- -'.' ..- il 1 : : ; 1 mm l '.'..''-., '.-.,' : : "' ' 1 ,' '' : - -- " ' ' ' :- '. : I .''"" I : I "-V i - I ; ' ',-'.:' "'... : I ! ' i -. .'''"v; ':/;;. |l _ : : "" ' : '-" : :" ; ' . - | ' | .;V",:,:"."' ; ', i v ;;'.!:, -\, ; . : '""^.; I ,;-' : '"' ': : '' : .." ; ' | 9 3| : j - ';'"-.'; g , --' ;- /";--" I at M " ' LIBRARY UNtVERSiTY OF CALIFORNIA SAN OICGO >>. MEN OF OTJE DAY; OB, OP PATRIOTS, ORATORS, STATESMEN, GENERALS, REFORMERS, FINANCIERS AND MERCHANTS, NOW ON THE STAGE OF ACTION: INCLUDING THOSE WHO IX MILITARY, POLITICAL,. BUSINESS AND SOCIAL LIFE, ARE THE PROMINENT LEADERS OF THE TIME LN THIS COUNTRY. BY L. P. BROCKETT, M.D., AUTHOR OF "OUR GREAT CAPTAINS," " WOMEN'S WORK IX THE CIVIL WAR," "LIFE A>*D TIMES OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " "THE BIOGRAPHICAL POR- TIONS OF APPLETON'S ANNUAL CTCLOP-BDIA," ETC., ETC. ELEGANTLY ILLUSTRATED WITH FORTY-TWO PORTRAITS FRO)! LIFE, PUBLISHED BY ZEIGLER, McCURDY & CO., PHILADELPHIA, PEXN'A; CIXCIXXATI, OHIO; CHICAGO, ILL.; ST. LOUIS, MO. 1868. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18(58, by L. P. BROCKETT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of New York. s. A. GEORGE, BTEEEOTYPER AND PUIXTER, 124 NORTH SEVENTH SI'UEET, PHILADELPHIA. PREFACE. " NOTHING," says a recent epigrammatic writer, " suc- ceeds like success." We may add, nothing interests the public like the history of success. Let a man be poor, obscure, and undistinguished by any remarkable or con- spicuous deeds, and though he had the wisdom of Solo- mon, the meekness of Moses, the patience of Job, or the faith of Abraham, yet there would be little or no inter- est felt in his history. An humble and outwardly quiet life may have its record of heart struggles, its days of sunshine and shadow, its nights of wearying anxiety and mental disquiet, which are full of interest to beings of higher intelligence than ours, and form to the psycho- logist a curious study; but for the great mass of man- kind they possess no charm. But let this same man achieve, slowly or suddenly, a high position ; let him, by some cunning invention, or by some bold and daring enterprise, attain a princely for- tune ; or, better still, by the bold avowal of some great 111 iy PREFACE. and righteous principle, and patient adherence to it through years of obloquy and persecution, win from a reluctant world admiration for his fearless persistency ; let him at a fitting moment enunciate some great truth which shall influence a continent, or speak some word which shall loosen a nation's bonds ; let him by calm cool bravery, sound judgment and unflinching resolution, win his way up from a humble position to the command of great armies, and leading them wisely, bring a long and bloody war to a close ; or in the quiet of his study, let him forge those lyrics, whose white heat shall set the world aflame, and there will be enough to interest them- selves in him. His every movement will be chronicled ; thousands will seek to honor themselves in honoring him ; his words will be carefully noted and treasured ; and even the most trivial incidents of his childhood and youth will be eagerly sought for, and read with the greatest avidity. And there is nothing surprising, nothing wrong in this. When a man has achieved greatness, it is natural that we should desire to know the steps by which he has attained to his present position, for there is in every heart, and especially in the hearts of the young, a hope, seldom expressed, often hardly acknowledged to them- selves, that, knowing the way, they, too, may succeed PREFACE. V in ascending to that lofty and distant summit, where ''Fame's proud temple shines afar;" and though but few have the patience and the gifts to realize their fond expectation, yet they are often led to greater exertion than they would have made but for the inspiration of such a hope. It is the desire to minister to this laudable craving of the human heart more than any other consideration, unless it may be, perhaps, a long-cherished fondness for biographical studies, which has led the writer to lay before his countrymen the pen portraits of these fifty men of note in the various walks of public life. All of them are now, happily, among the living; and all are honored by many, and most of them loved by more. A few of them are personal friends and acquaintances ; others known to him only by correspondence, have kindly furnished, through friends, the materials from which he has been able to give their life history. For all, his sources of information have been ample, and he has endeavored to use them as wisely as he could. That the volume may aid in making all its readers, and espe- cially the young, wiser and better, in giving them loftier and more earnest aims, is his sincere hope and desire. L. P. B. BROOKLYN, N. Y., March, 1868. ILLUSTRATIONS. U. S. GRANT. W. T. SHERMAN. P. H. SHERIDAN. GEO..G. MEADE. O. 0. HOWARD. GEO. H. THOMAS. D. G. FARRAGUT. BENJ. F. WADE. THADDEUS STEVENS. HENRY WILSON. LYMAN TRUMBULL. 0. P. MORTON. SCHUYLER COLFAX S. P. CHASE. E. M. STANTON. W. P. FESSENDEN. W. D. KELLEY. S. C. POMEROY. G. S. BOUTWELL. JOHN SHERMAN JOHN A. LOGAN. CHAS. SUMNER. EDWIN D. MORGAN. REUBEN E. FENTON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. W. A. BUCKINGHAM. CORNELIUS COLE. ANDREW G. CTJRTIN. JAY COOKE. CHAS. FRANCIS ADAMS. WM. H. SEWARD. REVERDY JOHNSON. HUGH McCULLOCH. CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. J. A. DIX. HORACE GREELEY. WENDELL PHILLIPS. W. G. BROWNLOW. THEODORE TILTON. GERRIT SMITH. HENRY WARD BEECHEE. WM. LLOYD GARRISON. CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE CONTENTS 9 GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. Great leaders spring from the people Often lead quiet and obscure lives till tho emergency arises which calls them out Are not always or often those who are first thrown upon the top wave General Grant's ancestry His boyhood His fondness for horses Anecdotes Hfo judgment and executive power Incidents Fond of mathematics Don't like tanning Bent to West Point Graduates twenty-first in his class Service at Jefferson Barracks At Southern posts In the Mexican war Distinguishes himself in the battles of the route to Mexico, and is honorably mentioned and brevetted On garrison duty after the Mexican war In Oregon and on the frontier First Lieutenant Captain Resigns his commission Keasons for so doing Becomes a farmer 111 success Tries other vocations Enters " Grant and Bon's" store at Galena His political views The outbreak of the war He resolves to offer his services to the Government Adjutant-General of Illinois Appointed Colonel of twenty-first Illinois volunteers The march to Quincy Guarding railroads Acting Briga- dier-General Commissioned Brigadier-General Heads off Jeff. Thompson Mrs. Selvidge's pies Grant's post at Cairo Ho seizes Smithland and Paducah Another chase of Jeff. Thompson The battle of Belmont Fort Henry captured The siege of Fort Donelson Overtures for surrender " I propose to move immediately upon your works" The surren- der Ascent of the Tennessee The camps at Shiloh Carelessness of the troops A sur- priseThe battle of Shiloh The Union troops driven back toward the river, and sadly cut up Grant's coolness and composure The second day's fight Tho rebels driven back and compelled to retreat The siege of Corinth Grant in command of the Army of the Ten- nessee Battles of luka, Corinth, and the Hatchie Grant at Memphis Movement toward Vicksburg The disaster at Holly Springs, and its consequences Grant at Young's Point and Milliken's Bend Attempts to reach Vicksburg by way of the Yazoo Canal projects Runniug the batterries The overland march Crossing the river toBruinsburg The march northward to Jackson, the Black river, and to the rear of Ticksburg Assaults, and siege Communication opened above the city Surrender of Vicksburg Visits home Accident at New Orleans Appointed to the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi At Chattanooga Battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission Ridge Driving Longstreet from Knoxville President Lincoln's Letter Grant Lieutenaut-General Preparations for the campaign of 1664 Consultation with Sherman The opening battles of the spring of 1864 Wilderness, Spottsylvania, the North Anna, etc." I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer" Battles of Tolopotomy and Cold Harbor Crossing the James Peters- burg The mine Hatcher's Run The operations in the Shenaudoah Valley Terrible pounding The enemy at last worn out Cutting their communications Five Forks Evacuation of Eichmond and Petersburg Lee's surrender The President's assassination Grant at Raleigh The nation's gratitude to Lieutenant-General Grant His Southern tour He accompanies Mr. Johnson to the West Created General, July, 1866 Secretary of War ad interim, August, 1867 Restores the office to Secretary Stanton, January, 1868 Rage of the President Summary of General Grant's character His personal appearance JYote.- on the charge of intemperance made against him The remarkable balance of his faculties... 17-60 ix X CONTENTS. ADMIRAL DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. PAOl Origin of the family Birth of David His early admission to tho nary Adventures in the Pacific Mr. Folson's instructions He becomes a lieutenant Marriage Loss of his wife His slow promotion His accomplishments Farragut ia Norfolk at the outbreak of the war His intense loyalty " I cannot live hero" Removal to Hastings Employed on the Naval Retiring Board Ho commands the squadron intended for tho capture of New Orleans The bombardment of the forts Farragut's resolution He encounters and defeats the rebel squadron, and passes the forts under a terrible fire " Whatever is done, will have to be done quickly" Ho ascends the river to New Orleans, and demands its surrender It is surrendered on the 28th of April He continues to ascend the river Passes Vicksburg Captures Galveston and other Texan ports Passing the batteries at Port Hudson Loss of the Mississippi Blockading Red River Attack on the forts at the entrance of Mobile Bay His plans Running through tho torpedos The fight with the ram Tennessee Farragut lashed in the rigging "Go on with speed! ram her again!" His tenderness for the wounded Kindness to the rebel Admiral Made Vice-Admiral The work in the vicinity of the Potomac The gift made to him by loyal merchants of New York His modesty and patriotism He is promoted to be Admiral, tho first in the history of tho country His European tour Personal characteristics Determination "That is the very reason you did not succeed" 61-77 LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WILLIAM TECUMSEII SHERMAN. His birth Adopted into tho family of Hon. Thomas Ewing Enters West Point His high rank as a cadet Services in Florida At Fort Moultrie Transferred to California Promoted to a captaincy Marries Resigns Is a banker President of Louisiana S tatc Military Academy His letter of resignation Intense loyalty A'isits Washington Incredulity of the Govern- ment Colonel of 13th Infantry In battle of Bull Run Desperate fighting Brigadier- General In command of Department of the Ohio Excludes the reporters from his head- quarters Indignation of tho "gad-flies" of the press "Two hundred thousand men wanted" Ad interim Thomas pronounces him crazy Sherman asks to be relieved Is shelved at Jefferson Barracks Ilalleck assigns him to a division The hero of the battle of Shiloh The attack on Chickasaw Bluff Superseded by McClernand Restored to command by Grant The Sunflower river expedition Demonstration on Haincs' Bluff The rapid marches and hard fighting in approaching Vicksburg from below His capture of Walnut Hills, and assaults on Vicksburg Pursuit of Johnston In command of the Army of the Tennessee, and en route to Chattanooga The demonstration on Fort Buckner Pursuit of Longstreet and raising the siege of Knoxville The Meridian expedition What it accom- plished Commander of the Grand Military Division of tho Mississippi Number of his troops His communications The movement toward Atlanta, Dalton, Resaca, Kingston, Allatoona Pass, Dallas, Kenesaw Mountain Crossing the Chattahoochie Rousseau's raid The battle before Atlanta Death of McPherson Siego of the city Its capture by stratagem Thomas sent northward Sherman marches to the sea Capture of Fort McAllis- ter and Savannah "A Christmas gift" Sherman's march through the Carolina^ Columbia and Charleston captured Entrance into North Carolina Results thus far Battles of Averysboro and Bentonville Goldsboro occupied Rest Sherman goes to City Point For- ward again Raleigh Overtures for surrender by Johnston Sherman's propositions Their rejection by the Cabinet Grant sent to Raleigh Surrender of Johnston In command of the Military Division of the Mississippi LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, U.S.A., and LL.D. Sherman's personal appearance and manners His military and intellectual culture His soldiers' love for him 78-106 VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. His father a naval hero Sketch of Commodore David Porter Birth of the future Vice- Admiral He accompanies his father in chase of the pirates when. a child Enters the navy in 1829 Midshipman In coast survey Slow promotion In Mexican war On the Crescent City " He would go in" Promoted to be commander In blockading squadron In charge of mortar fleet On the James river In charge of tho Mississippi squadron as Acting Rear- CONTENTS. Xl , VOT Admiral Captures Fort Henderson The Yazoo and Sunflower expeditions Running the batteries Fight at Grand Gulf Shelling Ticksburg The Bed river expedition Gathering cotton Jumping the rapids Colonel Bailey's wing dams Sharp fighting Becalled to the Atlantic coast The two attacks on Fort Fisher Its capture Capture of Wilmington Cor- respondence with General Butler Superintendent of the Naval Academy Beforms Pro- moted to "Vice-Admiralty Personal appearance and attainments of Admiral Porter His courage 107-11! MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. His birth and birth-place His adventures with the Irish schoolmaster McNanly His appoint- ment to West Point Gets sent down one class for thrashing a fellow cadet His gradua- tionServes on the Texas frontier In California and Oregon Keeps the Indians in order- His readiness for the war Audits claims Quartermaster for General Curtis Sent to buy Horses On Halleck's staff Colonel of cavalry Commands a calvary brigade Made Briga- dier-General Commands the third division in the Army of the Ohio Fortifies Louisville Commands his division at Perryville, and saves the day His gallant conduct at Stone River Ho turns the tide of battle Made Major-General Sheridan at Chickamauga Cut off by the enemy, but finds his way back Sheridan in the ascent of Mission Bidge His gal- lant leadership "How are you?" He mounts a captured gun Transferred by General Grant's request to the charge of the cavalry corps in the Army of the Potomac He re- organizes it Fights seventy-six battles in less than a year His report His raid toward Richmond Appointed commander of the Department of the Shenandoah The battle of Opequon creek Early "sent whirling" Made Brigadier-General in regular army The battle of Middletown plains A defeat and a victory "We are going to get a twist on them:" The reinforcement of the Union army, "one man, SHERIDAN!" "The ablest of generals" The great raid to the upper waters of the James Marching past Richmond Dinwiddie Court-House Five Forks Removal of General Warren Following up the enemy Ordered to Texas Commander of the Fifth District Troubles The riot and massacre Border Difficulties Sheridan's decisive action President Johnson removes him His visit North, and the ovations he received Personal appearance 120-149 MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. His birth, family, early training Education at West Point In the Florida war In the Mexican war His brevets His gallantry In Florida, Newport, Boston, Fort Yuma, and St. Louis, till 1656 On the Texas frontier, 1856-1860 Major in April, 1861 Lieutenant-Colonel, May 3d, 1861 Brigadier-General of Volunteers In Kentucky Battle of Mill Spring Major- General of Volunteers, April 25th, 1SC2 In the siege of Corinth In command at Nashville- Commands the centre (first divisions) in the Army of the Cumberland At Stone River " The Rock of Chickamauga" Made Brigadier-General in regular army At Chattanooga Battle of Orchard Knob In command of the Army of the Cumberland Marching toward Atlanta Kenesaw Mountain Peach Tree Creek Jonesboro General Shorman leaves him to " take care of Hood" The battles of Franklin and Nashville A glorious victory Major- General in regular army Commander of the Military Division of the Tennessee Johnson's efforts to bribe him His personal appearance 150-158 MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. Born in Spain His family His education at West Point His engineering services In the Mexican Wai' Survey of the northern lakes In command of one brigade of the Pennsyl- vania Reserve Corps Army promotions Battle of Mechanicsville Wounded in the Seven Days Division commander Commands a corps at Antietam At Fredericksburg Succeeds to command of fifth army corps Major-General of volunteers Battle of Chancellorsville The march into Pennsylvania General Meade succeeds General Hooker His general order on assuming command Battle of Gett3 - sburg The pursuit of Lee Lee's attempt to sever his communications General Meade's action of Mine Run He commands the Army of the Potomac through the campaign of 1864-5 Made Brigadier and Major-General in regular army In command of Military Division of the Atlantic Suppression of Fenian invasion of Canada Transferred to the Military Division of the South His services there His personal appearance 159-167 xii CONTENTS. MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOAVARD. PASS His birth and education A graduate of Bowdoin college Enters West Point Graduates fourth in his class His service before the war Assistant professor at West Point Colonel of volunteers from Maine Leads a brigade at Bull Run Brigadier-General of volunteers, Sep- tember, 1861 Loses his arm at Fair Oaks At Second battle of Bull Run At Antietam and Fredericksburg Major-General of volunteers, and commander of the eleventh corps The battle of Chancellorsville Panic in eleventh corps Gettysburg Gallant behavior of General Howard Howard at Chattanooga The assault on Fort Buckner The march to Atlanta Succeeds to the command of the Army of the Tennessee His bravery Leads the right wing of Sherman's army in the march to the sea, and through the Carolinas Anec- dote of Sherman and Howard, note Made Brigadier and brevet Major-General iu the regular Army Appointed Commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau President Johnson's opposition to this bureau He desires to remove General Howard from the commissionership, but is prevented by the Tenure of Office law The difficulties in the administration of the affairs of the bureau caused by the President's opposition Literary honors conferred on General Howard His private character Anecdote, note 168-177 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. Birth and ancestry His father's character and career Mr. Chase's early education Bishop Chase's invitation His stay at Cleveland The ferry boy His life at Washington Re- moves with his uncle to Cincinnati The bishop goes to England, and his nephew returns to New Hampshire Teaches, and enters Dartmouth college His standing there The re- vocation of the faculty's sentence on his fellow student At Washington Teaching Studies law under William Wirt Commences practice in Cincinnati Partnership Defends J. G. Birney Other anti-slavery cases "A promising young man who has just ruined himself" Defends Birney again, and Van Zandt "Once free, always free" Aids in organizing a Lib- erty part}' The third clause of the Constitution of the United States No mental reserva- tions Address to Daniel O'Connell The S. and W. Liberty Convention The Tan Zandt and Dieskell vs. Parish cases Mr. Chase in the Senate His ability there Withdraws from the Democratic party iu 1852 Elected and re-elected Governor of Ohio His financial ability in that position Again in the Senate In the Peace Conference Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Mr. Lincoln His incessant labors The skill and success of his financial measures His early loans The five-twenties The National Banking Act The seven- thirties and ten-forties Brief exposition of his policy His resignation His appointment aa Chief Justice Tour at the South Characteristics of Chief Justice Chase's mind He pre- sides over the impeachment trial His personal appearance A possible candidate for the Presidency His position on national questions 178-19S EDWIN M. STANTON. Mr. Stanton of Quaker ancestry His grandparents and father remove from North Carolina to Ohio His birth in Steubenville, Ohio His early education Studies law with Judge Tap- pan Reporter to Supreme Court Gains a large practice in U. S. Courts Removes to Pitts- burgh, and in 1856 to Washington Is sent to California by the Government in. a land giant case Attorney-General in the Buchanan administration Succeeds Mr. Cameron as Secretary of War Judge Holt's opinion of him His immense labors in the department His roughness of manner, but real kindness of heart The ablest war minister of modern times Mr. Johnson desires to get rid of him His letter and Stanton's reply Mr. Johnson suspends him Gen. Grant Secretary ad interim The Senate reinstates him An attempt to remove him is fol- lowed by Mr. Johnson's impeachment At the close of the impeachment trial, Mr. Stafiton retires 199-207 WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. Birth and education Studies law with John Anthon and others Removes to Auburn Mar- riage Partnership Presides over an Adams' Young Men's Convention An anti-mason Elected to the State Senate His career there Goes to Europe Elected and re-elected Governor Measures of his administration Controversy with Governors of Georgia and Vir- CONTENTS. Xlll MM ginia Resumes the practice of law The Freeman case The Van Zandt case The Michigan Conspiracy cases Political and literary addresses Elected U. S. Senator " The higher law" He is abnsed by pro-slavery men The subjects he discussed His literary labors Argument iii the McCorrnick Reaper case Re-election to the Senate His great labors in the Senate " The Irrepressible Conflict" The presidential nomination in 1860 Mr. Seward 'a candidate He canvasses for Mr. Lincoln Entertains the Prince of Wales Is appointed Secretary of State The important questions he had to handle Mason and Slidell Some dissatisfaction felt with some of bis measures Tenders his resignation to Mr. Lincoln It is not accepted " Sixty or ninety days" The accident to Mr. Seward Attempt to assassinate him His recovery Regrets Mr. Seward's recent course His purchases of territory His loss of reputation by his support of Mr. Johnson's schemes The lesson of his public life 208-2-22 HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. " We raise MEN" Mr. Hamlin's family His birth and education An editor Studies law Ad- mitted to the bar Removes to Hampden, Maine In the Legislature In Congress His defence of New England Re-election Ili^ labors Elected to the Senate His opposition to slavery Leaves the Democratic prfrty and becomes a Republican Elected Governor by an immense majority Re-elected to the Senate Replies to Senator Hammond's "Mudsill" speech Nominated and eleete.l Vice-President The Confidence he inspired His judicious course The folly which piuvented hjs re-nomination Appointed Collector of Boston His resignation, and its cause His letter to Mr. Johnson Subsequent career Personal ap- pearance Character 223-232 HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. Birth and early life Goes to Ohio on foot Cutting wood School teaching Driving cattle Work on tho Erie canal Teaching again Studies law His first case His unremitting study His success 1'rosecuting attorney for Ashtabula Elected to the State Senate His work there His anti-slavery views give offence Returns to the practice of his profession Canvasses Ohio for General Harrison His marriage Again elected to the State Senate Procures tho incorporation of Oberlin college Makes an able report against the refusal of the right of petition by Congress Defends J. Q. Adams Declines re-nomination to the Senate Resumes practice Elected in 1847 President Judge of third Judicial District of Ohio His ability as a judge Chosen U. S. Senator in 1851 Takes the stump for General Scott Abandons the Whig party in 1S54, and avows himself a " Black Republican" His speech Incidents of the Kansas-Nebraska debate Tho southern fire-eater "A foul- mouthed old blackguard" " Gag" Atherton and Mr. Wade Some men born slaves " The dwarfish medium" " Selling his old mammy" Senator Douglas's " Code of Morals" Lane of Kansas " Well, what arc- you going to do about it?" Wade not to be crushed "Good- by, Senator" " The Liberator, one of our best family papers" Toombs's tribute to Senator Wade's honesty ami integrity His avowal of his radicalism The assault on Senator Sumner Senator Wade's fearlessness His action during the war Re-elected to the Senate President of the Senate, and V ice-President of the United States His personal ap- pearance His keen eye An excellent presiding officer The measures he has initiated and advocated His only disagreement with President Lincoln 233-255 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX. His birth and early life Removal to the West Clerk in a country store Deputy county au- ditor Studies law The debating society and mock legislature Owns and edits the St. Joseph Valley Register Not a printer by trade Ability with which the paper was con- ducted Mr. Wilkeson's account of Mr. Colfax at this time Mr. Colfax's remarks A dele- gate to, and secretary of, the Whig National Convention in 1848 Member of the Indiana Constitutional Convention Opposes the Black laws A candidate for Congress in 1851, but defeated Delegate and secretary of the National Whig Convention in 1852 Elected to Con- gress in 1S54 His maiden speech Haif a million copies circulated Canvasses for Colonel Fremont as President Successive :- '. tions to Congress Speaker of the House for three successive sessions His remarkable ability as a presiding officer His interest In the Pacific CONTENTS. PAOH railroad Overland journey to California "Across the continent" His canvass for Mr. Lincoln Cordial and intimate relations with him Personal appearance Manner as a speaker Passage from one of his speeches Religious character Nominated for tho Vice- Presidency 256-26T HON. WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. Birth and lineage Educated at Bowdoin college Studies lav. Removes to Portland A mem- ber of the Maine Legislature Declines political omce Becomes eminent as a lawyer In the Legislature in 1839 Elected to Congress in 1840 Declines a re-nomination In the Legislature in 1845-6 Important legal cases tried by Mr. Fessenden Elected to Congress, but does not claim his seat Member of three successive National Whig Conventions In the Legislature 1853-4 Chosen II. S. Senator, 1854, by a coalition Avows himself a Repub- lican His great services in tho Senate Re-elected twice Receives degree of LL.D. from Bowdoin and Harvard Chairman of finance committee Appointed Secretary of Treasury in 1864 Situation of the finances at this time Mr. Fessenden's wise measures Their happy result More comprehensive and efficient taxation Re-elected to the Senate Again at the head of the finance committee His political and personal bearing His unexpected action with reference to impeachment His intellectual ability 26S-27I HON. JAMES HARLAN. Birth and early educational advantages Educated at Ashbury university Professor of lan- guages in Iowa City college State Superintendent of Public Instruction Studies law and practices it for five years President of Wesleyan university, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa Elected TJ. S. Senator Circumstances of election Resigns the presidency of the university, bt accepts the professorship of political economy, etc. His course in the Senate His severe re- buke of the Democracy They resolve to get rid of him Vote to unseat him on account of irregularity in his election He returns to Iowa and is immediately re-elected, and returns to his seat A fearless, thorough, and true Republican Senator Member of the Peace Con- gress of 1861 An intimate friend and adviser of President Lincoln Review of his Senatorial action Extract from one of his speeches Member of Union Congressional Committee in 1864 Appointed Secretary of Interior by President Lincoln Cannot sympathize with " My Policy" Resigns Is returned to the Senate His high integrity 276-288 HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. His lineage Birth Early residence abroad Fights the English boys for the honor of America- Enters Harvard college Graduates with high honors Studies law with Daniel Webster His marriage In the State Senate Contributes to the. reviews, etc Collects materials for life of his grandfather Edits the Boston Whig Nominated by the Free-Soilers for Vice- Presidency The Boston Whiff becomes the Boston Republican Mr. Adams disposes of his interest in it His "Life andWorksof John Adams" Elected to Congress in 1858 and 1860 His course there Appointed Minister to England by Mr. Lincoln His extraordinary ability as a diplomatist His great services to the country His manner and bearing 2S7--31 HON. JOHN ADAMS DIX. Birth and lineage Educated at Philips' academy, Exeter, N. H., and at Montreal Enters St. Mary's college, Baltimore Offered and accepts an Ensign's rank in the army His promo- tions His father's death Captain in the Third Artillery Visits Cuba His marriage Ad- mission to the bar In political life Adjutant-General of New York Secretary of State- In the Legislature Tour of Europe U. S. Senator Nominee of Free-Soilers for Governor- Assistant U. S. Treasurer at New York Postmaster of New York City, 1859 to 1S61 Secretary of the Treasury, January to March, 1801 " If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot !" Presides over Union meeting in Union Park- Appointed Major-General in regular army, June 16th, 1861 In command of District of Maryland Transferred to Eastern Virginia Commands Department of the East Trial and execution of Beall and Kennedy Presides at the Philadelphia Convention Nominated by CONTENTS. XV MM President Johnson Naval Officer of the Port of New York, and the same day U. S. Minister to France Chooses the latter Is confirmed, and enters upon his duties in January, 1867 His published works His personal appearance 292-296 WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM. Hit lineage His birth and early training Benevolence of his parents His education A clerk in New York City, and afterward in Norwich In business for himself Treasurer of Hay- ward Rubber Company One of the founders of the Norwich Free Academy Mayor of Nor- wich His benevolence Elected Governor of Connecticut, and seven times re-elected His prompt and noble action at the ommencement of the war Equips the troops on his own responsibility Sends his adjutant-general to Washington to cheer the President His official letters to the President His congratulation to the President on the issue of the Emancipation Proclamation The majorities by which he was re-elected Close of his guber- natorial career His nomination by his State for Vice-Presidency He withdraws his name from the convention Is elected to the U. S. Senate Personal appearance 299-305 GOVERNOR REUBEN E. FENTON. Birth and lineage Early education He reads law Engages in mercantile business, and after a time in the lumber trade Is successful Chosen supervisor Elected Representative in Con- gress in 1852, and again in 1856, 1858, 1860, and 1862 His course and labors in Congress His opposition to slavery Became a Republican in 1854 An active supporter of the Gov- ernment during the war Nominated for Governor and elected in 1864 His able adminis- tration His opposition to corruption Sympathy with the soldiers His vetoes His address to President Johnson in August, 1866 The political situation in the autumn of 1866 Gov- ernor Fenton re-nominated and re-elected by a larger majority than at first Continuation of his policy The rebel dead at Antictam The Governor's message of 1868 His fidelity to the people His radicalism His integrity Resolution of the Republican State Convention in February, 1868 306-317 HON. OLIVER PERCY MORTON. Birth and early life Testimony of his instructor Enters Miami university Studies law Mar- ries Acquires distinction in the legal profession Leaves the Democratic fur the Republican party Is nominated for Governor in 1856, but defeated His great ability as displayed in the canvass His energy and tact in the thorough organization of the Republican party Is nomi- nated for Lieutenant-Governor in 1860, and elected Governor Law chosen Senator, and Lieutenant-Governor Morton becomes Governor Condition of affairs in Indiana at this time Corruption and fraud Seccssionism He commits the State to loyalty His exertions to send troops into the field He sends State agents to care for Indiana soldiers The condi- tion of Kentucky He ascertains the plans of the rebels there Sends aid to the Union men at Louisville and elsewhere The Kentucky Unionists adopt him as their Governor The Indiana soldier Governor Morton's fidelity to the absent troops Malicious charges of his enemies He is triumphantly vindicated His influence with the Government The "Order of American Knights" Their hatred of Governor Morton Their falsehoods The " butter- nut ticket" The copperhead Legislature Their insults to the Governor They refuse to pass the appropriation bills Their intention to embarrass Governor Morton His course The bureau of finance He is re-nominated for Governor His overwhelming labors at this time His re-election by a sweeping majority His complete overthrow of the "Sons of Liberty" organization His zeal for the soldiers He welcomes them home The exhaustion which followed when this long-continued tension was ever Paralysis He sails for Europe His health still feeble He is elected to the Senate His services there His speech on re- construction The two statues 318-SS1 HON. RICHARD YATES. fc birth and education A member of the Illinois Legislature for six years A Representative in Congress in 1851-5 Elected Governor of Illinois in I860 His patriotism and energy TTia extraordinary labors in raising troops in 1861-62 His letter to President Lincoln Its ap- xvi CONTENTS. PAOE peal for the employment of all loyal men, white or black, in putting down fhe rebellion- Governor Yates's success in raising troops His eloquent appeal to the Illinois Legislature The outrageous conduct of the Legislature Their determination to thwart his measures Governor Yates prorogues them to December 31st, 1864, when the legal existence of the Legislature would terminate His constant and earnest labors for the soldiers His election to the U. S. Senate The reports in relation to his intemperance His letter to his con- stituents His moral courage, 332-338 HON. GEORGE S. BOUTWELL. Birth, lineage, and education In a country store The old library Self-culture His earnestness as a student He studies law A public lecturer A political speaker A member of the Massachusetts Legislature for seven years out of nine Other offices held by Mr. Boutwell A candidate for Congress Nominated for Governor, and elected in 1851 and 1852 In the Constitutional Convention of 1853 For ten years a member of the board of education, and for five years its secretary Literary and scientific honors His interest in agriculture His anti-slavery views Member of the Peace Congress in 1S61 Commissioner of internal revenue in 1S61-G2 Member of Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth, and Fortieth Congresses A manager in the Impeachment His habits of mind His effectiveness as a speaker 339-344 HON. REVERDY JOHNSON. Birth and lineage He studies law Reports the decisions of the Court of Appeals Appointed deputy attorney-general of Maryland Removes to Baltimore Civil appointments Elected State Senator Serves for four years Resigns to devote himself to his extensive practice- Senator in Congress 1845-49 Attorney-General United States, 1849-50 Retires from office His reputation as a jurist Delegate to Peace Conference, 1861 U. S. Senator, 1863-69 His course during the rebellion His devotion to the Constitution On the committee on recon- struction His arguments in the Senate The judicial character of his mind 345-347 HON. JAMES W. NYE. Prevalent ideas concerning the Senators and Representatives in Congress from the new States Their erroneousness Senator Nyo'a birth and early education His study of the law Comes to New York Enters political life His eloquence The measures he advocated Police commissioner in New York His labors in Iho Fremont and Lincoln campaigns Appointed Governor of Nevada Territory Elected Senator from Nevada in 1865, and subsequently, for six years from 1867 His labors in the Senate Accompanies the body of President Lincoln to Illinois .' 348-360 REV. WILLIAM GANNAWAY BROWNLOW. His birth and ancestry Early struggles His early education imperfect and irregular Leariis a trade Goes to school Enters the Methodist ministry His political experiences in South Carolina Controversy on slavery His prediction His account of his political creed Estab- lishes tho Knoxville Whig in 1837 Its character " The Fighting Parson" Discussion with Rev. J. R. Graves Debate with Rev. Abrain Payne Brownlow for tho Union uncondition- ally H is persecuted by tho secessionists His paper stopped His imprisonment for four months Sent into the Union lines Makes a tour of the Northern States" Brownlow's Book" Residence in Ohio Returns to Nashville and Kuoxville He re-establishes his paper under the title of " The Knoxville Whig and Rebel Ventilator" Its fearless denun- ciation of rebels Ho has gradually become a Radical Elected Governor of Tennessee in 1865, and re-elected in 1867 Elected U. S. Senator for six years from March, 1869 His ac- count of himself His intensity of expression 351-358 GOVERNOR RICHARD J. OGLESBY. Birth and early training Studies law Volunteers for the Mexican war Promoted to a first lieutenancy Returns and resumes his practice Crosses the plains to California Returns to Illinois in 1851 Elected to the Legislature in 1852 Makes a tour through Europe and CONTENTS. xvii PAGE the East in 1856-57 Nominated for Congress but defeated Elected to the State Senate in I860 Colonel 8th Illinois infantry Promoted to bo Brigadier-General Foremost in every battle Severely wounded at Corinth, October 4th, 1862 Promoted to Major-Generalship Reports for duty April 1st, 1863 Commands left wing of 16th army corps His wounds compel his resignation Nominated for Governor of Illinois, and elected November 186i Opens the great fair at Chicago, May, 1865 His patriotism 359-362 HON. GALUSHA A. GROW. B::;h and early training Removal to Pennsylvania Struggles of his mother to support and educate her boys Enters Amherst college Graduates with high honors Studies and prac- tices law His success Nominated for Congress in 1850 Circumstances of the nomination- Elected Re-elected by very large majorities to five successive Congresses Defeated by a new apportionment in 1862 Feeble health Goes to Europe in 1855 Makes a tour in the Western Territories in Is57 Hia industry and efficiency in Congress " Father of the Home- stead Bill" His speech on the subject Opposes slavery steadily Speech on the Brooks- Sumuer outrage Postal Reform Speaker of the House, 1861-63 Volunteers for defence of Washington His character and record 363-370 HON. EDWIN D. MORGAN. Advantages of business training in public affairs Birth of Mr. Morgan His clerkship Be- comes a partner Removes to New York His business enterprise and success Alderman Commissioner of Emigration Avows himself a Republican Nominated for Governor in 1858, and elected Re-elected in 1860 His great labors and responsibilities during the first two years of the war Major-General of Volunteers Will not receive pay Sends for- ward 223,000 troops Elected United States Senator His course in the Senate Offered the position of Secretary of Treasury, but declines it 371-374 HON. CHARLES SUMNER. Bii'tii Ancestry Education Eminence as a scholar Studies law His great attainments in the literature of the law Edits tho " American Jurist" Reporter to the Circuit Court Simmer's Reports Lecturer in the law school, and editor of law treatises Visits Europe His cordial reception there Incidents Return to America Devotes himself to law studies, and to lecturing on law Oration on " the true grandeur of nations" Offered a place as Judge Story's successor in the Law School Determines to enter political life as- an Abolitionist His public addresses on slavery Associates himself with tho Free-Soil party Elected United States Senator in 1851 His avowed position His great speeches on slavery Tho Kansas-Nebraska bill " Tho worst and best bill at the same time" Anti-slavery speeches out of Congress His eloquence His speech on " The crime against Kansas" The murder- ous assault of Brooks and his associates upon Mr. Sumner The effect upon the nation The distressing result of the injuries inflicted upon Mr. Sumner His recovery, and return to his place in the Senate His oration on " The barbarism of slavery" His opposition to all compromise Advocates universal emancipation Chairman of committee on foreign re- lutions His great services in the Senate during the war His published Orations, and other works Character 375-388 HON. HENRY WILSON. Hi;'.!; Early struggles with poverty His thirst for knowledge His reply to Senator Ham- mond He enters a shoe shop to learn the trade Attempts to obtain a collegiate education He is foiled by fraud In the academy Visit to Washington Discussion Return to Xatick and shoemaking Enters political life Elected to the Legislature State Senator Petitions against admission of Texas as a slave State Speech in opposition to farther ex- tension and longer existence of slavery in America Becomes a Free-Soiler in 1848 Edits the Boston Republican Again in the Legislature State Senator Originates the coali- tionCandidate for Congress, and for Governor Elected United States Senator in 1855, as successor to Edward Everett Horror of the old line Whigs Mr. Wilson's qualifications for CONTENTS. RAM the position He is twice re-elected His hostility to slavery His defiance of the Southern leaders The attack on Mr. Suinner " brutal, murderous, and cowardly" Brooks's chal- lenge Wilson's reply Brooks silenced Wilson's courage Chairman of military affairs His incessant labors in that committee and in the Senate Incidents of the early days of the war General Scott's appreciation of his services His military service Raises two regi- ments Volunteer aid on General McClellan's staff The General's regret at his resignation Military measures originated by him Mr. Cameron's opinion His intercourse with Sec- retary Stanton Mr. Wilson's constant exertions in behalf of the army Other measures advocated by him Anti-slavery legislation The Freedmen's Bureau Bill His zeal for the oppressed His character A candidate for the Vice-Presidency 389-408 HON. JOHN SHERMAN. His ancestry The family large John sent to Mount Vernon, Ohio, to school At fourteen be- gins to earn his own way Studies civil engineering with Colonel Curtis Curtis removed from office, and Sherman discharged Wants to go to college, but cannot accomplish it Studies law and literature, and works as a law clerk, all at the same time Admitted to the bar In partnership with his brother Charles In political life Delegate to national con- ventions Presidential elector Elected to Congress His services there Re-elected three times Chosen United States Senator, in Mr. Chase's place, in 1861, and re-elected in 1867 His labors on the finance committee His bill to fund the public indebtedness His support of home industry Action on reconstruction His new funding bill in XLth Congress Its provisions His defence of it Personal appearance 409-419 HON. LYMAN TRUMBULL. Birth and parentage His education Removal to Georgia Admission to the bar Removal to Illinois and settlement in Chicago Election to the State Legislature Becomes Secretary of State Justice of the Supremo Court of Illinois Representative in Congress Election to the U. S. Senate Twice re-elected His opposition to secession Advocacy of conciliation Chairman of the Judiciary Committee He moves an amendment to the Confiscation Bill- Advocates and defends the Emancipation Proclamation Sustains the. act suspending the habeas corpus Defends the first Freedman's Bureau Bill, attaching an amendment provid- ing for permanent confiscation of rebel property Aided in drawing up the second and third Freedmen's Bureau Bills Presented the Civil Rights Bill His course in regard to the im- peachment of the President 420-424 HON. SAMUEL C. POMEROY. Personal appearance Parentage Education A student at Amherst college In business Tho Wayne County Liberty Party Convention Returns to Massachusetts A member of the Legislature in 1852 Mr. Pomeroy's opposition to slavery Anthony Burns Eloquent ap- peal The Kansas-Nebraska Bill Mr. Pomeroy's zeal and activity The N. E. Emigrant's Aid Society Mr. Pomeroy, agent His incessant and protracted labors Mrs. Pomeroy's heroism The journey to Kansas The Bible and spelling-book Governors Rceder and Geary The border ruffians He gets possession of the town of Atcheson and its news- paper Stumps the State against the Lecompton fraud The famine "Seed Corn Pomeroy" His great efforts to feed the starving Chosen U. S. Senator Re-elected in 1807 A Radical in the best sense " The Slaveholder's Rebellion" Other measures His character 425-433 HON. CORNELIUS COLE. Birth Early education Graduates from Wesleyan university, Conn. Studies law Admitted to the Oswego bar Emigrates to California overland Digs gold In 1850 commences the prac- tice of law in Sail Francisco His opposition to slavery Defends some negroes whom it was sought to reduce to slavery again Marries Edits the Sacramento Daily Times Returns to the practice of his profession District Attorney for Sacramento Elected Representative in Congress in 1863 His speeches on the China mail line On slavery The Constitutional amendment for its abolition A friend of Mr. Lincoln Re-elected to the House, but chosen Senator by the Legislature in December, 1865 434-440 CONTEXTS. XIX HON. THADDEUS STEVENS. PAOI His two periods of public service His birth and early training Education at Dartmouth college Removal to Pennsylvania Teaches, and studies law at the same time Admitted to the bar Gains a large practice Enters upon a political career In the Pennsylvania legisla- tureMember of Constitutional convention, but refused to sign the Constitution because it restricted suffrage on account of color The imbroglio of the governors, Ritner and Porter Stevens said to be " Governor miner's conscience-keeper" A canal commissioner Removal to Lancaster Manufacturing Abandons politics A member of the XXXIst and XXXTId Congresses Opposes the Kansas-Nebraska and other bills in the interest of slavery Re- mains at home for six years Elected to the XXXVIth Congress, and each one since The leader of the House The measures he has initiated and supported His part in the Im- peachment trial His able plea He favors impartial suffrage Mr. W. H. Barnes's descrip- tion of him His grim humor _ 441-447 BEXJAMIN FRANKLIN BUTLER. Moral and physical qualities often inherited General Butler's ancestry His birth Death of his father Fitted for college Enters Waterville college, Maine Graduates Studies law- Voyage to Labrador His indomitable energy, and fondness for work His interest in poli- tics A democrat Delegate to national conventions A coalitionist in 1852 A member of the legislature, and of the constitutional convention Opposes the Know-Nothing party vehemently Deprived of his command as colonel by Governor Gardner He is elected Brigadier-General by the militia officers, and receives his commission from Governor Gard- ner Runs for Governor in 1858 and 1859, but is defeated A member of the State Senate The measures advocated A delegate to the Charleston Democratic convention in 1860 Hia opposition to southern aggressions there Nominates Breckinridge Unpopular at home- Runs again for Governor, but is badly defeated Visits Washington His eyes opened He returns home and urges Governor Andrew to prepare for war Starts for Washington with three regiments, one having gone the previous day, April 18, 1861 Landing at Annapolis The march from Annapolis to Washington Laying track all the way In command of the department of Annapolis Baltimore in rebel hands He takes possession of the city At Fortress Monroe Big Bethel Slaves " contraband of war" Expedition to Fort Hatteras The New Orleans expedition Butler commands the land forces Ship Island He takes pos- session of New Orleans His occupation and government of the city What he accomplished He is relieved of his command His services elsewhere in 1863 The New York riots In command of the army of the James The attack on Petersburg The Dutch Gap canal Subsequent movements Expedition against Fort Fisher Failure Subsequent reduction of the fort by Admiral Porter and General Terry General Butler elected to the XLth Con- gress One of the managers in the Impeachment trial His opening plea His character and ability as a lawyer Incidents illustrative of his satirical power He squelches Fer- nando Wood 443-465 HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY. Bu th Parentage Early struggles Removal to Boston Becomes skilled in the art of enam- elling Contributes to the newspapers of the day, and gains some reputation as a writer Removes to Philadelphia Studies law, and is admitted to the bar Is appointed attorney- general of the State Elected Judge of the Court of Common Pleas Re-elected upon an independent ticket Extracts from an address before the Linnasan Society of Pennsylvania college Was nominated as the Republican candidate for Congress, but not elected Elected and three times returned Was council for the Government in the prosecution of the pirates of the rebel privateer " Jeff. Davis" Speech on impartial suffrage Other important speeches in Congress and abroad Introduction of a bill securing the right of suffrage to the colored population of the District of Columbia Visit to the Southern States Opposition to Mr. Johnson's policy High character 466-474 XX CONTENTS. HON. JOHN A. BINGHAM. PAGS Mr. Bingham's conceded ability as a member of Congress, a debater, and a lawyer His birth and education He studies and practices law with distinction Election to Congress in 1854 Re-elected five times He is assigned a prominent place on important committees, and distin- guishes himself Judge-advocate in the Union army in 1864, and solicitor in tbe court of claims Assistant judge-advocate, in the trial of the assassins of President Lincoln Contro- versy with General Butler A manager in the Impeachment trial His personal appear- ance *' ^~~^ ' ' HON. JAMES F. WILSON. His eminence as a lawyer Birth and education Removes to I'airfield, Iowa A member of the Iowa constitutional convention Civil appointments Chosen State Senator Re-elected, and made president of the Senate Manifests remarkable ability Elected to Congress, and thrice re-elected Appointed chairman of the Judiciary Committee on the part of the House A very high honor for so young a member Acquits himself with great ability His speech ou granting impartial suffrage in the District of Columbia One of the Impeachment mana- gers 478-481 HON. ROSCOE CONKLING. Circumstances of Mr. Conkling's first election to Congress His birth and lineage His educa- tion He studies law Appointed district attorney for Oueida county Mayor of Utica Elected to Congress Thrice re-elected He detects and convicts some parties of frauds against the government The " ring" determine to crush him The exciting Congressional canvass of 1866 Mr. Conkling elected to the U. S. Senate in January, 1867 His intense radicalism The case of Judge Patterson, of Tennessee Mr. Conkling's speech 4S2-4S5 MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. Birth, and early advantages of education Scarcity of schools in Illinois at that time Enlists in the Mexican war Is promoted to be lieutenant and adjutant Returns home and studies law Elected county clerk Admitted to tho bar Elected Prosecuting attorney of third judicial district Sent to the Legislature Married Chosen presidential elector Elected to Congress in 1858 and in 1860 Joins the army as a private at tho battle of Bull Run Re- turns home to stir up his constituents to enlist Colonel 31st Illinois volunteers In battle of Belniont At Fort McIIenry Wounded at Fort Donelson Brigadier-general at Shiloh In command at Jackson, Tennessee Major-general of volunteers, November 29, 1S62 Takes part in the siege of Vicksburg Saves the day at Raymond, Mississippi, May 12, 1863 Makes the assault, June 25, on Vicksburg His column the first to enter the city of Vicksburg after its surrender He is made its military governor On furlough at the north in tho autumn of 1863, speaking in behalf of tho Union Commands tho fifteenth army corps from November, 1863 Takes part in the march to Atlanta and its terrible fighting " McPherson and revenge" In the Presidential campaign of 1864 Jcins his corps at Sa- vannah, and marches through the Carolinas Commander of the army of the Tennessee Appointed minister to Mexico, but declined Elected to tho XLth Congress from the State at large, receiving fifty-six thousand majority One of the Impeachment managers Charac- ter and personal appearance 486-490 HON. HENRY J. RAYMOND. Birth and childhood T^ai-ly struggles fir education Enters college, and graduates from tho University of Vermont in 1840 Goes to New York Commences the study of the law, sup- porting himself by literary labor His connection with the J\'cw Yorker and the Cincinnati Chronicle Becomes attached to the staff of the Tribune in April, 1841 Labors as reporter His reports of Lardner's and Lyell's lectures Becomes an editor of the Courier and En- quirer Edits Harper's Monthly for ten years The Fourier discussion Elected to the Leg- islatureRe-elected in 1850, and chosen speaker Visits Europe Eotablibhes the XcwYork CONTENTS. XXI PAGE Times A member of Whig National Convention in 852 Exciting scene Nominated for Lieutenant-Governor, and elected by a coalition Joins the Republican party Writes the Address to the People, of the National Convention at Pittsburg Supports and canvasses for Fremont Visits Europe again, and as an eye-witness describes the battle of Solforino En- gages actively in the canvass for Lincoln in I860 Letters to Yancey His support of the Government during the war His Wilmington speech Elected to Congress in 1864 His po- sition that of a moderate Republican The charge of political inconsistency Its injustice His speeches and votes in Congress The Philadelphia Convention of August, 1866 Mr. Raymond secretary, and writer of the address Failure of the convention Mr. Raymond withdraws from politics His ability as a writer and editor His published works His tal- ents as a public speaker 491-503 CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. His ancestry His birth Not fond of books Incidents of his boyhood The boat Resolutions and pertinacity of purpose The purchase of the perriauger Confidence of " Corneile the boatman" " Carry them under water part of the way" His stout defence of his rights Marriage The new perriauger and the schooner Worth 9000 Captain of a steamboat Plies between New York and New Brunswick Keeps a hotel also Leases the New York and Elizabethport ferrj- His success in all these enterprises The Livingston monopoly Captain Vanderbilt's expedient to avoid arrest The monopoly pronounced void Vanderbilt in business for himself He builds and runs lines of steamers on the Hudson, the Sound, and elsewhere Opposition lines His triumphs The Nicaragua transit Mr. Vanderbilt's energy and enterprise Makes the tour of Europe in his own steamship, the " North Star" His reception Discerns the necessity of increased facilities of communication with Europe Pro- position to Government It is not accepted Establishes an independent line of fast steamers to Havre One of his steamers, the Vanderbilt, makes the best time of any steamer on the Atlantic His subsequent gift of this steamer to the Government Resolution of thanks by Congress His title of Commodore Never insures either vessel or cargo Vanderbilt the RAILROAD KIXG Harlem R. R. Hudson River R. R. New York Central R. R. Erie R. R. The possible future Lord Paramount of Railroads His affection for his mother Kindness of heart Personal appearance 504-519 ABIEL ABBOT LOW. The enterprise and energy of the great merchant as worthy of record as the- victories of the war- rior Mr. Low's title to honor and esteem Birth Early education for business Removal to Brooklyn Residence in China Partnership there Return to America Establishes the house of A. A. Low & Brothers Takes the lead in the China trade Establishes a Japan house Losses during the war His large-handed liberality President of New York Cham- ber of Commerce His ability as a presiding officer His thorough patriotism and cheerful- ness His assistance to the Government Mr. Low in private life 520-523 JAY COOKE. Robert Morris and Jay Cooke Lineage of the Cooke family Eleutheros Cooke His talents, eminence, and position Birth of Jay Cooke His father's care for the education of his chil- drenJay determines to earn for himself Enters Mr. Hubbard's store as clerk Goes to St. Louis as bookkeeper and cleric Returns to Sandusky Bookkeeper for his brother-in-law in Philadelphia The firm broken up Returns to Sandusky Is offered a position by E. W. Clark & Co. Accepts, and is i-.i high favor Becomes a partner at 21 The barkeeper story Its falsity Jay Cooke's kindness He becomes the active business manager and leading partner in the firm of E. W. Clark & Co. Writes the first money article in a Philadelphia paper Retires from the firm in 1858 with a handsome fortune Forms a partnership with his brother-in-law in 1S61, under the name of Jay Cooke & Co. Object of this partnership- Negotiates State and Government loans The popular loan of fifty millions in 1861 Jay Cooke & Co. place one third of the amount taken The agency for the five hundred millions of five-twenties Jay Cooke appointed agent The risk and responsibility of the undertak- ing Government takes no risks His excessive labors The gloomy outlook at first The final CONTENTS. PA(J3 great success His compensation for this work very small Mr. Chase's economy Mr. Chase attempts to float a ten-forty loan Advance in price of gold The national banking system Its struggles at first Increasing demand of the Government for money Mr. Chase re- signsMr. Fessenden appointed Secretary Gold still rising Mr. Fossenden applies to Mr. Cooke to sell the now seven-thirties His agencies again in operation The efforts put forth Success End of the rebellion Operations of Jay Cooke & Co. since the war Mr. Cooke's liberality The rest for hard-worked persons 524-638 HON. HUGH McCULLOCH. Birth President of the State Bank of Indiana Comptroller of the currency Succeeds Mr. Fessenden as Secretary of the Treasury His financial views His management Sympa- thizes with Mr. Johnson 533 GEORGE PEABODY. Mr. Peabody the most princely giver of modern times His birth Adverse circumstances- Brief opportunities of early education A clerk at eleven years of age A partner in a busi- ness house at seventeen A partner in the wholesale dry-goods trade at nineteen Removed to Baltimore Branch houses in New York and Philadelphia in 1822 Tisits Europe The head of the house of Peabody, Riggs & Co. Visits Europe often Takes up his residence there in 1837 Withdraws from the firm in 1843, and establishes a banking house to deal in American securities His reputation for integrity and high honor His kindness to Ameri- cans Crystal palace exhibition Mr. Peabody's liberality The toast to the Danvers bi-centennial Donations to Danvers Contributes to the Grinuell Arctic Expedition His gifts for the founding of the Baltimore Institute Lodgings for the poor of London The Queen's acknowledgment of his generosity Visit to the United States in 1866 The educa- tional fund of $2,100,000 The noble gifts to Harvard and Yale Other donations Five millions of dollars in gifts 540-545 HOEACE GREELEY. Birth Family history Hardships in early life Picking stones His thirst for knowledge His cleverness at spelling The spelling match His eagerness in study His father removed to Bedford, New Hampshire More hard work His early choice of a vocation His father's failure Removal to Vermont Boy life in Vermont Bee hunting Teetotalism Becomes a Universalist Commences to learn the printer's trade The printing-office at East Poultney, Vermont The debating society His extraordinary memory The fugitive slave chase- The paper discontinued Mr. Greeley works at Sodus, New York, and at Erie, Pennsylvania Resolves to try his fortunes in New York city His description of his entry into the me- tropolis His early experiences The pocket Testament Other work He undertakes to publish a newspaper partnership wiiii Mr. Winchester The JVeJw Yorker prosperity Mar- riage The crisis of 1837 Living through it Mr. Gi polijy edits also the Jrffcrsonian in 1838, andtheio;? Cabin in "iS-iO Starting the Tribune His success Mr. McElrath a partner Fourierism The monthly American Laborer Book publishing The Evening and Semi- Weekly Tribune Burning of the Tribune office Mr. Greeley in Congress Great success of the Tribune Becomes an Association Mr. Grecley's " Hints towards reform" Visits Eng- land His services to popular literature there Other books His course during the war Mobbing of the office His " History of the American Conflict" Personal character and ways Peculiarities of opinion The Tribune his idol His independence of opinion 540-5G7 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. Birth His mother Superiority of her mind His father Apprenticeship Schools Inden- tured to a printer Writes for the paper Contributes to ether periodicals Starts two or three papers, but is unsuccessful His decided anti-slavery views Associates witli Benja- min Lundy, in Baltimore, as editor of the Genius of Emancipation His articles excite hos- tility Arrested and imprisoned, ou the charge of libel Release through Arthur Tappau's efforts Lectures on slavery Issues the first number of the Liberator ia January, 1S31 CONTENTS. PA61 His declarations Extreme poverty of himself and his partner His persecutions Organ- izes the New England Anti-Slavery Society Visits England in 1833 His cordial reception there American Anti-Slavery Society formed Mobs George Thompson obliged to return to England Mr. Garrison mobbed Inscription in his cell The peace question Mr. Gar- rison a non-resistant World's Anti-Slavery Convention Woman's rights Mr. Garrison again in Europe in 1840 His religious position His action during the war His efforts for emancipation Fort Sumter At the close of the war withdraws from the American Anti- Slavery Society Discontinues the Liberator Visits England in 1867 A banquet given him by John Bright and others Other honors American testimonial of $33,000 Letter of the committee Mr. Garrison's reply His letter to a friend 665-551 WENDELL PHILLIPS. Oratory an American gift What constitutes the most effective orator Is it natural or acquired Mr. Phillips' first public oration His birth and ancestry Educated at the Boston schools, Harvard college, and Cambridge law school His remarkable scholarship His fas- tidiousness Danger from this Garrison mobbed Phillips' sympathies roused He avows himself a co-worker with Garrison The thirty years' contest His ideal always in advance The business of his life His gifts as a public lecturer The Lovejoy murder Mr. Phil- lips' reply to the attorney-general at Faueuil Hall Mr. Phillips at the anniversaries of the American Anti-Slavery Society His power over his audiences He quells mobs by his man- ner Incident Mr. Delane, of the London Times Other reforms advocated by Mr. Phillips His versatility, and wide general culture He does iiot consider his work done His peculiarities Mr. Phillips in private life 582-689 REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. His popularity Reasons for it Versatility of talent Lectures Remarkable industry Culti- vated taste Extraordinary intellectual power of the Beecher family Dr. Lyman Beecher Birth of Henry Ward Death of his mother His youthful training Desire to go to sea- His love of humor in college and since His general culture The Saxon origin of most of his language His theological course Not a controversialist Settled at Lawrenceburg, In- diana Called to Indianapolis His remarkable popularity there Publishes lectures to young men Edits an agricultural paper Growing reputation Called to Plymouth church, Brooklyn Accepts The fashion to ' go and hear Beecher" Peculiarity of his preaching The crowded house maintained Growth of his church Increase of his salary Outside work His care of his body and brain His immense labors Edits the Independent For once overworked He goes to Europe Is compelled to speak there in behalf of his country- Mobs His success His subsequent labors for the soldiers His leaning to excessive mercy to the South His eyes opened His earnest patriotism 590-602 HOX. ANDREW GREGG CURIIX. Birth and education Ancestry Studies law Admitted to the bar Takes an interest in poli- ticsCanvasses for General Harrison, for Henry Clay, for General Taylor, and General Scott On the electoral ticket in 1848 and 1852 Declines nomination for Governor St Secretary Labors in behalf of education Devotes himself to the practice of law A leading railroad man Nominated and elected Governor ia I860 His incessant labors in raisir.g troops, organizing a reserve corps, and protecting Pennsylvania during the war Invasions of Pennsylvania Re-elected in 1863 Actively engaged in business since his retirement from office His political services Pressed by his friends for Vice-Presidency, but withdraws his name C03-C08 HON. GERRIT SMITH. His philanthropy His birth, lineage, and education Studies law Vice-President of Coloniza- tion Society Withdraws from it His eloquence His anti-slavery views Mental charac- teristics- -Philanthropy on other subjects Temperance Hostility to tobacco Prison reform ' Bleeding Kansas'' Land reform Gives away two hundred thousand acres of land, CONTENTS. PAOI mostly in small farms, and money with each Troubles with his colonists John Brown Elected to Congress Resigns Attacked violently by the press after the John Brown raid- Temporary insanity Sustains the Government during the war Helps to bail Jefferson Davis His religious views The reduction of his estate by his lavish giving His published works 607-611 THEODORE TILTON. Birth and education Early anti-slavery training Prefers journalism as a calling Engaged on . the Independent His advancement Becomes editor in chief His editorials His poems Mr. Tilton as a lecturer Speech at dinner of New England Society Personal appear- ance 612-618 HON. EZRA CORNELL. BirthEarly training Mechanical genius Builds a house In machine shop Takes a flour- ing mill In agricultural business Becomes interested in telegraphs Laying telegraph wire in pipes Originates the air-line plan Opposition of public men to telegraph lines at first Professor Renwick Mr. Cornell's success His large investments President of State Agricultural Society In State Senate The Cornell library at Ithica His magnificent benefactions to education The Cornell University Genessee College The agricultural land grant His plans The noble character of this beneficence 619-628 MATTHEW VASSAR. English birth Ancestry Emigration to this country Settlement in Dutchess county Sowing barley Making ale His preference for other business Misfortunes of his father's family Commences business as a brewer His success Marriage Amasses a large fortune Tour in Europe His ideas of some benevolent enterprise Different directions in which his atten- tion was turned Decides on a college for women Gives over $400,000 toward it Called VASSAR COLLEGE His views in regard to it The college Its perfection of arrangements Founder's Day 629-639 DANIEL DREW. Birth judgment and mechanical tact to load upon a wagon a number of pieces of heavy timber a foot square, and fourteen feet long with no aid except that of a horse. 20 MEN OF OUE DAY. His self-possession and imperturbability were fairly illus- trated in an incident which ^iis father relates of him as occurring when he was about twelve years old. " He drove a pair of horses to Augusta, Kentucky, twelve miles from Georgetown, and was persuaded to remain over night, in order to bring back two young ladies, who would not be ready to leave until the next morning. The route lay across White Oak Creek. The Ohio river had been rising in the night, and the back water in the creek was so high, when they came to cross it in returning, that the first thing they knew the horses were swimming, and the water was up to their own waists. The ladies were terribly frightened, and began to scream. In the midst of the excitement, Ulysses, who was on a forward seat, looked back to the ladies, and with an air perfectly undis- turbed, merely said : 'DorUt speak / will take you through safe. 1 " He was popular with his schoolfellows and the boys of his age, and though not a talker or boaster, not tyrannical or iir>- perious, not quarrelsome or violent, he fell naturally into his place as a leader among the boys. He was not remarkable as a scholar, though fond of mathematics and maintaining a creditable position in his studies generally. For the rest, he was a manly, active, industrious boy, with a clear head, a kind heart, a well balanced judgment, fond of all outdoor sports and labors, and with a well knit frame and a constitution of great vitality and endurance. Though always ready to work, he had a special dislike for the tanning business, and whenever called upon to do any work in connection with the tannery, he would find something else to do, and hire a boy to work there in his place. When he was a little more than sixteen years of age, his father called upon him one day to work with him in the beam-room of the tannery. He obeyed, but expressed to his father the strong GENERAL ULYSSES IMP8OX GKANT. 