont would not hold a commission on such terms, and therefore promptly resigned it. The investigation was protracted till the 15th of May, 1848; and the testimony extended to every transaction connected with the conquest of California. But nothing was elicited to impeach the integrity and good faith with which the accused had acted throughout. General Brooke, the then president, and two others of the court, said the question was one " well calculated to excite the doubts of officers of more expe- rience than the accused." The action of the court was attributed by Commodore Stockton (see his Life, p. 154) to the esprit du corps of the army. The motive of the President and Secretary of War in bringing Fremont to trial, and sustaining the proceed- ing of the court, after, as Stockton says, having approved his appointment of him as civil Governor, is attributed to the political aspects of the day, and the position occupied by Benton and Fremont in reference to them. Since the conquest of California by "the intrepid leader, quick to perceive and alle to direct the proper measures for accom- plishing the daring enterprise" as described in the official report of Governor Marcy, above quoted, Mr. Calhoun had imposed on the Administration and party the dogma that slavery could not be excluded from the Territories. Benton and Fremont had given effective support to the Administration in the Senate and in the field; but this counted for nothing without conformity to the new dogma. Benton had vehemently denounced Calhoun's firebrand resolutions as he called them on their first introduc- tion into the Senate, on the 19th of February, 1847. 284 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Fremont had been the protege of Poinsett and was the son-in- law of Ben ton, had exemplified his political principles and fore- cast and won a world-wide reputation by his devotion to an idea which the " slave-power" was at no loss to perceive involved its destruction. It was the antagonism to Benton and Fremont with which the Administration had been thus imbued which tolerated Kearney's violation of orders in dragging Fremont across the continent, to be tried and turned out of the army for what it had lauded both Stockton and Fremont for doing. These transactions only served to inflame Fremont against the doctrines of the South. The development of the West, and the cre*ation there of an overshadowing power, appeared to him to be the surest means to preserve the Government from their influ- ence. The Pacific Road, which would rapidly accomplish this and thus be a perpetual bond of union, was the measure for which he had toiled, and the circumstances of the times seemed to demand of him new efforts to demonstrate the practicability of constructing it. Having exerted himself with success to procure from Congress some compensation for the" California battalion and for those whose property had been applied to the conquest, he devoted all the money he could command to equip himself for a winter expedition across the mountains, to disabuse the public mind of the impression which the disunionists had labored to create, that the snow, as well as the precipitous character of the central route, rendered it impracticable. It was a disastrous expedition. He aimed to go from the waters of the Rio Grande to those of the Colorado, through the Cochatopee Pass; but his guide mistook the way, and led him into mountains 12,000 feet above the sea, where he encountered a most terrific snow-storm. All the animals and many of his men perished ; and the latter would have all been lost, but that he went himself and brought / O them relief. The expedition, though disastrous to him. verified the exist- ence of the pass and the practicability of the route. On reaching California, he made his home there, upon a large tract of land known as the Mariposas, situated about two hundred miles south- west from San Francisco, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada, which he had purchased for $3000, in 1847, of Governor Alvarado. Before he arrived, he learned that gold had been discovered to JOHN C. FREMONT. 285 abound on it; and he engaged and took with him some men to dig the gold. Mrs. Fremont joined him in June, and he went to work with energy. He was not permitted to remain long thus profitably and agreeably occupied. Having warmly advocated the exclusion of slavery from the State, and being identified in the minds of the pioneer settlers and native Californians with all their great interests, they turned to him with great unanimity to represent the State in the Senate of the United States; and he was, accordingly, the first Senator chosen by the Legislature, in December, 1849. He proceeded immediately to Washington ; but the protracted struggle upon the admission of the State prevented him from occupying his seat save only for a few weeks. He offered, imme- diately, a series of measures comprehending all the legislation required for California; among them were bills to open a road across the continent, to donate lands to settlers, to settle land titles, to grant lands to the State for purposes of education, to regulate working the mines, and to preserve peace among the Indians. Of the two latter, which alone could be got before the Senate at so late a period of the session, he gave admirable expo- sitions, presenting, with remarkable brevity, most of the practical, historical, and legal considerations pertinent to each subject; unfortunately, he was disabled from pressing his measures at the next session by an attack of the Panama fever, which prevented him from taking his seat; and he had drawn the short term, which ended March 3, 1851. He was not returned at the ensuing election. But Fremont, and the party which warmly supported him for re-election, have been strong enough, so far, in spite of the ascendency of their adversaries, to defeat the great measure in the programme of Nullification, the project to divide the State and establish slavery in the Southern division. The acts of Congress purporting to settle land titles in Cali- fornia required every claimant to sue himself before Commis- sioners, before the courts of the United States in California, and before the Supreme Court of the United States, if the Attorney- General required it, before he could have his land. The object of conferring this vast power over individual rights upon the 286 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Executive, by the Southern men, was to command the fealty of the claimants. The Mariposas Grant was unquestionable. It had been made to Alvarado, a former Governor of the Province, for distinguished services, and Fremont acquired it from him, in 1847, for what was then regarded as a full price. But, not satisfied with com- pelling Fremont to prosecute his claim to the Mariposas through all the courts, and opposing him there by every means which zeal and industry could suggest, the Attorney-General, Mr. Gushing, "stimulated to vindictiveness by the intense hatred with which the slave-power regarded Fremont, attempted to take a second appeal to the Supreme Court, and caused the patent to be withheld, even after that court had rebuked him for the attempt." Fremont finally came to Washington himself, and Gushing yielded the patent. Soon after the discovery of its mineral wealth, and before it had passed the ordeal of the courts, a London company, of ample means, offered Colonel Benton, who was acting as Fremont's agent, $1,000,000 for his title; and on their depositing the first payment, $100,000, Colonel Benton strenuously advised Fremont to accept the offer. He refused to sell, and went to Europe, in 1852, to negotiate for means to work the mines. While there, his military and scientific reputation secured him the most flattering attentions from the Queen of England, the Emperor of France, great num- bers of distinguished military and scientific men, and learned societies. He had before been elected an honorary member of the Geographical Society of Berlin, had received the " Founders' Medal" from that of London, and " the Great Golden Medal" from the King of Prussia, by the hands of Humboldt. Fremont returned to the United States in June, 1853, to com- plete the survey of the direct line for the Pacific Road to San Francisco, from the point at which he left it in the winter of 1848-49, and set out on this second survey at his own expense, in August, 1853. This also was a winter expedition, and in weather of unusual severity ; but it was the crowning success of all his explorations. He found safe and* easy passes through a fine country, all the way between the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth parallels of lati- JOHN C. FREMONT. 287 tude to San Francisco; and the pictures taken of the passes by a daguerrean artist, carried along for the purpose, confirm his narrative and instrumental observations, and are almost of them- selves sufficient to expose the positions of the adversaries of the road. A complete and beautifully-illustrated account of all of Colo- nel Fremont's expeditions has been for some time in preparation, and will be published by Childs & Peterson, of Philadelphia, during the year 1860. The resume of the first and second expe- ditions will be prepared by Hon. George S. Hillard. The scien- tific portion of the work will contain articles from the pens of Professors Torrey, Blake, Cassin, and Hubbard, compiled from material furnished by Colonel Fremont. In the prospectus of the publishers, it is stated that " The work is feeing prepared with great care by Colonel J. C. Fre"- mont, and will contain a re'sumS of the First and Second Expeditions in, the years 1842, '43, and '44, and a detailed account of the Third Expe- dition during the years 1845, '46, and '47, across the Rocky Mountains through Oregon into California, covering the conquest and settlement of that country; the Fourth Expedition, of 1848-49, up the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers into the Rocky Mountains of Mexico, down the Del Norte, through Sonora into California ; the Fifth Expedition, of 1853 and '54, across the Rocky Mountains at the heads of the Arkansas and Colorado Rivers, through the Mormon settlements and the Great Basin into California. The whole will embrace a period of ten years passed among the wilds of America." Though decided and ardent in his political sympathies, and of unceasing activity respecting the measures which a large fore- cast taught him were most effectual to work out his policy, he took little part in the public discussion of current political topics; and it was not until the outrages in Kansas called for a man of courage and judgment that the politicians thought of him for the Presidency. His private letter of counsel to Governor Robin- son, of Kansas, urging him to a cautious but resolute resistance, and cheering him by the expression of his own sympathy and determination to support him, believing that, in the encl, the nation would also sustain him, fixed the attention of the Repub- lican party on him as a suitable person for the Presidency. In April, 1856, he was waited on by a committee from a poli- tical meeting ic New York, to obtain an expression of sentiment 288 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. on the question of the day. In his brief and prompt reply, written at the moment in a public room amid a crowd, he said, " I heartily concur in all movements which, have for their object to repair the mischief arising from the violation of good faith in the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. I am opposed to slavery in the abstract and open principle, sustained and made habitual by long-settled convic- tions. While I feel inflexible in the belief that it ought not to be inter- fered with where it exists under the shield of State sovereignty, I am as inflexibly opposed to its extension on this continent beyond its present limits." The Republican National Convention, which assembled at Philadelphia on the 17th of June, 1856, nominated him unani- mously for the Presidency, it being ascertained informally that he was preferred by more than two-thirds of the body. William L. Dayton was nominated for the Vice-Presidency. The platform adopted by the convention asserts the settled principles of the Republican party founded by Jefferson; de- nounces the crimes committed by those controlling the Govern- ment to establish slavery in Kansas; maintains the power, and deems it the duty, of the Government to exclude slavery from the Territories; declares the Ostend Circular infamous; and favors the construction of the Pacific Railroad. In his reply to the committee notifying him of his nomination, after saying that the resolutions of the convention express the sentiments in which he had been educated, and which have ripened into convictions by personal observation and experience, he remarks more particu- larly upon the two forms of abuse of the Government by the slave-power, then engaging public attention, one, the seizure of Cuba, proposed in the Ostend Circular; the other, the seizure of Kansas, and deprecates both in the strongest terms. The characteristic feature in the letter, and that which marks it as the production of an efficient leader, is that it points to the means by which the victory may be won and its advantages secured,- telling his partisans how to bring home to the people, whose suffrages were sought, their interest in the contest. "The great body of the non-slaveholding freemen, including those of the South," he says, "upon whose welfare slavery is an oppression, will discover that the power of the General Government over the public lands may be beneficially exerted to advance their interests and secure their independence. Knowing this, their suffrages will not be wanting to maintain that authority in the Union which is absolutely essential to the JOHN C. FREMONT. 289 maintenance of their own liberties, and which has more than once indi- cated the purpose of disposing of the public lands in such a way as would make every settler a freeholder." Lands for the landless was his battle- cry. The Republicans were defeated in the Presidential election of 1856 by the October election in Philadelphia. It was conceded that the success of the Union State ticket in Pennsylvania would be decisive of the Presidential contest in November, and scarcely a doubt was entertained of its success. Fremont's friends say that "at the last moment a bargain was made between the Fillmore organization and the Democratic managers, and 15,000 naturalization -papers were forged." Colonel Fremont has been closely occupied of late years with the management of the Mariposas estate. After suffering much from intrusting its management to others, he determined to be his own manager. " In the spirit of that determination," says Mr. Greeley, writing from San Francisco, after a recent visit to Colonel Fremont, "he has lived and labored, rising with the lark, and striving to obtain a complete know- ledge and mastery of the entire business ; taking more and more labor and responsibility on his own shoulders, as he felt himself able to bear it, until he is now Manager, Chief Engineer, Cashier, Accountant, and at the head of every other department but that of Law, for which he still finds it necessary to rely on professional aid. And his mines are at length becoming productive and profitable. His first (steam) mill, near his dwelling, runs eight stamps night and day; his second (water) mill, three miles distant, on the Merced, at the north end of his estate, runs twelve stamps, also constantly ; and the two are producing gold at the rate of at least $250,000 per annum, at an absolute cost, I am confident, of not more than $150,000. Of course, he needs all the profits, if not more, to extend and perfect his works, having already a much larger water-mill nearly ready to go into operation, besides that on the Merced, m which he expects, I believe, to run fifty-six stamps ; and he hopes to have one hundred in all running before the close of 1860. With that number I believe he would be able, by giving his constant personal atten- tion to the business, aided by faithful and capable assistants, to realize a net profit of $10,000 per week, which would very soon clear him of debt, and leave him unencumbered in the ownership of perhaps the finest mining-country in the world." The latest ' mention of Fremont was the record of his having headed the subscription-list for a monument to the brave and lamented Senator Broderick with five hundred dollars, T 25 290 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. JAMES GUTHRIE, OF KENTUCKY. JAMES GUTHRIE, Secretary of the Treasury in the Cabinet cf President Pierce, was born near Bardstown, Nelson County, Kentucky, in the year 1795. Remotely, he has Scottish blood in his veins, but his more immediate ancestors emigrated to this country from Ireland. His father, General Adam Guthrie, was an early pioneer westward from Virginia. A man of energy and activity, he participated with distinction in the struggle with the Indians for the region now embracing six or seven States and as many millions of inhabitants. Among other fights, he was in the memorable battle of the Saline, fought some ten miles west of Shawneetown, Illinois, in which General William Hardin was seriously wounded. After the peace with the Indians, General Guthrie entered upon civil pursuits, and represented his county in the Kentucky Legislature for eight or ten years. The son, James, was educated chiefly at Bardstown, in the academy presided over by a Scotchman named McAlister, " by no means an ordinary man." When about twenty years old, he engaged in the enterprise common in those days of sending produce to New Orleans, and made two voyages on his own flatboats, returning home by land through the Indian country with the profits of his venture. Becoming dissatisfied with this business, he determined to em- brace the profession of the law, which he did under the instruc- tion of Judge Rowan, of Bardstown, one of the most high-toned gentlemen as well as profound and acute lawyers in Kentucky. Mr. Guthrie's manner of study is worthy of attention from the young candidate for distinction and fortune in these days. He studied as much daily as his physical capacity would admit; and, the more fully to discipline and perfect his mind, it was a regu- Jar practice with him, in reading reports, to carefully consider JAMES GUTHRIE. 291 the facts, weigh the arguments of counsel on both sides, and then, before looking at the decision, to write out one of his own. At the end of two years he was admitted to the bar. Not being of a disposition to rest satisfied with the reputation to be gained in a provincial town, he removed in 1820 to Louisville, then, as now, the commercial capital of the State. It was not long before he " made his mark/' and was appointed by the Governor prosecuting attorney for the county, the duties of which office he fulfilled with great zeal and ability. An inci- dent will serve to illustrate his firmness of character about this period. Uncommonly slender in appearance, he was what might have been called li a gawky young man." He had prosecuted a noted bully with such explicit force for some offence that, not- withstanding great ability on the opposite side, the jury convicted the culprit. Passing to dinner, after the adjournment, through the courtyard, in which, owing to a fall of rain, but a narrow pathway was left, he encountered the bully, armed with a bludgeon, who, raising it, thus accosted him: "Mr. Guthrie, in your speech this morning you took the most unwarrantable liberties with my character, and now, sir, you have got to answer for it." To this Mr. Guthrie replied, " Why, look here, my friend ; I got twenty dollars for convicting you : I don't think I should get a cent for putting you to death. Get out of my way." The fellow, either struck by the philosophy of the re- mark, for vagabonds are generally shrewd philosophers, or awed by Mr. Guthrie's undaunted eye, slunk away. Of Mr. Guthrie's forensic history it is unnecessary to say much. He continued in the profession until he entered the Treasury Department. It is known to the whole country that he acquired great wealth. A large portion of it is unquestion- ably due to his great sagacity and sound judgment in his invest- ments in property, for which, however, the profits of his profes- sion furnished the original means. His success at the bar sprung from two causes : first, his remarkable legal acumen and saga- city, which were largely availed of in the adjustment of a vast proportion of the most occult and complex laud and other causes in the State; secondly, the explicitness of his statements and the universal confidence in his veracity. In criminal cases, it was a common remark that the jury placed more reliance on Mr. 292 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN Guthrie's statement of the case than on tjiat of the judge on the bench. It was about this period, and while still a young man, that Mr. Guthrie had his noted difficulty with Hays. The latter was a member of the old Federal party, a man of brilliant talents, who looked with disfavor upon what he regarded as the presumption of young Guthrie in assuming a position of equality with himself and others of more experience and standing at the bar. Guth- rie was not the man to brook intolerance or intimidation ; and it is understood that, on a,n occasion of some public discussion, he, stung by what he deemed a combination to put him down, spoke with severity of the course and conduct of the ringleader, Mr. Hays. Nothing immediately occurred. A few days after- ward, and when Mr. Guthrie supposed the offence, if any, had blown over, he was sitting on the steps of the Gait House, Louis- ville, one afternoon, in company with several other gentlemen, and amusing himself by whittling a stick. Happening to raise his eye, he perceived Hays, at the distance of about six or eight yards, advancing upon him with a pistol already cocked and pointed. Guthrie instantly sprang upon him with the vigor of a tiger, and received Hays's fire as he advanced, the ball passing through his right groin. Raising himself on his sound limb, he jerked the pistol out of Hays's hand, and was in the act of bringing it down upon his head with a force that would have killed him, Hays crying u Murder !" all the time at the top of his voice, * when the gentlemen who had followed him from the steps ar- rested his arm and carried him back to the hotel. By this means, no doubt, the life of Hays was saved. Mr. Guthrie's wound proved to be one of the utmost severity. He was confined by it to his bed for years ; and even now, having left a slight twist in his leg, it occasions some difficulty in his walk. The popular indignation drove Hays from the place. His fondness for the bottle increased, and in a fit of mania-potu he committed suicide by dashing his head against the wall. For seven or eight years, dating from about 1821, party poli- tics raged with great vehemence in Kentucky. The rival feelings were almost unexampled in their violence, and the reminiscences of the days of the " Old-Court" and " New-Court" parties are filled with animosities characteristic of a state of excitement JAMES GUTHRIE. 293 little short of civil war. This state of things grew out of what were called " relief measures" adopted by the Legislature, stay and replevin laws, in connection with the State Bank and the reorganization of the Court of Appeals. Mr. Guthrie, though opposed on principle to any legislative interference between debtor and creditor, believed that the Legislature had the right 'and power to remodel its judicature, and so joined the New- Court party and was one of its ablest defenders. Of the relief measures, the Commonwealth's bank was perhaps the boldest experiment, and it was as successful as bold* Nothing else of the kind has ever been so successfully carried out in this country. Three millions of paper dollars were put into circulation without any metallic basis whatever, and with no capital except the pub- lic faith; and, after doing good service to the country, saving thousands of debtors from ruin, and materially aiding the Go- vernment of the State, the whole was in a few years called in, cancelled, and destroyed.* From 1825 to the present, Mr. Guthrie has been a Jackson Democrat. He secured the State for the hero of New Orleans, and to his exertions is largely due the gallant front the Demo- crats of Kentucky have made, though almost constantly in the minority. It may be further stated that he was elected for nine years successively from Louisville to the lower branch of the Legisla- ture, and was six years in the Senate, at the end of which time he declined re-election. In 1851, he was elected president of the convention called to revise the Constitution of the State. In all these bodies he was an active member, giving the closest at- tention to the business of the committees, and a frequent and impressive debater. His inexhaustible fund of hard common sense to use the language of the " New York Tribune" was constantly at hand to shape and guide the legislative provisions for the welfare and prosperity of the State ; and a general convic- tion of his probity and judgment on all occasions gave the utmost scope and weight to his opinions. Perhaps there are few men in the country who, considering the various measures which came * " Eminent Americans, &c.," by John Livingston, of the New York Bar. Vol. iv. p. 23. 25* 2\) 4 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. before these bodies while he was successively in them, have had a more extended or more practical experience than Mr. Guthrie in the business of a legislative assembly. His first contest for the Senate with the celebrated Frank John- son was one of the most remarkable in the annals of Kentucky. Mr. Clay was in the zenith of his influence. Mr. Guthrie had been an inflexible Democrat from his boyhood. Frank Johnson was an able and accomplished man, the intimate friend of Clay, and a prominent leader of the dominant party. It was well known that there was a Whig majority in the district of upward of fifteen hundred. Yet against these almost hopeless odds Mr. Guthrie, who is not easily intimidated, and who, say his friends, never fails in any thing he undertakes, entered the lists and beat his opponent. An incident of this contest is related w^iich is too significant of the kindly traits of Mr, Guthrie's nature and of his sympathy with the people to be omitted. It was the practice in that day, as it is now, in Kentucky, for rival candidates to meet each other in debate at different places in their district. It happened that Johnson and Guthrie had an appointment at a place about ten miles from Louisville. At a mile or so from this place a settler was at the time engaged in raising a barn, and, according to the usage of the country, his neighbors had collected to assist him. The day was warm, and the men, getting hold of an unusually heavy log and failing to lift it readily into its place, came to a stand-still. They began to consider whether they should not give up the job for the day and try the log when they were fresh next morning, when one of the party proposed that as the rival candidates would soon be passing along home the whole party should vote at the coming election for whichsoever of them who gave assistance, be he Whig or Democrat. It was agreed to. Mr. Johnson was the first candidate who arrived on the ground. He stopped his horse, spoke kindly to the men, inquired into their difficulty, advised them to rest satisfied for the present and come fresh to the work in the morning, and, reminding them that the election would take place on such a day, " when lie expected to see all his friends/' passed on. After a while, Mr. Guthrio came along. He inquired into their difficulty, and heard the proposition to adjourn until the morning. "My friends," said he, "my rule JAMES GUTHRIE. 295 is never to put off till to-morrow what can be done to-day j and if one good strong back can do any good, here it is." Thereupon he tied his horse ; they all went to work and got the log in its place. This is perhaps the first and only attempt of Mr. Gruth- rie at log-rolling. It need scarcely be added that the whole crowd voted for him, and many others who heard the story. One of the most remarkable features of Mr. Gruthrie's charac- ter is his indomitable firmness and his invariable practice always to do, and not to be deterred therefrom by any personal con- siderations, what he deems just and right. Louisville was the political hotbed of the State, and party spirit then, as now, was tinged with the utmost asperity. The inflexibility of his Demo- cracy as well as of his character made him always obnoxious to the dominant faction, and various were the schemes, since he could not be seduced or cajoled, to drive or put him out of the way. On one occasion, at an election of unusual heat, a combination of bullies was formed to put him to death if he attempted to deposit a vote or assist by his presence or authority his friends including a large number of the foreign population in their access to the polls. Mr. Guthrie was appealed to by his friends first, to abstain from attending; second, to allow them to arm in his defence. He declined both propositions, declaring that he would never surrender his rights as an Ame- rican freeman but with his life, but that he would meet the danger alone, and would not, by permitting his friends to attend him, furnish a pretext for, or give occasion to, civil dissension and bloodshed. He armed himself with a pistol and deposited his vote. Being asked some time afterward by his friends what his calculations and reliance were in encountering so imminent a peril, he said he felt himself good for one man, at least, the leader of the band ; and that he put his eye upon him on entering the crowd. Perceiving that his determination was known, and that the eye of the ringleader fell under his own, he felt himself safe. Another anecdote of his firmness, exerted not, as on a former occasion, in the maintenance of his dearest rights as a freeman, but in the ordinary execution of the laws, is worth relating. An unprovoked murder had been committed upon a very worthy citizen of Louisville. The exasperation of the community 296 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. was so great as to lead to the conclusion that the murderer could not have a fair trial in Louisville, and a motion was made in the court to change the venue to a different county. The judge put the usual question, "Is the prisoner in court?" The sheriff answered, he was not. The judge then directed him to bring him in. The sheriff said that there was a furious populace of five thousand around the jail, for the purpose of tearing him to pieces the moment he was brought out. "If that is the case," said the judge, "summon the posse ' comitatus." "I have done so," said the sheriff; " and I cannot get a force sufficient for the purpose." Mr. Gruthrie, sitting in court, raised his head, and said to the sheriff, " Summon me." They proceeded immediately to the jail; the man was brought out, and Mr. Gruthrie, grasping him by the breast of his coat, carried him through the crowd, his presence and bearing commanding their respect, and con- vincing them that it would cost them at least two lives to get the one they wanted. While Mr. Gruthrie was a member of the Kentucky Senate, he procured a charter for the Bank of Louisville., and perhaps others, and was a director in that bank until he left Louisville, in 1853. Griving to the affairs of that institution, both in general and detail, the strength of his mind and attention, he laid the foundation of that masterly knowledge of finance which he exhibited to the admiration and surprise of the country while at the head of the Treasury Department. In the same body he secured a charter for the University of Louisville, which, under his superintend- ence, was eminently successful, and yielded its appropriate fruits to many of the now most promising men in the Southwestern States. It may also be said that he is the founder of the railroad- system, and has uniformly given the weight of his influence and exertions to the improvement and development, first, of his own State, and then of the rest of the Union, in all their industrial resources. The history of one of these railroads the Nashville and Louis- ville, one hundred and eighty miles in length is not a little remarkable. Charters from both States, Kentucky and Ten- nessee, legislative authority from both for the counties to sub- scribe through which the road passes, grants from both States, and individual subscriptions, were needed to start the work. JAMES GUTIIRIE. 297 Mr. Guthrie, as president of the road, perfected all these arrange- ments, and secured subscriptions and grants to the amount of two millions, made the road about twenty miles, and, estimating that to complete it would cost from $1,500,000 to $2,000,000, executed a mortgage on the road, and entered into a contract with a leading banking-house in London to furnish the latter sum on bonds of the company secured by State mortgage. In this condition of the road, the finances were fully arranged; and, with the assured prospect of an early completion, Mr. Guthrie left Louisville to occupy the post of Secretary of the Treasury. Another distinguished gentleman of Kentucky was elected to succeed him as president of the road. By some accident the preparation of the bonds was delayed, and they did not reach England until after the day stipulated with the London bankers. The Eastern War was then impending, and these gentlemen, sharing the common apprehension in money-circles of the coming event, took advantage of the failure of the bonds at the appointed time to repudiate the contract. The result was that, after expend- ing the amount subscribed, the road came to a dead lock. Various efforts were made to induce Mr. Guthrie to leave the Treasury and resume the management of the road. He said "No: he had been very handsomely invited to the Cabinet by President Pierce, and felt bound as a man of honor to remain with him to the end of his term." The road remained in this condition- until the close of President Pierce' s Administration. Upon his return to Louisville in the spring of 1857, Mr. Guthrie, although refusing to become president of the road, consented to act as a director, and as such has had the management of it, particularly of its finances. It will be recollected that in a month or two after his return home the convulsion of 1857 took place. To talk of sell- ing a railroad-bond at that time, and particularly of a road not completed, would almost provoke derision; and yet, notwith- standing this state of things, Mr. Guthrie succeeded in obtaining money, from time to time, sufficient to complete the road, and that, too, without getting a dollar from New York or Europe. These facts furnish a not inapt illustration of the remark respect- ing Mr. Guthrie already quoted, " that he never fails in what he undertakes." The circumstances attending his appointment to the Treasury 298 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Department must not be overlooked. It is believed that Mr. A. 0. P. Nicholson, now United States Senator from Tennessee, first suggested to General Pierce the name of Mr. Guthrie, as the most prominent man in the circle of border slave States. It is known that many other persons from that region, and others passing through Kentucky, contributed to strengthen this predilection in favor of Mr. Guthrie. But, when General Pierce reached Washington, he was still uninformed in respect to Mr. Guthrie's opinions on some of the cardinal principles of the Democratic party, such as Tariff, Internal Improvements, Currency, &c. He requested a mutual friend to write to Mr. Guthrie, asking his views on these subjects. The Kentuckian answered his friend, that all his opinions upon these and other national questions were to be found in the speeches he had made at dif- ferent times in the Legislature and Convention of Kentucky; and desired him to refer General Pierce to them. The result is before the country. The President became satisfied that Mr. Guthrie cherished sentiments coincident with his own on all the great issues of the country, and gave him a prompt invitation to come to Washington. In 1858 he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. This, it will be remembered, writes a competent authority, was the era of the Gardner and Galphin claims, of the employment of secret inspectors of the customs and of unnecessary officers, of the use of the public funds by bankers arid other favorites, and of general neglect, derangement, and delay in the business of the Treasury. In the four years during which he held the seals, a change that astonished the whole country took place. The money of the nation, amounting to some $5,000,000, was taken out of the hands of the many irresponsible individuals who had shared its illegal use ; and the Independent Treasury, with all its admirable safeguards and sanctions, was put fully and fairly into operation. The secret inspectors were dismissed; the unsettled accounts and balances, amounting, when he enter-ed the Treasury, to the enormous sum of $132,000,000, were reduced, at the end of four years, to $24,000,000, Order, system, method, the vigorous despatch of business, without respect of persons, took the place of confusion and favoritism. During this period some noble vessels were added to our navy; the army was increased in JAMES GUTHRIE. 