21 dislike lie felt for the business, and his determination not to follow it after he came of age. His father replied that he did not wish him to work at it unless he was disposed to follow it in after life, and inquired what business he would like to enter upon. He answered that he would like either to be a farmer, a down-the-river trader, or to get an education. The first two avocations his father thought out of the question, as he was then situated, but inquired how he would like to go to the Military Academy at West Point. This suited the boy exactly, and the father hearing that there was a vacancy in his own Congressional District, then represented by the Hon. (afterward General) Thomas S. Hamer, made application, and Ulysses was appointed immediately, and in the summer of 1839, was admit- ted as a cadet in the Military Academy. The standard of admission at West Point was then very low, and he was below most of his eighty-seven classmates in scholarship. Several of them had graduated from college before entering the Academy, and all had enjoyed much better advantages than he, yet at the end of the four years' course, only thirty-nine graduated, and among these Ulysses S. Grant stood twenty-first midway of the class. He ranked high in mathematics and in all cavalry exercises, and had made good progress in engineering and fortification studies. His demerits were almost wholly of a trivial character, violations of some of the minor regulations of etiquette, in the buttoning of his coat, the tying of his cravat or shoes, or matters of that sort. Dr. Coppee, now President of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who was at West Point with Grant, says of him : " I remember him as a plain, common sense, straight-forward youth ; quiet, rather of the old head on the young shoulders order; shunning notoriety ; quite contented while others were grumbling ; taking to his military duties in a very business-like 22 MEN OF OUR DAY. manner ; not a prominent man in the corps, but respected by all and very popular with his friends. The soubriquet of " Uncle Sam" was given him there, wherr every good fellow has a nick- name, from these very qualities ; indeed he was a very uncle- like sort of youth. He was then and always an excellent horseman, and his picture rises before me as I write, in the old torn-coat, obsolescent leather gig-top, loose riding pantaloons with spurs buckled over them, going with his clanging saber to the drill-hall. He exhibited but little enthusiasm in any thing ; his best standing was in the mathematical branches and their application to tactics and military engineering." On his graduation in 1843, cadet Grant was assigned a posi- tion as brevet second lieutenant of the fourth regiment, United States Infantry, and joined his regiment in the autumn of that year, at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri. He had a classmate, Frederick T. Dent, who was from St. Louis, and who had been assigned like himself to the fourth infantry. The two were warm friends, and Lieutenant Dent (now Brigadier- General Dent, on General Grant's staff) took his classmate to his own hotoe, whenever they could obtain leave. Here he formed the acquaintance of the estimable lady, then Miss Maria Dent, whom five years subsequently he married. His stay at Jeffer- son Barracks was not long. In less than a year he was ordered to Camp Salubrity, Natchitoches, Louisiana, and a year later to the Mexican frontier, under the order for military occupation of Texas. There, on the 30th of September, 1845, he attained his commission as second lieutenant, and by special favor, was allowed to remain in the fourth infantry, though his appoint- ment was originally made out to the seventh. "When the war with Mexico at last commenced, the fourth infantry formed a part of General Zachary Taylor's army of occupation, and Lieutenant Grant took as active a part as his rank and position GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 23 permitted, in the battles of Palo Alto, May 8, 1846, Eesaca de la Palma, May 9, Monterey, September 21-23, where his gallant conduct received honorable mention from his comman- der, and in the siege of Yera Cruz, March 9-29, 1847. On the 1st of April, he was appointed quartermaster of the fourth infantry, preparatory to the long and difficult march upon the city of Mexico, and he held this position from that time, to July 23, 1848, after the close of the Mexican war. But though his early experiences qualified him to fill this position with great ability, he did not, as by the army regulations he might, consider himself excused from service in the field. He was in nearly every battle of the campaign ; at Cerro Gordo, April 17- 18, 1847, at San Antonio, August 20, at Churubusco, the same day, at Molino del Key, September 8, where his gallant and meritorious conduct procured him a brevet of first lieutenant, and the praise of his commander, at the storming of Chapultepec, September 13, where he won a brevet of captain and the encomiums of that stern old soldier General Worth, and at the assault and capture of the city of Mexico, September 13-18, 1847, where he obtained the more substantial honor of a promotion, two days later, to the first lieutenancy in his regi- ment. After the war, he was assigned to garrison duty at Sackett's Harbor, New York, for a year, then again made quartermaster of his regiment, which position he held for four years, to September 30, 1853. He had married in 1848, soon after his return from Mexico, and the next four years were passed in quiet garrison duty, at Sackett's Harbor, Detroit, Michigan, again at Sackett's Harbor, and at Fort Columbus, New York. But in 1852, he was assigned to duty at Benicia, California, and subsequently at Columbia Barracks, and at Fort Vancouver, Oregon, and Fort Humboldt, California. In August, 1853, he attained to a captaincy, and after another year's service 24: MEN OF OUR DAY. on the Pacific slope, he resigned his commission, July 31, 1854 He was prompted to this step by several considerations. It was a time of peace, and the prospect of rapid promotion was slight, especially to a man who had not thus far developed those brilliant qualities, which sometimes enable a man to mount rapidly, even in peace, the ladder of promotion ; the pay of a captain in the regular army, especially with the great cost of every thing on the Pacific coast at that time, was not sufficient to furnish more than a bare support to a man with a family ; he was liable to be assigned almost constantly, as he had been for two years already, to duty on frontier posts, where he could not take his family, and where the associations were unpleasant. He was now thirty-two years old, and if he was to be any thing more than a poor, army captain, it was time that he should make a beginning. Such are the reasons assigned by his family for this step, which seemed for a time to be an unfortunate one. Shall we add another, which there is every reason for believing to be true, and which, rightly considered, does him honor ? In the monotony and tedium of barrack and garrison life, and surrounded by rough associates, he had formed the habit, it is said, of drinking freely, and that habit was becoming so marked, that the War Department had thought it necessary to reprove him for it. By abandoning his associates and the associations in which he had been thrown on the Pacific coast, there was an opportunity for him to enter upon, a new life, and to abstain thenceforward from this ruinous indulgence. He returned to the east, and having rejoined his family, who had remained at his father's, during his absence on the Pacific, he removed to the vicinity of St. Louis, where his father-in-law had given his wife a small farm, and his father had stocked it. Captain Grant put in practice his resolution to abandon all intoxicating drinks, and labored zealously on his farm for four years. President GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRAN I. 25 Coppee speaks of having met Mm at St. Louis in his farmer's rig, whip in hand, and having enjoyed a very pleasant inter- view with him, at which Joseph J. Eeynolds, Don Carlos Buell, and Major Chapman of the cavalry were also present. He adds, " If Grant had ever used spirits, as is not unlikely, I distinctly remember that, upon the proposal being made to drink, Grant said, 1 1 will go in and look at you, for I never drink any thing ;' and the other officers who saw him frequently, afterward told me that he drank nothing but water." But he was not destined to succeed as a farmer. He was industrious, steady, and economical, but it was all in vain. In 1858, he relinquished the farm and moved into St. Louis, and at first undertook the real-estate business with a man named Boggs, but after a few months' trial, finding that the business was not sufficient to support both families, he relinquished it to Ms partner and sought for something else. . He next obtained a position in the custom house, -but the death of the collector who appointed him, caused him to lose that in a few months. He had endeavored while on his farm to eke out his scanty income by occasionally acting as collector, as auctioneer, etc., but with- out any considerable success. Meanwhile, his father had been prospering, and had, in con- nection with two of his younger sons, established a leather and harness store at Galena, Illinois. He now offered Ulysses a posi- tion and interest in this store, which was gladly and thankfully accepted. For two years he continued in this business, wMch seemed better suited to his tastes than the farm. It is said, that up to this time he had been a Democrat in his political views. With his father's strong "Whig and Eepublican sentiments, this hardly seems probable. It is more credible that, as he himself is reported to have said, he had not voted for years, and had taken very little interest in national affairs 26 MEN OF OUE DAY. The education and general tone of feeling among the officers of the army, had made them, to a great extent, sympathizers with the South, pro-slavery in their views, and opposed to the Eepublicans, whom they regarded as, in some sort, the Abolitionists under a new name. How far Captain Grant shared these feelings, is uncertain. One thing we know, he possessed that fine soldierly instinct of honor and loyalty, which was wanting in so many of his for- mer comrades. When the Southern troops fired on the nation- al flag at Sumter, he only knew that it was his country which was assailed, and thenceforward there was no question of poli- tics. "On that morning of April 15, 1861," says a lady friend, who was in his family, " he laid down the paper containing the account of the bombardment, walked round the counter, and drew on his coat, saying : ' I am for the war to put down this wicked rebellion. The Government educated me for the army, and though I served faithfully through one war, I feel still a little in debt for my education, and am ready to discharge the obligation.' " He went out into the streets of Galena, aided in organizing and drilling a company of volunteers, with whom he marched to Springfield, the capital of the State. He had no ambition to serve as commander of this company, and hence declined their nomination of him for captain. Hon. E. B. "Washburne, then member of Congress from the Galena District, and his firm friend, then and since, accompanied him to Spring- field, and introduced him to Governor Yates, who at once of- fered him the position of adjutant-general, which he accepted, and filled very successfully. When the first quotas from Illinois had been organized, and mostly mustered into service, Adjutant- General Grant made a flying visit to his father at Covington, Kentucky, and while there, Governor Yates, finding that the colonel of the 21st Illinois volunteer regiment was entirely GENERAL ULYSSES SlilPSOX GRANT. 27 unfit for his position, removed him, and telegraphed Grant that he had appointed him to the vacancy. He was on his way to Springfield at that time, and immediately assumed com- mand. In a short time they were under most admirable disci- pline, and an alarm occurring in regard to a Eebel attack upon Quincy, Illinois, he marched them thither on foot, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, a feat at that time considered most extraordinary* The first service to which the 21st Illinois was assigned, was to guard the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad. Several regi- ments having been ordered to this service, it was necessary that one of the regimental commanders should become acting brig- adier-general, and control the whole, as no brigadier-general had been assigned to the command. For this office Grant, who, though the youngest colonel on the ground, was the only gra- duate of West Point, was selected, and took command at Mexico, Missouri, July 31, 1861. On the 9th of August, Colonel Grant was commissioned brigadier-general (his commission dating from the 17th of May), and sent with an adequate force to southern Missouri, where the rebel General Jeff. Thompson was threatening an advance. He visited Ironton, superintended the erection of fortifications there and at Marble creek, and, leaving a garrison in each place to defend it, hastened to Jefferson City, which was also threatened, and protected it from rebel attacks for ten days, when Thompson, having abandoned his purpose, General Grant left the Missouri capital to enter upon the com- mand of the important district of Cairo. It was while he was in southern Missouri, his biographers say, that he issued his famous special order concerning Mrs. Selvidge's pie. The incident, which illustrates somewhat forci- bly the quiet humor which is a marked characteristic of the general, was something like this : 28 MEN OF OUE DAY. In tlie rapid marches of his force in Southern Missouri their rations were often scanty, and not very palatable, but the region was poor and sparsely settled, and, for the most part, there was no chance of procuring food from the inhabitants of the country through which they were passing. At length, however, they emerged into a better and more cultivated section, and Lieute- nant "Wickham, of an Indiana cavalry regiment, who was in command of the advanced guard of eighty men, halted at a farm-house of somewhat more comfortable appearance than any which they had passed, and entered the building with two second lieutenants. Pretending to be Brigadier-General Grant, he demanded food for himself and his staff. The family, whose loyalty was somewhat doubtful, alarmed at the idea of the Union general being on their premises, hastily brought forward the best their house afforded, at the same time loudly protesting their attachment to the Union cause. The lieutenants ate their . ill, and, offering to compensate their hosts, were told that there was nothing to pay ; whereupon they went on their way, chuck- ling at their adroitness in getting so good a dinner for nothing. Soon after, General Grant, who had halted his army for a short rest a few miles further back, came up, and being rather favor- ably impressed with the appearance of the farm-house, rode up to the door and asked them if they would cook him a meal. The woman, who grudged the food already furnished to the self-styled general and his staff, replied gruffly, " No ! General Grant and his staff have just been here, and eaten every thing in the house, except one pumpkin-pie." "Ah!" said Grant; "what is your name?" " Selvidge," answered the woman. Tossing her a half-dollar, the general asked, " Will you keep that pie until I send an officer for it ?" " I will," said the woman. GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 29 The general and staff rode on, and soon a camping ground was selected, and the regiments were notified that there would be a grand parade at half-past six for orders. This was unusual, and neither officers nor men could imagine what was coming. The parade was formed, however, ten columns deep, and a quar- ter of a mile in length. After the usual review, the assistant adjutant-general read the following : " HEADQUARTERS, ARMY is THE FIELD. "Special Order, No. . "Lieutenant Wickham, of the Indiana Cavalry, having on this day eaten every thing in Mrs. Selvidge's house, at the cross- ing of the Ironton and Pocahontas and Black river and Cape Girardeau roads, except one pumpkin pie, Lieutenant "Wickham is hereby ordered to return with an escort -of one hundred cavalry, and eat that pie also. "U. S. GKANT, "Brigadier-general commanding." The attempt to evade this order was useless, and at seven o'clock the lieutenant filed out of camp with his hundred men, amid the cheers of the whole army. The escort witnessed the eating of the pie, the whole of which the lieutenant succeeded in devouring, and returned to camp. The post of Cairo, the headquarters of the district to the command of which General Grant was now ordered, was one, from its position, of great importance to the Union cause. It commanded both the Ohio and the Upper Mississippi, and was the depot of supplies for an extensive region above, and subse- quently below. Grant's command extended along the shores o.f the Mississippi as far as Cape Girardeau, and on the Ohio to the mouth of Green river, and included western Kentucky. That State, at this time, was trying to maintain a neutral posi- tion, favoring neither the Union nor the rebels, a position which was as absurd as it was soon found to be impossible. 30 MEN OF OUR DAY. The rebels were the first to cross the lines, and take possession of the important towns of Columbus and Hickman, on -the Mississippi, and Bowling Green, on the Green river, all of 'which they fortified. General Grant was apprized of these vio- lations of Kentucky's professed neutrality, and as they afforded him ample justification for occupying positions within the State, he quietly sent a body of troops, on the 6th of September, up the Ohio to Paducah, a town at the mouth of the Tennessee, and took possession of it at the time when the secessionists there were looking for the entry of the rebel troops, who were marching to occupy it. The rage of these enemies of the coun- try can be better imagined than described. Rebel flags were flaunted in the faces of our troops, and they were told that they should not long retain possession of the town. This did not, however, in the least disturb the equanimity of General Grant. He issued a proclamation to the inhabitants in- forming them of his reasons for taking possession of the town, and that he was prepared to defend the citizens against the en- emy ; and added, significantly, that he had nothing to do with opinions, but should deal only with armed rebellion, and its aiders and abettors. * On the 25th of September he dispatched a force to Smithland at the mouth of the Cumberland river, and took possession of that town also. The principal avenues through which the re- bels had obtained supplies of food, clothing, arms, and ammuni- tion, from the North, were thus effectually closed. When General Grant was assigned to the command at Cairo, General McClernand's brigade and some other troops were added to his own brigade. Having taken possession of Paducah and Smithland, he now began to turn his attention to Colum- bus, Kentucky, an important position, held by the rebel Major- General Polk (a former bishop of the Protestant Episcopal GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 81 Church), with a force of twenty thousand men. He had nearly completed his arrangements for attacking this post, when the Government ordered him to send five of his regiments to St. Louis. This left him too weak to make the attack with any hope of success. On the 16th of October, General Grant, having learned that the rebel General Jeff. Thompson was approaching Pilot Knob? Missouri, and evidently purposing an extensive raid through southeastern Missouri, ordered fifteen hundred men, under Colonel Plummer, then stationed at Cape Girardeau, to move towards Fredericktown, Missouri, by way of Jackson and Dal- las, forming a junction at the latter place with Colonel Carlin, who had been ordered to move with three thousand men from another point, and, pursuing Thompson, to defeat and rout his force. The expeditions were successful. Thompson was found on the 21st of October, not far from Dallas, on the Greenville road, and, after an action of two and a half hours, defeated and routed with very heavy loss. Colonel Plummer captured in this engagement forty -two prisoners and one twelve-pounder. By this expedition, General Grant ascertained the position and strength of Jeff. Thompson's forces, and learned also that the rebels were concentrating, a considerable force at Belmont, Missouri, nearly opposite Columbus, Kentucky, with a view to blockade the Mississippi river, and to move speedily upon his position at Cairo. Having received orders to that effect from his superior officers, General Grant resolved to break up this camp, although aware that the rebels could be reinforced to al- most any extent from Columbus, Kentucky. On the evening of the 6th of November, General Grant em- barked two brigades, in all about two thousand eight hundred and fifty men, under his own and General McClernand's com- mand, on board river steamers, and moved down the Missis- 32 MEN OF OUR DAT. sippi. He had previously detached small bodies of troops to threaten Columbus from different directions, and to deceive' the rebels as to his intentions. The ruse was successful, and the force which he commanded in person reached the vicinity of Belmont, and landed before the enemy had comprehended their intention. The Union troops, disembarking with great prompt- ness, marched rapidly towards the rebel camp, a distance of about two and a half miles, and, forcing their way through a dense abatis and other obstructions, charged through the camp, capturing their camp equipage, artillery, and small-arms, and burned the tents, blankets, etc. They also took a large number of prisoners. The rebel force at the camp was not far from 4000, but General Polk, learning of the attack, sent over as re- inforcements 1 eight regiments, or somewhat more than 4000 more troops, under the command of Generals Pillow and Cheat- ham, and finally crossed the river himself and took command. General Grant having accomplished all, and more than he ex- pected, and being aware that Belmont was covered by the bat- teries at Columbus, and that heavy reinforcements could be read- ily sent from thence, made no attempt to hold the position, but withdrew in good order. On their way to their transports, the Union troops were confronted by the fresh rebel force under Folk's command, and a severe battle ensued, during which a considerable number of the rebel prisoners made their escape ; and there were heavy losses in killed and wounded on both sides, the Union loss amounting to nearly one hundred killed, and four hundred or five hundred wounded and missing, the larger part of whom were prisoners. "What was the exact rebel loss has never transpired, but it is known to have been larger than this, the number of prisoners alone exceeding the total Union loss. The Union troops at length succeeded in reaching their transports and re-embarking, under the protection of the GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 33 gunboats Tyler and Lexington, which had convoyed them, bringing with them two cannon which they had captured, and spiking two others, which they were obliged to abandon. On the 20th of December, General Halleck, who was then in command of the western department, reorganized the districts of his command, and enlarged the district of Cairo, including in it all the southern portion of Illinois, all of Kentucky west of. the Cumberland river, and the southern counties of Missouri, and appointed Brigadier-General Grant commander of the new district. The large numbers of troops newly mustered in, which were pouring into the district, kept the commander and his sub- ordinate officers very busy for five or six weeks in organizing, training, and distributing them to the points where their ser- vices were required. Desirous of testing the capacity and en- durance of his raw troops, for the severe work which was be- fore them, Brigadier-General Grant made, on the 14th of Janu- ary, 1862, a reconnoissance in force into southeastern Missouri, which proved successful in all respects. He next, while keep- ing up a feint of attacking Columbus, Kentucky, prepared to co-operate with the gunboat flotilla, under the command of Flag Officer A. H. Foote, in an attack upon the two rebel forts on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, Forts Henry and Donelson. This attack was first suggested by that able officer, General Charles F. Smith, who died shortly after the battle of Shiloh, but it was pressed upon General Halleck, then in command of the Department of the Mississippi, by General Grant, with such pertinacity and earnestness, that it was finally ordered by that officer. The attack on Fort Henry, a small but strong work on the Tennessee river, was first in the order of time, and General Grant's part in it was delayed by the condition of the roads so much that General Tilghman, who was in command had time to send off most of his troops to Fort Donelson, and surrendered 3 34 MEN OF OUR DAY. the remainder to Flag-officer Foote after a brief action, before General Grant reached the immediate vicinity of the fort. Grant proceeded immediately to attack the much more con- siderable fortress of Donelson, on the Cumberland, which here approaches within a few miles of the Tennessee. This fortress had a garrison of fifteen or sixteen thousand rebel troops, and was . not a remarkably strong work, though from its position it was somewhat difficult to carry by assault. Grant had about 16,000 troops with him, most of whom had not been in any action, and the number was insufficient to invest so large a fort properly. He was reluctant, however, to await the coming of the gun- boats, which had carried off the glory at Fort Henry, and hence commenced operations at once, and carried some of the out- works. The gunboats came up on the morning of the 14th (the Carondelet having arrived the previous day, and made a short assault, but without particular result), and went into action, while an attack was made by the troops on the land- side. Unfortunately, the best gunboats were soon disabled, and Flag-officer Foote himself wounded, and they were com- pelled to withdraw ; and the land attack was not simultaneous, or forcibly delivered. The assault upon, or siege of a fort, was new business to the national troops, and their commander had had but little experience in it ; but he resolved to besiege the enemy. The next morning, however, before the arrangements for the siege were fully completed, the rebels made a sortie, broke the Union line, and captured two batteries of artillery. The Union troops rallied, and retook most of their guns ; but the conflict was of uncertain issue, and could have been easily turned in favor of either side, when General Grant, who had been coolly looking on, ordered General Charles F. Smith's division to charge the enemy. The order was obeyed with great spirit by the veteran officer, and General Grant followed GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GKANT. 35 it by ordering up Lew. Wallace's division, which had broken in the morning, but which now charged bravely at the other end of the line. These divisions gained a position within the outer lines of the fort ; and Generals Pillow and Floyd, who were the senior rebel generals in command, were convinced that the fort would be captured, and insisted on making their escape. General Buckner protested, but in vain. They fled before daylight, taking a few troops with them ; and Buckner, who had been at "West Point with Grant, sent a flag of truce, on the morning of February 16th, to the Union headquarters, asking for an armistice, and the appointment of commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation. Grant's answer has become historic, as it deserved. It was : " No terms, other than uncon- ditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." This brought the haughty Buckner to terms, and though protesting against " the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms," he surrendered at once ; and 14,623 prisoners, and a large amount of materials of war, were de- livered over to the Union general. This success was due mainly to three causes the superior fighting qualities of Grant's force, though raw troops ; the calmness and coolness of the general himself, which enabled him to discern the favorable moment for a bold and decisive stroke when the con- flict was evenly poised ; and the cowardice and weakness of the rebel generals. As a siege, or a systematic action for the reduction of a fort, it would not bear criticism ; and we doubt not the general himself is as fully aware of this, and would now criticise it as severely as any one else. After the capture of Donelson, and the occupation of Clarks- ville and Nashville by Buell's forces, General Grant came near falling into disfavor with General Halleck for trespassing upon General Buell's command. He was however speedily forgiven. 36 MEN OF OUR DAT. and sent forward to the vicinity of Corinth, Mississippi, to select a camp for his army, and bring it up to a suitable point for giving battle to the rebels. There can be no question that Corinth should have been the place selected, and that, for two or three weeks, it might have been seized and held without difficulty. Failing in this, through manifold delays, the camp should have been on the north bank of the Tennessee. Instead of this, by some blunder it was located near the south bank of the river, at Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh Church, and the troops as they came up were allowed to choose their locations very much as they pleased ; and though they were less than twenty miles from the enemy's camp, no patrols or pickets were maintained in the direction of the enemy, nor any breastworks erected; and all was ease and unconcern. General Grant's headquarters were at Savannah, six miles below, and the troops as they arrived were sent forward. Meantime, the rebels were at Corinth, under the command of the ablest general of their army, General Albert Sydney Johnston, and, having acccumu- lated a large force, were ready to take the offensive. Grant had been promoted to be major-general of volunteers, dating from February 16th, 1862, the day of the surrender of Fort Donel- son, and had been in command of the district of West Ten- nessee from March 5th ; but he seems not to have had any pre- vision of the magnitude of the coming battles, if indeed his easy victory at Fort Donelson, had not inspired him with a doubt whether there would be a battle at all. He evidently did not consider it imminent, for he had sent word to Buell that he need not hasten. It was to this picturesque, but de- cidedly unmilitary collection of camps, that the rebel general, A. S. Johnston, one of the ablest soldiers of the present cen- tury, was approaching, with a force of over 40,000 men, on the 2d of April, 1862, and anticipating, as he had a right to GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 37 do, an easy victory. The heavy rain and deep mud delayed him for three days within six or eight miles of the Union camp, but no one discovered his approach. On the morning of the 6th of April he attacked Prentiss's division ; and though they made a gallant resistance, for men utterly surprised, they were soon broken, and many of them taken prisoners. Sher- man's division held their ground firmly for a time, and finally, by falling back a short distance, obtained a better position, from which they were only partially pushed back during the day. Hurlburt's and W. H. L. Wallace's divisions were par- tially broken, but fought sturdily, yet despairingly, through the day. The fugitives and deserters were numerous, and the whole force was driven back for nearly two and a half miles, till they only occupied about half a mile on the river bank. The outlook seemed a gloomy one, but the occasion was one which developed all the great qualities of Grant. On the field from ten o'clock, A. M., directing, with the utmost coolness and imperturbability, the movements of the troops ordering the gathering of the scattered artillery, and massing it where it could be used most effectually upon the enemy availing him- self of the gunboats as soon as possible, to protect by their fire the position of his troops noticing every thing that was trans- piring, and yet to all human appearance the calmest and most self-possessed man on the field his conduct during the battle merits only the highest praise. Toward the close of the day, an officer said to him, " Does not the prospect begin to look gloomy ?" " Not at all," was his quiet reply ; " they can't force our lines around these batteries to-night it is too late. Belay counts every thing with us. To-morrow we shall attack them with fresh troops, and drive them, of course !" He was right. The enemy, exhausted, and suffering from the heavy fire of the batteries and gunboats, could not dislodge them that 38 MEN OF OUR DAY. night; and during the night Lew. Wallace's division crossed the river, and Buell came up ready to cross. The contest of the next day, April 7th, though a sharp one, was in favor of the Union troops from the beginning, and by a little after noon the rebels, who had lost their commanding general the day before, were in full retreat. The losses were about equal, and amounted in both armies, in killed, wounded, missing, and prisoners, to nearly 30,000. Grant's army held their position, and the rebels fell back ; the former were therefore entitled to claim it as a victory, but it was a costly one. General Halleck now took the field in person, and under the pretence of making Grant his second in command, virtually took all command from him. This led to a coolness between the two, and Grant was for a time greatly depressed in spirits. He took part in the siege of Corinth, but was constantly hampered by the dilatoriness of his chief. After General Hal- leck was called to Washington as general-in-chief, Grant was in command of the Army of the Tennessee, but was unable to do much until September, Bragg and Buell being engaged in the race into Kentucky and back. He planned, however, the movements which resulted in the battle of luka, September 19, where he commanded in person ; and in the battles of Corinth, October 3d and 4th, which were fought by General Eosecrans ; and in the battle of the Hatchie, October oth, which was under his immediate direction. In the autumn he made his head- quarters in Memphis, where he soon, by his stringent and de- cided orders, changed that state of affairs, which had led the rebels to say, that Memphis was more valuable to them in Union hands than in those of their own people. The popular clamor throughout the country, and particularly in the West, was for the opening of the Mississippi. Vicksburg on the north, and Port Hudson on the south, blockaded all GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 39 transit up or down this great river, so long the free channel of western produce and traffic. The efforts which had been made to break through these obstructions since the war commenced, had all failed, from the inherent strength of the fortifications, the difficulty of assailing them effectually in front, and the strength of their garrisons. General Grant had turned his at- tention to the solution of this great problem, almost as soon as the command of the Department of the Tennessee was assigned to him, in October, 1862. He was aware of the formidable char- acter of the fortifications of Yicksburg, and that they had been, during 1862, strengthened by every method and device known to engineering skill. For ten miles and more, the eastern shore of the Mississippi, above and below the city, as well as all the adjacent heights, Chickasaw Bluffs, Walnut Bluffs, Haines' / Bluff, and the shores of the Yazoo, were covered with fortifica- tions, and the rear of the city also. At many points, these stood tier above tier, and were capable of pouring a concen- trated fire upon any object in the river, which it seemed as if nothing built by human hands could resist. His first plan was to distribute his stores and supplies along the Mississippi Central railroad, and then moving rapidly down that road, as- sault and carry Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, and march thence swiftly upon the rear of Yicksburg, sending General "W. T. Sherman from Memphis, with a considerable force to demonstrate simultaneously on Chickasaw Bluffs, at the north- west of the city. This plan, which seemed the most feasible one, was defeated by the cowardice and treachery of Colonel Murphy, who, with a force of 1,000 men, was in command at Holly Springs, Miss- issippi, Grant's main depot of supplies, and surrendered with- out attempting any defence, on the 20th of December, 1862, to a rebel force slightly larger than his own. The rebels hastily 4:0 MEJST OP OUE DAY. destroyed the supplies, valued at 4,000,000, and evacuated the place. But Grant could not go on with his expedition, and unfortunately he was unable to apprise General Sherman, and prevent his departure ; and after a succession of disastrous as- saults upon the bluffs, finding that General Grant had failed to come to time, that general was obliged to withdraw with heavy losses. But Grant was not the man to give up an enterprise on which he had set his heart, in consequence of a single re- pulse. Eenewing his stock of supplies, he next turned his attention to some plan, as yet he hardly knew what, for carry- ing the fortress, from the front. He moved his army to Young's Point, Louisiana, a short distance above Yicksburg. He soon found that there was no hope of reaching the rear of the city by a movement from the east bank of the Mississippi above it. A line of hills admirably adapted, and as admirably improved for defence, stretched from Vicksburg to Haines' Bluff, on the Yazoo, twelve miles above the entrance of that stream into the Mississippi. The land in front of these hills is a deep marsh, neither land nor water. There remained then but two courses, either to enter the Yazoo above Haines' Bluff, and coming down to the east of that fortified point, attack the city in rear, or finding some mode of passing or evading the batteries on the Mississippi, land some distance below, and approach it from the south. There was also a faint hope that by completing a canal, begun the previous summer, across the neck of land formed by the bend of the Mississippi, and thus creating a new channel for that river, the Union vessels might be able to pass below the city, but the fact that the lower end of the canal was exposed to the fire of some of the heaviest batteries, made this project less feasible, and the flood destroyed their works, and partially filled the canal with silt and mud. The attempts to gain the rear of the city by way of the Yazoo GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, 41 were equally unsuccessful, both through the Old Yazoo Pass, and subsequently by a more circuitous route through Steele's Bayou, Black Bayou, Dutch creek, Deer creek, Eolling Fork and Sunflower river ; the rebels having planted earthworks and batteries at such points as to prevent progress by either. Turning his attention then to the methods of reaching the Mississippi below Yicksburg, two routes were attempted on the west side of the river and both failed ; one was by Lake Provi- dence and the Tensas river, a tortuous route and only practica- ble for vessels of light draft ; the other by way of certain Loui- siana bayous, through which in flood time it was possible to reach the Tensas, Eed, and Mississippi rivers. Before the vessels could reach their destination, the water fell, and even the steam- ers of lightest draught could not get through. A small quan- tity of supplies was forwarded by the Lake Providence route, but nothing more. General Grant now determined to march his troops by land down the west side of the river as soon as the roads should be sufficiently dry. But it was necessary that a part of the gunboats and iron clads should be below Vicksburg, both in order to ferry the troops across the river and to engage the batteries at Grand Gulf, and a considerable amount of sup- plies must also be sent down by transports. These must all run past the terrible batteries of Vicksburg. Admiral Porter undertook this heroic and daring expedition, and conducted it successfully, running past the batteries with five or six gunboats and sixteen or eighteen transports, in two divisions, on different nights. Two of the transports were burned, but none of the gunboats were seriously injured. The overland march of the troops occupied thirty days, in traversing a distance of seventy miles, to Hard Times, a hamlet of Louisiana nearly opposite Grand Gulf. The squadron were ready and attacked Grand Gulf, but could not silence its bat- 42 MEN OF OUR DAY. teries. That night both the squadron and transports ran past the batteries, and the troops marched ten miles farther, and were ferried over to Bruinsburg and marched rapidly from this point north-eastward toward Port Gibson. The thirteenth and seven- teenth corps encountered a considerable force of the enemy, whom, they defeated after a sharp battle, and moved on to and across Bayou Pierre. The next day it was ascertained that Grand Gulf, which had been flanked by this movement, had been evacuated, and General Grant repaired thither with a small escort, and made arrangements to make it' his base of supplies for a time. These arrangements occupied nearly a week. By his orders, as nearly as possible simultaneously with the landing of the two corps at Bruinsburg, General Sherman had made a strong demonstration upon Haines' Bluff and the Yazoo, and had thus attracted the attention of the rebels toward that quar- ter, where they believed the entire Union army were concen- trated, and prevented them from opposing their landing below. This being accomplished, Sherman's troops made all speed in marching to the rendezvous on the river, where the transports were in waiting to take them over to Grand Gulf. Before leaving Young's Point, General Grant had also ordered an expedition by a competent cavalry force, under the command of Colonel, now General Benjamin H. Grierson, to start from Lagrange, at the junction of the Mississippi Central and Memphis and Charleston railroads, to follow the lines of the Mobile and Ohio and Mississippi Central railroads, and destroy as much of these, and the Meridian and Jackson railroad, as possible, capturing and destroying also all stores, ammunition, locomotives, and railroad cars possible, in their route. This expedition was thoroughly successful, and reached Baton Eouge on the 1st of May, at the time Grant was fighting the battle of Port Gibson. Other raids were ordered about the same time GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 43 from Middle Tennessee, which aided in breaking up the railroad communications and frustrating the plans of the rebels. Our space does not allow us to go into details of the subse- quent masterly movements by which, while apparently threat- ening an immediate attack on Yicksburg from the south, the garrison there, under the command of General Pemberton, were prevented from forming a junction with General J. E. Johnston's troops, then in the vicinity of Jackson, nor of the battle of Eaymond, the capture of Jackson, and the destruction of the property and manufactories of the rebel Government there ; the rapid march westward, the severe battles of Champion Hill and of Black Eiver bridge, and the eminently skilful management of the corps of Generals Sherman and McPherson. Suffice it to say, that General Grant interposed his army between the forces of Johnston and Pemberton, drove the former, broken and routed, northward, and compelled the latter to put himself and his defeated army as soon as possible within the defences of Yicksburg ; and on the 18th the Union army sat down before Yicksburg, having completely invested it on the land side and opened communication with their squadron and transports by way of Walnut Bluffs, above the river. On the 19th of May, and again on the 22d, General Grant ordered assaults upon the beleaguered city, neither of which were successful, except -in gaining some ground and expediting the subsequent regular ap- proaches. The army now became satisfied that the stronghold could only be captured by a systematic siege, and General Grant accordingly took all precautions to make that siege effective, and to prevent the rebel General Johnston from approaching with sufficient force to raise the siege. Day by day the parallels were brought nearer and nearer, and finally came so near that the rebels could not use their cannon, while the Union artillery from the adjacent hills, and from the squadron, constantly show- 44 MEN" OF OUR DAY. ered their iron hail upon the devoted city. The inhabitants and the rebel army dug caves in the bluffs, and endeavored to shel- ter themselves from the fiery storm, but these were often pen- etrated by the shells from the batteries, "or blown up in the explosion of the forts. At length, on the third of July, General Grant was prepared to order an assault, which could not have failed of success, when overtures were made for a surrender, and the city was delivered into the hands of the Union army on the 4th of July, 1863. It is stated that at the interview between General Grant and General Pemberton, after shaking hands, and a short silence, General Pemberton said : " General Grant, I meet you in order to arrange terms for the capitulation of the city of Vicksburg and its garrison. What terms do you demand ?" " Unconditional surrender" replied General Grant. " Unconditional surrender !" said Pemberton. " Never, so long as I have a man left me ! I will fight rather." " Then, sir, you can continue the defence, 11 replied Grant. " My army has never been in a better condition for the prosecution of the, siege" During this conversation, General Pemberton was greatly agi- tated, trembling with emotion from head to foot, while Grant was as calm and imperturbable as a May morning. After a somewhat protracted interview, during which General Grant, in considera- tion of the courage and tenacity of the garrison, explained the terms he was disposed to allow to them on their unconditional surrender; the two generals separated, an armistice having been declared till morning, when the question of surrender was to be finally determined. The same evening Cteneral Grant transmitted to General Pemberton, in writing, the propositions he had made during the afternoon for the disposal of the garri- GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 45 son, should they surrender. These terms were very liberal, far more so than those usually acceded to a conquered garrison. The rebel loss in this campaign had been very great, larger than has often been experienced in the campaigns of modern times, and utterly without precedent in the previous history of this continent. The number of prisoners captured by the Union troops, from the landing at Bruinsburg to, and including the surrender of Yicksburg, was 34,620, including one lieutenant- general and nineteen major and brigadier-generals ; and 11,800 men were killed, wounded, or deserters. There were also among the spoils of the campaign two hundred and eleven field-pieces, ninety siege guns, and 45,000 small arms. The Union losses had been 943 killed, 7,095 wounded, and 537 missing, making a total of casualties of 8,575, and of the wounded, nearly one half returned to duty within a month. Having disposed of his prisoners at Yicksburg, General Grant dispatched General Sherman with an adequate force to Jackson, to defeat and break up Johnston's army, and destroy the rebel stores collected there, in both which enterprises he was suc- cessful. During the long period of two and a quarter years since he had entered the army, General Grant had never sought or re- ceived a day's furlough. But after this great victory, and while the thanks of the President, the Cabinet, Congress, and the peo- ple, were lavished upon him without stint, he sought for a few days' rest with his family, and received it. His stay with them was brief, and he returned to his duties, descending the Missis- sippi now, thanks to his skilful generalship, open to the navi- gation of all nations, from its mouth to the falls of St. Anthony to New Orleans, to confer with General Banks relative to the operations of the autumn. While here, on the 4th of Septem- 46 MEN OF OUR DAY. her, he was seriously injured by being thrown from his horse while reviewing the troops of General Banks' department. From these injuries he did not recover sufficiently to take the field, till late in October. Meantime, there had been hard- fighting, as well as weary marches, and severe privations en- dured by the Army of the Cumberland. General Eosecrans, moving forward in June, had driven General Bragg, not with- out considerable fighting, from Tullahoma, and through south- ern Tennessee, into and out of Chattanooga, and, throwing a small garrison into that town, had marched southward to inter- cept Bragg's further retreat, and compel him to fight. Bragg, meantime, strongly reinforced from the Army of Northern Vir- ginia, had joined battle with him in the valley of Chickamauga creek, where on the 19th and 20th of September, 1862, was fought one of the great actions of the war. Though not abso- lutely defeated, Kosecrans had found it necessary to fall back to Chattanooga, which he held, though closely beleagured by Bragg, who had compelled him to relinquish some of his most important communications, and drag his supplies over sixty miles of the worst mountain roads in the southwest. This measure was but temporary, however, and was about to be reme- died, when he was relieved of the command, to which General Thomas was assigned. General Sherman, now in the command of the Army of the Tennessee, was ordered up to his support, and two corps sent from the Army of the Potomac, under Gen- erals Hooker and Howard. This magnificent army was placed under General Grant's command, as the Military Division of the Mississippi. On Grant's arrival at Chattanooga, his first care was to open communications, and provide for full supplies for his soldiers, who had been on half rations for some time. Bragg, at thi^ time, sent Longstreet's corps to Knoxville, to drive Burnside from east Tennessee, and unaware of Grant's GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 47 large reinforcements, he proved true to his name, and on the 21st of November, 1863, sent this arrogant message to General Grant by flag of truce : */ o " Humanity would dictate the removal of all non-combatants from Chattanooga, as I am about to shell the city." General Grant made no reply to the threat at the moment, but his answer was speedily returned, and proved so effectual, that Bragg gave up all idea of " shelling the city" from that time forward. Sherman's Army of the Tennessee had been coming into the city and its vicinity, since the 15th of November, by roads which led to the rear, and hence had not been observed by Bragg's lookout ; and on the evening of the 23d of November, lay concealed above Chattanooga, on the north bank, and ready for the crossing. Then followed that admirably planned combi- nation of movements which reflected so much skill on Grant's strategic ability. General Thomas, with the Army of the Cumberland, marched out with all the order and stateliness of a grand review, and while the enemy looked on and wondered, seized Orchard Knob, their most advanced position, held and fortified it. Hooker, with his eastern troops, marching along the western flank of Lookout Mountain, suddenly climbed its steep sides, and rising from one elevation to another, drove the enemy up and over the crest of the mountain the batteries echoing and reverberating among the mountains till, with the valleys below obscured by clouds and smoke, which did not rise to his own lofty position, he fought that battle above the clouds which has been so greatly celebrated ; and Sherman advancing, destroyed the railway, and captured, with but slight effort, the most advanced post of the enemy at the northeast. Such was the work of November 24th ; that of November 25th was more serious, but crowned with perfect success. Hooker, descending 48 MEN OF OUR DAY. from the eastern and less precipitous slope of Lookout Moun- tain, some distance below Chattanooga, pursued the flying rebels up to the crest of Mission Ridge, and drove them from Fort Bragg, the southernmost of their forts crossing the Ridge. Sherman, by persistent pounding and repeated assaults upon Fort Buckner, the northernmost of their forts, had succeeded in drawing a considerable portion of the garrison of the central fort, Fort Breckinridge, to the support of the Fort Buckner garrison, and when, at a little past three o'clock P. M., the signal guns sounded from Fort Wood, on Orchard Knob, the picked men of the Army of the Cumberland sprang to arms, climbed the precipitous sides of Mission Ridge, under a most terrific fire, swept through Fort Breckinridge, and drove the foe, pell mcll, down the farther slope of the Ridge, and Sherman's men pos- sessed themselves quietly of the fort, against which they had flung themselves so fiercely all day. No more brilliant action occurred during the war ; and when it was followed by a prompt pursuit of the enemy, and by sending Sherman with his wearied, but always obedient and victorious troops, to Knoxville, to compel Longstreet to raise the siege of that town, and to drive him among the mountains of western Virginia in midwinter, the admiration of the nation for Grant knew no bounds. The President but expressed the popular feeling, when he sent to the successful general the following telegraphic dispatch : 1; WASHINGTON, DEC. 8, 1863. "MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT: "Understanding that your lodgment at Chattanooga and Knoxville is now secure, T wish to tender you, and all under your command, my more than thanks my profoundest grati- tude for the skill, courage, and perseverance with which you and they, over so great difficulties, have effected that important object. God* bless you all !" "A.LINCOLN." GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 49 On the 17th. of December, 1863, Congress by joint resolution tendered him the national gratitude and provided for the preparation of a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be presented to him in token of the national sense of his services. The Legislatures of the loyal States vied with each other in their resolutions of thanks and in their grants of funds, etc., while many private individuals added their gifts. The Senate at the beginning of its session had confirmed, almost by acclamation, the rank of major-general in the regular army which had been bestowed upon him by the President in the summer, his commission dating from July 4, 1863. The recipient of these numerous honors seemed in no wise elated by them ; he was as simple and unpretending in his man- ners, as reticent on all political topics, and as averse to any thing looking like display, as when he was a farmer at St. Louis, or a clerk at Galena. There was yet much to be done to bring his army at Chatta- nooga into good condition. His communications with his bases at Nashville and Louisville must be repaired and strengthened, his men better fed, supplies accumulated at Chattanooga and Nashville, for the campaigns in the not distant future in Georgia. In concert with his tried friend and trusty lieutenant, Sherman, he planned an expedition into the heart of the enemy's territory at Meridian, Mississippi, to be met by one from Memphis, down the Mobile and Ohio railroad, which, by thoroughly breaking their lines of communication, should cripple their movements in the future, and during the months of January, while General Sherman was completing the details of this enterprise, he visited and inspected in person all the posts and stations of his widely extended command. The Meridian expedition was but a partial success, owing to the failure of the cavarlry portion of 50 MEN OF OUK DAY. it to co-operate effectively ; but it seriously embarrassed the rebels in their subsequent operations. "While it was in progress, Major-General Grant was summoned to Washington, where he was called to assume new and still higher responsibilities. Congress had resolved to revive the grade of lieutenant-general, which had been borne as a full rank only by General Washington (General Scott's title being only by brevet) ; and a law to that effect having been passed, the President at once conferred the rank upon Major-General Grant and the Senate confirmed it. The commission bore the date of March 2d, 1864, and on the 9th of that month the President delivered it to him in person, accompanied by a brief address expressive of his own pleasure in doing him such an honor, and a word of monition as to the great responsibilities which it would devolve upon him. On the 12th of March, the President, by official order, invested the lieutenant-general with the com- mand of the armies of the United States ; at the same time ap- pointing, at Lieutenant-General Grant's instance, Major-General W. T. Sherman, commander of the Military Division of the Mississippi ; General McPherson, commander of the Army of the Tennessee, and General Halleck, hitherto general in chief, chief of staff of the army, to reside in Washington. The subsequent seven or eight weeks were busy ones for General Grant. The various commands of the army were to be visited, a simultaneous campaign for the two armies arranged with General Sherman, supplies collected and troops accumula- ted to a far greater extent than at any previous time ; the army corps to be strengthened and some of them reorganized, and all preparations made for a campaign which should end only with the war. The armies of the eastern division, which were to operate against the rebel General Lee, he proposed to command in person ; those of the west were to be directed by Major- GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 51 General Sherman. His own especial command, as reorganized under his supervision, consisted of; first, the army of the Poto- mac, numbering in all 13'), 000 men, though at the commence- ment of the campaign, a part were not yet present ; this was commanded by General George G. Meade, an able and experi- enced officer, and its corps commanders were Hancock, Warren, Sedgwick, and Burnside. It confronted Lee's army from the north side of the Eapidan. Second, the army of the James, consisting of about 30,000 troops, under the command of Major 1 - General Butler, with General Gillmore as a subordinate; this was in a position to strike either at Eichmond or Petersburg. Third, the army of the Shenandoah, under the command of Major-General Franz Sigel, then about 17,000 strong, but subse- quently increased by the addition of the nineteenth army corps, from the Department of the Gulf. Besides these there was a strong cavalry force, under the command of the young but efficient general, Philip H. Sheridan. The forward movement was made on the 4th of May, 1864, and resulted in the bloody but indecisive battles of the Wilderness, May 5 and 6, 1864, a 'for- ward movement by the left flank to Spottsylvania, and a series of battles there, May 8-21, hardly more decisive, and not less bloody than the preceding; another flank movement to and across the North Anna, and two days of hard fighting, May 21-25 ; a recrossing of the North Anna, a flanking of the enemy and crossing of the Pamunkey, and the battle of Tolopotomoy, May 28 and 29, and of Bethesda church, May 30. Another at- tempt to surprise the enemy by a flank movement, brought the two armies face to face at Cold Harbor, one of the battle grounds of 1862, but this time with the positions of the two armies re- versed. Finding himself unable to gain the flank of Lee's army that general moving on interior and shorter lines, and though with 52 MEN OF OUR DAY. an inferior force; being fully his equal in military strategy Lieutenant-General Grant now took the resolution of throwing the Army of the Potomac south of the James, and assailing Petersburg and Richmond from that direction. His losses in this month of battles had been frightful, nearly 60,000 men being hors du combat, either among the slain, wounded, or pris- oners. He had inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, but they were not equal to his own, as their numbers were materially less ; but, with that pertinacity and resolution which is so striking an element of his character, he would not relax his efforts in the least, and was determined to pound away upon his foes till he had ground them to powder. Crossing the James successfully, he commenced a series of assaults on Petersburg, but without any considerable success. The construction of siege lines around the city, to the east and south ; the mining of one of its forts ; demonstrations alternately toward the Wei- don and the Southside railroads, followed ; but with no con- siderable success. His cavalry, under Sheridan, Wilson, and Kavitz, were kept actively employed in raids upon the enemy's lines of communication. The army of the Shenandoah had made lamentable failures under Sigel and Hunter, and their adversary, Early, had descended into Maryland, threatened Baltimore and Washington, and only been driven from the vicinity of the capital, by the hurried advance of troops from the Army of the Potomac and the Department of the Gulf. The Government, always in terror of attacks upon the capital, clamored loudly for protection ; but while General Grant would not farther weaken his force around Petersburg, he sent a man to command the Department of the Shenandoah, who was himself worth an army corps. General Sheridan, in a succession of well-planned and hard-fought battles, disposed of General Early, and subsequently raided through the whole Shenandoah and GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 53 Luray valleys, laying them desolate, for the aid, shelter and support they had given to the bands of guerrillas. The autumn and early winter was consumed in attempts to cut the lines of communication from the west and southwest of Petersburg and Richmond, by , which the rebel armies were supplied. The Virginia and Tennessee road was destroyed by Gillem and Stoneman ; the Manassas and Lynchburg roads, the James River canal and the slackwater navigation broken up, and the sup- plies in the warehouses destroyed by Sheridan ; and at each effort along Hatcher's Run some ground was gained, and a nearer approach made to the only artery of communication which remained, the Southside railroad. This was accom- plished at a heavy cost of life, but there was an advance which betokened the speedy coming of the end. Meantime, Admiral Farragut had, in the grandest of naval battles, defeated the squadron and captured the forts which defended Mobile Bay ; Sherman had, after a campaign of great se- verity, captured Atlanta, and partially destroyed it had moved onward, with his vast columns, to the sea had captured Savan- nah and, turning northward, had swept, as with the besom of destruction, South Carolina, compelling the surrender of Charles- ton, and the other principal towns of South and North Caro- lina ; the forts which had protected the harbor of Wilmington, North Carolina, had succumbed, on a second attack, to the prowess of Admiral Porter and General Terry and Wilming- ton itself had fallen before Terry and Schofield ; General Thomas had driven Hood out of Tennessee, with such terrible slaughter that he could not assemble another army. All things portended the speedy collapse of this formidable rebellion. Grant now moved forward ; and after some hard fighting, Sheridan, under his direction, carried the strong po- sition of Five Forks, and drove those of the enemy who were 54: MEN OF OUR DAY. uot slain or captured, westward, where they could not aid in continuing the defence of Lee's already weakened lines. April 2d, 1865, the line of the Southside railroad was thoroughly broken ; April 3d, the cities of Petersburg and Eichmond were evacuated and surrendered. The flying rebel army, bereft of supplies, hungry and despairing, were pursued unremittingly ; and on the 9th of April, General Lee surrendered to General Grant the remnant of the Army of Virginia. Then came the entrance into Eichmond ; the President's visit there ; and the sad scene of the assassination of the President, whose fate General Grant only escaped by the providence of God, which called him suddenly to Philadelphia that night. The news of the proposed terms of capitulation offered ^to Johnston by General Sherman, coming just at this juncture, roused, on the part of the Government, such strong disapproval, that General Grant immediately went to Kaleigh, and by wise and adroit management saved his friend from disgrace, and the country from any evils which might have resulted from Sherman's terms. The speedy end of the war ensued, and General Grant's duties thenceforward were rather administrative than military. He made a tour through the Southern States in 1865, and sub- seqently flying visits to the northern cities. The gratitude of the people for his eminent services followed him. A residence was presented to him at Galena, another in Philadelphia, and another still in Washington. The merchants of New York raised a hundred thousand dollars as an indication of their sense of his great services to the country. On the 25th of July, 1866, Congress created the grade of full general, hitherto unknown to our country, and stipulating that it should lapse after his death or resignation of it, conferred it upon him. In the summer of 1866, by express command of the President, General Grant ac- GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 55 com parried him in his western tour ; but he sought in vain to commit him to any approval of his cause and policy. Subse- quently, in August, 1867, when Mr. Johnson's long and ill-dis- guised hatred of the Secretary of War broke out into hostility, and he demanded Mr. Stanton's resignation, on the refusal of that officer to resign, Mr. Johnson suspended him from office and appointed General Grant Secretary ad interim. The general accepted the position, managed the office wisely and well, and when the Senate decided that Mr. Stanton's removal was un- justifiable, surrendered it at once to the Secretary. This act excited Mr. Johnson's anger, and he sought, in a series of letters, but with his usual ill-success, to fasten upon the general charges of insincerity, inveracity, and treachery. General Grant is not and has never professed to be a politi- cian. He is not an ambitious man, and in one whom the politi- cians find it very hard to use ; for, though he has very clear and well defined opinions on the political questions of the day, he is extremely reticent and has a way of baffling all attempts to maintain a political conversation with him, which almost drives the newspaper correspondents mad. That he favors the reconstruction policy of Congress, thinks the colored population of the reconstructed States should enjoy the privilege of suffrage, and all other political rights to which the whites are entitled, is we suppose, no secret. He is the favorite candidate of the Eepublican party for the Presidency, and yet though in thorough sympathy with that party, he has never sought the nomination for that great office, or in any way manifested the slightest pleasure at the idea of receiving it. His sound judgment of character, his remarkable skill in^ always putting " the right man in the right place," his superior administrative talents, and his calm and cool tempera- 56 MEN OF OUR DAY. ment eminently fit him for a station of such responsibility and trial. In person, General Grant is somewhat below the common height, neither spare nor stout ; of great powers of endurance, and of uniformly good health. He is a great smoker, likes a game of billiards, and now as in boyhood, delights in a good horse. He is strictly temperate,* quiet, sedate, and reticent; * Great efforts have been made to fasten upon the general, the charge of frequent or habitual drunkenness; and the President is said to have charged that he was intoxicated most of the time during their journey to Chicago, commonly known as Mr. Johnson's "swinging round the circle." We have the strongest evidence that these reports are false, and in some instances they were undoubtedly prompted by malice. We have alluded to the fact that, while in the army in California and Oregon, he did drink freely. But on his return to the States, he abandoned this habit, and the testimony of his classmates and friends, Copp6e, Buell, Reynolds, of his venerable father, of Hon. E. B. Washburne, and Hon. Henry Wilson, is perfectly conclusive as to the fact that he has never resumed the practice of indulging in intoxicating drinks. The following incidents, which appeared in the "TTie Nation," may serve to show on what insufficient and erroneous grounds these reports are often based. Mr. Olmstead and Rev. Mr. Knapp were, at the time referred, to Sec- retary and Assistant-Secretary of the United States Sanitary Commission: "To the Editor of the Nation : "One day, in the spring of 1863, Mr. Frederick Knapp and myself were the guests of General Grant, at his headquarters, on a steamboat lying at Milliken's Bend, a few miles above Vicksburg. A curtain had been hung in such a way as to give a certain degree of seclusion to the after-part of the main cabin, and when we rose from dinner we were asked to sit with the general behind the screen, where there was a writing table with pitcher and glasses. The general then told us that he had a few hours before received unfavorable intelligence from General Sherman's expedition up the Sunflower. Inviting our inquiries, and replying to all we thought it proper to make, with an unexpectedly generous freedom and painstaking GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 57 likes simple ways, and simple food ; abhors ostentation ; can converse well and clearly, but prefers to listen rather than to thoroughness of explanation, he was gradually led into a comprehensive review of the existing conditions of his campaign, which it was easy to see were of the very gravest character. "We were impressed as much by the remarkably methodical clearness of the narration as by the simple candor and ingenuousness with which it was given to us who, the day before, had been strangers to him. He took up several hypotheses and suggestions, and analyzed them in such a way as to make prominent the uncertainties and uncontrol lable elements which were involved in them, and I could not but think, so musing and quietly reflective was his mannner, and yet so exact and well arranged his expressions, that he was simply repeating a process of " thinking it out," in order to assure himself that he fully comprehended and gave just weight to all the important elements of some grand military problem, the solution of which he was about to undertake. - " (The last attempt to attack Vicksburg on the north ended that day, and a few days after our interview the first step was taken looking toward the approach from the south ; but of this no hint was given us, and we only heard of it the next morning.) " All at once he stopped short, and, with an expression of surprise, if not of distress, put his cigar away, rose, and moved his chair aside. A moment before, we could not have imagined that there was a woman" within many miles of us ; but, turning my eyes, I saw one who had just parted the screen, comely, well dressed, and with the air and manner of a gentlewoman. She had just arrived by a steamboat from Memphis, and came to present General Grant with a memorial or petition. In a few words she made known her purpose, and offered to give in detail certain facts, of which she stated she was cognizant, bearing upon her object. The general stood listening to her in an attitude of the most deferential attention, his hand dtill upon his chair, which was half in front of him as he turned to face her, and slightly nodding his head as an expression of assent to almost every sentence she uttered. When she had completed her statement, he said, speaking very low and with an appearance of reluctance : ' I shall be compelled to consult my medical director, and to obtain a report from him before I can meet your wishes. If agreeable to you, I will ask him to call upon you to-morrow ; shall I say at 11 o'clock ?' The lady bowed and 58 MEN OF OUR DAY. speak. He is a firm and enduring friend, and not a bitter or vindictive 'enemy. Few men are more free from envy or jeal- withdrew ; the general took a long breath, resumed his cigar and his seat, said that he was inclined to think her proposition a reasonable and humane one, and then went on with the interrupted review. "A week or two after this, having gone up the river, Mr. Knapp met this lady at a hotel, when, in the course of a conversation, she referred with much sadness to the deplorable habits of General Grant, and the hopeless- ness of success while our army was commanded by a man so unfit to be charged with any grave responsibility. Mr. Knapp replied that he had the best reason for stating that the reports to which she referred were with- out foundation, and proceeded to give her certain exact information of which he happened to be possessed, which, as far as possible, refuted them. ' Unfortunately,' said the lady, ' I have certain knowledge that they are but too true.' She then described her recent interview with General Grant, and it appeared that, from her point of view, the general was en- gaged in a carouse with one or two boon companions when she came un- expectedly upon him ; that he rose to his feet with difficulty, could not stand without staggering, and was obliged to support himself with a chair ; that he was evidently conscious that he was in an unfit condition to attend to business, and wanted to put her off till the next day ; that his voice was thick, he spoke incoherently, and she was so much shocked that she was obliged to withdraw almost immediately. The neat day, being ashamed to see her himself, he sent his doctor to find out what she wanted. " Mr. Knapp then told her that, having been one of the boon companions whom she had observed with the general on that occasion, and that having dined with him, and been face to face with him for fully three hours, he not only knew that he was under the influence of no drink stronger than the unqualified mud of the Mississippi, but he could assure her that he had never seen a man who appeared to him more thoroughly sober and clear-headed than General Grant at the moment of her entrance. " Notwithstanding his assurances, the lady repeated that she could not doubt the evidence of her own senses, and I suppose that to this day, Mr. Knapp and myself rank equally with General Grant, in her mind, as con. firmed drunkards. GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT. 59 ousy ; the promotion and advancement of others, even when it seemed an implied censure on himself, he has always most cor- dially approved. He is not a man of genius, and in his military " This experience is by no means a unique one, and the zealous devotion with which I have often heard both men and women undermining the character of others for temperance, on equally slight grounds, has often led me to question if there are not vices in our society more destructive to sound judgment and honest courses than that of habitual overdrinking. "Yours, respectfully, FRED. LAW OLMSTED." The Evening Post, after quoting this letter, adds : " We can tell another story of the same kind. While Grant lay before Vicksburg a letter came to this office from a respectable and generally trustworthy person in a western city, an ardent Unionist, and a man of influence, in which we were told, as positively and undeniably true, that on a certain occasion, Grant and his staff went from Springfield to Cairo in the car of the president of the railroad ; that on the way the whole party, with one or two exceptions, got uproariously drunk, and that Grant was the worst of the company. This, the writer said, he knew to be true, and on this and other evidence, he desired The Evening Post to demand the removal of Grant. " By a singular coincidence, Mr. Osborne, then President of the Illinois Central railroad, happened to come into this office while the letter we speak of was under discussion, and, of course, he was asked about the story it told. He replied, at once, ' It is a malignant falsehood. Grant and his staff did go down to Cairo in the president's car ; I took them down myself, and selected that car because it had conveniences for working, sleeping, and eating on the way. We had dinner in the car, at which wine was served to such as desired it. I asked Grant what he would drink ; he answered, a cup of tea, and this I made for him myself. Nobody was drunk on the car, and to my certain knowledge, Grant tasted no liquid but tea and water.' " This was the exact truth of the matter. Yet we believe our corres- pondent wrote in good faith." 