299 order to afford more ample protection to our extensive frontier; $10,000,000 were paid to Mexico for the Mesilla Valley, and large sums invested in the construction of public edifices for the use of the Government at Washington, and the accommo- dation of branch mints, custom-houses, post-offices, &c., else- where. Yet, after all these extraordinary drafts upon the Trea- sury, Mr. Guthrie paid off $40,000,000 of the public debt, besides the interest thereon, and premium on its purchase, and turned over to his successor, on the 3d of March, 1857, a balance of nearly $20,000,000. Such is a summary of Mr. Guthrie's material acts in the Trea- sury Department. His annual reports, which, it is hoped, readers will examine for themselves, abound in sentiments of the noblest nationalism and the soundest statesmanship, and show that he understands our people and their interests thoroughly, and has a heart for both. But the purpose of this sketch is not so much to exhibit the public acts of Mr. Guthrie on those points which are open toi the people and can be known by them, as to show the interior work- ing and cast of his mind. Mr. Guthrie is essentially a reformer. He was not content to administer the Treasury, but he was deter- mined to correct the abuses of the Department, to scrutinize its recent transactions, to secure the rights of the Government where they had been sacrificed, and he introduced regulations and safe- guards to protect the nation for the future; in other words, Mr Guthrie served in the Treasury not so much for his ease or fame as for the common welfare of his country. The change in the system' of accounts is one of those reforms the benefits of which will probably last to all time. When he accepted the office, receiving and disbursing officers submitted their accounts for each quarter of the year, and were allowed an additional quarter in which to make up their accounts and trans- mit them to the Treasury. When they got to the Treasury, the accounting officers were occupied from three to six months, if not more, in settling such accounts. The result was that the trans- actions of these collecting and disbursing officers did not come under review of the controlling authority for approval or rebuke, in general, for more than a year. The new Secretary's notion was the homely, hard-sense doc- 800 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. trine that short accounts make long friends; and, perhaps, of all the reforms he wrought in the Treasury, none was more difficult than the one he effected in this regard. He took "the bull by the horns/' the largest of them all, the Collector of New York, whose accountability embraces thirty millions a year. He sent for Mr. Bronson, and talked the matter over with him; and, although that gentleman was startled at the proposition to make the settlements monthly, and believed it impracticable, referring to the ineffectual effort of a former Secretary of the Treasury to achieve the same object, to his credit be it spoken, he admitted the great advantage that would accrue to him as well as to the Government, and promised to do every thing that he could to carry into effect the plan of Mr. Guthrie. This he did; and Greene C. Bronson is well entitled to share with Mr. Guthrie the credit of having achieved one of the greatest reforms ever made in our system of finance. A correspondence ensued, con- ducted in the most amicable spirit, in which Mr. Bronson can- didly stated the difficulties and embarrassments in the way of reform, and Mr. Guthrie argued to countervail and remove them. Mr. Bronson finally yielded his objections, and admitted that the plan was practicable. Of course, when Bronson yielded, no lesser collector could say nay, and Mr. Guthrie put the new regulation into authoritative force. The result is, that from that time Trea- sury accounts have been rendered monthly instead of quarterly, and within four days of the end of each month have been made to pass through all the forms of settlement in the Treasury before the close of the next month. It is not singular that, with this system, there were no defaults during Mr. Guthrie's administration. In the Department there are six Auditors, two Controllers, one Commissioner of Customs, one Treasurer of the United States, one Register of the Treasury, one Solicitor, and one Light-House Board, making, in all, thirteen bureaus. Prior to Mr. Guthrie's time, the heads of these bureaus had been left to manage them in their own way, and according to their own views of the laws establishing them. He prescribed regulations to improve the condition of these bureaus in many particulars of public duty; but, what was perhaps most important and efficacious, he required each head-officer to make to him an annual report of the doings and proceedings of his office. In speaking of this regulation, Mr. JAMES GUTHRIE. 801 Gutlirie said to a friend, "Of course, when they make the report, they will exhibit their offices in the best condition they can ; and the next time they report they will try to improve on their former, and, to do this, will have to work up to their successive reports and improve on them." Here was another practical illustration of his hard common sense. The full exhibition of the Sub-Treasury Act was not an ordi- nary piece of official duty, in which, when a head of a Department pronounces a decision, the parties affected have nothing to do but to acquiesce. On the contrary, this act of Mr. Guthrie affected, pecuniarily, and to a large degree, the interests of some of the most potent men in the country, and subjected him to their most bitter denunciations. It will be remembered that three of Mr. Guthrie's predecessors had pronounced the Act impracticable and had placed the public funds to vast amounts in the hands of irresponsible bankers, for deposit, for the purchase of stocks, for the transfer of money from point to point, and other purposes. Immense fortunes had been made by individuals from the use of the public money. The storm of wrath which sprung from the apprehensions of the threatened destruction of this source of gain was terrific. A gentleman of high standing in this country remonstrated with Mr. Guthrie on the subject. He stated to him that in changing the practice of the Treasury in this regard he would disappoint the expectations of many of the friends of General Pierce; that he would make a split in the Democratic party ; and that he himself would be driven from office. Mr. Guthrie answered, that as to going back to Kentucky, it would not cost him a second thought, as he had never sought office; that he should regret to disappoint the just expectations of any friend of General Pierce, and would deplore any division in the Demo- cratic ranks; but, if these results were to happen though he could hardly suppose they would from this action of his, he must submit to them all, and would sooner see the continent shivered to atoms than violate his oath, his duty, and his con- science. Pursuing the idea of giving the interior workings of Mr. Guthrie's mind, it is to be stated that in the session of the Senate of 1855-56, a committee was raised on retrenchment and reform, 26 302 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. of which the late Senator Adams, of Mississippi, was chairman. This gentleman addressed a letter perhaps a circular to Mr. Guthrie, requesting him to point out any abuses which had fallen under his observation, or any reforms to be made in the conduct- ing of the business of the Government. It has been already re- marked that Mr. Guthrie is by nature a reformer j and at this time he had been more than two years in office. Mr. Guthrie answered by stating, first, that he had already corrected all the abuses and made all the reforms within the province of the Trea- sury Department which were within his competency as the head of that Department, and gave a list of these reforms in detail. He next pointed out to Mr. Adams the abuses existing and the reforms to be made, which could only be effected by the author- ity of Congress; adding that he had repeatedly brought them before its notice without being able, as yet, to procure its action thereon; and, thirdly, he subjoined, that if there were any abuses to be corrected or reforms to be made in Congress, or in Departments of the Government other than the Treasury, he supposed that it was not for him to suggest them, but for Con- gress itself, or the heads of such Departments, to move in the matter. There is much more of a like kind in the history, character, and services of this eminent statesman which gladly would be presented if space permitted. One more anecdote, however, to show not merely the cast of Mr. Guthrie's mind, but his ideas of the authority and responsibility devolving on the guardian of the public Treasury relatively to the other members of the Government. This anecdote is given on the authority of Gene- ral Gushing, in a speech delivered in Faneuil Hall. A claim had been presented on the Treasury by a gentleman in Washington, arising out of legislation of Congress, to the amount of $100,000 or more, and the Secretary, upon full argument on the law and facts of the case, had rejected the claim in writing. Some time after this decision, the President, having sent to the Treasury for the papers, brought the subject up in Cabinet meeting. It was discussed, various gentlemen expressing their views, Mr. Guthrie remaining silent. The President at length said, " Mr. Guthrie, this is a claim against your Department: we should like to hear your opinion on it." Mr. Guthrie immediately rose JAMES GUTHRIE. 303 and said, " Gentlemen, this case has been decided in the Treasury. Good-morning," and, putting on his hat, walked out; thereby intimating, General Gushing supposes, that if they were about to allow the claim they must get some other Secretary to do it. Since Mr. Gruthrie's return to Kentucky he has been devoted almost exclusively to the pursuit of his railroad-enterprise, and to the enjoyment of domestic and social intercourse. He does not understand, and, consequently, cannot practise, the arts of the politician. He probably thinks, with Lowndes, that the Presi- dency is neither to be sought nor shunned. 304 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. JAMES H. HAMMOND, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. SENATOR HAMMOND is a native of the State he in part repre- sents in the Upper House of Congress, having been born in the Newberry District, on the 15th of November, 1807. His father was a native of Massachusetts, and emigrated from that State to South Carolina, in 1802. The elder Hammond, an erudite and accomplished scholar, occupied the post of Professor of Mathematics in the (Columbia) South Carolina College, and bestowed the most anxious attention upon the education of his son, training him with a care at once assiduous and genial, unremitting and unwearying. Those who delight in tracing or accounting for the mature effects of intellect will readily perceive in the speeches and writings of the Legislator, Governor, and statesman, the benefits of the solid foundation so devotedly laid by paternal solicitude in young Hammond's mind. Admitted to the bar at the age of twenty-one, Mr. Hammond continued in the practice of that profession long enough to test his ability and give promise of future distinction. Whenever great principles agitate localities, lawyers, more generally than the members of the other professions, become participants in the discussion of them. Their constant appear- ance in public, their readiness with pen and tongue, their re- sources in argument, naturally suggest to themselves and others the duty of expounding the leading questions of the day. Hence we find Mr. Hammond taking a leading part in the arena of politics as editor of the " Southern Times," of Columbia. The Tariff policy inaugurated by the Federal Government in 1828 was regarded by South Carolina as a palpable assumption of undelegated, or rather as a gross abuse of delegated, power. The late General James Hamilton openly announced his intention to abandon his seat in Congress, being determined to resist at JAMES H. HAMMOND. 305 home what he considered a stupendous system of fraud and iniquity; and "he boldly uttered to his constituents the startling announcement that it was the imperative duty of South Carolina to resist, at all and every hazard." That proud State, in her capacity of sovereignty, was about to assume an attitude of re- sistance. Mr. Hammond, having been educated in the Jeffer- sonian school of State's Rights, believed that in such cases a sove- reign State had the right to interpose her veto. Accordingly, in the " Southern Times," he supported, and gave full illustration to, the arguments in favor of Nullification, in a series of spirited and able essays, which did much to shape and control public opinion in the exciting times which followed. In 1831, Mr. Hammond withdrew from politics and law, and, having married Miss Fitzsimmons, a young lady of wealth and accomplishments, devoted himself to the independent life of a planter on the banks of the beautiful Savannah. His health had never been remarkably good, and an agricultural life, to which he became enthusiastically devoted, afforded an agreeable relaxa- tion from severe studies and the exciting and exacting labors of public life. The part Mr. Hammond had taken in giving voice to the unanimous feelings of South Carolina pointed him out to his fellow-citizens as one fitted to represent them in the National Councils; and his private life was invaded, in 1834, by the unani- mous voice of his district. He was elected to Congress, and went to Washington. Unfortunately, from the state of his health, he was unable to serve out his term ; but, while he occupied his seat, he greatly distinguished himself by an elevated tone of eloquence and patriotism. The question of the reception of Abolition petitions having been recently sprung upon Congress by the Society of Friends, of the State of Pennsylvania, who begged the enactment of laws for the removal of slavery from the District of Columbia, Calhoun objected on the instant of their presentation to all such petitions, and used the argu- ments by which President Jackson had recommended, and he (Calhoun) had advocated, the suppression by law of the circula- tion of all anti-slavery publications by mail in the Southern States. After a lengthened debate, the Senate recognised the right of petition by receiving the one in question, but, two days U 26* 306 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. after, on the llth of March, 1836, rejected its prayer by a vote of 34 to 6. In the House the same subject was under discussion. Mr. Hammond had made the first time it ever had been made the question on the reception of petitions, John Quincy Adams taking the lead on the part of the Abolitionists. Scenes of great excitement took place, Mr. Adams persisting in presenting nume- rous petitions from men, women, and children. A general expres- sion against the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia was elicited, and a resolution passed in opposition to a petition presented by Mr. Adams, which purported to be from eleven slaves in the town of Fredericksburg, declaring that slaves were not vested with the right to petition Congress. Into this debate Mr. Hammond threw himself. He defended the constitutional rights of the Southern States with a prompti- tude and efficiency that for a time silenced all opposition, and secured for the orator the hearty and unanimous approbation of his constituents, and indeed of the whole South. " Never," says a political writer of the South,* in a communication on the sub- ject of this sketch and this period of his career, " never was a more timely or effective blow struck for the Constitution and the Union, or for the rights, the honor, and the salvation of the South." On withdrawing from the House of Representatives, Mr. Hammond determined to pay a short visit to Europe, with a view to combine the pleasures and instruction of foreign travel with the restoration of his health. Having spent a year and a half in Europe, visiting the chief seats of literature and art, and collect- ing many fine specimens of the latter, he returned to his home. He again engaged in the occupation of a planter, declining posi- tively the urgent solicitations of his friends to suffer his name to be put a second time in nomination for Congress. He consented, however, to accept from his fellow-citizens the honor of an appointment to the office of General of Brigade of the State militia, his attention having been for some time pre- vious occupied with the importance of a complete reorganization of the militia system of South Carolina. On this subject he * Mr. D. K. Whitaker, formerly of the "Southern Review," who kindly fur- nished me with many dates. JAMES H. HAMMOND. 307 made important suggestions to Governor Hayne, who gave them form in the excellent system of brigade-encampments which he introduced during his administration. In 1842, General Hammond was elected Governor of South Carolina, and his messages to the State Legislature while in this prominent position are highly commended for their " practical wisdom/' and as being " among the best State papers extant ;" while his letters on domestic slavery to Thomas Clarkson, the celebrated English philanthropist, are regarded as affording some of the most conclusive arguments that have ever emanated from any pen on this vexed question. Some three or four years previous, the eminent divine, John England, Bishop of Charleston, had disposed of the Slavery question as involving a domestic institution, and in so far as his Catholic flock were theologically concerned. Governor Hammond also met -the question as presented to him, exposing the unnatural heartlessness of that English phi- lanthropy which appeals to America to abolish negro slavery, while it fosters a white slavery of the most debasing character. Bishop England's letters were brought out by the appearance of an Apostolical Letter of Pope Gregory XVI., said to be against slavery, but actually against the slave-trade. Governor Ham- mond's were called forth by a circular of the lay chief of English philanthropists. Taken together, as they emanate from the same State, they form a most remarkable review, theological, political, moral, and social, of the whole question. It is argued on the basis of the one that it is an impossibility that Catholic theology "can ever be tinctured with the fanaticism of Abolition " and the writer who thus argues condenses the views of Bishop England in a comprehensive manner. He shows that Catholics may and do differ in regard to slavery, and other points of human policy, when considered as ethical or political ques- tions ; but their theology is fixed, and is, and must be, the same now as it was for the first eight or nine centuries of Christianity. During that period, as Bishop England has shown in his series of "Letters to the Hon. John Forsyth," the Church, (Letter XVI.,) by the admonitions of her earliest and holiest pastors; by the decrees of her councils, made on a variety of occasions ; by her synodical condemnation of those who, under pretext of reli- 308 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. gion, would teach the slave to despise his master; by her sanction and support of those laws by which the civil power sought to preserve the rights of the owner; by her own acquiring such property, by deeds of gift or of sale, for the cultivation of her lands, the maintenance of her clergy, the benefit of her monaste- ries, of her hospitals, of her orphans, and of her other works of charity, repeatedly and evidently testified that she regarded the possession of slave-property as fully compatible with the doctrines of the gospel; and this, whilst she denounced the pirate who made incursions to reduce into bondage those who were free and unoffending, and regarded with . just execration the men who fitted out ships and hired others to engage in the inhuman traffic. "In Catholic theology, the question is a settled one; and no one would be recognised as a Catholic who would utter the expressions we have heard from the lips of American Abolition- ists who call themselves Protestants : ' If the Bible allows slavery, it should be amended.' . . . i The Christianity of the nineteenth century should as far excel the Christianity of the early Church, as that did the old Jewish law/ " &c.* Governor Hammond, in his letters to Clarkson, did not pro- pose to defend the African slave-trade, but he showed that it could not be abolished by th"e use of force, and that it had thus far signally defeated the philanthropy of the world. Coming to Clarkson's new hobby, American Slavery, he declines to speak of it as an abstraction, because, in his opinion, abstractions sel- dom lead to useful ends. "I might say," writes Hammond, "that I am no more in favor of slavery in the abstract than I am of povei'ty, disease, deformity, idiocy, or any other inequality in the condition of the human family, that I love perfection, and think I should enjoy a millennium such as God has pro- mised. But what would it amount to ? A pledge that I would join you to set about eradicating those apparently inevitable evils of our nature, in equalizing the condition of all mankind, consummating the perfection of our race, and introducing the millennium ? By no means. To effect these things belongs exclusively to a higher power. And it would be well for us to leave the Almighty to perfect his own works and fulfil his own covenants." * " United States Catholic Miscellany," Dec. 9, 1843. JAMES H. HAMMOND. 309 Attacking the "wretched subterfuge that the precise word ' slave' is not in the translation of the Bible/' he argues that not the words of translators, but the meaning of the Holy Scriptures, must be regarded as divine revelation, and shows that " servant/ 3 "bondman," and "slave," were usually synonymous in the Greek and Hebrew. It is needless, however, to follow the Biblical quo- tations and allusions of the Governor. As to his own convictions, he endorsed, without reserve, the much-abused sentiment of McDuffie, that " slavery is the corner- stone of our republican edifice," and, in the event of the Abo- litionists dissolving the Union, had no objection whatever to cast in his lot with a confederacy of States whose citizens might all be slaveholders. He did not believe that "all men are born equal." As a commentary on the discontent of European free-labor, he reminds Mr. Clarkson that, excepting the United States, there is no country in the world whose existing government would not be overturned in a month but for its standing armies, maintained at an enormous and ruinous cost to those whom they are destined to overawe, so rampant and combative is the spirit of discontent wherever nominal free-labor prevails, with its ostensible privi- leges and its dismal servitude. Admitting that slavery increases Southern representation in Congress, Governor Hammond showed that it also increases Southern taxes, and that the balance of profit arising from the connection between the North and the South is in favor of the former. In fact, he reviewed, with brevity but sufficient force, all the arguments or accusations brought against domestic slavery and the reported ill state of society in which it was said to result. He showed that slavery has nothing to do with the tales of murder, affrays, and horrors which are constantly set forth. " Stability and peace are the first desires of every slave- holder, and the true tendency of the system." "We have been so irreverent as to laugh at Mormonism and Millerism, which have created such commotions farther North ; and modern pro- phets have no honor in our country. Shakers, llappists, Bunkers, Socialists, Fourierists, and the like, keep themselves afar off. Even Puseyism has not yet moved us." " Miss Martineau, with peculiar gusto, relates a series of scandalous stories ; which would have made Boccaccio jealous of her pen, but which are so ridicu- 310 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN lously false as to leave no doubt that some wicked wag, knowing she would write a book, has furnished her materials/'* The irresponsible power of one man over his fellow-men is the subject of vehement denunciation on the part of Abolitionists. Governor Hammond denies that the slaveholder in America is irresponsible. He is responsible to God, to the world, to the community in which he lives, and to the laws under which he enjoys his civil rights. " Those laws do not permit him to kill, to maim, or to punish beyond certain limits, or to overtask, or to refuse to feed and clothe, his slave. In short, they forbid him to be tyrannical or cruel/' It is the interest as well as the desire of Governor Hammond and all slaveholders to treat their slaves with proper kindness. "Slaveholders," he says, "are no more perfect than other men. They have passions. Some of them, as you may suppose, do not at all restrain them. Neither do husbands, parents, and friends. And in each of these relations as serious suffering as frequently arises from uncontrolled pas- sions as ever does in that of master and slave, and with as little chance of indemnity. Yet you would not on that account break them up. I have no hesitation in saying that our slaveholders are kind masters, as men usually are kind husbands, parents, and friends, as a general rule, kinder. A bad master he who overworks his slaves, provides ill for them, or treats them with undue severity loses the esteem and respect of his fellow-citizens to as great an extent as he would by the violation of any of his social and most of his moral obligations. What the most perfect plan of management would be is a problem hard to solve. From the commencement of slavery in this country, this subject has occupied the minds of all slaveholders, as much as the improvement of the general condition of mankind has those of the most ardent philanthropists ; and the greatest progressive amelioration of the system has been effected. You yourself acknowledge that in the early part of your career you were exceedingly anxious for the immediate abolition of the slave-trade, * "But her [Margaret Fuller's] friendship for the latter [Miss Martineau] did not preclude her giving her candid opinion on Martineau's book on America. Agreeing with much of it, she condemned the gross inaccuracies with which that work was filled; and, writing to the author of it, Miss Fuller says, 'A want of soundness, of habits of patient investigation, of completeness, of ar- rangement, are felt throughout the book;' and again, 'I do not like that your book should be an Abolition book. You might have borne your testimony as decidedly as you pleased ; but why leaven the whole book with it?' " "Demo- cratic Review," June, 1852, Article " Vanity versus Philosophy. Margaret Fuller (Ossoli)." JAMES H. HAMMOND. 311 lest those engaged in it should so mitigate its evils as to destroy the force of your arguments and facts. The improvement you then dreaded has gone on steadily here, and would doubtless have taken place in the slave- trade, but for the measures adopted to suppress it." After going over the South, so to say, and showing the average morality and happiness of slaves, and the nature of the relations between them and their masters, Grovernor Hammond charges home on Mr. Clarkson and his fellow-philanthropists the fact that the poor and laboring classes of their own race and color in Great Britain men not oixly their fellow-beings, but fellow- citizens are more miserable and degraded, morally and physic- ally, than the slaves in the South, "to be elevated to the actual condition of whom/' he adds, " would be to these, your felloic- citizens, a most glorious act of emancipation." In proof, Grovernor Hammond makes some extracts from the published reports of the commissioners appointed by Parliament. Here are a few of these passages as quoted by the correspondent of Mr. Clarkson : " Collieries. The pits about Brompton 'are worked altogether by boys from eight to twelve years of age, on all-fours, with a dog-belt and chain.' In Mr. Barnes's pit these poor boys have to drag the barrows with one hundred-weight of coal, or slack, sixty times a day, sixty yards, and the empty ban-ows back, without once straightening their backs, unless they choose to stand under the shaft and run the risk of having their heads broken by a falling coal." Report on Mines, 1842, p. 71. '"At the Booth pit,' says Mr. Scriven, 'I walked, rode, and crept eighteen hundred yards to one of the nearest faces.' " Ibid. " Robert North, aged 16: 'Went into the pit at seven years of age, to fill up skips. I drew about twelve months. When I drew by the girdle and chain my skin was broken, and the blood ran down. I durst not say any thing. If we said any thing, the butty, and the reeve, who works under him, would take a stick and beat us.'" Ibid. "Robert Crucilon, aged 16 : ' I don't know any thing of Moses. Never heard of France. I don't know what America is. Never heard of Scot- land or Ireland. Can't tell how many weeks in a year. There are eight pints in a gallon of ale.' " Ibid. "Ann Eggly, aged 18: 'I walk about and get fresh air on Sundays. I never go to church or chapel. I never heard of Christ at all.' " Ibid. " Elizabeth Barrett, aged 14 : 'I always work without stockings, shoes, or trousers. I wear nothing but a shift. I have to go up to the head- ings with the men. They are all naked there. I am got used to that.'" Ibid. 312 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. " Others : ' I don't know who made the world.' 'I never heard about God.' 'I don't know Jesus Christ: I never saw him ; but I have seen Foster, who prays about him.' " Ibid. "Employer: 'You have expressed surprise at Thomas Mitchel's not hearing of God. I judge there are few colliers hereabout that have.' " Ibid. "As to illicit sexual intercourse, it seems to prevail universally, and from an early period of life. They have no morals." Ibid. "It is by no means uncommon, in all the districts, for children five or six years old to be kept at work fourteen to sixteen hours consecutively." Report on Children, 1842, p. 59. "There have been found such occurrences as seven, eight, and ten persons in one cottage, I cannot say for one day, but for whole days, without a morsel of food. They have remained on their beds of straw for two successive days, under the impression that in a recumbent pos- ture the pangs of hunger were less felt." Lord Brougham's Speech, July 11, 1842. It is, as Governor Hammond says, shocking beyond endurance to turn over these records. He believes that if the slaves could but see the condition of the free laboring-classes of England "they would join us in lynching the Abolitionists, which, by-the- bye, they would not now be loath to do." " We never put them to any work under ten, more generally at twelve years of age, and then the very lightest. Destitution is absolutely unknown : never did a slave starve in America ; while in moral sentiments and feelings, in religious information, and even in general intelli- gence, they are infinitely the superiors of your operatives." Having completed the term of his Gubernatorial office, Governor Hammond once more returned to the duties and pleasures of agricultural life. He passed many years indeed, all the years from that period to his call to the United States Senate in 1857 in comparative retirement. His intellect, however, was not inactive; and several addresses made and published at intervals disclose a still growing force and capacity. In November, 1849, he delivered an address before the South Carolina Institute, advocating the manufacture of their own cotton in that State, and showing, by statistics, the great benefit it would be. It was contended that the introduction of manufacturing into the South would undermine its free-trade principles and destroy the last hope of the great agricultural interest. He thought the results would be precisely the reverse. "The manufacturing people of JAMES II. HAMMOND. 313 the North desire a high tariff, for no other purpose but to compel the non-manufacturing people of the South to buy from them in preference to foreigners. If the South manufactures for itself, the game is completely blocked. We will, of course, use the productions of our own looms and workshops in preference to any others j and the North will then clamor as the English manufacturers are now clamoring for entire free-trade, that they may exchange their industrial products on the most favorable terms with foreign nations. The result is as inevitable as it is obvious." In the following month of the same year, Governor Hammond delivered an oration before the two societies of the South Carolina College, combating the too prevalent idea of the ultra enlighten- ment and progress of the day we live in, and the causes from which they result. It was largely received that modern progress dates from Lord Bacon ; but, Mr. Hammond remarks, " we owe a very large proportion of the discoveries and inventions of modern times to Italy, where this philosophy has not yet penetrated." The basis of his review is that discovery has done more for Bacon than he has done as yet for it, and that, after all, there is little new under the sun. It is an exceedingly interesting essay. In November, 1850, at the request of the City Council of Charleston, Governor Hammond delivered an oration on the life, character, and services of John Caldwell Calhoun, which was listened to by thousands of the admirers of the great states- man of the South. To balance the services, analyze the motives, comprehend the life and principles, of a man of such undoubted genius as Calhoun, demands rare and remarkable qualifications. Of all the eulogies and orations upon the subject, "it is that of General Hammond in particular," says the " Southern Quar- terly Review,"* " which impresses us not only with the truth and felicity of the broad, bold outlines, but with the perfect propriety, the fitness, and the finish of the whole. In him seem to have been combined all the requisite qualifications for the analysis of such a subject; and we venture to predict that this, of all others, will be the production which will survive as an his- torical document." July, 1851, pp. 107-109. 27 311 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. In addition to these publications may be named a pamphlet on " Marl," one on the Railroad System and Banks of the State, and a review of Ellwood Fisher's "North and South," published in the "Southern Quarterly." All of these writings are character- ized by force, fervor, and clearness of style, and exhibit the thinker and scholar much more than the mere politician and seeker after meretricious effects. Governor Hammond's elevation to the United States Senate, in November, 1857, would, it " was confidently expected, be salu- tary throughout the State, in throwing off the attempted domina- tion of cliques and breaking down the divided leadership of mediocrities."* In his new sphere, Senator Hammond very soon commanded national attention, and came to be regarded as the Southern champion, in contradistinction to Seward as the foremost man of the Republican party. His speech during the famous Kansas debate of March, 1858, drew all eyes as well as the tongues of all the Abolition side of the Chamber upon him. I well remember its effect, having attended the Senate day and night throughout that famous session. Hammond was sick of Kan- sas, and would say little about it if Douglas whom he regarded as the Ajax Telamon of the debate did not press the question of fraud. Senator Douglas believed there were irregularities, but would waive them if he could be certain that the Lecomp- ton Constitution presented the will of the people. Senator Hammond could not see where to look for the will of the people, save in convention. The Territorial Legislature was a petty corporation paid by Congress; the convention was the voice of the people. Swiftly passing over Kansas, he gave a bold and vivid review of the position of the South, and her capacity to sustain herself whether in or out of the Union. The declara- tion by Senator Seward the day previous, as well as on a former occasion, that the "battle had been fought and won," induced the Senator from South Carolina to place the North and South face to face. The Senator exhibited the exports of the South. As to the North, he looked upon them as a great, intelligent people. They Correspondence of " Charleston Mercury," Dec. 1857. JAMES H. HAMMOND. 315 were full of intellect; but they produced no great staple which was not produced by the South, while the South produced several not found in the North. Cotton was King: and no power on earth dare make war on cotton. Senator Seward had said that the whole world had abolished slavery. Senator Hammond thought it was only in name it was abolished. Our slaves are black, said he. They are elevated from the position in- which God made them by being under our charge. The Northern slaves are white, brothers in blood and political equals. Our slaves do not vote. Yours (to the North) do vote; and they are the repositories of all your political power. If your white slaves remembered that the ballot-box was more powerful than an army, where would your institutions be ? On the demise of his venerable friend and colleague Senator Evans, Senator Hammond made some brief and suitable re- marks. On the question of British aggression, he supported the resolutions introduced by Senator Mason, of Virginia, as Chair- man of the Committee on Foreign Relations. He was not opposed to a war with England, but thought it would be the most momentous occurrence that had happened for three centuries. He was for giving England a chance to postpone an event that must change the whole face of human affairs. In .the debate on the Naval Appropriation Bill, Senator Hammond reiterated his position as not being an alarmist, while he was ready to meet war when it came. The navy was in a most ridiculous condition; and he was in favor of ten new steam-sloops, as a peace measure, and for the protection of our commerce. During a very warm debate, he said, " I am not willing to take one step toward a war that I would ever retreat from. I will vote for no gasconading resolutions, and support no war speeches, to alarm so great a nation as England, or to alarm anybody."* On his return, he addressed his constituents at Barnwell Court- House (October 28, 1858) in a speech which attracted even more attention than his first speech in the Senate. More than twenty years had elapsed since he addressed the fathers of the men then present at that place. The gallant spirits who surrounded him then had for the most part passed away; but the theme remained. * Cong. Globe, 1st Sess. 35th Cong. vol. 3. 