60 MEN OF OUR DAY. career, like most great commanders, has sometimes made great blunders, but he has been quick to learn even from his own errors, and never repeats them. In one word, he possesses a clear, sound, well balanced mind, every faculty of which is thoroughly practical, and such a combination is, in our work-a- day world, worth infinitely more than genius. DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. MONGr the illustrious characters so rapidly developed by the exigencies of the recent war, none have so elicited the unhesitating confidence, or challenged the uneqivo- cal admiration of our people, and, we may justly add, of the civilized world, as the subject of our sketch, DAVID GrLASCOE FARRAGUT. Born in this country, he combines in his veins some of the best blood of fiery, haughty Spain, with that of stern, inflexible, yet genial Scotland. His father, George Farragut, a native of Citadella, the capital of the Island of Minorca, and a descendant of an ancient and noble Catalonian family, came to America in 1776, and promptly took part in the struggle for Independence, attaining finally the rank of major in the Continental Army. At the conclusion of the war, he married Elizabeth Shine, of North Carolina, a descendant from the old Scotch clan Mclvor, and removed to Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tennessee, where he en- gaged in farming, and where his illustrious son was born on the 5th of July, 1801. Yet the attractions of the old seafaring life which he had probably led before his arrival in America, seem to have outweighed his love of farming, and we find him, not long after, as a sailing-master in the navy, and a bosom friend of the father of Commodore Porter, who then held a similar rank The son inherited the father's love of the sea, and, although 61 62 MEN OF OUR DAT. born and brought up among the Cumberland mountains, he had hardly reached the age of nine and a half years before his longings for a sailor's life had fully overcome the slight prudential objections which his father felt obliged to urge and a midshipman's commission was procured for him, bearing date, December 17th, 1810. His first cruise was in 1812, in the famous frigate Essex, under the command of his own and hia father's friend, Master Commander (subsequently Commodore) David Porter. On this vessel, young Farragut served, through the two eventful years of her cruise on the South American Coast, and the Pacific, from which she drove the British commerce. And, when attacked* in violation of all laws of neutrality, in the harbor of Valparaiso, on the 28th of March, 1814, by two British vessels of superior force, the Essex was compelled to yield but not until she had been several times on fire, and was in a sinking condition. The young "middy," not yet seventeen years of age, bore a fearless part and was slightly wounded. Previous to this event he had served as acting- lieutenant on board the Atlantic, an armed prize. On his return home, his kind patron, the Commodore, placed him at school at Chester, Pennsylvania, where, beside other studies, he was thoroughly instructed in the elements of military and naval tactics. His schooling, however, was but brief, for, in 1816 he was again in active service on board the flag-ship of the Mediterranean Squadron. Here he found, in the chaplain, Rev. Charles Folsom, a friend and instructor, to whom he attributes much of the usefulness and success which has marked his subsequent career. When, shortly after, Mr. Folsom was appointed consul at Tunis, young Farragut accompanied him, and the period of his life spent here, was a most important one, in its influences upon the "setting" of his character, then in its DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 63 "formative" stage. After some other service in the Med- iterranean, Farragut, being then nineteen and a half years old, was promoted (January, 1821) to the rank of lieutenant, and assigned to duty on the frigate Brandywine of the West India station. In 1824, he was stationed at the Norfolk Navy Yard ; where (with the exception of a two years' cruise (1828-30) in the Yandalia, on the Brazil station) he remained until 1833. Here he married his first wife, a lady of highly respectable family ; who, unfortunately, became a suffering and hopeless invalid, long and most tenderly watched over by her husband, to whom her death was a most severe blow. Many years after, he married another Norfolk lady, Miss Virginia Loyall, by whom he has a son, Loyall Farragut, who graduates from West Point the present year. In 1833, Lieutenant Farragut was appointed executive officer (lieutenant-commander) of the sloop- of-war Natchez, and returned to the coast of Brazil, where he remained about one year. He was then allowed several years' rest on shore, and, in 1838, was again transferred to the West India or Home Squadron. In September, 1841, he was com- missioned commander in the navy, and ordered to the sloop-of- war Decatur, again on the Brazilian station. Eeceiving, in 1842, three years' leave of absence, he was ordered, at its expiration in 1845, to the Norfolk Navy Yard, and there remained until 1847, when he took command of the sloop-of- war Saratoga, of the Home Squadron. Assigned to duty again, in the Norfolk Navy Yard, in 1850, where he was second in command to Commodore Sloat, he was appointed assistant inspector of ordnance under Commodore Skinner in 1851, and after three years' service in that capacity, was ordered, in 1854, to the command of the new Navy Yard at Mare's Island, California. In September, 1855, he was promoted to be a captain, and, in 1858, was placed in command of the steam 64 MEN OF OUR DAY. sloop-of-war Brooklyn, serving on the Home Squadron, under Commodore McCluney, and from this command he was relieved in November, 1860. By this time, he had spent about nineteen years afloat, eighteen of which had been occupied in shore duty, and the balance either in waiting orders, or on leave of absence. They had been years well improved by him in the augmentation and perfecting of his professional and general knowledge and the result is, that he possesses a most thorough and practical knowledge of every thing pertaining to naval science and warfare, while he is superior to most officers in the service, in his breadth of general culture, especially in the languages, speaking with fluency and correctness most of the Continental languages, as well as Arabic and Turkish. And now arose the great War of the Eebellion, in which all of the experience and all of the culture which he had gathered during these years, was to be rendered available to the interests and the glory of his country. He was at that time (1861) living at Norfolk with -his family, surrounded by friends and acquaintances who sympathized with the rebellion. But his loyal heart burned with a righteous indignation at the traitorous cabals and plottings going on around him. "When told by brother officers that the State had seceded, and he must either resign or leave the place, he needed no time to decide upon his course. " I cannot live here, and will seek some other place where I can live, and on two hours' notice," was his answer. And hastily collecting such few valuables as they could, the patriot and his family, on the following morning, April 18th, 1861, left their home, with difficulty obtaining at Baltimore (then in the hands of a mob) a passage by boat to Philadelphia, and thence, by railway, to New York. Securing a residence for his family at Hastings, on the Hudson, he immediately DAVID GLA3COE FARRAGUT. 65 proceeded to Washington and placed his services at the disposal of the Navy Department. Treason, however, had well nigh stripped the Government of vessels, by sending them to distant ports, while the few which were at its disposal were already in command of his seniors in the service so that the only employment which could be afforded him was as a member of the JSTaval Eetiring Board, which was busily employed in expelling the incompetent, and in promoting the active, loyal and deserving officers of the navy. Government, meanwhile, had resolved that an attempt should be made to capture New Orleans, and was pushing forward, with might and main, the fitting out of a squadron, as well as of an army for its reduction. The naval force which they prepared for this undertaking, consisted of forty-six vessels of all kinds, of which fifteen were armed steamers, and twenty- one were bomb-schooners, each carrying gigantic mortars, throwing fifteen inch shells while the total armament of the fleet was two hundred and eighty-six guns. The bomb-fleet was under command of Commander .David D. Porter, while Farragut had charge of the entire squadron. Sailing in the Hartford, as his flag-ship, from Hampton Koads, on the 3d of February, 1862, he arrived at Ship Island on the 20th, and immediately commenced the organization of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron. Making steady progress, in spite of delays in the forwarding of coal, naval stores, hospital stores, munitions of war, etc.; the difficulty of getting vessels of twenty-two feet draught over the bars where the depth was only twelve and fifteen feet ; the obstinacy of some officers, and the ignorance of others; lie finally surmounted all obstacles by the 18th of April, and commenced the bombardment of Fort Jackson, the lower one of two forts which defended the passage of the Mississippi, seventy-five miles below the city of 5 66 MEN OF OUR DAY. New Orleans. Across the river, and supported by huge logs, was stretched a heavy iron chain, located at a point where the fire from the two forts could be most effectively concentrated. Above this formidable obstruction, lay the Confederate fleet of sixteen gunboats and two iron-clad rams ; while along the banks of the river were land batteries of considerable strength. Six days' continuous bombardment of the forts, damaged them considerably, but their flags still floated in triumphant defiance. A council of war was called on board the flag-ship, and after listening to and carefully weighing the somewhat various opinions of his subordinates, Farragut announced his own in the following language (general order of April 20th) : " The flag-officer having heard all the opinions expressed by the different commanders, is of the opinion that whatever is to be done, will have to be done quickly. When, in the opinion of the flag- officer, the propitious time has arrived, the signal will be made to weigh and advance to the conflict He will make signal for close action, and abide the result conquer, or be conquered" The plan which the heroic commander had decided upon in his own mind, was to break the chain by main force, run past the forts, engage and rout the rebel fleet and ascend the river to New Orleans, which would then be completely at his mercy. It was an extremely bold and hazardous movement for his vessels would be exposed to the converging fire of the forts until the chain was severed, and would then have to risk the chances of a battle with a fleet nearly equal in numbers, and of which two were iron-clad. Farragut, however, is one who dares more than most men, and who believes that a determination to succeed is, together with cool courage and prompt action, the main element of success. Accordingly, issuing orders to start at two A. M. on April 24th, he visited each ship, personally DAVID GLASCOE FARRAG-UT. 67 superintending the adoption of requisite measures for preserva- tion of life, and of trie vessels, and instructing his officers as to the mode of the proposed attack. Many and ingenious were the devices adopted for the protection of the ships and machinery. The sheet cables were stopped up and down along the sides of the vessels, in the line of the engines forming an almost impenetrable armor over this vulnerable part ; hammocks, coal, bags of ashes or of sand, etc., were so disposed as to ward off, or break the force of shots coming in forward or abaft; the bulwarks were lined with hammocks or splinter nettings ; the sides of some of the vessels were coated with mud to make them less visible, while others had their decks whitewashed in order to render objects more easily distinguishable by night. At the appointed time, the movement commenced the chain had been previously broken, and the mortar boats moved up and anchored in such a position that they could pour in their shot as soon as the forts opened fire. The fleet of steam ships moved up to the attack in two columns. The left column, commanded by Farragut, and composed of the flag-ship Hart- ford, Brooklyn, Eichmond, Sciota, Iroquois, Kennebec, Pinola, Itasca, and "Winona, was to engage Fort St. Philip. The other column, led by Captain Theodoras Bailey in the Cayuga, with the Pensacola, Mississippi, Oneida, Yaruna, Katahdin, Kineo, and Wissahickon, was to attack Fort Jackson. Passing steadily along, the fleet was abreast of the forts before they were dis- covered, but then came a storm of converging fire upon them. Dense smoke settled down upon the scene, and the combatants, fighting in utter darkness, could only aim by the flash of each other's guns. The flag-ship, Hartford, assailed by a fire-raft, which was pushed against it by the rebel ram Mauassas, caught fire, and, at the same moment, ran aground ; but, owing to the promptness and discipline of its crew, it speedily surmounted 68 MEN OF OUE DAT. both dangers, and never slackened its fire upon the enemy, Sweeping close to the forts, the gunboats frequently threw into them a terribly destructive fire of shrapnel, grape, and canister ; while the forts were unable to depress their guns sufficiently to reach their lively and daring assailants. Then, as the Union fleet had nearly passed the forts, came the terrible shock of the rebel fleet, several of which were iron-beaked. The brunt of this collision was borne by the left column of boats, under Captain Bailey. For a while it was a terrible, "pell mell" fight. Several of the Union vessels were disabled, and the Varuna crushed by two rebel iron-prowed gunboats (which, however, she crippled and set in flames), sank her guns playing upon her foes to the very last moment. But the stout hearts had triumphed. Thirteen of Farragut's squadron passed the forts, destroyed an equal number of their gunboats and rams, as well as the iron-clad Manassas, and compelled the others to seek safety in flight. All this, too, with a loss of only thirty-six killed, and one hundred and twenty-five wounded. Ascending the river, the now victorious Union squadron ar- rived, by noon of the 25th, in front of the city, and demanded its surrender. Four days later, the now useless forts which they had passed, were surrendered to Captain Porter, of the bomb-fleet, and General Butler came up the river to arrange for landing his co-operating troops and taking possession of the city, which had surrendered on the 28th. Farragut, mean- while, destroyed some strong fortifications which had been erected at Carrollton, above the city, with a view to oppose the progress of Commodore Foote, down the river. Having thus seen New Orleans in the full possession of the Union army, Flag Officer Farragut ascended the Mississippi, and ran his squadron past the rebel batteries at Vicksburg, and communi- cated with Flag Officer Davis, then commanding the Mississippi DAVID GLA3COE FARRAGCT. 69 Squadron, with whom he arranged for a joint attack upon the city. The attack failed, because the high bluffs on which Yicksburg is located were found to be too high to permit of bombardment by the gunboats, and because the co-operation of a land force was needed. Ee-passing the batteries therefore, on the loth of July, he established the headquarters of his squad- ron at Pensacola ; and, while there, received the thanks of both Houses of Congress, together with the rank of rear-admiral a grade then (July 11, 1862) for the first time created and recog- nized in the naval service of the United States. In the autumn of 1862 he directed the naval attacks on Corpus Christi, Sabine Pass and Galveston, which resulted in their capture ; the winter of 1862-63 was occupied in blockade service, routing guerillas along the river shores, expeditions against rebel towns on or near the coast, etc., etc. In the early part of March, 1863, General Grant being then engaged in his campaign against Vicks- burg, requested Farragut to aid him by assaulting that city from below, and that Porter's squadron should run the batteries at Vicksburg, and assist in the same undertaking. His own troops he intended to send down the west bank of the Missis- sippi. Promptly responding to General Grant's wish, Admiral Farragut selected for the purpose eight of his best and strong- est vessels, the Hartford, Richmond, Mississippi, Monongahela, Kineo, Albatross, and Genessee, the three last named being gunboats, which were properly strengthened for the encounter. Six mortar-boats were also detailed to take part in the bombardment, though not to run past the batteries which were at Port Hudson, and constituted the most formidable line of fortifications on the river, except those of Vicksburg itself, two hundred and thirty-two miles above. The fleet anchored, March 14th, 1863, near Prophet's Island, and the day was spent, by the mortar boats, in bombarding the lower batteries, 70 MEN OF OUR DAY. and in making a feint of attack on the rear of the town by a small land force. The steam vessels took no part in this, but at half past nine P. M., with their lights out, and decks white- washed, to enable the men to see the shot and shell which were piled upon the decks, they slipped quietly from their moorings, and moved up the river, lashed together in pairs, and closely hugging the eastern bank. Cautious as were their movements, they were discovered and signalled ; and in response an immense bonfire was speedily kindled by the rebels, which lighted up the river directly in front of the strongest rebel battery, in such a way that no vessel could pass unseen. As the flag-ship and her consort swept within the illuminated space, the rebel fire commenced with terrific fury, and from the batteries, extending nearly four miles, tier above tier on the high bluffs, rattled a storm of iron shot, to which the Union vessels and the mortar boats briskly responded. And over all, as at New Orleans, the smoke of battle settling down upon the river, bewildered both gunners and pilots. Still the brave admiral and his heroic followers pressed steadily on; until a curve of the river throwing its channel over close to the eastern bank, brought the floating column almost muzzle to muzzle with the water batteries along the banks. The Hartford and Albatross, lashed together, passed unharmed ; the Richmond and Genessee were disabled by a shot in the steam-chest of the former, and fell back ; the Monongahela ran aground, and was under fire for twenty-five minutes, before her consort, the Kineo, could get her afloat, and was also placed hors du combat, and obliged to drop down the river, while the Mississippi unfortunately grounded on the west bank of the river, directly under the con centrated fire of the entire rebel batteries, took fire and (de- serted by her gallant crew) floated down the river and blew up. The Hartford and Albatross, therefore, which were the only DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 71 vessels which succeeded in passing the terrible ordeal, blockaded the mouth of the Bed Eiver, and cut off an important channel of supplies to Yicksburg ; and, in May, having been relieved by Admiral Porter, a part of whose squadron had run the Vicksburg batteries, Farragut returned to New Orleans, via the Atchafalaya, and directed the naval operations against Port Hudson until its surrender. The admiral had long been anxious to attack and subdue the strong forts, three in number, which defended the entrance to Mobile Bay, and under the cover of whose guns, an immense amount of blockade running was successfully carried on. But although often proposed, it was not until August, 1864, that the project could be carried into effect. Then, a combined attack of land and sea forces was arranged between Farragut and Generals Canby and Granger of the army. In pursuance of this plan, troops were landed on Dauphin Island, and in the early dawn of the 5th of August, the fleet moved forward to a combat which proved to be more destructive and more novel, in some of its aspects, than any naval battle upon this continent. Fourteen sloops of war and gunboats and four iron-clad moni- tors were arranged by the admiral, in the following order of attack : the Brooklyn and the Octorara were lashed together, the Brooklyn (which, much against his wishes, was allowed the lead) being on the starboard side, nearest to Fort Morgan ; next, the Hartford and Metacomet ; then, the Eichmond and Port Eoyal ; the Lacka wanna and Seminole ; the Monongahela and Kennebec ; the Ossipee and Itasca, and the Oneida and Galena. On the right or starboard of the gunboats, were arranged the monitors, the Tecumseh (Commander Craven) in the lead ; the Manhattan (Commander Nicholson), the Winnebago (Comman- der Stevens), and the Chickasaw (Lieutenant Commander Per- kins). With this force he prepared to engage the three forts, 72 MEX OF OUR DAY. all well garrisoned, and supported by three powerful gunboats (the Selma, Morgan, and Gaines) and the iron -clad steam ram, Tennessee, which the rebels considered the most formidable armored vessel ever constructed by them. Steaming steadily up the channel, the Tecumseh, at 6:47, A. M., fired the first shot, Fort Morgan soon replied, the Brooklyn then replied, and the action became general. Suddenly, the Tecumseh struck a torpedo, careened and sank almost instantly, carrying down with her, her gallant commander, and most of the crew. Sending what aid he could to the few who yet struggled amid the waves, the admiral took the lead in his own flag-ship, the Hartford, steaming off in a track which had been well lined by the rebels with torpedoes, but which he determined to take the risk of, on the probability, as he says, of their being innocuous by reason of having been some time immersed in the water. By careful manceuvering, the fleet were enabled to clear the middle ground, and to keep up a pretty effectual silencing fire on Fort Morgan. At about 8 A. M., just as they had passed the fort, the Hartford was threatened by the rani Tennessee, and the rebel gunboats ahead so annoyed the Union vessels by a raking fire, that the admiral detached the Metacomet and Octorara in pursuit of them ; ancj one, the Selrna, was captured, while the two others took refuge under the guns of the fort; one, the Gaines, being hopelessljr damaged. The remainder of this combat between the iron- clad monster, the Tennessee, and the Union fleet, cannot be more graphically described than in the words of the admiral's own report. " Having passed the forts and dispersed the enemy's gun- boats, I had ordered most of the vessels to anchor, when I perceived the ram Tennessee standing up for this ship. This was at forty-five minutes past eight. I was not long in com- DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 73 prehencling his intentions to be the destruction of the flag-ship. The monitors and such of the wooden vessels as I thought best adapted for the purpose, were immediately ordered to attack the ram, not only with their guns, but bows on at full speed ; and then began one of the fiercest naval combats on record. " The Monongahela, Commander Strong, was the first vessel that struck her, and in doing so, carried away her own iron prow, together with the cutwater, without apparently doing her adversary much injury. The Lacka wanna, Captain Marchand, was the next vessel to strike her, which she did at full speed ; but though her stem was cut and crushed to the plank-ends, for the distance of three feet above the water's edge and five feet below, the only perceptible effect on the ram was to give her a heavy list. The Hartford was the third vessel that struck her ; but, as the Tennessee quickly shifted her helm, the blow was a glancing one, and, as she rasped along our side, we poured our whole port broadside of nine-inch solid shot within ten feet of her casement. The monitors worked slowly, but delivered their fire as opportunity offered. The Chickasaw succeeded in getting under her stern and a fifteen-inch shot from the Manhattan broke through her iron plating and heavy wooden packing ; though the missile itself did not enter the vessel. Immediately after the collision with the flag-ship, I directed Captain Drayton to bear down on the ram again. He was doing so at full speed, when unfortunately, the Lackawanna ran into the Hartford just forward of the mizzen-mast, cutting her down to within two feet of the water's edge. We soon got clear again, however, and were fast approaching our adversary when she struck her colors and ran up the white flag. She was at this time sore beset ; the Chickasaw was pounding away at her stern, the Ossipee was approaching her at full speed, and the Monongahela, Lackawanna, and this ship, were 74 MEN OF OUR DAY. bearing down upon her, determined upon her destruction. Her smoke-stack had been shot away, her steering-chains were gone, compelling a resort to her relieving-tackles, and several of her port-shutters were jammed. Indeed, from the time the Hart- ford struck her, until her surrender, she never fired a gun. As the Ossipee, Commander Le Roy, was about to strike her, she hoisted the white flag, and that vessel immediately stopped her engine, though not in time to avoid a glancing blow. During this contest with the rebel gunboats and the ram Tennessee, and which terminated by her surrender at 10 o'clock, we lost many more men than from the fire of the batteries of Fort Morgan." During the engagement, the admiral had lashed himself in a perilous position in the main rigging, near the top from which he could see, much more easily than from the deck, the progress of the fight ; and, it is said, that, at the moment of the collision between the Hartford and the Lackawanna, when the men all cried to each other, to " save the admiral," he in the maintop, finding that the ship would float at least long enough to serve his purpose, and intent only on that, called out to his fleet-captain, " Go on with speed ! Ram her again !" Yet amid this perilous excitement, he forgot not to notice the admirable conduct of the men at their guns, throughout the fleet, and, in a manner tender and sympathetic, alludes to their heroism, in his report, as follows : "Although no doubt their hearts sickened as mine did, when their shipmates were struck down beside them, yet there was not a moment's hesitation to lay their comrades aside and spring again to their deadly work." Humane in feeling as he is gallant in action, Farragut, learning that his vanquished rival, the rebel Admiral Buchanan was severely wounded (he subsequently lost a leg by amputa- tion) promptly requested permission of the commandant of DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 75 Fort Morgan, to send the admiral and the other wounded rebel officers, under flag of truce, to the Union hospitals at Pensacola. The request was granted, and a vessel was detailed for their conveyance. By this victory were secured the entire destruc- tion of the rebel fleet, the capture of the armored ship Tennes- see, and of two hundred and thirty rebel officers and men ; the abandonment, on the day following, of Fort Powell, with eigh- teen guns; the subseqi^nt surrender of Fort Gaines, with fifty- six officers, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen men, and twenty-six guns ; and (after a twenty-four hour bombardment) of Fort Morgan with sixty guns, and six hundred prisoners and the hermetical sealing up of the port of Mobile against blockade-runners, in itself a most serious blow to the Confeder- ate cause. Remaining in command of the "West Gulf Squadron, till November, 1864, he requested leave of absence, and was called to Washington for consultation in regard to future naval move- ments. A resolution of thanks to him, for his magnificent services, was passed by Congress, and the rank of vice-admiral (corresponding to that of lieutenant-general in the army) was created for him thus making him virtually the chief comman- der of the naval forces of the United States. In July 1866, the rank of admiral was created by Congress, and he was promoted to this, and Rear- Admiral Porter made vice-admiral. During the time he was in command of the West Gulf squad- ron, it had more fighting and less prizes than fell to the share of any other blockading squadron on the coast, and while the admirals of the other fleets had acquired large fortunes from prize- money, Farragut had received little beyond his regular pay. In view of this fact, the merchants of New York subscribed the sum of fifty thousand dollars, which was presented to him in United States 7.30 Treasury notes, in January, 1865, in testi- 76 MEN OF OUR DAY. mony of their appreciation of his ability as a naval commander, and of the great services which he had conferred upon com- merce and the nation. In April, 1865, Vice- Admiral Farragut revisited Norfolk for the first time since he had left it in 1861, and \vas received with an address of welcome from a committee of the Loyal League of that city. In his reply to their congratulations he made the following pertinent remarks concerning his own share in the rebellion just closed, "I was unwilling to believe that this difficulty would not have been settled; but it was all in vain, and, as every man must do in a revolution, as he puts his foot down, so it marks his life ; so it has pleased God to protect me thus far, and make me somewhat instrumental in dealing heavy blows at the rebellion. I have been nothing more than an instrument in the hands of God, well supported by my officers and men, who have done their duty faithfully." In the spring of 1867, Admiral Farragut, still desirous of sea service, joined the Mediterranean Squadron, and has been for nearly a year in European waters, everywhere received with the highest honors, and everywhere noticeable for his modesty, his patriotism, and his zeal for his country's honor and pros- perity. After all the vicissitudes of so remarkable a life, forty years of which have been spent afloat, Admiral Farragut is as vigorous in body, clear of head, and strong of purpose, as in his earlier days. In his nature, gentleness of temper is allied with a bravery that disdains all obstacles, impatience of delay, and disregard of danger ; vivacity of manner with extreme frankness and good humor ; a high-toned honesty of life with devotion to duty, and a broad general education with the most minute acquaintance of every detail of thorough seamanship. He has accomplished results which, in the words of the English Army and Navy DAVID GLASCOE FARRAGUT. 77 Gazette (not over-favorable to any thing American), " place him at the head of his profession, and certainly constitute him the first naval officer of the day," and he has accomplished them by force of a will which never admits the possibility of defeat. " I did not expect to succeed," said the gallant Commodore Dupont, to him, when relating the many obstacles and difficulties which opposed his excellent but unsuccessful attack, with the moni tors, on Fort Sumter. " That is the very reason you did not succeed," was Farragut's characteristic reply. WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. JILLIAM TECUMSEH SHEEMAN, son of Hon. Charles E. Sherman, for some years a judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio, and a brother of Hon. John Sherman, the well known United States Sena- tor from that State, was born in Lancaster, Ohio, on the 8th of February, 1820. His early education was obtained in the 'schools of his native town, but after his father's death, whicn occurred when he was nine years of age, he became a member of the family of Hon. Thomas Ewing, where he enjoyed still wider advantages ; and, at the age of sixteen, entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. Graduating from that institution, June 30th, 1840, with the sixth rank of his class, he was immediately appointed to a second lieutenancy in the Third Artillery, and served through the next year in Florida, achieving some distinction by the masterly manner in which he foiled certain maneuvers of the -wily Indian chief " Billy Bow- legs." In November, 1841, Sherman was made a first lieuten- ant, and, shortly after, was ordered to Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, where he remained several years, forming intimacies with eminent citizens of South Carolina, which it required all his firmness and patriotism in after years to abandon. In 1846 he was transferred to California and made assistant adjutant general, performing his duties with such marked ability, that 78 WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHEKMAN. 79 Congress, in 1851, made him captain, by brevet, dating from May 30th, 1848, " for meritorious services in California, during the war with Mexico." In September, 1850, he was appointed Commissary of Subsistence, with rank of captain, and assigned to the staff of the commander of the Department of the West, with headquarters at St. Louis. During the same year he mar- ried the daughter of his old friend, Hon. Thomas Swing, and was soon after stationed at New Orleans, where he became well acquainted with the leading men of Louisiana. In September, 1853, he resigned his commission in the army, and was, for four years ensuing, the manager of the banking house of Lucas, Turner & Co., of San Francisco, California. In 1857, his ser- vices were solicited and secured, by some of his old Louisiana friends, as the President and Superintendent of a State Military Academy, which they were then establishing, and he assumed his position early in 1858. The objects and inducements alleged for the creation of such an institution were, of them- selves, reasonable and plausible ; and it was not until after the commencement of the Presidential campaign of 1860, that he became aware of the disloyal sentiments existing among the majority of the leading men of the State, or of the real and treasonable purposes which had influenced them in founding the academy over which he presided. Simultaneously with the unavoidable unmasking of their plans, these men now strove, by every persuasive art, to induce him to join with them in their revolutionary projects. But the solicitations of friendship, the proffer of gold, and the tender of high official position, failed to shake, even for a moment, the sterling.loyalty of the soldier. Amazed at the revelation, and convinced that civil war was inevitable, he promptly sent to the Governor of the State th6 following letter of resignation : 80 MEN OF OUR DAY. JANUARY 18, 1861. Gov. THOMAS O. MOORE, Baton Rouge, La. SIR : As I occupy a jwasi-military position under this State, I deem it proper to acquaint you that I accepted such position when Louisiana was a State in the Union, and when the motto of the seminary was inserted in marble over the main door, " By the liberality of the General Government of the United States. The Union, Esto Perpetual Eecent events foreshadow a great change, and it becomes all men to choose. If Louisiana with- draws from the Federal Union, / prefer to maintain my alle- giance to the Old Constitution as long as a fragment of it sur- vives, and my longer stay here would be wrong in every sense of the word. In that event, I beg you will send or appoint some authorized agent to take charge of the arms and munitions of war here belonging to the State, or direct me what disposition should be made of them. And furthermore, as President of the Board of Supervisors, I beg you to take immediate steps to relieve me as Superintendent, the moment the State determines to secede ; for, on no earthly account will I do any act or think any thought, hostile to, or in defiance of, the old Government of the United States. With great respect, &c., (Signed) W. T. SHERMAN. His resignation was accepted with regret, by those who knew his worth as a man and his value as a soldier, and an in- structor of soldiers; and, in February, he removed with his family to St. Louis. Shortly before the attack on Fort Sumter he visited Washington, and, conversant as he was with the intentions and plans of the Southern leaders he was amazed at the apathy and incredulity of the Government, who, as he said, " were sleeping on a volcano, which would surely burst upon them unprepared." Urging upon government officials the imminency of the impending danger and the fearful lack of preparation to meet it, he also proffered his services as a sol- dier who had been educated at the country's expense and WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHEKMAN. 81 who owed every thing to her care and institutions. But the threatened storm was generally regarded, by those in authority, as a matter which would ^blow over" in sixty, or, at the most in ninety days, and he could find no one to comprehend or indorse his views in regard to the necessity of immediately call- ing out an immense army for the war. Upon the organization, however, of the new regiments of the regular army, in June, 1861, he was made colonel of the new 13th infantry, his com mission dating from May 14th, 1861. His first actual service in the war was at the battle of Bull Eun, or Manassas, where he commanded the Third Brigade in the First (Tyler's) Division. The spirited manner in which he handled his men was in strong contrast to the many disgraceful scenes which have made that day one of ignoble memories. The vigor and desperate valor, indeed, with which Sherman fought his brigade on that occasion, is evidenced by the fact that its losses were far heavier than any other brigade in the Union army ; his total of killed, wounded and missing, being six hundred and nine, while that of the whole division was but eight hundred and fifty-nine, and of the entire army, aside from prisoners and stragglers, but fif- teen hundred and ninety. His valor and good conduct were promptly rewarded by his appointment as a brigadier-general of volunteers, his commission dating from May 17th, 1861 ; and, early in August, he was made second in command of the Department of the Ohio, under General Anderson. On the 8th of October he was appointed to the chief command, in place of that general, who had been obliged to resign on account of ill health. The Department of the Ohio, which, at this time, com- prised all east of the Mississippi, and west of the Alleghanies, was in a deplorable condition ; paucity of troops ; insufficiency of supplies and munitions of war ; a surrounding country, luke- warm, if not openly inimical to the Union cause, and the close 82 MEN OF OUR DAY. proximity of large, well equipped and well officered forces of the enemy (who, if they had known has real condition, could have driven him " out of his boots" in ten days) rendered Sher- man's situation a most unenviable one. In addition to the pressure of these unfavorable circumstances, he now found him- self annoyed and seriously endangered by the presence in his camp of numbers of those "gad-flies" of the press newspaper letter writers and reporters whose indiscreetness threatened to reveal to the enemy, the very facts which most needed con- cealment. He soon put an end to this risk by a stringent general- order, which excluded the whole busy crew from his lines, and, of course, brought down upon his own head an ava- lanche of indignation from a hitherto "'untrammeled press." Sherman's greatest difficulty, however, was the impossibility of making the Government comprehend the magnitude of the con- test which it was waging, and the necessity of placing a large and well appointed army in the field, which should make short work with rebellion by the crushing weight of numbers. When, in October 1861, he explained to the Secretary of War the critical position of his own department, and, in reply to a question of the number of troops needed for an immediate for- ward and decisive movement, replied " two hundred thousand men" his words were considered visionary and he was incon- tinently pronounced " crazy," by government officials as well as by the newspaper press, who had not forgiven him for his for- mer severity. Chagrined at the distrust of his military judg- ment thus evinced by his superiors, Sherman, in November 1861, asked to be relieved from his position, and was succeeded by General Buell, who, being immediately reinforced with the troops so often requested by and so persistently denied to his predecessor, was enabled to hold the department in a defensive attitude, until the opening of the spring campaign. WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 83 Sherman, meanwhile, was left to rust in command of Benton barracks, near St. Louis, until General Halleck, who succeeded Fremont in command Sf the Western Department, and who well knew the abilities of the man, detailed him for service in General Grant's army ; and, after the capture of Fort Donelson, he was placed in command of that general's fifth division, com- posed mostly of raw troops, whom he began immediately to drill and perfect. Soon the storm of battle again burst upon him, at Shiloh, April 6th, 1862, where he had taken position three miles out from Pittsburgh Landing, on the Corinth road. Sustaining, against great odds, the repeated and furious onsets of the enemy on the 6th, he assumed the offensive on the 7th, and pushed them back with heavy loss ; and, on the morning of the 8th, pushing still forward, met and routed their cavalry, and captured many prisoners and large quantities of arms and ammunition. During the advance upon Corinth, which followed this battle of Shiloh, his division was constantly in the lead and carried, occupied, and reintrenched seven distinct camps of the enemy ; and when, on the 30th of May, Beauregard retreated from the city, it was Sherman's gallant division which took possession of it. Occupying with these raw recruits, at the opening battle of Shiloh, " the key point of the landing," says General Grant, in his official report, " it is no disparagement to any other officer to say, that I do not believe there was another division commander on the field who had the skill and expe- rience to have done it. To his individual efforts I am indebted for the success of that battle" General Halleck also records it as the "unanimous opinion, that General Sherman saved the for- tunes of the day ; he was in the thickest of the fight, had three horses killed under him, and was twice wounded" and in this eulogium of his services, every general officer, as well as others, heartily concurred. At the earnest request of Generals Grant 84 MEN OF OUR DAY. 'and Halleck, Sherman was made a major-general of volunteers, dating from May 1st, 1862. Appointed by General Grant, in the spring of 1862, to. the command or the district of Memphis, Tennessee, he thoroughly suppressed, within the course of six months, the guerrilla warfare and contraband trade which had rendered it, in the opinion of rebel officers, a more valuable position to them in the possession of the Federal government, then it ever had been while in their own. When, in December, 1862, General Grant began his operations against Vicksburg, he first placed Sherman in command of the fifteenth army corps, and after the latter had made some important reconnoissances, he took him into his confidence regarding his plan for the capture of that city. According to this plan, Sherman, with four picked divisions, sailed from Memphis in December, to make a direct attack upon Chickasaw Bluffs, a part of the defences of Yicksburg on the river side, while Grant himself, proceeding down the Missis- sippi Central railroad, to Jackson, Mississippi, was to move to the rear of the city. Grant's movement, however, was prevented by the unexpected surrender of Holly Springs, on the Mississippi Central railroad, which was to be his base of supplies, and he was also unable to communicate the fact to Sherman. Unconscious of this, therefore, the latter pressed on, disembarked on the 26th and 27th of December, and after three days' desperate fighting, which failed to make any impression upon the fortifications of the city, had the mortification to be superseded in command by General McClernand, a volunteer officer, to whom he transferred the command with a soldierly loyalty and manliness, which few men, in his circumstances, would have been able to exhibit towards a civilian general, and a rival. The repulse of the Chickasaw Bluffs, however, was subsequently fully compensated for by the hearty praise and candid criticism of General Grant and other eminent military critics, who saw, in the natural topo- WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 85 graphy of the ground, the insuperable obstacles against which he had so bravely contended. Sherman's next most brilliant exploit was his rapid and successful movement for the relief of Admiral Porter's fleet of gunboats, on the Sunflower river, which were in danger of being hemmed in by the enemy, while attempting to reach Haines' Bluff, above Yicksburg, with a view to an attack on the city. In Grant's subsequent attempt on the city from below, the role assigned to Sherman was one involving considerable danger, and requiring a high degree of military tact being a feigned attack, or rather a demonstration, in conjunction with the gunboats, on Haines' Bluff. This attack, which continued with great fury for two days, enabled Grant to land his troops without opposition at a point seventy miles below, then, by a forced six days' march over terrible roads, General Sherman joined his force to that of Grant at Grand Gulf, and the whole army moved forward. We next find Sherman operating with McPherson in a series of brilliant movements, resulting in the rout of the enemy and the capture of Jackson, Mississippi, and the destruction of numerous rail- road bridges, machine shops, and arsenals at that point ; then, by a succession of rapid marches, which General Grant charac- terized as " almost unequalled," he wrested the possession of Walnut Hills from the enemy, cutting their force in two. and compelling the evacuation of Haines', Snyder's, Walnut, and Chickasaw Bluffs, together with all their strong works; and enabling General Grant at once to open communication with the fleet and his new base on the Yazoo and Mississippi, above Yicksburg. To General Sherman it was perhaps an additional source of pleasure that the position which he had thus gained by a rear attack, was the very one against which, less than five months before, he had hurled his troops in vam. In the first assault on the enemy's lines, May 19th, Sherman's corps, alone 86 MEN OP OUR DAY of the three engaged, succeeded in making any material advance. The surrender of the city of Yicksburg, on the 4th of July, .brought rest and comfort to all of the brave "Army of the Tennessee, except to Sherman's corps, who were immediately started in pursuit of Johnston, then hovering in the rear of the Union army. Johnston marched at once to Jackson, which he attempted to defend, but finally, on the night of the 16th, evacuated hastily, abandoning every thing to Sherman, of whom General Grant said, in reference to this last success, " It entitles General Sherman to more credit than usually falls to the lot of one man to earn." A well earned rest of two months was terminated, September 23d, by orders from Grant to reinforce Kosecrans, who had just fought the battle of Chickamauga. Promptness, celerity of movement, and a force of will which overcame every obstacle which enemy or accident placed in his way, characterized his execution of this order. Arriving at Memphis, he pushed on to open communication between that city and Chattanooga; and, while so engaged, was appointed commander of the Army of the Tennessee, at the request of General Grant, who had been advanced to the command of the Grand Military Division of the Mississippi, comprising the Armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Tennessee. On the 15th of November, under imperative orders from Grant, and by a forced march, he joined that general at Chattanooga, and exhausted as his men were, by the arduous march from Memphis, he at once received, and promptly obeyed, orders to cross the Tennessee, make a lodgment on the terminus of Missionary Eidge and demonstrate against Bragg's flank. The roads were in a horrible condition, but by herculean exer- tions, three divisions were put across the river and concealed, during the night of November 23d, behind some hills, and by one o'clock, the following morning, his whole force had crossed WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 87 both the Tennessee and the Chickamauga, and under cover of a rain and dense fog, the cavalry dashed forward to cut the Chattanooga and Knoxville, and the Cleveland and Dalton rail- roads, while the infantry, by half past three, P. M., surprised and captured the fortifications on the terminus of Missionary Eiclge ; and the Union guns being dragged up the steep ascent, quickly silenced the fire which was opened upon them from the batteries of the discomforted and enraged enemy. The night was spent in rest and preparation for the struggle which the morrow would inevitably bring for the possession of Fort Buck- ner, the formidable fortification which crowned the next or superior ridge of the hill. To General Sherman, on account of his known abilities and, more especially, his unquestioning obedience to military necessities, was assigned a task requiring firmness and self-sacrifice, unattended with any immediate hope of reputation and fame, but which he accepted with that prompt- ness which always characterizes him. It was, to make a per- sistent demonstration against Fort Buckner, in order to draw the enemy's force from Forts Bragg and Breckinridge, which being weakened, would fall an easier conquest to Grant's storm- ing column. Splendidly did this masterly soldier and his brave men carry out their part in the programme of the battle of the 25th. From sunrise, until three o'clock, they surged forward in desperate charges upon the fortifications of the crested heights above them again and again were repulsed still gained a little and steadily held what they gained until the enemy had massed nearly his whole force against the struggling column; when, suddenly, Hooker swooped down upon Fort Bragg, and at twenty minutes to four p. M., Thomas's Fourth army corps, charging in solid column up the ridge, carried Fort Breckinridge by assault and the battles of Chattanooga were won. The glorious success of that day was due quite as much 88 MEN OF OUR DAY. to the persistency and stubbornness with which General Sherman held the crest of Tunnel Hill, as to the gallant daring of the other divisions ; and. without the former, the latter could never, by any possibility, have succeeded. Victory, however, brought no respite to Sherman and his tired veterans. The flying foe was to be pursued and railroad connections severed ; and, while so engaged, they were ordered to the relief of Knoxville, where twelve thousand men under General Burnside were closely besieged by Longstreet. Eighty- four miles of terrible roads, and two rivers, lay between them and Knoxville, which must be reached in three days. Seven days before they had left their camp beyond the Tennessee, with . only two days' rations, and but a single coat or blanket per man, officers as well as privates, and with no other provisions but such as they could gather by the road. In that time, also, they had borne a conspicuous part in a terrible battle, and well might they have been excused if they had grumbled at this fresh imposition of extra duty. But with them " to hear was to obey." The railroad bridge across the Hiawassee was repaired and planked ;. they then pushed forward to the Tennessee, and found the bridge there destroyed by the enemy, who retreated. Despatching Colonel Long with the cavalry brigade, with orders to ford the Little Tennessee, and communicate tidings of the approaching relief to General Burnside within twenty-four hours, Sherman turned aside to Morgantown, where he extem- porized a bridge, which he crossed on the night of December 4th; and the next morning received information from Burn- side of Colonel Long's safe arrival, and that all was well. Moving still rapidly forward, he was met at Marysville, on the evening of the 5th, by the welcome news of the abandonment of the siege by General Longstreet, on the previous evening. Halting at Marysville, he sent forward two divisions, under WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 89 General Granger, to Knoxville, and every thing there being found safe, returned leisurely with the rest of his army to Chattanooga. The three months' campaign thus closed, had been one of extreme fatigue .and brilliant success. Leaving Vicksburg, they had marched four hundred miles, without sleep for three successive nights, fought at Chattanooga, chased the enemy out of Tennessee, and turning more than a hundred miles north- ward, had compelled the raising of the siege of Knoxville. All this had been done, much of the time, in the depth of winter, over a mountainous region, sometimes barefoot, without regular rations or supplies of any kind, and yet without a murmur. " Forty rounds of ammunition in our cartridge-boxes, sixty rounds in our pockets ; a march from Memphis to Chattanooga ; a battle and pursuit ; another march to Knoxville ; and victory everywhere," was the proud answer of one of these fifteenth corps soldiers, in reply to the sentinel who asked him where his badge was. And the cartridge-box with forty rounds, thence- forth, became the emblem of the fifteenth corps. Early in 1863, Gen. Sherman planned an expedition into Central Mississippi, which was sanctioned by Gen. Grant and which was immediately carried into effect. His idea was to march a movable column of 22,000 men, cut loose from any base, for one hundred and twenty miles through the enemy's country, which should sweep Mississippi and Alabama out of the grasp of the rebels. As a military conception it was un- surpassed in modern times,* except by Sherman himself in his later movements ; and that it failed of its intended results and became merely a gigantic raid, which, however, carried terror and destruction into the very heart of the Confederacy was owing only to the lack of proper energy in the co-operating cavalry force. This force, 8000 strong, leaving Memphis on the 1st of February, was to move down the Mobile and Ohio rail- 90 MEN OF OUR DAY. road from Corinth to Meridian, destroying the road as they went. At Meridian they were expected to meet Sherman, who, with 20,000 cavalry, 1200 infantry, and twenty days' rations, left Vicksburg on the 3d. The cavalry force, however, were so badly behind time at starting, that when they did move they met with much opposition from the enemy, who had massed at different points on the route; and they finally turned back. Sherman's share of the expedition was promptly carried out, railroad communications were cut, stores destroyed, negroes brought away, and an immense amount of irreparable damage done. Finding that the co-operating cavalry force was not " on time " at the appointed rendezvous, he turned his face westward from Meridian, followed at a very respectful distance by the enemy, from whom, however, he received no serious opposition. The failure, however, deranged and postponed, for a time, the contemplated attack on Mobile by Farragut. On the 12th of March, 1864, Sherman succeeded to the com- mand of the grand military division of the Mississippi, recently vacated by Gen. Grant, who had been elevated to the command of the armies of the United States. This division comprised the departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and, for the time, Arkansas ; and the forces under his command soon to be increased numbered, at that time, over 150,000 men, under such leaders as Thomas, McPherson, Schofield, Hooker, Howard, Stoneman, Kilpatrick, Eousseau, and others of equal ability and fame. At a 'conference with Grant, soon after this event, plans for the coming campaign had been fully discussed and agreed upon. It was decided that a simultaneous forward movement of the eastern and western armies should take place in May, one aiming for Eichmond, Virginia, and the other for Atlanta, Georgia. In less than fifty days, Sherman had concentrated the different army corps at Chattanooga, as WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 91 well as immense stores of arms, ammunition and cannon ; had re-organized and drilled his men, remounted and increased his cavalry, and made all the arrangements, even to the minutest detail, for the expected campaign. On the seventh of May, his army of 98,797 effective men (of which 6149 were cavalry and 4460 artillery) and 254 guns, moved forward to its gigantic work the capture of Atlanta, 130 miles distant. The region of Northern Georgia through which they were to pass, abounds in rugged hills, narrow and steep defiles and valleys, with rapid and deep streams ; and is, in all respects, a difficult country for military movements. In addition to its natural topographical advantages, the Chattanooga and Atlanta railroad threaded many of these mountain passes, and these points, therefore, had received the special attention and scientific skill of Gen. John- ston, the rebel commander, who had added immensely to their strength by almost impregnable fortifications. Opposed to the Union troops, also, were about 45,000 well trained soldiers, re- inforced during the subsequent campaign by nearly 21,000, and commanded by Johnston, Hardee, Hood, and other picked gen- erals of the Confederacy. Again, while the rebel army, if com- pelled to retreat, would be only falling back upon its base of supplies, Sherman's army, already 350 miles from the primary base at Louisville, and 175 from its secondary base at Nashville, was increasing that distance by every step of its advance ; and was under the necessity of guarding its long and constantly in- creasing line of communications (one, and for a part of the dis- tance, two lines of railroad, and in certain conditions of naviga- tion, the Tennessee river) from being cut by the rebel cavalry, as well as from the attacks of guerrillas. Yet Sherman, during the succeeding five months' campaign, retained this line of nearly 500 miles, wholly within his control, turning to the sig- nal discomfiture of the enemy every attempt which they made 92 MEN" OF OUR DAY. to destroy it. Dal ton, a position of great strength, and which could only be reached by the Buzzard Boost's Gap, a narrow and lofty defile in the great rock -faced ridge of the Chattoo- gata mountains, was the first point of attack. Protected by a formidable abatis, and artificially flooded from a neighboring creek, and commanded by heavy batteries, this defile, through which the railroad passed, and which offered the only route to Dalton, was impregnable by a front attack. Leaving Thomas and Howard to demonstrate vigorously against it, therefore, Sherman, with the res.t of his army, flanked it by a movement through Snake Creek Gap, towards Eesaca, .on the railroad, eighteen miles below Dalton. Johnston, however, fell back on Eesaca before the Union army had reached it, while Howard passed through Dalton close in Johnston's rear. Once in Ee- saca, Johnston showed fight, and Sherman having pontooned the Oostanaula, south of the town, and sent a division to threaten Calhoun, the next place on the railroad, and a cavalry division to cut up the railroad between Calhoun and Kingston, gave bat- tle at Eesaca, which place, after two days' heavy fighting, the rebel commander abandoned in the night of the 15th, burning the bridge behind him, with a loss of some 3500, of whom 1000 were prisoners, eight guns and a large amount of stores, etc. Pressing fiercely on his flying footsteps, Sherman sent the 14th corps to Eome, which was captured and garrisoned, and after a severe skirmish at Adairsville, he ; reached Kingston on the 18th, captured it, and gave his troops a few days' rest, while he re- opened communications with Chattanooga, and brought forward supplies for his army. On the 23d, with twenty days' rations, he moved forward again, flanking the dangerous defile of Allatoona Pass, by a rapid march on the town of Dallas. Johnston, fearing for the safety of his railroad communications, felt compelled to leave his fortified position and give battle. In rapid succession WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN". 93 followed the severe engagements at Burnt Hickory on the 24th, at Pumpkinviue creek and at New Hope church, on the 25th, and Johnston's grand attack on General McPherson at Dallas, on the 28th, where the former was repulsed with a loss of over three thousand. While this had been going on, Sherman had extended his left, so as to envelope the rebel right, and to occupy all the roads leading eastward towards Allatoona and Ackworth, and finally occupied Allatoona Pass with his cavalry, with a feint of moving further south. Suddenly, however, he reached Ackworth, and Johnston was obliged to fall back, on the 4th of June, to Kenesaw mountain. Sherman now fortified and garrisoned Allatoona Pass as a secondary base, repaired his communica- tions, and on the 9th of June received full supplies and rein- forcements by railroad from Chattanooga. Moving forward again, he proceeded to press Johnston, who held a finely fortified position in a triangle, formed by the north- ern slopes of Pine, Kenesaw, and Lost mountains. After several days' artillery practice, General Johnston was found, on the morning of the 15th, to have abandoned the first named moun- tain, and to be occupying a well intrenched line between the two latter. Sherman still pressed him until he evacuated Lost mountain, and, finally, was obliged to make another change with Kenesaw as his salient, covering Marietta with his right wing, and with his left on Norse's creek, by which means he hoped to gain security for his railroad line. A sally by Hood's corps upon the Union lines, on the 22d, was repulsed with a heavy loss to the assailants ; and, on the 27th, Sherman made an assault upon Johnston's position, which was unsuccessful. Despite the heavy loss which they sustained, the Union troops were not dispirited, and a skilful manosuvre by Sherman, com- pelled the evacuation of Marietta, on the 2d of July. General Johnston remained well intrenched on the west bank of the 04. MEN OF OUR DAY. Chattahoochie, until the 5th, when a flank movement of Sher- man compelled him to cross, which he did in good order. But, on the 7th and 8th of July, Sherman secured three good points for crossing the river, and the Confederates were obliged to fall back to Atlanta, leaving their antagonist in full possession of the river. "While giving his men the brief rest, which they so much needed, before his next move on Atlanta, eight miles dis- tant, Sherman on the 9th, telegraphed orders to a force of two thousand cavalry (which he had already collected at Decatur, over two hundred miles in Johnston's rear) to push south and break up the railroad connections around Opelika, by which the rebel army got its supplies from central and southern Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi, and then join him at Marietta. The cavalry, under General Rousseau, set out promptly, and, within twelve days, destroyed thirty miles of railroad, defeated the rebel General Clanton, and reached Mari- etta on the 22d, with a loss of only thirty men. Meanwhile, the main army had been enjoying a rest, supplies had been brought forward, railroad guards and garrisons strengthened, roads and bridges improved and the attention of the rebels well diverted by cavalry expeditions which were sent down the river. On the 17th, then, a general advance was made, and the same evening the Union army formed its line along the old Peach Tree road. The next day McPherson and Schofield, swinging around upon the Augusta railroad, east of Decatur, broke it up most effectually, and, on the 19th, Thomas crossed Peach Tree creek on numerous bridges thrown across in face of the enemy's lines. All this was accomplished with heavy skirmishing, and on the 20th, Hood (who, three days previous, had succeeded General Johnston in the supreme command of the Confederate army), taking advantage of a gap between two corps of the Union army, hurled his whole force upon its left WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 95 wing, with the hope of cutting off and routing it. His skilfully conceived stratagem, however, was foiled by the unexpected steadiness of the Union soldiers, and after a terrible battle the enemy was driven back to his intrenchments, with a loss of over five thousand men. Retreating to his interior lines along the creek, forming the outer lines of the defences proper of Atlanta, Hood now massed nearly his whole force, and, upon the 22d, fell upon Sherman's left with great fury. Six times during the day his columns desperately charged upon the Union lines, but at night he was compelled to withdraw with a loss of fully 12,000 men, of whom over 3000 were killed, 5000 stand of arms and eighteen flags. The Union loss waa but 1,720, but among the slain was the able and beloved Major- General James B. McPherson, commander of the army of the Tennessee, whose death was not only a serious blow to General Sherman, but was generally regarded as a national misfortune. The day following this severely contested battle, General Gar- rard's cavalry force, which had been sent to Covington, Georgia, to break the railroad and bridges near that place, returned to headquarters, having fully executed his mission with great damage to the rebel cotton and stores, and a considerable num- ber of prisoners. An expedition, however, planned by General Sherman for the destruction of the Atlanta and Macon, and the West Point railroads, with the view of severing Atlanta from all its communications and compelling its surrender, was not so successful. A portion of it, under General McCook, performed its share speedily and well, but the co-operating force under General Stoneman unfortunately failed the general and a large number of his men being captured while McCook was obliged to fight his way out ; the whole entailing a heavy loss of cavalry to the Union army. On the 28th of July, Hood in full force again assaulted the gg MEN OF OUR DAY. Union army on the Bell's Ferry road expecting to catch its right flank " in air." He found, however, that Sherman was perfectly prepared for him and, after six desperate assaults, gave it up as a bad job, having lost fully, 5000 men, which, with his losses in the previous battles of the 20th and 23d, placed nearly one half of his force hors du combat. Hoping, by threatening his communications, to draw Hood out from hi? fortifications, Sherman now extended his line southwesterly towards East Point. The ruse failed, however, and the only alternative remaining to compass the capture of Atlanta, in- volved the necessity "of another flank movement of the whole army, a difficult and unwelcome matter both as regarded the further removal of the 'army from its base of supplies and the apparent raising of the siege. But there seemed to be no other way, and accordingly, on the nights of the 25th and 26th, a por- tion of his army was withdrawn to the Ohattahoochie, and Hood congratulated himself that a cavalry expedition which he had sent northward to break the Union connections between Allatoons and Chattanooga, had alarmed Sherman for the safety of his communications, and compelled him to raise the siege. The joy of the rebels, however, was of short duration; on the 29th of August, they learned that Sherman's army was sweeping their own railroad communications at AVest Ppint with a " besom of destruction" and on the 31st, two rebel corps, which had been hastily pushed forward to Jonesboro, were heavily repulsed by the advancing Union armies. Find- ing his communications now irretrievably lost, by this flank movement of his antagonist, Hood retreated, on the night of September 1st, to Lovejoy's Station. Atlanta was occupied, the next day, by the victorious Union troops, and the city was immediately converted into a strictly military post. The loss of Atlanta was a severe blow to the rebels ; and, under orders WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHEBMAN. 97 from President Davis, on the 24th of September, Hood ini- tiated a series of movements bj which he hoped to recover not only it, but northern Georgia and east and middle Ten- nessee. Sherman, however, kept a watchful eye upon him and pursued him closely to Gaylesville, where he could watch him intrenched at Will's Gap, in Lookout mountain. Divin- ing, further, that Hood meditated a union with General Dick Taylor at Tuscumbia, Alabama, and a joint attempt by them, for the recovery of middle and east Tennessee, he divided his army, giving a share to his trusted friend General George H. Thomas, with orders to hold Tennessee against the rebels. Then, announcing to his army that he should follow Hood northward no longer, but "if he would go to the river, he would give him his rations," he moved back to Atlanta, by the 1st of November, and sent the railroad track, property of value, etc., at that city and along the line, to Chattanooga, which thenceforward became the outpost of the Union army in that direction. Leaving Tennessee safe in Thomas's charge, and Schofield to keep the rebels out of Chattanooga and Nashville, Sherman now prepared for a campaign which he had already projected through Georgia and North Carolina "to the sea." " They are at my mercy," he telegraphed to Washington, " and I shall strike. Do not be anxious about me. I am all right." With the army under his command, consisting of nearly 60,000 infantry, and 10,000 cavalry, he proposed to cut loose from all bases, and, with thirty or forty days' rations and a train of the smallest possible dimensions, to move southeastward through the very heart of the Confederacy, upon Savannah ; thence, if favored by circumstances, to turn northward through North and South Carolinas, thus compelling the surrender or evacuation of Eichmond. With General Sherman, action follows close on thought. Destroying all the public buildings of Atlanta, he gg MEN OF OUR DAY. moved forward in two columns, the right commanded by Gen- eral Howard and the left by General Slocum, while a cloud of cavalry floating around the main body, shrouded the real inten- tions of the march with a degree of mystery impenetrable to the enemy. General Howard's column, accompanied by Gen- eral Sherman, passed through East Point, Bough and Eeady, Griffin, Jonesboro, McDonough, Forsythe, Hillsboro, and Monti- cello, reaching Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia, on the 20th of November ; thence via Saundersville and Griswold to Louis- ville. The left wing, meanwhile, under Slocum, had marched through Decatur, Covington, Social Circle, Madison ; threatened Macon with attack, then through Buckhead and Queensboro, and divided, one part moving towards Augusta, the other to Eatonton and Sparta. Here, uniting, they entered Warren and finally joined the right wing at Louisville. The whole force now moved down the left bank of the Ogeechee to Millen and thence to the Savannah canal, where their scouts, on the 9th of December, communicated with General Foster and Admiral Dahlgren, who where there waiting for their arrival. During this magnificent march of three hundred miles, they had met with no very serious opposition, and the few troops which the rebel generals could muster, were skilfully thrown out of his way by Sherman's feints on Macon and Augusta by which they were garrisoned for the defence of those cities. So completely, indeed, was General Bragg fooled by his wily antagonist, that when Savannah was actually attacked, he was unable to come to its relief. Fo|fc McAllister was carried by storm, by the Union troops, on the 13th of December, and on the 16th, the city, which, by some strange oversight, had only a garrison of one hundred and fifty men, was summoned to surrender. General Hardee, who commanded these, refused, whereupon Sherman commanded to invest the city, with the WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 99 design of bombarding it. But, on the night of the 20th, tinder cover of a heavy fire from the rebel gunboats and batteries, Hardee abandoned the city, which was entered the next day by the Union army. Into the hands of the victors fell 150 guns, 13 locomotives, 190 cars, large stores of ammunition and sup- plies, 3 steamers, and 33,000 bales of cotton in warehouses. The expedition, the entire loss of which was less than 400 men, gave freedom to over 20,000 slaves who accompanied it to Savannah ; and its course was marked by over 200 miles of destroyed railroad, which effectually broke the enemy's con- nection with Hood's and Beauregard's armies. Simultaneously, also, with their victorious entry into Savannah, Sherman and his brave veterans received the welcome news, that the Union army in Tennessee, decoying Hood to Nashville, had there turned upon him, and utterly routed him even beyond the borders of Alabama. From every quarter, indeed, of Sherman's military jurisdiction, came the good news, that in each place his subordinates had proved themselves worthy of the trusts com- mitted to their charge. Hopefully then, the great leader turned to the completion of his self-imposed and herculean task. South Carolina Columbia, its capital, and Charleston, " the nest of the rebellion," were yet to be humbled beneath the mailed foot of loyalty. Eefreshed, recruited and strengthened at every point, the army commenced its march to the northward, on the 14th of January, 1865. Two corps (15th and 17th) were sent by transports to Beaufort, South Carolina, where they were joined by Foster's command, and the whole force moved on the Savannah and Charleston railroad. A few days later, the two remaining corps (14th and 20th) crossed the Savannah river, and despite the overflowed and terrible condition of the roads, struck the railroad between Branchville and Charleston, early in February ; compelled the enemy to evacuate the former J00 MEN OF OUK DAY. place on the llth, and breaking up the road so as to effectually prevent reinforcement from the west, entering Orangeburg on the 16th, and Columbia on the 18th, close on the heels of Beauregard's retreating force. This movement flanked Charles - ton, and Hardee, finding it untenable, retreated in the light of a conflagration, which laid two thirds of the business portion of that beautiful city in ashes. On the morning of February 18th, the Union troops from Morris island, entered the city, and the "old flag" once more 'floated over Fort Sumter. Moving in two columns, the 17th and 20th corps marched from Columbia to Winnsboro, thirty miles north, on the Charlotte and Columbia railroad, which was thoroughly destroyed. Sending Kilpatrick towards Chesterville, in order to delude Beauregard into the be- lief that he was moving on that point, Sherman turned east, his left wing directed towards Cheraw, and his right threatening Florence. On the 3d of March occurred the short and not very severe battle of Cheraw, a success for the Union arms, and on the next day, March 4th, President Lincoln's second inauguration was celebrated by a salute from the rebel guns which they had captured. On the afternoon and night of the 6th, the Union army crossed the Great Pedee river, and in four columns, with outlying cavalry, swept through a belt of country forty miles wide, entering Laurel Hill, North Carolina, on the 8th, and reaching Fayetteville on the llth. Thus far, the results of the campaign had been, 14 captured cities, hundreds of miles of railroads, and thousands of bales of cotton destroyed, 85 cannon, 4000 prisoners, 25,000 horses, mules, etc., and 15,000 refugees, black and white, set at liberty. After a rest of two days, Sher- man moved moderately forward, meeting, fighting, and defeating the enemy under ' Johnston, at Averysboro, on the 16th, and again, on the 19th, at Bentonville ; finally, pressing them back so swiftly on Smithfield, on the 20th and 21st, that they lost WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN 101 seven guns and over 2000 prisoners, while deserters poured in by hundreds. On the same day Schofield occupied Goldsboro, General Terry secured Cox's bridge, and successfully pon- tooned the Keuse river, and General Sherman issued a congratu- latory order to his troops, in which he says : " After a march of the most extraordinary character, nearly five hundred miles, over swamps and rivers, deemed impassable to others, at the most inclement season of the year, and drawing our chief sup- plies from a poor and wasted country, we reach our destination in good health and condition you shall now have rest, and all the supplies that can be brought from the rich granaries and storehouses of our magnificent country, before again embarking on new and untried dangers." The entire Union losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners, on this sixty days' march from Savan- nah to Goldsboro, had been less than 2500 men. Leaving his men to recruit their energies, Sherman went to City Point, where, on the 27th of March, he had an interview with General Grant and the President, returning to his camp the next day. His army was now only separated from Grant's by a distance of 150 miles, traversed by a railroad which could easily be put in order for immediate use ; and, between the two, as between the upper and the nether millstone, the enemy were to be crushed by a blow, which, as yet, neither army hastened to give. On the 10th of April, Sherman's army, thoroughly rested and fully equipped, moved on Smithfield, which they entered on the following morning. Johnston, who commanded a large body of troops, retired across the Neuse, burning the bridge behind, and retreating by railroad. Sherman's men, struggling through roads so muddy that they were obliged to corduroy every foot of them, were cheered by the news of Lee's surrender, which met them en route, and leaving their trains, they pushed ahead with redoubled energy, to Raleigh, which they entered in the 1Q2 MEN OF OUR DAY. earlv morning of the 15th. Sherman now took measures to cut off Johnston's retreat, when the latter (knowing, what Sherman did not, that Salisbury had been captured by the Union General Stoneman on the 12th, thereby closing his own avenue of escape to the southward) made overtures for surrender. Interviews between the two generals, on the 17th and 18th, (at the latter of which General J. C. Breckinridge, then acting Secretary of War of the Confederacy, was present) resulted in the drawing up of a joint memorandum, to be submitted to the Presidents of the United States and of the Confederate Government, and if approved by them to be acted upon. The points of this memo- randum were briefly as follows : (1) the contending armies to remain in statu quo, hostilities not to be resumed until within forty-eight hours after due notice from either side; (2) the Confederate armies then in the field to disband, march to their respective State capitals, there to deposit their arms and public property, and each man to execute an agreement to cease from acts of war. The number of arms, etc., to be reported to the chief of ordnance at Washington, subject to the future ac- tion of the United States Congress, and, meanwhile, to be used only to maintain peace and order within the borders of the several States; (3) the recognition, by the Executive of the United States, of the several State governments, on their officers and legislatures taking the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States ; and the legitimacy of any conflicting State governments to which the war may have given rise, to be submitted to the Supreme Court of the United States ; (4) the re-establishment of all Federal courts in the several States, with powers as defined by the Constitution and laws of Congress; (5) the guarantee, by the Executive, to the people of all the States, of their political rights and franchises, as well as personal and propel -y rights, according to the Constitutions of the United WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHERMAN. 