316 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Twenty years past his theme was the Constitution, the Union, and the rights and wrongs of South Carolina in the Confederacy. It is still the same. In this speech he gave his views in full on the Kansas question. The leading features of the Kansas-Ne- braska Bill of 1854 were, he said : " It enacted that every Terri- tory, in forming its Constitution for the purpose of applying for admission into the Union, should have the right to establish its own organic or constitutional laws, and come in with its own institutions, with the single condition that they should be repub- lican ;" and " The other feature of the bill was the repeal of the Missouri Compromise line." Neither of these features had any practical importance in his eyes, but, magnified by the press into a great Southern victory, " led the South into the delusion that Kansas might be made a slave State, and induced it to join in a false and useless issue, which has kept the whole country in tur- moil for the last four years, and given fresh life and vigor to the Abolition party." He confessed his opinion that the South her- self should have " kicked the Lecompton Constitution out of Con- gress." But the South thought otherwise. "When the bill for its adoption was framed, with what is called the Green Proviso, I strenuously objected to it, and felt very much disposed to vote against the whole, but again gave up to the South, which accepted it by acclamation." In this speech, Senator Hammond, whom many had looked upon as a Disunionist, disavowed being one. For many years he believed that Southern safety was only to be found in a disso- lution of the Union. He had openly avowed it. He now as openly disavowed it, in the belief that the Southern States could fully sustain themselves in the Union and control its action in all great affairs. He also announced that upon investigation he had abandoned the idea of the reopening of the slave-trade. Seldom has a speaker on such an exciting topic received such general commendation. The conservative, moderate men of the South pronounced the speech fair and powerful, while it was read with mingled feelings of surprise and admiration at the North. In a letter excusing his absence from the banquet commemo- rating the seventy-seventh anniversary of Webster's birthday, his allusion to South Carolina and Massachusetts, "the ex- JAMES II. HAMMOND. 317 tremes," was so pointed that it cannot be here omitted. He writes to Mr. Harvey, of Boston : " You say that in the Revolution Massachusetts and South Carolina 'stood shoulder to shoulder.' It would be well for the world if they stood so now. And why do they not? To have brought about their present relations, one of them must have erred much ; possibly both : another age will decide between us. "Born and bred in South Carolina, of which State my mother is a native, my father is a Massachusetts man a college-friend of Mr. Web- ster and descended, I am proud to say, from your earliest Puritan immi- grants. In the antagonistic positions of these two small but noble States I have personally much to regret; as a patriot, still more. I wish the breach could be filled up and obliterated. If we have done you wrong, if we have been the aggressors, I think I can assure you that there is not a man in South Carolina who is conscious of it; not one who would deprive Massachusetts of a single political right ; not one who would in- terfere with any of her institutions ; not one who would thwart in the least any of her peculiar and legitimate interests ; and, could it be shown that we have done any of these things, not one but would desire to make prompt and ample reparation. If the same spirit animates the people of Massachusetts to the same extent, we may justly hope that the de- luding falsehoods of political aspirants trampled under foot our two States may yet stand ' shoulder to shoulder,' the pillars of a constitutional Republic, wisely and justly administered for the protection and advance- ment of all, without special privileges or endowments to any section, class, or individual, but insuring to all and each the full development of themselves." Senator Hammond is, in the words of Mitchel, "a gentleman of enlarged views and great information ; a good example of the Southern planter of the more refined sort ; with an educated taste for art, literature, and all the embellishments of life $ author, too, of one of the ablest, warmest, and most convincing vindications of Southern slavery that have ever been produced."* * " The Southern Citizen/' March, 1859. 27* 318 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. SAM HOUSTON, OF TEXAS. ONE of the most remarkable men in the United States Senate was General Sam Houston, of Texas, one from whose history the pioneers of empire will take hope and encouragement, and upon which the student will dwell with admiration. Descended on both sides from ancestors who left Ireland after participating in the siege of Derry, Sam Houston was born at a place called Timber Ridge Church, in Rockbridge County, Virginia, on the 2d of March, 1793, a date significantly famous afterward in connection with the declaration of Texan Independence. His father a man of gallant bearing, great courage, and moderate fortune had a passion for military life, served in the Revolution, was successively inspector of Gene- ral Bowyer's and General Moore's brigades, and died in the latter capacity while on a tour of inspection in the Alleghany Mountains in 1807. Thus, at the age of thirteen, young Sam, with eight other children, was left to the charge of his mother, a noble woman, of dignified character and great moral and in- tellectual force. The subject of our sketch went to school when he could be spared from work, and at his father's death the amount of his attendance is estimated altogether at about six months. The orphaned family, with the mother at their head, crossed the Alleghany Mountains, and stopped not until within eight miles of the Tennessee River, then the boundary between white men and the Cherokee Indians. All hands had now to work, and Sam's not less arduously than those of his brothers. He seems to have gone through his share doggedly enough j but, getting possessed of a few books somehow, his imagination awoke and life expanded before him in new and rapturous phases. The heroes of Greek and Latin story conjured the youth into admiration and a passionate desire to know more of his new SAM HOUSTON. 319 acquaintances. He wished to learn Greek and Latin, and, on being refused permission, he declared his positive intention of never reciting another lesson. He had, however, received that spark which waits but the slightest breath to enkindle the true fires of thought. Against his will, the youth was placed behind the counter of a store, but soon escaped therefrom. After several weeks' search, he was found among the Cherokee Indians, and, being questioned, drew himself up to his full height and said "he preferred measuring deer-tracks to tape, liked the wild liberty of the red men better than the tyranny of his own brothers, and, if he could not study Latin in the academy, he could at least read a translation from the Greek in the woods, and read it in peace j so they could go home as soon as they liked." When his clothes were worn out, he returned for a refit, but, on the first act of tyranny on the part of his brothers, he was off to the woods again, " where he passed entire months with his Indian mates, chasing the deer and engaging in all the gay sports of the happy Indian boys, and wandering along the banks of the streams by the side of some Indian maiden, shel- tered by the deep woods, conversing in that universal language which finds its sure way to the heart." The inception of the ideas which led Lord Edward Fitzgerald to lose his life in a revo- lutionary cause is traced to his residence with Joseph Brant and the Indians. In like manner, the experiences of Houston at this period of his life are regarded as having largely fitted him for the path he was to pursue. Houston followed this wild and romantic life, paying one or two visits annually to his family, until his eighteenth year. On these visits he purchased many little things to present to his forest friends, and thus incurred a debt, to defray which he took it into his head to be a schoolmaster. It may readily be imagined he found it difficult to get pupils, but, not being of the kind that yield easily, he succeeded, and received what was then an enor- mous remuneration, namely, eight dollars per annum, "one- third to be paid in corn delivered at the mill at thirty-three and a third cents per bushel, one-third in cash, and one-third in domestic cotton cloth of variegated colors," in which our Indian professor was dressed. He discharged his debts, and, after a vain 320 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. attempt to master Euclid, enlisted, in 1813, as a private in the United States army when the country was excited with the second war with England. His " friends" were outraged at his becom- ing " a common soldier/' to which he indignantly replied, " What have your craven souls to say about the ranks ? Go to with your stuff! I would much sooner honor the ranks than disgrace an appointment. You don't know me now, but you shall hear of me." He had his father's memories and his mother's blessing with him. Handing him a musket, she heroically said, " There, my son, take this musket, and never disgrace it; for, remember, 1 had rather all my sons should fill one honorable grave than that one of them should turn his back to save his life. Go; and remember, too, that, while the door of my cottage is open to brave men, it is eternally shut against cowards." Houston was soon promoted to the rank of sergeant, and after- ward to that of ensign, in which capacity he distinguished him- self at the battle of the Horse-Shoe, March 27, 1814, under Jackson. "While leading his men over the breastworks, a barbed arrow struck deep into his thigh. Having the wound staunched, he returned to the fight, and received two rifle-balls in the right shoulder. His life was despaired of, and for months he wavered between recovery and death. After the peace he was retained as lieutenant, and attached to the First Regiment, then stationed at New Orleans. In the fall of 1815 he embarked on the Cumberland in a small skiff with two young men, one of whom, then a beardless youth, afterward became distinguished as Governor White, of Louisiana. Pass- ing down the Cumberland, they entered the Ohio, and at last found their way to the Mississippi and floated through that vast solitude which was then unbroken by the noise of civilized life. With a few books, his mother's Bible, his old Pope's Iliad, Shakspeare, Robinson Crusoe, the Vicar of W T akefield, and others, the young soldier and his comrades passed leisurely along. After many days their skiff turned a bend of the Mississippi above Natchez, and far down the river they saw a vessel coming up the stream without sails and sending up a heavy column of smoke. Instead of its being a vessel on fire, as they had at first supposed, it proved to be the first steamboat that ever went up SAM HOUSTON. 321 the Mississippi.* At Natchez they exchanged their skiff for the steamboat, and in eight days they reached New Orleans, where Houston reported. After suffering severely from his wounds, and being detailed on extra duty as sub-Indian agent by General Jackson, who reposed the highest confidence in his utility and services, he conducted a delegation of Indians to Washington, and while there found that attempts had been made to injure him with the Government for having prevented African negroes from being smuggled into the Western States from Florida, then a Spanish province. He vindicated himself before the President and the Department, and it was Jackson's opinion that his mag- nanimity should have met with more cordial recognition. Hous- ton considered himself aggrieved, resigned his lieutenancy, and, returning with the delegation to Hi-Wasse, resigned also his sub-agency, and went to Nashville to study law. He commenced his studies in the office of the Hon. James Trimble, June, 1818, and, after a determined application for six months, was admitted with eclat. Purchasing a small library on credit, he established himself at Lebanon. His military services led to his appointment as Adjutant-General of the State, with the rank of colonel ; but so assiduous was he in his law-studies that in October of the same year he was elected District Attorney of the Davidson district, and took up his residence at Nashville, where he came in contact with the ablest men of the Western bar. The fees of the office did not correspond with its duties } so Houston resigned in a year and resumed regular practice, in which he soon rose to distinction. In 1821, Colonel Houston was elected Major-General, and in 1823, so popular had his talents become, he was sent to Congress without opposition. At the expiration of his term he was re- elected, and won such confidence by his acts in the National Legislature, that he was in 1827 elected Governor of Tennessee by a majority of over twelve thousand. Thus has the refrac- tory tape-seller, the forest-dreamer of the Iliad, the wild hunter of the woods, the comrade of the red man, risen to the proud position of chosen chief of a republican State. But an unfor- * Seo " An Authentic Life of General Houston," published New York, 1855, p. 39. V 322 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. tunate event burst like a whirlwind upon his brilliant prospects. A domestic affliction led him, in 1829, to resign his office, and he turned his back upon " the palefaces," and once more sought comfort among the Indians. He landed at the mouth of White River, ascended the Arkansas to Little Rock, and pursued his way, by land and water, to the Falls of the Arkansas, four hun- d,red miles to the northwest. He was touchingly welcomed by his adopted father, the old chief Oolooteka, who said the cloud which had fallen on Houston was a visitation of the Great Spirit, so that the red men might have the benefit of his counsel. " I know/' he said, " you will be our friend, for our hearts are near to you, and you will tell our sorrows to the great father, General Jackson. My wigwam is yours ; my home is yours ; my people are yours : rest with us." For three years the exile dwelt with the Cherokees. He studied the red man and his wrongs, and is proud to declare that, during an intimacy of years, he never was deceived or betrayed by a son of the forest. Though always invited to min- gle in their councils, he never participated in their deliberations ; but he shared the confidence of the chief, and determined to de- vote himself to the interests of his friends. Feeling that he had the respect and affection of Jackson, who was then President, he resolved to scrutinize the doings of the Indian agents and report his observations. Alluding to the result in a speech in after- times, he said there was not a tribe which had not been outraged and defrauded; and nearly all the wars we have prosecuted against the Indians have grown out of the cruel injustice prac- tised toward them by our Indian agents and their accomplices. In 1832 he visited Washington and caused an investigation to be held, the result of which was the dismissal of five agents and sub-agents. This involved him in a series of difficulties at Washington, which lasted nearly a year. Combinations were formed against him by the influence of the dismissed agents ; the Congressional majority hostile to Jackson readily undertook to attempt the dis- grace of his friend \ personal violence was resorted to, to inti- midate or get rid of Houston ; and charges of extortion were made against him. Seldom, says one of his biographers, after giving a detailed outline of these difficulties, seldom, if ever, SAM HOUSTON. 323 in the history of this country has so malignant a persecution been waged against a public man. Seldom in the history of the world has a man been able to withstand so mighty a conspiracy. .But Houston came off triumphant. During this entire period of attack and abuse, he had displayed no cowardice nor shunned the most searching scrutiny. He had bared his breast to his foes and invited their weapons. And now, when they had given over the contest and retired from it loaded with mortification and con- tempt, this hunted and persecuted man deliberately abandoned once more the haunts of civilization, and went voluntarily where his foes never could have driven him, back to his exile. He returned through Tennessee, and everywhere met with evidences of deep regard. Recent persecution won for him a deeper sym- pathy, and the universal desire was that he should remain in the State. His purpose was fixed. Posts of honor and emolument offered by Jackson were rejected, and he sought shelter and succor by the hearthstone of a savage king, in bitter satire on the persecutions of civilized life. While on a private mission to the Comanches at San Antonio de Bexar, Houston was earnestly pressed, at Nacogdoches, to allow his name to be put forward as a candidate to a conven- tion to be held in the following April. He was unanimously elected, and took up his residence with his new constituents. The convention was composed of more than fifty members, as- sembled at San Felipe de Austin, met in a rude, narrow apirt- ment on the 1st of April, 1833, and was the first deliberative assembly "made up of men descended from the Anglo-Saxon race which had ever assembled within the limits of the ancient dominions of Cortez." In thirteen days a State Constitution was completed, and a memorial addressed to the Supreme Government of Mexico, setting forth the reasons why Texas should be recog- nised as one of the States of the Mexican Confederacy, was pre- pared. It was at this convention that Houston displayed that wise policy which has linked his name forever with Texas \ and those who were present attribute to his influence there the tone of feeling which followed. Matters quickly ripened. Austin, who carried the memorial to the city of Mexico, after having been immured in a dungeon for several months without even the form of a trial, was libe- 324 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. rated by Santa Anna. On Austin's return to Texas, he found the public feeling excited. An edict of Santa Anna demanding the surrender of arms, which would have left the Texans defence- less against the Indians, fanned the slumbering fire into a flame. The seizure of a four-pounder at Gonzales brought the people together ; Austin arrived, was elected general of the forces, and, rescuing the field-piece, pursued the Mexicans to Bexar. A general alarm extended along the Sabine : the tocsin had been Bounded, and Texas stood up as one man. This was in Octo- ber, 1835. Committees of vigilance and safety and partial organizations of militia sprung rapidly into being, and Houston was elected gene- ral of Texas east of the Trinity. Austin proposed to give him supreme command, but Houston declined, showing that the troops then in the field were either those who elected Austin or mustered in obedience to his requisition. A general consultation was held, a council of war followed, and a provisional Govern- ment and a Declaration was the result, in all of which Houston had important influence. He still wore his buckskin and blanket in the Indian fashion ; apropos of which Jackson is reported to have said at the time that " he thanked God there was one man, at least, in Texas who was made by the Almighty, and not by a tailor !" A Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and Council were created ; and, measures having been set on foot to raise a regular army and organize the militia, the stalwart man in the blanket, the adopted Indian, was elected commander-in-chief of the armies of Texas. On March 2, 1836, the anniversary of the general's birth- day, the Declaration of Independence was proclaimed, and Houston was returned by the votes of the new convention as chief of the army. It is beyond the scope of this work to detail the romantic and startling incidents of the Texan War of Independ- ence, to picture the horrors of the massacres at Groliad and the Alamo, or the wondrous power of Houston, in convention and camp, in keeping the men together under difficulties the most disheartening, and inspiring them in the face of the discontent of some of his leaders, the disobedience of others, the want of courage of some, and the want of faith of many. With strag- gling forces, subject here and there to the personal ambition of SAM HOUSTON. 325 self-willed men, half clad, half armed, with few resources and crowding difficulties, and the disparity of overwhelming numbers in the Mexican ranks, the heroic fortitude of Houston seems more a matter of poetic fancy than of historic fact. From his assumption of the chief command to that immortal day at San Jacinto, when the Texans, after firing, broke in a headlong charge, like the Irish Brigade at Fontenoy, upon the enemy's rank, " with empty guns clutched in their hands'' like war-clubs, and finished them with their pistols and bowie-knives, the .struggle was of a most trying and, at times, dismal character. In one of his despatches to Rusk, General Houston says, "I will do the best I can; but, be assured, the fame of Jackson could never compensate me for my anxiety and mental pain." Owing to Houston's magnanimity, the life of his prisoner, Santa Anna, was spared. For this he was lustily decried; but General Jackson declared that he deserved as much honor for his treat- ment of Santa Anna after the victory as for the victory itself. " Let those who clamor for blood," said Jackson, " clamor on. The world will take care of Houston's fame." Houston was elected President ; Senators and Representatives were elected at the same time ; and on the 3d of October) 1^36, the delegates assembled at Columbia and the first Congress of the Republic of Texas was organized. On the 22d, the inaugu- ration took place, and President Houston delivered an address outlining his future policy. The conclusion when he delivered up his sword was very touching. " It now, sir," said he, " becomes my duty to make a presen- tation of this sword, this emblem of my past office." The President was unable to proceed ; but having firmly clenched it with both hands, as if with a farewell grasp, a tide of varied associations rushed upon him in the moment, his countenance bespoke the workings of the strongest emotions, his soul seemed to dwell momentarily on the glistening blade, and the greater part of the audience gave outward proof of their sympathy. It was a moment of deep and painful interest. After this pause, more eloquently impressive than the deepest pathos conveyed in language, the President proceeded : " I have worn it with some humble pretensions in defence of my country ; and, should the danger of niy country again call for my services, I expect to 28 326 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. resume it, and respond to that call, if needful, with my blood and my life." His Presidential term closed on the 12th of December, 1838, and, according to the Constitution, he could not be re-elected for the succeeding term. Lainar was made President, and was suc- ceeded by Houston on the 13th of December, 1841, the ex-Presi- dent having in the mean time represented his district in the Texan Congress. President Houston, from the first, was the able advocate of annexation with the United States, and exerted his influence on the most appropriate occasions. In one of his last communi- cations on the subject, he urged annexation as necessary to the perpetuation of the United States. " If this great measure fails, the Union will be endangered, its revenues diminished, and a European influence will grow up in Texas, from our necessities and interests, that will most effectually prejudice the interests of the United States." On the admission of Texas, (December 29, 1845,) its ex- President, Houston, and General Rusk were chosen to represent the State in the Senate of the United States. Senator Houston advocated the Compromise measures of 1850, and was opposed to the Nebraska Bill and to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. Within his recollection, Alabama, Mis- souri, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Wisconsin, and Iowa had been organized without the principle deemed essential in the Ne- braska Bill. To use his own words, he bowed with deference to sovereignty, but did not apply the principle to the Territories in their unorganized condition. He did not and would not reflect on those who introduced or supported the bill, but he deprecated the consequences which would flow from it. " Maintain the Missouri Compromise," he cried ; " stir not up agitation ; give us peace." On the 3d of March, 1854, he defended the three thousand Massachusetts clergymen who petitioned Congress against the Nebraska Bill, and called their memorial " a respect- ful protest in the name of the Almighty Grod." As a Senator he has been the steady friend and defender of the Indians, and the persistent advocate of fair dealings with them. In reply to a question by Senator Mallory, " Whether he (Houston) approves or does not approve of so much of the creed attributed to the Know-Nothings as would make those who pro- SAM HOUSTON. 327 fess the Roman Catholic religion ineligible to office ?" Senator Houston replied, he would not vote for such a law, and could not approve it. The proscription charged upon the " Know-Nothings" was nothing more, he said, than what formerly existed between Whigs and Democrats. He desired that every foreigner coming to live here should be endorsed by one of our consuls abroad, and he was opposed to infamous characters and paupers coming among us. In 1854, General Houston was recommended as the people's candidate for the Presidency of the United States. The General Committee of the Democracy of New Hampshire nominated him ; and his claims were advocated in an able address to the Union from that body, said to be written by Edmund Burke, of the Granite State. In 1856, he supported Fillmore and Donelson, the nomi- nees of the " American" party for President and Vice-President. In the Thirty-Fifth Congress, Senator Houston created a wide sensation by his proposition (February 16, 1858) for a United States protectorate over the States of Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and San Salvador, in such form and to such an extent as shall be necessary to secure to the people of said States the blessings of stable republican government. He held that recent events showed the inability of those States to take care of themselves, and our Government, as the great Power of North America, should extend a helping hand to its feeble neigh- bors. The project was, however, deferred. Senator Houston advo- cated the Southern route for the Pacific Railroad, and took occa- sion to speak of the South as not favoring secession or disunion, and in condemnation of the slave-trade. He did not like the term " Southern Rights;" for the South had no rights which were not equally possessed by the North. Senator Iverson, of Georgia, made some remarks in response, denying the right of Houston to speak on behalf of the South, as Texas had repudiated him for favoring union when union could only be maintained at the sacrifice of the South. The next day Houston replied, and, admitting that Texas had chosen to dispense with his services, said he was glad they were able to get along without him, for it demonstrated the increasing prosperity of the State. He re- viewed the " gaseous gentlemen and street-corner politicians" who still talked of secession when there was no sentiment to 328 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. back them up, and concluded by alluding to Iverson's attack. It reminded him, he said, of the old fable of the dead lion, who being espie.d by a certain animal, the latter took advantage of his defenceless position to plant his heels in the lion's face. He would not name the animal, but it was the same from which Samson took the jawbone. Houston sat down amid great laugh- ter, both on the floor of the Senate and in the galleries ; and the Senator from Georgia promptly and gracefully apologized for having, in the heat of debate, wounded the sensibilities of Gene- ral Houston, for whom he cherished a high regard. Returning to Texas, Houston entered into the Gubernatorial campaign ; and defined his position in a lengthy speech at Nacogdoches, which attracted general attention. He claimed to be a Democrat of the old school, and would not be shackled by conventions. He was older than platforms, and was a states- man before the days of conventions. Jefferson was not nomi- nated by a convention. General Jackson refused to go before a convention. The people of Texas would not be dictated to by a convention calling itself Democratic, and they had called upon him to stand against the nomination of the convention which assembled at Houston. The sentiment of that convention was in favor of the reopening of the slave-trade. The result of re- opening the trade would be a reduction in the price of cotton by over-production. Freights would rise, and the ship-owners of the North would make the profits. Two years ago the people of Texas abused him for his vote against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill ; but he still maintained the correctness of that vote. In 1856, he voted against President Buchanan, because he did not approve of the Cincinnati platform ; but he had since supported him, and should continue to do so, regarding him as an honest man and a patriot. He was triumphantly elected, showing that the Texans still cling to their old leader and liberator. " Houston/' said Ben- ton, in 1836, " is the pupil of Jackson ; and he is the first self- made general since the time of Mark Antony and the King Antigonus who has taken the general of the army and the head of the Government captive in battle. Different from Antony, he has spared the life of his captive, though forfeited by every law ; human and divine." B. M. T. HUNTER. 329 R. M. T. HUNTER, OF VIRGINIA. THIS eminent statesman was born in the county of Essex, Virginia, on the 21st of April, 1809. He was educated at the University of his native State, and graduated with distinction. He afterward studied law with Judge Henry St. George Tucker, at Winchester, and joined the bar of his native county in the year 1830, where he continued in successful practice for several years. Mr. Hunter's first vote in a Presidential election was cast for Andrew Jackson, in 1832 ; but he was opposed to the doctrines of the Proclamation and Force Bill, and on this issue was elected to the Lower House of the Virginia Legislature in 1834, on the very day on which he became eligible. In this body, composed of some of the first men of the State, he soon attained a high position, and enjoyed in an eminent degree the confidence and respect, not only of his associates, but of the public at large. At that early day, his speeches upon the great questions of State policy which engaged the attention of the Legislature, and espe- cially those relating to finance and banking, exhibited strong indi- cations of that extended historical research and profound political philosophy which have so* pre-eminently distinguished his later efforts upon the broader theatre of the National Councils. He remained in the Legislature three years j during which period, while he opposed the Proclamations and the Expunging Resolu- .tions, he supported the veto of the United States Bank, and was against Distribution and for Free-Trade. In 1836 he voted for Judge White for the Presidency, and in the following year was elected to the National House of Repre- sentatives by the States-Rights Whigs. When Mr. Hunter entered Congress, all the great interests of the country were suffering under the blighting influence of pecu- 28* 330 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEX. niary pressure, resulting from a derangement of the currency consequent upon an undue expansion of the credit system. Distress and ruin pervaded every class of society and paralyzed every department of industrial pursuit. The great question which agitated the public mind, and engaged the earnest atten- tion of patriots, was, what measures, within the constitutional powers of Congress, were best calculated to afford relief and guard most effectively against a recurrence of the evil. In considering this question, Mr. Hunter deemed it best first to examine into the causes which had produced the evil, when he would be better prepared to apply the remedy. In a speech delivered by him on the 10th of October, 1837, in the House of Representatives, on the bill " imposing additional duties, as depo- sitaries in certain cases, on public officers," he traces those causes in a masterly manner. I present a couple of brief extracts, because the one is referred to by his friends as indicating the elevated tone of patriotic feeling which has so strongly marked his entire pub- lic life, lifting him above mere party considerations upon all ques- tions involving the vital interests of the country; and because the other presents the true causes of the then existing distress. "I feel, sir," he said, "a most painful sense of the responsibility of my position. On the one hand, I know that he cannot be justified on the plea of ignorance who lightly tampers with the important interests now concerned in our action ; and, on the other, if personal or party consi- derations were to deter me from doing whatever may be done for the relief of the country, I feel that my name would deserve to be pursued through all posterity with execrations. I might, perhaps, escape respon- sibility by .declaring that, as I had nothing to do in producing the present distress, so I was bound to do nothing toward restoring things to a sounder condition. Sir, I scorn the' excuse. I think I see some- thing which may be done for the good of the country, and I am willing to share the responsibility with those who will attempt it. In taking my course I form no new connections, I make no alliances: I act as I was sent here to act. I legislate not for party, but for the good of our common country. I tread all personal and party considerations into the dust, when they present themselves in competition with the most im- portant interests of the people." After showing that the Government had no constitutional power to extend immediate relief, and that a resort to the expe- dient of a United States Bank would only aggravate the evil, he says, "But I pass from the consideration of the means of R. M. T. HUNTER. 331 immediate relief, real or imaginary, which are not within our reach, to those which may be. And here I beg leave to pause upon our fiscal policy, and its incidental effects upon currency and trade. If it has introduced causes which disturb the natural level of circulating capital, and furnished a false excitement to currency and credit, that policy ought to be changed. Public convenience may require that the change should be gradual, but important interests demand that it shall be ultimately made." After much consideration, he arrived at the conclusion that the commercial distresses had been mainly produced by the American banking-system, a system which precipitated its own downfall ; and this catastrophe, he believed, was hastened by the connection between the system and the Government. He demonstrated these propositions by a vigor of argument and force of illustration which placed him at once in the front rank of parliamentary debaters. On the 8th of January, 1839, Mr. Hunter introduced a series of resolutions having for their object the extension of some relief to the country at large, and on the 6th of February following, as chairman of the select committee to which said resolutions were referred, presented an able report, accompanied by a bill (No. 1133) to carry out the purposes indicated, to wit: First, to leave the public money in the hands of the public debtor until actually wanted by the Government, and thus give that portion of the capital of the country to the uses of trade, and at the same time secure interest to the public as the consideration of its use. Secondly, to set off periodically the liabilities to and from the Government, by fixing certain days, at intervals of three months, for receipts and disbursements, so as to concentrate as many demands to and from the United States as might be practicable at the same time and place. Thirdly, to diminish the risk of peculation and default on the part of public officers : first, by this exchange of credit, which, so far as it could be effected, would accomplish at the same time the collection and disbursement of the revenue without affording a temptation to theft; and, next, by providing for cash transactions, so that the money which passed through the hands of the public officers should be limited in quantity to the actual demands to be made upon them within a period of twenty days. Fourthly, to introduce greater order and facility in the adminis- 332 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. tration of the Treasury Department, by fixing these stated periods for receipt and disbursement, so as to enable the Secre- tary to obtain adequate notice not only of the sums due from the Grovernment and of the time and place of demand, but also of the sums due to the Grovernment and of the time and place of receipt. Throughout the Administration of President Van Buren, Mr. Hunter occupied an independent position, as a member of the strict States-Rights school of Virginia, opposed to the Clay- Web- ster policy and party, and only acting in opposition to the Administration so far as it coincided with that policy. At the regular election of members by Virginia to the Twenty- Sixth Congress, Mr. Hunter was chosen a second time. The organization of the body was delayed by the acrimonious contest in regard to the contested seats for New Jersey. Parties in the House were nearly evenly divided, and the balloting for Speaker was protracted. On the eleventh ballot Mr. Hunter received 119 votes, and was duly elected. He returned thanks in an address declaring his purpose to administer the duties with strict impar- tiality; and the general concurrence of the House in his decisions is a sufficient evidence of his success during a Congress noted for its partisan heat and excitement, and from the fact that at the close of his term of service a resolution of thanks, offered by Mr. Briggs, of Massachusetts, for the "able, dignified, and im- partial manner in which he discharged the duties of the Chair/ 7 was passed by a unanimous vote. This was the first instance in which a member has been chosen presiding officer at his second term of service. At the election of members to the Twenty-Seventh Congress, Mr. Hunter was a third time chosen. He took his seat at the extra session which had been called by President Harrison to meet on the 31st of May, 1841. At the preceding Presidential election the opposition to the Democracy had triumphed by a large majority. They had also secured overwhelming majorities' in both branches of Congress. Flushed with their triumph, they forthwith repealed the Independent Treasury Act, and, under the lead of Mr. Clay, proceeded to enact the favorite measures of his political system. Among these were a bank, the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, the Loan Bill, the Bankrupt R. M. T. HUNTER. 