103 States and the several States; (6) the people not to be dis- turbed by the United States Government, on account of the late war, so long as they lived in peace, obeyed their local laws, and abstained from acts of armed hostility ; (7) on the above condi- tions, a general amnesty. This agreement, which was evidently entered into by Sherman under the full conviction that slavery was dead and the rebellion totally crushed, was received at Washington, by the Cabinet, just at the moment that their hearts and the public mind were intensely agitated and confused by the recent atrocious assassination of President Lincoln, the attempt on Secretary Seward's life, and the other startling events of the day. To men in such a frame of mind, and when read by the light of surrounding circumstances, its terms seemed unpardonably liberal. Forgetting that his action coin- cided exactly with the published policy of the late President (in his permission [April 7th] to the Virginia legislature to meet and adopt such measures as should withdraw the State troops from the Confederate force) ; and forgetting, also, that Sherman, in his recent great march, had been completely isola- ted from the outside world, and was ignorant of any change of policy on the part of the new President the Cabinet set the seal of its disapproval upon the course which the gallant chief- tain had submitted to their consideration. Yet, it is worthy of note, that, as events have since turned, the relations of these States to the Union have been based upon the identical policy which Sherman's course then indicated. General Grant went, therefore, immediately to Ealeigh, where he arrived on the 24th, and Sherman promptly notified the enemy of the termination of the armistice at the end of forty-eight hours. Johnston im- mediately signified to Sherman his desire for a conference, which resulted, on the 26th, in the surrender of the Confederate army to General Sherman, on the terms awarded to General Lee. 104 MEN OF OUR DAY. 30,000 soldiers, 15,000 muskets, 108 pieces of artillery were surrendered, and the war of the rebellion was virtually ended. On the 4th of May, the greater part of his army moved northward to Eichmond and Washington, where they were reviewed, May 24th, 1865, and about two thirds of them disbanded, the war having so nearly closed, as to render their further presence in the field unnecessary. From June 27th, 1865, to August llth, 1866, General Sherman held the command of the Military Division of the Mississippi (including Ohio, Missouri, and Arkansas), with headquarters at St. Louis ; and, from the latter date, of the Military Division of Missouri, which command he now retains. He was also appointed a member of the Board to make recommendations for brevets to general officers, March 14th to 24th, 1866 ; and was sent on a special mission to Mexico, in November and Decem- ber, 1866. On the 25th of July, 1866, by vote of Congress, he was created LIEUTENANT-GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, a deserved acknowledgment of his valor, skill, and patriotism. On the 19th of the same month, he received from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, a compliment not unfitting one who, while wielding the sword, has displayed a singularly acute and com- prehensive understanding of the principles of civil and politi- cal law. This great soldier is tall and slender in person, vigorous and enduring in action, and nervous in temperament, with manners somewhat brusque and austere, and a quick, rervous way of speaking. He is a great smoker, requires but little sleep, and is a close and somewhat abstracted thinker. As a writer, he expresses himself with remarkable terseness and force, often condensing a whole volume of military law in a single sentence. With an imperious will, which naturally brooks no control, he WILLIAM TECUMSEH SHEBMAN". 105 always recognizes, that " unhesitating obedience is the first duty of the soldier." He well merits the commendation bestowed upon him by the ablest European military critics, " of being the most complete master of logistics, and of the management of the movable column, of modern times." He is one of the very few men, of whom not a dozen are to be found in a century, who can handle with masterly skill, and without confusion, an army of a hundred thousand men or more. His soldiers idolize him, for they have ample evidence that their every want and comfort are looked after by the gruff chieftain, who is always willing to share their privations and their dangers. His patriot- ism is of the purest type, untouched, as yet, by the breath of slander, or the defiling slime of political strife. VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. fF courage and splendid fighting qualities are inherited, Admiral Porter should be, as he is, one of the best fight- ing men in the navy, for he is the youngest son of that old Viking, Commodore -David Porter, who, in the war of 1812, was the terror of the British marine, and who, while, unlike Semmes of the Alabama, he never let slip an opportunity of engaging a war vessel of the enemy, even if she carried twice his armament, made worse havoc with their mercantile marine than Semmes did with ours. The career of the frigate Essex, and her untoward fate, made the old commodore a hero for the rest of his life. After the close of the war he served as a mem- ber of the board of Navy Commissioners from 1815 to 1823, but the longing for the sea was too strong for him to overcome, and an opportunity occurring for a cruise to destroy the pirates who were infesting the West Indies, he gladly took command, and served two years, when, having punished with some severity an insult offered by the authorities of one of the islands, he was called home, and a naval court martial having decided that he had transcended his authority, he was suspended from command for six months. He resigned soon after, and for the next four years was commander-in-chief of the naval forces of Mexico. Returning to the United States in 1829 he was appointed consul general to the Barbary powers, and thence transferred first as 106 VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 107 charge and afterward as minister, to Constantinople, where he remained till hia death in 1843. His youngest son, DAVID D. PORTER, was born in Philadel- phia about 1814, and, while still a child, accompanied his father in his cruise after the pirates in 1823-25. We believe he was also with him in Mexico. On the 2d of February, 1829, he received his warrant as mid- shipman, being appointed from Pennsylvania. He was ordered to the frigate Constellation, thirty-six guns, stationed in the Mediterranean, under Commodore Biddle and Captain Wads- worth. In 1831, the Constellation was ordered home, and laid up in ordinary at Norfolk, and Porter was granted leave of absence, after which, in 1832, he was ordered back to the Mediterranean on the new flag-ship United States, a forty-four gun frigate, under Captain Nicholson, Commodore Patterson having charge of the squadron. On the 3d of July, 1835, he passed his ex- amination, and was recommended for early promotion. During the years 1836 to 1841, he was appointed on the Coast Survey and exploring expeditions, and stood on the list of passed mid- shipmen at the following numbers: January 1, 1838, No. Ill; January 1, 1839, No. 84; January 1, 1840, No. 61, and January 1, 1841, at No. 48. On the 27th of February, 1841, he was commissioned a lieutenant, and ordered to the frigate Congress, a forty-four gun vessel-of-war. He then rejoined the Mediterranean squad- ron; and after a short time this vessel was ordered on the Brazilian station. He still retained his position on the same craft, and was on her more than four years ; for his name is re- corded as one of her lieutenants on the rolls of the Navy Depart- ment for the years commencing January 1, 1842, 1843, 1844, and 1845. He had not risen much during these years ; for on the 103 MEN OF OUR DAY. first mentioned date his name stood at N. , 267 on the list of lieutenants ; on the second at No. 258 ; on the third at No. 245, and on the last at No. 232. At the latter end of 1845 he was attached to the Observatory at Washington on special duty, which position he still held at the commencement and during a portion of 1846. He then stood No. 228 on the list. On January 1, 1847, after having performed some brilliant exploits in the Gulf of Mexico during the Mexican war, he is recorded as being in charge of the rendezvous at New Orleans, from which he was detached to again join the Coast Survey, on which service his name is recorded on January 1, 1848. Dur- ing this year he was appointed to the command of the schooner Petrel, engaged on this survey. In February, 1849, he left New York as the commander of the steamship Panama, the third of the vessels constituting the line of American mail steamers first established for service on the Pacific. The pioneer passage of the Panama was attended with incidents which displayed on the part of the commander courage, caution, patience, and thoroughly competent qualifica- tions for the post to which he had been assigned. After taking the vessel safely to Panama Bay, he was ordered to New York to the command of the mail steamer Georgia, which command he held during the latter part of 1850, the years 1851 and 1852, and a great portion of 1853. Amongst the many gallant exploits of Admiral Porter was that of running the steamer Crescent City (appropriately named) into the harbor of Havana, during the excitement between the two countries relative to the ship Black Warrior. The Spanish government had refused to permit any United States vessel to enter that port. Buiming under the shotted guns of Moro Cas- tle, he was ordered to halt. He promptly replied that he car- ried the United States flag and the United States mails, and, by VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 109 the Eternal, lie would go in ; and he did, the Habaneros fearing to fire upon him. He said afterwards that he intended firing his six-poundsr at them once in defiance, after which he would haul down his flag. During the Mexican war, Admiral Porter, then a lieutenant, took a very active part in the naval portion of that conflict. He was the executive officer and first lieutenant under the famous Commodore Tatnall, who had charge of the mosquito fleet in the waters of the Gulf. Their adventures before Vera Cruz are not likely soon to be forgotten. On the 1st of January, 1854, he is recorded absent again on leave, and at the beginning of the next year awaiting orders. His name now stood at No. 138. During 1855 he was ordered to the command of the storeship Supply, and held this com- mand during the next year, until February, 1857. He was then ordered on shore duty, and on the 1st of January, 1860, was at the Navy Yard at Portsmouth as third in command. At the beginning of the year 1861, he was under orders to join the Coast Survey on the Pacific, but, fortunately, had not left when the rebellion broke out. His name at this time stood number six on the list of lieutenants. The resignation of several naval traitors left room for his advancement, and the "Naval Eegister" for August 31, 1861, places him number seventy-seven on the list of commanders, with twenty others between him and the next grade of rank below. He was then placed in command of the steam sloop-of-war Powhatan, a vessel of about twenty-five hundred tons, and armed with eleven guns. In her he took part in one section of the blockading squadron, and left that ship to take the special charge of the mortar expe- dition. The active part he took in the reduction of the forts below New Orleans will make his name ever memorable in connection with the mortar fleet, or " bummers," as the sailors term them. After the cap 'ire of New Orleans he, with his MEN OF OUR DAY. fleet, went up the Mississippi river, and was engaged in several affairs on that river, including that of Vicksbuig From that place he was ordered to the James river, and returned in the Octorara. When off Charleston, on his way to Fortress Monroe, he fell in with and captured the Anglo-rebel steamer Tubal Cain. It was at first supposed that he would have been placed in command of the James river flotilla ; but from some cause this plan was changed. He was allowed leave of absence to recruit his health, while his mortar fleet was engaged on the Chesapeake and in front of Baltimore. In October, 1862, he was appointed to the command of the Mississippi gunboat flotilla, as successor to Commodore Davis, with the rank of acting rear-admiral, and was required to co-operate with General Grant in the assault and siege of Ticks- burg. His services in that siege form a record of which any man might be proud. His squadron was a large one, composed of vessels of all sizes, many of them constructed under his own supervision, and a considerable number were armed steamers, plated with from three to four and a half inches of iron and capable of resisting the shot of any but the heaviest batteries. His previous very thorough knowledge of the Mississippi river was of great advantage to him in this service, as well as in his operations previously and subsequently in the lower Mississippi. In General Grant he evidently found a co-worker after his own heart, for imperious and exacting as the admiral's temper is, they had no difficulties, and he entered most heartily into all the general's efforts to find a suitable point for assailing successfully the Gibraltar of the rebellion. Previous to the coming of General Grant's army to Young's Point, Admiral Porter had cleared the lower Yazoo of torpedoes, losing one gunboat (the Cairo) in the attempt; had assisted General Sher- man to the utmost of his ability in his attack upon Chickasaw VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. HI Bluffs ; and accompanying General McClernand in his expedi- tion to the post of Arkansas and the White river, had bom- barded the fort (Fort Hindman) till it surrendered, and broken up the other small forts and driven out the rebel steamers on- the White river. He also succeeded in blockading eleven rebel steamers in the Yazoo. His activity during the next six months -was incessant; now sending gunboats and rams down the river past the batteries of Yicksburg to destroy the rebel rams and steamers and capture the supplies intended for Vicks- burg and Port Hudson ; then firing at the upper or lower batteries of Vicksburg, cutting the levee at Yazoo pass and en- deavoring to force a passage through the Yallobusha and Tallahatchee into the Yazoo ; and failing in this, cutting his way through the labyrinth of bayous and creeks to attain the same end. These exercises were varied by sending occasional- ly a coal barge fitted up as a monitor, past the batteries, greatly to the fright of the rebels, who, after concentrating the fires of their batteries on the contrivance without effect, were so badly scared as to destroy the best gunboat (the Indianola taken from Lieutenant Commander BrowA) they had on the river, from fear of its capture by this formidable monitor. Then came the hazardous experiment of running gunboats past the batteries, twice repeated, to aid General Grant in his movement to approach Vicksburg from below and from the rear. The success of these enterprises, only two transports out of sixteen or eighteen, and none of the gunboats, being destroyed, was remarkable, and of itself evinced great skill and caution on the part of the admiral. The fight at Grand Gulf was a severe one, and not successful, but the night following the batteries were run, and the troops ferried over to Bruinsburg, from whence they marched to Jackson and to the rear of Yicksburg. Meanwhile a part of the spuadron had been engaged in aiding MEN OF OUR DAY. Sherman in making a demonstration on Haines' Bluff to draw off the attention of the rebels from Grant's approach by the south. "When, on the 19th of May, Grant's army made their first assault on the rear of Vicksburg, and on the 22d of May, when the second assault was made, Admiral Porter maintained a heavy fire in front, to distract the attention of the rebels ; and during the whole siege, whenever a ball or shell could be thrown from his squadron either above or below the city with good effect, it was promptly and accurately hurled. The sur- render of Yicksburg, on the 4th of July, and of Port Hudson on the 9th, opened the Mississippi to our fleet and to merchant steamers, and thenceforth the fleet on the Mississippi acted only as an armed river patrol. The duties of the squadron in these respects were, however, somewhat arduous for a time. The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and the Ohio, were in- cluded within its cruising ground ; and the pursuit of Morgan's expedition to Bufnngton island, and the repressing of occasional rebel raids, kept them almost constantly on the alert. Early in Marcji, 1864, Admiral Porter ascended the Eed river to co-operate with General Banks in his expedition to break up the rebel posts on that river, and penetrate by that route into Texas. The expedition was at first successful, and captured the forts of the enemy, and their principal towns, in a series of brief engagements. But, as they ascended the river, the greed of gain seemed to take possession of the squadron, and large quantities of cotton were gathered up from both shores of the river and brought on board the gunboats ; and they were forced so far up the falling stream, that they were in great danger of being unable to return, and so of becoming a prey to the rebels. The army, too, had been seriously repulsed, and had made a somewhat hasty retreat as far as Grand Ecore. VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 113 From this point downward the squadron was in constant trouble the larger vessels getting aground, hard and fast, several times a day, and being compelled to tie up at night ; harassed almost every hour by small bodies of rebel troops, whom they could only keep off by a free use of canister and grape shot ; not making more than thirty miles a day, and the river constantly falling. At length, thirty miles below Grand Ecore, the Eastport, the largest vessel of the squadron, stuck fast and hard upon the rocks in the channel, and could not be moved ; and the admiral was compelled to give orders for her destruction. The attempt made by the rebels to board the Cricket, another of his gunboats, at this juncture, was so se- verely punished, that they disappeared, and were not seen again until the mouth of Cane river, twenty miles below, was reached. Here was a rebel battery of eighteen guns, and a severe fight ensued. The Cricket, which was but lightly armed (being, as the men were in the habit of saying, only "tin clad"), was very badly cut up, almost every shot going through her, two of her guns being disabled, and half her crew, and her pilot, and chief engineer, being either killed or badly wounded. Here the splendid personal bravery of Admiral Porter proved their sal- vation. He improvised gunners from the negroes on board, put an assistant in the place of the chief engineer, took the helm himself, and ran past the battery under a terrific fire, which he returned steadily with such of his guns as were still serviceable. The other gunboats, though sadly injured, at length got by the Champion, only, being so much disabled as to be unable to go on, and being destroyed by order of Admiral Porter. On reaching Alexandria, matters were still worse. In the low stage of water, the rapids were impassable by the gun- boats, and at first their destruction seemed inevitable. Rut the engineer of the Nineteenth army corps, Lieutenant-Colonel H4- MEN OP OUR DAY. Joseph Bailey (afterward promoted to the rank of brigadier- general for this great service), devised a way of floating them over the rapids, by the construction of a series of wing-dams partly across the river at several points. The task was hercu- lean, but it was skilfully and speedily accomplished, and by the 13th of May all the gunboats had passed the barrier and were on their way to the Mississippi river, still one hundred and fifty miles distant. Before this time, however, two small gunboats and two transports, laden with troops, were attacked by the rebels, and both the transports and one gunboat captured, and the other burned. Admiral Porter returned to his patrol of the Mississippi, from whence, soon after, he was transferred to the command of the North Atlantic squadron. Here he was busy, for a time, with the removal of torpedoes in the naviga- ble waters of Virginia and North Carolina ; in capturing block- ade runners ; and cruising after the pirates who seized our merchant steamers. But his restless activity and energy could not be satisfied without striking a blow at the chief port of entry for which the blockade runners aimed, and into which at least seven out of every ten succeeded in entering. Wilming- ton, North Carolina, had, during the whole war, been one of the chief seats of the contraband trade of the rebels, and the blockade runners had been more successful in eluding the vigi- lance, or escaping from the pursuit of the blockading squadron there, than either at Charleston or Mobile. This was due in part to its position, and the defences of the harbor. Five forts protected the entrance to the estuary of Cape Fear river ; and while they were sufficient to prevent any access to the river by the blockading squadron, they effectually shielded the block- ade runners, who succeeded in effecting an entrance, by either inlet, to the estuary. Of these works, Fort Fisher, one of the most formidable earthworks on the coast, was the chief ; and it VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 115 was to the reduction of this, that the attention of Bear- Admiral Porter* was directed. The Navy Department, which had been instrumental in his transfer to the North Atlantic squadron, heartily seconded his efforts ; and an arrangement having been made with General Grant for the necessary land forces to co- operate with the squadron, a fleet of naval vessels,, surpassing in numbers and equipments any that had been assembled during the war, was collected with dispatch in Hampton Koads. Vari- ous circumstances delayed the attack until the 24th of Decem- ber, 1864. What followed, is best related in the report of the Secretary of the Navy. "On that day (December 24), Bear- Admiral Porter, with a bom- barding force of thirty-seven vessels, five of which were iron- clad, and a reserve force of nineteen vessels, attacked the forts at the mouth of Cape Fear river, and silenced them in one hour and a quarter ; but there being no troops to make an assault or attempt to possess them, nothing beyond the injury inflicted on the works and the garrison was accomplished by the bombard- ment. A renewed attack was made the succeeding day, but with scarcely better results. The fleet shelled the forts during the day and silenced them, but no assault was made, or attempt- ed, by the troops which had been disembarked for that purpose. Major-General Butler, who commanded the co-operating force, after a reconnoissance, came to the conclusion that the place could not be carried by an assault. He therefore ordered a re- embarkation, and informing Eear- Admiral Porter of his intention, returned with his command to Hampton Eoads. Immediate information of the failure of the expedition was forwarded to the department by Bear- Admiral Porter, who remained in the * He was made full rear-admiral for his gallant services in the siege of Vieksburg, his commission dating from July 4th, 1863. MEN OF OUR DAY. vicinity with his entire fleet, awaiting the needful military aid- Aware of the necessity of reducing these works, and of the great importance whicli the Department attatched to closing the port of Wilmington, and confident that with adequate military co-operation the fort could be carried, he asked for such co- operation, and earnestly requested that the enterprise should not be abandoned. In this the department and the President fully concurred. On the suggestion of the President, Lieutenant- General Grant was advised of the confidence felt by Eear- Admi- ral Porter that he could obtain complete success, provided he should be sufficiently sustained. Such military aid was there- fore invited as would insure the fall of Fort Fisher. A second military force was promptly detailed, composed of about 8,500 men, under the command of Major-General A. H. Terry, and sent forward. This officer arrived off Fort Fisher, on the 13th of January. Offensive operations were at once resumed by the naval force, and the troops were landed and intrenched themselves, while a portion of the fleet bombarded the works. These operations were continued throughout the 14th with an increased number of vessels. The 15th was the day decided upon for an assault. During the forenoon of that day, forty -four vessels poured an incessant fire into the rebel forts. There was, besides, a force of fourteen vessels in reserve. At 3 p. M., the signal for the assault was made. Desperate fight- ing ensued, traverse after traverse was taken, and by 10 P. M. the works were all carried, and the flag of the Union floated over them. Fourteen hundred sailors and marines were landed, and participated in the direct assault. Seventy-five guns, many of them superb rifle pieces, and 1,900 prisoners, were the immediate fruits and trophies of the victory ; but the chief value and ultimate benefit of this grand achievement, consisted in closing the main gate through which VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 117 the insurgents had received supplies from abroad, and sent their own products to foreign markets in exchange. Light-draught steamers were immediately pushed over the bar, and into the river, the channel of which was speedily buoyed, and the removal of torpedoes forthwith commenced. The rebels witnessing the fall of Fort Fisher, at once evacuated and blew up Fort Caswell, destroyed Bald Head Fort and Fort Shaw, and abandoned Fort Campbell. Within twenty-four hours after the fall of Fort Fisher, the main defence of Cape Fear river, the entire chain of formidable works in the vicinity shared its fate, placing in our possession one hundred and sixty- eight guns of heavy calibre. The heavier naval vessels, being no longer needed in that quarter, were dispatched in different directions some to James river and northern ports, others to the Gulf or the South Atlan- tic squadron. An ample force was retained, however, to sup- port the small but brave army which had carried the traverses of Fort Fisher, and enable it, when reinforcements should arrive, to continue the movement on Wilmington. Great caution was necessary in removing the torpedoes, always formidable in harbors and internal waters, and which have been more destructive to our naval vessels than all other means combined. About the middle of February, offensive operations were resumed in the direction of Wilmington, the vessels and the troops moving up the river in concert. Fort Anderson, an important work, was evacuated during the night of the 18th of February, General Schofield advancing upon this fort with 8,000 men, while the gunboats attacked it by water. On the 21st, the rebels were driven from Fort Strong, which left the way to Wilmington unobstructed, and on the 22d of February, that city was evacuated. Two hundred and twelve MEN OF OUR DAY. guns were taken in the works from the entrance to Old river, including those near the city, and thus this great and brilliant achievement was completed." The failure of General Butler to make the attack when ex- pected, though it would seem to have been justified by the dictates of prudence, and to have been in no respect due to any want of personal courage or daring on the part of the general, was very annoying to Bear- Admiral Porter, and led to an acri- monious correspondence between the two parties, neither of whom were at all chary in their abuse of each other. The termination of the war soon after the capture of "Wil- mington, left little more active service for the North Atlantic squadron, and its reduction and consolidation with the South Atlantic squadron followed in June, 1865. Before this, how- ever, on the 28th of April, Eear- Admiral Porter had been re- lieved, at his own request, of the command of the squadron, and Acting Eear- Admiral Eadfbrd succeeded him. In the few months' leave of absence granted him, he visited Europe. In September, 1865, when the Naval Academy was brought back to Annapolis, and partially re-organized, Eear- Admiral Porter was appointed its superintendent, and has remained in that position since that time. He has infused new energy and character into the instruction there, and the Academy is now a worthy counterpart of the Military Academy at West Point. On the 25th of July, 1866, Vice-Admiral Farragut being pro- moted to the new rank of Admiral, Eear- Admiral Porter was advanced to the Vice-admiralty. Vice- Admiral Porter is a man of fine, commanding personal appearance ; of medium height, handsome features, a wiry, mus- cular frame, and of great physical power, and capacity for endurance. He is an accomplished scholar, speaks several languages fluently, and plays the harp, guitar, and other musical VICE-ADMIRAL DAVID D. PORTER. 119 instruments well. He is of imperious and exacting temper, and tolerates nothing short of the most rigid obedience to his orders ; yet he has always had the ability to rouse the highest enthu- siasm in the men under his command. To this, undoubtedly, his superb personal courage largely contributed. No man in his squadron ever doubted that the admiral was ready to incur any risk which he asked others to incur. Indeed, he often ex- posed himself unwarrantably to the fire of the enemy. Take him all in all, he is well worthy to hand down to posterity the reputation of the gallant old commodore of the early days of the republic. MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 1 INGE General Sheridan became famous, the honor of being his birth-place has been claimed by almost as many places as contended for the same honor in the case of Homer. Enthusiastic Irishmen have insisted that he first saw the light in county Cavan, Ireland ; the army regis- ter for years credited Massachusetts with being the State in which he was born; the newspaper correspondents, knowing men that they are, have traced him to Albany, New York, where, they say, he was born while his parents were en route for Ohio ; while the general himself, who being a party to the transaction should know something about it, and what is still more to the purpose, his parents, testify that he was born in Somerset, Perry county, Ohio, on the 6th of March, 1831. His parents were then recent emigrants from county Cavan, Ireland, but were not of the Scotch-Irish stock so largely predominent in that county, but belonged to one of the original Celtic and Koman Catholic families of the county.* Vain has been the attempt to find any of those incidents which foreshadow greatness, in the boyhood of the future cavalry general. He was a wild, roguish, fun-loving Irish boy, probably fond of horses, though the Rev. P. C. Headley's story about his riding a half broken vicious horse when only five years old is pronounced by the general himself an entire fabrication. He 120 MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 121 went to school to an Irish schoolmaster for a time when about ten or twelve years old, one of Goldsmith's sort : " A man severe he was, and stern to view ; I knew him well, and every truant knew ; Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace The day's disasters in his morning face." This pedagogue gave the mischievous urchin his full share of the birch, incited thereto, as one of Sheridan's schoolmates affirms, by the recollection of an occurrence in which Phil got the better of him. The story is substantially this : when Sheri- dan was about eleven or twelve years old, on a cold winter's morning, two of his schoolmates came early to the schoolhouse, and finding the teacher, McNanly, not yet arrived, prepared a somewhat unpleasant surprise for him, in the shape of a pailful of icy water suspended over the schoolhouse door, in such a way that its contents would descend upon the head of the one who should first open the door. This arranged they withdrew to a neighboring haymow, and waited to see the fun. McNanly soon came, unlocked the door and received the ducking, which naturally aroused his not very placable temper. He sat down to watch, resolved to give the first boy who should come, a terri- ble thrashing. A little fellow who happened to be first was caught by the neck and shaken fiercely, but being convinced that he knew nothing of it, the teacher dropped him and waited for another. Each boy in turn was throttled and shaken, the two real offenders among the rest, but as all denied it, McNanly still waited for his victims. At length Phil. Sheridan came, somewhat late, as usual, and convinced that he had now the real culprit, McNanly made a dive for him ; the boy dodged and ran, and the teacher after him, bare headed and brandishing his stick. Phil did his best, but his legs were short, and when he reached his father's yard McNanly was almost upon him, and 122 MEN OF OUR DAY. he bolted through the gate, the teacher following at full speed, when a new ally suddenly came to Phil's relief. This was no other than a large Newfoundland dog, the boy's playmate and pet, who seeing his young master in trouble, sprang upon the teacher, who, frightened sadly, climbed the nearest tree with great agility. " Take away your divilish dog," he cried, " or I'll bate the life out of ye." " Like to see you," said the boy, as he very coolly brought a bit of old carpet-, threw it under the tree and ordered Rover to " watch him." The dog obeyed and Phil mounted the fence and looked, somewhat impudently, we fear, at his teacher, the whole school meantime being gathered close by to see the end. McNanly's clothing was none of the warmest, and his cold bath and violent exercise had thrown him into a violent perspiration, and he was now shivering with the cold. " What d'ye want to lick me for ?" queried Phil. " What did ye throw the wather on me for?" asked the teacher; "I didn't throw any wather on you," said the boy. " What did ye run so for, thin ?" " Cause I saw ye was going to lick me," said Phil. " Well, call off the dog." " Not till ye promise ye won't lick me. Watch him, Rover." This last order was given as the teacher was trying to get down, and the dog in response seized him by the leg.. Mr. Sheridan now came out, and McNanly appealed to him, declaring that he must lick Phil, for the sake of the discipline of the school, for the boys were all laughing at him now. Mr. Sheridan called to the dog, but he would not move, and doubting perhaps whether Phil deserved a thrashing, he returned into the house. " You'd better prom- ise," said Phil, " for the dog won't mind anybody but me, and I can stay here all day." At length, nearly perished with the cold, McNanly promised that he wouldn't lick him that time, and the boy, calling to Rover, allowed the master to descend. The MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 123 subsequent whippings, Phil used to say, had interest added to them, on account of this. Sheridan was fond of mathematics, and managed to pick up a fair knowledge of figures in school. At the age of about fifteen he was taken as a clerk by Mr. Talbot, a hardware dealer of the village, who, finding him active, intelligent, and faithful, gave him further instruction in mathematics and guided him in his reading. After a time, as a better position offered, he helped him to get it, and he became a clerk for Mr. Henry Detton. Not long after General Thomas Kitchey was the Congressman from the district, and had in his gift an appointment to a vacancy at West Point. For this place there was a strong competition. Sons of wealthy parents came, or sent to him their applications with a long list of influential names. At length one letter came without recommendations or references. . It merely asked that the place might be given to the writer and was signed, " Phil Sheridan." General Kitchey, who had known the boy for a long time and had marked his faithfulness and love of study, gave him the appointment at once. Sheridan was at this time (1848), seventeen years old. Among his classmates were James B. McPherson, Schofield, Sill, Tyler, and the rebel General Hood. His scholarship at West Point was above mediocrity, but his animal spirits were so constantly running over^ and his pugnacity was so much in the ascendancy, that he was always receiving demerit marks in the conduct column. One of the cadets insulted him, and he proceeded to redress his own grievances, by giving the offender a severe thrashing. This conduct, some of the officers of the academy believed justifiable, but it was unmilitary, and, as a result, Sheridan was suspended and thrown into the class below, so that he did not graduate till 1853, when he stood thirty-fourth in a class of fifty-two. He was ordered to duty as brevet second 124 MEN OF OUR DAY. lieutenant of infantry, but at first without being assigned to any particular regiment, and after serving in garrison at Newport barracks, Kentucky, for a few months, was sent in the begin- ning of 1854:, to the Texas frontier, where for nearly two years, he served at Fort Duncan, La Pena, and Turkey creek, Texas. He received his commission as full second lieutenant, while in Texas, November 22d, 1854. Returning east, after a short period of garrison duty at Fort Columbus, New York, he was ordered to escort duty from Sacramento, California, to Colum- bia river, Oregon, and then on a series of expeditions among the Indians, for a year. He was next assigned to the military posts at Forts Haskins and Yamhill, where he endeavored to make peace with the Indians, learned their dialects, and won their regard to such an extent that he could accomplish what he pleased with them. On the 1st of March, 1861, he was pro- moted to a first lieutenancy in the fourth infantry, and ten weeks later, May 14th, a commission was sent him as captain in the thirteenth infantry, and with it, news of the impending war. He was ready for it, and wrote to a friend in the State : " If they will fight us, let them know we accept the challenge. Who knows ? Perhaps I may have a chance to raise a major's commission." A modest ambition, certainly for the man who within four years was to demonstrate his title to be regarded as the ablest living cavalry general. He was ordered to report at Jefferson barracks, Missouri. He arrived in the midst of the confusion that followed the removal of Fremont from command. Nothing could be a more droll illustration of the frequent governmental faculty for getting the wrong men in the right places than the assignment that awaited the young Indian fighter. He was made president of a board to audit claims under the Fremont administration. He did the work satisfac- torily, however ; and presently the Government, fully satisfied MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 125 now, that here was a good man for routine and clerical duties, made him quartermaster and commissary for Curtis, at the outset of the Pea Ridge campaign. All this seemed rapid promotion to Captain Sheridan, and he went to work heartily and earnestly to make a quartermas- ter of himself. He was sixty -fourth captain on the list so one of the staff officers tells of his reasoning in those days and with the chances of war in his favor, it needn't be a very great while before he might hope to be a major ! With such modest aspirations he worked away at the wagon-trains ; cut down regimental transportation, gave fewer wagons for camp furni- ture and more for hard bread and fixed ammunition, established secondary depots for supplies, and with all his labor found that he had not fully estimated the wants of the army. Some orders from General Curtis about this time seemed to him inconsistent with the West Point system of managing quarter- masters' matters, and he said so, officially, with considerable freedom of utterance. The matter was passed over for a few days, but as soon as Pea Ridge was fought, General Curtis found time to attend to smaller affairs. The first was to dispense with the further services of his quartermaster, and send him back to St. Louis in arrest. But, just then, educated officers were too rare in Missouri to be kept long out of service on punctilios. Presently the affair with Curtis was adjusted, and then the Government had some fresh work for this young man of routine and business. It sent him over into Wisconsin to buy horses! The weeping philosopher himself might have been embarrassed to refrain from laughter! McClellan was at the head of the army; Halleck had chief command in the west ; men like McClernand and Banks, Crittenden and McCook, were commanding divisions or corps ; and for Cavalry Sheridan the best work the Govern- 126 ^ EN OF OUR DAY - ment could find was buying horses in Wisconsin! Then came Pittsburg Landing, and Halleck's hurried departure for the field. Wishing a body of instructed regular officers about him, he thought, among others, of Curtis's old quarter- master, and ordered him up to the army before Corinth. Then followed a little staff service, and at last, in May, 1862, the future head of the cavalry got started on his proper career. Watching wagon-trains, disputing with the lawyers about doubt- ful contractor's claims, or with the jockeys about the worth of horses all this seems now very unworthy of Sheridan, but it was a part of his education for the place he was to fill ; and we shall see that the familiarity thus acquired with the details of supplying an army were to prove of service to one whose business was to be to command armies, and to tax the energies of those who supplied them to the utmost. There was need of a good cavalry force, and chiefly of good cavalry officers, men who understood their duties and could train a cavalry force to act with precision as well as dash, and not to fire once and run away. Our young Indian fighter was thought of; he had done good service in Oregon, and indeed everywhere else, and it was possible that he might know how to handle cavalry. So, at a venture, on the 27th, of May, he was commissioned colonel of the second regiment of Michigan volunteer cavalry, and sent immediately on the expedition to cut the railroad south of Corinth. This accomplished, on his return he was immediately sent in pursuit of the rebels, who were retreating from Corinth, and captured and brought off the guns of Powell's rebel battery. On the 6th of June, leading a cavalry reconnoissance below Boonesville, he met and signally defeated a body of rebel cavalry commanded by General For- rest ; and on the 8th, started in pursuit of the enemy, drove them through Baldwin and to Guntown, where, though their MA JOE- GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN". 127 force was much larger than his own, he defeated them, but under orders from headquarters fell back to Boonesville and thence to Corinth. On the llth, of June he was put in command of a cavalry brigade, and on the 26th, ordered to take his position at Boone- ville, twenty miles in advance of the main army, whose front he was to cover while at the same time he watched the operations of the rebels. His brigade numbered less than two thousand men. On the 1st of July 1862, he was attacked at Booneville by a rebel force of nine regiments (about six thousand men), under command of General Chalmers. Sheridan slowly retreated toward his camp, which was situated on the edge of a swamp, in an advantageous position, where he could not be flanked, and here he kept up the unequal fight, but finding that Chalmers, with his greatly superior numbers, would in the end surround and overpower him, he had recourse to strategy. Selecting ninety of his best men, armed with revolving carbines and sabres, he sent them around to the rear of the enemy by a detour of about four miles, with orders to attack promptly and vigorously at a certain time, while he would make a simultane- ous charge in front. The plan proved a complete success. The ninety men appeared suddenly in the enemy's rear, not having been seen till they were near enough to fire their carbines, and, having emptied these, they rushed with drawn sabres upon the enemy, who, supposing them to be the advance guard of a large force, were thrown into disorder ; and, before they had time to recover, Sheridan charged them in front with such fury that they fled from the field in complete disorder, utterly routed. Sheridan pursued, and they continued their flight, utterly panic- stricken, to Knight's mills, twenty miles south from Boone- 128 MEN OF OUR DAY. ville throwing away their arms, knapsacks, coats, and every thing which could impede their flight. General Grant reported this brilliant affair to the War De- partment, with a recommendation that Colonel Sheridan should be promoted. This recommendation was granted, and his com- mission of brigadier-general bore date July 1, 1862. At this time, the rebels in his front had but one stream (Twenty Mile creek) from which to water their live-stock, and from his post at Booneville, General Sheridan frequently made sudden dashes in that direction, and captured large quantities of their stock, often two or three hundred at a time. In August, 1862, he was attacked by a rebel cavalry force, under Colonel Faulkner, near Bienzi, Mississippi, but after a sharp engage- ment the rebels were defeated, and retreated in haste, Sheridan pursuing them to near Kipley, and, charging upon them before they could reach their main column, dispersed the whole force, and captured a large number of prisoners. Early in Septem- ber, 1862, General Grant having ascertained that the rebel Gen- eral Bragg was moving towards Kentucky, detached a portion of his own forces to reinforce the Army of the Ohio, then under command of General Buell. Among these were General Sheri- dan, and his old command, the second Michigan cavalry. As General Grant expected, General Buell gave Sheridan a larger command, assigning him to the charge of the third division of the Army of the Ohio. He assumed command of this division on the 20th of September, 1862. At this time, General Bragg was approaching Louisville, which was not in a good condition for defence, and General Sheridan was charged with the duty of defending it. In a single night, with the division under his command, he constructed a strong line of rifle-pits from the rail- road depot to the vicinity of Portland, and thus secured the city against the danger of surprise. On the 25th of September, MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 129 General Buell arrived at Louisville, and soon commenced a re- organization of the Army of the Ohio, now largely reinforced. In this re-organization, General Sheridan was placed in command of the eleventh division, and entered upon his duties on the 1st of October. Buell soon took the offensive again, and began pushing the re- bels, who had already commenced a retreat, but were embarrassed by the amount of plunder they had collected. On the 8th of Octo- ber, the rebels made a stand near Perryville, Kentucky, for the double purpose of checking the pursuit, and allowing their trains to move forward out of harm's way. The battle which followed, though a severe one, was not decisive, owing to some defects in the handling of the forces, and Bragg was allowed to make good his retreat with most of his plunder, and with but moderate loss : but in it Sheridan played a distinguished part, holding the key of the Union position, and resisting the onsets of the enemy, again and again, with great bravery and skill, driving them at last from the open ground in front, by a bayonet charge. This accomplished, he saw that they were gaining advantage on the left of the Union line, and moving forward his artillery, directed so terrible a fire upon the rebel advance, that he drove them from the open ground on which they had taken position. Enraged at being thus foiled, they charged with great fury upon his lines, determined to carry the point at all hazards ; but, with the utmost coolness, he opened upon them at short range, with such a murderous fire of grape and canister, that they fell back in great disorder, leaving their dead and wounded in winrows in front of the batteries. The loss in Sheridan's division in killed and wounded, was over four hundred, but his generalship had saved the Union army from defeat. On the 30th of Octo- ber, General Eosecrans succeeded General Buell as commander of the Army of the Ohio, which, with enlarged territory, was 9 J.30 MEN OF OUR DAY. thenceforward to be known as the Army of tie Cumberland, and in the re-organization, General Sheridan was assigned to to the command of one of the divisions of McCook's corps, which constituted the right wing of that army. He remained for the next seven or eight weeks in the vicinity of Nashville, and then moved with his corps, on the 26th of December, 1862, toward Murfreesboro. During the 26th, his division met the enemy on the Nolensville road, and skirmished with them to Nolensville and Knob gap, occupying at night the latter import- ant position. The next morning a dense fog obscured the hori- zon; but as soon as it lifted, Sheridan pressed forward, and drove the enemy from the village of Triune, which he occupied. The next three days were spent in skirmishing, and in gra- dually drawing nearer, over the almost impassable roads, to Murfreesboro, the goal of their hopes. At length, on the night of the 30th of December, the army was drawn up in battle array, on the banks of Stone river. " The men bivouacked in line of battle. They were to wake to great calamity and great glory in the morning. " In the general plan of the battle of Stone river, the part assigned to the right wing, was to hold the enemy, while the rest of the army swung through Murfreesboro, upon his rear. In this right wing Sheridan held the left. Elsewhere along that ill-formed line were batteries, to which the horses had not been harnessed when the fateful attack burst through the gray dawn upon them. But there was one division commander who, with or without orders thereto, might be trusted for ample vigilance in the face of an enemy. At two in the morning, he was moving some of his regiments to strengthen a portion of his line, on which he thought the enemy was massing. At four he mustered his division under arms, and had every cannoneer at his post. For over two hours they waited. When the onset MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 131 came, the ready batteries opened at once. The rebels continued to sweep up. At fifty yards' distance the volleys of Sheridan's musketry became too murderous. The enemy, in massed regi- ments, hesitated, wavered, and finally broke. Sheridan instantly sent Sill's brigade to charge upon the retreating column. The movement was brilliantly executed, but the life of the gallant brigade commander went out in the charge. " Presently the enemy rallied and returned. Already the rest of the wing had been hurled back in confusion ; the weight of the victorious foe bore down upon Sheridan's exposed flank and broke it. There was now come upon Sheridan, that same stress of battle under which his companion division commanders had been crushed. But hastily drawing back the broken flank, he changed the front of his line to meet the new danger, and ordered a brigade to charge ; while under cover of this daring onset, the new line was made compact. Here Sheridan felt abundantly able to hold his ground. " But his flank ? The routed divisions, which should have formed upon it, were still in hasty retreat. He dashed among them threatened, begged, swore. All was in vain; they would not re-form. Sheridan was isolated, and his right once more turned. Moving then by the left, he rapidly ad- vanced, driving the enemy from his front, and maintaining his line unbroken till he secured a connection on the left with Negley. Here he was instantly . and tremendously assailed. The attack was repulsed. Again Cheatham's rebel division at tacked, and again it was driven back. Once again the baffled enemy swept up to the onset, till his batteries were planted within two hundred yards of Sheridan's lines. The men stood firm. Another of the brigade commanders fell ; but the enemy was once more driven. Thus heroically did Sheridan strive to beat back the swift disaster that had befallen the right. 132 MEN OF OUR DAY. "But now came the crowning misfortu .:e. "When the rest of McCook's wing had been swept out of the contest, the ammuni- tion train had fallen into the hands of the enemy. With the overwhelming force on his front, with the batteries playing at short range, with the third rebel onslaught just repulsed, and the men momentarily growing more confident of themselves and of their fiery commander, there suddenly came the startling cry that the ammunition was exhausted ! ' Fix bayonets, then !' was the ringing command. Under cover of the bristling lines of steel on the front, the brigades were rapidly withdrawn. Presently a couple of regiments fell upon an abandoned ammu- nition wagon. For a moment they swarmed around it then back on the double quick to the front, to aid in the retreat of the artillery. One battery was lost, the rest, with only a miss- ing piece or two, were brought oft'. Thus riddled and depleted, with fifteen hundred from the little division left dead or wound- ed in the dark cedars, but with compact ranks and a steady front, the heroic column came out on the Murfreesboro turn- pike. ' Here is all that is left of us,' said Sheridan, riding up to Eosecrans to report. 'Our cartridge-boxes are empty, and so are our muskets !' " Thus the right, on which the battle was to have hinged, had disappeared from the struggle. Already the enemy, press- ing his advantage to the utmost, seemed about to break through the centre ; and Sheridan, supplied with ammunition, was or- dered in to its relief. He checked the rebel advance, charged at one point, and captured guns and prisoners, held his line steady throughout, and bivouacked upon it at nightfall. This final struggle cost him his last brigade commander 1"* General Rosecrans, in his report of this battle, pays the fol- lowing high compliment to Sheridan's generalship : " Sheridan, * Mr. Whitelaw Reid's sketch of Sheridan in his " Ohio in the War." MAJOE-GEXEEAL PHIIiP H. SHEEIDAX. 133 after sustaining four successive attacks, gradually swung his right round southeasterly to a northwestern direction, repulsing the enemy four times, losing the gallant General Sill of his right, and Colonel Eoberts of his left brigade ; when, having ex- hausted his ammunition, Negley's division being in the same predicament, and heavily pressed, after desperate righting they fell back from the position held at the commencement, through the cedar woods, in which Eousseau's division, with a portion of Negley's and Sheridan's, met the advancing enemy and checked his movements." For his gallantry in this battle, General Eosecrans suggested, and the President recommended, Sheridan's promotion to the rank of major-general of volunteers, his commission to date from December 31st, 1862. He was at once confirmed by the Senate. In the months that followed the battle of Stone river, months of watching and waiting, Sheridan kept himself busy, and en- joying the confidence of the commanding general, who did not, however, fully appreciate his talents, he and his division found constant employment. The country about Murfrecsboro was thoroughly scoured, and all its strategic points carefully mapped in the mind of the cavalry general. On the 3d of march, he flung himself and his division upon the rebel General Yan Dorn, who had penetrated as far as Shelbyville, Tennessee, in an ad- vance upon the Union lines, hurled him back, pursued him to Columbia and Franklin, and near Eagleville, Tennessee, cap- tured his train and a large number of prisoners. In the ad- vance on Tullahoma, June 24 to July 4, 1863, he drove the rebels out of Liberty Gap, a strong mountain pass, which was one of the keys of their position, occupied Shelbyville, pushed forward to, and took possession of Winchester, Tennessee, which by a flank, movement, he had compelled the enemy to MEN OP OUR DAT. abandon, and saved the great bridge over the Tennessee at Bridgeport, his infantry outstripping Stanley's cavalry, which they were ordered to support. The Tennessee crossed, Chattanooga flanked by Rosecrans, and evacuated by Bragg, General Sheridan was sent to reconnoitre the enemy's force and position, and found him largely reinforced and determined to push Rosecrans to the wall and recover Chattanooga. Then came Chickamauga, the severe but wholly indecisive battle of the first day, in which, however, Sheridan, by his promptness and activity, did good service, and the disas- trous fight of the second day, which yet, thanks to General Thomas's firmness and superb generalship, was not wholly a defeat. In this severe action, McCook's and Crittenden's corps and the general commanding the army were, by the fatal mis- understanding of an order, cut off from the remainder of the army, and compelled to fall back upon Rossville, and Chatta- nooga. Sheridan, whose division was still a part of McCook's coips, though involved in this disaster, succeeded, by the utmost effort, in rallying the greater part of his command and bringing it through by-roads from Rossville to join General Thomas, who had fought and repulsed the enemy. He was not in season, much to his mortification, to participate in the closing hours of the fight, but he nevertheless strengthened materially the hands of the general. The corps of McCook and Crittenden were now consolidated into one (the fourth) corps, and the command of it given to Gordon Granger, an officer only less incompetent than those whom he succeeded. Then came a change of commanders to the o Army of the Cumberland ; General G. H. Thomas succeeded General Rosecrans, and the army of the Tennessee, and two corps from the Army of the Potomac, being added to the force, General Grant to-k charge of the whole. The battles of the MAJOR- GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 135 Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, and Mission Eidge, and the expulsion of the rebels from the valleys of Chattanooga and Chickamauga followed. In the capture of Orchard Knob, and in that most brilliant episode of the war, the ascent of Mission Eidge, Sheridan bore a conspicuous part. The fourth corps (Granger's) were the charging column, and stung by the recollection of that sad day at Chickamauga, as the six guns gave the signal for advance, Sheridan rode along his column, and called in thunder tones to his division, " Show the fourth corps that the men of the old twentieth are still alive, and can fight. Eemember Chickamauga !" Before Sheridan and the companion divisions stretched an open space of a mile and an eighth to the enemy's first line of rifle-pits. Above this frowned a steep ascent of five hundred yards, up which it scarcely seemed possible that unresisted troops could clamber. At the summit were fresh rifle-pits. As Sheridan rode along his front and reconnoitered the rebel pits at the base of the ridge, it seemed to him that, even if captured, they could scarcely be tenable under the plunging fire that might then be directed from the summit. He accordingly sent back a staff-officer to inquire if the order was to take the rifle- pits or to take the ridge. But before there was time for an answer, the six guns thundered out their stormy signal, and the whole line rose up and leaped forward. The plain was swept by a tornado of shot and shell, but the men rushed on at the double-quick, swarmed over the rifle-pits, and flung themselves down on the face of the mountain. Just then the answer to Sheridan's message came. It was only this first line of rifle- pits that was to be carried. Some of the men were accordingly retired to it by their brigade commander, under the heavy fire of grape, canister, and musketry. "But," said Sheridan, " believing that the attack had assumed a new phase, and that I 136 MEN OF OUR DAT. could carry the ridge, I could not order those officers aid men who were so gallantly ascending the hill, step by step, to return.' As the twelve regimental colors slowly went up, one advancing a little, the rest pushing forward, emulous to be even with it, till all were planted midway up the ascent on a partial line of rifle-pits that nearly covered Sheridan's front, an order came from Granger : "If in your judgment the ridge can be taken, do so." An eye-witness shall tell us how he received it.* " An aid rides up with the order ; ' Avery, that flask,' said the general. Quietly filling the pewter cup, Sheridan looks up at fhe battery that frowned above him, by Bragg's headquarters, shakes his cap amid that storm of every thing that kills, where you could hardly hold your hand without catching a bullet in it, and, with a ' How are you ?' tosses off the cup. The blue battle-flag of the rebels fluttered a response to the cool salute, and the next instant the battery let fly its six guns, showering Sheridan with earth. ' The general said in his quiet way, ' I thought it d d ungenerous !' The recording angel will drop a tear upon the word for the part he played that day. Wheeling toward the men he cheered them to the charge, and made at the hill like a bold-riding hunter. They were out of the rifle-pits and into the tempest, and struggling up the steep before you could get breath to tell it." Then came what the same writer has called the torrid zone of the battle. Rocks were rolled down from above on the advancing line; shells with lighted fuses were rolled down; guns were loaded with handfuls of cartridges and fired down, but the line struggled on : still fluttered the twelve regimental flags in the advance. At last, with a leap and a rush, over they went all twelve fluttered on the crest the rebels were * B. F. Taylor, of the Chicago Journal. MAJOR-GEXERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 137 bayoneted out of their rifle-pits the guns were turned the ridge was won. In this last spasm of the struggle Sheridan's horse was shot under him. He sprang upon a captured gun, to raise his short person high enough to be visible in the half- crazy throng, and ordered a pursuit ! It harassed the enemy for some miles, and brought back eleven guns as proofs of its vigor. Signal as had been Sheridan's previous services, he had never before been so brilliantly conspicuous. In other battles he had approved himself a good officer in the eyes of his superi- ors ; on the deathly front of Mission Kidge he flamed out the. incarnation of soldierly valor and vigor in the eyes of the whole American people. His entire losses were thirteen hundred and four, and he took seventeen hundred and sixty-two prisoners. But these figures give no adequate idea of the conflict. It may be better understood from the simple statement that in that brief contest, in a part of a winter afternoon, he lost one hun dred and twenty-three officers from that single division a num- ber greater than the whole French army lost at Solferino ! Through his own clothes five minie balls had passed ; his horse had been shot under him ; and yet he had come out without a scratch. For a short time longer he was employed in East Tennessee in driving out the rebels who still found a lodgment there, but when General Grant was advanced to the lieutenant general- ship, one of his first acts was to apply to the War Department for the transfer of General Philip H. Sheridan to the eastern army, and when he was arrived, to make him the commander of the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac. Here he was in the sphere for which he had longed, and for which he was undoubtedly best fitted. But the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac was far from being in a model condition. The 138 MEN OF OUR DAT. days of the old service of cavalry, the heavy and light horse, the grand cavalry charges, and the chivalry of mounted troops under perfect drill were gone ; minie muskets and rifled cannon had changed all that. But with this there had gone also in great measure the esprit du corps of the service. The squadrons were detailed for picket service, for guarding trains, for duties which could better be performed by infantry, and when they fought, they charged upon infantry, and were shy of any attack upon the enemy's cavalry. Against all this Sheridan protested, and with good effect. He procured their release from picket and train duty, he trained his men to care tenderly for their horses, which up to this time had been broken down with frightful rapidity, in consequence of the ignorance, heedlessness and indifference of their riders ; he drilled them in all the ser- vice of cavalry and infused into them a portion of his own fiery spirit and that joy in the fight, which marks the true cavalry soldier. From the 5th of May, 1864, to the 9th of April, 1865, Sheri- dan's command were engaged in seventy-six distinct battles, all but thirteen of them under his own eye and order. At the close of the campaign he could say, with a commendable pride in the achievements of his men, though always modest in regard to his own deeds, " We sent to the War Department (between the dates above specified) two hundred and five battle flags, captured in open field fighting nearly as many as all the armies of the United States combined sent there during the rebellion. The number of field pieces captured in the same period was between one hundred and sixty and one hundred and seventy, all in open field fighting * * *We led the advance of the armj to the Wilderness; on the Eichmond raid we marked out its line of march to the North Anna, where wa found it on our return ; we again led its advance to Hanover- MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 139 town, and then to Cold Harbor; we removed the enemy's cavalry from the south side of the Chickahominy by the Tre- villian raid, and thereby materially assisted the army in its successful march to the J..mes river and Petersburg, where it remained until we made the campaign in the valley; we marched back to Petersburg, again took the advance and led the army to victory. ' In all these operations, the percentage of cavalry casualties was as great as that of the infantry, and the question which had existed ' who ever saw a dead cavalry- man ?' was set at rest." Of the many remarkable actions hinted at in these pregnant sentences, we have space only to allude to two or three. His first raid toward Eichmond was one of the most daring and successful of the war. He penetrated the outer line of defences of that city ; bewildered and confounded the rebels by his au- dacity, fought two battles to extricate himself from his apparent- ly critical position, in one of which General J. E. B. Stuart, the ablest cavalry officer of the rebels, was slain ; defeated the enemy in both battles, built a bridge across the Chickahominy under fire, and finally returned to the Army of the Potomac after sixteen days with but slight loss, after inflicting serious and permanent inj ury upon the enemy. His second raid, under- taken to co-operate with Hunter in the valley of Virginia was less successful, owing to the utter failure of that officer's plans, but it kept the rebel cavalry out of the way of the Union army in crossing the James. On his return, he guarded the vast train of the Army of the Potomac (an irksome task to him), to and across the James, not without some sharp battles; made some raids south of the James, and took an active part in the feint at the north side of the James, in the last days of July. Appoint- ed to the command of the Arnrj of the Shenandoah, in August, he exhibited such ability in handling his troops, such alternate 140 MEN OF OUE DAY. caution and daring in his manoeuvring with Early, that the confidence of the nation was soon reposed in him. That that confidence was not misplaced, he speedily gave decisive evidence. On the 19th of September, after a fierce and stubborn fight at Opequan creek, he had defeated and routed Early, and .as he expressed it, " sent him whirling through Winchester," follow- ing him relentlessly to his defences at Fisher's Hill, thirty miles below, killing in the battle and retreat, three, and wounding severely four more of his ablest generals, among the latter Fitzhugh Lee, the commander of the rebel cavalry of the army of Virginia. With his usual celerity, and a strategic skill of which, hitherto, he had not displayed the possession, he proceed- ed to attack Early's stronghold, Fisher's Hill, which that general had believed perfectly impregnable, and, on the 22d, carried it ^>y storm, attacking in front, in rear, and on the flank ; drove the rebels out and chased them without mercy till the 25th, driving them below Port Eepublic, at the extreme head of the valley. For this splendid series of victories, he was made a brigadier- general in the regular army in place of the lamented McPher- son. Twice more before the 13th of October he had driven back Early or his lieutenants, who, loth to give up the valley of the Shenandoah, the garden of Virginia, ha.d obtained rein- forcements and again essayed encounters with this western rough rider. At length, believing Early sufficiently punished to remain in obscurity for a time, Sheridan made a flying visit to Washington, on matters connected with his department. Early was quickly apprised of his departure, and resolved to profit by it. Collecting further reinforcements, and creeping stealthily up to the camp of the Union army at Cedar creek, eighteen or twenty miles below Winchester, the rebel soldiers being required to lay aside their canteens, lest the click of their MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 141 bayoiets against them should apprize the Union troops of their approach, they reached and flanked Crooks' corps, which was in advance, at about day dawn. The Union troops were unpardonably careless, having no suspicion that the rebels were within twenty miles of them. They were consequently taken at unawares, and many of them bayonetted before they were fairly awake; in a very few minutes they were forced back, disorganized, upon the nineteenth corps, who were en echelon beyond them ; they at first made a stand, but in a short time were forced back, though not completely disorganized ; and the sixth corps in turn were compelled to stand against heavy odds. In the end all were driven back three or four miles, to the Middletown plains, and the fugitives were carrying the news of a total defeat and rout, at full speed toward Winchester But deliverance was nearer than they thought. They had lost* twenty -four guns and twelve hundred prisoners, but they were beginning to recover from their fright, and were re-organizing, while the rebels, hungry and thirsty, wayworn and in rags, were stopping to plunder the camp. Still they would hardly have regained any portion of their lost territory and might have fallen back to Winchester, had not Sheridan, just at this juncture, appeared riding at full speed among them. He had heard the firing at Winchester, where he arrived late the night before, and at first was not alarmed by it, but, coming out of Winches- ter, he was met by some of the foremost of the fugitives, a mile from the town. " He instantly gave orders to park the retreating trains on either side of the road, directed the greater part of his escort to follow as best they could ; then, with only twenty cavalrymen accompanying him, he struck out in a swinging gallop for the scene of danger. As he dashed up the pike, the crowds of stragglers grw thicker. He reproached none ; only, swinging 142 MEN OF OUR DAY, his cap, with a cheery smile for all, he shouted : ' Face the other way, boys, face the other way. We are going back to our camps. We are going to lick them out. of their boots.' Less classic, doubtless, than Napoleon's ' My children, we will camp on the battle-field, as usual;' but the wounded raised their hoarse voices to cheer as he passed, and the masses of fugitives turned and followed him to the front. As he rode into the forming lines, the men quickened their pace back to the ranks, and everywhere glad cheers went up. ' Boys, this never should have happened if I had been here,' he exclaimed to one and another regiment. ' I tell you it never should have happened. And now we are going back to our camps. We are going to get a twist on them ; we'll get the tightest twist on them yet that ever you saw. We'll have all those camps and cannon back again !' Thus he rode along the lines, rectified the forma- tion, cheered and animated the soldiers. Presently there grew up across that pike as compact a body of infantry and cavalry as that which, a month before, had sent the enemy ' whirling through Winchester.' His men had full faith in ' the twist' he was ' going to get' on the victorious foe ; his presence was inspi- ration, his commands were victory. " While the line was thus re-established, he was in momentary expectation of attack. Wright's sixth corps was some distance in the rear. 