333 Law, and a protective Tariff. These measures were sternly re- sisted by the Democracy; and in this work Mr. Hunter took a prominent and efficient part. It need scarcely be stated that both Bank bills were nullified by the veto of President Tyler. On the 10th of July, 1841, Mr. Hunter spoke in opposition to the Loan Bill. This bill was an essential part of the Whig scheme of policy, and to strike at it was to strike at the whole system of class-legislation. The whole question of Government taxation and expenditure was brought into review in the debates upon this measure. The tenor of Mr. Hunter's speech may be gathered from the following extracts : "Who does not see that there is a necessary connection between this and the question of unequal taxation and disbursement ? and hence have arisen the great contests which have disturbed the social condition of man, not only here, but elsewhere. It is not, as has been said, a contest between capital and labor, or between property and numbers, but between the tax-consuming and the tax-paying parties. By the tax-consuming party, I mean those who receive more money from the Government than they contribute to it, and by the tax-paying, those who contribute more than they receive ; the one looking to Government for the means of living, the other viewing it as a necessary but expensive instrument for the pro- tection of persons and property; the one interested to have the revenues as large and the disbursements as unequal as possible, the other inte- rested in equal disbursements and in paying as little as may be con- sistent with the attainment of the great moral ends for which alone they value their Government. In proportion as the former prevail, the incen- tives to industry diminish and the moral feeling of the people is depressed. The few who administer the Government and lay taxes for the mere purpose of consuming them divide the great mass of those opposed to them by leading one class, or one section of the country, to plunder another. But, when they have thus rendered the honest returns of labor and the rights of property insecure, the people, forsaking the arts of industry, use the ballot-box for the means of living, and, sinking under indolence and depravity, either fall before the pressure of invasion from without, or seek relief from the oppressions of the few by submitting to the despotism of one. These parties have existed, and will exist, in all Governments. "It may seem, at the first view, that the tax-payers outnumber them so far that there could be no possibility of their ascendency. They would, therefore, resort to art and management; they would look first for the means of bribing one class of the community, or one section of the Confederacy, by plundering some other. A fit measure for such a purpose would be a protective Tariff; a scheme to tax the whole for the 334 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN benefit of a part, the many for the few. They might thus secure the assistance of the privileged and protected class, not only in this, but, it may be, in other schemes to plunder the less favored classes in the com- munity. Let us suppose now, sir, that having gained this assistance and collected a large revenue, they still felt their phalanx too weak for the odds opposed to them: what next would they do? They would seek a mode of dividing the different sections of the Confederacy, and of calling some one of them to their assistance, by holding out to them the prospect of plundering the others. They would set on foot some grand plan for expending large sums of money upon works of internal improvement, upon the construction of artificial harbors, the removal of obstructions in rivers, the erection of piers, breakwaters, and sea-walls, and so con- trive it that the benefits of these works should be distributed as unequally as possible. And now, having secured new allies, by disbursing upon a part the taxes which were raised from the whole, they would have accom- plished much. But one thing would still be wanting. They would desire some instrument which would enable them to depress the value of pro- perty to-day and elevate it to-morrow ; to increase the profits of one class of producers and diminish those of another; to transfer trade from one section of the community for the benefit of some other; to silence popular clamor, when they wished it, by raising prices; and to produce it, if it better suited their purposes, by depressing them; to distribute, in short, the profits of trade and labor as they pleased, and by means so secret, and machinery so invisible, that none but the initiated could know by whom and how it was done. Where could so admirable, so efficient an instrument be found? The refinements of modern ingenuity have fur- nished it in a ' National Bank.' I care not for the name, sir. It is a matter of indifference to me whether it comes in the flaunting scarlet of the Babylonian harlot, with 'Bank of the United States' written on its forehead, or whether, reformed in name, but not in spirit, it comes in Magdalene attire and calls itself a 'Fiscal Agent.' "Mr. Chairman, there is yet another measure which would be emi- nently conducive to this general design : I mean, sir, a distribution bill, just such as we have lately passed. A bill passed under circumstances and upon principles which virtually affirm the power of Congress to dis- tribute the revenue, no matter how raised, and in any manner, no matter how unequal. A bill not only unequal upon its face, in the distribution between the different sections of this Confederacy, but which contains the deadly seeds of future strife and division between the various classes of society." These extracts unveil the whole scheme of Whig policy, con- cocted by Mr. Clay and supported by all the force of the Whig press and organization. Against this policy the Democracy were unable to do more than offer their protest and to expose R. M. T. HUNTER. 335 the dangerous consequences. With the exception of the Bank bills, which were vetoed, these measures became laws, in despite of Democratic opposition; but the stand then taken and the arguments made by Democratic statesmen were not without their due effect. They rallied the party from an almost hope- less minority, commanded the attention of all thinking men, and, finally, led to the defeat of Mr. Clay, in 1844, and the overthrow of his policy. In the debates of the time Mr. Hun- ter took an early and a prominent part. No man in the House of Representatives contributed more to the vindication of Demo- cratic and States-Rights principles. We discover in his speeches not the temper of the mere partisan, but the spirit of one who feels that he is pleading the cause of truth itself. We find, throughout, unfaltering trust in the ultimate triumph of the true principles of the Constitution, a confidence based upon a profound study of the laws of political economy, which has been amply justified by subsequent events. Mr. Hunter addressed the House, at the same session, in oppo- sition to the Senate bill for the charter of a Fiscal Bank of the United States, presenting at length his objections upon the grounds both of its unconstitutionality and inexpediency. At the ensuing session of 184142, the leading topics were the Protective policy, the distribution of the proceeds of the public lands, and the veto power. The President had vetoed the Temporary Tariff Bill, which combined the Protective and Distribution policies. Mr. Hunter defended this veto upon the principles already given, and spoke with much earnestness in support of the veto power, which had naturally become odious to the Whigs, and was bitterly assailed by them. In fact, it was proposed by them to strike this power from the Consti- tution. The leading measure of the session, however, was the Tariff Bill of 1842, which was opposed by Mr. Hunter in a speech of unusual power and eloquence. In the third and last session of the Twenty-Seventh Con- gress the repeal of the Bankrupt Law was passed by the Whigs at the extra session of 1841. For this repeal Mr. Hunter voted, and thus aided to overthrow a favorite, and that not the least objectionable, measure of Federal policy. 336 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. At the election for members of the Twenty-Eighth Congress, Mr. Hunter was defeated by his competitor, Mr. Willoughby Newton, by a small majority. The number of representatives from Virginia had been reduced by the preceding apportionment from twenty-one to fifteen. This had, of course, changed in part the counties of the district j and " Mr. Newton also used against Mr. Hunter with some effect his views upon the Currency ques- tion, and charged that they were the cause of the pecuniary embarrassments of the country." The most prominent mea- sures before this Congress were the resolution for refunding the fine imposed by Judge Hall upon General Jackson, the bill for the reduction of duties, and the project for the annexation of Texas. It is well known that Mr. Hunter warmly advocated all of these measures. Though absent from the House of Representatives, he was by no means an idle spectator of the political strife preceding the Presidential election of 1844. He was actively engaged in the advocacy of Mr. Polk; and so successful were his efforts, that as the latter gentleman came into power in 1845, so did Mr. Hunter re-enter Congress, having triumphantly redeemed his district for the Democracy. The session of 1845-46 was noted for its discussion upon the most important points of foreign and domestic policy. The settlement of the Oregon Boundary question, which had occupied the attention of Mr. Polk's and the preceding Administration, threatened to involve the United States and Great Britain in war. A protracted correspondence and negotiation with the British Government had ended without bringing the two parties to any agreement. The whole subject was brought to the notice of Congress, and was there elaborately discussed. Mr. Hunter was one of those who were desirous to preserve the peace of the country, and who thought the subject a proper one for negotia- tion, and advocated a compromise of conflicting claims. These views he maintained in his speech before the House on the 10th of January, 1846. The party favoring this policy acquired a large ascendency in Congress and before the country. The dis- pute was finally settled by the Treaty of Washington, concluded June 15, 1846, and ratified, by the Senate by a vote of three to one. R. M. T. HUNTER. 337 The relations of our country with Mexico had, after a suspen- sion of diplomatic intercourse, and a refusal by that Power to receive our minister, finally ended in war. It is scarcely neces- sary to say that Mr. Hunter rendered cordial and efficient sup- port to all measures essential to a vigorous prosecution of the war. This session is memorable for the establishment of the Inde- pendent Treasury, the passage of the Revenue Tariff of 1846, and the establishment of the Warehousing system. Each of these measures is largely indebted to Mr. Hunter's aid. He addressed the House at length in favor of the second measure and in support of the principles of Free Trade. At the same session he took an active part in promoting the retrocession of Alexandria to the State of Virginia, a measure which has greatly inured to the benefit of that town. The second session of the Twenty-Ninth Congress was marked by a renewal of the Slavery agitation. It had become evident that the war with Mexico would result in a large acquisition of territory from that country. California and New Mexico were already in our possession. But while our troops were still en- countering the bullets of the Mexicans, or falling under the deadly diseases incident to the climate, the Free-Soil party en- deavored to press their peculiar views, and to make it a condition precedent to the passage of the Three-Million Bill that slavery should be forever interdicted in the territory to be acquired. Mr. Wilmot offered his celebrated Proviso, and at one time it passed the House by a considerable majority. The National Democracy, however, afterward succeeded in striking out this ob- noxious provision. The Oregon Bill also led to a discussion upon the question of Slavery, in which the purpose of the "Abolition and Free-Soil Party" to grasp all future territorial acquisitions was distinctly avowed. Mr. Hunter's character as a leading mind of the Southern Democracy was now unquestioned; and the fact received addi- tional and honorable testimony in 1846 by his elevation to a seat in the United States Senate, to which position he has since been twice re-elected. To the leading questions of the nation Senator Hunter has ever addressed himself with consummate skill and force, seeking W 29 838 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. to raise the standard of sound common sense rather than to ex- ercise the craft of the politician in matters of legislation and diplomacy. Mr. Hunter took his seat in the Senate at its meeting in De- cember, 1847, and was placed upon the Committee of Finance, the most important committee of that body. At this session, he addressed the Senate upon the Mexican War, and, while advo- cating its prosecution, objected strongly to any project for the incorporation of the whole of Mexico into the United States, as had been proposed. He also spoke upon the bill providing for the Territorial Government of Oregon, opposing the doctrines and propositions of the Free-Soil party. He also, with the body of the Democratic Senators, voted for the Clayton Com- promise. The session of 1848-49 ended without any definitive dispo- sition of the controversy in regard to slavery in the new Ter- ritories. No bill was passed for the Territorial Government of California and New Mexico. The Presidential election had re- sulted in the choice of General Taylor; but his policy in respect to the question had not been disclosed before his election, and thus this subject went over to the next Congress as a bone of contention. In the debate on the resolutions introduced by Senator Cass on the 24th of December, 1849, recommending an inquiry into the expediency of suspending our diplomatic relations with Austria, for the avowed purpose of expressing our indigna- tion at the conduct of that Government in the then recent Hun- garian struggle, Senator Hunter took opposing grounds. He thought the resolution was founded on an utter misconception of the nature of diplomatic institutions. He could not find in history any precedent showing that they had ever been used to punish other Governments. They were designed as convenient means to settle disputes and preserve peace. Then, again, its application in this case was unequal and unjust, for there were as good reasons to punish Russia, France, and Rome in the manner proposed as Austria. A third reason for his opposition was that the resolution reflected on our past conduct toward foreign Governments. If it were our duty to chastise other Governments in acts of oppression toward their own citizens, or R. M. T. HUNTER. 339 for violations of what we considered the rights of man, then, he held, we had grievously failed in our obligations. With how many Governments should we not have suspended diplomatic relations upon the partition of Poland ? With how many during the aggressive wars of Napoleon ? Which of the European nations would have escaped after the Treaty of Vienna and during the existence of the Holy Alliance ? " Why," said he, "we could not have recalled ministers fast enough about that period to have signalized our abhorrence of the daily violation of the rights of man, in the arbitrary disruption of territories long united together, and the forced connection of people to Governments to which they were averse." In discussing the great issue pending between North and South in 1850, and with an earnest desire that it should be settled, not by any half-way compromise, which would cover up the difficulty without removing it, but upon principles of justice and in accordance with the Constitution, Senator Hunter made a thorough review of the Territorial question. Founding his argument on the postulate that the action of Con- gress in the Territories was to be governed by the Constitution, he came to the conclusion " that if a slave be carried from a slave State to the territory of the United States, he is property still, certainly, if there be no law prohibiting it, and not so cer- tainly, but clearly, in my opinion, even if Congress had passed such a law, for it would be manifestly unconstitutional." In continuation, he remarked, " There is an opinion that Con- gress is omnipotent in the Territories, and under no constitu- tional restraints there; but it has been shown that this would admit their power to do things actually forbidden by the Consti- tution and contrary to our whole system." Another class of minds seemed to suppose that the power of government rested in the people of the Territory. " This, too," said Senator Hunter, "would lead to the same extreme conclusions, and admit their right to do things forbidden by the Constitution and contrary to its spirit." At the ensuing session of 1850-51, Mr. Hunter was madej Chairman of the Finance Committee, a position which he has' held to the present time, and in which no man has performed a 840 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. larger amount of labor or enjoyed in a higher degree the confi- dence of the Senate. In May of the following year, some two hundred of the wealthiest and most influential merchants of the city of New York in appreciation of Senator Hunter's "active intelligence and unsectional spirit as Chairman of the Committee of Finance/' and more especially in regard to his liberal spirit in advocating the establishment of a branch mint in New York invited him to a public dinner. No personal compliment could have been more acceptable; but he was constrained to decline which he did in a suitable letter.* Speaking of the struggle through which the country had passed, and of the men who had rallied for union, the " Democratic Review" awards a just tribute to the subject of this sketch for "that nationality of character which comprehensively grasps the future and the present, which divests itself of local and sectional prejudices/' and views with pride the improvement of every section of the Union. The Thirty-Second Congress was much more of a business body than the preceding one. We find Mr. Hunter taking an active part in the work of the session. Among his prominent efforts may be mentioned his speech upon the public-land policy, his speech of the 16th of April, 1852, upon the organi- zation of the Departments and the settlement of accounts, and Ijjs report upon the coinage and the means of keeping the silver currency in the country. In the Presidential canvass of 1852, Senator Hunter eloquently advocated the claims of the Democratic candidate. He had now served six years in the Senate. His first elec- tion like that of Senator Mason had been the result of a union of Whigs and Democrats,- 1 the majority of the latter voting for a different candidate. On the present occasion, he received in caucus, as a candidate for re-election, the vote of every Demo- crat, with a single exception. The Democrats had a large majority in the Legislature; and on the following day he was * The invitation and reply may be found in the "Democratic Review," July, 1851, vol. xxix. R. M. T. HUNTER. 341 again chosen Senator, receiving the same vote as in caucus, and about one-half of the Whig vote of that body. In 1853, Senator Hunter voted against the bill for the protec- tion of the emigrant-route, and the establishment of a telegraphic line, and of an overland mail, between the Missouri River and the settlements in California and Oregon. He thought it one of the ' most extraordinary bills which ever emanated from a committee of the Senate. It in effect provided that the President of the United States should be the President of the Pacific Railroad. He was to let out contracts, determine the route, the gauge, and to have control of the disbursing of the money : in short, he was to have not only the power which Congress ought to exer- cise, but the power of the President of the United States and the power of the President of a railroad-company besides. What party was prepared to relinquish the legislative power and transfer it to the Executive? Was it the Whig party, which was organized solely upon the idea of resisting Executive patronage? Was it the Democratic party, whose fundamental maxim was to preserve all the power it could, compatible with good government, in the hands of the States and the people, and which has been ever scrupulous in insisting upon the pro- per distribution of power between the Executive, Judicial, and Legislative Departments? Senator Hunter thought that even centralized France would hesitate to bestow such powers upon its emperor. He would never consent to vest such power in the President. In 1854, Senator Hunter regarded the Kansas-Nebraska Bill as "a great measure of peace" and of "national strength," and complimented Senator Douglas upon having "manfully taken upon himself the responsibility of introducing" it. His views on the bill, and his reasons for supporting it, may be succinctly stated in his own words. The bill provides that the Legislatures of these Territories shall have power to legislate over all rightful subjects of legisla- tion, consistently with the Constitution. And if they should assume powers which are thought to be inconsistent with the Constitution, the courts will decide that question whenever it may be raised. There is a difference of opinion among the friends 29* 342 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. of this measure as to the extent of the limits which the Consti- tution imposes upon the Territorial Legislatures. This bill proposes to leave these differences to the decision of the courts. This mode of settlement was once before proposed by the celebrated Compromise of the Senator from Delaware, (Mr. Clayton,) a measure which, Senator Hunter thought, was the best compromise which was offered upon this subject of slavery ; and he was now perfectly willing to abide by it. The protracted discussions in Congress and the press, how- ever, resulted in the removal of many of the misconceptions and misrepresentations made by the Abolitionists as to the true cha- racter of the measure; and the bill finally passed, after one of the most arduous contests in our political history. Mr. Hunter sup- ported this measure by his speech and his vote, upon the ground that justice to the South required the repeal of the Missouri restriction. During this and the succeeding session, he took his customary part in laborious attention to the business of the Senate, and, among other subjects, spoke upon the bills to increase the efficiency of the army and navy, and to esta- blish a court to investigate claims against the United States Government. In 1855, during the great campaign in Virginia, Senator Hunter made one of the very ablest speeches against " Know- Nothingism." He considered the dogmas of the new party, so far as known, dangerous and mischievous. "They propose," he said, "to destroy the liberty of conscience itself, by pro- scribing the members of the Roman Catholic religion from all offices, whether high or low." He warned Virginia against "the blandishments of this new seducer/' Far up on the Mis- souri, near Fort Benton, upon a high cliff, which commands an extensive view of the surrounding country, it is said that a Blackfoot Indian chief directed himself to be buried on horse- back, with his face turned toward the mouth of the stream, to look out, as he said, for the white man the destroyer of his race when he should come up the river. " If you/' said Hun- ter, "would look out for the destroyer of your free institutions and popular form of government, fix your eye upon the door of the secret political association : from that door the worst enemy R. M. T. HUNTER. 343 of all will come." In an historical and political point of view, this speech was a splendid effort.* The discussions upon Kansas during the Thirty-Fourth Con- gress were varied somewhat by speeches on the Presidential issues. At the session of 1856-57, Senator Hunter took a leading part in the passage of the Tariff Bill known as that of 1857. In 1858, the Senator from Virginia was in favor of the admis- sion of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution, and in a brief but lucid argument discussed the merits of the pending question in connection with the general relations and destiny of slavery. After rapidly reviewing the events which resulted in the Lecompton instrument, he classed the objectors to it under two heads, the one denying the legality of all the steps which had led to its formation, the other questioning its validity on the ground that it had not been framed under the sanction of an enabling act and had not been submitted to popular ratifica- tion in its entirety. To the first he replied by arguing that, even if it were true that Missourians had usurped the first Legislature of Kansas, it would still remain an incontestable fact that the Government thus esta- blished was the only one under which the people of that Terri- tory had been organized as a political community, and therefore was at least a Government de facto, entitled to recognition by Congress. To the second he replied by denying the necessity, or even expediency, of enabling acts, whose only effect was to pledge in advance the assent of Congress to the admission of a State. The argument directed against the Lecompton Constitu- tion, on the ground that it had not been ratified by the people in mass, was based upon a negation of the principles of representa- tive government, and, if carried out to its legitimate consequences, would be as impracticable in fact as it was unsound in theory. He defended the substitute of the Conference Committee, and earnestly invoked the Senate to adopt it, as its passage would at least bring a truce to the pending sectional agitation, which he hoped would result in a permanent peace. Senator Hunter's position on the Finance Committee forces # It may be seen in Hambleton's "Collection of Virginia Politics in 1855." 344 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. upon him the consideration of the important questions touching the Tariff and Finances, and makes him familiar with the work- ing of the great springs by which the Government is moved. Upon him devolves the always arduous labor of carrying the Appropriation Bills through the Senate, which he does with a directness, persistency, and patience which make him almost invincible. In every Congress in which he occupied the position of chairman on that committee, he has taken the lead on all subjects affecting the revenue and its expenditure, and has ever been in favor of keeping the latter within judicious bounds. In introducing and advocating the Fifteen-Million Loan Bill, in May, 1858, he defended his position in an elabo- rate speech, showing the Government necessities which called for the loan, and the considerations which induced the hope that it would meet the existing exigencies. A glance at his extended argument on the question of Tariff revision Febru- ary 14, 1859 will present Senator Hunter's views on that question. Believing the pending issue to be one between the friends of low taxation and reduced expenditures, on the one hand, and the friends of high taxation and profuse expenditures, on the other, he sided at once with the former. The part he had borne in the enactment of the present Tariff was his apology for vindi- cating it against the charge of having disappointed the expecta- tions of its framers. At the time of its passage, it was thought that a revenue of fifty millions was ample to meet the necessary expenditures of the Government. He thought so still, and believed that the present Tariff would raise that sum. If our expenditures were to be continued at the present rate of eighty millions, neither the Tariff of 1846 nor that of 1842 would suffice to produce a revenue adequate to defray them. Reviewing the working of our postal system, he invoked Congress to check its extravagance, and restrain the discretionary power now in the hands of the Postmaster-General, who had under his control a vast machine, worked by agents more numerous than the personnel composing the army and navy of the whole country. He thought, moreover, that the rates of postage on letters, and especially on printed matter, should be increased. He analyzed the relative R. M. T. HUNTER. 345 working and effect of specific and ad valorem duties, and gave the preference to the latter on every consideration of theoreti- cal propriety and practical wisdom, closing with an eloquent tribute to the dignity of the American laborer, whose interests he sought to promote by cheapening the necessaries of daily life as well as the implements of daily toil. He desired to secure to honest industry its full reward, as a preservative against those vagrant schemes of territorial acquisition which seemed to render the American as fierce and as exacting as the Phoenician or the viking, who scrupled not to employ artifice and force in order to enlarge their landed possessions. A third time Virginia has sent him to the United States Senate. Besides his efforts in that body, he has occasionally addressed societies of a literary and political nature on appropriate subjects. In the Buchanan canvass he made a famous speech at Pough- keepsie, New York. Among his other efforts, a discourse de- livered before the Virginia Historical Society on the history of his native State, in December, 1854, and the oration at the inau- guration of the Washington statue in Richmond, February 22, 1858, are particularly noticeable. The latter is a noble pro- duction, and was at the time characterized as "almost miracu- lous," being "on a threadbare topic, and one which seemingly had been utterly exhausted by the orator of Massachusetts." (Everett.) The same writer,* contrasting his appearance with his ability, says, "But any man who reads Hunter's speeches would declare that he adds to the scholastic learning of Everett the Cabinet genius of Hamilton and the philosophic scope of Madison. Hunter has this decisive mark of a great man : he is always adequate to the occasion." His personal appearance, and the strength of almost indolent repose characteristic of his look, are well described by another hand, thus : " I should imagine the blood of Pocahontas enriched the veins of Hunter ; for his com- plexion, though faded, is tinted with the warm coloring of the native race. He is of middle size, solidly built, and black-haired. His features are neither prominent nor expressive, though his * In the " New Orleans Crescent," 34P> LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. nose is slightly very slightly aquiline. His physique would attract no inspection in public from either sex ; and his quietness of demeanor on the floor of the Senate would not designate to the stranger the leading Senator of Virginia and the triarch of the Slavery party in Congress. The pervading expression of his countenance is that of exhaustion, repose, indolence, indifference. But his ordinary apathy and immobility give the measure of his force on extraordinary occasions. It requires a strong impulse to move him ; but when the motive power is adequate his mo- mentum is great.''' ANDREW JOHNSON. 347 ANDREW JOHNSON, OF TENNESSEE. * ANDREW JOHNSON was born at Raleigh, North Carolina, on the 29th of December, 1808. His father died from exhaustion after saving Colonel Thomas Henderson, editor of the " Raleigh Gazette, " from drowning, leaving his son on the world while yet under the age of five years. The want of pecuniary means on the part of his parents prevented him from receiving the benefit of even the rudiments of an English education. At the time of his father's death he could neither read nor write, and the neces- sity of bread then put it out of his power to go to school. All his energies were needed, and a trade was his only resource. The boy was therefore apprenticed to a tailor in Raleigh, with whom he worked until the term of his indentures expired. We next find him as a journeyman at work in the vicinity of Lawrence Courthouse, South Carolina. Several romantic stories are afloat of his falling in love here with an estimable young lady. The cause of his non-success and passionate flight from the town away from cold hearts and the pitying smiles which his sensi- tiveness could brook less patiently than open sneers was his being a stranger, and the want of pecuniary means. He returned to Raleigh in the spring of 1826 ; and in the fall of that year, taking his mother and stepfather with him, he bent his steps toward Greenville, Tennessee, where he stopped and counted his eighteenth year. His good star had led him thither. In Greenville the youth found a wife who became his Egeria. What material for the romancist might be found in the history of those days of the future Senator, when his wife, fondly leaning by the side of the youth who was earning bread for her, taught him to read, and decked with the fair flowers of a healthy education the hitherto neglected garden of his brain ! What a group ! what a study ! 348 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. the youth's fingers mechanically plying the needle, his brain alive, following the instructions^ of his wife-teacher, or with a bright, almost childish, satisfaction meeting her approval of his correct answers ! After work-hours she taught him to write. What a living, ennobling romance was there being enacted in the wilds of Tennessee thirty years ago ! But we must hurry over this chapter of our hero's history with a mere suggestive sentence. Young Johnson and his wife started " out West to seek their fortune/' but at the earnest solicitation of a good friend still living, I believe he was induced to return. He worked at his trade with great industry and attention, extend- ing, meanwhile, the advantages which his capacity for know- ledge presented. The shop-board was the school where he received the rudiments of his education, which he afterwards, in leisure moments and in the deep silence of the midnight hours, applied to the attainment of a more perfect system. The disadvantages of his position would have discouraged almost any other man, certainly with any other kind of a wife. But, cheered by his excellent companion and prompted by his own desire for self-improvement, young Johnson brought an energy to the difficulties before him which nothing could re- press or conquer. It is not a matter of surprise that he was hostile to every proposition that would give power to the few at the expense of the many ; that his hard and yet bright experi- ences made him the exponent of the wants and power of the working-class. He soon gave voice to the feelings of the work- ing-men in Greenville. He made them conscious of their strength and feel proud of it, in opposition to the aristocratic coterie which had until then ruled the community, so that no man who worked for his livelihood could be elected even an alderman. Johnson, with the dawning vision of intellect and self-reliance, saw that all this was wrong, and he determined, with the aid of his fellow-workers, to right it. Meetings were held in every part of the town, and the result was the election of the young tailor to the office of alderman by a triumphant majority. How proud must the good wife have felt ! His triumph over the aristocracy took place in 1830. From time to time Mr. Johnson was re-elected, and, whenever he would consent to act, was chosen by the board as mayor. Invi- ANDREW JOHNSON. 