'One staff officer after another was sent after it. Finally, Sheridan himself dashed down to hurry it up ; then back to watch it going into position. As he thus stood, looking off from the left, he saw the enemy's columns once more moving up. Hurried warning was sent to the nineteenth corps, on which it was evident the attack would fall. By this time it was after three o'clock. " The nineteenth corps, no longer taken by surprise, repulsed the enemy's onset. ' Thank God for that,' said Sheridan, gaily. MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 143 ; Now tell General Emory, if they attack him again, to go after them, and to follow them up. We'll get the tightest twist on them pretty soon they ever saw.' The men heard and believed him ; the demoralization of the defeat was gone. But he still waited. Word had been sent in from the cavalry, of danger from a heavy body moving on his flank. He doubted it, and at last determined to. run the risk. At four o'clock the orders went out : ' The whole line will advance. The nineteenth corps will move in connection with the sixth. The right of the nine- teenth will swing toward the left.' " The enemy lay behind stone fences, and where these failed, breastworks of rails eked out his line. For a little, he held his position firmly. His left overlapped Sheridan's right, and see- ing this advantage, he bent it down to renew the attack in flank. At this critical moment, Sheridan ordered a charge of General Me Williams' brigade against the angle thus caused in the rebel line. It forced its way through, and the rebel flank- ing party was cut off. Ouster's cavalry was sent swooping down upon it it broke, and fled, or surrendered, according to the agility of the individuals. Simultaneously the whole line charged along the front ; the rebel line was crowded back to the creek ; the difficulties of the crossing embarrassed it, and as the victorious ranks swept up, it broke in utter confusion. " Ouster charged down in the fast gathering darkness, to the west of the pike ; Devin to the east of it ; and on either flank of the fleeing rout they flung themselves. Nearly all the rebel transportation was captured, the camps and artillery were re- gained ; up to Fisher's Hill the road was jammed with artillery, caissons, and ambulances; prisoners came streaming back faster than the provost marshal could provide for them. It was the end of Early's army ; the end of campaigning in the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah." 144 MEN OF OUR DAY. The twenty-four cannon lost in the morning were retaken, and besides them, twenty-eight more of Early's. Beside these, there were fifty wagons, sixty-five ambulances, sixteen hundred small arms, several battle flags, fifteen hundred prisoners, and two thousand killed and wounded left on the field. The Union losses were about thirty-eight hundred, of whom eight hundred were prisoners. In all the records of modern history, there are but three ex- amples of such a battle, lost and won on the same field, and in the same conflict Marengo, Shiloh, and Stone Eiver ; and in the two former the retrieval was due mainly to reinforcements brought up at the critical time, while the third was not so immedia ely decisive ; but here, the only reinforcement which the army of the Shenandoah received or needed to recover its lost field of battle, camps, intrenchments, and cannon, was one man SHERIDAN. General Grant, on the receipt of the news of the battle, tele- graphed to Secretary Stanton : "I had a salute of one hundred guns fired from each of the armies here, in honor of Sheridan's last victory. Turning what bid fair to be a disaster into a glori- ous victory, stamps /Sheridan, what I have always thought him, one of the ablest of generals" General Sheridan also received an autograph letter of thanks from the President, and on the 14th of November, he was promoted to the major- generalship in the regular army, vacated by General McClellan's resignation. For six weeks following, there were occasional skirmishes with small bands of regular cavalry, the debris of Early's army, but this was all. In December, the sixth army corps returned to the Army of the Potomac, and Sheridan, for two months, recruited and rested his cavalry, using it only as an army of observation. About the first of March, with a force of about 9,000 mei, well mounted and disciplined, he moved forward MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 145 under instructions from General Grant, to destroy the Virginia Central railroad, and the James Eiver canal, the two arteries of supply for the rebels at Eichmond and Petersburg, and then strike at, and if possible, capture Lynchburg, and either join Sherman at Goldsboro, or returning to Winchester, descend thence to City Point. The destruction of the railroad and canal were thoroughly performed, but, delayed by heavy rains, he found that Lynchburg was probably too strong to be attacked, and as every route of communication between that city and Eichmond was broken, its garrison could not render any assist- ance either to Lee or Johnston. He had captured Early's remaining force of 1,600 men at Waynesboro ; and now, instead of returning to Winchester, or going on to join Sherman, he resolved to march past Eichmond, to join the Army of the Poto- mac. The resolve was a bold one, for he knew Longstreet was on the watch for him, and would show him no mercy, if he could have a fair opportunity of attacking him. Nevertheless, he made the march, fooled Longstreet, and arrived safely at City Point, having completely desolated the country through which he passed, and destroyed property, estimated by the rebels themselves, at over 850,000,000. And now came the end of the war, and in its closing scenes, so far as the rebel army of Northern Virginia was concerned, Sheridan had the most conspicuous part. Arriving at City Point on the 25th of March, 1865, he was directed by General Grant to move, on the 29th, southwestward by way of Eeams' station to Dinwiddie Court-house, and from thence either strike the Southside railroad at Burkesville station, some forty miles distant ; or, if it should seem best, support the infantry, one or two corps of which should, in that case, be put under his com- mand, in an attempt, by way of Halifax road, to cross Hatcher's run at the point which had been held since February. He 10 146 MEN OF OUR DAY. chose, after reconnoissance, the latter plan, and pushed on toward Dinwiddie, and connected with the left of the fifth corps, on the Boydton road. The enemy were found strongly intrenched at Five Forks, about six miles west of the Boydton plank-road, and also held in some force the White Oak road, by which the Five Forks were approached from the east. On the 31st of March there was heavy fighting all along the line. The fifth corps, or rather two divisions of it, were driven back in some disorder on the White Oak road, and a part of Sheridan's cav- alry were separated from the main body, and his whole force imperilled. By dismounting his cavalry in front of Dinwiddie Court-house, and fighting desperately till late at night, he suc- ceeded in holding his position, and the two contending forces lay on their arms through the night. , The next morning, April 1st, the fifth corps, now under his command, did not advance as he expected, and his enemy of the night before having retreated to Five Forks, he followed, and finding the fifth corps, directed them to assault when he gave the order, and completed his arrangements for carrying Five Forks by a simultaneous assault in front and on both flanks. In this assault the fifth corps par- ticipated. It was successful, after some hard fighting, and the rebel troops who were not either slain, wounded or prisoners, were driven off westward so far as to be unable to return to aid in the defence of Petersburg. Being dissatisfied, perhaps with- out quite sufficient cause, with the management of General G. K. Warren, the commander of the fifth corps, during the day, General Sheridan relieved him of his command, and ordered General Griffin to take his place. The two men were so unlike in their temperament and modes of thought, though both brave and patriotic officers, that they could hardly have been expected to work well together. MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 147 Sheridan followed up his successes the following day, by ham- mering the enemy's line along the Southside railroad, and an assault being made at the same time on the defences of Peters- burg, that city and Eichmond were evacuated, and the rebel army fled along the route of the Southside railroad and the Appomattox river toward Appomattox Court-house, pursued relentlessly by Sheridan, who acted on the Donnybrook Fair principle, and whenever he saw a rebel head, hit it. There were some sharp actions, for the rebels were righting in sheer despair ; but finding their trains captured and themselves brought to bay, without hope, at Appomattox Court-house, they surrendered, and the war in Virginia was over. But not yet was our cavalry general to find rest. He was ordered at once to Texas, with a large force, to bring the rebels there, who still held out, to terms. E. Kirby Smith, the rebel commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, surrendered about the time of his arrival, and, with his surrender, the war closed. On the 27th of June, 1865, General Sheridan was ap- pointed commander of the military Division of the Gulf, em- bracing the departments of Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. To preserve order in this division, so recently in rebellion, was a difficult task, the more difficult because the acting President was not true to his pledges, but encouraged the rebels, who at first were disposed to yield, to raise their heads again in defiance. But General Sheridan proved himself the man for the occasion. He was unfortunately absent in Texas when the riot and mas- sacre occurred in New Orleans, but his prompt and decided action in regard to it, his denunciation of the course of the mayor and police, even when he knew that they were in favor with the President, his removal of them from office, and with them of others who obstructed reconstruction, and the thorough 148 MEN OF OUR DAY. loyalty he manifested all tlie way through, endeared him greatly to the nation. In Texas, too, he had his troubles : a disloyal governor was placed in power by the abortive reconstruction plan of Mr. Johnson, and when Congress armed Sheridan with the needed power, he removed him as promptly as he had done the rebel mayor and treacherous governor of Louisiana. There were border difficulties to encounter, also ; many of the rebel officers had escaped to Mexico, and most of them were in Maximilian's service. Like his chief General Grant General Sheridan's sympathies were wholly with the Juarez or Kepub- lican party in Mexico ; but our relations with France were such that we could only give them our moral, not our military, sup- port. Demagogues of both the Eepublican and Imperial par- ties did their best to involve us in the imbroglio in some way, and one of Sheridan's subordinate commanders was so unwise as to cross the Eio Grande, at Matamoras, on the invitation of one of the guerrilla chiefs, and mingle in the fray. For this he was promptly removed from command, and General Sheridan exhibited so much prudence and discretion in the whole affair as to receive the approval of all parties. That Andrew Johnson should not be pleased with so straight- forward and loyal a commander was to be expected ; and not withstanding the earnest protest of General Grant, he removed him in August, 1867, from the command of the Fifth District, and ordered him to command on the plains, where he would have only Indians to contend with. Before proceeding to his new command, however, Major-General Sheridan, by permission of General Grant, visited the East, and was everywhere received with ovations and honor by the people, who were duly mindful of his great services in war and peace. In person, Major-General Sheridan is small, being barely five feet six inches in height. His body is stout, his limbs rather MAJOR-GENERAL PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 149 short. He appears, however, to good advantage on horseback, being an admirable horseman, and always riding a spirited, and what most people would think a vicious, horse. His broad, deep chest, his compact and firm muscles, his large head, and his active, vigorous motions, indicate a man of great vitality and endurance, and such he is. His dark eyes are his finest features ; but the whole expression of his face indicates intellectual power and intensity of will. His voice is usually soft and low, but musical ; but on the field, in action, it rings out clear as a silver bell. Take him all in all, the country has cause to be proud of its cavalry general. MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. AJOE-GENEEAL GEORGE H. THOMAS, was born in Southampton county, Virginia, on the 31st of July, 1816. His father, John Thomas, was of English, or more re- motely of "Welsh descent, while his mother, Elizabeth Eochelle, was of an ancient Huguenot family ; and both, by birth, connections and social condition were ranked among the " first families" of the Old Dominion. Having received a fair academic education, he accepted a deputy-clerkship under his uncle, James Eochelle, then county-clerk, and commenced at the same time the study of the law. Eeceiving, in the spring of 1836, and through the influence of family friends, an appoint- ment to a cadetship in the United States Military Academy at West Point, he entered as a cadet in the following June ; and, after four years of study, graduated in June, 1840 twelfth in a class which numbered forty-two members. He was assigned to a second lieutenancy in the 3d artillery, joined his regiment in Florida in November, and after a year's participation in the duties and dangers of that service, was breveted (Nov. 6, 1841) first lieutenant, "for gallant conduct." In January, 1842, he accompanied his regiment to New Orleans, and; in June follow- ing, to Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor. In December, 1843, he was ordered with company C, of his regiment, to Fort 150 MA JOB- GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 151 McHenry, Maryland ; was promoted first lieutenant, April 30th, 1844, and in the spring of 1845 joined company E, at Fort Moultrie. In July, 1845, Lieutenant Thomas and his company reported to General Zachary Taylor at Corpus Christi ; being, together with the 3d and 4th infantry, the first United States troops who occupied the soil of Texas in anticipation of threatened difficulty with Mexico. Marching with the army of occupation from Corpus Christi to the Eio Grande, Lieu- tenant Thomas's company, together with detachments from the 1st artillery and 7th infantry, was left to garrison Fort Brown opposite Matamoras the main body of the army, under General Taylor, being at Point Isabel, where their base of supplies was established. He thus participated in the successful defence of Fort Brown, against the Mexicans, from the 2d to the 9th of May ; and had the pleasure of contributing to the decisive vic- tory obtained by Taylor at Eesaca de la Palma on the 9th, by pouring in an unremitting and galling fire upon the demoralized masses who sought safety in flight over the Eio Grande, near the fort. After the evacuation of Matamoras, Lieutenant Thomas, with a section of his battery, was on detached service with the advance of the army ; rejoined his command in Septem- ber, and took part in the battle of Monterey, September 23d, 1846, where, for his gallantry, he was breveted captain. From the 1st of November, 1846, until February 14th, 1847, he com- manded company B as senior lieutenant, during which time he was with the advance of General Quitman's brigade. Compa- nies C and E of the 3d artillery were among those selected by General Taylor in the formation of a division, with which, in accordance with General Scott's orders, he occupied the country which he had conquered. In the glorious and decisive battle of Buena Vista, on the 21st of February, Thomas ex- hibited distinguished gallantry, which won for him the warmest MEN OF OUR DAY. encomiums of his chief, and the brevet rank of major. At the close of the Mexican war he was appointed to the charge of the commissary depot at Brazos Santiago, and in December, 1848 received a six months, leave of absence, the first he had enjoyed since entering the service. Eejoining his company in June, 1849, at Fort Adams, Newport, Ehode Island, he was ordered on the 31st of July to take command of company B, of the 3d artillery, and proceed to Florida, where he remained until December, 1850. From thence he was ordered to Fort Independence, Boston harbor ; but, on the 28th of March, 1851, was relieved by Captain Ord, and assigned to West Point as instructor of artillery and cavalry, in which capacity he served for three years, during which time he was promoted to a full cap- taincy, dating from December 24th, 1853. He was next as- signed, with a battalion of artillery, to Fort Yuma, Lower California, the command of which he assumed July 15, 1854. Appointed, May 12, 1855, as junior major of the 2d United States cavalry, he left Fort Yuma in July, 1855, to join his new regiment at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri ; and, from May 1st, 1856, to November 1st, 1860, was on duty in Texas. During three years of this time he commanded the regi- ment, and in the summer of 1860, was engaged in an important exploration of the head waters of the Canadian and Eed rivers and the Conchas, during which he met and skirmished with roving bands of hostile Indians, and in one of these rencontres, August 26th, 1860, was slightly wounded in the face. In November, 1860, he was favored with a short leave of absence and when he returned to duty, the country was on the eve of a stupendous struggle, in which Providence had marked him as a prominent actor. When the rebellion broke out in April, 1861, Major Thomas was one of the few southerners who maintained their allegiance MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 153 to the " Old Flag," and was ordered to Carlisle Barracks, Penn- sylvania, to command and refit his regiment, which had, during the previous November, been dismounted and ordered out of Texas, by the traitor General Twisrsrs. / / oo On the 25th of April he was created lieutenant-colonel, and on May 3d, 1861, colonel of the 2d cavalry, transferred to the 5th cavalry, August 3d, 1361, being assigned also, to the command of a brigade in Patterson's Army of Northern Virginia. On the 17th of August, 1861, he was made brigadier-general of volun- teers, and was ordered to Kentucky, then in the Department of the Cumberland, where, on the 15th of September, he took com- mand of Camp Dick Eobinson. Having organized the troops collected there, he established Camp Wildcat, thirty miles to the south-east, in order to resist the advance of General Zolli- coffer through the Cumberland Gap. After the defeat of Zolli- coffer, October 26th, Thomas commenced a forward movement into Tennessee, but was sent to Lebanon, by General Buell, with a view of dislodging the rebel general A. J. Johnston i'rom Bowling Green. Organizing, at Lebanon, the first division of the Army of the Cumberland, he defeated the rebels at Mill Spring, Kentucky, January 19th 1862 (during which battle Zollicoffer was killed), and moved through Kentucky, after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson, to occupy Nashville, Tennessee. During the second day of the battle of Shiloh, April 7th, 1862, Thomas's division formed the reserve of the Army of the Cum- berland, and, consequently, was not engaged in action. On the 25th April, 1862, he was confirmed major-general of volunteers, his division being transferred (May 1st) to the Army of the Ten- nessee, the right wing of which (consisting of five divisions) was placed under his command. Participating with that army in the siege of Corinth, he was, on the 10th of June, re-transferred to his old army, that of the Ohio, and on the 8th of September 154: MEN OF OUR DAY. was placed in command of Nashville. On the 19th, acting under orders, he overtook Buell near Cave City, and was im- mediately made second in the command of the army, holding the position during the whole of the rapid and exciting pursuit of Bragg's forces out of Kentucky. When, in November, 1862, General Eosecrans took charge of the army, which re-assumed its old name of "the Army of the Cumberland," General Thomas was given the command of the centre, consisting of five divisions. During the series of contests at Stone river, December 31st, 1862, to January 4th, 1863, which resulted in the flight of Bragg's rebel army from Murfreesboro, Thomas held the ad- vance with a spirit which elicited from General Eosecrans, in his official report, the praise of "being true and prudent, distin- guished in council, and on many battle-fields celebrated by his courage." In the brilliant strategic movements through Middle Tennessee, which compelled the rebels first to seek refuge in Chattanooga, and then to abandon it, Thomas and his 14th army corps bore a conspicuous and honorable part. He bore also the brunt of the terrible onset made by Bragg at Chicka- mauga (September 20th, 1863), in his desperate attack to win back this stronghold. When each flank of the Union army was swept back and so completely routed, that Eosecrans himself gave up the clay as lost, Thomas, resting his flanks on the sides of the mountain gap, repulsed, with terrible slaughter, every attempt of the rebel hosts to force him from his position. It is not too much to say that had it not been for the undaunted courage and extraordinary military ability of General Thomas on that eventful day of shifting, persistent and arduous conflict, Chattanooga, the results of the previous year's labor of the Army of the Cumberland, and even the existence of that army, would iave been irremediably lost. On the 19th of October, MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 155 1863, General Thomas succeeded Kosecrans in the chief com- mand of the Army of the Cumberland, which was then in (General Grant's) Military Division of the Mississippi ; and was made a brigadier-general in the regular army, for gallantry at Chickamauga, his commission dating from the 27th of October. 1863. After a month spent in strengthening the Army of the Cumber- land and the defences of Chattanooga, Thomas and his men, on the 24th of November, rallied forth from that city, and, by a rapid dash, siezed one of the rebel positions on Orchard Knob ; from which, on the 25th, they made that wonderful charge up Mission Eidge, which history records as one of the most extra- ordinary and daring ever performed in modern warfare. Upon the appointment of General Grant to the command of the armies of the United States, General Sherman was placed in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, and Thomas was thus subordinated to one who was his junior in years, experi- ence and commission, and only two years before his subordinate. Thomas, however, was too true a patriot to take exception to this, as many would have done, but cheerfully rendered to Sherman all the prompt obedience and service which is due from the loval soldier to his chief. v When Sherman set out in May, 1864, on his great march to Atlanta, Thomas's army formed the centre, and, during this cam- paign of extraordinary hardship and endurance, did its full share of work. At the battles of Buzzard's Eoost, Eesaca, Dallas, and Kenesaw Mountain, he led the advance, and at the battle of the 20th July, near Atlanta, his army alone sustained the shock of Hood's attack, driving him back to his intrenchments, with heavy losses, participating also in the subsequent battles of the 22d and 28th. Again, at Jonesboro, he drove the enemy south- ward ; and, after the capture of Atlanta, followed Hood to keep 156 ^ MEN OF OUB DAY. him from attempting any serious danger to Sherman's commu- nications. When Sherman commenced his grand "March to the Sea," he placed all the troops he could spare in Thomas's charge, with instructions to lure Hood westward and fight him, if he would fight, near Nashville. The bait took, and Hood, deceived by Thomas's feigned retreat, moved confidently for- ward to destruction. His first decided check was at Franklin, near Nashville, on the 1st, where, after nearly twelve hours of the most desperate fighting in the vain attempt to carry the in- trenchments which General Schofield's troops had hastily thrown up, the rebels abandoned the field, having sustained a loss, in killed, wounded and prisoners, of 6,252, and thirteen general officers either killed or wounded. Thomas's army, heavily reinforced, now held Nashville, which Hood unable to assault sat down to besiege, on a line of hills four or five miles south of the city evidently expecting that he would be able to starve out the Union forces. After repeated and vain attempts to provoke Hood into an attack, General Thomas determined to assume the offensive himself. Nashville lies in a bend of the Cumberland river, and Thomas's line being stretched across the bend, his right and centre were guarded by the gunboats. His plan for handling Hood, pre- supposed two days' work. On the first day, by a bold demon- stration on his left (Hood's right) he hoped to attract the rebel general's attention and force to that wing, and then, with the aid of the gunboats, roll back his left wing upon the centre and, having reached around the flank and rear, to crush the centre also. On the second day he proposed to attack the rebel right until it gave way and then crush it. This programme was car- ried out almost to the letter ; the close of the first day's fighting found the Union troops in possession of Hood's most advanced position, sixteen pieces of artillery, some 1200 prisoners, large MA JOE- GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 157 quantities of small-arms and about forty wagons. That night Hood abandoned his now untenable fortifications and planted himself, with shortened lines, across the Granny White and Franklin turnpikes and towards him, early on the following morning, pressed the Union army. It was not, however, until 4 p. M., that the blow fell upon the rebel general then the Union cavalry swept around his flank, and the Union bayonets swept the entire front of his lines with the force of a whirlwind. Thirty minutes of desperate hand to hand fighting and Hood's troops were fleeing wildly, hopelessly, from the field pausing not until they had reached the farther bank of the Tennessee. 10,000 rebels killed and wounded, 13,189 prisoners, 2207 de- serters, 80 cannon, with gun-carriages and caissons, 3079 small arms and numbers of battle-flags, were the glorius results of this great victory. General Forrest's defeat, by the Union General Milroy, at Murfreesboro, and Breckinridge's discom- fiture at the hands of General Stoneman, in East Tennessee, completed the work which General Sherman had left for his gallant lieutenant to perform. Thomas, having now thoroughly purged the State of rebels, prepared to send his troops into winter-quarters ; but this not meeting with the approval of General Grant, he undertook a complete recruiting and re-organization of his army, which was soon furnished with plenty of work in various quarters. General Schofield's command was sent to "Wilmington, North Carolina, and after the capture of that place, joined General Sherman at Goldsboro ; General Wilson's magnificent cavalry column passed through Selma, Montgomery, West Point, Columbus and Macon ; General Granger's and General A. J. Smith's corps, assisted at the reduction and capture of Mobile ; and Stoneman, with a fine cavalry force, operated in south- western Virginia, threatening Lynchburg and entering Salis- 158 MEN OF OUR DAY. bury, North Carolina, where they captured an immense amount of rebel stores, etc., and cut off Johnston's communications. In January, 1865, General Thomas received a well-merited promotion to the rank of major-general in the regular army ; and, when the army was reduced and re-organized, by general- order of June 27th, 1865, he was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Tennessee, embracing the States of Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama. In this difficult position he has administered the affairs of the district with admirable skill and patriotism, repressing incipient rebellion, aiding the administration of justice and encouraging the loyal. In December, 1867, President Johnson attempted to win him to support him in his war upon Congress, offering him as a bribe a brevet lieutenant-generalship and the command of the new Department of the Atlantic, but he was too stern a patriot to be won in this way, and his reply did him great honor. General Thomas has a tall and finely proportioned person, a fair complexion, a keen blue eye, and a frank and winning countenance. He is beloved by the troops who have served under him, and who speak of him affectionately as " Pap" Thomas ; and they have the most unlimited confidence in his goodness, skill, and ability to do any thing which mortal man can accomplish. Pure in aspiration, blameless in life, calm, thoughtful, modest, amiable, patient, persevering, a complete master of his profession, inexhaustible in resources, thorough in preparation, deliberate but energetic in action General Thomas may well rank as the third soldier of the Eepublic ! MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE G. MEADE. O achieve success where all before him had failed^ to retain command where, from unreadiness, incapacity, or lack of skill and foresight, all his predecessors had been compelled to relinquish it, and without extraordinary brilliancy or genius, still, by his soldier-like bearing and his manly and irreproachable conduct, to win the esteem and respect of all who were under his command, such are the claims which the last commander of the army of the Potomac presents to our regard. GEORGE GORDON MEADE was born in 1815, during the temporary residence of his parents at Cadiz, in Spain. His father, Eichard "W. Meade, was a citizen of Philadelphia, and, while engaged in mercantile pursuits in Spain, was intrusted by che United States Government with the adjustment of certain claims against that country. He filled the offices of Consul and Navy Agent of the United States most creditably, and the cession of Florida to prevent whose secession the son subse- quently contributed so much was the result mainly of his efforts. Shortly after his birth, the parents of young Meade returned to Philadelphia, where his youthful days were spent. When a boy, he attended the school at Georgetown, taught by the present Chief Justice Chase. The parents, having two sons, Richard W. and the subject of this sketch, determined to devote them to the service of their country. The elder was, therefore, 159 160 MEN OF OUR DAY. educated for the Navy, which he entered in 1826, while George was destined for the Army, and accordingly entered the Military Academy, near Philadelphia, and, in 1831, the Academy at West Point, whence he graduated with honor in 1835. The same year we find him a second lieutenant in the third artillery, in Florida, in the Seminole war. The state of his health induced him to resign his commission in 1836, and he became engaged in civil engineering ; but, in 1842, he again entered the service as second lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers, and in that capacity served in the Mexican war. During this campaign he served on the staff of General Taylor, and after- ward on that of General Scott, distinguishing himself at Palo Alto and Monterey, and receiving, as an acknowledgment of Iris gallantry, a brevet of first lieutenant, dating from September 23, 1846 ; and also, upon his return to Philadelphia, a splendid sword from his townsmen. During the interval between the Mexican war and the rebellion, having been promoted to a full first lieutenancy in August, 1851, and to a captaincy of engi- neers in May, 1856, he was engaged with the particular duties of his department, more especially in the survey of the northern lakes ; but upon the call to arms in 1861, he was ordered east, and upon the organization of the Pennsylvania Eeserve Corps, under the three years' call, Captain Meade was made a brigadier- general of volunteers, and assigned the command of the second brigade, with General McCall as division-general, his commis- sion dating August 31, 1861. After wintering with the division at Tenallytown, and helping to erect Fort Pennsylvania, they crossed the Potomac into Virginia during the early part of 1862, and became a portion of the Army of the Potomac. When this army began to move upon Manasass, during March of that year, General Meade's brigade formed a portion of the second division of McDowell's first army corps, and with this corps he remained MAJOR- GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEAEE. 161 after that general was made commander of the Department of the Shenandoah. On the 18th of June, 1862, General Meade's rank in the regular army was advanced to that of major of topographical engineers, and subsequently he was confirmed with the same rank in the newly organized engineer corps of the United States army. About this time the division of Penn- sylvania Reserves was added to the Army of the Potomac, on the Peninsula. General Meade took part in the battle of Me- chanicsville, June 26, 1862, and in the battle of Games' Mills, June 27, he fought so bravely as to be nominated for a brevet of lieutenant- colonel of the regular army for his distinguished services. After the capture of Generals McCall and Reynolds, he took charge of the division. In the battle of New Market Cross Roads, June 30, General Meade was struck by a ball in his side, inflicting a painful wound ; but quickly rose from his bed of suffering, and was again at tHe head of his division. During the Maryland campaign he also distinguished himself at the head of the Pennsylvania Reserves. At Antietam, when General Hooker was wounded, General Meade took charge of a corps, and fought bravely the remainder of the day, receiving a slight wound and having two horses killed under him. During the fearful battle of Fredericksburg, he held charge of the second division of the first army corps, and fought in Franklin's left wing. He led his men boldly up to the rebel works, and doubtless would have captured them had he been properly sup- ported ; but after losing his brigade commanders, several of his field and line officers, and fifteen hundred men, he, with the rest of the army, was obliged to retire to the other side of the river. Two days after this eventful battle, General Meade superseded General Butterfield in the command of the fifth army corps. To enable him to hold this, he was promoted to be a major- general of volunteers, with rank and commission from Nov. 29, 11 162 MEN OF OUR DAY. 1862. In the second day of the action at Chancellorsville, the corps of Meade and Eeynolds were held in reserve by General Hooker, and on them he relied for covering the crossing of the Eapidan, when it was finally decided to withdraw to the north bank. They performed their part admirably and with but little loss. Lee's army, now re-inforced and flushed with recent vic- tories easily achieved, took the offensive once more, and speed- ily made its way into Maryland and Pennsylvania, followed by Hooker. On the 28th of June, 1863, the Army of the Potomac was in the vicinity of Frederick, in Maryland, when a messenger arrived from Washington, relieving General Hooker, and invest- ing General Meade with the command of the army. Selected thus suddenly, without solicitation on his own part, and by the unanimous desire of the other corps commanders, he assumed command with a deep sense of the responsibilities thrust upon him, and made the best disposition of his troops in his power for the speedily impending battle. The following is a copy of his general order issued upon this occasion : " HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, "June 28, 1863. " General Order, No. 66. " By direction of the President of the United States, I hereby assume the command of the Army of the Potomac. As a sol- dier, in obeying this order, an order totally unexpected and unsolicited, I have no promises or pledges to make. The coun- try looks to this army to relieve it from the devastation and disgrace of a hostile invasion. Whatever fatigues and sacrifices we may be called upon to undergo, let us have in view constantly the magnitude of the interests involved, and let each man deter- mine to do his duty, leaving to an all-controlling Providence the decision of the contest. It is with just diffidence that I re- lieve, in the command of this army, an eminent and accom- plished soldier, whose name must ever appear conspicuous in the history of its achievements; but I rely upon the MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. 163 hearty support of my companions in arms to assist me in the discharge of the duties of the important trust which has been confided to me. "GEOKGE G. MEADE, "Major-general Commanding. "S. P. BARSTOW, Assistant Adjutant-general." General Meade at once put his columns in motion, and in three days his advance and that of the enemy met at Gettys- burg, and commenced the conflict. The meeting at that place was by accident, but the advantages of the position were such, that instead of withdrawing his advance, upon meeting the enemy, he ordered his whole army up to their support. Three days of terrible warfare, and great loss of life upon both sides, resulted in the defeat of the enemy, and the abandonment of the northern invasion. It was the first substantial victory gained by the Army of the Potomac, and though the editors of the northern papers, and some of the impatient members of the Government, were inclined to blame General Meade for not making more ardent pursuit, and falling upon the foe, who was represented, as usual, as thoroughly demoralized, subsequent events have shown that, in this case, " discretion was the better part of valor." Pursuit, vigorous and effective pursuit, was made, and a considerable portion of the enemy's train was cap- tured, but his retreat had been at the same time swift and orderly, and so thoroughly disciplined were the rebel troops, that an attack upon them by any pursuing force which could be brought up promptly, must inevitably have resulted in a disas- trous repulse. The problem whether the attack should have been made, however, is one of a tactical nature, requiring for its solution special and professional knowledge. It is, therefore, one of those questions regarding which public opinion is neces- sarily worthless. One ching is certain, the emphasis with which 164: MEN OF OUR DAY. the corps commanders pronounced against the assault, should carry with it great weight, understanding, as they did, the rela- tive situations of the opposing forces. After Lee had crossed the Potomac, General Meade hoped to bring him to battle before he should pass the mountains, but at Manassas gap, where an excellent opportunity occurred, his plans were frustrated by the dilatory movements of a corps commander, who had the advance. For some time after this, the opposing armies lay in a state of inactivity, near the Kapi- dan, from the necessity of heavy detachments being drawn off to other points. In October, Lee attempted, by a flank move- ment, to sever Meade's communications ; but the latter was too quick for him. Making a retrograde movement as far as Centreville, to meet this effort, he followed Lee in return, and thus the two armies resumed nearly the same position as before the movement commenced. In the fighting accompanying these operations, the Union army had the advantage, and at Bristow station, the rear-guard, under Warren, by a rapid movement won the field, and defeated the enemy. Late in November, Meade undertook the boldest move that the Army of the Poto- mac had ever yet made. Leaving his base, with ten days' rations, he crossed the river, hoping to interpose between the wings of Lee's army, now in winter quarters, and stretched over a wide extent of country. The enemy, however, was found to present so formidable a front at Mine Eun, behind intrench- ments, that it was thought best to forego the contemplated at- tack, and our forces were again withdrawn to the north bank, and went into cantonments for the season. When General Grant, as lieutenant-general, assumed the direction of all the forces, his headquarters were with the Army of the Potomac. General Meade retained the immediate command of that army, and during the severe campaigns of 1864-5, led it on the bloody MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. 165 fields of the "Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the region round about Petersburg and Eichmond, winning the approval of his great commander, who in recommending his confirmation as a major-general in the regular army, spoke of him in these emphatic words : " General Meade is one of our truest men, and ablest officers, He has been constantly with the Army of tlie Potomac, confront- ing the strongest, best appointed, and most confident army of the south. He, therefore, has not had the same opportunity of winning laurels so distinctly marked, as have fallen to the lot of other generals. But I defy any man to name a commander who would do more than Meade has done, with the same chances. General Meade was appointed at my solicitation, after a cam- paign the most protracted, and covering more severely contested battles than any of which we have any account in history. I have been with General Meade through the whole campaign; and I not only made the recommendation upon a conviction that this recognition of his services was fully won, but that he was eminently qualified for the command such rank would en- title him to." Congress confirmed the appointment, dating his commission from August 18th, 1864. At the close of the war General Meade returned for a brief season to his home in Philadelphia, where he was received with the highest honors. He was soon after appointed to the command of the. military division of the Atlantic, in which were included all the States on the Atlantic coast, and which was perhaps the most important of the military departments. His management of this department was able and judicious, but without many events of note. He acted prompt- ly and wisely, under the direction of the lieutenant general, in suppressing the Fenian movement for the invasion of Canada. When, in the autumn of 1867, President Johnson 1(36 MEN OF OUR DAY. having become dissatisfied with General Pope's administration in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, in consequence of that general's furthering rather than hindering tie enforcement of the congressional plan of reconstruction, he removed him and transferred General Meade to the command of that military district, he mistook as he had so often done before, his man. General Meade is thoroughly loyal, and obedient to the laws, and finding that the congressional plan was the law of the land, he obeyed it as strictly, and promptly, as his predecessor had done ; even taking measures, such as the removal of the State provisional officers of Georgia for contumacy and insubordina- tion, at which General Pope had hesitated. He has maintained a dignified and honorable course in regard to the Constitutional Conventions of the States of his district, and whatever may be his own political views, he has sought only to administer the laws faithfully, without fear or favor. The Constitutional Con- vention of Florida, which at one time was on the point of breaking into two impotent factions, was, by his counsels and efforts, harmonized, and the successful future of the re-organized State assured. The personal appearance of General Meade is correctly de- scribed by an English writer, who was, introduced to him soon after the battle of Gettysburg. " He is a very remarkable look- ing man tall, spare, of a commanding figure and presence; his manners easy and pleasant, but having much dignity. His head is partially bald, and is small and compact ; bat the fore- head is high. He has the late Duke of Wellington class of nose ; and his eyes which have a serious, and almost sad expres- sion, are rather sunken, or appear so, from the prominence of the curved nasal development. He has a decidedly patrician and distinguished appearance. I had some conversation with him and of his recent achievements he spoke in a modest and natural MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE GORDON MEADE. 167 way. He said that he had been very "fortunate;" but was most especially anxious not to arrogate to himself any credit which he did not deserve. He said that the triumph of the Federal arms was due to the splendid courage of the Union troops, and also to the bad strategy, and rash and mad attacks made by the enemy. He said that his health was remarkably good and that he oould bear almost any amount of physical fatigue. What he complained of was, the intense mental anxiety occasioned by the great responsibility of his position. General Meade, in 1840, married a daughter of Hon. John Sergeant, of Philadelphia, and has a large family. MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. AJOR-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD, "the Havelock of the American Union Army," was born at Leeds, Kennebec county, Maine, on the 8th of November, 1830, the eldest of three children of parents in moderate, but independent, circumstances. Working upon the farm until his tenth year, he was then, by his father's death, leftin the care of an uncle, Hon. John Otis, of Hallowell, Maine. Having attained a good common-school education, he, in 1846, matriculated at Bowdoin College, from which he graduated at the head of his class in 1850. Entering immediately the United States Military Academy at West Point, he graduated from that institution in June, 1854, with the fourth rank in his class. He was assigned to the Ordnance Department, with brevet rank of second lieuten- ant, served in Texas and Florida, and was subsequently trans- ferred to the United States arsenal at Augusta, Georgia ; and from thence to the arsenal at Watervliet, Maine. On the 1st of July, 1855, he was made a second lieutenant by promotion ; and on the 1st of July, 1857, promoted to be first lieutenant, and appointed Acting Assistant Professor of Mathematics at West Point, which position he held at the commencement of the rebellion. On the 28th of May, 1861, he resigned his professorship and accepted a commission as colonel of the third Maine volunteers, the first three years regiment that left that State: and, as senior colonel, led a bri- 168 MAJOR- GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 169 gade at the battle of Bull Eun, July 21, 1861. The gallantry and ability manifested on that occasion secured for him (September 3d) the rank of brigadier-general, and he was placed in com- mand of a brigade in General Casey's provisional division, to which was then intrusted the charge of the national capital. In the following December, he was assigned to General Sumner's command, the first brigade of the first division of the second army corps, in McClellan's Peninsula campaign. At Fair Oaks, June 1, 1862, while gallantly leading a decisive charge, he was struck in the right arm by two bullets, one near the wrist and the other at the elbow ; he did not leave the field, however, until wounded a second time, when he was obliged to go to the rear and submit to an amputation of the limb. In the words of a friend, " Weak and fainting from hemorrhage and the severe shock which his system had sustained, the next day he started for his home in Maine. He remained there only about two months, during which time he was not idle. Visiting various localities in his native State, he made patriotic appeals to the people to come forward and sustain the Government. Pale, emaciated, and with one sleeve tenantless, he stood up before them, the embodi- ment of all that is good and true and noble in manhood. He talked to them as only one truly loyal can talk as one largely endowed with that patriotism which is a heritage of New Eng- land blood. Modesty, sincerity and earnestness characterized his addresses, and his fervent appeals drew hundreds around the national standard." Before he had recovered from his wound, and against the advice of his surgeon, he hastened to the front, and at the head of a brigade of the second (French's) division, (his own being temporarily commanded by General Caldwell,) he took part in the second battle of Bull Eun ; and in the re- treat from Centreville he commanded the rear-guard. At Antie- tam he succeeded General Sedgwick, who was wounded, in com- 170 MEN OF OUR DAY. mand of his division. On the 13th of December, at the battle of Fredericksburg, he led his division, in support of General French's, in the heroic charge made upon the rebel position in the rear of that city. In this attempt in which the Union troops, in the words of their commander, "did all that men could do Howard's brigade alone lost nearly a thousand men." During the succeeding winter he held the command of the second division of the second corps ; and, in April, 1863, was confirmed as major-general of volunteers (his commission dating from the 29th of the preceding November), and was transferred to the command of the eleventh corps, thereby re- lieving General Sigel. His new command was composed of German troops, many of whom could not even speak the English language and all enthusiastically devoted to their former commander, who, for some inscrutable governmental reason, had so suddenly been taken away from them. With these men, good and true soldiers, yet demoralized to a certain degree by the change of command, and before time had been afforded to him for re-organiz ng them or becoming better known to them, General Howard was fated to meet the first onset of the rebel attack at Chancellorsville. Under the unexpected and crushing blow, and despite the heroic endeavors of Howard himself, they broke and ran, causing a panic which had well nigh proved the irretrievable ruin of the whole Union army. The eleventh and its commander keenly felt the dishonor of this day but the noble-hearted and patient Lincoln's confi- dence in the subject of our sketch was unshaken, and when a change of commanders was urged, he simply replied, " Howard will bring it up to the work, only give him time." And jplendidly did Howard and his men redeem their credit upon ihe battle- fiel 4 of Gettysburg, on the first, second, and third of July, 1863. It was to his happy forethought, on the first day MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 171 of that battle, in seizing Cemetery Hill, that we may in a great measure, attribute the favorable results of the fighting on the two succeeding days. It " was one of those divine inspirations on which destinies turn," giving him a stronghold of defence and shelter, when, as he must have foreseen, and as happened three hours later, he was obliged to retire in the face of an enemy more than double his own number. And, on this hill, the natural centre of the Union lines, the eleventh corps, burn- ing to wipe out the memory of Chancellorsville, met and terri- bly repulsed the brunt of the attack by the rebel General Ewell's division, at sunset of the second day. On the third day of this terrible fight, Howard's corps still held the same position, grimly watching the sublime panorama of battle which unrolled before them. "I have seen many men in action," wrote an eye-witness, " but never one so imperturba- bly cool as this general of the eleventh corps. I watched him closely as a minie whizzed overhead. I dodged, of course. I never expect to get over that habit. But I am confident that he did not move a muscle by the fraction of a hair's breadth." At last, however, came the furious final charge of the desper- ate veterans of Lee's army, recklessly bent on obtaining posses- sion of Cemetery Hill. Two hundred and fifty cannon concen- trated their unintermitted and terrific fire upon the Union centre (Howard's position) and the left but Howard simply ordered one after another of his guns to be quiet, as if silenced by the enemy's fire, and his gunners flung themselves flat upon the ground. Suddenly, as the rebel line, in huge semicircular sweep, reached the Emmetsburg road, the Germans of the eleventh corps sprang to their guns, and along the whole front of the Union centre and left, more than four miles long there rained such a storm of fiery, pitiless hail of death-bolts upon the advancing foe, as swept away not only the last hope of 172 MEN OF OUR DAY. the Confederate chieftain, but, almost literally, his best army. Gettysburg was won, and the North was saved. President Lincoln sent to Howard an autograph letter of thanks for his inestimable services, and Congress passed a vote of similar import. General Hancock having been severely wounded in this battle, the command of his corps (the second) was given to Howard. In the fall of 1863, after the battle of Chickamauga, Generals Howard and Hooker, with their corps, were sent to reinforce Eosecrans, in Tennessee, and at Chattanooga came under the command of General Grant, who had then recently assumed the leadership of the Military Division of the- Mississippi. Here it was, also, that Howard became acquainted with General Sherman, and laid the foundation of an intimacy which increased until the close of the war. Together they led their respective corps in the assault upon Fort Buckner, on the second day of the battle for the possession of Mission Ridge (November 25, 1863), and it was Howard's cavalry which contributed largely to the more complete discomfiture of the routed rebels, by the destruction of the Dalton and Cleveland railroad. In the long and severe march of Sherman, to the relief of General Burnside, at Knox- ville, in December, 1863, General Howard bore a -conspicuous part, winning the highest commendation for fidelity and intelli- gence from Sherman, who says, in his official report : " In Gen- eral Howard throughout, I found a polished and Christian gentleman, exhibiting the highest and most chivalrous traits of the soldier." During the whole of General Sherman's march to Atlanta (May to August, 1864), General Howard and his men did splendid service. During the siege of that place, the brave and beloved General McPherson was killed on the 21st of July, and his command, that of the Army of the Tennessee, was given, by the President, at General Sherman's request, to MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 173 Major-General Howard. In the opening movement (on the 29th of August) of General Sherman's feint towards raising the siege of Atlanta, General Howard's column was impetuously- attacked by Lee and Hardee's rebel force, and repulsed them with terrible slaughter ; and again, at Jonesboro, on the 31st of August, he dealt to Hood's army the last crushing blow, which drove him routed from Atlanta, thenceforth open to the Union troops. In Sherman's " March to the Sea," from Atlanta to Savannah, Major-General Howard led the right wing, marching down the Macoii road, destroying the railroad, and scattering the rebel cavalry and passing through Jackson, Monticello, and Hills- boro, to Milledgeville, the capital of the State, where he was joined by the left wing of the army, under General Slocum. From Millen, the united army moved down on either bank of the Ogeechee river, and Howard's column, by the 8th of Decem- ber, had reached and seized the Gulf railroad, within twenty miles of Savannah. On the night of the 9th, Howard commu- nicated, by scouts, with a Union gunboat lying two miles below Fort McAllister which shortly after fell into the hands of the Union troops and Generals Sherman and Howard went down to the fleet in a small boat, where they met Admiral Dahlgren. Their great work was done, and Savannah was a splendid Christ- mas gift to the President, and to the nation.* Early in February * A story is told of this boat voyage, which illustrates, to some extent, the characters of both General Sherman and General Howard. On finding the fort carried, and his army again in communication with the Union army and navy, General Sherman was much elated and jubilant, and soon after they embarked, he said : " I feel good ; I want to sing or shout, but my musical education was neglected. Boys" (to the staff officers in the boat), "can't you sing something?" The "boys" seemed at a loss. "Howard," said the general, "I know you can sing, for I have heard you." " But, general," replied Howard, " I can't sing anything but hymn 174 MEN" OF OUR DAY. commenced the march through the Carolinas, in which Howard again led the right wing, moving towards Beaufort, and menac- ing Charleston and finally entering Columbia, the capital of the Palmetto State. Then pressing into North Carolina, they met and whipped Johnston's rebel army at Averysboro, on the 20th of March, 1865 ; and while on the march for Raleigh, on the 12th of April, were delighted by the glad news of Lee's surrender. Congress, at the close of the march of Sherman's army to the sea, in December 1864, promoted Gerferal Howard to the rank of brigadier-general in the regular army, his commission dating from the 21st of December, 1864, and the Thirty-ninth Con- gress, at their first session, conferred on him the brevet rank of major-general in the regular army, dating from March 13, 1865. When the Thirty-eighth Congress, at the suggestion of the lamented Lincoln, determined upon the organization of a " Bureau of Freedmen, Eefugees, and Abandoned Lands," it was felt almost instinctively that General Howard was the man to be at the head of it, and no nomination made by the Secretary of War was more heartily approved than that by which he was named commissioner. Owing to the necessary duties connected with the closing up of his command of the right wing of General Sherman's army, General Howard was unable to take charge of his Bureau until May 12th, 1865. In its organization there were manifold difficulties to be overcome. The act was loosely drawn ; many matters were left discretionary with the commis- sioner and his assistants, in which these duties should have been tunes. I^don't know any thing else." " Those will be just as good as any thing else," said the commanding general ; " sing them." And so, as they ran down to the squadron, Howard made the air vocal with " Shining Shore," " Homeward Bound," and " Rock of Ages ;" the staff officers joining in, and Sherman occasionally trying a stave or two though it was evident, as ne said, that his musical education had been neglected. MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 175 defined ; and their authority in many particulars was insufficient to enforce measures which were absolutely necessary ; still, the affairs of the Bureau were managed with a discretion, an integ- rity and a conscientious regard for right in the conflicting inter- ests of the freedinan and his former master, which won for the commissioner and his subordinates the esteem and respect of the intelligent and loyal of all classes. When Mr. Johnson began to drift back to his old affinities with the rebels, and to sympathize with those whom he had at first so loudly proclaimed must be severely punished, the Freed- men's Bureau, and its upright and faithful commissioner, became objects of his utter aversion. He recommended that the Bureau should not be suffered to exist beyond the time specified in the first organic act, viz., two years ; and when a new Freedmen's Bureau bill passed both houses of Congress, he vetoed it, attempting in a long argument to show the needlessness of any such Bureau of the Government. The bill was not passed over his veto, but later in the session a better bill, re-organizing it in some particulars, but retaining its substantial features and con- templating the retention of General Howard as commissioner, was passed by a strong vote, and when Mr. Johnson vetoed it, was passed again by the constitutional majority of two-thirds. Mr. Johnson then gave out that he had determined upon the re- moval of General Howard from the commissionership, but as the Tenure of Office act clearly prohibited this, he has been obliged to allow him to remain, but has done what he could to hinder him from accomplishing what he desired. The President has par- doned, whenever application has been made, and sometimes even without application, the most violent rebels, especially if their lands had been confiscated and were inuring to the bene- fit of the Freedmen's Bureau, and has invariably ruled that his pardon entitled them to the restoration of all their lands unless 176 ME^ OF OUR these had been sold for the non-payment of the direct revenue tax. This action of the President has in many instances seri- ously crippled the usefulness of the Freedmen's Bureau, taking from it a source of legitimate revenue and often requiring the relinquishment of lands occupied by colonies of freedmen, or for schools or churches for their intellectual or religious in- struction ; but, during the whole period, General Howard hag maintained a discreet and dignified course. He has done all that lay in his power to promote both common and higher education among the people of color, co-operating with the voluntary freedmen's associations and commissions in the maintenance of schools, and founding a university for them in the immediate vicinity of Washington, while he has, so far as possible, furthered the efforts of religious bodies for the better education of native colored preachers and teachers. Literary honors have been profusely showered on the general ; "Waterville (now Colby) college, Maine, and Shurtleff college, Illinois, both conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1865, and the Gettysburg Seminary did the same in 1866. Major-General Howard has proved himself a true man under all circumstances. In his military career, he was always cairn, brave to the verge of rashness, unconscious of fear, and at all times capable of making the best dispositions possible of his troops ; a good disciplinarian, but much beloved by his men, strictly conscientious and commending his avowed religious principles, rather by a pure, holy, and consistent life, than by any ostentatious displays of his piety.* In his administrative * General Sherman once said of him ; " I believe Howard is a real Chris- tian. My wife is very strict in her religious observances" (Mrs. Sherman is a Roman Catholic), " and that is all very well, but Howard is different. He don't make any parade of his religion, but he has something about him, which I haven't, but which I wish I had." MAJOR-GENERAL OLIVER OTIS HOWARD. 177 position, lie has manifested rare ability, in the midst of great difficulties ; has avoided giving offence when it seemed almost impossible to do so ; yet he has never failed to do what he had the power to do for the poor and helpless, or to protect their rights, so far as his authority extended. There is, we hope, a brilliant and useful future yet before this young and capable officer. 12 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. HIS distinguished statesman, jurist and financier whose somewhat peculiar baptismal names were conferred upon him in memory of a deceased uncle Salmon, a resident of the town of Portland, Maine was born at Cornish, New Hampshire, on the 13th of January, 1808. He traces his descent from Aquila Chase, a native of Cornwall, England, who was born in 1618, and, while quite young, came to America and settled at Newburyport, Massachusetts. Dudley Chase, the grandfather of Secretary Chase, and fourth in descent from Aquila, procured a grant of land on the Connecticut river, north of Charleston, (or, as it was then called, Fort No. 4,) upon which he settled, naming the township Cornish, in honor of the original home of his English ancestry. His children became notable persons in that region ; one of them, Philander, being the Epis- copal Bishop of Ohio, and the founder of Kenyon College ; and another, D. P. Chase, became Chief Justice of Vermont. Another brother, Ithaman Chase, the father of the subject of this sketch, was a fine specimen of the old-fashioned New Englander, of im- posing stature, great natural dignity, and an affability of manner which rendered him, in the best sense of the word, a gentleman. Sagacious, honest, energetic, and Yankee-like turning his hand to whatever business chance offered, he succeeded, as farmer, merchant, surveyor and manufacturer, in accumulating 178 SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 179 a handsome property. He secured, also, the confidence and good- will of his fellow-citizens, whom he long served in the capacity of a justice of the peace, and whom, for many years, he acceptably represented in the Executive Council of New Hampshire. The close of the " war of 1812 " brought disaster to his fortunes, and necessitated, in 1815, his removal to Keene, New Hampshire, where, two years later, he suddenly died, leav- ing his family with little else than the heritage of an honorable name and a well-spent life. His wife, however, who was of Scotch descent, and possessed much of the energy and thrift characteristic of that race, had inherited from her parents a little property, which still remained intact after the wreck of her husband's fortunes. By a careful husbanding of her resources, therefore, she was enabled to keep her children in comparative comfort, and to give a mother's tender thought and direction to their earlier studies. Young Chase, at the schools of Keene, and afterwards at a boarding school, kept by one of his father's old friends, at Windsor, Vermont, had mastered the elementary parts of knowledge, had got through the Latin Grammar, read a little in Yirgil's Bucolics, and had commenced Greek and Euclid, when, in the spring of 1820, his mother received from her brother-in-law, the Bishop of Ohio, an offer to take charge of and educate the lad. The proposition was joyfully accepted, and, before long, Salmon started on his long journey westward, in company with his elder brother Alexander, who had just graduated from college, and was going (in company with Henry E. Schoolcraft, since distinguished as a traveller, ethnologist and writer) to join General Cass's expedition to the Upper Mis sissippi. At Cleveland the young traveller parted from his brother and friend, and spent nearly a month with a friend of his uncle, while waiting for an opportunity to reach that relative, who 130 MEN OF OUR DAY. resided at Worthington, in the interior of the State. While thus delayed, the boy was by no means idle, but employed him- self much of the time in ferrying travellers across the Cuyahoga, upon the eastern bank of which stream the town stood, thereby adding somewhat to his slender funds, and gaming a lesson of industrious self-reliance which was of much use to him in the future. At length, however, an opportunity offered for Salmon's proposed journey. He was placed in charge of two theological students, en route for Worthington, on horseback, and with them travelling " ride and tie," as was frequently done in the time of the early settlement of the West he made the long trip through the woods, fording streams, and meeting with many adventures which were full of interest and novelty. Arriving at Worthington, he was received into the family of his uncle, the bishop, a most excellent man, but a rigid disciplinarian, where he fulfilled the menial office of " chore boy " during the intervals of study. In mathematics and the languages he made excellent progress, despite the disadvantages under which he labored, of being so much and arduously occupied with farm duties. In composition he was proficient, and in Greek he so far excelled as to be the Greek orator of the bishop's school at its annual exhibition in the summer of 1821. One of his inti- mate schoolmates says : " Never have I known a purer or more virtuous-minded lad than he was. He had an extreme aversion to any thing dishonorable or vicious. He was industrious and attentive to business. Laboring on the farm of his uncle, he missed many recitations, and had but limited chances for study, yet, having a natural fondness for books, he was surpassed by no one of his age in the school. He had little regard for his personal appearance, or, indeed, for any thing external His mind appeared to be directed to what was right, regardless of the opinions of others." In the fall of 1822, Bishop Chase removed SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 181 to Cincinnati, having accepted the presidency of the college there ; and here a somewhat easier life, in some respects, fell to Salmon's lot. He entered the freshman class of the college, and studying hard, attained the rank of sophomore, when his studies were interrupted by the removal, in August, 1823, of the bishop, who resigned the presidency, in order to visit England, with the purpose of obtaining the necessary funds for a Pro- testant Episcopal Seminary in the West, an effort which finally resulted in the establishment of Kenyon College. Salmon returned to his home in New Hampshire, travelling a large por- tion of the way on foot ; and, after a short period of school- teaching, and a few months of close and rapid preparation at the academy in Eoyalton, Vermont, entered the junior class of Dartmouth College. During his collegiate course, an incident occurred strongly indicative of that innate love of right which has ever been so marked a feature of Mr. Chase's character. An intimate friend and classmate having been arbitrarily accused, and, despite his asseverations of his innocence, condemned to rustication, by the faculty, for a trivial offence committed by other parties, Salmon waited upon the president, protested against the decision of the faculty as unjust, and finding it irre- vocable, declared his intention to leave the college with his friend and did leave. The faculty sent a messenger after them, who overtook them on the road, with a revocation of their sen- tence ; but the inexorable young men did not return until they had spent a pleasant week of visiting among their friends and relatives ; and their re-entry into Hanover was a triumph. As one of the foremost third of the senior class, young Chase was admitted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and at his gradua- tion, in 1826, he ranked eighth, delivering an oration on "Lit- erary Curiosity. Going directly to "Washington, D. C., he an- nounced, in the columns of the " National Intelligencer," of MEN OP OUR DAY. December 23d, 1826, his intention to open a select classical school in that city on the first Monday of the ensuing year ; but for a time fortune seemed to look most discouragingly upon him. Patience and courage, however, had their perfect work ; and, finally, he most unexpectedly received the offer of the male department of a well-established classical school, the proprietors of which had determined to give their whole time and attention to the female department. In this school (in a little, one-story frame building on G street,) he commenced teaching, receiving the patronage of many eminent men, among whom were Henry Clay, William Wirt, and Samuel L. Southard, who entrusted their sons to his care. While thus arduously engaged, he occu- pied all his leisure time in studying law under William Wirt, then Attorney-General of the United States ; and upon attaining his majority, in 1829, closed his school, and was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia in February, 1830. On the 4th, of March, 1830, he set out for Cincinnati, where he commenced the practice of his profession, with an energy and perseverance which could not fail to secure ultimate success. He formed a partnership with Edward King, Esq., son of the celebrated Kufus King, which however was of short duration; and in 1833, he formed another connection with Mr. Caswell, a lawyer of established reputation, and, while striving to obtain cases, he diligently busied himself with the compilation of the statutes of Ohio, accompanied with copious annotations and prefaced with a historical sketch of the State, the whole forming three large octavo volumes. This valuable compendium the fruit of a careful use of time which young professional men too often fail to improve soon superseded all other editions of the statutes, and is now the accepted authority in the courts. While the reading and investigations necessary to the compilation of. this work, added largely to his stores of legal knowledge, the admi- SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 183 rable manner in which it was prepared, gave its young author an immediate reputation among the profession, and secured him the notice and respect of the active business community by which he was surrounded. It was the stepping-stone to his fortune. Early in 1834, he was made the solicitor of the United States bank, in Cincinnati, to which was soon added a similar position connected with another of the city banks, and he was soon engaged in the full tide of a large and lucrative commer- cial practice. In 1837 the partnership of Caswell and Chase was dissolved, and shortly after the latter formed a connection with Mr. Ellis. Mr. Chase now first came distinctly and prominently before the public, in connection with those higher interests with which his name is now so widely associated. In July, 1836, when the office of the " Philanthropist" news- paper, published by James Or. Birney, was attacked and de- spoiled by an anti-slavery mob, Birney's life was saved by the courage of Salmon P. Chase, who, from that time, was foremost among those who breasted the tide of pro-slavery aggressions. In 1837, as the counsel of a colored fugitive slave woman, claimed under the law of 1793, he made an elaborate argument denying the right of Congress to delegate to State magistrates, powers in such fugitive slave cases a position since sustained by the Supreme Court of the United States and maintained that the law of 1793 was void, because unwarranted by the Consti- tution. In passing from the court room after making this brave, but ineffectual defence in this case, he overheard the remark of a prudent citizen, '' There is a promising young man who has just ruined himself" Time has proved how erroneous this judgment was, yet it was then the popular verdict. During the same year, Mr. Chase defended James Gr. Birney, who was tried before the 184 MEN OF OUR DAY - Supreme Court of Ohio, for Laboring a