349 gorated by success, the working-men became a power, and the old parties, wearying of the strife, admitted the representatives of the mechanics to their proper share of influence in the Coun- cils. The reforms thus initiated by Mr. Johnson are apparent in admirable results in Greenville to this day. Oflice now waited upon him. He was soon elected by the County Court a trustee of Rhea Academy, and held the office until he entered the lower House of the State Legislature. In 1834, Mr. Johnson exerted himself influentially to secure the adoption of the new Constitu- tion, an instrument which greatly enlarged the liberties of the masses and guaranteed the freedom of speech and of the press. In 1835, he was elected to the Legislature from Washington and Greene Counties, and at once became prominent by his op- position to a vast scheme of internal improvements, which was projected and carried into a law without the knowledge or appro- bation of the people. Before the evil results of the measure were manifest, Mr. Johnson was defeated for the next Legislature; but, his prognostications having been fulfilled, he was returned in 1839, after a fierce and bitter contest. Mr. Johnson is no enemy to internal improvement upon a fair basis ; but the law he so energetically opposed he regarded as a system of wholesale fraud. In the famous Presidential campaign of 1840 between Harrison and Van Buren, Mr. Johnson took an active part, being chosen, in consequence of his telling power as a speaker, to canvass East- ern Tennessee in favor of the Democratic candidate. In 1841, he was elected to the State Senate from Hawkins and Greene Counties by a majority of two thousand, and, during his term of service, brought forward judicious measures of internal improve- ments in the eastern division of the State. In 1843, he was nominated for Congress from the First District, embracing seven counties. He was opposed by Colonel John A. Asken, a United States Bank Democrat, and a gentleman of talent and eloquence. Johnson was elected, and took his seat in the National House of Representatives in December, 1843. His debut in Congress was a brief but forcible argument in support of the resolution to restore the fine imposed upon General Jackson for having placed New Orleans under martial law. He followed this up by a reply to John Quincy Adams on the right of petition, which was characterized as a highly creditable effort, 30 350 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. and by an argument on the Tariff, in which he enforced the De- mocratic doctrine that it was a departure from the principles of justice and equality to tax the many for the benefit of the few, under the plea of protecting American labor, as was done by the Tariff of 1842. He insisted upon it that, while Congress was consulting the interests of the manufacturer, it had no right to forget or neglect those of the farmer and planter, as high-protec- tionists were notoriously too apt to do, and replied to Mr. An- drew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, by a series of circumstantial details showing that so far as protection applies to protecting mechanics proper, there is no reality in it ; for if all are protected alike, the protection paralyzes itself, and results in no protection at all. "Protection operates" said he "beneficially to none, except those who can manufacture in large quantities, and vend their manufactured articles beyond the limits of the immediate manu- facturing sphere." At the second session of the Twenty-Eighth Congress, Mr. Johnson warmly co-operated with the friends of Texan Annexa- tion, and on the 21st of January, 1845, delivered an able speech on the subject. One of the Ohio delegation having alluded to General Jackson in an uncalled-for manner, Mr. Johnson gal- lantly defended the character of Jackson then living in retire- ment in the forests of Tennessee from the unkind allusions, which seemed to him strange coming from the quarter whence they had emanated. In the course of the exciting debate upon the annexation of Texas, Mr. Clingman intimated that British gold had been used to carry the election of Polk. Mr. Johnson denounced the suggestion as a vile slander, without the shadow of a foundation, and called on the gentleman from North Carolina for his proof, relying on the fact that if there were no authority for the assertion, it was a slander. In the course of Mr. Clingman's remarks, he said that "had the foreign Catholics been divided in the late election, as other sects and classes generally were, Mr. Clay would have carried, by a large majority, the State of New York, as also the States of Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and proba- bly some others in the Northwest." There were but few Catho- lics in Mr. Johnson's district, and he was not called upon to do battle with the prejudices that might or did exist against them; but he protested against the doctrine advanced by Mr. Clingman. ANDREW JOHNSON. 351 He wished to know if the latter desired to arouse a spirit of per- secution, to sweep away or divide all those who dared to differ from the Whig party. " But, for the purpose of showing the country how ignorant the gentleman was of the fact, and how reckless he was in bold statements, he would read from a pamphlet lie held in his hand, which was written by a Whig in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, and dedicated to the Hon. John Bell, a late member of General Harrison's Cabinet, which shows conclu- sively that the Whig party had the benefit of the Catholic influence in the late Presidential contest. The charge had been made, in his section of the country, that the Catholics were all Democrats; and he now availed himself (as the door had been opened) of the opportunity of setting this matter right upon good Whig authority." Alluding to the great capabilities of Texas, he thought it probable that it would " prove to be the gateway out of which the sable sons of Africa are to pass from bondage to freedom and become merged in a population congenial with themselves." The annexation would give the Union all the valuable cotton soil, or nearly so, upon the habitable globe. Cotton was destined to clothe more human beings than any other article that had ever been discovered. The factories of England would be compelled to stand still, were it not for cotton. Without it, her operatives would starve in the street, and, if this Government had the com- mand of the raw material, it was the same as putting Great Britain under bonds to keep the peace for all time to come. He was willing when he glanced at the historic page giving an account of their rise and progress, the privations they had under- gone, the money and toil they had expended, the valor and patriotism they had displayed to extend to the Texans the right hand of fellowship. In the summer of 1845, Mr. Johnson was re-elected to the House of Representatives. The Twenty-Ninth Congress was for several reasons one of the most important in our political his- tory. A bitter contention was going on between this country and Great Britain in regard to the line which divided the posses- sion* of the two countries in Oregon. Upon this question, Mr. Johnson assumed a decided position, maintaining our right to the line of 54 40', yet insisting that the real contest was for the 852 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. territory between 46 and 49, as that embraced the Columbia River, which Great Britain was anxious to acquire on account of the invaluable advantages it afforded for both military and com- mercial purposes. To pursue a different course would, in his opinion, be abandoning the substance and running after the shadow. He therefore sustained President Polk in his adjust- ment of the question. In this session, Mr. Johnson denounced, as oppressive, the pro- posed contingent tax of ten per cent, on tea and coffee, laying it down as a fundamental principle that the expenses of the Govern- ment especially those incurred in time of war should be de- frayed by those who enjoyed the largest share of its protection. He thought it a monstrous injustice that the poor man should not only shed his blood in defence of the rights and honor of his country, but also be overburdened with taxes. Having aided in demolishing the proposed tax, he introduced and carried through a bill providing a tax to a certain amount of percentage upon all bank, State, and G-overnment stock, and other capital. In the debate on the River and Harbor Improvement Bill of the same session, he took general grounds against the insane policy of indiscriminate expenditure of public money for internal im- provement of an entirely local nature. In the second session, he supported with great ability the raising of men and money for the prosecution of the war with Mexico. In 1847, Mr. Johnson was re-elected to Congress by an over- whelming majority. At this time he made an exceedingly able and eloquent argument in favor of the veto power. Apart even from its political bearing, this speech was interesting. He gave an historical outline of the veto power, which runs back to the times of the Roman Republic, the Tribunes of the people having had the right to approve or disapprove any law passed by the Senate, inscribing upon the parchment, in case they resolved to adopt the latter alternative, the word "veto." He traced this power, through the various stages of its progress, from the days of Augustus, and showed that since the establishment of this Government to the time at which he spoke, the veto power had been exercised twenty-five times : thus : by Washington, twice ; by Madison, six times; by Monroe, once; by Jackson, nine times ; by Tyler, four times; by Polk, thrice. In this session also he ANDREW JOHNSON. 353 continued his advocacy of the Mexican War, in opposition to those who denounced it as unconstitutional and unjust. Mr. Johnson was the prime mover in Congress of the Home- stead Bill; to give to every man who is the head of a family, and a citizen of the United States, a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of land out of the public domain, upon the con- dition that he should occupy and cultivate the same for five years. As early as 1847 he commenced the agitation of this question, and has been the forcible and untiring advocate of it, not only in the Capitol, but everywhere, and on every occasion. Mr. Johnson was a member of Congress from the Twenty- Eighth to the Thirty-Second sessions. During all this period, he labored as few men have ever labored, to improve the condition of the people. He can look back upon his Congressional career as one devoted to the service of his country and of humanity. At the outset of his Congressional career, it was predicted that his ultra notions would bury him fathom-deep, and that he would go back to Tennessee and prey upon a broken heart till carried to his grave. But, as John W. Forney truly observes, "any one who gazed into his dark eyes, and perused his pale face, would have seen there an unquenchable spirit and an almost fanatic obstinacy that spoke another language." In 1853, he was elected Governor of the State of Tennessee, and on the 17th of October of that year, delivered his inaugural address. This document has been severely censured " not only by the conservative states- men of this country, but by the aristocratic press of England and France;" but the "Western Democratic Review" liked it better than almost any thing else from Governor Johnson's pen. He was re-elected in 1855, and served as Governor until the fall of 1857, when he was elected to the United States Senate for the term which ends in 1863. In April, 1855, Governor Johnson made a very able speech at Murfreesborough, Tennessee, against " Know-N othingism," in the course of which he said, "The 'Know-Nothings' were opposed to the Catholio religion because it was of foreign origin and many of its members in this country were foreigners also. He said that if it was a valid objection to tolerating the Catholic religion in this country because it was of foreign origin and many of its members were foreigners, we would be compelled to expel X 30* 354 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. most of the other religions of the country for the same reason. Who, he asked, was John Wesley, and where did the Methodist religion have its origin? It was in old England, and John Wesley was an Englishman. But, if John Wesley were alive to-day, and here in this country, Know- Nothingism would drive him and his religion back to England, whence they came, because they were foreign. Who, he asked, was John Calvin, and where did Calvinism take its rise ? Was it not Geneva? And were Calvin alive, this new order would send him and his doctrines back whence they came. Who, he asked, was Roger Williams ? And would not Roger Williams and the Baptists share the same fate ? And so with Martin Luther, the great Reformer. He would have been subjected to the same proscriptive test." In the Thirty-Fifth Congress, Senator Johnson was prominent in his advocacy of his favorite project, the Homestead Bill, and on other leading domestic and financial questions of the day. He offered a substitute for the Army Bill, reported by the Military Committee, proposing to employ a force of four thou- sand volunteers, who should be engaged for the specific purpose of quelling the rebellion in Utah, and who should be disbanded at the completion of the campaign. He protested against the existence of standing armies; and the time, in his opinion, was most inopportune to propose any permanent addition to the mili- tary establishment. Instead of increasing we should seek to cur- tail expenditure. The Democratic party was held responsible for any extravagance; and these appropriations had already increased to an alarming extent, and greatly beyond the proportion de- manded by the increasing expansion of the country. If our expenses should increase according to the ratio which had hitherto prevailed, the amount required for the ordinary purposes of the Government, in 1860, would be one hundred and twenty- five millions of dollars. Since the organization of the Govern- ment, the appropriations made for its support had amounted to thirteen hundred and thirteen millions of dollars, of which eight hundred and sixty-seven millions had been applied to the main- tenance of the army and navy of the United States, leaving only four hundred and forty-six millions for all other objects. He was opposed to further progress in this direction, and warned the Democracy of the danger to which their political ascendency would be exposed by a persistence in this path of extravagance. On January 4, 1859, Senator Johnson introduced a resolu- ANDREW JOHNSON. 355 tion of scrutiny into the expenses of the Government in all its Departments, which led to a lengthy and spirited debate between Senators Hunter, Fessenden, Toombs, Shields, Mason, Stuart, and others, and which was continued at other periods, result- ing in the reference on motion of Senator Gwin, .January 17 of the whole subject to a select committee. On the 25th of the same month, Senator Johnson, in a speech of great length, opposed the adoption of any bill having for its object to aid in the construction of a railroad to the Pacific. He denied the constitutional power of Congress to co-operate in such a work, which, he thought, should be left to private enterprise. He then proceeded to discuss the political aspects of the present times, which witnessed, he thought, a serious departure from the maxims of the Constitution and the wise precepts of the fathers and founders of the Republic. In this degeneracy the Demo- cratic party had shared; and he could not recognise the right of its Presidential Conventions to expound periodically, beyond all appeal, the tenets which constituted a true Democrat. As to the Union of the States, he was not one of those who sang paeans in its praise, because he was one of those who believed that the Union had never yet been, and was not likely ever to be, in any danger. On the Slavery question, Senator Johnson's position is as he stated in 1849 "that Congress has no power to interfere with the subject of slavery; that it is an institution local in its cha- racter, and peculiar to the States where it exists; and no other power has the right to control it." In 1850, he introduced into the House, before the bills embracing the Compromise measures were reported to the Senate, a series of resolutions containing substantially the same provisions, and requiring, among other things, the Committee on Territories to report a bill providing for u a more efficient mode for the recapture and return of fugi- tive slaves to the slave States." On the 9th of June, 1850, while his resolutions were under discussion, he trusted that Whigs and Democrats, the reflecting and patriotic of all sides, would in view of the amount of public prosperity, tranquillity, and happi- ness, as well as the great value of property, involved in the adjust- ment of the pending difficulties feel that the preservation of the Union was paramount to all other considerations. "I be- 356 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. lieve," said Mr. Johnson, "that slavery has its foundation and will find its perpetuity in the Union, and the Union its continu- ance by a non-interference with the institution of slavery." He voted for the Compromise measures, and supported, in like manner, the Lecompton side of the Kansas question in 1858. In December, 1859, Senator Johnson made a speech on Sena- tor Mason's " Harper's Ferry Resolution/' in which he replied to Senators Seward, Trumbull, and Doolittle. He showed con- clusively the fallacy of the doctrine contended for by the Repub- lican party in regard to the equality of the white and black races. He also showed, in a clear and satisfactory manner, that there was no conflict between the free-labor of the North and the slave-labor of the South, that they were in fact fortunate in- gredients and operated as mutual benefits to each other, and, if let alone, would move on harmoniously, and in the end carry out and develop the great design of our fathers who framed the Con- stitution and fulfil our important destiny. A friend who served with him in the Legislature, messed with him, and knew him intimately, writes, that "Johnson is bold and indomitable. His distinguishing characteristic is energy. He tires at nothing; and if he cannot succeed one way he tries another, and another, until he accomplishes his purposes. He is rather slow and circumspect in taking his positions; but when taken nothing can drive him from them. . . . He seldom fights his battles through his friends, but relies mainly upon his own fearless energy to carry him through; and it is never found wanting. As a citizen, he is a quiet, orderly, not to say diffident, gentleman. He is a warm friend and a bitter enemy. Em- phatically of the people himself, he is the people's friend in public and private life. His best efforts, throughout his whole life, have been to ameliorate their condition ; and every sympathy of his heart, I am certain, is with them." JOSEPH LANE. 357 JOSEPH LANE, OF OREGON. JOSEPH LANE, the second son of John Lane and Elizabeth Street, was born in North Carolina, on the 14th of December, 1801. In 1804, the father emigrated to Kentucky and settled in Henderson County. He had the benefit of having sprung from Revolutionary stock, and, if he learned little else, imbibed many stirring lessons of patriotism and its glorious results from the elders who surrounded the hearthstone of his boyhood. At an early age he shifted for himself, and entered the employ of Nathaniel Hart, Clerk of the County Court. In 1816, he went into Warwick County, Indiana, became a clerk in a mercantile house, married, in 1820, a young girl of French and Irish ex- traction, and settled on the banks of the Ohio, in Vanderburg County. Young Lane soon became the man of the people among whom he had cast his lot. In 1822, then barely eligible, he was elected to the Indiana Legislature, and took his seat, to the astonishment of many older worthies. Hon. Oliver H. Smith, a new member likewise, and since a United States Senator from 1837 to 1843, describes, in a work recently published, the ap- pearance of Lane on the occasion. "The roll-calling progressed as I stood by the side of the clerk. f The county of Vanderburg and Warwick !' said the clerk. I saw advancing a slender, freckle-faced boy, in appearance eighteen or twenty years of age. I marked his step as he came up to my side, and have often noticed his air since : it was General Joseph Lane, of Mexican and Oregon fame in after-years." On the Ohio, Lane became extremely popular as a good neighbor and a man of enlarged hospitality. Near his dwelling, the river has a bar, which never fails at low-water to detain a small fleet of boats. Lane's farm-house had ever its doors open; 358 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. an invitation was extended to all to come and help themselves, the host never consenting to receive remuneration, though hundreds have partaken of his store. Any boatman on the river, says a reliable informant, felt himself at liberty to take any of his boats for temporary use, without asking. Such was Joseph Lane on his homestead. Acquaintance with river-life made him a good pilot of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, which gained him an additional meed of respect from the "ri verm en." As farmer, produce-dealer, and legislator, many years rolled over his head, every year adding to his popularity as a man, both in his private and public capacity. He was frequently re- elected by the people, and continued to serve them, at short intervals, in either branch of the Legislature, for a period of twenty-four years. Mr. Lane was a fearless legislator, always acting from a con scientious belief in the truth of his views, and following them up with spirit and undeviating vigilance. Those who are best acquainted with this portion of his career delight to dwell upon the zeal and tenacity with which he upheld the trusts confided to him and denounced the wrongs which threatened to thwart his designs for good. He is, however, a man of deeds rather than words, though he does not lack the power to express his views clearly and forcibly. Never in favor of expediency, he was always for what seemed right to him. When it was thought that Indiana, overburdened with debt, would be compelled to repudiate, the prospect of the disgrace which would thereby result to the State aroused all his indignant energies. He would not hear of such a thing. He felt it would be a disgrace to him, as a working-man with the will and the strength to labor, to repudiate a debt. What was it, then, to a State of which he was one of the representatives ? He toiled untiringly to avert it, and had the satisfaction of seeing his efforts successful. A gentleman who served in the Legislature of Indiana during a portion of the time referred to has given me several anecdotes illustrating the moral courage, the strong sense of justice, and the love of fair play, which have ever characterized General Lane's conduct in all the relations of life, public or private. JOSEPH LANE. 359 "While some men/' he writes, "espouse the cause of truth more through accident, or the force of circumstances, than from an in- nate love of justice for justice's sake, Lane's mind was so happily constituted that it was almost impossible for him to err in refer- ence to any question which had a right and a wrong side to it. At the time of which I speak, there had assembled a large De- mocratic Convention in the State Capitol of Indiana ; and among other subjects claiming the consideration of the delegates in that body was the propriety of subjecting the nomination of two Judges of the Supreme Court to the test of & party nomination. The offices were filled and ably filled by Charles Dewey and Jeremiah Sullivan; and General Lane, though a strong party man, opposed, with his accustomed earnestness, the attempt to bring the Judiciary of the State within the vortex of party, or to make the polities of either the incumbents or the aspirants a test of party action. Judge Dewey was a gentleman of fine educa- tion, of great legal ability, and, in the discharge of the duties of his high trust, held the scales of justice with so even a hand that not a word could be said against him, except that his poli- tical proclivities were of the Whig school. Judge Sullivan, though not so able as a jurist, was far above mediocrity, and challenged universal respect by his amiable character and spot- less integrity. Among the delegates in the Convention from Floyd County was a young gentleman who was born, raised, and educated in the State of New York, and who, having resided only a year in the State of his adoption, could not, in vhw of the political dogmas of the Tammany school, see the propriety of tolerating a Whig official of any kind while a Democrat could be found able and willing to fill his place. No sooner had this young man (now the able Governor of the State) commenced advocating his peculiar views in the Convention, than the ma- jority of that body, to whom he was a total stranger, positively refused to give him even a hearing, and, by shouts and all sorts of noises, drowned his voice every time he attempted to advance his (to them) distasteful and unpalatable notions. Colonel Lane, though foremost among those who favored the reappointment of the old judges, became indignant at this treatment of the young delegate, and made several ineifectual attempts to command for him a hearing. Losing all patience with what he considered the 360 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. injustice of the majority, he at length mounted a table, and, addressing the presiding officer, remarked that no member of the Convention was more radically opposed to the views of the young gentleman from Floyd County than himself; but, as he came there clothed with the power and authority to represent a portion of the people of Indiana, he insisted, in justice to his constituents if not to himself, that the courtesy of a hearing should be given to him. As an advocate of the right of free discussion, he, for one, could not, by his silence, acquiesce in applying the gag to any member of that body; and therefore, until the delegate from Floyd was heard, he pledged himself to oppose, with all his ener- gies, the transaction of any other business. Claiming to be the friends of liberty and of right, it would, he continued, inflict indelible disgrace upon the Convention to stifle, by brute force or riotous clamor, the opinions of the humblest member of the body, merely because they were different from those entertained by the majority. Such was the emphatic and earnest manner of the colonel's delivery, and such the justice and the noble spirit of his views, that the young delegate was finally, by common consent, permitted to proceed until he had finished his speech. " This imperfect sketch can give but a faint idea of the moral grandeur of the scene, which neither time nor distance can efface from the memories of those who witnessed it." In politics General Lane has always been of the Jefferson and Jackson school. Possessing a strong intellect, and a me- mory retentive of facts and quick to use them, he has become thoroughly acquainted with the history and politics of the coun- try. Mr. Yulee well observes, " He has written with his plough and sword, and spoken by his deeds; and, though unused to the ornaments of rhetoric and literature, he is, nevertheless, powerful in debate, and especially well qualified in political and Presi- dential conflicts on the stump to overwhelm the opponents of Democracy." He supported Jackson in 1824, '28, and '32, gave his voice and energies for Van Buren, in 1836 and '40, "as long as the latter followed ' in the footsteps of his illustrious predeces- sor/ " and went for Polk in 1844. His activity and earnestness were contagious, and could not but infuse into those about him, and into the public men of the State generally, the spirit which had led him to so honorable a prominence. JOSEPH LANE. 361 In the spring of 1846, the war commenced between the United States and Mexico, and a call was made upon Indiana for volun- teers. Lane, then a member of the State Senate, immediately resigned, and entered Captain Walker's company as a private. He chose Walker as his commander, having a high opinion of his bravery, an opinion which that gallant officer's conduct and death at Buena Vista completely justified. When the regi- ment met at the rendezvous, -New Albany, Joseph Lane was taken from the ranks by the unanimous voice of the men, and placed at the head as colonel; and in a very few days afterward he received unsought and unexpected by him a commission from President Polk as brigadier-general. On the 9th of July he wrote a letter of acceptance, and entered on the command of the three regiments forming his brigade. Two weeks after, (24th of July,) he was at the Brazos, with all his men, and concluded the report announcing his arrival to General Taylor in these words : " The brigade I have the honor to command is generally in good health and fine spirits, anxious to engage in active service/' On the 20th of August, he wrote to Major-General Butler, claiming active service. His brigade did not relish being left in the rear to garrison towns or to guarcl provisions and military stores, while the regular army, and the volunteers already ordered on to Camargo, would have the honor of being actively engaged. "It was understood," wrote Lane, "when we arrived at the Brazos, that the regiments of volunteers would be moved on toward the enemy in the order in which they arr'ved. Such orders have been observed, with two exceptions, both operating to the prejudice of this brigade/' &c. Lane had an idea that the Indiana men were raised to do some fighting, and he was impatient of delay. The second. day after his letter to Butler, he wrote again to General Taylor, complain- ing of the advance of troops out of their order of precedence. Without being disrespectful, he demanded for his command a share in the dangers and honors of the active service. He re- quested that, if the whole volunteer corps was not needed on the scene of action, a part of each State's troops be selected. Despite his anxiety to go on, he had to remain several months, ia a most irksome mood, on the swampy banks of the Rio Grande, where his troops, suffering under the sweltering sun, were deci- 31 362 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN mated by the pestilential diseases of the climate He was almost the only man of the brigade who was riot [rostrated at some time. At length he was ordered to Saltillo, and was made civil and military commandant of that post by Major-General Butler. Here he established a vigilant police, protecting life and property, and built a strong fortification to provide against the threatened descent by Santa Anna. It was owing to the watchful care of his confidential scouts and spies, secured by liberal pay out of his own pocket, that he was enabled to communicate the first intelligence of the capture of Major Gaines's command. While in command at Saltillo, General Lane personally visited each picket-guard nightly, thus presenting to his men a fruitful ex- ample of vigilance. After the battle of Monterey, Lane was ordered to join General Taylor. The famous battle of Buena Vista was fought on the 22d and 23d of February, 1847. General Lane was third in command, and served on the left wing. From the beginning to the end he was in the hottest of the fight. On the morning of the 23d, Lane had the honor of opening the continuation of the battle, on the plain, where he was attacked by a force of from four to five thousand infantry, artillery, and lancers, under General Ani- pudia. At this crisis, Lane's force was reduced to four hundred men; and with this phalanx he received the Mexican onset. "Nothing," writes an eye-witness, ll could exceed the imposing and fearful appearance of the torrent of assailants which at this moment swept along toward the little band of Lane. The long lines of infantry presented a continued and unbroken sheet of fire. But their opponents, though few in number, were undis- mayed, and defended their position with a gallantry worthy of the highest praise. Several times I observed the Mexican lines, galled by the American musketry and shattered by the fearful discharges from O'Brien's battery, break and fall back but their successive formations beyond the ridge enabled them to force the men back to their position and quickly replace those who were slain." All the printed authorities on this great fight, as well as parties who served with the gallant brigadier from Indiana, unite in extolling his conduct in glowing terms. As Lane commenced the fight on the 23d ? so was he in "at JOSEPH LANE. 363 the death." The Illinois and Kentucky regiments, suffering sorely, were falling back under a terrible charge by the collected infantry of Santa Anna, when Lane, though wounded, came up with the Indiana men, and with the Mississippi regiment, under Colonel Jefferson Davis, opened a destructive fire upon the Mexicans, checked their advance, and enabled the retreating regiments to form and return to the contest. Failing to pierce the American centre, Santa Anna retired from the field. In this battle, where all were heroes, it is the more honorable to find Lane, with four or five others, particularly noticed. Here is a picture of him. : " When the grape and musket-shot flew as thick as hail over and through the lines of our volunteers, who began to waver before the fiery storm, their brave general could be seen fifty yards in advance of the line, waving his sword with an arm already shattered by a musket-ball, streaming with blood, and mounted on a noble charger, which was gradually sinking under the loss of blood from five distinct wounds. A brave sight indeed was this !"* Major-General Wool, writing to Lane, May 23, regrets that he is about to lose his valuable services, and testifies to his readi- ness to do honor to his command, his country, and himself. Again, July 7, Wool writes, " I have seen you in all situations, at the head of your brigade in the drill, and in the great battle of the 22d and 23d of February; and in the course of my experience I have seen few, very few, who behaved with more zeal, ability, and gallantry in the hour of danger." And General Taylor, in his report; says, "Brigadier-General Lane (slightly wounded) was active and zealous throughout the day, and displayed great coolness and gallantry before the enemy." Remaining encamped near the battle-field until June, he was ordered, with his brigade, to New Orleans, where the latter was disbanded, its term of service having expired. On his return home, public festivals at New Albany and Evansville greeted him, while his appearance everywhere commanded and elicited the most enthusiastic admiration. An order to join Taylor's line, however, allowed him but a short season of repose in the bosom of his family. * "New Orleans Delta," May 2, 1847. 864 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Having been transferred to General Scott's line of operations, lie reached Vera Cruz with his command on the 16th of Septem- ber, 1847. On the 20th, he set out for the city of Mexico, at the head of two thousand five hundred men. At Jalapa this force was increased by Major Lally's column of one thousand men, and at Perote by a company of mounted riflemen, two of volunteer infantry, and two pieces of artillery. At this time Colonel Childs, of the regular army, was besieged in Puebla by a large force under Santa Anna. Childs, knowing the import- ance of the post, nobly held out; and his officers and soldiers, animated by a like spirit, exhibited the most heroic fortitude under numerous privations. They knew that to gain time was to gain victory; for Lane was marching to their relief. Santa Anna, also aware of Lane's approach, used every exertion to carry the place by storm. Failing in this, he cautiously withdrew the main body of his troops toward Huamantla, intending to attack General Lane in the rear when he had passed that point, while another force would assault him from the direction of Puebla. Lane's scouts, however, were neither deaf nor blind. He divined the Mexican's plan, and frustrated it. Leaving his train at San Antonio Tamaris with a suitable de- fence, Lane marched against Huamantla with over two thousand men. On the morning of the 9th of October, the people were startled by the approach of the soldiers. White flags were imme- diately displayed ; but no sooner had the advanced guard, under Captain Walker, entered the town, than volley after volley as- sailed it. A deadly combat ensued. Walker gallantly charged upon a body of five hundred lancers and two pieces of artillery on the plaza. General Lane, advancing at the head of his column, encountered the heavy reinforcement of Santa Anna, who had arrived with his full force. Soon the roar of battle re- sounded from street to street. For a short time the Mexicans confronted their assailants with the energy of despair; but the terrible decision of the Americans prevailed, and their flag soon waved over the treacherous town. A large quantity of ammuni- tion was captured, and some prisoners, one of whom was Major Iturbide, son of the former Emperor of Mexico. This was the last field on which Santa Anna appeared in arms against the JOSEPH LANE. 365 United States. For this victory Lane was brevetted major- general. Having rejoined his train, General Lane arrived at Puebla on the 12th of October. Compelling General Rea to retire, he raised the siege. Of the besieged, Jenkins* writes, " Their emotions can be more easily conceived than expressed, when they caught sight of the glistening sabres, the flashing bayonets, and the victorious banners of General Lane, as his columns wound through the now almost deserted streets; and when his trumpets sounded their shrill notes of defiance, every man breathed freer and deeper, and felt prouder of his country, her honor, and her fame." On the 19th, Lane was in pursuit of Rea, under a burning sun. At Santa Isabella, about thirteen miles from Puebla, he met the Mexican advance-guards. A running fight was kept up for four miles, when, discovering the enemy strongly posted on a hill within a mile and a half of Atlixco, a severe fight took place. The Mexicans were driven into the town. Not wishing to enter a strange place at night, Lane commanded the approaches and opened a telling cannonade. The Ayuntamientos came out and begged that the town might be spared. Lane spared it, but took and destroyed large quantities of arms and munitions. On his return to Puebla, he set out for Guexocingo, and destroyed the enemy's resources there. On the 29th he fought the first battle of Tlascala, and on the 10th of November encountered Generals Rea and Torrejou at the same place, and recaptured a train of thirty-six laden wagons belong- ing to merchants in Puebla and Mexico. In thanks for this service, the merchants presented a splendid sword to General Lane. On the 22d, taking with him Colonel Hays, Captain Lewis, and Lieutenant Field, with one hundred and fifty horse and one gun, Lane started to surprise Matamoras, where were collected a large amount of Mexican supplies, and one thousand men strongly posted in a fort mounted with artillery. Forming secretly, he gives the word ; the mounted men are at the base of the wall : in an instant they leap from the saddle and spring upon the fort, losing but one man, and putting the Mexicans to * See " History of the War with Mexico," by John S. Jenkins. 