negro slave forcibly arguing that slavery was a local institution, dependent for its existence upon State legislation; and that the slave, having been brought into Ohio, by her master, was de facto et de jure, free. This was followed, in 1838, by a severe review from his pen, in the newspapers, of a recent report made by the Judiciary committee of the State Senate, in which they had advocated the refusal of trial by jury, to slaves. He also acted as counsel for Mr. Birney, in his trial for haboring the slave Matilda ; and, in 1842, defended one Van Zandt, in the United States Circuit Court, in a similar trial, in which the principle as stated by the opposing counsel, " Once a slave always a slave," was met by Mr. Chase with its nobler antithesis " Once free, ALWAYS FREE ;" and he followed it with a warning and eloquent denunciation of the atrocious claims of slavery. In these cases, Mr. Chase added materially to his previous honorable reputation, and took rank, thenceforward, with the oldest and ablest practitioners of Ohio. Up to this time, he had taken but little part or interest in politics, nor had he settled down into the trammels of any par- ticular party voting sometimes with the Democrats, but more generally with the Whigs, because the latter seemed most favorable to the anti-slavery doctrines to which he had given his conscientious adherence. He supported Harrison for the Presidency, in 1840 ; but, becoming convinced from the tone of his inaugural address and the subsequent course of the Tyler administration that the anti-slavery cause had little or nothing to hope for from the Whig party, and that the cause could only attain its legitimate aims, which he considered of para- mount importance, through the instrumentality of a distinct party organization, he united with others, in 1841, in calling a State convention of the opponents of slavery and slavery- extension. The convention met in December, organized "the SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 185 Liberty party" of Ohio, nominated a candidate for governor, and issued an address (from Mr Chase's pen) defining its principles and purposes, which was one of the earliest exposi- tions of the anti-slavery movement. In the " National Liberty convention," held at Buffalo, New York, in 1843, Mr. Chase was a prominent participant, and as a member of the committee on resolutions, so vigorously opposed a resolution which pro- posed " to regard and treat the third clause of the Constitution, whenever applied to the case of a fugitive slave, as utterly null and void, and consequently as forming no part of the Constitu- tion of the United States, whenever we are called upon or sworn to support it," that it was not adopted by the committee, although it was afterwards moved and adopted in the conven- tion. Years afterward, when Senator Butler, of South Caro- lina, charged Mr. Chase with having been the author and advocate of this resolution, and severely denounced the doctrine of mental reservation which it implied ly sanctioned, the latter replied, " I never proposed the resolution ; I never would pro- pose a 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." During the same year Mr. Chase was selected to prepare an address on behalf of the friends of Liberty, of Ireland and of Repeal, in Cincinnati, in reply to the letter from Daniel O'Connell, in behalf of the Loyal National Eepeal Association of Ireland. This address which reviewed the relations of the Federal Gov- ernment to slavery at the period x>f its organization, set forth its original anti-slavery policy, and the subsequent growth of the political power of slavery, indicated the action of the Liberal party, and repelled the aspersions cast by a Repeal Association in Cincinnati, upon anti-slavery men was a document worthy of Mr. Chase's talents. With Mr. Chase, also, originated the 18(5 MEN OF OUR DAY. Southern and "Western Liberty Convention, held at Cincinnati, in June, 1845, and designed, in the words of its founder, to embrace " all who, believing that whatever is worth preserving in Kepublicanism 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 re- duction to its constitutional limits in the United States." He also drew up the address of the Convention, embracing a his- tory of the Whig and Democratic parties in their relations to the slavery question, and urging the political necessity of forming a party pledged to the overthrow of the institution. Mr. Chase, who had now become a widely distinguished champion of anti-slavery, was associated with "William H. Seward in the defence of John Van Zandt, who was arraigned before the United States Supreme Court, for aiding in the escape of certain slaves ; and subsequently he was retained for the defence in the case of Dieskell vs. Parish, before the United States Circuit Court, at Columbus, Ohio. In both of these cases he argued, in a most elaborate manner, that, " under the ordinance of 1787, no fugitives from service could be reclaimed from Ohio, unless there had been an escape from one of the original States; that it was the clear understanding of the framers of the Constitution, and of the people who adopted it, that slavery was to be left exclusively to the disposal of the several States, without sanction or support from the. National Government; and that the clause of the Constitution relative to persons held to service was one of compact between the States, and conferred no power of legislation on Congress, having been transferred from the ordinance of 1787, in which it conferred no power on the Confederation and was never understood to con- fer any." In 1847, Mr. Chase attended a second "National SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 187 Liberty Convention ;" where, in the hope that the agitation of the "Wilmot Proviso would result in a more decided movement against slavery, he opposed the making of any national nomina- tions at that time. He anticipated, also, the Whig and Democratic Conventions of 1848, bv calling a Free-Territorv ' / / Convention, which resulted in the Buffalo Convention, in August of that year, and the nomination of Mr. Van Buren for the presidency. On the 22d of February, 1849, Mr. Chase was elected to the United States Senate, by the entire vote of the Democrats, and a large number of the free-soil members of the Ohio Legislature. Supporting the State policy and the nominees of the Democracy of the State, he still declared that he would desert it if it de- serted the anti-slavery position which it then held. On the 26th and 27th of March, 1849, he delivered a cogent, eloquent and timely speech against the compromise resolutions ; following it up during the session, with others on the specialities embraced within these resolution, and moved three amendments one, against the introduction of slavery, in the Territories to which Mr. Clay's bill applied ; another, to the Fugitive Slave Bill, to secure trial by jury to alleged slave ; and the third, to an amend- ment made by Senator Davis, relative to the reclamation of fugitives escaping from one State into another all of which, however, were lost. The nomination of Franklin Pierce for the presidency, and the approval of the compromise of 1850, by the Democratic Convention at Baltimore, in 1852, was the signal for Mr. Chase's withdrawal from the Ohio Democracy. He immediately took the initiative in the formation of an Independent Democratic party, which he continued to support, until the Nebraska-Kansas bill began to be agitated. To this bill he was a strenuous and prominent opponent, offering three important amendments, MEN OF OUR DAY. which were severally rejected, and closing his opposition by an earnest protest against it on its final passage. During his Sena- torial career, economy in the National Finances ; a Pacific Kail- road by the shortest and best route ; the Homestead Bill ; Cheap Postage, and the provision by the National Treasury for defray- ino- the expense of procuring safe navigation of the Lakes as well as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, all found in Mr. Chase an able and earnest champion. In 1855, he was elected Gover- nor of Ohio, by the opponents of the Pierce administration, and his inaugural address recommended single districts for legisla- tive representation, annual, instead of biennial sessions of the Legislature, and an extended educational system. At the next National Eepublican Convention, he declined the nomination for the Presidency, which was urged upon him by the delega- tions from his own, as well as other States. In the course of the same year, a deficiency was discovered in the State treasury, only a few days before the semi-annual interest on the State debt became due but Governor Chase's energetic action com- pelled the resignation of the State Treasurer, who had concealed the deficiency, secured a thorough investigation, and effected such a judicious arrangement as protected the credit of the State, and averted what would otherwise have been a serious pecuniary loss. At the close of his first gubernatorial term, the Eepublicans insisted upon his accepting a re-nomination, which was carried by acclamation, and he was re-elected after a spirited canvass. In his annual message for 1858, he made an elaborate exposition of the financial condition of Ohio, recommending, also, semi-annual taxation, a greater stringency in provisions for the security of the State treasury, and proper appropriations for the establish- ment of benevolent institutions, especially for the Eeform School all of which suggestions met with the approval of the SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 189 Legislature, and laws were passed in accordance therewith. In the beginning of 1860, he was again chosen to the United States Senate, from Ohio. Upon the secession of South Carolina, in December, 1860, Mr. Chase urged upon General Scott, by letter, the necessity of taking active measures to secure the public property, assuring him that the country would fully endorse such action. But timid counsels prevailed. Again, in February, 1861, Mr. Chase represented Ohio at the Conference of the States, held at Wash- ington, by invitation of Virginia, and there he stood boldly out as an uncompromising opponent of any purchase of peace by undue concessions to the South. Meanwhile, when threats were made that Mr. Lincoln should never be inaugurated, unless the South received the concessions it demanded from the North, Mr. Chase replied, " Inauguration first, adjustment afterwards," words which, caught up and used as a popular motto, had no small influence. On the 4th of March, 1861, he took a seat in the Senate. Two days afterwards, however, he yielded to a very general and pressing demand, on the part of personal and political friends, (as well as some who, up to that time, had not been considered as either), and resigned his seat in the Senate to accept the Sec- retaryship of the Treasury, which had been tendered him by President Lincoln. Immediately after the organization of the Cabinet, and when the most important topic under discussion was, what should be the policy of the Government towards the seceded States, Mr. Chase's influence was strongly felt, in the national councils. When hostilities commenced at Sumter, the Secretary urged upon General Scott the propriety of occupying Manassas, which, had it been done, would have compelled the evacuation of Harper's Ferry and the Shenandoah valley by the rebels, and would have materially altered the character of 190 MEN OF OUR DAY. the opening campaign of the war. To Mr. Chase's suggestion, also, was due the call, promulgated in May, 1861, for 65,000 volunteers, to take the place of the 75,000 first called for ; and to him the President committed, with the consent of the Secretary of War, the preparation of the necessary orders since known as Nos. 15 and 16 the one for the enlistment of volunteers and the other for regular regiments. The object which Mr. Chase had in view was the establishment of a regular system which had not hitherto existed in conformity with which all new enlistments should be made, and in this important work he was assisted by Colonel Thomas, Major McDowell and Captain Franklin. During the trying period, in the early part of the war, when great efforts were made to precipitate Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee into rebellion, Mr. Lincoln committed to his Secretary of the Treasury the principal charge of what- ever related to the conservation and protection of the interests of the Government in those States. He obtained for Eousseau, of Kentucky, his colonel's commission, and gave him his order for the raising of twenty, companies. He also drew most of the orders under which Nelson acted, and furnished him with the means of defraying his expenses for the expedition into the interior of Kentucky, and the establishment of Camp Dick Robinson movements which saved that State from secession. He was the honored confidant and adviser .of General Cameron, while Secretary of "War, especially in relation to western border- state matters, slavery, and the employment of colored troops ; and it was at his suggestion that General Butler was directed by the Secretary of "War to refrain from surrendering alleged fugi- tives from service to alleged masters, and to employ them under such organization and in such occupations as circumstances might suggest or require. It was, however, in the discharge of his legitimate duties, as Secretary of the Treasury, that Mr. SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 191 Chase achieved his greatest success. The treasury, at the time when he assumed its charge, was nearly bankrupt. He, there- fore, immediately proceeded to negotiate a loan. On the 22d of March, 1861, he issued proposals for his first loan of $8,000,000 on six per cent, bonds, redeemable at the end of twenty years. The bids were opened April 2d, and amounted to $27,182,000, at rates varying from eighty-five for one hun d to par. All bids below ninety-four were promptly rejected by the Secretary, who determined to let the country know at the outset that bonds of the United States were not to be sacrificed in the market, and that the national credit was not so impaired as to be at the mercy of brokers and capitalists. The disappointed bidders winced at this decision, but its effect upon the country at large was certainly healthy. Continuing to effect loans under existing laws, he borrowed, on the llth of April, $4,901,000, on two years treasury notes, at a small premium ; on 25th of May, $7,310,000, on twenty years bonds, at from eighty-five to ninety-eight, declining all bids below ninety -five ; and on two years treasury notes, $1,684,000 at par, all of which loans, considering the situation of the coun- try, were remarkable successes. Congress, on its assembling in July, 1861, authorized a national loan, under which act, and the acts amending it, he took measures to secure the funds needed to carry on the war. The result of a full and frank conference with the representatives of the banks of Boston, Philadelphia and New York, at the latter city, was an agreement, on the part of the banks, to unite as associates in an advance to Government of $50,000,000 ; while he, on his part, agreed to appeal to the people for subscriptions to a national loan, on three years notes, bearing seven-thirty per cent, interest, and convertible into twenty years bonds bearing six per cent., the proceeds of which subscriptions should be paid over to the banks, in satisfaction 192 MEN OF OUR DAY. of their advances, so far as they would go ; the deficiency, if any, to be made good in seven-thirty notes. By this and a sub- sequent loan, made on nearly the same terms, the Government obtained $100,000,000 at a rate of interest only one and three- tenths of one per cent, higher than the ordinary rate of six per cent., and that for three years only. The banks now declining to advance another $50,000,000 for the seven-thirty notes, through the efforts of the Secretary, a seven per cent, loan was negotiated on the 16th of November, but trouble resulted from the oppo- sition of many of the banks to the further issue of United States notes as legal tender, in distinction to their own local issues, and the Secretary now applied the remedy to this state of affairs by uniting his whole influence to those who desired the United States notes made a legal tender, and by joining them, decided the success of that measure, which he had previously urged upon Congress. It was, however, only by the most indomitable perseverance that he was enabled, after several defeats and long delay, to secure the passage of the National Banking Act, providing for a system of national banks, based upon government securities. This system, which embraces the best features of the New York Free Banking System, together with certain additions protec- tive of the rights both of the bill-holder and depositor, has proved most successful, and, although at first vehemently opposed by some of the State and local banks, has now fairly triumphed over all opposition. In the negotiation of these loans, Mr. Chase secured the services of Mr. Jay Cooke, an emi- nent financier of Philadelphia, as general agent, who by his numerous agencies, and a wholesale and ingenious system of advertising, gave the widest possible publicity to the loan, and secured for it the full favor of the community throughout the United States. By January 1st, 1864, five hundred millions of SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 193 the loan (5-20 bonds) was taken up, and the subscriptions were in excess, by nearly fourteen millions, of the amount authorized. The full measure of the Secretary's comprehensive plans was insured by the enactment, in 1864, of tax laws, in accordance with his repeated suggestions since 1861, by which the revenue to the government was largely increased, and by the aid of which future secretaries of the treasury will be enabled to "weather" any financial pressure. This great work accom- plished, he resigned his secretaryship, June SO, 1864. The great importance and beneficial results of Mr. Chase's financial measures, adopted as they were in the heat and pres- sure of the most stupendous war of modern times, and initiated with a bankrupt treasury, and notice in advance from the great financial powers of Europe, that we " need not expect any assist- ance from them," render it desirable that they should be somewhat better understood than they have been, and we there- fore gladly avail ourselves of the following explanations of them, recently put forth, it is understood, with his own sanction. The objects which he had in view, were: "I. To establish satisfactory relations between the public credit and the productive industry of the country in other words, to obtain supplies. The suspension of the banks put an end to the first and most obvious resort, loans of gold, and made new methods indispensable. Then the secretary resorted to legal tender notes, made them a currency, and borrowed them as cash. The patriotism of the people came in aid of the labors of the* treasury and the legislation of Congress, and the first great object was made secure. " II. To provide against disastrous results on a return of peace. This could only be done by providing a national cur- rency. There were about 1,500 State banks in existence which wanted to make their own paper the currency of the country This the secretary resisted, and confined his loans to greenbacks ; but he did not drive out their currency, nor indeed did he think 13 194 MEN OF OUR DAY. it exactly honest to so deprive them of it, without giving any equivalent. He preferred to neutralize their opposition to a national currency and make them allies as far as possible, instead of enemies. In his endeavors to secure such results, he proposed the national banking system, and before he left the Department its success was assured. "The national banks were certain to be useful in many ways, but the secretary's main object was the establishment of a national currency. This saved us from panic and revulsion at the end of the war, and is of inestimable value to men of labor and men of business indeed, to every class. " III. The third division of his labor was to provide a fund- ing system. It was unavoidable during the rebellion that every means of credit should be used. He borrowed money every way he could at reasonable rates. The form that suited one lender did not suit another ; and the army and navy needed every dollar that could be raised in any form. Hence tem- porary loans, certificates of deposit, certificates of indebtedness, 7.30 notes, compound interest notes, treasury notes payable after one and two years, etc. "But it was necessary to have funding loans, into which all these temporary loans could be ultimately merged. To this end the secretary established the 5-20 loan and the 10-40 loan. His belief was that after the $514,000,000 of the 5-20 loan had been taken, the additional amounts needed could be obtained by the 10-40 loan and the temporary loans; but the secretary was ready to resort to the 5 -20s in case of emergency. He did get $73,000,000 in the 10-40 loan, and his successors got about $120,000,000 more, at par. " It is easy to see how Mr. Chase's funding system worked, by examining the last statement of the public debt. The condi- tion is something like this: $1,200,000,000 5-20s; $200,000,000 1040s; $200,000,000 81s payable now after fourteen years, which can then easily be put into 10-40s ; other loans (all tem- porary), say $500,000,000, of which three fourths consist of 7.30s, convertible, and certain to be converted into 10-40s ; and say $400,000,000 greenbacks, including fractional currency, SALMON POKTLAND CHASE. 195 making the debt of $2,500,000,000. So, it may be seen, the whole debt except '81s is already funded, or sure to be funded in 5-20 six per cents, or 10-40 five per cents." It has been well said of Mr. Chase's conduct in this hazardous and laborious position, that " the nerve he displayed, the breadth of intellect he manifested, the ardor of his patriotism, and the wonders wrought by his financial wisdom and skill throughout the first three years of the rebellion, are so recent and so well remembered, and live so freshly in the hearts of his grateful countrymen, as to render unnecessary any thing more than this simple reference. His enduring fame is built on his measures ; his best eulogy is written in his acts. He vindicated the wisdom of the President's choice; he both justified and rewarded the confidence of the people." It is not strange, therefore, that President Lincoln, with strengthened confidence in Mr. Chase's patriotism, ability, and sound judgment, tendered to him, in 1864, the highest judicial seat of the nation, which had become vacant by the death of its venerable incumbent, Roger S. Taney. The nomination of Mr. Chase as Chief Justice, by the Execu- tive, on the 6th of December, 1864, was promptly confirmed by the Senate, and on the 13th of the same month he took his seat upon the bench, " having previously," as the records state, " on the same day taken the oath of allegiance, in the room of the judges, and the oath of office, in open court, at his place upon the bench, in the presence of a large number of ladies and gen- tlemen, who had assembled to witness a ceremony which, in this nation, had taken place but once in sixty-three years preceding." Shortly after his assumption of the duties of this high position, the Chief Justice made an extended tour throughout the recently conquered rebel States passing down the Atlantic coast and up the Mississippi river with the purpose of gaining a personal knowledge of the actual condition of the people. During this MEN OF OUR DAY. trip, he embraced every opportunity of conversing unreservedly with all, both white and black, who chose to avail themselves of the knowledge of his presence, and the information thus obtained was placed at the public service in his correspondence with the President and others, while his suggestions of measures necessary and expedient to the proper accomplishment of peace and reconstruction, order and justice, were characterized by a comprehensiveness of view and a noble spirit of Christian patriotism eminently creditable to his head and heart. Few public men of his years, in this country, possess minds better stored with varied treasures of knowledge, or bear the evidence of severer mental discipline than Mr. Chase. To an intellect at once comprehensive, discriminating and retentive, he adds the graces of learning and the power of logic; and whatever subject he treats, is handled with keen insight, breadth of view, thoroughness of reflection, and strength of reasoning. His whole career as a statesman and jurist, and all his public efforts, in popular addresses, newspaper writings, occasional lectures, and contributions to periodical literature, show the same breadth of premise, exactness of statement, logical sequence, completeness of consideration, and power of conclusion, from which we are justified in hoping and expecting much in his present exalted position, where his ruling and decisions have always been characterized by their adherence to the great fundamental principles of equity on which all human law is professedly based. His is no narrow mind to run only in the rut of precedents, and be constantly hampered by the chi- canery of rigid constructionists. He goes naturally to the foun- dation principles, and while he has no superior, either in legal learning and acumen or in wide and generous culture, upon the bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, he is less SALMON PORTLAND CHASE. 197 likely perhaps than any of them to base an opinion on previous decisions either there or in the English courts. In the trial of Andrew Johnson under the impeachment of the House of Eepresentatives, Chief Justice Chase was, by the Constitution, the presiding officer of the High Court of Impeach- ment. His course there was marked by dignity and ability The position was a difficult and trying one, and his powers (it being the first instance of such presidency since the adoption of the Constitution) were not clearly defined ; but he acquitted himself admirably in it. In person Mr. Chase presents the most imposing appearance of any man in public life in this country. He is over six feet in height, portly and well proportioned, with handsome features, and a grand, massive head. Few men possess so much real dignity and grace of manner. But with it all, he is utterly incapable of the arts of the demagogue, or of any effort to win popularity, by "bending the supple hinges of the knee, that thrift may follow fawning." He entered upon his office of Secretary of the Treasury with a property of about one hundred thousand dollars; he left it three years later, after managing the immense finances of the nation in war time, materially poorer than when he assumed office. No man who knew him could doubt, for an instant, his unflinching integrity and honesty. Chief Justice Chase has often been mentioned as a candidate for the presidenc} T , and it has been said by political writers that he was anxious for the position. If this were the case, it would not be to his discredit, so long as the means he used to accomplish his desire were honorable and just, and it is not in his nature to use any other but there is not any- where the slightest authentic evidence that he has even sought or desired this great office. If he has, no man could have 198 MEN OF OUR DAY. better kept his secret, for not to his most intimate friends has he ever breathed this aspiration, nor has he swerved a hair's breadth from the line of duty, to influence' any man to support him. Like Henry Clay, he " would rather be right, than be President." In a recent conversation with his friend, Mr. W. N. Hudson of the Cleveland Leader, when allusion was made to an absurd report just then prevalent, that the Democrats thought of nominating him to the Presidency, Mr. Chase said with great earnestness, "I wish that all men of all parties would leave my name alone in connection with a presidential nomination. I do not seek the presidency." He then went on to say, that as a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, he had necessarily to abandon party politics. When he took his seat on that bench, he assumed an obligation, recog- nized in his oath, but anterior and superior to it, to do impar- tial justice under the Constitution and laws of the United States. He could not be a party judge, or allow himself to be swayed by partisan feeling, without violating that oath. And he regretted that newspapers of both parties had, without cause or warrant, connected some of his recent actions with party or perverse feeling. A man thus scrupulous of the obligations of hie oath, and influenced by so nice and delicate a sentiment of honor, might safely be trusted with the nation's highest place of honor, but is too great to be likely to fill it. EDWIN M. STANTON, SECRETARY OF WAR. | HE time has not come, and will not, for years, when an impartial and satisfactory life of Mr. Stanton can be written. The hostilities aroused by his rough, impul- sive, and positive action the utter carelessness of the man in regard to his own reputation the partial and im- perfect knowledge of the motives which led to many of his apparently arbitrary measures, and his own constant and per- sistent refusal to make any explanations, or give any informa- tion which might influence the world's judgment of him all have conspired to make any thing like an adequate biography of him impossible, until time shall have mitigated the bitter- ness which many feel toward him, and the great secrets, which he now keeps so safely, shall be brought to the light. Yet we can give some account of his earlier history, and a brief sum- mary of the herculean labors which, for three years, made him the hardest-worked official who ever occupied a seat in the cabinet. Mr. Stanton comes of a Quaker stock. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Rhode Island, and his great grand- father migrated, not far from 1750, to North Carolina. The grandparents of the future secretary, Benjamin and Abigail 199 200 MEN OF OUR DAY. (Macy) Stanton, resided for many years near Beaufort, North Carolina, and were members of the society of Friends. Benja- min died in the last decade of the eighteenth century ; and in his will requested that all the poor black people that ever be- longed to him, should be entirely free whenever the laws of the land would allow it and until that time, charged his ex- ecutors to act as their guardians, to protect them, and see that they should not be deprived of their right, or any way mis- About the year 1800, the widow of Benjamin, Abigail Stan- ton, removed with her large family to Ohio. One of her sons, David Stanton, then a stout lad, acquired an education, studied medicine, married Miss Lucy Norman, the daughter of a wealthy planter of Culpeper county, Virginia, and settled in the then new and thriving village of Steubenville, Ohio, as a physician. Here, in December, 1815, his eldest child, Edwin M. Stanton, was born. The boy possessed great energy, vitality, and resolution, and was beyond his years in intelligence. At the age of thirteen, he became a clerk in the bookstore of James Turnbull, in Steubenville. Three years later, in 1831, he became a student in Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, where he remained for two years or more. He then obtained employment, for a time, as a clerk, in a bookstore of his former master at Columbus. His father having deceased, he commenced the study of law in the office of his guardian, Daniel L. Collier, in Steubenville, early in 1834, and under his tuition, and that of Hon. Benjamin Tap- pan, an eminent jurist, and subsequently U. S. Senator from Ohio, he acquired a very competent knowledge of the law ; and in 1836, at the age of twenty-one, was admitted to the bar. He commenced the practice of the law at Cadiz, Harrison county, Ohio, and was very soon elected prosecuting attorney EDWIN M. STANTOIST. 201 of the county. He very speedily acquired a high reputation, and a large practice in his profession, especially in the circuit courts. About 1839, he removed to Steubenville, where he was for a time the partner of his old preceptor, Hon. Benjamin Tappan. In 1842, he was elected, by the General Assembly of Ohio, reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court, and in that capacity prepared volumes 11, 12, and 13, of the Ohio State Keports. He had by this time a very high position at the Ohio bar, being regarded as one of the ablest lawyers of the State in all questions of land titles and commercial law. He had also some reputation as a political leader in his county and State. His affiliations were with the Democratic party, In 1847, he formed a partnership with Hon. Charles Shaler and Theodore Umbstratter, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and, though retaining an office in Steubenville, began to devote his atten- tion chiefly to cases before the courts of Pennsylvania and the United States District, Circuit, and Supreme courts. He was retained in most of the important cases, and regarded as the ablest counsel of that region. There was an immense power of work in the man, as well as remarkable quickness of per- ception an almost feminine intuition, which enabled him to leap to results, while others were carefully and slowly studying out the first steps. While resident at Pittsburg, he was en- gaged, among other important suits, as counsel for the railroad company in the great Erie war cases, and for the State of Penn- sylvania in the Wheeling Bridge case. In the latter part of 1856, his practice in the Supreme Court of the United States had become so large and lucrative, that he found himself com- elled to remove to Washington to do full justice to it. In 1858, he went to California, as special counsel for the Government in certain land cases, involving interests of great magnitude, where he was called to defend the title of the 202 MEN OF OUK DAY. American against the Mexican grantees. His rranagement of these cases was successful, and he received enormous fees foi his services. Soon after his return, in 1859, he was employed as one of the counsel in the great Manney and McCormick reaper case, which was to be tried at Cincinnati ; and here, for the first time, met Mr. Lincoln, who was engaged on the same side of the case. In December, 1860, while still engaged in a later stage of the reaper trial, at Cincinnati, he was nominated by Mr. Buchanan to the office of Attorney-General, which Mr. Black had just vacated to assume that of Secretary of State, after the resignation of General Cass. He accepted the position, though probably conscious, in part, of its difficulties. Cobb and Floyd had resigned, Black and Thomas were of doubtful loyalty, and, beside Judge Holt, General Dix, and himself, there was nobody in the cabinet who cared whether the nation were shipwrecked or not. Of the three loyal mem- bers of the cabinet, Mr. Stanton was by far the most outspoken and decided. He protested against every doubtful measure, urged on Buchanan the necessity of reinforcing and supplying the garrison of Fort Sumter, and by his untiring zeal, his ad- ministrative ability, and his sturdy loyalty, prevented the closing months of Mr. Buchanan's administration from going out in utter darkness. At the expiration of Mr. Buchanan's term of administration, Mr. Stanton resumed the practice of his profession, but con- tinued his zeal and interest in the national cause. On the llth of January, 1862, Secretary Cameron having resigned his office of Secretary of "War, Mr. Stanton was nomi- nated by the President, and on the 13th of the game month was confirmed by the Senate, for that office. Of this appoint- ment Judge Holt, Postmaster General at the close of Mr. Buchanan's administration, and subsequently Judge Advcoato EDWIN M. STANTON. 203 General, wrote to Lieutenant Governor Stanton of Ohio, " it is an immense stride in the direction of the suppression of the rebellion. . . . The rejoicing of the people over his appointment would have been far greater did they know the courage, loyalty, and genius of the new secretary, as displayed in the intensely tragic struggles that marked the closing days of the Buchanan administration. He is a great man, morally and in- tellectually a patriot. . . . All that man can do, will, in his present position, be done to deliver our poor bleeding country from the bayonets of traitors." The history of Mr. Stanton's administration of the War Department has more than verified Judge Holt's high encomiums. He entered upon his duties with a vigor and energy which has never flagged. The loose expenditures of the Department and the taint of corruption which had pervaded its financial management, rather from the easy temper of Mr. Stanton's pre- decessor than from any personally dishonest tendencies, were reformed. Strictly honest in money matters himself, Secretary Stanton pursued most unrelentingly every man whom he had reason to suspect of fraud. The military organization and the bureaus of the Department, so far as they came under his control, were systematized, simplified, and placed on a footing of greater efficiency ; the communication with the President was constant ; and impetuous as the Secretary was, and apt at times to act when he was sure he was right, on his own authority alone, his arm was ever le&dy to support the President, and his unflinch- ing loyalty was proof against every test. Untiring in his energy and more fond of work than most men are of pleasure, he exacted of his subordinates labors as far as possible commen- surate with his own ; he never asked them to do more but in these severe labors he broke down one assistant secretary after another, till there was a saying common in Washington, when 204 MEN OF OUR DAY. a new assistant secretary was appointed, that such a man " had received his death warrant." No man was more ready or happy to acknowledge victories, or thank the successful leader than he; and if at times he became impatient at the slow motion of dilatory generals, and was in a few instances unjust in his condemnation of their delays, it was due to his eager loyalty and his impetuous nature, which brooked no obstacles and tolerated no unnecessary hindrances in the accomplishment of the object he had so much at heart. Over one thousand general orders, many of them requiring immense labor and painstaking in their preparation, were issued from his Depart- ment during the war, and the vast and constantly increasing expenditure of the Department, which in the last year of the war, was keeping a force of more than a million of men in the field, was of itself sufficient to test the energies of the ablest financier. He had the reputation of being very brusque in his manners ; and at times his treatment of army officers of high rank was indefensible ; but to the poor, to the defenceless, and the weak, he was gentle and tender as a woman ; towards offenders, either military or civil, he was relentless as death, and often appa- rently vindictive in his punishments, but this vindictiveness was rarely manifested, except to those whom he believed to have been guilty of defrauding the nation in its hour of greatest need. This to him was an unpardonable sin. It was with reference to some strong-willed action of Mr. Stanton in contravention of his wishes, that Mr. Lincoln, in reply to a personal application for assistance, made the playful remark, so often quoted, that he (Lincoln) had very little influence with this Administration. Yet admitting all his faults and foibles, the fact remains that Mr. Stanton was one of the ablest if not the ablest war minister of modern times. Napo] eon's expression in regard to EDWIN M. STANTON". 205 Carnot, that lie " organized victory," has been often applied to Mr. Stanton, and not unjustly; but he was an abler war minis- ter than Carnot, far abler than the younger Pitt, to whom he has often also been compared. We should incline rather to find his parallel in Cavour, the great Italian, whose genius, under circumstances very similar, created armies and sent a thrill of patriotic life through the hearts of a people so long oppressed and down-trodden, as the masses of the Italian peninsula. There were, too, many points of resemblance in the power of organization, the imperious will, and the forcible moulding of the nation to his purposes, to the great Prussian statesman, Von Bismarck. After the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Stanton naturally took the lead among the members of the cabinet in bringing the assassins to justice, and the war to a complete conclusion. Mr. Johnson could not well dismiss him from the cabinet, but as the new President began to diverge more and more from the principles of the party which elected him to the vice-presidency it soon became evident that between him and the war minister there was no friendship, but only an armed neutrality. Both had formerly been members of the Democratic party, but while Johnson was evidently hungering for the flesh pots of Egypt, and desirous of returning to his old allegiance, Stanton had seen too clearly the opposition of his old party to the war, and the principles for which he had so manfully contended, to desire to hold farther communion with them. He supported with all the force of his character the following measures, all of which the President opposed and vetoed : the Freedmen's Bureau bill ; the Civil Eights bill ; the bill granting suffrage without distinc- tion of color in the District of Columbia ; the bill admitting Colorado as a State ; and, generally, the reconstruction acts of Congress. It was evident that it was only a question of time, 206 MEN OF OUR DAY. as to when M?. Johnson could most conveniently rid himself of this secretary, whom he feared as much as he hated, and hated as much as he feared. He tried slights, but they were lost upon the secretary ; when he " swung round the circle" he purposely avoided inviting Mr. Stanton to accompany him ; but this was a relief to the secretary ; he held as little and as formal communication with him as possible, and to this Mr. Stanton made no objection. Meantime, Congress, aware of the import- ance of retaining him in office, to foil and thwart Mr. Johnson's schemes for defeating their reconstruction measures, passed the Tenure of Office bill, in which especial provision was made for his retention in the War Department. At length, on the 5th of August, 1867, Mr. Johnson mustered sufficient courage to send a note to Mr. Stanton requesting him to resign upon the alleged ground of public considerations of a high character, to which the secretary replied that " public con- siderations of a high character, which alone had induced him to remain at the head of this Department, constrained him not to resign before the next meeting of Congress." On the 13th of August, Mr. Johnson notified Mr. Stanton that he had sus- pended him from office, and appointed General Grant Secretary ad interim. Mr. Stanton surrendered the office to General Grant under protest, though, as was fully understood, with no personal feeling toward the general in the matter. On the assembling of Congress in November, 1867, they promptly demanded, of the President, an account of the measures he had taken in sus- pending Secretary Stanton from office. The reply came tardily, and offered but little real justification of his proceeding. The Senate, after fair deliberation, decided that the suspension was not justifiable, and that the secretary must be reinstated. General Grant promptly surrendered the office to him on the 13th of January, 1868, greatly to Mr. Johnson's vexation and chagrin EDWIN M. STANTON. 207 and an angry correspondence between him and the general was the result. Secretary Stanton took charge of the Department, but the President would hold no communication with him, and endeavored to prevent General Grant from issuing his orders through him, but in vain. At length, on the 21st of February, President Johnson notified Mr. Stanton that he had removed him from office, and appointed General Lorenzo Thomas (adjutant-general of the army) Secretary ad interim, with orders to take possession of the office. Mr. Stanton refused to surren- der it, and General Thomas was arrested on the charge of violating the Tenure of Office act, but was discharged on his own recognizance. The violation of this act by Mr. Johnson filled up the cup of his offences against Congress, and he was promptly impeached by the House of Representatives, tried by the Senate, and while the impeachment articles were pending, he nominated Thomas Ewing, Sr., a venerable politician of Ohio, in his eightieth year, as Secretary of War, in place of Stanton, removed, but the Senate took no notice of the nomination. Secretary Stanton remained in office during the impeachment trial, but it was understood that he would decline continuing in that position after Mr. Johnson's conviction. JILLIAM HENEY SEWARD, the son of Dr. Samuel S. Seward, for seventeen years a county judge, and a man of more than ordinary business ability and practical philanthropy, was born at Florida, Orange county, New York, *on the 16th of May, 1801. Manifesting from childhood an earnest love of knowledge and taste for study, he was sent, when nine years old, to Farmers' Hall Academy, at Goshen, in his native county. Eapidly advancing in his studies there, and at an academy afterwards established in his native town, he was fully prepared, at the age of fifteen, to enter college. Matricu- lating, as a sophomore, at Union College, in 1816, he manifested a peculiar aptitude for rhetoric, moral philosophy and the classics. In 1819, in his senior year, he spent some six months in teaching at the South, and, returning to college, graduated with high honors ; being one of the three commencement ora- tors chosen by the college society, to which he belonged. The subject he selected was, " The Integrity of the American Union." Entering, soon after his graduation, the office of John Anthon, of New York city, he commenced the study of law, continuing and completing his preparation with John Duer and Ogden Hoffman, of Goshen, New York, with the latter of whom he became associated in practice. In January, 1822, he was admit- ted to the bar, and removing to Auburn, New Ycirk, formed a 208 WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 209 partnership with Judge John Miller, of that place, whose young- est daughter became his wife in 1824. As a lawyer, his origi- nality of thought and action, as well as his great industry, soon "brought him an extensive and lucrative practice. Politics also claimed much of his attention, and, as was natural, he followed in the political footsteps of his father, who was a prominent Jeffersonian Eepublican. In October, 1824, despite his youth, he was chosen to draw up the Address to the People of the Ee- publican Convention of Cayuga county, which document was an exposiire of the origin and designs of the Albany Regency. In 1827, he contributed largely, by his eloquent speeches, to the success of the popular movement in behalf of the Greeks, then struggling for their freedom. In 1828, he presided with distin- guished ability over a very large convention of young men favorable to the election of John Quincy Adams to the presi- dency, held at Utica, New York, and the same year declined a proffered nomination to Congress. When the National Repub- lican party was dissolved by Jackson's election as President, Mr. Seward fraternized with the Anti- Masonic organization, the only opposition then existing to the Albany Regency, and from that party accepted, in 1830, a nomination to the State Senate. He was elected by a majority of two thousand, in a district (the seventh) which had given a large majority the other way in the previous year. Scarcely thirty years old, he entered the Senate as the youngest member who had ever attained that honor, and found himself, politically, in a small minority, at a time when party lines were sharply defined. Yet he fearlessly entered the lists, throwing down the gauntlet to the Jackson power and the Albany Regency, taking part in all debates advocating the claims of abolition of imprisonment for debt, the amelioration of prison discipline, opposition to corporate monopolies, the exten- sion of the popular franchise, the common-school system, the 14 210 MEN OF DUE DAY. Erie railroad and internal improvements, etc. His maiden speech was on a militia bill, in which he proposed, substantially, the same system of volunteer uniform companies as that at present in use in New York State ; and during the second session of his term he delivered a speech in advocacy of a national bank, which, with others of similar import, gave rise (by con- centrating an opposition in the Senate) to what subsequently developed as the Whig party. In the summer of 1833, during the recess of the Senate, Mr. Seward made a hurried visit to Europe, adding largely to his reputation by the letters which he wrote home, and which were published in the Albany "Evening Journal." In September, 1834, he was nominated for governor by the Whig State Convention, against William L. Marcy, but was defeated, although running ahead of his ticket in every county. Eesuming his practice, Mr. Seward, in 1836, settled in Chautauqua county, as the agent for the Holland Land Com- pany ; and, in 1838, was again nominated by the Whigs, and elected governor by ten thousand majority. In 1840, he was re-elected. During his administration occurred the celebrated anti-rent difficulties; the Erie canal was enlarged; the State lunatic asylum was founded ; imprisonment for debt, and every vestige of slavery were eradicated from the statute-books ; im- portant reforms were effected in elections, in prison discipline, in bank laws, and in legal courts. One of the most important events of his administration was the controversy with the Gov- ernors of Virginia and Georgia, in which the latter claimed fr*om him the rendition of certain colored sailors, charged with having abducted slaves from said States. Governor Seward refused compliance, and argued the case with a firmness and ability which attracted the attention of the whole country ; and when his course was denounced by the Democrats, after their accession to power, and he was requested to transmit their resolutions to WILLIAM HENRY SEWAED. 211 the Governor of Virginia, he declined to do so remaining inflexible, despite the retaliatory measures threatened by the State of Virginia against the commerce of New York. A similar instance of firmness and sagacity was manifested by him, in his refusal to surrender, to the British Government, Alexander McLeod, charged with burning the steamer Caroline, during the Canadian rebellion of 1837, a refusal in which he persisted, in spite of the British minister's threats of hostilities, the advice of President Tyler's administration, and the strong intercession of many of his own political friends. In January, 1843, Mr. Seward, declining another nomination, resumed the practice of law, devoting himself, for the ensuing six years, assiduously to business, attaining a large practice in the highest State courts, and owing to a particular aptitude for mechanical science having a considerable number of patent-cases, which brought him into association with the best legal talent of the country. He also gave freely, not only his professional services but his means, in behalf of certain friendless unfortunates, whose cases and trials form some of the most interesting records of criminal jurisprudence. Conspicuous among these was the case of the insane negro Freeman, the murderer of the Van Nest family, in Orange county, New York, a case which, in spite of derision, obloquy and reproach, Mr. Seward never forsook, until the death of his* client, " caused by the disease of the brain, satisfied even the most prejudiced, that his course had been as wise as it confessedly was humane and generous." He also gratui- tously defended, before the United States Supreme Court, in 1847, the case of John Van Zandt, charged with aiding fugitive slaves to escape from Kentucky; his argument in the case being pronounced "a masterly exposition of the inhumanity and unconstitutionally of the Fugitive Slave act." In 1851, he defended, at Detroit, fifty men on trial for con- 212 MEN OF OUR DAT. spiracy, who could find but one lawyer in Michigan courageous enough to undertake their case. It was a four month's trial, involving the examination of four hundred witnesses, and he secured the acquittal of thirty-eight of the number. Besides all this professional labor, Mr. Seward did good service in various political campaigns ; especially in 1844, in favor of a tariff; against the annexation of Texas, and the Mexican War; against disenfranchisement of foreign-born citizens, etc. In 1846, he was largely instrumental in securing the calling of the convention for the revision of the Constitution of the State of New York. In September, 1847, he delivered, at New York, an address on the life and character of Daniel O'Connell, which was one of his finest efforts ; and in April, 1848, he pronounced, before the Legislature of New York, a touching and felicitous eulogy on John Quincy Adams. When General Taylor was nominated for the presidency, in 1848, Mr. Seward became one of the prominent public speakers, canvassing New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Massachusetts, making, as here- tofore, the great principles of human freedom the central topics of his speeches, and was everywhere greeted with the hearty and unanimous applause of his audience. Shortly after Taylor's election, Mr. Seward was elected to the Senate of the Thirty-first Congress, and soon became recognized as the foremost advocate of the administration policy enjoying the intimacy and confidence of the President until his untimely decease. During the first session of this Congress, Mr. Seward took a prominent and very influential part in the contest which resulted in the passage of the Compromise act, and it was in the discussion of these measures that he used the phrase " the Higher Law," which has achieved so great and wide-spread a significance. Three years before, he had said, in the Van Zandt case, " Congress had no power to inhibit any duty commanded WILLIAM HENEY SEWABD. 213 by God on Mount Sinai, or by his Son on the Mount of Olives," and now (March llth, 1860), speaking of the admission of California, he said, "We hold no arbitrary authority over any thing, whether acquired lawfully, or seized by usurpation. The Constitution regulates our stewardship; the Constitution devotes the domain to union, to justice, to defence, to welfare, and to liberty. But there is a Higher Law than the Constitu- tion, which regulates our authority over the domain, arid devotes it to the same noble purpose." In short, Senator Seward waged an " irrepressible conflict" against any compromise of the slavery question, a course of conduct which brought him not only into collision with the Democratic party, but also with Clay, Webster, Fillmore, and other prominent men of his own party. From this time party lines became more sharply drawn between the Pro-Slavery men and Abolitionists; and to the Southerner, "Bill Seward," as he was called, became an object of abuse, misrepresentation, and open contempt, in many cases, when they passed him on the street. But this effort to ostracise him was utterly futile. His rare abilities and elevated charac- ter made him proof against the scorn and derision of little minds; he held the even tenor of his way, and on all great national questions he took a part in the debate, and even his enemies could not but listen in admiration of his statesmanlike views. The subjects of Public Lands ; indemnities of French Spoliations; Kossuth; the survey of the Arctic and Pacific Oceans; American Whale Fisheries; and American Steam Navigation ; were handled by him, in public debate, with a grasp of intellect and a force of eloquence worthy of his high reputation. During the Thirty-second Congress, Mr. Seward ad- vocated the Continental railroad, and opposed the removal of duties from railroad iron ; and, in the summer of 1853, after the adjournment, 'bund time, besides engaging in several important 214 MEN OP OUR DAY. legal cases, to deliver an oration at the dedication of a univer sity, at Columbus, Ohio, on " The Destiny of America," and another before the American Institute, at New York, on " The True Basis of American Independence," both of which possess a value beyond the occasions which elicited them. In the Thirty-third Congress, he introduced a bill for the con- struction of a Pacific railroad, another for establishing steam mails between California, China, Japan, and the Sandwich Islands; besides measures for the modification of the Tariff, the Homestead Bill, Miss Dix's effort for the Eelief of the Insane, etc., etc. all of which matters, however, gave place to the all-absorbing discussion of Senator Douglas's Nebraska bill, which, it is needless to say, met with all the persistent and powerful opposition which Mr. Seward could bring against it. The measure, however, was finally passed. In addition to the elaborate speeches made on this topic, Mr. Seward pronounced chaste and discriminating eulogies on Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, and during the summer of this year (1854) delivered the annual oration before the literary societies of Yale College on " The Physical, Moral, and Intellectual development of the American People ;" and at the commencement exercises, received the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. In October following, he made his celebrated and elaborate argument in the United States Circuit Court in the "McCormick Reaper case." During the second session of the Thirty-third Congress, Mr. Seward, in addition to his continued advocacy of all the leading measures of public improvement, strenuously opposed Senator Toucey's bill protecting government officers in the execution of the Fugitive Slave act, and gave his affirmative vote to a sub- stitute proposed during the debate, repealing the Fugitive Slave act of 1850. In February, 1855, Mr. Seward was re-elected to the Senate, WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 215 for the term of six years, notwithstanding a most determined opposition from the " Know Nothing" or American party, and the Democratic party. His election, which was everywhere considered as a triumph of the advocates of freedom, assumed a national interest ; and Mr. Seward was tendered public recep- tions at various places along his homeward route, after the ex- tra session of Congress, all of which, however, he respectfully declined. During the State canvass in the fall of 1855, he delivered at Albany, Auburn, and Buffalo, speeches in which the political issues of the times were sketched with a master's hand and, having enjoyed an immense circulation in newspaper and pamphlet form, were still further honored by being the subject of allusion in President Pierce's annual message. On the 22d of December, 1855, Mr. Seward delivered, at Plymouth, Massachusetts, an address commemorative of the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, well worthy of the occasion, and his own high reputation as a statesman and scholar. During the protracted debates on the Kansas difficulties, in the thirty-fourth session of Congress, Mr. Seward bore a conspicuous part ; his speeches being elaborate and exhaustive, and his labors indefatigable. The affairs of Kansas were also discussed by him, in two able speeches on the " Army bill," at the extra session in August. After the adjournment, he almost immediately plunged into the canvass of the coming Presidential election, in support of Fremont two of his speeches, those delivered at Auburn and Detroit, displaying more than ordinary ability. Upon the re-as- sembling of Congress in December, he pronounced an eloquent and touching eulogium upon his old friend, Hon. John M. Clay- ton, and during the session he advocated the claims of Eevolu- tionary officers ; the prospect of government aid to the pro- posed Atlantic telegraph ; a bill for a telegraph line to Califor- nia and the Pacific coast ; the overland mail route, and also the 216 MEN OF OUK DAY. railroad to the Pacific ; a revision of the tariff, by which the popular interests should be protected, etc. He also reviewed the Dred Scott decision, and proposed such a re-organization of the United States courts, as should give all sections of the Union a more equable representation, and meet, more fully, the wants of the growing West. During the Thirty-fifth Congress, Mr. Seward spoke on a larger variety of subjects than usual ; opposing manfully the admission of Kansas into the Union under the " Lecompton Constitution," and from first to last, advocating the principle that the people of Kansas should be left perfectly free to decide upon their own organic law ; advocating the increase of the army in Utah for the suppression of rebellion there ; insisting upon reparation being demanded from the British Government for aggressions committed by their cruisers upon American vessels in the Mexican Gulf; favoring the admission of Minnesota and Oregon into the Union, as States ; and various interesting speeches, more or less elaborate, upon the Pacific Eailroad, Treasury Notes, the Walker u filibustering" expedition, rivers and harbors, and eulogiums upon Senators Eusk of Texas, Bell of New Hampshire, and J. Pinckney Henderson of Texas, of which the first named has been considered as one of the finest specimens of mortuary elo- quence ever delivered before that body. After the adjournment of Congress, Mr. Seward made an argument on the " Albany Bridge case," which added largely to his reputation, by the remarkable knowledge which it displayed of the subject of navigation and the constitutional questions involved. In the autumn campaigns of 1858, he displayed his usual ardor and ability in the canvass for State officers and members of Congress, his speeches causing profound sensations, especially that at Eochester, New York, in which, speaking of the collision between the free and slave systems of labor, he said, '' Shall I WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 217 tell you what this collision means ? They who think that it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation." These significant words were severely denounced by the Democrats as revolutionary and dangerous, but they became the rallying cry of the hosts of Freedom, and they have been more than vindicated by subse- quent events of our national history. Mr. Seward's services during the last session of the Thirty-fifth Congress, were ren- dered in behalf of those important and beneficent measures of which he was always a consistent and persistent friend, viz., the Homestead bill, the Pacific railroad, etc. In 1859, he made a second trip to Europe, to restore his health, impaired by incessant labor, and returning, devoted himself vigorously, in 1860, to the canvass of the Western States, in behalf of Abra- ham Lincoln. He had, indeed, himself been the prominent candidate for the presidency, in the National Eepublican Con- vention of that year, his nomination being regarded as certain by his friends. On the second ballot he received one hundred and eighty-four and one half votes, but on the third was de- feated by Mr. Lincoln. During the same year he entertained at his table the Prince of Wales and his suite, who were then making a tour of the United States on which occasion he casually intimated to his guests, in a jocular but significant remark which was afterwards remembered when he was Secretary of State, during the civil war, that it would be a dangerous matter for England to meddle with the United States in any other way, than that of friendly rivalry. Mr. Seward had already foretold the " irrepressible conflict," and when it 218 MEN OF OTJK DAY. loomed up in still more threatening guise, and before the ex- piration of his second senatorial term in March, 1861, he boldly asserted his position thus "I avow my adherence to the Union with my friends, with my party, with my State, or with- out either, as they may determine ; in every event of peace or of war with every consequence of honor or dishonor, of life or death." Immediately upon Mr. Lincoln's election to the presidency, he tendered to Mr. Seward the chief cabinet office, that of Secretary of State. It was accepted by the latter, and the difficult and perplexing duties which he thus assumed, were discharged with signal ability and success. His judicious administration of the office during the early part of Mr. Lincoln's first term, tended more than any other cause, to ward off intervention on the part of foreign powers, in the momentous struggle then going on between the Government and the rebellious States and he challenged the respect and admiration of those powers them- selves, as well as of his own fellow-countrymen, by the fairness, ability, fulness, and broad statesmanship, with which he dis- cussed and settled the many perplexing and unprecedented questions which came under the notice of the State Department. Conspicuous among these, was the case of the demand by Great Britain for the surrender of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, rebel envoys who were forcibly taken by Captain Wilkes of the United States navy, from a British ship on which they were passengers, in the fall of 1861. Perhaps, at no time since the "War of 1812," has danger of war between England and America been so imminent, as then. It was averted, however, by the judicious diplomacy of the secretary, who, while avoiding a war by surrendering the rebel commissioners to Great Britain, on the ground, that, although they and their dispatches were in reality contraband of war, yet their captor had committed an WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 219 irregularity in not bringing the ship, and all on board, into port for adjudication at the same time made the surrender a means of enforcing from that country, the never-before conceded right of the freedom of neutral flags on the high seas. It is well known that, during Mr. Lincoln's administration, Mr. Seward was, in most matters, the ruling spirit, and in general it must be admitted that he used his power well. There was dissatisfaction, not wholly causeless, at the freedom with which he used the power of arbitrary arrest ; some complaint of the capricious, and at times not wholly respectful, manner in which he treated the representatives of the weaker foreign powers ; some displeasure at his apparently open defiance of Congress in relation to the Mexican question, in offering to recognize Maximilian, after Congress had voted by a large majority to give moral support only to the Juarez govern- ment. These and other measures of his, so greatly dissatisfied the Eepublicans, that at their National Convention in Baltimore, in 1864, they passed a resolution requesting the President to reconstruct his cabinet. Mr. Seward tendered his resignation, as did some of the other cabinet officers, but Mr. Lincoln, who knew well Mr. Seward's value in the cabinet, in spite of his faults and errors, refused to accept his resignation, and retained him in his place. Mr. Seward is by nature an optimist, always looking on the favorable side of a subject, and indulging, perhaps too much for the highest order of statesmanship, in glowing reveries and predictions of the wonderful growth, progress, and prosperity of our country in the immediate future. During the war, he excited some amusement by his oft repeated prophecies that it would close in sixty or ninety days. The second of these predictions, in his correspondence on the Mason and Slidell 220 MEN OF OUR DAY. affair furnished food for mirth among our enemies in the British Parliament for years. After Mr. Lincoln's second inauguration, he re-appointed Mr. Seward for his second term, and in the closing events of the war in the east, the secretary rendered him great service. Early in April, 1865, while Mr. Seward was riding in his carriage, the horses became frightened and ran, and in attempt- ing to jump out, he was thrown to the ground, and his right arm was broken, and both sides of the lower jaw fractured. He was severely prostrated by this accident, and, for a time, serious fears were felt for his recovery. While thus confined to his bed, he narrowly escaped falling a victim to the fiendish plan of the conspirators who assassinated President Lincoln. Almost simultaneously with the attack upon Mr. Lincoln, an assassin forced his way into Mr. Seward's chamber, and striking down Mr. Frederick Seward, and overcoming the opposition of a male nurse, who was in attendance, reached the secretary's bedside and inflicted upon him three stabs in the face, which, however, failed of their deadly intent, although they greatly protracted his recovery. The assassin fled, but was subsequently arrested, convicted, and executed. There have been those, even among the strongest friends of Mr. Seward in the past, who have been so uncharitable as to regret, for his sake, that the assassin failed of the complete accomplishment of his purpose at that time; for, they have argued, his career up to that time had been honorable to him- self and a glory to the nation, and he would have died in the odor of sanctity, and with a martyr's halo around his brow, and have been remembered in all the future as the great statesman, who loved his country intensely, and laid down his life for her sake. Without avowing any sympathy with this view, candor com- WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD. 221 pels us to say, that Mr. Seward's course since his recovery from those wounds of the assassin, has not been worthy of his previ- ous illustrious career. Forgetful, apparently, of his past intense loyalty and devotion to freedom, he has sustained Mr. Johnson in every attempted usurpation of power ; has assumed a super- cilious tone in addressing the people, whose servant he still is ; has been vacillating and self-contradictory in his intercourse with foreign powers, and has attempted to distract the attention of Congress from the usurpations and crimes of his chief, by the purchase of extensive territories away from our previous geo- graphical limits, and of which we stood in no need. These pur- chases have been made without any consultations with Congress, and solely upon his own judgment ; the prices he offered for them were exorbitant, and they were understood to be but the stepping stones to further and still more extensive negotia- tions. His purchase from Eussia of the territory of Alaska, for seven and a half millions of dollars in gold, was regarded by most of our people as unwise, but the negotiations had already proceeded so far, that it will be consummated ; but when he pro- ceeded to buy from Denmark, at eight or ten times their value, the islands of St. Thomas and Santa Cruz, the home of earth- quakes and hurricanes; entered upon negotiations with San Domingo for the bay and harbor of Samana, and turned longing eyes upon the island of Cuba, all felt that his greed for land was growing too great to be longer tolerated, and his negotiations were brought to an ignoble conclusion. His ulterior object of distracting attention from Mr. Johnson's usurpations failed as signally, and he was involved, even more fully than any of his colleagues, in the disgrace of the President. The lesson taught to all statesmen by these lamentable errors in the conclusion of a long and previously honorable and illus- trious career, is, that no length or brilliancy of public service. 222 MEN OF OIJR DAY - can atone for great departures from patriotism and loyalty, and that where many good deeds are followed by a few evil ones, the evil blot out from the memory of the nation all the previous good acts. Unpopularity may, indeed, come upon a public ser- vant unjustly, and for deeds for which he will subsequently receive honor ; but where his life-long friends feel compelled to withdraw from him, and in the communities of which he had for a quarter of a century been the popular idol, all turn away with averted gaze at his approach, the presumption is that his course has been one for which there is but little apology. In person, Mr. Seward is not prepossessing ; small of stature, slender and pale, careless in dress and manner, and with a sad and somewhat unpleasant expression, he does not win confidence at first. That he is a man of remarkable gifts and talents, none who have known his long public career can deny, and that, until the close of Mr. Lincoln's life, these gifts were used for patriotic and worthy purposes is equally true. Let us hope, that in the decline of life, he may recover some of his old pres- tige, and again be found doing battle for the right. HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. ]HAT can you raise here?" inquired a distinguished English agriculturist, of a friend, a citizen of Maine, as they were traversing the rocky, iron-bound coast, against which the North Atlantic dashes its waves in summer and winter. " Your soil seems so rocky and sterile that no crops will thrive in it. What can you grow ?" " We raise MEN," was the proud reply. Yes, the sunrise State does raise men, and one of the best of her products, was the man whose history we propose here to sketch briefly. HANNIBAL HAMLIN was born in Paris, Maine, August 27th, 1809. His ancestors were from Massachusetts, and of Puritan and revolutionary stock. His grandfather, Eleazar Hamlin, commanded a company of minute men in the revolution, and had five sons enrolled under him, some of whom served through the whole war. Cyrus, one of the sons of Eleazar Hamlin, studied medicine, married and settled at Livermore, Oxford county, Maine, where he acquired a very extensive practice, and was also clerk of the courts for Oxford county, for a number of years. Hannibal was the sixth son of Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, and, from his boyhood, was a studious, manly boy. His brothers have, several of them, attained distinction. His eldest brother, Elijah, has long been one of the most promi- nent men of the State ; Cyrus, another brother, is well known as a missionary of the American Board, at Constantinople, and 223 224: MEN OF OUR DAY. is now at the head of the Eobert college there. Few men have been more widely useful. It was the intention of Dr. Hamlin to give Hannibal a collegiate education, and before he was six- teen, he was nearly fitted for college, when the failure of his brother Cyrus's health led to a change of plans, and he com- menced the study of medicine, while Hannibal remained at home to labor on the farm, employing the winter in surveying a township of forest land on Dead river, which his father and others had purchased. When he was eighteen years of age, his father directed him to undertake the study of law, with his brother Elijah. He commenced his studies, but at the end of six or eight months, his father died, and he returned home, and labored on the farm, for the next two years. He was next, for about a year, joint proprietor and editor with Horatio King, afterwards assistant postmaster general, of a Democratic news- paper, The Jeffersonian, published at Paris, the county seat of Oxford county. To this paper he contributed both prose and poetical articles. But his inclination was still to the study of the law, and having sold out his interest in the paper, he entered, with his mother's sanction, the office of Hon. Joseph G. Cole, and, for the next three years, prosecuted his legal studies with him and with the firm of Fessenden, Deblois, and Fessenden, the junior partner being the present Senator from Maine. In January, 1833, he was admitted to the Oxford county bar, and immediately commenced a successful practice, which continued to increase until 1851, when he relinquished farther practice of his profession. He soon after removed to Hampden, a flourish- ing village six miles below Bangor, on the Periobscot, and married the same year. From 1836 to 1840, he was each year elected to the State Legislature, and in 1837, 1839, and 1840, was speaker of the House. In 1840, he was the Democratic candi- date for Eepresentative in Congress, but was defeated by about HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 225 two hundred votes. In 1843, he was again a candidate and was elected by about a thousand majority. Though elected as a Democrat, and voting with that party on all other questions, Mr. Hamlin, from the commencement of his Congressional careel", uniformly opposed the extension and aggressions of slavery. His first speech in Congress was in opposition to the twenty-first rule, by which abolition petitions were excluded; and he ably and strenuously opposed the annexation of Texas, not because he was averse to new acces- sions of territory, but because the bill provided for the exten- sion of slavery there. His speech, in opposition to the annexa- tion on these terms, was one of remarkable eloquence, and its defence of New England against the attacks of southern mem- bers, was one of the finest passages of parliamentary oratory. "I am sure, sir," he said, "that the hardy sons of the ice-boufid region of New England, have poured out their blood without stint, to protect the shores of the South, or to avenge her wrongs Their bones are even now bleaching beneath the sun, on many a southern hill ; and the monuments of their brave devotion may still be traced, wherever their country's flag has floated on the battle field, or the breeze, upon the lakes, the ocean, and the land : " ' New England's dead ! New England's dead ! On every field they lie, On every field of strife made red, With bloody victory ! Their bones are on our northern hills, And on the southern plain ; By brook and river, mount and rills, And in the sounding main.' " I glory in New England and New England's institutions. There she stands, with her free schools, and her free labor, her fearless enterprise, her indomitable energy ! With her rocky 15 226 MEN OF OUE DAY. hills, her torrent streams, her green valleys, her heaven pointed spires ; there she stands a moral monument around which the gratitude of her country binds the wreath of fame, while pro- tected freedom shall repose forever at its base." Mr. Hamlin was re-elected to Congress in 1844, and though known mainly as a working, rather than a talking member, (and his reputation was of the highest, as an efficient business man,) he took some part in the debates, handling the most im- portant questions with great ability. Among the topics on which he spoke were the public land question; on giving notice to the British Government to terminate the joint occu- pancy of Oregon ; on the mode of raising troops for the Mexican war ; on the mode of increasing the army, and on establishing a territorial government for Oregon. He also offered the Wilmot Proviso as'an amendment to the famous " three million bill." On his return home he served for one session in the Maine Legislature, and in May, 1848, was elected to fill the vacancy in the United States Senate, caused by the death of Ex-Gover- nor Fairfield. In July, 1851, he was again chosen Senator, for the full term, by th Democrats and Free Soilers. His decided opposition to slavery had alienated a few of the pro- slavery Democrats in the Legislature, but their place was more than supplied by the Free Soilers, who held the balance of power in the Maine Legislature at this time. In the Senate, Mr. Hamlin almost immediately took a position as one of the ablest members of that body. He was not given to participating in the debates on trivial matters, but on the great questions of the time he usually gave his care- fully considered views, and they commanded the attention and respect of the entire Senate. As a working member, he had no superior ; he was chairman of the very important Committee on Commerce, from 1849 till hk resignation of that position in HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 227 1856, on an occasion to be presently noticed, and drew up and matured many of the bills which have proved so beneficial to our national commerce. He was also chairman of the Com- mittee on the District of Columbia, and an active member of other important committees. He was outspoken and decided in his efforts for the repression of slavery, and in opposition to its aggressive tendencies, and the purpose of its friends to extend it over all the new territories, from his entrance into the Senate. One of his earliest speeches, in 1848, on the bill providing a territorial government for Oregon, denounced in strong and manly terms this purpose of the pro-slavery men, and in the debates on the admission of California, he was equally explicit and earnest. He advocated in the same session the abolition of the practice of flogging in the navy. On commercial topics, his most important and effective speeches were, on the ocean mail service ; on regulating the liabilities of ship owners ; on providing for the greater security of lives on steamboats ; in defence of the river and harbor bill ; for the codifications of the revenue laws, etc. Up to 1856, Mr. Hamlin had acted with the Democratic party on all questions, except those connected with the extension of slavery, directly or indirectly. He opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and the Fugitive Slave act, but in all these, others affiliated with that party had acted with him ; but the time came, at the national Democratic Convention at Cincinnati, in June, 1856, when that party succumbed to the slave power, and delivered themselves over to the rule and dictation of the South ; then Mr. Hamlin felt that he must sever the ties which had hitherto bound him to them. He took the first opportunity of doing this which offered, rising in his place in the Senate, June 12th, 1856, swad resigning his position as chairman of the Committee on Com- 228 MEN OF OUR DAY. merce, and assigning as his reason, that after the platform and resolutions adopted by the convention at Cincinnati, he could no longer maintain political associations with a party which in- sisted on such doctrines. Thenceforward, he became identified with the Republican party. Two or three weeks later he was nominated by the Republicans for Governor of Maine, and made a personal canvass of the State, speaking nearly one hundred times in the different counties. The Democrats had carried the State by a large majority the year before, and were then in power, but Mr. Hamlin was elected in September, 1856, by an absolute majority of eighteen thousand over both the competing candidates, and of twenty-three thousand over his Democratic competitor, more than double the majority ever given to any other candidate in that State. On the 7th of January, 1857, he resigned his seat in the Senate and was the same day inaugurated Governor of Maine. Nine days later, January 16th, 1857, he was a third time elected to the Senate, for the term of six years from March 4th, 1857, and on the 20th of February resigned the office of governor, and took his seat again in the Senate, on the 4th of March. During the next four years, he was the active and eloquent defender of Republi- can principles in the United States Senate, discussing the Kansas question with consummate ability, attacking the Le- compton Constitution, replying with great pungency and effect to Senator Hammond's " mud-sill" speech, and repelling his assaults upon the free laborers of the North. He also exposed the unfair- ness and gross sectional partiality of the Democratic majority in the Senate, in the formation of the committees, and, in an able speech, defended American rights in regard to the fisheries. On the 18th of May, 1860, at the Republican National Conven- tion at Chicago, Mr. Hamlin was nominated as the candidate of the party for the vice-presidency on the ticket with Abraham Lincoln. HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 229 The nomination was entirely unexpected by Mr. Hamlin and took him completely by surprise. It was made spontaneously and with great unanimity. The ticket was elected, and on the 4th of March, 1861, in the midst of civil commotion and the loud muttering of the storm which was so soon to burst upon the nation, President and Vice-President were inaugurated. During the four years that followed, Mr. Hamlin was the President's right hand ; calm, patient, clear-headed and far-seeing, he was able to give wise counsel, and enjoyed, throughout his administration, Mr. Lincoln's fullest confidence. It is said that in the history of our country, there has been but one other instance, in which there was full and perfect harmony between the President and Vice- President, and that was in the case of President Jackson and Vice-President Van Buren. As the pre- siding officer of the Senate, he has rarely, if ever, been equalled in the skill with which he conducted its proceedings and the dignity with which he guided its deliberations. So thorough was his knowledge of parliamentary rules and usages, and of the precedents of senatorial action, that not a single ruling of his, during the four years of his presidency over the Senate, was ever over-ruled by that body, and on his taking leave of it all parties united in testifying to his courtesy and impartiality. At the Baltimore National Eepublican Convention, in 1864, it was at first proposed to nominate Mr. Hamlin again to the vice- presidency, which he had filled so well ; there was nothing to be objected to in his conduct, and very much to praise ; but it was represented that the position belonged, by right, to some loyal representative of the border, or seceded States, and this view prevailing, Andrew Johnson was nominated. It has been well said, that "with Hannibal Hamlin in the vice-presidency, either Mr. Lincoln would not have been assassinated, or we should 230 MEN OF OUR DAY. have been spared the trouble, discord, and disgrace which has followed." In July, 1865, Mr. Johnson appointed Mr. Hamlin collector of the port of Boston, the most lucrative office in New England. He held the position about thirteen months, when becoming convinced that Mr. Johnson had deserted the party which elected him, and abandoned its principles, he felt that he could not retain the office, without danger of being identified with Mr. Johnson's treachery, and resigned it in the following manly letter. " CUSTOM HOUSE, BOSTON, COLLECTOR'S OFFICE, Aug. 28, 1866. " To the President : " One year ago you tendered to me, unsolicited on my part, the position of collector of customs, for the District of Boston and Charlestown. I entered upon the duties of the office, and have endeavored faithfully to discharge the same, and I trust in a manner satisfactory to the public interested therein. " I do not fail to observe the movements and efforts which have been, and are now being made to organize a party in the country, consisting, almost exclusively, of those actively engaged in the late rebellion, and their allies, who sought by other means to cripple and embarrass the Government. These classes of persons, with a small fraction of others, constitute the organiza- tion. It proposes to defeat and overthrow the Union Eepubli- can party, and to restore to power, without sufficient guaranties for the future, and protection to men who have been loyal, those who sought to destroy the Government. " I gave all the influence I possessed to create and uphold the Union Eepublican party during the war, and without the aid of which our Government would have been destroyed, and the rebellion a success. " With such a party as has been inaugurated, and for such purposes, I have no sympathy, nor can I acquiesce in its measures by my silence. I therefore tender to you rny resig- nation of the office of collector of customs, for the District of HON. HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 231 Boston and Charlestown, to take effect from the time when a successor shall be appointed and qualified. " Eespectfully yours, "H. HAMLIN." After his resignation, Mr. Hamlin engaged in the political canvass in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maine, in the autumn of 1866, and then returned to his home in Bangor, Maine, where he remained, engaged in the management of his estate, taking part, however, in the political campaign in New Hampshire and Connecticut in the spring of 1868. Mr. Hamlin was the first choice of several of the States for the vice-presidency in the National Convention of May, 1868, and it is no discredit to the other eminent and able candidates, to say that no man could have filled the office better than he. Mr. Hamlin is about six feet in height, though apparently less, in consequence of his having a slight stoop. His athletic and robust form gives a just indication of his great physical energy and power of endurance. His complexion is dark, and his eyes are of a piercing blackness.* His voice is clear, strong, melodious in its tones, and his delivery rapid, energetic, and highly effective. He speaks without verbal preparation, but without any embarrassment, and with remarkable directness. Always talking to the point, and never for mere effect, he is invariably listened to with respect and attention. As a popular orator, he has great power and eloquence. His manners, though dignified and decorous, are still remarkable for their republi- can simplicity. At his home on the Penobscot, he cultivates * The southern political speakers and leaders in the presidential cam- paign of I860, circulated the report widely throughout the South, and it was extensively credited there, that Mr. Hamlin was a mulatto, and that the Republicans had nominated him for the purpose of inciting the negroes to rise in rebellion against their masters. Mr. Hamlin's dark complexion was the only thing which gave the slightest plausibility to this story. 232 MEN OP OUR DAY. his small farm with his own hands, laboring on it every summer, with all the regularity and vigor of his youthful days. In his moral character, Mr. Hamlin is wholly without reproach, a man of pure and Christian life, and in his domestic relations, he ia most devoted and affectionate. No man is more thoroughly faithful to his friends than he, and none more highly prizes a true friend. His native State honors him, and with reason, for he is one of her best products, a manly, noble man in all the relations of life. ENORAVKD byAB.WAi.TKR PHILAD" HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. [T would be hard to find a better illustration of the facility with which, under Eepublican institutions, a man of genius and integrity may rise from obscurity and humble life to the most exalted station, than is afforded in the history of Hon. Benjamin F. Wade. He has not, it is true, like his predecessor, " filled every office, from alderman of a small village to President of the United States," but he has risen from an humble though honorable and honest condition, to the highest positions in the gift of the people, and through all, has maintained himself with dignity, propriety, and honor, and with a reputation for unflinching adherence to the principles of right, justice, and freedom, which any man might covet. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE was born in Feeding Hills Parish, West Springfield, Massachusetts, October 27th, 1800. He was the youngest of ten children. His father was a soldier, who fought in every revolutionary battle from Bunker Hill to Yorktown. His mother was the daughter of a Presbyterian clergyman, a woman of vigorous intellect and great force of character. She fed and clothed her brood while the father was in the army. The family was one of the poorest in New England. A portion of its scanty property was a library of twelve books. This eventually became Benjamin's possession He read the volumes through and through, and over and over, 233 234: MEN OP OUB DAY. after his mother had led him so far into an education as to teach him to read and write. "When Ben was eighteen, he tearfully turned his back on the old plow and the older home- stead ; and, with seven dollars in his pocket and a bundle of cloth- ing on his back, started to walk from Springfield, Massachu- setts, to Illinois, to seek his fortune. He footed it to Ashtabula county, Ohio. There, the snow falling, he determined to wait for spring to finish his journey ; hired himself out to cut wood in the forest for fifty cents per cord, and snatched hours from sleep at night to read the Bible by the light of the fire on the hearth of the log-cabin. Both the Old and the New Testa- ments are at his tongue's end. Spring came; but the journey to Illinois and fortune was suspended by a summer's work at chopping, logging, and grubbing, followed by a Yankee winter at school-teaching. The journey was suspended by a second year of such work, and was finally lost in an experience of driving a herd of cattle. Wade led the " lead" steer of a drove from Ohio to New York. Six times he made this trip. The last ox he led took him to Albany.* 'Twas winter. Of course, * General Brisbin relates that on one of these occasions Mr. Wade came near losing his life. He was leading a steer as usual in front of the drove, when he came to a long covered bridge. The gate-keeper, according to the rules, would only allow a few of the herd to pass over at a time, lest their weight should injure the bridge. Wade started with the advance guard, but the cattle in the rear becoming frightened, rushed into the bridge and stampe- ded. Young Wade made haste to run, but finding he could not reach the other end before the frantic cattle would be upon him and trample him to death, he ran to one of the posts, and springing up, caught hold of the brace and drew himself up as high as possible. He could barely keep his legs out of the way of the horns of the cattle, but he held on while the bridge swayed to and fro, threatening every moment to break under the great weight that was upon it. At length the last of the frightened animals passed by, and our dangling hero dropped from his perch, to the astonishment of the drover, who thought he had been crushed to death, and was riding through the bridge, expecting every moment to find his crushed and mangled body." HON. BENJAMIN" FRANKLIN WADE. 235 the drover then expanded into a school-teacher. When the frost was out of the ground, scholars and teacher went to manual labor. The Erie canal got the teacher. During the summer of 1826 Wade shoveled and wheeled ; " The only American I know," said Governor Seward, in a speech in the Senate, " who worked with a spade and wheelbarrow on that great improvement." An- other winter of school-teaching in Ohio, and the persuasions of Elisha Whittlesey, and the friendly offer of a tavern-keeper who had got to loving Wade, to trust him bed and board without limit, drew Ben, at the age of twenty-six, into a law office, to study for the bar. He was admitted in two years. He waited another year for his first suit. It was but a petty offence with which his first client was charged, but the young lawyer went into his defence with all his might, and secured his acquittal. His zeal and resolution secured him the friendship of the members of the bar, and after the trial was over, the good old presiding judge condescended to privately give him a word of encouragement. Mr. Wade says no one can ever know how much good the kind words of the judge did him, and how they put courage into his heart to fight the future battles of his life. Without the advan- tages of early education, Mr. Wade felt constantly the need of close application to his law books, and became a hard student. The lawyers soon began to notice his opinions, and the energy and confidence he threw into a case. He had a wonderful deal of sense, and could analyze a knotty question with surprising ability. Those lawyers who were far his superiors in learning and eloquence could never equal the rough backwoodsman in grasping the points in a case and presenting them to the jury. After six years of unremitting toil, Wade found himself em- ployed in almost every case of importance litigated in the 236 MEN" OF OUK DAT. circuit where he practiced. He was now a man of note; his law business was constantly increasing, and money was coming in to fill his pocket. He felt, as a thousand other men have felt, that the struggle of his life was over ; that it was no longer with him simply a fight for bread. The world had been met and conquered, and the master began to look about him, and consider other matters than mere questions of food and clothing. Like most men who have taken the rough world by the throat and conquered it, Mr. Wade felt how completely he was self- made, and how little he had to fear from the future. In 1835, he was elected prosecuting attorney for the county of Ashtabula. His talent for special pleading was remarkable, and his indictments are considered models at the present time. In 1837, Mr. Wade was offered the nomination to the State Senate from his district, and reluctantly accepted. This, Mr. Wade contends to this day, was the great mistake of his life. He has been continually successful in politics, and reached the second office in the nation ; but he never fails to warn young men to stick to their professions, and let politics alone. The empty honors of public life, he contends, never repay the poli- tician for the toils and troubles that beset him at every step ; and a quiet home is infinitely to be preferred to the highest political honor. He was just entering his thirty-eighth year when he took his seat in the State Senate of Ohio, and at once began his political career with the same earnestness that had characterized his course at the bar. As a new member, he expected no position ; but his fame as a lawyer had preceded him to the capitol,.and he was appointed a member of the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Wade first directed his efforts to the repeal of the laws of Ohio whereby the poor but honest man could be imprisoned for debt by his creditor. He rapidly rose to the leadership of HON. BENJAMIN FBANKLIN WADE. 237 the little squad of Whigs in the State Senate, and although greatly in the minority, he handled his small force so effectively as to keep the Democrats always on the defensive. The question of^the annexation of Texas coming up, Mr. Wade made haste to take bold grounds against slavery. He said: " This State of Texas coming to the Union, as it must (if at all), with the institution of slavery interwoven with its social habits, being brought into this Union for the sole object of ex- tending the accursed system of human bondage, it cannot have my voice or vote ; for, so help me God, I will never assist in adding one rood of slave territory to this country." Soon after his efforts to prevent the extension of slavery, the black people of Ohio began an active movement for relief from the oppressive State laws, and appealed to Mr. Wade to help them. He took their petition and presented it in the Senate, asking that " all laws might be repealed making distinctions among the people of Ohio on account of color." This raised a storm of indignation, and even some of Mr. Wade's personal and party friends warned him to desist in his efforts to place a negro on equal footing with a white man, but Wade sternly re- buked them, and insisted on his petitions being heard. At first the Senate refused to hear what the negroes had to say, but at length received their petition, and at once laid it on the table, Mr. Wade protesting, and saying, with great vehemence and earnestness to the majority : " Eemember, gentlemen, you have, by your votes, in this free State of Ohio, so treated a part of her people, these black men and women." At the close of his senatorial term, Mr. Wade found his negro doctrines had made him unpopular with his constituents. When the convention met in his district, he was not only passed over and a new man nominated, but some of the delegates thought it would be a good thing to censure him for his course. Mr. 238 MEN OF OUR DAT. Wade had given great offence by his vehement opposition to State appropriations for internal improvements, and the Com- missioners appointed by the Legislature of Kentucky to visit Ohio and obtain, as Mr. Wade said, " the passage of a law to degrade the people of Ohio." The bill they sought to have made a law, was one of pains and penalties, intended to repulse from Ohio the unhappy negro, whether bond or free flying from the cruelty of a mas- ter or, if manumitted, from the persecution of the superior class of laborers in a slave State, who abhor such rivals. Mr. Wade's noble nature revolted against the tyranny which would not allow human beings a refuge anywhere on a continent from which they had no outlet, and into which they had been dragged against their will ; and he opposed the measure with all his might. Mr. Wade, conscious that he had done right, when his sena- torial term was out, returned to his home and recommenced the practice of law, resolving never again to stand for any political office. In 1840, when General Harrison was nominated for President, Mr. Wade, yielding to the wishes of his friends and the excitement and enthusiasm of the hour, took the stump, and in this campaign, for the first time in his life, became a stump orator. His speeches were plain, matter-of-fact talks, which the people thoroughly understood, and he became popu- lar. He passed over the Reserve, addressing thousands of peo- ple, and laboring day and night for General Harrison's election. As soon as the canvass was over, he returned to his law office, at Jefferson, and began to work up his cases again, regretting that he had not paid more attention to his clients, and less to politics. He had remained single till his forty-first year, but then met with the lady who subsequently became his wife, at the residence of a client. His marriage has been an eminently HON. BENJAMIN FKANKLIN WADE. 239 happy one, and his two children, both sons, distinguished them- selves and did honor to the name they bear, during the late war. In 1841, the pepple of Ohio having come to thoroughly understand and detest the speculations of internal improvements, and the Kentucky black laws, Mr. Wade's views were adopted, and he became popular as a wise legislator. The people of his district tendered him a re-nomination to the State Senate, but he declined. When the convention met, however, he was placed in nomination and triumphantly elected, by a largely increased majority over his former election. No sooner had he taken his seat than he renewed his labors in behalf of equal rights, and the repeal of all laws making dis- tinctions on account of color. He brought forward the petition of Greorge W. Tyler, and fifty-four other persons, praying for the repeal of the fugitive slave law, passed by Ohio, in 1838, to please Kentucky. Wade argued, in an able speech, that negroes were men the same as white persons, and as such entitled to personal liberty, trial by jury, testimony in the courts, and com- mon school privileges. Kentucky was then opposed to all these things, and used her influence with Ohio to prevent her from adopting a liberal and just policy toward her black population. That was in 1841, more than a quarter of a centu- ry ago, and although it cannot be said Kentucky has advanced much in the business of securing her black people equal rights, she has done much toward changing their complexion. Herein Kentucky and her people differed from Mr. Wade and the peo- ple of Ohio ; Kentucky desired to equalize her population by nature, Ohio by law. Of the two processes we think posterity will incline to the belief that the former was the best. In February, 1842, a " bill for the incorporation of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, an institution for the education of persons, 240 MEN OP OUR DAY. without regard to race or color," came up in the Senate of Ohio. Mr. Wade advocated the bill, but it was voted down. This bill afterward passed, and was the foundation of the excellent college at Oberlin, Ohio, an institution that has furnished more than five hundred anti-slavery missionaries, teachers and preach- ers, and done more than any other college to unmask the de- formities of the system of human bondage. While he was in the State Senate, the people of Ohio peti- tioned their Legislature to protest against the infamous resolu- tion, passed by Congress in 1837, relating to slavery. This resolution was in these words : Resolved, That all petitions, memorials, and papers touching the abolition of slavery, or buying, selling or transferring of slaves in any State, District or Territory of the United States, be laid on the table without being debated, read or referred, and that no further action whatever shall be taken thereon. Mr. Wade was appointed a special committee, and the peti- tion of the people of Ohio, and the resolution complained of, referred to him with directions to make a report on them. It is said Wade read and examined, for three weeks, books and au- thorities, before he began writing his report ; be that as it may, certain it is, his report was at the time, and is still, regarded as one of the ablest anti-slavery documents ever published in this country. Thirty years have elapsed since then, and yet in all that time few reasons have been advanced against slavery that cannot be found embodied in Mr. Wade's report. At the same session he defended, with great ability and elo- quence, the course of John Quincy Adams in upholding the right of petition in Congress. Mr. Adams had been censured by the House ^for presenting the Haverhill resolutions, asking for the dissolution of the Union, and the Ohio Legislature undertook to justify that censure, but Mr. Wade and his anti- HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 241 slavery friends, resisted the course of the Democratic majority with great energy and ability, though not with success. At the close of his second senatorial term, Mr. "Wade declined a renomination, and again determined to leave off, forever, political life. From 1842 to 1847 he held no public office, and devoted himself to the practice of his profession and the care of his family. In February, 1847, Mr. "Wade was elected, by the Legislature, president judge of the th;rd judicial district of the State of Ohio. His popularity at this time was unbounded. It has been the fortune of but few men to enter upon the discharge of judicial duties, having in advance secured to such an extent the unqualified confidence of the bar and people. He entered immediately upon the discharge of his duties. His district em- braced the populous counties of Ashtabula, Trumbull, Maho- ning, Portage, and Summit. The business had accumulated vastly under his predecessor. The same territory has now three resident judges, with but slightly increased business. It is but truth to say, that in no country on earth has the same number of people had the same amount of important and satisfactory justice administered to them in the same length of time, as had the district under the administration of Judge "Wade. The younger members of the profession, who were so fortunate as to practice in this circuit during, Judge "Wade's term upon the bench, will remember with lasting gratitude his kindness and judicial courtesy. During the time he was upon the bench, Judge "Wade in- creased (if possible) in the confidence and admiration of his political friends, and disarmed those who had differed with him, and had felt the withering power of his logic and eloquence on the stump and at the bar. His judicial career was brought to a sudden and unexpected close in March, 1851, while he was 16 '242 MEN OF OUR DAY. holding a term of court at Akron, Summit county, by his elec- tion by the Legislature, then in session, to the United States Senate. When the news of his election reached him, Judge Wade was on the bench trying a case. The firing of cannon, and shouting of men, announced that some unusual event had taken place, and presently a boy came running into the court with a dispatch informing Mr. Wade he had been elected a United States Senator from Ohio. The intelligence surprised no one so much as the judge, who had no knowledge that his name had been mentioned in con- nection with it, and had made no efforts to secure a nomination. The members of the bar in his judicial district were full of regret at his loss to the bench, but were pleased that his talents were at last appreciated. Kesolutions of mingled regret and congratulation were passed, almost unanimously, in the various counties comprising his circuit. Mr. Wade was again persuaded to reluctantly give up his law business, and go into politics. He did so, however, with less regret this time than before, because the people of Ohio had come up to his anti-slavery views. He felt that in repre- senting the majority of the people of his State, he need make no sacrifice of his own opinions, and he was most anxious to attack slavery at the capital, and, if possible, arouse the people of the country to the enormities of the institution, as he had aroused the people of Ohio. After his election to the United States Senate, in 1851, Mr. Wade resigned his seat on the bench, and retired to his home at Jefferson. In 1852, Mr. Wade advocated the nomination and election of General Scott to the presidency. He still insisted, and ardently hoped, that the Whig party, with which he had always acted HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 243 and in which he saw so much to approve and admire, would yet be instrumental in bringing back the Government to the purpose of its founders. Stimulated by this consideration, he again took the stump, in and out of Ohio, and made the hustings ring with the clarion sound of his voice. Wherever he was heard, his reasoning was listened to with the most profound attention ; and where he failed to convince, he obtained credit for honesty of purpose and powerful effort. Mr. Wade continued to act with the Whig party until 1854, when the proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise began to agitate Congress. In March, 1854, he made a speech in the Senate, clearly defining his position, and fully demonstrating his determined hostility to a measure which, he predicted, would be fraught with more evil to the country, and danger to its peace, than had ever before disturbed its prosperity. After this speech he contented himself with watching the events which he saw must ultimately end in the consummation of all the evils he had predicted. He learned, by discussion of the measure, that it was to be carried by a combination of the southern Whigs, and those who for the occasion assumed the name of "National Democrats." At this union for such a purpose, his heart sickened, and he prepared himself to give utterance to the noble sentiments and awful warnings contained in his speech, delivered on the night of the final passage of that measure in the Senate. The Tribune of that date appropriately called that speech " the new Declaration of Independence." In this speech Mr. Wade takes a final farewell of his former Whig friends of the South, but not until he had seen solemnized the nuptials between them and the Democratic party. We cannot refrain from giving a few extracts from this speech. He said : "ME. PRESIDENT: I do not intend to debate this subject further. The humiliation of the North is complete and overwhelming. 244' MEN OF OUR DAY. No southern enemy of hers can wish her deeper degradation. God knows I feel it keenly enough, and I have no desire to prolong the melancholy spectacle. * * * I have all my life belonged to the great National Whig party, and never yet have I failed, with all the ability I have, to support her regular candidates, come from what portion of the Union they might, and much oftener has it been my lot to battle for a southern than for a northern candidate for the presidency; and when such candidates were assailed by those who were jealous of slaveholders, and did not like to yield up the Government to such hands, how often have I encountered the violent prejudices of my own section with no little hazard to myself. How tri- umphantly would I appeal on such occasions to southern honor to the magnanimity of soul which I believed always actuated southern gentlemen. Alas ! alas ! if God will pardon me for what I have done, I will promise to sin no more. * * * We certainly cannot have any further political connection with the Whigs of the South ; they have rendered such connection impossible. An impassable gulf separates us, and must here- after separate us. The southern wing of the old Whig party have joined their fortunes with what is called the National Democracy, and I wish you joy in your new connections. * * * To-morrow, I believe, is to be an eclipse of the sun, and I think it perfectly meet and proper that the sun in the heavens, and the glory of the Kepublic should both go into obscurity and darkness together. Let the bill then pass ; it is a proper oc- casion for so dark and damning a deed." X ' extract can do any thing like justice to the mind that conceived, and the noble manliness that gave this speech utter- ance. From the time Mr. Wade made this speech, he has known no Whig party, but devoted himself, soul and body, to the advocacy and defence of the measures of the Republican party. In the struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Mr. Wade came fully before the country as a debater. The southern fire- eaters and northern doughfaces combined to break him down, HOX. BEXJAMIX FKAXKLIN WADE. 245 but he hurled them back with surprising ability, and for the first time the southerners learned they had a northern master in the United States Senate, and were overmatched whenever they came in contact with the old Ohio Senator.* The New * It is to this portion of Mr. Wade's career that the story so graphically told by General Brisbin belongs, and it illustrates so well his utter fear- lessness that we cannot refrain from quoting it, Soon after taking his seat, he witnessed one of those scenes so common in the Senate in those days. A southern fire-eater made an attack on a northern Senator, and "Wade was amazed and disgusted at the cringing, cowardly way in which the northern man bore the taunts and insults of the hot-headed southerner. As no allusion was made to himself or State, Mr. Wade sat still, but when the Senate adjourned, he said openly, if ever a southern Senator made such an attack on him or his State while he sat on that floor, he would brand him as a liar. This coming to the ears of the southern men, a Senator took occasion to pointedly speak a few days after- wards of Ohio and her people as negro thieves. Instantly Mr. Wade sprang to his feet and pronounced the Senator a liar. The s6uthern Senators were thunderstruck, and gathered around their champion, while the northern men grouped about Wade. A feeler was put out from the southern side, looking to retraction, but Mr. Wade retorted in his peculiar style, and demanded an apology for the insult offered himself and the people he represented. The matter thus closed, and a fight was looked upon as certain. The next day a gentleman called on the Sena- tor from Ohio, and asked the usual question touching his acknowledgment of the code. " I am here," he responded, " in a double capacity. I represent the State of Ohio, and I represent Ben. Wade. As a Senator I am opposed to duelling. As Ben. Wade, I recognize the code." " My friend feels aggrieved," said the gentleman, " at what you said in the Senate yesterday, and will ask for an apology or satisfaction." "I was somewhat embarrassed," continued Senator Wade, "by my posi- tion yesterday, as I have some respect for the Chamber. I now take this opportunity to say what I then thought, and you will, if you please, repeat it. Your friend is a foul-mouthed old blackguard." " Certainly, Senator Wade, you do not wish me to convey such a message as that ?" "Most undoubtedly I do; and will tell you for your own benefit, this friend of yours will never notice it, I will not be asked for either retrac- t' v >, explanation, or a fight." Xext morning Mr. Wade came into the Senate, and proceeding to his seat, deliberately drew from under his coat two large pistols, and unlocking 246 MEN OF OUR DAY. York Tribune, speaking of his first great speech on the Kansas- Nebraska bill says : " There are many fine orations and good arguments delivered in the United States Senate from time to time, but not often a really good speech. In order to have a good speech, there must be a man behind it. Such a speech we have in the powerful effort of Judge Wade, and in this case the speech is but the just measure of the man." Numberless are the incidents told of Mr. Wade's sharp and telling hits made during this protracted and famous debate. We subjoin a few, for most of which we are indebted to General Brisbin. his desk laid them inside. The southern men looked on in silence, 'while the northern members enjoyed to the fullest extent the fire-eaters' surprise at the proceedings of the plucky Ohio Senator. No further notice was taken of the affair of the day before. Wade was not challenged, but ever afterwards treated with the utmost politeness and consideration by the Senator who had so insultingly attacked him. But, while Mr. "Wade was not to be intimidated by the bullying of southern fire-eaters, no man living surpassed him in his intense contempt for northern doughfaces. Another incident, not narrated by Gen. Brisbin, but which occurred in the session of 1852-3 illustrates this very forcibly. Hon. Charles G. Atherton of New Hampshire, better known as " Gag Atherton," from his introduction of the resolution to lay all anti-slavery petitions on the table, was emphatically a " Northern man with Southern principles." One day, Mr. Wade, who was personally very popular, even with his political opponents, was conversing with Ex-Governor Morehead of Kentucky, who was then visiting Washington, when Atherton came up, and at once began an attack on Mr. Wade, in> regard to the Fugitive Slave law. " Why, Mr. Wade," he said, "if a nigger had run away from a good master in Kentucky, and came to your house in Ohio, woiildn't you arrest him, and send him back to his master?" "No! indeed, I wouldn't;" replied Mr. Wade. "Would you, Atherton?" "Certainly, I would," replied Mr. Atherton, "I should deem it my duty, to enforce that as much as any other law." Mr. Wade turned to Morehead; "Well, Governor, what do you say? Would you arrest a nigger and send him back under such circumstances?" "No," replied Governor Morehead, gruffly, " I'd see him d d first." " Well," said Old Ben, after a moment's pause, " I don't know as I can blame you, seeing you have got such a thing as this" (pointing to Atherton) to do it for you." HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 247 Mr. Pugh, Judge Wade's colleague in the Senate, was an intense pro-slavery Democrat ; lie was a man of very fair ability, but no match in wit or sarcasm for his radical colleague, yet he often sought a collision, and Mr. Wade never hesitated to reply to his challenge. One day, Pugh had put some taunting ques- tions to him respecting the common brotherhood of mankind ; Wade replied : " I have always believed, heretofore, in the doctrines of the Declaration of Independence, that all men are born free and equal ; but of late it appears that some men are born slaves, and I regret that they are not black, so all the world might know them." As he said this he pointed to Pugh, and stood looking at him for several moments, with a scowl and expression of countenance that was perfectly ferocious. Mr. Brown, of Mississippi, interrupted him just as he had said, " 1 know very well, sir, with what a yell of triumph the passage of this bill will be hailed both in the South and in pandemonium." Mr. Brown. "Do you know what is going on there?" [Laughter.] Mr. Wade. " I do not pretend to know precisely what is on foot there; but I think it pretty evident that there is a very free communication between that country and this body, and unless I am greatly mistaken, I see the dwarfish medium by which that communication is kept up." [Great laughter, and a voice on the southern side, " I guess he's got you, Brown."] During the argument on the Nebraska bill, Mr. Badger, then a Senator from North Carolina, drew a glowing picture of slavery. He had, he said, been nursed by a black woman, and had grown from childhood to manhood under her care. He loved his old black mammy; and now, if he was going to Nebraska, and the opponents of the bill succeeded i prohibit- 248 MEN OF OUR DAY. ing slavery there, he could not take his old mammy with him Turning to Mr. Wade, he said : " Surely you will not prevent me from taking my old mammy with me ?" "Certainly not," replied Mr. Wade; "but that is not the difficulty in the mind of the Senator. It is because, if we make the territory free, he cannot sell his old mammy when he has got her there." Mr. Wade was arguing to show that slaves were not property in the constitutional meaning of the term. He said : " If a man carries his horse out of a slave State into a free one, he does not lose his property interest in him; but if he carries his slave into a free State, the law makes him free." Mr. Butler, interrupting him, said: "Yes, but they won't stay with you ; they love us so well they will run off, and come back, in spite of you and your boasted freedom." Mr. Wade smilingly replied, amid roars of laughter : " Oh, yes, Senator, I know they love you so well, you have to make a Fugitive Slave law to catch them." The southern men, having tried in vain to head off Mr. Wade, appealed to their northern allies to help them. One day Mr. Douglas rose in his seat, and interrupted Mr. Wade, who was speaking. Instantly the chamber became silent as death, and all eyes were turned in the direction of the two standing Senators. Every one expected to see Wade demolished in a moment, by the great Illinois Senator. " You, sir," said Mr. Douglas, in measured tones, " continually compliment southern men who support this bill (Nebraska), but bitterly denounce northern men who support it. Why is this ? You say it is a moral wrong ; you say it is a crime. If that be so, is it not as much a crime for a southern .man to support it, as for a northern man to do so ?" Mr. Wade. "No, sir, I say not." HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. Mr. Douglas. " The Senator says not. Then he entertains a different code of morals from myself, and " Mr. Wade interrupting Douglas, and pointing to him, with scorn marked on every lineament of his face, " Your code of morals ! Your morals ! ! My God, I hope so, sir." The giant was hit in the forehead, and after standing for a moment with his face red as scarlet, dropped silently into his seat, while Mr. Wade proceeded with his speech as quietly as though nothing had occurred. Mr. Douglas was angry, however, and closely watched Wade for a chance to pounce upon and scalp him. It soon occurred, and in this way: Mr. Wade had said something complimentary about Colonel Lane, of Kansas, when Mr. Douglas rose and said : " Colonel Lane cannot be believed he has been guilty of perjury and forgery." Mr. Wade. " And what proof, sir, have you of these allega- tions ? Your unsupported word is not sufficient." Mr. Douglas. "I have the affidavit of Colonel Lane, in which, some time since, he swore one thing, and now states another." Mr. Wade. " And you, sir, a lawyer, presume to charge this man with being guilty of forgery and perjury, and then offer him as a witness to prove your own word." Douglas saw in a moment he was hopelessly caught, and attempted to retreat, but Wade pounced upon him and gave him a withering rebuke, while the chamber shook with roars of laughter. Such scenes have to be witnessed to fully understand them, as there is as much in the exhibition as in the words. Mr. Douglas continued to badger Wade, sometimes getting the better of him, but often getting roughly handled, until Wade, worn out with defending himself, determined to become the attacking party. Soon afterward, the " Little Giant " was 250 MEN OF OUR DAY. bewailing the fate of the nation, and picturing the sad condition it would be in if the Free Soilers succeeded. Having worked himself up into a passion, when he was at the highest pitch, Mr. Wade rose in his seat and said, with indescribable coolness, "Well, what are you going to do about it?" Douglas, for a moment, was surprised and dumbfounded, and then attempted to proceed ; but the pith was knocked out of his argument, and the Senators only smiled at his earnestness, and he, at last, sat down in disgust. Mr. Douglas afterward said, " That interrogatory of Wade's was the most effective speech I ever heard in the Senate. Con- found the man; it was so ridiculous, and put so comically, I knew not what answer to make him, and became ridiculous myself in not being able to tell 'what I was going to do about it.' " While the Lecompton bill was under discussion, Mr. Toombs, of Georgia, referring to the minority, of which Mr. Wade was one, said : " The majority have rights and duties, and I trust there is fidelity enough to themselves and their principles, and to their country, in the majority, to stand together at all haz- ards, and crush this factious minority." Instantly, Mr. Wade sprang to his feet, and shaking his fist at Toombs, roared out : " Have a care, sir ; have a care. You can't crush me nor my people. You can never conquer us , we will die first. I may fall here in the Senate chamber, but I will never make any compromise with any such men. You may bring a majority and out- vote me, but, so help me God, I will neither compromise or be crushed. That's what I have to say to your threat." A southern Senator one day said, roughly, to Wade, " If you don't stop your abolition doctrines, we will break up the Union. We will secede, sir I" Wade held out his hand, and said, com- HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 251 ically, " Good-by, Senator, if you are going now ; I pray you don't delay a moment on my account." Senator Evans, of South Carolina, a very grave and good old man, one day was exhibiting in the Senate chamber and speak- ing of a copy of Garrison's Liberator, with its horrible pictures of slavery. Turning to Mr. Wade, who sat near him, he said : " Is it not too bad that such a paper should be allowed to exist ? Why will not the authorities of the United States suppress such a slanderous sheet ? Can it be possible that any patriotic citizen of the North will tolerate such an abomination?" Senator Wade put on his spectacles, and looking at the title of the paper, exclaimed in surprise, " Why, Senator Evans, in Ohio, we con- sider this one of our best family papers F' The Senators roared ; but Mr. Evans, who had a great respect for Mr. Wade, turned sadly away, saying, " I am sorry to hear you say so, Mr. Wade ; it shows whither we are drifting." Notwithstanding Mr. Wade's bitter opposition to the slave power, the southern men always respected and liked him. Mr. Toombs, the Georgia fire-eater, said of him, in the Senate : " My friend from Ohio puts the matter squarely. He is always honest, outspoken and straightforward, and I wish to God the rest of you would imitate him. He speaks out like a man. He says what is the difference, and it is. He means what he says ; you don't always. He and I can agree about every thing on earth except our sable population." There was not a northern demagogue in Congress who would not have given gladly all his ill-gotten reputation to have had such a compliment paid him by a southern Senator as was paid by Mr. Toombs to Senator Wade. In the debates on the organization of Kansas as a State, Mr. Wade avowed himself a Kepublican -a Black Eepublican, if they chose to call him so and as determined in his opposition 252 MEN" OF OUR DAY. to slavery extension, under all circumstances and at all times. In the course of one of the speeches he made on that question, he made use of the following language : " Sir, I am no sycophant or worshipper of power anywhere. 1 know how easy it is for some minds to glide along with the cur- rent of popular opinion, where influence, respectability, and all those motives which tend to seduce the human heart are brought to bear. I am not unconscious of the persuasive power exerted by these considerations to drag men along in the current ; but I am not at liberty to travel that road. I am not unaware how unpopular on this floor are the sentiments I am about to advo- cate. I well understand the epithets to which they subject their supporters. Every man who has been in this hall for one hour knows the difference between him who comes here as the de- fender and supporter of th'e rights of human nature, and him who comes as the vile sycophant and flatterer of those in power. I know that the one road is easy to travel ; the other is hard, and at this time perilous. But, sir, I shall take the path of duty and shall not swerve from it. " I am amazed at the facility with which some men follow in the wake of slavery. Sometimes it leads me even to hesitate whether I am strictly correct in my idea that all men are born to equal rights, for their conduct seems to me to contravene the doctrine. I see in some men an abjectness, a want of that manly independence which enables a man to rely on himself and face the world on his own principles, that I don't know but that I am wrong in advocating universal liberty. I wish to heaven all such were of the African race." . The brutal and cowardly attack on Hon. Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks, in May, 1856, called out all the grand and heroic elements of Mr. "Wade's nature. Others might hesitate and fear to enter upon the discussion of the question of slavery, when its advocates resorted to the bludgeon and pistol as their reply to the arguments of the anti-slavery men ; but it was not in Ben Wade to falter. On the next day after the outrage he HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 253 rose and commenced his speech in denunciation of the atrocious deed, with these memorable words : " Mr. President, if the hour has arrived in the history of this Republic when its Senators are to be sacrificed and pay the for- feit of their lives for opinions' sake, I know of no fitter place to die than in this chamber, with our Senate robes around us ; and here, if necessary, I shall die at my post, and in my place, for the liberty of debate and free discussion." The southern men writhed, as if in pain, as his scathing words fell hot and heavy upon them, portraying the cowardice, the meanness, the infamy of the deed, and it required a brow of brass to stand up in defence of it, after this severe yet dignified denunciation of the assault. During the war, Senator Wade was one of the ablest and most untiring members of the Senate. He was chairman of the Committee on Territories, and also of the special Committee on the Conduct of the War, a committee whose services were of the greatest value to the national cause. Ohio has wisely kept him in the Senate for three successive terms, the last of which will end March 4, 1869. In the begin- ning of March, 1867, the term of office of Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, President pro tern of the Senate, and acting Vice-Presi- dent of the United States, having expired, Mr. Wade was elected by the Senate as their presiding officer, a position for which his large experience, thorough political and parliamentary know- ledge, and fearless independence, eminently fitted him. During the impeachment trial, he, according to the Constitution, resigned the chair to the Chief Justice of the United States, whose duty it was to preside in such a trial, and it was the understanding that, in case of the President's conviction, Mr. Wade would suc- ceed to the presidential chair. In person, Mr. Wade is about five feet eight inches in height, 254 MEN OF OUR DAY. stout, and of dark but clear complexion. His eyes are small, jet black and deeply cut, and when roused, they shine like coals of fire. He is slightly stooped, but walks without a cane, and is sprightly and active. His jaws are firm and large, the under one being very strong and compact. The lips are full and round, the upper one doubling, at the corners of his mouth, over the lower one, which gives the Senator a ferocious and savage sort of look ; and this it is that causes so many persons to misunder- stand the true character of the man, and mistake him for a fierce, hard, cold man, when he is, in reality, one of the warmest, kindest-hearted men in the world. His face is not a handsome one, and if you examine it in detail, you will say he is an ugly man ; and yet there is in that face a sort of rough harmony, an honest, bluff, heartiness that makes you like it. There is nothing weak, bad, or treacherous-looking about it ; and when he speaks the features light up, and the mobilized countenance gives to the straightforward words such an interest that you no longer remember his homeliness at all. When sitting silent or listen- ing, he has a way of looking at one with his piercing black eyes that at once disconcerts a rascal or dishonest man, and is often most annoying to the innocent and honest. You feel he is read- ing you and weighing closely your motives for what you are saying. There is no use in trying to deceive or lie to old Ben. "Wade ; if he don't find you out and hint at your motives before you leave, rest assured he understands you, and only keeps his belief to himself, because he does not desire to wound your feelings. We do not think Mr. Wade ever owned such a thing as a finger-ring or breast-pin. He dresses in plain black, and wears a standing- collar of the old style, and is always scrupulously clean. Always talkative and lively when out of his seat, he is gilent, grave and thoughtful when in the Senate chamber. Any HON. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN WADE. 255 one who looks at him from the galleries, as he sits daily in the Yice-President's chair, presiding over the deliberations of the highest tribunal in the land, will see in his quiet repose a pic- ture of real strength "and dignity such as should characterize the American Senator. As chairman of the Committee on Territories, he reported the first provision prohibiting slavery in all the territory of the United States to be subsequently acquired ; the bill for negro suffrage in the District of Columbia ; carried the homestead bill through the Senate ; led the Senate in the division of Virginia and the formation of the new State of "West Virginia; and secured the admission of Nevada and Colorado into the Union. On one point only did he differ from Mr. Lincoln, viz. : his proposed reconstruction policy; and the difference was for a time strong and decided ; but, in the end, Mr. Lincoln acknow- ledged that that was the great error of his life, and receded from the measures he had proposed. HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. [N the life history of this eminent statesman, so widely known and so universally beloved, we have another of those instances of which we have had so many in thia volume, of a man rising by the power of genius and industry from humble life, and filling exalted stations with a grace, ease, and dignity, which could not be surpassed had he been "to the manor born." SCHUYLER COLFAX comes from some of our best revolution- ary stock. His grandfather, Captain Colfax, was the command- ant of General Washington's body-guard ; his grandmother was a near kinswoman of that noble patriot of the Kevolution., Major-General Philip Schuyler. He was born in New York city, March 23d, 1823, his father having died in early manhood, a short time before his birth. When he was ten years old, his mother married again, becoming the " Mrs. Matthews," whom all recent habitues of Washington have seen presiding at her son's receptions. With this event the boy's school life closed, but the scanty term seems to have been well improved, for one of his early schoolmates tells us " Schuyler always stood at the head of his class." The next three years were spent in his step- father's store. In 1836, his stepfather having decided to emi- 256 HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX. 257 grate to the west, Schuyler accompanied his parents to the valley of the St. Joseph river, and they settled in New Carlisle, St. Joseph county, Indiana. The region was then a wilderness, but it is now densely populated, and its thrift, fertility, enterprise and beauty have made it the garden of the State. The five years which followed, were, we believe, spent as clerk in a country store. His disposition to study was inbred, and every leisure moment was improved. A friend and companion of his boyhood, in New York, now an active business man and philanthropist, tells us that, in those days, he and Schuyler Colfax kept up an active correspondence, and that Schuyler's letters always spoke of the studies he was prosecuting by him- self in the wilderness, and were full of knotty questions, which both tried their best to solve. In 1841, his stepfather, Mr. Matthews, was elected county auditor, and removed to South Bend. Schuyler became his deputy, and made such studious use of his leisure, that when but little more than eighteen, he became undisputed authority on precedents, usage, and State laws affecting the auditor's duties. He was also very busily engaged in the study of law at this time. A debating society, that inevitable necessity of American village life, was organized at South Bend in 1843, and, on some one's suggestion, it was transferred into a moot State Legis- ture, of which Hon. J. D. Defrees, since government printer, was speaker, and young Colfax an active member. The rules of parliamentary debate, and the decisions of points of order, were followed with amusing punctiliousness in this body, and Colfax, who had improved his previous familiarity with these matters, by two years' service as Senate reporter for the State Journal, soon became the acknowledged authority on all parliamentary questions, and was thus unconsciously qualifying himself for that post he has since so ably filled. 17 258 MEN OF OUB DAY. In 1845, he started a weekly journal at South Bend, the county seat, with the title of the St. Joseph Valley Register, be- coming its sole proprietor and editor. In this connection it is doubtless proper to correct a mistake into which the public has fallen relative to Mr. Colfax's connection with the printing busi- ness. Mr. Lanman, in his Dictionary of Congress, says : " He was bred a printer." He never was apprenticed to the printing business, and knew nothing of the practical part of the " art pre- servative of all arts," until after he had commenced the publica- tion of the Register. With his ready tact and quick perception, however, and great anxiety to economise, for his means were yet very limited, he soon mastered the art sufficiently to " help out of the drag ;" but he never attained to any great proficiency in the business ; his editorial labors, the business of the office, and other duties, soon claiming his entire attention. The Register prospered, and soon became a source of profit to its proprietor. It was ably edited, and was a model of courtesy and dignity. Every paragraph, however small, seemed to have passed under the supervision, and to reflect the mind and ele- vated thoughts of its editor. How he toiled at this time, and what was the opinion of the people of South Bend of the young editor, are very pleasantly related by Mr. Samuel Wilkeson, in a speech at a press dinner, in Washington, in 1865, at which Mr. Colfax was an honored guest. " Eighteen years ago, at one o'clock of a winter moon-lighted morning, while the horses of the stage-coach in which I was plowing the thick mud of Indiana, were being changed at the tavern in South Bend, as I walked the footway of the principal street to shake off a great weariness, I saw a light through a window. A sign, ' The. Register? was legible above it, and I saw through the window a man in his shirt sleeves walking quickly HOIST. SCHUYLEK COLFAX. 259 about like one that worked. I paused, and looked, and imagined about the man, and about his work, and about the lateness of the hour to which it was protracted ; and I wondered if he was in debt, and was struggling to get out, and if his wife was expecting him, and had lighted a new candle for his coming, and if he was very tired. A coming step interrupted this idle dreaming. When the walker reached my side, I joined him, and as we went on I asked him questions, and naturally they were about the workman in the shirt sleeves. ' What sort of a man is he ?' ' He is very good to the poor ; he works hard ; he is sociable with all people ; he pays his debts ; he is a safe adviser ; he doesn't drink whisky ; folks depend on him ; all this part of Indiana believes in him.' From that day to this, I have never taken up the South Bend Register without thinking of this eulogy, and envying the man who had justly entitled himself to it in the dawn of his manhood." Mr. Colfax himself, in his reply to this speech, acknowledged that in the early history of the newspaper, which numbered but two hundred and fifty subscribers when he established it, he was often compelled to labof far into the hours of the night. His paper was, from the first, Whig in its politics, and frank and outspoken in its expression of opinion on all political questions, but though in a district then strongly Democratic, and sur- rounded by Democratic papers which waged a constant, and often unscrupulous warfare against his paper and his principles, the constant readers of his paper cannot recall a single harsh or intemperate expression in his columns, in reply to the fierce personal attacks made upon him. In the year 1848, Mr. Colfax was appointed a delegate from his adopted State to the Whig National Convention, of which he was elected secretary, and although extremely young, he discharged the functions of his office commendably. In 1850, 260 MEN OF OUE DAY. lie was elected a member of the Indiana State Convention, hav> ing for its object the preparation of a State Constitution. Here he persistently opposed the unmanly clause prohibiting free colored men from entering the State. This clause, submitted separately to the people, was indorsed by majorities of eight thousand in his district' and ninety thousand in the State, yet, where a mere political trimmer would have waived the personal issue, he, like a man, openly voted with the minority, though he was at the time a candidate for Congress. In 1851, unanimously nominated from the ninth district of Indiana, he made a joint canvass with his opponent, Dr. Fitch, and, solely on account of this vote, was defeated by two hundred and sixteen majority, although the district had been Democratic, by large majorities, for many years. In 1852, he was again sent as a delegate to the Whig- National Convention, of which also he was appointed secretary. In 1854, Mr. Colfax was elected to Congress as a Eepublican nominee ; and from that time to the present, he has always occu- pied his seat as a Representative. At the opening of the Thirty -fourth Congress occurred the memorable contest for the speakership, resulting in the election of Mr. Banks to that position. During that session Mr. Coifax took his stand as one of the most promising of our Congres- sional debaters. His speech, upon the then all-absorbing topic" of the extension of slavery and the aggressions of the slave power, was a masterly effort, and stamped him at once as a most influ- ential orator. This speech was circulated throughout the coun- try at the time, and was used as a campaign document by the Fremont party during the canvass of 1856. Five hundred thousand copies of it were issued, a compliment perhaps never before received by any member of Congress. Mr. Colfax labored zealously for John C. Fremont, who wag HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX. 261 his personal friend : the result of that campaign is well known. In the Thirty-fifth Congress, Mr. Colfax was elected to the im- portant position of Chairman to the Committee on Post Offices and Post Eoads, \vhich place he continued to hold until his elec- tion as Speaker to the Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 7th of December, 1853, to which responsible position he has since been twice re-elected to the Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses honors awarded before only to Henry Clay. As Speaker of the House of Representatives he is ready, seldom hesitating, to replace a wosd, or failing to touch the quick of a question, never employing any thing for stage effect ; but straightforward, direct, and often exquisitely elegant in image and diction, he is, in the genuine sense, eloquent. His every speech is a success, and though one often wonders how he will extricate himself, in the varied and often untimely calls made upon his treasury, he always closes with added wealth of grati- fied admirers. If George Canning was once the Cicero of the British Senate, Schuyler Colfax is to-day that of the American House. In the chair, he is suave and forbearing almost to excess, but as impartial as the opposite Congressional clock. Nothing escapes him, nothing nonplusses him. The marvel of his pre- siding watchfulness is equaled alone by the intuitive, rapid solu- tion of the knotty point suddenly prese'nted, and having either no precedent, or, at best, but a very distant one. In every quan- dary, the Indiana Legislature, or the Journal reporter, or the persistent student of Jefferson or Gushing, or all, rally to the rescue of the wondering House and still smiling chairman. The advocate is never confused with the judge. While presiding, it is as difficult to remember, as when debating to forget, that he is radically a Eadical. He was one of the first advocates, and is still one of the 262 MEN OF OUR DAY. warmest friends, of the Pacific railroad. Indeed, he takes a warm interest in any movement looking to the development of the boundless resources of the great "West. It was, doubtless, the interest he feels in this section of the country, which induced him to take his celebrated journey " Across the Continent." His trip was a perilous one, but his welcome at " the other end of the line " was so spontaneous, truly genuine and heartfelt, that it more than repaid him for all the dangers and hardships he passed through. This tour led him to prepare one of the most enter- taining lectures ever delivered in this country. It has been lis- tened to with rapt attention by the people of almost every city in the North. Pecuniarily, however, it has profited him but little, for with that liberality which has ever been a marked trait in his character, the entire proceeds of a lecture have as often been donated to some charitable object as they have found their way into his own pocket. His intimacy and confidential relations with Mr. Lincoln are well known. They labored hand in hand as brothers in the cause of the Union, holding frequent and protracted interviews on all subjects looking to the overthrow of the rebellion, for there were no divisions between the executive and legislative branches of the Government, then, as there are now. There was a patriot at the head of the Government then a statesman who could give counsel, but often needed it as well. During' the darkest hours of that bloody drama which shall ever remain a reproach upon the people of one section of the nation, they were ever cheerful and hopeful. Confident in the justness of the war waged for the preservation of the Union, and placing a Christian reliance in that Providence which guides and shapes the destiny of nations, great reverses, which caused others to fear and trem- ble, at times almost to despair, seemed only to inspire them with HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX. 263 greater zeal and a firmer belief in the ultimate triumph of our cause. There has not been a great radical measure before the country, since his advent into Congress, that he has not supported with all the warmth of his ardent nature. But he is not one who will rush blindly forward into a pitfall. He would rather make haste slowly, that no backward step may be necessary he duly weigh, every measure in all its bearings, and from its various standpoints, before committing himself irrevocably to any par- ticular line of action relative to the subjects under considera- tion. Previous to his ref-election as speaker of the Thirty-ninth Congress, in response to a serenade tendered him, he said : " The danger is in too much precipitation. Let us, rather, make haste slowly, and then we can hope that the foundation of our Government, when thus reconstructed on the basis of indisputa- ble loyalty, will be as eternal as the stars." Had this warning been heeded, much of the legislation of the Thirty-ninth Congress would have needed no revision at the hands of the one which has succeeded it. His course, while in the great council of the nation, has been one of straightforward, unswerving integrity; and he counts many friends among even his political opponents. He has so discharged the important duties of the speakership, that he is considered one of the best presiding officers that has ever been called upon to conduct the proceedings of agreat body. Mr. Colfax is only forty-five years of age. In personal ap- pearance, he is of medium height, solid and compactly built. His hair and whiskers are brown, now a little tinged with gray. His countenance has a pleasing and intellectual expression. His person is graceful, and his manner denotes unusual energy. His eyebrows are light in color, and overshadow eyes which sparkle with intelligence and good-humor. He is strongly affectionate 264 MEN OF OUR DAY. and kindly in disposition. Whenever his mother-in-law appears in the gallery of the House, Mr. Colfax generally calls some member to the chair, and goes immediately to her side. Such a trait in his character serves still further to deepen the respect and esteem in which he is held everywhere. As a speaker, Mr. Colfax is earnest, frank, pointed and fluent. His manner is pleasing, and his language is always well-chosen and refined. Urbane in demeanor, and courteous and fair to- ward opponents, he always commands respect and attention on both sides of the House. He is zealous and fearless in main- taining his principles, though his benevolence and good-humor so temper his speeches that he gains few or no enemies. He is one of the few whose personal qualities have secured exemption from the bitterness of feeling generally displayed by the friends of pro-slavery aggression toward their opponents. He seldom indulges in oratorical flourish, but goes straight to his subject, which, with his keenly perceptive intellect, he penetrates to the bottom ; while his close, logical reasoning presents his aspect of a question in its strongest light. On the question, " Shall freedmen be citizens, and be allowed the right of suffrage ?" he took an early opportunity of avowing his views. At the opening of the second session of the Thirty- ninth Congress, he said : " The Creator is leading us in his own way rather than our own. He has put all men on an equality before Divine law,* and demands that we shall put all men upon the same equality before human law." In an address delivered in 1867, before the Union League club of New York, we find these eloquent passages : " How rapidly and yet how gloriously we are making history ; Dut posterity will read it on the open pages of our country's an- nals. Six years ago how brief it seems but a fraction of an individual's life but a breath in the life of a nation the banners HOX. SCHUYLER COLFAX 265 of rebellion waved over the hostile armies and stolen forts from the Potomac to the Kio Grande, and the on looking world predicted the certain downfall of the Kepublic. Now, thanks to our gallant armies and their gallant commanders Grant the inflexible Sherman the conqueror Sheridan the invincible and all their compatriots on sea and shore but one flag waves over the land the flag that Washington loved, and that Jack- son, and Scott, and Taylor adorned with their brilliant victories the flag dearer to us in all its hours of peril than when gilded by the sunshine of prosperity and fanned by the zephyrs of peace, at last triumphant, unquestioned, unassailed. Six years ago, millions of human beings born on American soil, created by the same Divine Father, destined to the same eternal here- after, were subject to sale like the swine of the sty, or the beasts of the field, and our escutcheon was dimmed and dishonored by the stain of American Slavery. To-day, auction-blocks, and manacles, and whipping-posts are, thank God, things of the past, while the slave himself has become the citizen, with the freedman's weapon of protection the ballot in his own right hand. Nor can we forget, while rejoicing over this happy contrast, the human agencies so potential to its accomplishment. First, and conspicuous among the rest, rises before my mind the tall form of a martyred President, whose welcome step no mortal ear shall ever listen to again. Faithful to his oath, faithful to his country, faithful to the brave armies his word called to the field, he never swerved a hair's breadth from his determination to crush this mighty rebellion, and all that gives it aid, and comfort, and support. Unjustly and bitterly de- nounced, by his enemies and yours, as a usurper and despot ; compared to Nero and Caligula, and all other tyrants whose base deeds blacken the pages of history, your noble League stood by him amid this tempest of detraction, cordially and to 266 MEN" OF OUR DAY. the end; and you have now your abundant vindication and reward. Though the torch of slander was lit at every avenue of his public life while he lived, the civilized world would become mourners at his coffin ; and with those libelous tongues hushed, oar whole land enshrines his memory to-day with the Father of the Country he saved." * ****** "I cannot doubt the future of the great party which has won these triumphs and established these principles. It has been so brilliantly successful, because it recognized liberty and justice as its cardinal principles ; and because, scorning all prejudices and defying all opprobrium, it allies itself to the cause of the humble and the oppressed. It sought to enfranchise, not to enchain ; to elevate, not to tread down ; to protect, never to abuse. It cared for the humblest rather than for the mightiest for the weakest rather than the strongest. It recognized that the glory of states and nations was justice to the poorest and feeblest. And another secret of its wondrous strength was that it fully adopted the striking injunction of our murdered chief: ' With malice toward none, with charity for all, but with firmness for the right, as God gives us to see the right.' Only last month the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, in defend- ing his Eeform bill, which holds the word of promise to the ear to break it to the hope, exclaimed : ' This is a nation of classes, and must remain so.' If I may be pardoned for replying, I would say : ' This is a nation of freemen, and it must remain so.' Faithful to the traditions of our fathers in sympathizing with all who long for the maintenance or advancement of liberty in Mexico or England, in Ireland or Crete, and yet carefully avoiding all entangling alliances or violations of the law, with a recognition from ocean to ocean, North and South alike, of the right of all citizens bound by the law to share in the choice of HON. SCHUYLEB COLFAX. 