31* 366 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. flight, with a loss of eighty before Lane could stay the havoc. Assuredly he did surprise Matamoras, as well as the twenty-five American prisoner^ he liberated therefrom. On his return, (the 24th,) the enemy, emboldened by the small number of Lane's troops, being in the ratio of about eight to one, made a stand at Galaxa. The 'Americans were faltering under the terrible fire, when Lane, leaping from his horse, unlimbered a gun, turned it on the enemy, and fired it with his lighted cigar. The gun, loaded with grape, checked the enemy, and, being quickly served by Lieutenants Field and McDonald, settled the affair, and our troops returned to Puebla in triumph at noon of the following day. Lane's campaign, from the departure from Yera Cruz up to this point, was a series of brilliant movements and victories. A surgeon attached to his command wrote home, about this period, that no writers only the soldiers could tell with what ingenuity and bravery Lane conducted his handful of men. "I never" he adds "before could understand how cowards were transformed into brave men as by miracle." Reporting himself, by order, to the commanding general on the 18th of December, at the city of Mexico, General Lane was received with marked emotion by General Scott. It was the intention of the latter to send Lane, at the head of a brigade, on a forward movement. "Waiting impatiently for four weeks, Lane asked and obtained leave to take three hundred mounted men, with Hays, Polk, and Walker, and chase the guerillas under the notorious Zenobia. In this expedition ha almost succeeded in capturing Santa Anna at Tehuacan. AH he got of him, how- ever, was his swords. On the 23d of January, 1848, as he marched into Orizaba a city of twenty thousand inhabitants at one side, the enemy inarched out at the other. A large quan- tity of Government property was confiscated for the benefit of the United States. He next took Cordova, confiscated more property, and released 3, number of American prisoners. Pie- cruiting his men at Puebla, he is wandering through the moun- tains in search of the enemy. On the third day he meets and disperses the command of Colonel Falcon, and, not falling in with any other detachment of the Mexicans, returns to the capi JOSEPH LANE. 367 tal on the 10th of February, having been absent but twenty- four days. A few days after his return, he turns out again with the sarne brave and hardy comrades, to arrest and punish Jarauta, a noted robber-chief, who had been perpetrating such atrocities as not paying over much or very little respect to the person of the courier belonging to the British embassy, and other more really atrocious doings against Americans. Leaving the City of Mexico on the 17th of February, he surprised Tulancingo on the dawn of the 21st. General Paredes escaped from his bed. Jarauta, who, Lane learned, was at Tehualtaplan, was a wily mgue. Lane, desiring to throw him off his guard, remained a day and a night at Tulancingo, gave out that he was returning to Mexico, set off in that direction, but about dark changed his course, and arrived at a ranch on the road to, and eighteen miles distant from, Tehualtaplan in thirty-six hours after leaving Tulancingo. On the 24th he was at the former. There were one thousand lancers and guerillas under Colonel Montano and Jarauta; and, as the Americans entered Tehualtaplan at sunrise of the 25th, the esco- peta-balls came whistling about their heads from every house. Jenkins, in his history, p. 496, says, "Headed by General Lane, Colonel Hays, and Major Polk, the rangers and dragoons dashed upon the enemy, fighting their way hand to hand into the houses, cutting down every man who refused to surrender. A portion of the Mexicans rallied and formed outside the town ; but a vigor- ous charge, led by General Lane and Colonel Hays, quickly put them to rout. Jarauta, who was wounded in the conflict, again escaped, One hundred of the enemy were killed, however, among whom were Colonel Montano, and the bosom-friend of Jarauta, Padre Martinez. A still greater number were wounded, and there were fifty taken prisoners. General Lane lost but one man killed and four wounded. Quiet was soon restored in the town after the fighting had ceased ; and the Americans returned to the capital, taking with them their prisoners, and a quantity of recovered property that had been plundered from different trains." The battle of Tehualtaplan was the last fought in Mexico. Peace was soon declared; but General Lane who, not inappro- priately, says Jenkins, was styled by his brother officers and soldiers " the Marion of the army" remained some months directing the movements consequent upon the return of our troops. On evacuating the conquered land, Lane remarked to a 368 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. friend, "I left my plough to take the sword with a thrill of pleasure; for my country called me. I now go home to resume the plough with as sincere joy." About the 1st of August, 1848, General Lane reached Indiana. His fellow-citizens were rejoiced to see him; but he had not time to respond to the favors extended to him, for on the 18th he without any solicitation on his part was appointed Governor of Oregon.* On the 28th his commission reached him, and on the next day he set out for his post. He reached Fort Leaven- worth on the 4th of September and left it on the 10th, with twenty-two men, including guides, &c. This was the year in which Colonel Fremont, who followed Governor Lane in a few weeks, lost almost his entire party in the mountains. The jour- ney to Oregon, at all times arduous, is of course peculiarly so in the winter season. After reaching the Rio Grande, through snow-storms of eight days' continuance, and when neither grass nor timber for fuel were to be had, Lane and his guide differed as to the route that should be followed. The Governor wanted to strike south; the guide insisted on keeping the old route. They parted ; Governor Lane undertook to pilot himself, and his guide returned, foreboding evil. Had the Governor followed the guide's advice, the party would have met the same fate as did that of Fremont. For more than twenty days he made south- ward, and finally came to the Mexican village of Santa Cruz, in Sonora, where he took the regular trail. On reaching the Gila, seven men deserted, who killed two of the men that were sent back after them; and, shortly after, five others, with a corporal, deserted, fearful of starvation if they proceeded. On the 2d of March, 1849, about six months after his de- parture from home, he arrived safely in Oregon City. This journey cost the Government nothing, General Lane not making any charge for his expenses; besides which, he aided largely in subsisting the troops, the greater part of the time, with the product of his rifle, as he was both the pilot and the hunter for the party.f * General Shields was appointed on the 14th of August, and declined. f In this connection it may be stated that during the Mexican War he sub- sisted his troops with less cost than that of any others in the service. His trea- ties and "talks" with the Indians in Oregon were all conducted without expense JOSEPH LANE. 869 The Indians of Oregon of whom there were between fifty and sixty tribes kept the whites in a constant state of jeopardy. The progress and settlement of the Territory were greatly impeded by their depredations. In 1850, a formidable outbreak took place on Rogue River, in the southern part of Oregon. Gover- nor Lane took the field in person, collected a force of settlers, miners, a few officers and men of the regular army, attacked the Indians at Table Rock, and, after a desperate conflict, in which he was severely wounded, drove them from their posi- tion. Following this success up with his accustomed vigor, he so severely chastised them that they were glad to accept any terms of peace. On several occasions, nothing but Governor Lane's force of character and coolness could have saved the handful of men which accompanied him on his Indian expeditions. He furnished the Department with a lengthy report, which, in Mr. Schoolcraft's opinion, is the only accurate account of the Oregon Indians. The Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Oregon passed resolutions conveying the thanks of the people, and giving their fullest approbation to his " extraordinary energy" as Super- intendent of Indian Affairs. " Few" says one of the resolu- tions "could have accomplished so successfully what his kind- ness, integrity, and firmness have done to secure the bonds of a lasting peace with the tribes surrounding us." The Assembly also expressed their belief that while Governor he acted for the best interests of the whole people; and they regretted that upon the accession of General Taylor he was superseded. The people, however, in testimony of his worth, sent him to Congress as Delegate, in which position he remained until the admission of Oregon into the Union, when he took his seat as a United States Senator, having been previously elected to that eminence. As Delegate from Oregon, General Lane was unremitting in his advocacy of the interests of the Territory, and untiring in his efforts for her admission into the Union. The Oregon Bill being under debate in the House on the 10th of February, 1859, Governor Lane contended that there was a population in the Territory sufficient to entitle her to admission. On the 12th, a to Government. See pamphlet " Biography of Joseph Lane," written by "West- ern," (Mr. Yulee,) of which spirited publication I have made frequent use. Y 370 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. Massachusetts Representative having inquired whether, if Ore- gon should be admitted, and he, Lane, had a voice in the other end of the Capitol, would he vote to relieve Kansas of the effect of the English Bill. Lane replied that he had not come there to make any bargain. He was an honest man; and, if he should be permitted to go into the Senate, he would exercise a sound judgment prompted by a strong desire to promote the general prosperity and welfare of the country. He hoped that his official action might be the guarantee that he would do in all matters what he believed to be right. He then proceeded to urge the admission of Oregon, briefly reviewing its history from the time of the first settlements to the formation of its Constitution. He contended that it was but an act of justice, and appealed to the House to vote down every amendment and let the vote be taken on the naked bill. That day Oregon was admitted to the sisterhood of States, and that night the Federal City was alive with festivity in honor of the event. A band serenaded the President, Vice-President, Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, General Lane, and others. In re- sponse to a call, Governor Stevens introduced General Lane now Senator elect from the State of Oregon to the people. He made a brief speech, in which he said that a bulwark had been raised that day on the shores of the Pacific against foreign in- vaders, and a fresh assurance given of the perpetuity of the Union. While Governor Lane was in Oregon, he was named for the Presidency by the convention assembled at Indianapolis to revise the State Constitution of Indiana. The Democratic State Convention, which met February 24, 1852, formally pre- sented his claims for the Chief Magistracy, pledging the vote of the State to him. On his arrival in Indiana from Oregon, he had a public reception, at which, in the course of an address of welcome, Governor Wright thus briefly reviewed the career of the guest of the day : " He has been the artificer of his own fortunes; and, in his progress from the farmer on the banks of the Ohio and the commandant of a flat- boat to posts of honorable distinction, to a seat in the House of Repre- sentatives and in the Senate of Indiana, to the command of a brigade upon the fields of Buena Vista, Iluarnantla, and Atlixco, to the Gover- JOSEPH LANE. 371 norship of Oregon, and thence to a seat in Congress, he has displayed the same high characteristics, perseverance and energy. The annals of our country present no parallel for these facts. You entered the army a volunteer in the ranks, looking forward only to the career of a common soldier. You left it a major-general, closing your ardent and brilliant services in that memorable campaign by fighting its last battle and cap- turing the last enemy." I cannot better conclude this outline of Senator Lane's bril- liant public career than by quoting from a communication made to me by the gentleman already alluded to in the earlier portion of this sketch.* He writes, Jefferson remarked that some men were by nature so consti- tuted as to be the worshippers of power and the fit instruments in the hands of tyrants and usurpers ] while others, made of sterner stuff, are ever found the firm advocates of liberty and the inexorable haters of tyranny and oppression. To the latter class the Senator from Oregon belongs ; and, if the cause of popular liberty was ever assailed, he would defend it from encroachment at all hazards. As a consequence of the natural turn of his mind, he is not the man to be led off from the paths of duty by every wind of doctrine or by plausible theories in morals, religion, or politics. For a mind so constituted the ephemeral expedients of parties of the day have no charms ; and hence it is that he is emphatic- ally and truly a National Democrat, embracing, in the scope of his affections, the people of the whole Union, from the Capes of Florida to the Aroostook, from the shores of the Atlantic to those of the Pacific. In no instance has he ever swerved from the principles so eloquently enunciated in the Farewell Address of the Father of his Country, or dwarfed his affections or feelings into the mere sectional patriot. Inflexibly just in the discharge of every social, moral, and political duty, happy will it be for his country when such men are called upon, by the public voice, to fill its high trusts ! In addition to all this, the general, notwithstanding his early - struggles with poverty, is one of the most unselfish men in the world in reference to money or wealth. Instead of looking upon money as an end to be accomplished and attained by the strug- * John Dowliug, Esq. ; formerly member of the Indiana Legislature. 372 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. gles of life, he has never coveted it but as a means of doing good, for which no sacrifice of principle or duty should ever he made. This is well illustrated in his positive refusal to accept the double or constructive mileage to which, under the practice of the Government, he was entitled as Senator from Oregon. The sum was a large one, but its acquisition had no charms for the general when he reflected upon the injustice of drawing it from the Treasury to defray his expenses for the mileage and per diem of a trip which he had never performed. JOHN M P LEAN. 373 JOHN M C LEAN, OF OHIO. JOHN McLEAN was born in Morris County, New Jersey, of humble but respectable parentage, his father being a worthy emigrant from Ireland and a weaver by trade, which business he followed in his adopted State and also in Kentucky. During the infancy of the subject of this sketch, the family quite a large one removed to the Western country, and, after seeking a settlement first at Morganstown, Virginia, afterward in Jessa- mine, near Nicholasville, Kentucky, and, in 1793, in the vicinity of Mayslick, finally went, in 1799, to the territory northwest of the Ohio River which now forms Warren County, Ohio. Here the elder McLean cleared a farm, and for forty years, until his death, resided upon it. The homestead afterward became the property, and for many years was the residence, of the son. Neither the resources of the father nor of the country in which he had settled afforded the means of education; but, having been sent to school at quite an early age, the boy attained con- siderable proficiency in the elementary branches. In his six- teenth year he became acquainted with the languages through the careful instruction of Rev. Matthew Wallace and Mr. Stubbs and by his own diligent study. He had meanwhile labored on the farm ; and, in evidence of that independence of spirit ever a leading trait in the self-made man, it may be said, to this youth's honor, that he refused to allow his father to defray the expenses of his instruction. The same healthy firmness of character has guided and attended him throughout his important career. Knowledge but fed the aspirations which had already begun to throb the heart of the young farm-hand ; and, determining to overcome the obstacles which the limited means of his family presented, he succeeded in getting employment when eighteen 32 374 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. years old in the Clerk's office of Hamilton County, in Cincin- nati. With the salary of this position he was enabled to sup- port himself while studying the law under the auspices of Arthur St. Clair, an eminent counsellor and gentleman of pro- minence, son of the famous Revolutionary general of the same name, and who had been Governor and Judge of the Northwest Territory. No arrangement could have been better calculated for the youth's benefit; for, while honorably and industriously sup- porting himself, he was enabled to study the theory, and become well acquainted with the practical routine, of the profession. Before Mr. McLean was admitted to the bar, he fell a willing victim to the Supreme Court of Cupid, and was married in the spring of 1807 to Miss Rebecca Edwards, daughter of Dr. Ed- wards, formerly of South Carolina. In the fall of the same year, he, being then over twenty-two years old, was admitted and entered on his independent professional career at Lebanon, Warren County. His practical experience soon gained public confidence, and led to the possession of ample means. With the increase of business, his usefulness became so paramount that in 1812 he was brought forward to represent the city of Cincinnati in Congress, and had the good fortune to be elected after a very spirited contest with two competitors. Here commenced that able career which has led him to one of the highest and most responsible positions in the country. The political principles held by Mr. McLean on his entrance to the great national arena, and his course during the earlier portion of his career there, have been thus authentically stated : " From his first entrance upon public life, John McLean was identified with the Demo- cratic party. He was an ardent supporter of the war and of the Administration of Mr. Madison, yet not a blind advocate of every measure proposed by the party, as the journals of that period will show. His votes were all given in reference to principle. The idea of supporting a dominant party merely because it was domi- nant did not influence his judgment or withdraw him from the high path of duty which he marked out for himself. He was well aware that the association of individuals into parties was sometimes absolutely necessary to the prosecution and accom- plishment of any great public measure. This, he supposed, was sufficient to induce the members composing them, on any little JOHN M C LEAN. 375 difference with the majority, to sacrifice their own judgment to that of the greater number, and to distrust their own opinions when they were in contradiction to the general views of the party. But as party was thus to be regarded as itself only an instrument for the attainment of some great public good, the instrument should not be raised into greater importance than the end, nor any clear and undoubted principle of morality be violated for the sake of adherence to party. Mr. McLean often voted against political friends ; yet so highly were both his inte- grity and judgment estimated that no one of the Democratic party separated himself from him on that account. Nor did his inde- pendent course in the smallest degree diminish the weight he had acquired among his own constituents." Livingston adds that " Among the measures supported by him were the tax-bills of the extra session at which he entered. He originated the law to indemnify individuals for property lost in the public service. He introduced the resolution on the expediency of pensioning the widows of the officers and soldiers who had fallen in their country's service, which was afterward sanctioned by Congress. He spoke ably in defence of the war-measures, and by his atten- tion to the interests of the people continued to rise in public estimation." He was re-elected in 1814, when a display was made in his favor which is of rare occurrence in political history, receiving every vote cast in his district. His career on two most import- ant committees Foreign Relations and Public Lands is a suf- ficient index to the breadth as well as the sagacity of his views and his attention to the business duties of his position. Indeed, so high were his ideas of responsibility and trust in connection with the duties of a Representative in the popular branch of the National Legislature, that he declined to become a candidate for the United States Senate when his election was considered a certainty. He nearly served out his term, until 1816, when, having been unanimously elected by the Ohio Legislature to the Supreme Bench of that State, he resigned, and was succeeded in Congress by General Harrison. Just previous to his resignation he was on the committee that reported and supported the bill granting fifteen hundred dollars a year to members of Congress, instead of the per diem allowance of the time. He believed 376 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. that under the law the business of Congress would be facilitated by direct attention. Having been "perverted and its effects misrepresented by selfish aspirants/' it was repealed the follow- ing session, and the law giving eight dollars per day and eight dollars for every twenty miles' travel was instituted.* After dignifying the Supreme Bench of Ohio for six years, President Monroe appointed Judge McLean in the summer of 1822 Commissioner of the Land Office ; and, in the next year, he was elevated to the position of Postmaster-General. Here he distinguished himself in a highly admirable manner and drew forth the highest encomiums. He ignored the idea of placing men in office for their political opinions, or because they had served party purposes. He sought out the most suitable men among the applicants, and these he intrusted with the duties of office. They were accepted for their capacity to do duty, and had to do it. Business was attended to, and a most gratifying success was the result. Judge McLean personally superintended the details, and arrived as nearly at perfection as was possible. In consequence the salary attaching to the office was almost unani- mously raised by the Senate and House of Representatives from four to six thousand dollars per annum. Those who rigidly fol- lowed party discipline, and opposed the motion, did so reluctantly. As an evidence of the estimation in which Judge McLean's arduous and successful labors were held, the fact may be in- stanced that John Randolph said the salary was for the officer, and not for the office, and that he would vote for the bill if it should be made to expire when Judge McLean left the office. Charles J. Ingersoll has said he was "the very best Postmaster * This law remained in force until August 16, 1856, when an annual salary of three thousand dollars, with mileage, was adopted. This was again amended by joint resolution of December 23, 1857, introduced by Mr. George Taylor, of New York, enacting that " on the first day of the first session of each Congress, or as soon thereafter as he may be in attendance and apply, each Senator, Representative, and Delegate shall receive his mileage, as now provided by law, and all his compensation from the beginning of his term, to be computed at the rate of two hundred and fifty dollars per month, and during the session com- pensation at the same rate. And on the first day of the second or any subse- quent session he shall receive his mileage, as now allowed by law, and all com- pensation which has accrued during the adjournment at the rate aforesaid, and during said session compensation at the same rate," n itself was grafted upon its stock. The condition of slavery of the African race, as it exists among us, is a 'fixed fact' in the Consti- tution. From this a tree has indeed sprung, bearing, however, no * See "CQng. Globe," 1st Sess. 33d Congress. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 461 troubles or bitter fruits. It is the tree of national liberty, which, by the culture of statesmen and patriots, has grown up and nourished, and is now sending its branches far and wide, laden with no fruit but national happiness, prosperity, glory, and renown." Mr. Campbell: "Will the gentleman from Georgia read the preamble to the Constitution ?" Mr. Stephens: "Yes; and I believe I can repeat it to him. It is in 'order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity " Mr. Campbell: "And secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." Mr. Stephens: "Yes, sir; to themselves and their posterity, not to the negroes and Africans. And what sort of liberty ? Constitutional liberty; that liberty which recognised the inferior condition of the African race among them; the liberty which we now enjoy; the liberty which all the States enjoyed at that time, save one, (for all were then slaveholding, except Massachusetts.) That is the sort of liberty. None of your Socialism liberty. None of your Fourierism liberty. Constitu- tional liberty, ' law-and-order'-abiding liberty. That is the liberty which they meant to perpetuate."* In 1855, Mr. Stephens underwent a critical ordeal in fighting the " Know-Nothing organization/' as in the commencement of the struggle he found all his early associates, for the first time, arrayed against him. He felt himself to be in the right, and faltered not. In May of that year he addressed his famous letter to Hon. T. W. Thomas against the "Order." In it he gave his ideas of what true Americanism was, in contradistinction to the standard set up by the new party. True Americanism, as he understood it, was, like true Christianity, not confined to any particular nation or clime. It was not the product of the earth, but emanated from the head and heart. It looked upward, on- ward, and outward. Toleration of religion and the doctrrne of the right of expatriation were distinguishing features of our Con- stitution ; and a vindication of the same principle was one of the causes of the second War of Independence. "The genuine disciples of 'true Americanism,'" said he, t "like the genuine followers of the Cross, are those whose hearts are warmed and fired purified, elevated, and ennobled by those principles, doctrines, and precepts which characterize their respective systems. It is for this reason that a Kamtchatkan, a Briton, a Jew, or a Hindoo can be as good a Christian as any one born on ' Calvary's brow' or where the ' Sermon * See " Congressional Globe," 1st Sess. 34th Congress. 39* 462 IJV1NO REPRESENTATIVE MEN, on the Mount* was preached. And, for the same reason, an Irishman, a Frenchman, a German, or a Russian can be as thoroughly 'American' as if he had been born within the walls of the old Independence Hall itself. Which was the ' true American,' Arnold or Hamilton ? The one was a Native, the other was a,n adopted son." The effect of this letter was overwhelming, and extended from Georgia to the adjoining States. His position was nobly sus- tained; for, commencing with three thousand majority against him in his own district, he came out of the struggle with nearly three thousand majority in his favor. In the Thirty-Fifth Congress, the issues of which, so widely agitated the country, Mr. Stephens bore a distinguished part, and, from his position, as Chairman of the Committee on Terri- tories, W;as particularly prominent on the leading topic of the day His first duty was in response to the resolutions of respect to the memory of Senator Butler, of South Carolina, His brief but strongly-tinted picture of the Seiiator <- who "with the sense of age had the fire of youth./' wh,o, " scorning to wrangle, yet had a zeal for truth," and who, though mercurial ifl temperament and versatile in accomplishment^ was chaste in thought and firm in principle ^was one of the most characteristic tributes ever paid on such an occasion. In the debate on the Neutrality La.ws consequent upon the arrest of General Walker by Commodore Paulding, Mr. Stephens disclaimed being in favor of the violation of public faith by either individuals or nations. He was not in favor of the abrogation of our Neutrality Laws so far as they express the laws of nations; but where a part of the law of 1818 admitted of a doubtful con- struction as section eight did -he was for removing that doubt. The law should be clear and beyond awioubt. He admitted the right to arrest a fugitive; but General Walker was not a fugitive. He asserted, without fear of contradiction, that "Walker was the only legitimately-elected President of Nicaragua by popular vote; and, as the matter stood, his judgment was that Walker should be put in a national ship, with all his men and property, and placed just where he had been before the commission of the outrage. President Buchanan's message recommending the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Constitution was transmitted to ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 463 the House on the 2d of February. Mr. Stephens moved to refer it to the Committee on Territories. Mr. Hughes, of Indiana, supported the views of the message, and moved to refer it to a committee of thirteen. This was too wholesale a mode of opera- tion for Mr. Harris, of Illinois, who offered an amendment for reference to a committee of fifteen and authorizing an inquiry into and a report upon all the facts connected with the framing of the Lecompton Constitution and the various elections held in Kansas. The House sat until half-past six on the morning of the 6th, through scenes of fruitless discussions, some violence, and perpetual roll-calling. On the 8th, Harris's motion passed, yeas, 114, nays, 111; and on the llth, Speaker Orr announced the select committee as follows : Messrs. Harris, of 111. ; Stephens, Ga.; Morrell, Vt.; Letcher, Va..; E. Wade, Ohio; Quitman, Miss.; Winslow, N,C.; Bennett, N.Y, ; White, Pa. ; Walbridge, Mich. ; Anderson, Mo, ; Stevenson, Ky. ; Adrain, N. J. ; Buffin- ton, Mass.; and Russell, N.Y, On the 10th of March, Mr. Stephens brought in the majority report, and, it being objected to, took the responsibility of having it printed and placed before the country. The report concluded with a resolution "that Kansas ought to be admitted as a State into the Union under the Lecompton Constitution." He put it strictly upon the law of the case. If a majority of the people of Kansas were opposed to the Constitution, they ought to have gone to the polls and voted for delegates to the Convention that formed the Constitution. If, from factious or other worse motives, they stayed away and took no part in the election, it was their own fault. The Con- stitution had been made in pursuance of law : it should be recog- nised as such ; and if the people, after they were admitted, did not like it, they could change it. Messrs. Harris and Adrain issuedt a counter report ; and the question continued to be the leading subject in the House as well as the Senate. The Lecomptonites of the Senate passed the bill on the 24th of March; and on April 1st, Mr. Stephens moved to take it up in the House. On the same day, Mr. Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, offered, as a substitute, the Cfittenden bill (defeated in the Senate) as amended by the anti-Leconipton Democratic caucus. This was passed : yeas, 120, nays, 112. Then followed the contention between the Senate and the House until the 14th of April, when 464 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. the House acquiesced to the demand of the Senate for a com- mittee of conference.* Mr. Stephens was appointed one of the managers on the part of the House; and the result of the con- ference was the "English Bill," which passed both branches on the 30th of April. The debates on this substitute were scarcely less exciting than those on the original Senate bill. Mr. Ste- phens energetically supported it, and was mainly instrumental to its passage. His most noticeable appearance in the House was in a discussion with Mr. H. Winter Davis, of Maryland. In the heat of debate, all sides looked to Mr. Stephens. He expounded the views of his own party and replied to the queries and par- ried the attacks of the Opposition. When he arose, the House became still as if by an understood agreement. The crowd in the galleries inclined their heads forward, as if the motion of one man; and through the sudden calm the thin, shrill voice of the "gentleman from Georgia" arose, and expanded by degrees, until the sound and sense were so blended that you became satisfied there was no lack of breadth in either. The value placed upon the aid of Mr. Stephens by the Government may be understood from the tribute paid to his labors by the official organ after the passage of the bill: " Cool, resolute, self-sacrificing, vigilant, and able, he has stood thy Mentor of the body, equal to every demand upon his time and his intel- lect, the champion of a noble principle, all the more dear to the people because, in its proposed application, its foundations must be laid beneath the quicksands of past legislations and in opposition to those powerful interests which errors of legislation on the subject of slavery fail to in- spire. There have been few instances in the history of the Government which have shown, in any one individual, higher qualities of statesman- ship ability, firmness, patience, industry, and faithful devotion, in time %nd out of time, to a great principle and a just measure than have been exhibited by the honorable member from Georgia." As Chairman of the Committee on Territories, Mr. Stephens introduced Minnesota and Oregon into the Union through the House of Representatives. f He was in favor of allowing three * See ante, under "Crittenden," for a circumstantial outline of action in the House from the introduction of the " Crittenden-Montgomery Bill." f Minnesota was admitted May 11, 1858, and Oregon on the 12th of Febru- ary, 1859. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 465 Representatives to sit from the former until the census was taken. On the admission of the latter State he made the most effective speech perhaps that he ever made in Congress. There was very strong opposition to the measure, particularly from the South, his own section. His appeal to his Southern friends may illustrate his general views in relation to the principles of the Government more fully than any thing that has been yet said of him. This was his last speech. In it he said, " Now, Mr. Speaker, on another and entirely different aspect of this question I have something special to say to another side of the House, a distinct class in it. I mean the members coming from slaveholding States. There is evidently a feeling of opposition in that quarter to the admission of Oregon, from a reluctance and manifest indisposition to in- crease the number of what are called free States. This arises from an apprehension that, with the loss of the balance of power, the rights of our section upon constitutional questions will be less secure. This may be so. It does not, however, necessarily follow. But that balance is already gone, lost by causes beyond your or my control. There is no prospect of its ever being regained ; and, in taking that ground, you do but reverse the position of our sectional opponents on the other side of the House. I know it is the tendency of power to encroach ; but let us look to the security which rests upon principle rather than upon num- bers. The citadel of our defence is principle sustained by reason, truth, honor, and justice. Let us, therefore, do justice, though the heavens fall. " Let us not do an indirect wrong for fear that the recipient from our hands of what is properly due will turn upon us and injure us. States- men in the line of duty should never consult their fears. Where duty leads, there we may never fear to tread. In the political world great events and changes are rapidly crowding upon us. To these we should not be insensible. As wise inen, we should not attempt to ignore them. We need not close our eyes, and suppose the sun will cease to shine because we see not the light. Let us rather, with eyes and minds wide awake, look around us and see where we are, whence we have come, and where we shall soon be, borne along by the rapid, swift, and irresist- ible car of time. This immense territory to the west has to be peopled. It is now peopling. New States are fast growing up, and others, not yet in embryo, will soon spring ipto existence. Progress and development mark every thing in nature, human societies, as well as every thing else. Nothing in the physical world is still ; life and motion are in every thing ; so in the mental, moral, and political. The earth is never still. The great central orb is ever moving. Progress is the universal law governing all things, animate as well as inanimate. Death itself is but the beginning of a new life in a new form. Our Government and institu- 466 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. tions are subject to this all-pervading power. The past wonderfully exemplifies its influence, and gives us some shadows of the future. " This is the sixteenth session that I have been here, and within that brief space of fifteen years we have added six States to the Union, lacking but one of being more than half of the original thirteen. Upward of twelve hundred thousand square miles of territory a much larger area than was possessed by the whole United States at the time of the treaty of peace in 1783 have been added to our domain. At this time the area of our Republic is greater than that of any five of the greatest Powers in Europe, all combined ; greater than that of the Roman Em- pire in the brightest days of her glory ; more extensive than were Alex- ander's dominions when he stood on the Indus and wept that he had no more worlds to conquer. Such is our present position; nor are we yet at the end of our acquisitions. "Our internal movements, within the same time, have not been less active in progress and development than those external. A bare glance at these will suffice. Our tonnage, when I first came to Congress, was but a little over two million; now it is upward of five million, more than double. Our exports of domestic manufactures were only eleven million dollars in round numbers ; now they are upward of thirty million. Our exports of domestic produce, staples, &c. were then under one hundred million dollars ; now they are upward of three hundred million ! The amount of coin in the United States was at that time about one hundred million; now it exceeds three hundred million. The cotton crop then was but fifty-four million ; now it is upward of one hundred and sixty million dollars. We had then not more than five thousand miles of railroad in operation ; we have now not less than twenty-six thousand miles, more than enough to encircle the globe, and at a cost of more than one thou- sand million dollars. At that time Professor Morse was engaged in one of the rooms of this Capitol in experimenting on his unperfected idea of an electric telegraph, and there was as much doubt about his success as there is at present about the Atlantic cable, but now there are more than thirty-five thousand miles in extent of these iron nerves sent forth in every direction through the land, connecting the most distant points, and uniting all together as if under the influence of a common living sensorium. This is but a glance at the surface : to enter within and take the range of other matters, schools, colleges, the arts, and various mechanical and industrial pursuits, which add to the intelligence, wealth, and prosperity of a people and mark their course in the history of nations, would require time ; but in all would be found alike astonishing results. " This progress, sir, is not to be arrested. It will go on. The end is not yet. There are persons now living who will see over a hundred mil- lion human beings within the present boundaries of the United States, to say nothing of future extension, and perhaps double the number of States we now have, should the Union last, For myself, I say to you, my ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 467 Southern colleagues on this floor, that I do not apprehend danger to our constitutional rights from the bare fact of increasing the number of States with institutions dissimilar to ours. The whole governmental fabric of the United States is based and founded upon the idea of dissimilarity in the institutions of the respective members. Principles, not numbers, are our protection. When these fail, we have, like all other people who, knowing their rights, dare maintain them, nothing to rely upon but the justice of our cause, our own right arms and stout hearts. With these f( elings and this basis of action, whenever any State comes and asks ad- niis^ion as Oregon does, I am prepared to extend her the hand of welcome, without looking into her Constitution further than to see that it is repub- lican in form, upon our well-ki^pwn American models. "When aggression comes, if come it ever shall, then the end draweth nigh. Then, if in my day, I shall be for resistance, open, bold, and defi- ant. I know of no allegiance superior to that due the hearthstones of the homestead. This I say to all. I lay no claim to any sentiment of nation- ality not founded upon the patriotism of a true heart, and I know of no such patriotism that does not centre at home. Like the enlarging circle upon the surface of smooth waters, however, this can and will, if unob- structed, extend to the utmost limits of a common country. Such is my nationality, such my sectionalism, such my patriotism. Our fathers of the South joined your fathers of the North in resistance to a common aggression from their fatherland ; and if they were justified in rising to right a wrong inflicted by a parent country, how much more ought we, should the necessity ever come, to stand justified before an enlightened world in righting a wrong from even those we call brothers ! That neces- sity, I trust, will never come. ' What is to be our future I do not know. I have no taste for indulg- ing in speculations about it. I would not, if I could, raise the veil that wisely conceals it from us. ' Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof,' is a good precept in every thing pertaining to human action. The evil I would not anticipate ; I would rather strive to prevent its coming ; and one way, in my judgment, to prevent it is, while here, in all things to do what is right and proper to be done under the Constitution of the United States, nothing more and nothing less. Our safety, as well as the pros- perity of all parts of the country, so long as this Government lasts, lies mainly in a strict conformity to the laws of its existence. Growth is one of these. The admission of new States is one of the objects expressly provided for. How are they to come in ? With just such Constitutions as the people in each may please to make for themselves, so they are republican in form. This is the ground the South has ever stood upon. Let us not abandon it now. It is founded upon a principle planted in the compact of Union itself, and more essential to us than all others besides ; that is, the equality of the States and the reserved rights of the people of the respective States. By our system, each State, however great the 468 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. number, has the absolute right to regulate all its internal affairs as she pleases, subject only to her obligations under the Constitution of the United States. With this limitation, the people of Massachusetts have the perfect right to do as they please upon all matters relating to their internal policy ; the people of Ohio have the right to do the same ; the people of Georgia the same ; of California the same ; and so with all the rest. " Such is the machinery of our theory of self-government by the people. This is the great novelty of our peculiar system, involving a principle unknown to the ancients, an idea never dreamed of by Aristotle or Plato. The union of several distinct, independent communities upon this basis is a new principle in human Governments. It is now a problem in expe- riment for the people of the nineteenth century upon this continent to solve. As I behold its workings in the past and at the present, while I am not sanguine, yet I am hopeful of its successful solution. The most joyous feeling of my heart is the earnest hope that it will, for the future, move on as peacefully, prosperously, and brilliantly as it has in the past. If so, then we shall exhibit a moral and political spectacle to the world something like the prophetic vision of Ezekiel, when he saw a number of distinct beings or living creatures, each with a separate and distinct organism, having the functions of life within itself, all of one external likeness, and all, at the same time, mysteriously connected, with one common animating spirit pervading the whole, so that, when the com- mon spirit moved, they all moved, their appearance and their work being, as it were, a wheel in the middle of a wheel ; and whithersoever the common spirit went, thither the others went, all going together ; and when they went he heard the noise of their motion like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty. Should our experiment succeed, such, will be our exhibition, a machinery of government so intricate, so complicated, with so many separate and distinct parts, so many independ- ent States, each perfect in the attributes and functions of sovereignty within its own jurisdiction, all, nevertheless, united under the control of a common directing power for external objects and purposes, may, natural enough, seem novel, strange, and inexplicable to the philosophers and crowned heads of the world. "It is for us, and those who shall come after us, to determine whether this grand experimental problem shall be worked out ; not by quarrel- ling among ourselves ; not by doing injustice to any ; not by keeping out any particular class of States ; but by each State remaining a separate and distinct political organism within itself, all bound together for general objects, under a common Federal head ; as it were, a wheel within a wheel. Then the number may be multiplied without limit; and then, indeed, may the nations of the earth look on in wonder at our career ; and when they hear the noise of the wheels of our progress in achievement, in development, in expansion, in glory, and renown, it may ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 469 well appear to them not unlike the noise of great waters, the very voice of the Almighty Vox populi! Vox Dei! [Great applause in the galleries and on the floor.]"* Previous to the last session of Congress, it was announced that Mr. Stephens would retire at its close. It was ardently hoped that the rumor was groundless, as much by the party he was opposed to as by that which he had elevated by his wisdom, energy, and eloquence. A complimentary dinner was tendered him in "Washington by the prominent men of all parties, including Senators and members, an unusual manifestation of personal regard. This he declined, but yielded to a like invitation of his immediate constituents. This was given in the city of Augusta, in his district, without distinction of party, on the 2d of July last. He addressed the assemblage in a speech reviewing public events since his entrance into public life, and retired with feeling but manly words of hope. He left the country in a better condition than he found it upon entering its councils. Whatever dangers may have threatened the Republic, her material resources, intel- lectual advancement, social condition, or political status had suf- fered no detriment. On the contrary, he beheld in her progress a career unprecedented. He dwelt on the agitations growing out of the Slavery question, in conformity with his views as already set forth, and, showing the good which emanates from the public discussion of principles, desired his friends to weigh not too lightly the most violent discussions by public men, even upon the most abstract principles. They underlie all popular rights, and con- stitute the essence of sovereignty and independence. The war of the Revolution was fought more in vindication of abstract principles than for the redress of any practical grievances. It was the right to impose taxes without representation, more than the amount imposed, that was complained of. " The very bill," said Mr. Stephens, " that led to resistance reduced the tax, but asserted in its preamble the unlimited and unconditional right to tax. The amount involved in the Dred Scott case was small, but on the principle probably depended the destiny of the country." In the acquisition of Cuba Mr. Stephens beheld a most inaport- * See "Cong. Globe," Appendix, 2d Sess. 35th Congress, Feb. 12, 1859. 40 470 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. ant measure, but he would not give Spain more than a million or two for it. The true policy would be to repeal all laws making it penal for Americans to go and help the Cubans to independence. Whatever may be our expansion, he saw no danger to the South, if the Territorial policy now settled should be adhered to, as by it the South could colonize and expand too with her institutions, to the full extent of her capacity and population ; but he could not expect to see many new slave States unless they had an in- crease of African stock. Boundaries do not make States. People make them, and it requires people of the African race to make slave States. He questioned whether the South could furnish the requisite number to secure more than the four States to come out of Texas. We could not get more without a foreign supply. If but few more slave States come into the Union, it will not neces- sarily be in consequence of Abolitionism or Wilmot-Provisoism, but for want of negroes. " It is useless," said Mr. Stephens, " to wage war on those who may withhold Congressional legislation to protect slave-property in the Territories, or to quarrel among our- selves and accuse each other of unsoundness on that question, unless we get more Africans to send there to be protected. I give you no opinion upon the subject except this : that, without an increase of African slaves from abroad, you may not expect or look for many more slave States." Mr. Stephens did not agree with those who assailed a " higher law." He believed in it, and held that in the law of the Crea- tor, as manifested in His works and His revelations, the cause of the South eminently rested. In an eloquent passage he showed why he recognised to the fullest extent the doctrine that all human laws and constitutions must be founded upon the divine law. He would not swear to support any constitution inconsist- ent with this higher law. He showed the gradation of every thing in nature, and condemned, as the wickedest of all follies and the absurdest of all crusades, those which attempt to make things equal which God in his wisdom has made unequal. Slavery or subordination was the normal condition of the negro. He did not hold to the doctrine which teaches that that Govern- ment is best which secures the greatest amount of happiness to the greatest number. One hundred men have no right to enjoy happiness at the expense of ninety-nine or a less number. That ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 471 is best which secures the most happiness to all ; and if our sys- tem is not the best, or cannot be made the best, for both master and slave, it ought to be abandoned. While Southern security was, in his eyes, paramount to the safety of the Union, he ex- pressed himself strongly in favor of the latter, and believed that it would be preserved as long as intelligence, virtue, integrity, and patriotism ruled the National Councils. In conclusion, Mr. Stephens said he retired from no feelings of discontent, but because, the questions having been settled with which he had been connected, he desired to follow some more agreeable pursuits. There was no office under heaven he wished to hold ; and, in quitting public life, he hoped and believed no crisis would occur to require his active participation in public affairs again. With a deep regret if he had ever, in the heat of party excitement, inadvertently wounded the feelings of an oppo- nent, he invoked undisturbed peace and prosperity on our com- mon country. In that speech one of the best and wisest men of the country took his leave of the public stage. Mr. Stephens is proverbially kind, but of his many good acts none is more deserving of mention than his liberal assistance to boys and young men. Having received aid in procuring his own education, he appreciates its value. He has aided, as he was aided, upward of thirty, and has for several years kept annually at least three at college. He generally selects the orphan and the destitute, those who have a desire for knowledge without the means of obtaining it. I commenced this brief sketch with an allusion of Thorpe's to Stephens as a celebrity in Washington, and I may not inaptly close it with a rapid and comprehensive picture made by John Mitchel at that home to which the statesman has been so deeply attached from childhood and to which he has retired in his efful- gent maturity : "At Crawford ville," writes Mitchel, " a village on one of the piney ridges of Georgia, in an unpretending and somewhat desolate-looking house, (desolate-looking it may well be, for no fair and kindly house- mother ever made it shine and smile,) dwells one of the choicest and rarest spirits of our hemisphere. Youthful and almost boyish-looking, yet stricken by mortal malady, one who has made a covenant with death,' yet whose veins are full of the most genial life, with the cold 472 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. hand clutching at his vitals, yet with a laugh clear and ringing as the marriage-bell ; his thin face is of deathly hue, yet the dark eyes are blazing lamps. If you are his friend, he is gentle and affectionate as a girl; if his enemy, he will have great pleasure in standing opposite to you at any distance that may be arranged, in which case you had better look sharp, for he is cool as an oyster. A student and true philosopher, a laborious and conscientious legislator, a powerful lawyer, and a zealous cultivator of grapes, (Catawba and Scuppernong,) for he has faith in the virtues of wine, a generous friend and patron of humble merit, for the which many prayers and blessings arise every evening on his behalf, a noble imaginative orator, yet not of the Charles Phillips school of ' Irish oratory' by any means, his taste being too highly educated for that spe- cies of rigmarole, such is Alexander II. Stephens." HENRY A. WISE. 47o HENRY A. WISE, OF VIRGINIA. WITHOUT doubt, one of the most remarkable and brilliant men of the day is he whose name stands at the head of this sketch. A clear thinker, a forcible debater, and a man ready for every occasion, few have attracted so much public attention, and none have deserved his great and exciting successes better. Henry Alexander Wise, the son of John Wise and his wife Sarah Corbin Cropper, was born on the 3d of December, 1806, at Accomac Court-House, called Drummondtown. On both the paternal and maternal side he is descended from military people of energy and great decision of character. His father was the son of Colonel John Wise, a commissioned colonel of the King of England, and one of the earliest emigrants to the Eastern Shore of Virginia; and his mother was the daughter of General John Cropper, who, commissioned as captain in February, 1776, while yet but nineteen years old, fought under Washington at Germantown, Princeton, Monmouth, Trenton, Chadd's Ford, and Brandy wine, won the esteem of La Fayette, and, after further service in the South,: chiefly as county lieutenant of Accomac County, died a brigadier-general in January, 1821, aged sixty- five years. At the period of the birth of Henry A., his father, who was a lawyer by profession and had been distinguished as Speaker of the House of Delegates previous to 1800, was clerk of the courts of Accomac. He died in 1812, and was followed by his widow in the succeeding year. Thus the subject of this sketch was orphaned at the age of seven years. He was taken to Bowman's Folly, the old family seat of Sir Edmund Bowman, an ancestor of his mother's, and, after some further changes, was placed under the care of two paternal aunts at Clifton, on the Chescon- essex Creek, where he remained two years, and learned the alpha- 474 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. bet and the Lord's Prayer. Margaret Academy next had the honor of his presence, where he learned as much mischief and as little Greek and Latin as were needed to sustain the character of that institution; and so it turned out that when in 1$22 young Wise was sent to Washington College, Pennsylvania, it was with much difficulty that he entered the sophomore class. The college was then under the Presidency of Dr. Andrew Wylie, a North-of-Ireland Presbyterian, whose reputation comes to our day as that of a gentleman, philosopher, linguist, and metaphysi- cian, as also that of " a cavalier who loved virtue for virtue's sake, truth for truth's sake, and his fellow-creatures for their own sake," and cultivated in his pupils the additional accom- plishments of "gallantry and high game." This suited young Wise exactly; and his progress in the polite arts, as well as in "high game," was of a most satisfac- tory nature. He greatly distinguished himself in the debates of the Union Literary Society, and, as its champion, carried off the victory twice from a rival society, and on a third trial brought the judges to a tie. He graduated in 1825, before he was nine- teen, dividing the first honor with a Maryland youth named Mitchell. Mr. Wise commenced practice as an advocate before he left college, having volunteered to defend W. II. McGuffey, who was suspended for thrashing a fellow-student. Wise justi- fied his course, and narrowly escaped sharing the penalty inflicted on his client. How now stand these gentlemen of the same alma mater? asks Dr. Hambleton, and answers, "One [McG.] adorns the chair of Moral Philosophy in the greatest, best-regu- lated, best-conducted, and most republican university in the land, and the other presides over the Commonwealth of Virginia."* Mr. Wise left college in 1825, and returned home by way of Canada and New York. He studied law in the school of Henry St. George Tucker, at Winchester, with whom he remained until the fall of 1828, when he went home and cast his maiden vote for Andrew Jackson. Having marriedf in October of that year, * "Virginia Politics in 1855," Ac., by James P. Hambleton, M.D. | Mr. Wise was married to Ann Eliza, daughter of R,ev. Dr. 0. Jennings, of Washington College, on the 8th of October, 1828. She died in June, 1837. He was married a second time, in November, 1840, to Sarah, third daughter of Hon. John Sergeant, of P-hiladelphin. She died in 1850. He was married a HENRY A. WISE. 475 in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, he settled there, formed a law-partnership, and achieved a good practice, but, yearning for his native State, returned to Accomac in the fall of 1830, and in the following spring commenced a very successful professional career, to which he soon added a political one of a very remark- able and active character, and which has grown in vitality and importance down to the moment at which these lines are written* Although the parents and relatives of Mr. Wise were Federal- ists, he early declared himself in favor of State rights, and has continued one of the most vigorous exponents of that doctrine. He represented the York District in 1832 as delegate to the Baltimore National Democratic Convention, and supported General Jackson for the first office, but refused to acquiesce in the nomination of Van Buren for Vice-President. During the Nullification furore in 1832-33, Mr. Wise espoused the doctrine of the resolutions of 1798-99, as reported by Madison, "that each State for itself is the judge of the infraction, and of the mode and manner of redress." He was, therefore, opposed on the one hand to the Proclamation and Force Bill, and on the other to the remedies of South Carolina, and set forth his views in an address to the York District, which Mr. Ritchie at the time characterized as "a masterly refutation of many of the errors of the day, the doctrines of consolidation as well as of Nullification." Mr. Wise then, as now, was equal to any emer- gency, and very soon brought his "high-game" proclivities into the political arena, of which Ritchie thus gives us an early illus- tration when he says, " Mr. Wise has been bitterly assailed by the Nullifiers; but he is fully able to defend himself. He asks no quarter from them, and he will give none." Mr. W T ise in those days supported Jackson to save the Union, while he con- demned his course, thinking that a milder one was more suitable to the crisis. In 1833, the Jackson party of the Eastern Shore presented Mr. Wise as a candidate for Congress against Hon. Richard Coke, of Williamsburg, who had represented the York District but became a Nullifier on the appearance of the Procla- mation. The contest was severe and acrimonious, but resulted in third time to Mary Elizabeth Lyons, sister of a distinguished lawyer of Rich- raond, Virginia, in November, 1853. 476 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. . the election of Wise by four hundred majority, and a duel with his antagonist, the latter being the challenging party. In the " affair of honor/' Mr. Coke's right arm was fractured. Mr. Wise was among the seventeen Democrats of the House who seceded from Jackson on the removal of the deposits. Hambleton gives a strange anecdote of this period. In Wise's speech on the removal of the deposits he quoted a remark of John Randolph's about the "rara avis/' the "black swan/' and alluded to the fact that his death had not been announced in the House, saying it was no fault of his. This called out, a few days afterward, Randolph's successor, Judge Bouldin, who took the floor and commenced giving the reasons thus : " I will tell my colleague the reason why" Here his head went back, the veins in his temples became corded, his face for a moment was dis- torted, and he fell a dead man. What is strange about this whole affair is, that the only allusion to the death of Mr. Ran- dolph ever made in the House of Representatives prefaced the death of him who filled his seat.* Mr. Wise was re-elected in 1835, and again in 1837, as the advocate of the principles of Hugh Lawson White and John Tyler, who had been run respect- ively for the offices of President and Vice-President in opposition to Van Buren and Johnson, "That is, opposed to the Pet Bank system, Benton's Sub-Treasury, and the reference of Abolition petitions to special or any committee, and the fearless advocate for the annexation of Texas, a Tariff for revenue only, &c." The famous Graves and Cilley duel took place in 1837. Mr. Wise was the second of the former, and Hon. George W. Jones, of Iowa, the second of the latter. It grew out of an attack by Mr. Cilley on James Watson Webb, of the " Courier and Enquirer." Graves first acted as the friend of Webb, when Cilley refused to be accountable for words spoken in debate. A question of vera- city having subsequently arisen, Graves became a principal, and. acted by the advice of Henry Clay. Mr. Wise was opposed to the duel, and desired to delay it, and, if possible, settle the affair by negotiation. He declined several times to bear the challenge to Mr. Cilley; and, on the last occasion of his doing so, "Mr. Graves appealed to Messrs. Clay and Menefee to bear witness that on one * Hambleton, p. 20. HENRY A. WISE. 477 occasion, in the absence of Mr. Wise from the House of Repre- sentatives, he had, without asking the right or the wrong of Mr. Wise's controversy, taken up his personal quarrel, and was ready to fight for him, that he had more confidence in him than any one else as his friend on the ground ; and that if he (Wise) suffered him to go upon the field without guarding his life and his honor, and he was brought back a corpse, he desired his wife, his children, and his friends to know that he (Wise) had failed to stand by him after he knew he was determined to fight." Mr. Wise could not withstand this appeal. He carried the challenge to Mr. Cil- ley, copied by Mr. Graves from Mr. Clay's manuscript. Mr. Wise had, however, resolved to prevent, if possible, the hostile meeting. After nightfall, Mr. George W. Jones brought an acceptance, and the terms proposed, eighty yards, with rifles. Mr. Wise demurred. Mr. Clay instantly exclaimed, "No Ken- tuckian can back out from a rifle !'"' Mr. Wise's object still being that of delay, he met Mr. Jones, the next morning, and said he must have time to go to Philadelphia for a rifle, as he did not know where else to get one that was reliable. Mr. Jones replied, "Certainly, sir, there must be a gun which can be relied on in the whole District of Columbia!" At this answer, Mr. Wise was somewhat provoked, and replied, "If you know of one, sir, I would be glad if you would furnish me with it." Thereupon, the next morning, a rifle, powder-flask, bullet-moulds, &c. were found upon Mr. Wise's table, with a polite note tender- ing the rifle, &c. "to Mr. Graves." Graves was a very bad and Cilley a crack shot; yet at the third fire the latter was shot, and died in a few moments. His death led to great public excitement; and a committee of investigation was ordered by the House. The chief onus of the affair was sought to be placed on Wise; and even those with whom he had acted from personal motives allowed this opinion to prevail in order to shield them- selves. Mr. James Watson Webb, in 1842, alleged, in the "Courier and Enquirer," that Mr. Wise had instigated the duel. Such a charge was totally unfounded, unjust, and even cowardly, ema- nating as it did from Mr. Webb, who was directly connected with the affair. Soon after this slanderous and malicious allegation had appeared in the " Courier and Enquirer," Mr. Wise pub- 478 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. lished the facts of the case in the "Madisonian." Mr. Clay, finding that an explanation might injure his prospects for the Presidency in 1844 or at some future time, wrote to Mr. Graves, and persuaded him to say that he (Clay) had no part whatsoever in the "ad vice, counsel, or preparation of the duel. Mr. Clay published that letter in the " National Intelligencer" as true. Immediately Mr. Wise addressed to him categorical questions, which he placed in the hands of Dr. Linn, of Missouri. Mr. Clay replied, admitting his whole part in the affair, and generally justified Mr. Wise as well as himself. Fof his conduct in this affair Mr. Wise never could forgive Clay, although he acted as his negotiator for the support of Judge White in 1839. The above account is condensed from Hambleton's compilation of " Virginia Politics." Mr. Wise's influence was paramount in placing Mr. Tyler on the Harrison ticket for the Vice-Presidency, which accounts for his having been the mainstay and bulwark of his Ad- ministration. Mr. Wise's course was prompted by the most strictly Southern-Rights conception of the Constitution and by his knowledge of the antecedents of Mr. Tyler, who had been previously nominated on the States-Rights platform with Judge White. It is held by his admirers that Wise and the Democrats who acted with him, by placing, after great exer- tions, Mr. Tyler in nomination, saved Texas and the Union, and placed the country and the Democratic party in an attitude that insured their brilliant success under the banner of Polk and Dallas in 1844. Meeting Mr. Clay and Thomas W. Grimier in the spring of 1841, Mr. Wise, alluding to the recent election, said, "Well, sir, we have fought a good fight in Virginia, si/; and, although we did not exactly win the victory, we came off with the honors of war." To which Clay replied, "I congratu- late myself, sir, that Virginia has gone for the enemy." " Why," said Wise, " I thought you once said you would prefer defeat with your mother State for you, to victory with her voice against you." "Sir," rejoined the great orator, "we will no longer be embarrassed by her peculiar opinions." Clay's interpretation of the matter is regarded as a backing out of the pledges which he made to White through Mr. Wise, when he sought the adherence of the States-Rights Democrats to forward his views for the HENRY A. WISE. 479 Presidency. After the success of Harrison, the first move of the victors under Clay was to call an extra session, so that they could put forward their favorite measures on the incoming of their President. Wise not only opposed the extra session, but the whole scheme of action mapped out by the Whigs. The death of Harrison disconcerted their plans. Wise immediately sought Tyler, and advised him by all means to veto the United States Bank Bill and to further the speedy annexation of Texas; and in both cases his advice was taken. In 1842, the United States Senate rejected Mr. Wise's name, which was sent in as Minister to France. In the spring of 1843, he was re-elected to Congress; but, his health giving way, he was nominated for the Rio Janeiro mission. He was near being defeated by the same influence that had rejected him before; but, previous to the decision, Senator Archer, of Vir- ginia, sought Mr. Wise, and asked him why he had been so bitter in his late canvass against Mr. Clay. Wise, in reply, in- quired "if the French mission, the Brazilian mission, and all the rest of the missions belonged to Mr. Clay. Was subserviency to him a necessary qualification for office ? Were personal differ- ences, and not public considerations, to govern in selecting foreign ministers ?' ; In conclusion, he told Mr. Archer to go back to his friends, and tell them " that, if they would act like men worthy to be called friends of their idol, they would resent his insults, and would do so in their proper persons, and not by abusing their public offices." Senator Archer made no report in caucus, save a demand that Wise be sent to Rio Janeiro, which was done. His course in Brazil, whither he went in May, 1844, was highly approved by the Tyler and Polk Administrations. He returned in October, 1847, and participated in the Presidential contest of the succeeding year. In 1850, he was elected to the State Convention which revised the Constitution. At the close of the summer of 1854, attention began to be directed to the Gubernatorial election that was to take place in the ensuing year. Various parties were spoken of; and early in September a meeting was held in Norfolk County, and a com- mittee appointed to correspond with the most prominent gentle- men, in order to obtain their opinions regarding the "Know- Nothings." This new party, according to the most reliable 480 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. information, was first organized in the town of Charlottesville, in July, 1854, and soon numbered several councils scattered all over the State. A State Council was authorized by the Grand Council of Thirteen of the State of New York to grant charters for the esta- blishment of councils in Virginia; and the consequence was "that in nearly every secluded grove, retired school-house, and con- cealed recess could be found a band of men veiled in secrecy, and, under cover of darkness, administering^Jesuitical oaths and teaching cabalistic signs to the thoughtless, indiscreet, and un- suspecting novitiates. " The committee of correspondence ad- dressed Lieutenant- Governor S. F. Leake, Hon. John Letcher, James A. Seddon, Henry A. Wise, and ex-Governor William Smith, all of whom save the latter promptly replied. Wise's letter was considered a masterly production, full of the true spirit of a Southern republican and statesman^ Starting out with the proposition that the present state of affairs in this country was not such as to justify the formation of any secret political society, he proved it by a pithy and powerful argument, which was the touchstone of the great campaign with which his name will be forever identified. It embraced most of the views which he enlarged upon so brilliantly and effectively in the contest, and furnished unanswerable arguments to the constitutionalists all over the country. He showed that The laws of the United States Federal and State laws declare and defend the liberties of the people ; and the will of the people was the source of all constitutions and laws. The mind, as the person, was free, and the spirit of the laws the body-guard and home-guard of the people. Would any man pro- pagate truth ? Truth is free to combat error. Would he propa- gate error ? Error itself may stalk abroad provided truth is free to follow, however slowly, with her torches to light up the wreck. What necessity, then, was there for secrecy ? If it be good, why not make it known ? Here was a great primary organization, all of which that was known was, its proscription of persons of foreign birth and Catholic faith, and of those who did not pro- scribe them. The natives were to the foreign-born in the United States in the ratio of eight to one. In Virginia, the natives were to foreign-born citizens as thirty-eight to one. The number HENRY A. WISE. 481 * of churches in the United States was 38,061; of Catholic churches, 1221: more than thirty-one to one were Protestant. In Virginia the churches numbered 2,383 ; Catholic churches, 17 : more than one hundred and forty to one. Other figures were used to exhibit the immense minority in which the foreign and Catholic citizens were. Wise asked, What had such a ma- jority to fear? Where was the necessity for this master majority to resort to secret organization ? It confessed to something which dared not meet the scrutiny of knowledge. He did not think that any secret, new-born patriotism was needed to protect us from foreign influence. When we were as weak as three mil- lions, we relied largely on foreigners by birth to defend us and aid us in securing independence. Now that we were twenty-two millions strong, how is it that we have become so weak in our fears as to apprehend we were to be deprived of our liberties by foreigners ? As for the Pope, he would as soon think of dread- ing him as the ghost of Gruy Fawkes. There was not only no necessity for this secret political organ- ization, but it was against the spirit of our laws and the facts of our history. Our laws sprung from the necessity of the condi- tion of the early settlers. The very experience of despotism they had once tasted made them hate tyrants, either elective or hereditary. They had to fight Indians from Philip, on Massa- chusetts Bay, to Powhatan, on the River of Swans. These foreigners did their task like men. They grew and thrived until they were rich enough to be taxed. They were then told that taxation was no tyranny. But these foreigners gave the world a new truth, that taxation without representation was tyranny. The attempt to force it made them resolve that they would give millions for defence, but not a cent for tribute. That resolve drove them foreigners, Protestants, Catholics, and all to the alternative of war. They united, with dependence on G-od alone, and issued a Declaration of Independence of all earth; and one of their first complaints (against the King of England) was that "he has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose, obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners." They pledged themselves to tolerance in religion and to " mutuality" in political freedom. Here was proof enough that 41 482 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. foreigners and Catholics both entered as material elements into our Americanism. " Know-Nothingism" was against Americanism itself; for one of the best fruits of the Revolution was to esta- blish, for the first time in the world, the human right of expa- triation. Prior to our separate existence as a nation of the earth, the despotisms of the Old World had made a law unto themselves, whereby they could hold forever in chains those of mankind who were so unfortunate as to be born their subjects. Before 1770, Virginia and all the Colonies encouraged immigration. It was a necessity as well as a policy of the whole country. George III. was compelled to renounce our allegiance to him, though we were born his subjects. Yet, when we had a separate existence, we were called on to recognise the odious maxim "once a citizen, always a citizen;" but, spurning the dogma and the tyrants who boasted the power to enforce it, the fourth power which the Con- vention of 1787, that formed our blessed Constitution, enumerated, was that " The Congress shall have power l to establish a uni- form rule of naturalization/" In 1812, we declared the last war for "Free-Trade and Sailors' Rights," that is, for the right of naturalized citizen-sailors to sail on the high seas and trade abroad free from search and seizure. We had reciprocally undertaken to protect them, in consideration of their oaths of allegiance to the United States. How protect them ? By enabling them to fulfil their obligations of allegiance and fidelity, by making them free to fight for our flag, and free in every sense, just as if they had been born in our country. Fight for us they did; naturalized and those not naturalized were of our crews. They fought in every sea for the flag which threw protection over them, from the first gun of the Constitution frigate to the last gun of the boats on Lake Pont- chartrain. That war sealed in blood the American principle, the right of expatriation, the right and duty of naturalization, the right to fly from tyranny to the flag of freedom, and the reciprocal duties of allegiance and protection. This is but a very meagre outline, indeed, of the grounds on which Henry A. Wise commenced his high-spirited and furious war "for, and not against, the imperishable American truths" he enunciated. This able letter was the tocsin of war, and the death-knell of the "secret political organization." After the HENRY A. WISE. 483 claims of the leading candidates were discussed in the papers, a convention was held at Staunton, November 30, which resulted in the nomination December 2 of Mr. Wise for Governor. The "Know-Nothings" professed satisfaction at this result, as Mr. Wise, though well known, was little understood previously. Among the Democracy, it was argued that he voted for the Whigs in 1840, and opposed Jackson in Congress. His inde- pendence was regarded as dangerous ; and Hambleton who ought to know says that " no candidate ever went before the people under more discouraging circumstances." He was extensively misrepresented and slandered; but his natural fervor and vigor, exalted to an almost superhuman frenzy by the truthful splendor of the principles he held, made him invincible. Virginia at- tracted the general attention of all the States ; and before the canvass was completed the eyes of all were resting on it with the most fervent and excited anxiety. Wise had created this anxiety, and he struggled like one who felt he could satisfy the interest he had conjured up. It was one of the most brilliant political campaigns in this or any other country. The Democracy had to meet a formidable and insidious enemy, flushed with victory. Nothing but the clarion tones and fearless energy of Wise could have met them. Had any other man been at the lead in that stormy fight, the proud Old Dominion would have been hurled into abysmal disgrace and dishonor. In this connection, the following important letter will be found of lasting interest and worthy of permanent record. "RICHMOND, VA., April 19, 1855. "Dear Sir : The letter which you have addressed to me contains three questions, to which you ask an answer, with a view to publication. "First Question: 'Whether the Catholics in Virginia do acknowledge any temporal allegiance to the Pope.' "To this I answer, that unless there be in Virginia some Italians who owe allegiance to the Pope as a temporal prince, because they were bora in his States and are not naturalized citizens of this country, there are no Catholics in Virginia who owe or acknowledge any temporal allegiance to the Pope. "Second Question : ' Whether, if this country could be and was assailed and invaded by an army of the Pope, (if he had one,) or by any other Catholic Power, the Catholic citizens of this country, no matter where born, would not be as much bound to defend the flag of America, her rights and liberty, as any native-born citizen would be.' 484 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. "Answer: To me, the hypothesis of an invasion of our country by the Pope seems an absurdity ; but, should he come with armies to establish temporal dominion here, or should any other Catholic Power make such an attempt, it is my conviction that all Catholic citizens, no matter where born, who enjoy the benefits and franchises of the Constitution, would be conscientiously bound, like native-born citizens, to defend the flag, rights, and liberties of the Republic and repel such invasion. " Third Question: 'Whether the performance of that duty would con- flict with any oath, or vow, or other obligation, of the Catholic.' "Answer: Catholics reared in the Church as such have not the custom of taking any oaths or vows, except the baptismal vows, ' to renounce the Devil, his works and pomps.' Persons converted to the faith, or those receiving degrees in theology, may be required to take the oath contained in the creed of Pius IV., of obedience to the Pope, which, as far as I know, has always been understood and interpreted to signify a spiritual obedience to him as head of the Church, and not obedience to him as a temporal prince. Bishops, on their consecration, also take an oath, which in our country is different from the old form used in Europe. But none of these vows, oaths, and no other obligation of which I am aware, con- flicts with the duty of a citizen of the United States to defend the flag and the liberties of his country. "In conclusion, allow me to state that, as we have no article of faith teaching that the Pope, of divine right, enjoys temporal power as head of the Church, whatever some theologians or writers may have said on this point must, like my answers to your inquiries, be considered as opinions for which the writers themselves on)y can be held responsible. " Yours, very truly, &c., " J. M'GiLL, Bishop of Richmond. "To JAMES LYONS, Esq." ^ After publishing a list of appointments, Mr. Wise opened the canvass at Ashland Hall, Norfolk City, on the 5th of January, 1855. The journals of that city picture the scene as interesting. His address was forcible, well arranged, and argumentative, abounding in the most bitter sarcasm and the most soothing appeals. Its effect can be best illustrated, in the words of one of these papers at the time, " by the earnest attention with which it was heard, and tjie frequent bursts of applause that followed his telling, sabre-like flashes of eloquence."* The "Know- Nothing" and Whig press retorted on him by reviewing his antecedents. The great charge against him was inconsistency, that he had been an active Whig leader, and that he now pro- I * " Norfolk Argus" und "News" of the time. HENRY A. WISE. 485 claimed he had no recantations to make. Fusion with " Know- Nothingism" was recommended to the Whigs, and Whig orators and writers declared the new organization to be not a Whig trick, but " a great party of reform, embracing alike Whigs and Demo- crats." In a very bold speech at Alexandria, on the 3d of February, 1855, Mr. Wise flung back the aspersions, and left 'not a doubt as to the position in which he stood. He announced himself as the standard-bearer of the Democracy of Virginia, twice endorsed as Elector, in 1848 and 1852, and then nomi- nated for the Governorship. "If," said he, " any. Democrat in this assembly recollects that, in times past, I did not always regard regularly-organized nominations, and chooses to vote against me on that account, let him do so, provided he will stand where I have ever stood, upon principle, acting bona fide as an earnest, honest man ; let him then, I say, vote against me. When he does it, let him remember that he then does the very act for which he is condemning me : he will be voting against the regular nominee. If there be any Whig in this assembly who will vote against me because I am not what he calls consistent, and because I have chosen to use party as a servant and not as a master, I would not ask him for his vote. But I would ask him not to be like me, whom he chooses to deem inconsistent. [Applause.] I ask him, when he comes to the polls, to be true and clear in act and conscience, not carrying before him a dark lantern of a secret association, and gripping a Democrat with one hand and a Whig with the other." He repudiated the idea of addressing himself to a party : he spoke of principles, and addressed the people; and, mappirg out the necessities of the State, he created quite a sensation by saying, " If I be elected Governor of Virginia, then, I tell you bluntly and briefly, if it be necessary to tax you to defend her honor, I shall command taxation, though it make us groan." Next to public credit he held the public works ; and those in Virginia were started without any idea of their relative importance to each other. The canals and railroads, he said, were like " ditches dug in the middle of a plantation, without outlet at either end." " You appropriate for them to-day, neglect them to-morrow, and leave the appropriation of the day after to-morrow to repair decay." He wanted Virginia to reach out her arms to the great West, " to tap the Ohio," and join the Big Bend with the rivers of the East. While her public works were incomplete, Virginia would have no commerce. With great power and resources, she 41* 486 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. had been dwarfed in the Union. She had been called the " Old Dominion :" he implored his hearers to do something for her pro- gress, and to justify calling her the New Dominion. After dwelling on the wants and prospects of Virginia, he reviewed the message of Governor Gardner to the Legislature of Massa- chusetts and the discourse of Rev. J. Freeman Clarke on " the rendition of Anthony Burns/' and elicited the greatest enthu- siasm. The peculiarity of Mr. Wise's oratory its sudden tran- sition from " grave to gay, from lively to severe" was eminently characteristic of this speech, which, in some respects, was one of the speaker's most telling efforts. Deploring the fate of Massa- chusetts, he said, " Massachusetts ! Massachusetts ! the elder sister of Virginia, who in the night of the Revolution gave her password for password, sign for sign, cheer for cheer, in the midst of our gloom ! Massachusetts has thrown aside her Puri- tanism / her Christian religion, her Bible, her Constitution, and has given herself up to Know-Nothingism and Anti-Slavery." (Tremendous cheering.) Rev. Mr. Clarke remarked in his dis- course that Northern enthusiasm and conscience, when fully aroused, " have always been more than a match for Southern or- ganization," upon which Wise exclaimed, "Northern conscience! gods ! (great laughter,) Northerruconscieuce ! Take a shark- skin and let it dry to shagreen ; skin the rhinoceros ; go then and get the silver-steel and grind it; and, when you have ground it, take the hone and whet it till it would split a hair, and with it prick the shagreen or the rhinoceros-skin, and then go and try it on Northern conscience." (Cheers and laughter.) He con- cluded, amidst great applause r by telling the Know-Nothings that he would make no compromise, no parley, no terms, with them. "They shall either crush me or I will crush them in this State;" and he did crush them. It would need a volume of itself to portray the excitement of the Virginia campaign of 1855, and the important share Mr. Wise took in it. He con- cluded his efforts at Leesburg, having been regularly in the field from the 1st of January to the 7th of May. He travelled more than three thousand miles, made fifty speeches, and, much enfeebled and exhausted, retired to Washington and there awaited the result of his brilliant and excessive labors in behalf of justice and the Constitution. The result came and grandly HENRY A. WISE. 487 vindicated his course. He was elected Governor by 10,180 majority over his opponent, Mr. Flournoy. All over the coun- try this victory was hailed by the Democracy with delight, and congratulations public and private, by vote, resolution, and letter poured in upon the great Virginian. In the fall of this year, Mr. Wise scornfully rejected the invi- tation to deliver one of a series of lectures on Slavery in Boston, in this wise : " In short, gentlemen, I will not deliver one of the lectures of the course on Slavery at the Tremont Temple, in Boston, on Thursday evening, January 10, 1858; and there will be no Thursday evening between the middle of December and the middle of March next, or between that and doomsday, which will best accommodate me for that purpose." On the Slavery and Territorial questions Governor Wise is equally emphatic as on the subject of " Americanism." In a letter to the " Dowdell Festival" in Alabama, and in another letter to the National Democratic party of New York, both in the fall of 1855, as well as in several letters and addresses, Governor Wise has given his views. He favored the Kansas- Nebraska Bill. The Missouri Compromise was the first act to violate Washington's injunction not to recognise geographical lines ; it was the first to make a border between the North and South, the first to begin the separation of the States. He was opposed to it, and believed that the Kansas-Nebraska Bill brought us back to the Constitution by restoring us to statu quo ante 1819-20, where Washington and Hancock, Adams and Jefferson, Virginia and Massachusetts, and the old Thirteen, stood. He held that the " fanatics of fusion" who " agreed to disagree" have never abided by the Compromise. They have broken its every letter and spirit. " In the States and Territories and District, in the Indian country, on the trade in transitu between States, Districts, and Territories, on the acquisition of territory, on the organization and admission of States into the Union, on questions of peace and war, ever, everywhere, always, in season and out of season, they have raised the question against slavery, until they have, on various occasions, nearly raised the very demon of civil war and disunion ! They have harbored English emissaries, raised foreign funds, wielded associated influence and capital, wearied Congress with petitions, fatigued the public mind with compromises, filled it with 488 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. reviling and abuse, pensioned press, pulpit, preacher, teacher, run under- ground railroads, spirited away runaways ; have scattered, broadcast, tales of holy horrors ; painted, on the stage, scenes ; written log-cabin novels ; lectured, ranted, rioted, until they have made us a divided peo- ple, until they have cut the continent in two by a line of border feuds, until they have separated our churches, set us apart socially at the watering and other places, and until they have engendered a sectional antagonism more becoming enemies in hostile array than tolerant neigh- bors, much less united brethren, children of one father, children of a common country, the only children the Father of that country ever had, whose farewell is still our warning." When the " Lecompton" agitation came up, Governor Wise, in a letter to John W. Forney and others of Philadelphia, regretted that he was constrained by his convictions to differ with President Buchanan, his friend of twenty years, and for whose election he was as much responsible as any other man in the country. He was opposed to Congressional intervention. " We are told/' said he, " that we are to shut our eyes to the record. What evidence have we, then, that it is a Constitution at all ? We are told that this is not the time to raise the ques- tion, de facto, whether it is the act and deed of the people of Kansas. When would be the time, when was the time, if it be not the time now ?" He did not believe that expediency should be carried so far as to allow Congress to set its will over the will of the people of Kansas and give a minority Constitution to a majority. He was told that the " prompt admission" of Kansas would end the agitation. He did not believe the " Kansas ques- tion" could ever be local again. If Congress endorsed this sche- dule of legerdemain, if the South insisted on it, and the North- ern Democracy were required to consent to the injustice, the precedent would become universal. It would return the chalice to our own lips, he said, when the " Kansas question" again and again would arise in North Texas, New Mexico, Mesilla Valley, and in all our boundless domain. He believed such a course would drive thousands of honest Democrats in the North from us. During the great Illinois campaign of 1858, Governor Wise wrote a most hearty and enthusiastic letter, cheering on the Democracy for Douglas, and would have gone personally into the struggle but for the duties of state and the still more tender duties of family which kept him in Richmond. HENRY A. WISE. 489 In 1859 Governor Wise published an elaborate historical and constitutional treatise on Territorial Government and the admission of new States into the Union. It was drawn foith by a letter from William F. Samford, Esq., of Alabama, requesting the Governor's views. The object of the treatise was to elucidate the truths of history and the construction of the Constitution and laws pertaining to Territories and the admis- sion of States, in view of the fact that the great question of the " settlement" of the Territories and new States of the Union cannot be temporized and localized, as the fashionable phrase is, by the patchwork of mere politicians and partisans. Governor Wise thinks it unphilosophical to attempt it, and that a sound, fixed rule of policy should be adopted and inflexibly adhered to. He shows that intervention for protection is all-pervading, and is one of the most vitally essential attributes of the Federal Union. The Slavery contest is one not to be decided by the laws of man, but by the laws of nature and the providence of God. Nature's music harmonizes all. " The law of frost and the law of the sun are reconciled and kiss each other in the blending of light and of temperature, in the equipoise of expansion and contraction, in the variety of climate and of production, in the supply and sus- tentation of animal and vegetable life and health in every form of its existence." Governor Wise lives north of 36 30', and he is a slaveholder by inheritance and purchase, and, as he says, would gladly own a great many more if he were able. His slaves love him, and, as he knows they would fight for him, he will fight for them. Toward the close of 1857, the Richmond " Enquirer" inter- rogated Governor Wise as to his position touching the election of United States Senator. For many months rumors had been circulated that it was his desire and design to oust Senator Hun- ter and occupy the Senatorial seat himself. Taking the oppor- tunity presented by the " Enquirer," the Governor wrote a letter denying the truth of the rumor, and stating, with the usual frankness of the writer, that he did not want a seat in the Senate, and, if he did, would not have it at Mr. Hunter's expense, hoped that Mr. Hunter did not desire a re-election at his (Wise's) expense, and wished in future to be relieved of the penalty of being considered his rival for the place in question. 490 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. As was to be expected from Governor Wise's war on " Ameri- canism" as opposed to the constitutional rights of foreign-born citizens, he came out in opposition to Secretary Cass's views in the Le Clerc letter. He is opposed to the opening of the slave- trade, and in favor of Congressional protection of slavery in the Territories. Governor Wise has filled a large and important space in the history of his time. Always fearless, clear, and uncompromising, his opinions never fail to attract attention and awaken discussion. While this sketch was being written, the startling news was flashed over the country that a servile insurrection had broken out at Harper's Ferry. Governor Wise was promptly on the ground of the disaster; and the acclaim with which he was received on his return to Richmond showed how satisfied the people were with his intentions for defence had a crisis arisen. The conspiracy and effort at insurrection attempted at Har- per's Ferry constituted one of the most surprising and startling episodes in the history of our country. A fanatical man, stimu- lated to desperation by the teachings and appeals of wild and treasonable enthusiasts, unrestrained by the Constitution and laws of the land, formed a conspiracy to stir up servile insurrec- tion. Renting a farm in the State of Maryland, within a few miles of Harper's Ferry, the conspirators remained for some months apparently engaged in peaceful pursuits, during which time they took every means to conciliate the kind feelings of the people, especially those of Harper's Ferry. They familiarized themselves with the localities, streets, houses, and workshops, so that a seizure might be made at any hour of the night without attracting unusual attention. On the part of the inhabitants the sense of security was perfect and universal. Having cut the telegraphic wires, the conspirators, unmolested and unobserved, entered the village on the night of Sunday, October 16, 1859, seized upon the solitary watchman placed at the arsenal as pro- tection against fire only, and possessed themselves speedily of all the buildings containing arms or suitable for defence. The next movement was to seize the principal men of the place, with whom their residence near there had made them acquainted. These arrests were made singly, and in every instance by several perfectly-armed men, who conveyed their prisoners to the place HENRY A. WISE. 491 of confinement. This process was carried on throughout the night, and extended not only to the village, but to the country around. When morning came, the people of the village gathered to the scene of confusion about the arsenal. The conspirators now com- menced a fire upon them ; and the citizens of the place, getting together such arms as were not in the possession of the plun- derers, immediately returned the fire of the assailants with such effect that in the course of a few hours they were driven from their positions, and all either killed or wounded, with the excep- tion of the leader and half a dozen others of his party, who were driven into an engine-house, whither they fled for security. They carried along with them ten or twelve of the prisoners they had taken the night before, who were to be used as hostages, as the robbers alleged, to prevent the fire of the citizens outside from being directed toward themselves in the house where they had taken shelter. Throughout the whole day on Monday, from twelve o'clock, at which time intelligence of the outbreak reached Washington, the most exaggerated accounts were received of the state of things at Harper's Ferry and the number of persons engaged in it.. Prompt measures, however, were taken, and Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee, of the First Cavalry, was at once summoned to take com- mand of a detachment of marines and two companies of volun- teers from Frederick, Maryland, who had promptly offered their services. The troops reached the scene of action during the night. The next morning, at an early hour, Colonel Lee gave orders to the marines to attack and carry the house where the conspira- tors were strongly barricaded, which was very promptly and gal- lantly done by Major Russell.* The prompt energy with which Governor Wise applied him- self to the emergency, and the force of his appeals exhorting the State to be prepared for any future exigency, attracted the com- * This account is condensed from the Annual Report of the Hon. Secretary of War. Among the citizens killed was F. Beckham, the Mayor of the town. All of the insurgents were either killed or captured, with one or two exceptions. The leader, John Brown, of Kansas notoriety, was hanged on the 2d of Decem- ber, 1859. 492 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. ment and applause of the conservative national men and presses all over the country. His Gubernatorial term expired with the year 1859. By his friends Governor Wise is held up as a " benefactor to the nineteenth century/' and by his enemies is abused in an equal ratio; none, however, failing to give him credit for a chi- valrous, upright, unmistakable openness and decision of action. Let us, in conclusion, hear a political admirer condense his career into a nutshell : " His political history, from its early commencement till now, is marked throughout by an almost unbroken series of brilliant successes. In every sphere of his public life he has been found not efficient only, but more than equal to the most trying emer- gencies or the most difficult, dangerous, and delicate tasks. As Representative in Congress, as foreign Minister, as member of the Reform Convention, as Governor of Virginia, in every thing he has ever attempted, Henry A. Wise has been distin- guished as an extraordinary man." The same writer in a pamphlet from which this paragraph is taken very eloquently advocates the claims and availability of Governor Wise for the Democratic nomination for the Presi- dency in 1860. JOHN E WOOL. JOHN E. WOOL, OF NEW YORK. THIS eminent soldier and citizen, of whom New York is justly proud, was born at Newburgh, and comes of a stock dis- tinguished for gallantry and patriotism. At the breaking out of the Revolution, his grandfather, James Wool, was a farmer, living in Rensselaer County, almost on the frontier. Five of his sons tramped through the battle-fields. Two were made prisoners at the taking of Fort Washington and suffered the horrors of the prison-ship, from the effects of which one died and the other barely survived. Another commanded a company in Lamb's Artillery and went with Montgomery to Quebec, and afterward served with, and was severely wounded under, Washington in New Jersey. Another was with Stark at Bennington ; and the father of the subject of this sketch was with Wayne at Stony Point. They were all dashing soldiers, contributing to the early honor and glory of American arms even as their still more famous relative contributed to the honor and glory attaching to the latest military history of the Republic. General Wool's life is full of singular significance and hearty inspiration to youth. He is essentially a self-made man, his own schoolmaster and his own pupil. But four years old at the death of his father, the child was taken by his grandfather, and, at the age of twelve, with the scanty results of a limited attend- ance at a country school, was placed in a store at Troy. In this position he remained for six years, when he took charge of a stationery store, with the privilege of a doing a little business on his own account." A fire left nothing of his stock or hopes, and he entered the law-office of Mr. John Russell, of Troy, and re- mained there more than a year. About this time, a war between the United States and Great Bri- tain becoming imminent, Congress authorized the raising of twenty- 42 494 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. five thousand men. The blood of Stony Point was aroused, and, leaving his law-books and office, young Wool, under the recom- mendation of Governor Clinton, sought and obtained an appoint- ment in the army as a captain in the Thirteenth United States Infantry. This was in the spring of 1812, just before the decla- ration of war. Recruiting his company, he joined the regiment at Greenbush, and continued there until September, when the regiment was ordered to the Niagara frontier. It was not long before Captain Wool made his mark. To recover some of the ground lost by the unfortunate opera- tions of Hull, General Van Rensselaer determined to cross the Niagara River, storm Fort George, and carry the Heights of Queenstown. Six hundred men were detached to commence the movement by establishing themselves on the heights. Owing to a scarcity of boats, however, only three companies of Lieu- tenant-Colonel Chrystie's command, those of Wool, Malcolm, and Armstrong, with about one hundred regulars and militia under Lieutenant-Colonel Van Rensselaer, including a small de- tachment of United States artillery, were enabled to embark at one time. Under a heavy fire the Thirteenth landed on the 13th of October, about three o'clock in the morning, and Wool, being the senior captain, by the order of Van Rensselaer, who landed at some distance, formed his three companies on a plateau near the foot of the heights, the enemy having retreated before him. While thus situated, and awaiting further orders, the British from Queenstown made a severe attack on the Thirteenth, but were finally repulsed, after inflicting serious loss on the Ameri- cans. Wool was shot through both thighs ; Malcolm and Arm- strong were badly wounded; Lieutenants Valleau and Morris killed, and Lieutenant Lent wounded in the arm ; besides great losses among the non-commissioned officers and privates. Van Rensselaer failing from loss of blood, and the remainder of the troops not having arrived from the American side, a descent was ordered; but Wool, flushed with enthusiasm, volunteered to storm the heights. The colonel was unwilling to trust so im- portant an enterprise to so young an officer, whose actual service had but commenced that morning ; but, the ardor of the young captain being seconded by his officers, his ofler was accepted. Insensible to the pain of his wounds, and only thinking of the JOHN E. WOOL. 495 glory to be won, Captain Wool led his men up the steep ascent. Supporting themselves by their muskets, they finally gained the eminence in the rear of the battery, and, driving a detachment of the Forty-Ninth British down the heights, Wool and his gal- lant comrades raised the American flag to greet the dawn of that glorious day. But the fight did not end here. Aroused by the cannon at Queenstown, the British general, Sir Isaac Brock, hastened from Fort George at the head of a greatly superior force, and attacked the Americans with such impetuosity as to drive them to the brow of the cliff. The position of these raw Americans was now one of terrible danger. Before them were British veterans who had won European honors, behind them an almost perpendicular cliff. At this moment some fluttering heart raised a white flag. The sight of it drove the blood still more fervidly through the veins of the young captain. Tearing down the dastardly emblem of surrender, he made a manly appeal to his men, checked the panic, and, reinspiring his party to become the assailants, he drove the British down the heights. In turn, Brock rallied his troops, and, dashing on the Ameri- cans, he fell dead, when a general rout followed, leaving Wool the hero and master of the heights. Thus, says a distinguished authority, " the American arms were saved from disgrace and covered with glory by the unyielding firmness of one man ; and a moral example was given which, like that of Bunker Hill, imparted its invigorating influence to all the subsequent trans- actions of the war. The light which spread its radiance over the plains of Niagara and New Orleans first dawned on the Heights of Queenstown." All the journals of the day abound with encomiums on the gallantry of Wool, who at this time was according to the " National Intelligencer" of that day only twenty-three years of age. He was immediately promoted to the rank of major, and continued in the Twenty-Ninth Infan- try on the Northern frontier, sustaining the reputation he had achieved at Queenstown. In the series of fights which took place about Beekmantown and Plattsburg from the 6th to the llth of September, 1814, Major Wool greatly distinguished himself. With two hundred and fifty regulars and the militia under Colonel Miller, he kept the whole British column of four thousand at bay, fighting them 496 LIVING REPRESENTATIVE MEN. inch by inch and killing or wounding nearly two hundred of them. He was honorably mentioned in his general's despatches and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel. Well might General Viele say to Wool, " The bloody Saranac will never cease to murmur your praise,"* and Governor Young remark that " the people of the whole country saw Captain Wool at Queenstown marking his course with his own blood, and Major Wool at Plattsburg and at Beekmanstown gallantly resisting, with two hundred men, the whole British line."f Wool's reputation was now esta- blished. Cool, intrepid, and as quick in the field to originate as to execute orders, the Government was aware of his importance, and in 1816 offered him a choice of three appointments. He selected the Inspector-Generalship of Division, as it offered great scope for activity and usefulness ; and in 1821 he was appointed one of the two Inspector-Generals of the army. In 1828, John C. Calhoun thus recognises General Wool's services in this position : " During the whole period that I had charge of the Department, you performed the very laborious and highly responsible duties of your office with honor to yourself, with fidelity to your trust, and to the entire confidence of myself." In 1830, General Wool made a report discouraging the erec- tion of fortifications on the Northern frontier, and showing that modern science had rendered fortified posts useless between con- tiguous nations. His report on the reduction of the army in the same year is regarded as a model of its kind. In 1832, the Government sent General Wool to Europe to collect information connected with military science. He was kindly welcomed by Louis Philippe, and received from the French Government every attention which might further the objects of his visit. He was one of the king's suite at a grand review of seventy thousand men and one hundred pieces of artillery. In November of the same year he was the guest of the King of Belgium, and with him reviewed a hundred thousand troops and inspected the famous fortifications of Antwerp, at the siege of which, under Chasse, he was also present. In 1835, when Jackson determined that * Public Address of General Viele to General Wool in 1848. f Address of Governor Young on presenting General Wool with a sword in 1848. JOHN E. WOOL. 497 France should pay its old debt, General Wool was ordered to inspect the coast-defences from Maine to the delta of the Missis- sippi. His report, as well as that also on the Western defences, is highly commended. In 1836, having been intrusted with the removal of the Indians from the Cherokee country to Arkansas, he performed the delicate duty in so satisfactory a manner as to draw forth the most flattering testimonials from the Tennessee volunteers who acted under him. At his own request, he was subjected to a court of inquiry, the Governor of Alabama having charged him with an " attempt to usurp the power of civil tri- bunals" while in that State. General Wool's defence was a masterly production, and the inquiry resulted in an honorable acquittal. In 1838, during the Canadian difficulties, he was employed in a reconnoissance in the wilds of Maine for the defence of the frontier, and discharged his arduous duties with an iron will which, in the eyes of his admirers, "assimilates him in so marked a degree to General Jackson." This long experience and indefatigable attention to business in almost every branch of the country's service made him of immeasurable efficiency in the Mexican War. Indeed, it has been boasted that " to his industry, address, and energy in organizing, inspecting, and mustering into service twelve thou- sand men, from six different States, in six weeks, and pouring them down to the support of the enveloped column of Taylor, and leading a portion of them on his immortal march of nine hundred miles through an enemy's country, and effecting a junction with Taylor without losing a man, organizing and drilling the united command, selecting the frontier of Buena Vista, and promptly occupying it in the face of the advancing Mexicans, may the great success of that war be attributed."* The battle of Buena Vista electrified the.whole American people, and a despondency which was nearly universal was followed by universal rejoicing. Their apprehensions for the safety of Gene- ral Taylor's army, with which it was known General Wool's column had united, were most alarming, and the belief was becoming prevalent that both generals would be sacrificed. The cloud was * " Democratic Review," 1851, vol. xxix. 2