267 the law-maker, and thus to have a voice in the country their heart's blood must defend, our centennial anniversary of the Declaration of Independence will find us as an entire nation, recognizing the great truths of that immortal Magna Charta, enjoying a fame wide as the world and eternal as the stars, with a prosperity that shall eclipse in future all the brightest glories of the past." Eeligion gained the early adherence of Mr. Colfax, who many years ago began a Christian life, joining the Dutch Eeformed Church, and serving humbly and usefully as a Sunday school teacher for twelve years. The " pious passages" so frequent in his public speeches are not mere sentiment or oratorical arts, for he loves to talk, in private, of how God rules and how distinctly and how often, in our history, his holy arm has been revealed ; and the ascription of praise comes from a worship- ping heart, reliant on Grod through Christ. His personal ex- ample at Washington is luminous. When twenty, he made vows of strict abstinence, which have never been broken. Liquors and wines are never used at his receptions, while Presidential dinners and diplomatic banquets are utterly power- less to abate one jot or tittle of his firmness. Many of our readers well remember his speech at a Congressional temper- ance meeting, and how he banished the sale of liquor from all parts of the Capitol within his jurisdiction. On the 21st of May, 1868, the National Eepublican Union Convention, in session at Chicago, nominated Mr. Colfax as their candidate for the vice-presidency, on the fifth ballot, his name receiving five hundred and twenty-two votes out of the six hundred and fifty polled. To this nomination, all the people will doubtless say "Amen." HON. WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. JILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN; for nearly a year, during the war, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, and now, as well as previous to his holding that office, United States Senator from Maine, bears the reputation of being one of the most accomplished scholars, and the ablest financier of the Senate. He was born in Boscawen, Merrimac county, New Hampshire, October 16, 1806. He was of an ex- cellent family, his father, Hon. Samuel Fessenden, as well as other relatives, having done the State good service. From early childhood he was addicted to study, and at the age of thirteen, entered Bowdoin college, Brunswick, Maine, where he graduated with higji honors, in 1823. He at once turned his attention to legal studies, and was admitted to the bar, on attaining his majority in 1827. He practiced his pro- fession for two years in Bridgeton, Maine, and in 1829 removed to Portland, Maine, where he has since resided. In 1831, he was elected to the Maine Legislature, and though its youngest member, he soon distinguished himself, both as an orator and a legislator. A speech of his in this Legislature, in the discus- sion concerning the Bank of the United States, was referred to, for years, as evincing extraordinary ability and eloquence. From 1832 to 1839, Mr. Fessenden declined all political office, and devoted himself exclusively to his profession, in which he 268 HON. WILLIAM PITT FESSEJSTDEN". 269 rapidly rose to the first rank in his State, both as a counsellor and advocate. He was offered a nomination to Congress, as early as 1831, but refused it. In 1839 he was again elected to the State Legislature, as a representative of the city of Portland. He was, as he had been from his first entrance upon public life, a Whig, but such was the conviction of his ability, that though the Democrats were largely in the majority in the Legislature, the chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee was assigned to him, and he was, beside, chosen president of a special commis- sion, to revise and codify the statutes of the State. In 1840, he received the nomination, by acclamation, of his party, for Eepresentative in Congress, and was elected by a handsome majority, though the district had previously been Democratic. He acquitted himself with great honor, taking part in the more important debates, and attracting attention, by the soundness of his views, the clearness of his logic, his elo- quence and sarcasm, but at the close of his term declined a re- nomination, and returned with new zest to his profession, of which he seemed never to weary. He sat in the State Legisla- ture in 1845 and 1846, but declined any other public office. In 1845, the Whigs in the Legislature, though in a minority, com- plimented him with their vote for United States Senator. From this time onward, for seven years, his already national reputation in his profession kept him constantly and profitably employed. During this period he was associated with Daniel Webster in an important case before the Supreme Court at Washington, in- volving a legal question never before discussed in that court, viz. : how far the fraudulent acts of an auctioneer in selling property, should affect the owner of the property sold, he being no party to the fraud. Mr. Fessenden had to contend against the weight and influence of Judge Story's opinion and decision against his client in the court below. He was successful and 270 MEN OF OIJR DAY> Judge Story's decision was reversed. His argument on that occasion was remarkable for its logical force and legal acuteness, and won the highest admiration of the court and the eminent lawyers in attendance. In 1850, Mr. Fessenden was elected to Congress, but the seat was given to his competitor, through an error in the returns, and Mr. Fessenden declined to contest it, from his unwillingness to serve in that body, the nomination having been forced upon him, against his declared wishes. In 1840, he was a member of the national convention, which nominated General Harrison for the presidency ; in 1848 of that which nominated General Taylor, and in 1852 of the convention which nominated General Scott. In 1848, he had supported Mr. Webster, but in 1852, he voted against him, on account of his recently declared opin- ions on the fugitive slave law compromise and other topics. In the convention of 1852, he was one of the sixty-seven who opposed and voted against the platform, at that time set up by the Whig party. In 1853 he was again elected a member of the State Legislature, and was chosen United States Senator, by the Senate, but the House, being Democratic, failed to concur, and no Senator was chosen. The House, however, though opposed to him in politics, associated him with the Hon. Eeuel Williams in the purchase of a large body of wild lands of Massachusetts, lying in Maine, which was successfully accomplished. In 1854, Mr. Fessenden was again a member of the Legislature, which was Democratic in both branches. The Kansas-Nebraska question, operating to produce a division among the Demo- crats, Mr. Fessenden was chosen United States Senator on the first ballot, by a union of the Whigs and free soil Democrats. Though he declined to be elected except as a Whig, this event may be said to have been the preliminary step toward establish- ing the Republican party in Maine, the necessity of which new HOX. WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 271 organization, after the action of the main body of southern Whigs on the Nebraska bill, Mr. Fessenden was one of the first to proclaim and advocate. He took his seat in the Senate, February 23, 1854, and on the night of March 3, following, at which time the bill was passed, delivered one of the most elec- tric and effective speeches made against it. This effort esta- blished his reputation at once, as one of the ablest members of the Senate. Of his subsequent speeches in the Senate, during his first senatorial term, the most important were : on a bill to protect United States officers (1855); on our relations with England ; on Kansas affairs ; on the president's message (1856) ; on the Iowa senatorial election (1857) ; and on the Lecompton Constitution (1858). He also took a prominent part in the general debates and business of the Senate, and was a leading member of the finance committee. In 1859, he was re-elected United States Senator for six years, by a unanimous vote of his party in the Legislature, without the formality of a previous nomination, it being the first instance of the kind in the history of the State. In the distribution of committees in the Senate, he was at once made chairman of the Committee on Finance, and of the Library Committee, and appointed one of the Kegents of the Smithsonian Institution. Bowdoin college, his alma mater, had, in 1858, conferred on him the degree of LL. D. ; Harvard university bestowed the same honor upon him in 1864. In 1861, he was appointed one of the members of the peace confer- ence, which met in February of that year. During the war, while in the Senate, Mr. Fessenden upheld the national cause with great vigor and ability, and as chairman of the finance committee, aided, so far as was in his power, the patriotic efforts of Secretary Chase, to maintain the national credit and honor. Owing to impaired health, he took a less active part in the sena- 272 MEN OF OUR DAY. torial debates than in previous years, but he was never remiss in attention to his duties, in relation to the finances. On the 30th of June, 1864, Mr. Chase, who had managed with great ability the financial affairs of the nation, under circumstan- ces of extraordinary difficulty, resigned his secretaryship. This resignation created instant alarm, and gold, which had stood at 86 premium on the 28th of June, and 90 on the 30th, rose rapidly until it reached 185 premium on the llth of July. Mr. Lincoln nominated Mr. Fessenden at once to the vacant secretaryship, but he was very reluctant to accept it, both on account of the precarious state of his health, which rendered the performance of the duties of such a position almost impossi- ble, and because of its great difficulties and fearful responsibili- ties. After some days' deliberation, however, he yielded to the urgencies of the other Senators and cabinet officers, and entered upon his duties on the 5th of July, 1864. The situation was indeed critical. Specie payments had been long since suspended, and with the increasing emission of legal- tender notes, and the various forms of loans which the exigen- cies of the war had rendered necessary, the currency had rapidly depreciated, till, as we have said, gold stood, six days after Mr. Fessenden accepted office, at one hundred and eighty-five dol- lars premium, or, in other words, the paper dollar was worth only about thirty-four cents. Provision had, indeed, been made by Secretary Chase for the sale of new loans, the five-twenty bonds and the seven-thirty treasury notes fundable in three years in the five-twenty bonds, with six per cent, interest paya- ble in coin, but the sale of these was as yet slow. Except Ger- many, Holland, and Switzerland, the foreign markets would not deal in our bonds, and there was a general apprehension abroad of our national bankruptcy. To this two causes had greatly contributed: the utter worthlessness of the bonds of the so- HON. WILLIAM PITT FES3EXDEN. 273 called Southern Confederacy, which naturally, though unjustly, threw discredit on our securities ; and the want of military suc- cess, notwithstanding the frightful and rapidly accumulating expenditure, which now amounted to from two and a half to three millions of dollars per day. The vast armies in the field, and the great naval force afloat, could not be maintained without immense resources, and they could not be reduced until the rebellion was subdued. For Mr. Fessenden, then, the problems to be solved were these: to raise promptly, as needed, the very large sums of money wanted for the efficient prosecution of the war, and, at the same time, to enhance the national credit and reputation to such an extent that the bonds, treasury and legal-tender notes should approximate more nearly to the value of coin. With the army and navy well and promptly paid, and by the offering of bounties, kept up to the highest standard of efficiency, it might reasonably be hoped that victories would come, and a few of these would be sufficient to finish the war. Mr. Fessenden wisely judged that it was best to make a frank and manly appeal to the nation, whose patriotism had nevei flagged during the war, to subscribe liberally to the public loans, and especially to those known as seven-thirties, which were con- vertible, at the end of three years, into six per cent, five-twenty bonds, the interest of which last was payable in coin. This appeal, seconded by the energetic advertising system of Mr. Jay Cooke, whom Mr. Fessenden, like his predecessor, had intrusted with the sale of the loans, soon brought a sufficiency of funds into the treasury, without the necessity of attempting to procure loans from abroad, and the European bankers were soon eager to buy those bonds which a few months before they had refused with scorn. He avoided, meanwhile, any farther issue of legal- tender notes, or greenbacks, as they were popularly called, ami, 18 274 MEN OF OUR DAY. by conciliatory representations, soothed the irritation of the State banking institutions, and induced them to adopt the na- tional system, to which they had hitherto been averse. This was a consummate stroke of policy, for it at once secured a market for nearly three hundred and fifty millions of the bonds, and removed the State currency from the market, substituting for it national bank notes, which were at par all over the coun- try. In the purchase of the bonds, too, the legal-tender notes were paid into the treasury, to such an extent, that the Govern- ment held in its own hands the power of reducing, as fast as seemed necessary, the volume of circulation. This admirable financial management, aided by the great suc- cesses of our arms on sea and land, soon enhanced the value of the legal-tender currency, and, on the 4th of March, 1865, when Mr. Fessenden resigned the secretaryship, to return to the Sen- ate, gold was at ninety-nine per cent, premium, and on the llth of May following, had fallen to thirty per cent. Another part of Mr. Fessenden's financial system had reference to a more comprehensive and effective system of taxation. Con- gress, during Mr. Chase's secretaryship, had hesitated to levy so large and severe taxes as the emergency demanded, and though he had urged it with all his eloquence and ability, they had always fallen far short of what he had assured them was neces sary. But when Mr. Fessenden, who had been one of them- selves, and knew all the objections they could urge against rais ing the larger part of the required revenue by direct taxation, assured them that heavy taxes were indispensable, they came up to the mark, and were astonished to find how readily the people responded. On the 4th of March, 1865, Mr. Fessenden, having meantime been re-elected to the Senate for six years from that date, re- signed his office as Secretary of the Treasury, and took his seat HON. WILLIAM PITT FESSEXDEN. 273 again in the Senate chamber, and was immediately appointed chairman of the finance committee. Mr. Fessenden has, since that time, continued an active and able member of the Senate, participating in its debates, espe- cially on questions of finance and reconstruction. He has dif- fered somewhat, though not radically, from other members of the Eepublican party on the latter question, and though he speaks with much of his former fire and earnestness, years of infirm health have somewhat impaired the amenity of his tem- per, and there is, at times, a bitterness and imperious tone in his speeches, which not even his rare abilities and extensive culture can wholly justify.* Yet he is, withal, one of the ablest of the " men of our day." In wide and generous scholarship, in profound legal attain- ments, and in eminent financial knowledge and capacity, he is the peer of any man in the Senate. With the added grace of a kindly and genial disposition, he might easily rule all hearts, and win for himself a deathless fame. * His action on the question of the conviction of Mr. Johnson in the impeachment trial, has disappointed and distressed all his friends, to whom it was entirely unexpected. That it should have excited strong and severe denunciation, was inevitable, and though the motives which influenced him are as yet inexplicable, his whole past history and his elevated per- sonal character prohibit the belief that they were sordid or mercenary. It has been attributed also to personal animosity, and to disappointed ambition ; but we hope these motives had as little weight as the other. HON. JAMES HARLAN. ON. JAMES HARLAN, late Secretary of the Interior, and now United States Senator from Iowa, was born in Clark county, Illinois, August 26th, 1820. "When he was three years of age his parents removed to Indiana, where he was employed during his minority in assisting his father upon the farm. His early advantages of education were small but they were improved to the utmost. In the year 1841, he entered the preparatory department of Asbury University, then under the presidency of the present Bishop Simpson. He graduated from the university with honor, in 1845, having paid his way by teaching, at intervals, during his college course. In the winter of 1845-6, he was elected professor of lan- guages in Iowa City college, and removed thither. He soon became popular in the city and State, and in 1847 was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction. His competitor for this office was Hon. Charles Mason, a distinguished gradu- ate of West. Point, who had served as Chief Justice of the Federal court of Iowa Territory during the whole period of its existence, a gentleman of great ability and unblemished reputa- tion, and the nominee of the Democratic party, who had been, and subsequently were, the dominant party in the State. . His election over such a competitor was highly creditable to him, especially as he had been a resident of the State but two years. 276 HON. JAMES HARLAN. 277 In 1848, Mr. Harlan was superseded by Thomas H. Beuton, Jr., who was reported by the canvassing officers elected by seventeen majority. The count was subsequently conceded to have been fraudulent, though Mr. Benton was- not cognizant of the fraud. Mr. Harlan had been for some time engaged in the study of law, in his intervals of leisure, and now applied himself to it more closely, and was admitted to the bar in 1848, He continued the practice of his profession for five years, and was eminently successful in it. During this period (in 1849) he was nominated by his party for governor, but not being of the constitutional age for that office, he declined the nomination. In 1853, he was elected, by the annual conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, President of the Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute, which during the winter following was re-organized under an amended charter as a university, and Mr. Harlan was retained in the presidency. His energy and industry found full scope in this position, and for the next two years the university grew and prospered. On the 6th of January, 1855, without any candidacy, or even knowledge of his nomination, Mr. Harlan was elected by the Legislature, United States Senator from Iowa, for the six years commencing March 4th, 1855. As a pretended informality in this election was made the occasion of his being unseated by the Democratic majority in the United States Senate, two years later, it may be well to give a somewhat more detailed account of this election. In accordance with the custom and the Con- stitution of Iowa, the Senate and House of Eepresenatives of the Iowa Legislature met, in joint session, soon after the first of January, 1855, to elect a Senator and judges. The two parties were nearly balanced in both houses, and at first there was no election ; they adjourned from day to day, when the Democrats found that a majority could be obtained on joint 278 MEN OF OUR DAY. ballot for Mr. Harlan as Senator, and to prevent this, the Democratic members of the State Senate withdrew, intending thereby to render an election void. But as the Democratic members of the House remained, there was a quorum of the joint session present, and Mr. Harlan was elected by a clear majority of both houses. On his election to the Senate, Mr. Harlan resigned the presidency of the university, but accepted the professorship of political economy and international law, to which he was immediately elected, and which he still holds. He took his seat in the United States Senate, December 3d, 1855, and his first formal speech was made on the 27th of March, 1856, on the question of the admission of Kansas. It was pronounced at the time, by both friends and foes, the ablest argument on that side of the question delivered during the pro- tracted debate. Later in the session, on the occasion of his presenting the memorial of James H. Lane, praying the accept- ance of the petition of the members of the Kansas territorial Legislature, for the admission of their territory into the Union as a State, he administered a most scathing rebuke to the Democratic majority in the Senate for their tyrannical and oppressive course in regard to Kansas. The Eepublicans at this time numbered but a baker's dozen in the Senate, and it had been the fashion with the Democratic majority to refuse intercourse, and a place on the committees, to some of them on the ground that they were outside of any healthy political organization. They had been disposing, as they hoped, forever, of the Eepublican leader in the Senate (Mr. Sumner), by the use of the bludgeon, and they were greatly enraged at the castigation which they now received from another member of the little band, and resolved to rid themselves of him also. For this purpose, nursing their wrath to keep it warm, they HOX. JAMES HARLAX. 279 called up the action of the Democrats of the Iowa Senate to which we have already alluded, and early in the second session of the Thirty-fourth Congress, introduced a resolution that " James Harlan is not entitled to his seat as a Senator from Iowa." The resolution was fiercely debated, but the majority, confident in their strength, passed it by a full party vote on the 12th of January, 1857. Their triumph was short. Immediately on the passage of the resolution Mr. Harlan left Washington for Iowa City, where the State Legislature, now unmistakably Eepublican, was in session ; he arrived there on Friday evening, January 16th. On the next day, Saturday, he was re-elected by both houses to the Senate, spent a few days at his home in Mount Pleasant, returned to Washington, was re-sworn, and resumed his seat on the 29th of January. The next session of Congress brought valuable additions to the strength of the Kepublican party in the Senate, but it had no truer member than Mr. Harlan, and his fearlessness, conscientiousness, industry, integrity, and ability as a debater, made him an acknowledged leader in it. In 1861, he was re-elected for the term ending March 4th, 1867, without a dissenting voice in his party at home. He was a member of the Peace Congress in 1861, but- after seeing the luembers sent from the slave States, and witnessing the election of Ex- President John Tyler presiding officer, he predicted that its deliberations would end in a miserable failure. During the whole course of the war, he was the earnest sup- porter of President Lincoln, whose personal friendship he en- joyed ; and through all the light and gloom of that dark period, his faith in the right never faltered, and his activity and zeal were not checked by depressing emotions. He and his accom- plished and gifted wife were throughout the war among the 280 MEN OF OUR DAY. most active helpers in the work of the Sanitary and Christian Commissions, ministering in person to the wounded, and aiding, with pen and purse, the efforts for their welfare. As a Senator, as the published debates of Congress show, he argued and elucidated with great clearness and conclusiveness every phase of the question of slavery and emancipation, in all their social, legal and economic ramifications the exclusion of slavery from the territories the constitutional means of restriction climatic influences on the races, white and black the necessity or propriety of colonization and the effects of emancipation on the institutions of the country North and South. He was the earnest advocate of the early construction of the Pacific Eailroad had made himself, by a careful examination, master of the whole subject was consequently appointed a member of the " Senate Committee on the Pacific Eailroad ;" and when the two bodies differed as to the details of the bill, he was made chairman of the committee of conference of the two houses, and did more than any other living man to reconcile conflicting views on the amended bill which afterwards became the law of the land. As chairman of the Committee on Public Lands, he exerted a controlling influence in shaping the policy of the Government in the disposition of the public domain, so as to aid in the construction of railroads, and the improvement of other avenues of intercourse, as well as to advance the individual interests of the frontier settler, by facilitating his acquisition of a landed estate, and also by securing a permanent fund for the support of common schools for the masses, and other institutions of learning. Under his guidance the laws for the survey, sale, and pre-emption of the public lauds were harmonized, and the homestead bil so modified, as to render it a practical and HOX. JAMES HARLAN. 281 beneficent measure for the indigent settler, and at the same time but slightly, if at all, detrimental to the public treasury. And on this as well as that other great national measure, the Pacific Railroad bill, above mentioned, when the two houses disagreed as to details, Mr.' Harian was selected by the Presi- dent of the Senate, to act as chairman of the committee of conference. His thorough acquaintance with the land laws, his clear perception of the principles of justice and equity which should control in their administration, and his unwearied industry and care in the examination of all claims presented to Congress growing out of the disposition of the public lands to private citizens, corporations, or States caused him to be regarded almost in the light of an oracle, by his compeers in the Senate, whenever any of these claims were pending ; his statements, of fact were never disputed, and his judgment almost always followed. Immediately after he was placed upon the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, it became manifest that he had made himself master of that whole subject in all of its details. He conse- quently exercised a leading influence on the legislation of Congress affecting our intercourse with these children of the forest ; humanity and justice to them, as well as the safety of the frontier settlements from savage warfare, with him were cardi- nal elements, to guide him in shaping the policy of the Govern- ment. The effect of the repeal, over Mr. Harlan's earnest protest, of the beneficent features of the Indian intercourse laws, under the lead of Senator Hunter, which, all admit, laid the foundation for our recent Indian wars, furnishes a marked illustration of the safety of his counsels in these affairs. As a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, he was the earnest advocate of every measure calculated to develop 282 MEN OF OTJR DAY. and advance that great national interest, and prepared the only report, marked by scientific research, made on that subject by the Senate Committee during the last ten years. He gave his earnest support to the Agricultural College bill, though in con- flict with his views of the proper policy for the disposition of the public lands, because he regarded it as the only opportu- nity for laying firmly the foundation for these nurseries of scientific agriculture, which must prove of vast consequence for good, to the whole people of this continent, and the toiling millions of the old world. Though never unjust or illiberal toward the older and more powerful members of the Union, he has ever been the vigilant guardian of the peculiar interests of the new States, including his own. He has also been a no less vigilant guardian of the public treasury, though never lending himself to niggardly and parsimonious measures. His inauguration of the proposition for the construction of a ship canal from the northern lakes to the waters of the Mississippi (see Congress. Globe, 2d session, 36 Congress, Part I.) ; his opposition to legislation on the Sabbath ; his introduc- tion of resolutions on fasting and prayer ; his propositions for reform in the chaplain service of the army and navy ; in aid of foreign emigration; the reconstruction of the insurrectionary States ; the reclamation of the Colorado desert ; the improvement of navigation of lakes and rivers ; the application of meteorolo- gical observations in aid of agriculture to land as well as sea ; for the support of scientific explorations and kindred measures ; for reform in criminal justice in the District of Columbia and in the territories ; and his remarks on such subjects as the bank- rupt bill ; the Kentucky Volunteers bill ; the bill to re-organize the Court of Claims ; on the resolution relating to Floyd's accept- ances; on the bill to indemnify the President; on the conscrip- HON. JAMES HARLAN. 283 tion bill ; on the conditions of release of State prisoners ; on the disqualification of color in carrying the mails ; on the organiza- tion of territories ; on amendment to the Constitution ; on the district registration bill ; on bill to establish Freedmen's Bureau ; on inter-continentg.1 telegraph ; on bill providing bail in certain cases of military arrests ; on the construction of railroads ; on education in the District of Columbia for white and colored children ; on the Income Tax bill ; altogether furnish an indica- v tion of the range of his acquirements, the tendency of his thoughts, and the breadth of his views, which cannot otherwise be given in a sketch necessarily so brief as to exclude copious extracts from published debates. Among his numerous eloquent and elaborate speeches in the Senate, we have only room for a brief abstract of one, which must serve as a sample of the whole. It is that delivered in reply to Senator Hunter of Virginia, during the winter of 1860- 61, immediately preceding the first overt acts of the rebellion. This speech was characteristic in clearness, method, directness, force, and conclusiveness, and was regarded, by his associates in the Senate, as the great speech of the session. In the commence- ment, he examined and exposed, in their order, every pretext for secession, and proceeded to charge upon the authors of the then incipient rebellion, with unsurpassed vigor and force, that the loss of political power was their real grievance. He indi- cated the impossibility of any compromise, on the terms proposed by the southern leaders, without dishonor, and pointed out the means of an adjustment alike honorable to the South and the North, requiring no retraction of principle on the part of any one, by admitting the territories into the Union as States. He warned the South against a resort to an arbitrament of the sword ; predicted the impossibility of their sec uring a division of the States of the northwest from the Middle and New Bng- OF OUR DAY. land States the certainty and comparative dispatch with which an armed rebellion would be crushed, and concluded with a most powerful appeal to these conspirators not to plunge the country into such a sea of blood. Upon the conclusion of this speech four fifths of the Union Senators crowded around to con- gratulate him, and a state of excitement prevailed on the floor of the Senate for some moments, such as had seldom if ever before been witnessed in that body. He was selected by the Union members of the House and Senate as a member of the Union Congressional committee for the management of the presidential campaign of 1864. Being the only member of the committee on the part of the Senate who devoted his whole time to this work,, he became the active organ of the committee organized an immense working force, regulated its finances with ability and unimpeachable fidelity, employed -a large number of presses in Washington, Balti- more, Philadelphia, and New York, in printing reading matter for the masses, which resulted in the distribution of many mil- lions of documents among the people at home, and in all our great armies. To his labors the country was, doubtless, largely indebted, for the triumphant success of the Union can- didates. "With the foregoing record, it is not remarkable that he should have been selected by that illustrious statesman and patriot, Abraham Lincoln, immediately preceding his lamented death, for the distinguished office of Secretary of the Interior. Mr. Harlan's nomination was unanimously confirmed by the body of which he was at the time an honored member, without the usual reference to a committee. But, immediately after the accession of Mr. Johnson to the presidency, with a delicacy and sense of propriety worthy of imitation, he tendered his declination of this high office. This not being accepted, Mr. HON. JAMES HARLAN. 285 Harlan did not deem it proper, in the disturbed condition of public affairs, to make it peremptory, and, in accordance with the President's expressed desire, and the demands of the national welfare, resigned his seat in the Senate, and entered on the dis- charge of the duties of the position, May loth, 1865. Mr. Harlan's great familiarity with the laws pertaining to the de- partment of which he had now become the leading spirit, not only enabled him fully to meet public expectation in the admin- istration of its affairs, but to establish it upon a basis of useful- ness, hitherto unknown in its history. The fact becoming manifest to the people of Iowa, that Mr. Harlan could not long remain as a confidential adviser of Presi- dent Johnson, on account of the early and repeated aberrations of the latter from the cardinal principles of the political party by whom he had been elected to the vice -presidency, and not being disposed to dispense with the services of so faithful a public ser- vant, he was re-elected by the Legislature of 1866, to his old seat in the United States Senate. The following August he resigned the office of Secretary of the Interior, and re-entered the Senate Chamber on the 4th of March, 1867, with the full period of six years before him. He was immediately appointed chairman of the Committee on the District of Columbia, also chairman of the joint committee of the two Houses of Con- gress to audit expenses of executive mansion, and was assigned to membership on the important committees of Foreign Bela- tions, Pacific railroad, and Post Offices, and Post roads, respec- tively. No better evidence can be found in the history of any states- man in the country, whether his public services or his private character be viewed, that the duties of high official position have been ably, conscientiously and faithfully executed, than in the instance before us. Even party malignity, seldom scr.ipu- 286 MEN OP OUR DAY. lous as to the weapons it employs against a powerful adversary, has uniformly been too prudent to weaken itself by charging, even in innuendo, that Mr. Harlan was ever guilty of any of the corruptions, peculations and deceptions that so frequently mark the modern politician. HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, UNITED STATES MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO ENGLAND. 'HIS eminent diplomatist comes of an illustrious lineage. The only son of John Quincy Adams, sixth President of the Republic, who survived his father, and the grand- son of John Adams, the second President of the United States, he inherits patriotic sentiments, and has done honor, in his public career, to some of the noblest names in our nation's past history. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS was born in Boston, Massachusetts, August 18, 1807. At the age of two years, he was taken by his father to St. Petersburg, where he remained for the next six years, his father being United States Minister at the Russian Court. During his residence at the Russian capital, he learned to speak the Russian, German and French, as well as the English. In February, 1815, he made the perilous journey from St. Pe- tersburg to Paris, with his mother, in a private carriage, to meet his father. The intrepidity of Mrs. Adams, in undertaking such a journey in midwinter, and when all Europe was in a state of commotion, gave evidence that the courage and daring which her son inherited, were not all due to the father's side. John Quincy Adams was next appointed Minister to England, and during his residence there, he placed Charles at a boarding school, where, in accordance with the 'brutal practices in vogue in the English schools, he was obliged to fight his English 287 288 MEN OF OUR DAY - schoolfellows in defence of the honor of America. But, young as he was, he was too plucky to be beaten, and maintained his country's cause with as much valor, though probably with less intelligence, than he has since been called to exercise in its behalf. In 1817, his father was recalled to America, to become Secre- tary of State in President Monroe's administration, and young Adams, on his return, was placed in the Boston Latin school, from whence he entered Harvard College, in 1821, and gradu- ated there with honor in 1825. His father was at this time President, and the son spent the next two years in Washington; but, in 1827, returned to Massachusetts, and commenced the study of the law in the office of Daniel Webster. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1828, but did not engage actively in practice. In 1829, Mr. Adams married a daughter of Peter C. Brooks, an opulent merchant of Boston, another of whose daughters was the wife of Hon. Edward Everett. He was nominated, in 1830, as Eepresentative in the Massachusetts Legislature ; but he had no political aspirations, and declined to be a candidate. At his father's request, however, he consented "to be a candidate the next year, and was elected for three years successively, and was then chosen State Senator for two years. His sentiments were at this time more decidedly anti-slavery than those of most of the leading Whigs of Boston and its vicinity, and as he avowed them freely, and did not seek or desire political preferment, he was suffered to remain in private life, and busy himself, as he desired to do, with literary pursuits. During this period he edited the letters of Mrs. John Adams, contributed frequent and Tery able articles to the North American Review and the Christian Examiner, and gathered the materials for his great work, the "Life and Works of John Adams, Second President of the HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 289 United States. In or about 1845, he commenced the publica- tion of a daily paper in Boston, (of which he was also the prin- cipal editor, though aided by Henry Wilson,) bearing the title of the Boston Whig. The aim of this paper was to represent the views of the aflti -slavery portion of the "Whig party. The paper was edited with decided ability, but never, we imagiae, attained to a pecuniary success. It was very useful, however, in rousing and stimulating the anti-slavery sentiment, which was beginning to leaven both of the great political parties. In 1848, the nomination of General Taylor, by the Whigs, on a pro-slavery platform, and of General Cass, by the Democrats, on an equally southern declaration of opinions, led to a Avith- drawal of the anti-slavery men of both parties and the formation of the Free Soil party. This party, at their convention in Buf- falo, nominated ex-President Yan Buren for the Presidency and Charles Francis Adams for the Yice Presidency. There was, of course, no hope of an election of these candidates, but the party had a respectable following. After the election, the Boston Whig became the Boston Republican, and Mr. Adams, for a time, continued a general supervision over its columns ; but General Wilson and Mr. (now Eev.) Lucius E. Smith were the active editors. This paper was the principal organ of the Free Soil party in New England, and laid the foundations, broad and deep, for the Eepublican party, which came into existence in 1854. After a time, Mr. Adams disposed of his interest in it, and devoted himself with great assiduity to the memoir of his grandfather and the careful editing of his works. This valuable contribution to the early history of our country is written with that elegant scholar- ship which marks all Mr. Adams's compositions, and is remark- ably impartial in its details of the life of the venerable Presi- dent. It occupies ten volumes. In the autumn of 1859, Mr. Adams was called from his literary pursuits to represent his dis- 19 290 MEN OF OUR DAY, trict in Congress. His course there, on the eve of the rebellion, was every way worthy of the great name he bore and of his own previous history. Calm, dignified, yet tenacious in his adherence to the great principles of right, he was such a repre- sentative as it became Massachusetts to have at such a time. He was re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress ; but, in the spring of 1861, Mr. Lincoln nominated him as minister to England, and he was promptly confirmed by the Senate. A more trying position than this, during the war, could hardly be found. The greater part of the aristocracy, and a decided majority of both Houses of Parliament, sympathized from the first with the South, most of them openly. The Cabinet, if they did not lean in the same direction, at least had no confidence in the final success of the Government in putting down the Rebellion, and were disposed to wink at violations of the Navigation and Foreign Enlistment acts, while they made haste to acknowledge the South as a belligerent power. This state of feeling engendered a corresponding hostility on this side, and there was a great and constant danger that the two nations would drift into war with each other, an event which must be prevented by any sacrifice short of that of national honor. Our sanguine and impulsive Secretary of State, though aware of the difficulty, seemed, sometimes, to delight in hovering upon the very verge of actual hostilities, and Earl Russell, the British Minister of Foreign Affairs, while really, at heart, more friendly to us than any other member of the Cabinet, was so irascible and impetuous, that he was constantly making the question more difficult and complicated. Fortunate was it for both countries, that their diplomatic rep- resentatives, Mr. Adams in England, and Lord Lyons here, were men of such calm, clear, cool heads, and of such imperturbable tempers. Mr. Adams could be, and was, firm and decided enough HON. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 291 upon occasion. His promptness in following up the traces of the purpose for which the Alabama, the Shenandoah, and the other war vessels contracted for by the rebels were build- ing, his energetic representations concerning them to the British Government, and his remonstrances at their unfriendly acts and omissions toward a power with which they were at peace, showed his ability and competency for his position. Un- fortunately, the conclusion of the war did not end the difficul- ties of his diplomacy. The Alabama claims, the Fenian troubles, and the appeals to him to protect American citizens, who had become involved in the Fenian riots and uprisings in Great Britain and Ireland, served to enhance the cares and anxieties of his station, and he has, very naturally, after so long and painful a service, asked to be relieved. It is certainly greatly to his honor, that, in this trying and difficult position, he has won the respect and admiration of his and our political enemies, and that, notwithstanding his firm- ness and decision in exacting the rights of his country, the organs of English opinion should have felt compelled to say that no American minister had ever more thoroughly won the respect and esteem of the English people. In his manner and address, Mr. Adams has much of the dignity and self-possession of the best class of English gentle- men. He is generally regarded as somewhat cold and unsym- pathetic in his character, but this is, perhaps, in part due to his reticent and self-contained nature. Great emergencies have always revealed a depth in his nature and an earnest sympathy with the right, which ought to satisfy any true patriot. He has certainly proved himself, in his diplomatic career, " the right man in the right place." JOHN ADAMS DIX. fOHN ADAMS DIX was born at Boscawen, New Hamp- shire, on the 24th of July, 1798, and is the son of Timo- thy Dix, a lieutenant-colonel of the United States army. Sent first, at an early age, to an academy at Salisbury, he was thence transferred to a similar institution at Exeter, under the well known Dr. Abbott, where he pursued his studies in the companionship of Jared Sparks, John G. Palfrey, the Buckminsters and Peabodys, who have since become eminent men. In 1811, he was sent to Montreal, in Canada, where he continued his studies under the careful direction of the fathers of the Sulpician order. In July, 1812, however, the opening of hostilities between the United States and Great Britain com- pelled his return to his native country, and in December, follow- ing, he received an appointment as a cadet in the United States army, and was assigned to duty at Baltimore, where his father was then stationed on recruiting service. His duties here being merely those of an assistant clerk to his father, he diligently improved the opportunity which was offered, of continuing his studies at St. Mary's college, in that city. He had already attained high proficiency in the Spanish, Greek, and Latin languages, and in mathematics ; and was esteemed, by those who knew him best, as a most highly cultivated and gentle- manly young man. In March, 1813, while visiting Washington, he was tendered, unsolicited, a choice of a scholarship at West 292 JOHN ADAMS DIX. 293 Point, or an ensign's rank in the army. Selecting the latter, he was commissioned in his father's regiment, the fourteenth infantry, and immediately joined his company at Sackett's Harbor, New York, being the youngest officer in the United States army ; and was shortly made a third lieutenant of the twenty-first infantry. A sad loss shortly after befell the young lieutenant, in the death of his father, in camp, leaving a widow and eight children, besides the subject of our sketch, upon whom now devolved the responsibility of saving, for his loved ones, something from the estate, which had become seriously embarrassed by the colonel's long absence in the service. In March, 1814, he was promoted to a second lieutenancy, and in June, 1814, was transferred to an artillery regiment, commanded by Colonel "Walback, to whose staff he was attached and under whose guidance he passed several years in perfecting his mili- tary education, not forgetting his favorite readings in history and the classics. While in this position, he was made adjutant of an independent battalion of nine companies, commanded by Major Upham, with which he descended the St. Lawrence, in a perilous expedition, which resulted in more severe hardship than good fortune. In March, 1816, young Dix was appointed first lieutenant ; and, in 1819, entered the military family of General BroAvn as an aide-de-camp, and began to read law during his leisure hours, with a view of leaving the army at an early day. During this period he was, in May, 1821, transferred to the first artillery ; and, in August following, to the third artillery, being promoted to a captaincy in the same regiment in 1825. His health having become seriously impaired, he obtained a leave of absence, and visited Cuba, during the winter of 1825 -26, and extended his travels in the following summer to Europe. Marrying in 1826, he retired from the army, and in 294 MEN OF OUR DAY. December, 1828, was admitted to the bar, and established him- self in practice at Cooperstown, New York. Entering warmly, also, into politics, he became prominent in the Democratic party; and, in 1830, was appointed, by Governor Throop, adju- tant-general of the State, in which capacity he rendered effi- cient service to the militia of New York. In 1833, he was elected Secretary of State for New York, becoming ex-officio a regent of the University, and a member of the board of Public Instruction, the Canal board, and a commissioner of the Canal fund. By his wise foresight and energy, school libraries were introduced into the public and district schools, and the school- laws of the State were codified and systematized. In 1841 and 1842, he represented Albany county in the New York Legislature, taking an active and influential part in the most important measures of that period, such as the liquidation of the State debt by taxation, and the establishment of single Congressional districts. In the fall of 1842, Mr. Dix accom- panied his invalid wife abroad, spending that winter and the following year in the southern climates of Europe. Eeturn- ing to the United States in June, 1844, he was chosen, in January following, to fill the unexpired term in the United States Senate, of Hon. Silas Wright, who had recently been elected Governor of the State of New York. He took his seat in that body, January 27, 1845, and speedily secured a deservedly high position among his confreres, being energetic and indus- trious to a remarkable degree, and always well prepared for what ever question might arise. As chairman of the Committee on Commerce, and as a member of the Committee on Military Affairs, he did the country excellent service. He was the author of tho warehousing system then adopted by Congress, and gave to tha Canadian debenture law, and the bill for reciprocal trade, much of his time and attention. When, during the short session of JOHN ADAMS DIX. 295 1845, the Santa Fe debenture bill was proposed, he secured an amendment including the Canadas, which, together with the original bill, was largely indebted to his advocacy for its pas- sage. His bill for reciprocal trade with Canada, formed the basis for the subsequent reciprocity treaty. He also took great interest in army atfairs, as in well as the annexation of Texas, the war with Mexico, and the Oregon difficulty ; and firmly main- tained the right of Congress to legislate with regard to slavery in the Territories. Owing to divisions in the Democratic party, he was not re-elected to the Senate ; but ran, unsuccessfully, as the nominee of the " Free Soil" wing of that party, for Governor, in the fall of 1848. He actively sustained the nomination of General Pierce for the presidency, in 1852, and upon that gentle- man's accession to office, was tendered the office of Secretary of State ; which, owing to the opposition made by the Southern Democrats of the Mason and Slidell school, he was induced to decline, as also the appointment of minister to France, which was subsequently offered him. In 1853, he was made Assistant United States Treasurer in New York city ; but, on the appoint- ment of John Y. Mason to the French embassy, resigned the position, and withdrew almost wholly from politics, devoting his time, until 1859, to legal practice. At that time, however, he was appointed, by President Buchanan, postmaster of New York city, vice I. Y. Fowler, absconded. When, in January, 1861, Messrs. Floyd and Cobb, of the first Buchanan cabinet, resigned their positions and fled from Washington, the financial embarrassments of the Government required the appointment of a Secretary of the Treasury, in whose probity, patriotism, and skill the whole country could confide, General Dix was called to that high office, and entered on its duties, January 15, 1861. The promptness of his measures 296 MEN OF OUR DAY. did as much to reassure the public and save the Government, aa the exertions of any other man in Washington. On the 18th of January, 1861, three days after he took charge of the Treasury Department, he sent a special agent to New Orleans and Mobile, for the purpose of saving the revenue ves- sels at those ports, from seizure by the rebels. The most valua- ble of these vessels, the Eobert McClelland, was commanded by Captain John G. Breshwood, with S. B. Caldwell as his lieu- tenant. Breshwood refused to obey the orders of General Dix's agent, Mr. Jones ; and on being informed of this refusal, General Dix telegraphed as follows: " If any man attempts to haul down ike American flag, shoot him on the spot!" memorable words, which became a watchword throughout the loyal States. While a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Major (now General) Eobert Anderson made his famous strategical movement from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter, which so excited the indignation of the (arch-rebel) Secretary Floyd, that he threatened to resign if Anderson was not ordered back. General Dix, thereupon, promptly notified Mr. Buchanan, that Major Anderson's recall would be the signal for the immediate resignation of himself and the other members of the Cabinet (Messrs. Stanton and Holt), and his firmness decided the course of the weak-minded execu- tive, and Floyd himself left none too soon for his own neck, or the country's good. On the 6th of March, 1861, Mr. Dix retired from the Treasury Department, and returned to his home in New York city, where he presided, on the 20th of April, over an immense meeting of the citizens of the metropolis, convened in Union Square, to take measures for the defence of the Constitution and the laws, so recently and rudely assailed by the rebel attack upon. Fort Sum- ter and he was also chairman of the " Union Defence Commit- tee," organized at that meeting. On the 6th of May, he was JOHN ADAMS DIX. 297 appointed a major-general of volunteers, from New York ; and, on the 16th of the following June, he was appointed major- general in the regular army, dating from May 16th, 1861, by President Lincoln, and placed in command of the department of Maryland, his headquarters being at Baltimore. The first military movement of the war that was successful, was made under his command by General Lockwood. The counties of Accomac and Northampton, in Yirginia, known as the Eastern Shore, were occupied by him, the rebels driven out, and the mildness and justness of his government restored them as loyal counties to the Union, while every other part of Virginia was in arms and devastated with war. The command of Maryland at that period required a man of the greatest tact, firmness, and judgment ; for that reason, General Dix was selected by the President. His rule was one of such moderation and justice, that his reputation in Baltimore is honored by his most violent political opponents. In May, 1862, he was transferred to the command of the military department of Eastern Yirginia, with headquarters at Fortress Monroe. This department enjoyed the benefit of his services until July, 18(53, when he was transferred to the Department of the East, with headquarters at New York city. To his very prompt action for the prevention of any outbreak during the draft of August, 1863, the metropolis was indebted for the peaceful manner in which that draft was finally carried out. His subsequent assignments to duty were administrative, and attended with no particular incidents of importance, except the trial of John Y. Beall and E. C. Kennedy, as spies and con- spirators, in February and March, 1865, and their execution. At the so-called National Union Convention at Philadelphia, August 14, 1866, General Dix was temporary chairman. In the autumn of 1866 he was nominated, by the President, naval 298 MEN OF OUR DAY. officer of the port of New York, and the same day, United States minister to France, in place of Hon. John Bigelow, re- signed. After some hesitation, General Dix made his election to accept the post of minister to France, and having been con- firmed by the Senate, arrived in Paris, and was presented to the Emperor in January, 1867. He still occupies this position. In the intervals of a very busy life, General Dix has found some time for authorship, and his writings are marked by a united grace and dignity of style, which renders them, when not on technical or professional subjects, attractive and readable. This is specially true of his "A Winter in Madeira" (New York, 1851), and " A Summer in Spain and Florence" (New York, 1855). His speeches and public addresses were collected in two fine volumes in 1865. He has also published " Eesources of the City of New York" (New York, 1827), and " Decisions of the Superintendent of Common Schools of New York," and laws relating to common schools (Albany, 1837). Though now in his seventieth year, General Dix preserves the erect and military bearing of the soldier, and, during the late war, was one of the finest looking officers in the army. He bears a high reputation for thorough honesty and integrity, and his character is irreproachable. If, with increasing years, he has, like his former chief, General Scott, a little vanity, it is a pardonable weakness, a most venial fault, of which his great public services should render us oblivious. WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM. JILLIAM ALFEED BUCKINGHAM is a direct descend- ant, in the sixth generation, from the Rev. Thomas Buckingham and his wife Hester Hosmer, who were of Hartford, Connecticut, in 1666. His father, Captain Buckingham, as he was called, was a farmer, in Lebanon, Con- necticut, a shrewd manager of property, of clear mind and sound judgment, and frequently appealed to as umpire in matters of difference between neighbors. His wife was a remarkable woman, having few equals in all that was good, endowed with strong natural powers both of mind and body, indomitable perseverance and energy ; with, as one of her neighbors described her, " a great generous heart." WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM, who was born at Lebanon, May 24th, 1804, happily partook of the strong points of both his parents. His father being absent from home, on business, during a portion of the year, much of the work and care of the farm necessarily devolved upon him, while yet a mere boy, and he thus early acquired habits of industry and self-reliance. One who knew him well at this period of his life, says, " I don't think any thing left in his care was ever overlooked or neglected." The same friend says, " he was early trained in the school of benevolence. I have often seen him sent off on Saturday afternoons, when the weather was severe, with a wagon load of wood, from his father's well-stored wood-shed, 299 300 MEX OF OUR DAY. and a number of baskets and budgets, destined to cheer some destitute persons in the neighborhood, and make them comfort- able. He received his education at the common school in Lebanon, and passed a term or two at Colchester Academy evincing a peculiar fondness for the study of mathematics, especially in the higher branches. As he grew up, he developed as a lively, spirited " fast" young man, in the lest acceptation of that term his habits being excellent, and integrity being a marked feature in his character. Indeed, he was regarded as rather a leader among the young people with whom he asso- ciated. In early manhood, he was a member of a cavalry militia company, and " trooped" with the same energy which has since characterized him in whatever he undertook excelling in military matters, and becoming a master of the broadsword exercise. Commencing mercantile life, as a clerk in the city of New York; at the age of twenty years, he removed to Norwich, Connecticut, in 1825, and entered into the employ of Messrs. Hamlin, Buckingham & Giles. A few years later he com- menced business on his own account, and by enterprise, thrift, punctuality, and honorable dealing, became a most successful and widely respected merchant. He has since been extensively engaged in various manufactures; especially in the Hay ward Eubber Company, of which he was treasurer for many years; and the town of Norwich has been largely indebted to his example and influence. He was one of the founders of the Norwich Free Academy, and, in 1849. was elected mayor of the city, which office he filled for two years. His eminently practical mind and great executive ability have contributed largely to the manufacturing and industrial interests of his native State; and the whole weight WILLIAM ALFEED BUCKINGHAM. 301 of his personal character and sympathies has ever been enlisted in support of religion, temperance, industry, and education. We have it on excellent authority, that the governor, at the commencement of his business career, made a resolve to set aside one fifth of each year's income to be applied to objects of religious benevolence ; and that his experience was for many years, and perhaps is still, that each year's income was so much in excess of that which preceded it, that at the year's end he always had an additional sum to distribute to objects of benevolence, to make out the full fifth of his receipts. A striking illustration this, of the declaration of holy writ: "There is that scattereth and yet increaseth." During the eight terms of his gubernatorial career, his entire salary, as governor, was bestowed upon benevolent objects; for the most part, we believe, on Yale college, in which he founded several scholarships, for worthy but indigent students. In- deed, the spirit of benevolence which he inherited from his parents, has ever remained a distinguishing feature of his character. In providing for the wants of the poor and unfor- tunate, and in the unostentatious performance of every good work, Governor Buckingham's life has been a record of un wearied industry. The qualities which had gained him the respect of his fellow- citizens, as they became more widely known, commended him to the public as a candidate for higher positions of trust and responsibility. In 1858, he was elected Governor of Connecti- cut, and to the same office he was re-elected in 1859, and 1860. Again, on the 1st of April, 1861, he was chosen to the guberna- torial chair, by a majority of two thousand and eighty-six votes, the entire Eepublican State ticket being elected, at the same time, together with a large Union and ^Republican majority in both houses of the General Assembly. On the 15th of the same 302 MEN OF OUR DAY. month, he received the President's call for seventy-five thousand volunteers. The Legislature was not then in session, but the governor had been among the first to see (in 1860) the rising cloud of " the irrepressible conflict." He had long since aban- doned any hopes of settling the national difficulties by compro- mise; he had recognized them as questions on which every citizen must decide squarely, for right or wrong, for freedom or slavery. Therefore his action, when the storm burst, was prompt and decided. He took immediate measures on his own responsibility, to raise and equip the quota of troops required from Connecticut ; his own extensive financial relations enabling him to command the funds needed for the purpose. He threw himself into the work, with all the force of his energetic nature ; and during that week of anxiety, when Washington was isolated from the north, by the Baltimore rising, his message that the State of Connecticut was coming "to the rescue," with men and money, was the first intimation received by the President, that help was near at hand. The banks came to his aid, and money and personal assistance were tendered freely by prominent par- ties in every section of the State so that, by the time (May 1st) that the Legislature had assembled in extra session (in response to a call which he had made upon the. receipt of Mr. Lincoln's proclamation), he had the pleasure of informing them that forty- one volunteer companies had already been accepted, and that a fifth regiment was ready. Ten days later, the first regiment, eight hundred and thirty-four strong, under Colonel (afterwards General) A. H. Terry, left the State, equipped with a thorough- ness as were all the Connecticut troops which elicited univer- sal admiration from all who beheld them. Soon after he pronounced his conviction, in an official communication to the Washington cabinet, that "this is no ordinary rebellion," that it " should be met and suppressed by a WILLIAM ALFEED BUCKINGHAM. 303 power corresponding with its magnitude," that the President " should ask for authority to organize and arm a force of half a million of men, for the purpose of quelling the rebellion, and for an appropriation from the public treasury sufficient for their support," " that legislation upon every other subject should be regarded as out of time and place, and the one great object of suppressing the rebellion be pursued by the Administration, with vigor and firmness." " To secure such high public inter- ests," said the governor, " the State of Connecticut will bind her destinies more closely to those of the General Government, and in adopting the measures suggested, she will renewedly pledge all her pecuniary and physical resources, and all her moral power." It will be seen, therefore, that Governor Buckingham took an accurate and comprehensive view of the extent, the probable course and the power of the war just inaugurated and better would it have been for our country, if others of our leading statesmen had pursued, at that critical hour, the same calm, clear insight and broad statesmanship. There was nothing undecided in his thought or action. His suggestions upon every point relative to the prosecution of the war, and the policy of the State, were full of patriotic, far-seeing wisdom. He was nobly seconded by a loyal Legislature, and though " peace men" tried to intimidate the Unionists, their attempts recoiled upon their own heads. By the 1st of March, 1862, fifteen Connecticut regiments were in the field, and by November following, 28,551 soldiers had been furnished to the defence of the Union, by the little " "Wooden Nutmeg State." In April, 1862, Governor Buckingham was re-elected and his efforts were as untiring as ever. No amount of disaster in the field, of hesitation in council, or of depression in the public mind, seemed to affect him. He was always ready to make greater sacrifices ; always full of hope and determination ; and, with the 304 MEN OP OUR DAY. late lamented John A. Andrew, the noble governor of the sister State of Massachusetts, lie was among the earliest to urge the necessity of an Emancipation Proclamation upon President Lin- coln. When that great step had at length been taken, he wrote to the President these cheering and congratulatory words : " Permit me to congratulate you and the country that you have so clearly presented the policy which you will hereafter pursue in suppressing the rebellion, and to assure you it meets my cordial approval, and shall have my unconditional support. The State has already sent into the army, and has now at the rendezvous, more than one half of her able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, and has more to offer, if wanted, to contend in battle against the enemies of our Government." The spring campaign of 1863 was an exciting one; em- boldened by the ill -success of the national arms, the Democracy rallied around the standard, of "no more war !" while the Ee- publicans, with equal ardor, advocated a more vigorous prose- cution of the war, and were cordially seconded by the Connecti- cut soldiers in the field. Buckingham, however, was re-elected by a majority of 2637, in a total vote of 79,427, in which had been polled 9000 more votes than the year previous, and 2000 more than the aggregate presidential vote of 1860. In April, 1864, Governor Buckingham was re-nominated by the Republicans, against Origen S. Seymour, Democrat, and was elected by a majority of 5,658, in a total vote of 73,982. Again, in 1865, he was re-elected governor over the same opponent by a majority of 11,035, in a vote of 43,374. In his annual message he strongly advocated giving soldiers in the field the privilege of the ballot, and national legislation for the abolishment of slavery. With 1865, closed Governor Buckingham's long gubernato- WILLIAM ALFRED BUCKINGHAM. 305 rial career of eight years, of which five were " war years, fully tasking his every physical and mental power, and loading him with an incessant burden of responsibility and care. His course, during this arduous term of service, had commanded the uni- versal respect of his fellow-citizens, and the admiration of all loyal hearts throughout the Northern States. Prominent among that noble circle of loyal governors who rallied around the President, in his darkest hours, with brotherly advice and en- couraging words, Governor Buckingham's relations with Mr. Lincoln strongly remind us of those between President "Wash- ington and Governor Trumbull, the " Brother Jonathan" of the ^Revolutionary war. After the close of his last term of service, in April, 1866, he returned to Norwich, where he is now quietly engaged in mer- cantile affairs. He has lately been nominated, and warmly endorsed by his fellow-citizens, in the Kepublican State Conven- tion of Connecticut, for the vice-presidency upon the Grant ticket. Still more recently, on the 19th of May, 1868, he was elected, by the Legislature of Connecticut, United States Senator from that State for the six years ending March 4, 1875, in place of James Dixon, who had proved false to the party that advanced him to that high office. 20 GOVERNOR REUBEN E. FENTON. ^OVERNOR FENTON is one of the few men who, bred neither to law nor politics, but occupied during early life with mercantile pursuits, have entered later in their career into the political arena, and acquitted themselves so well as to be advanced to, and continued in, high station. Though himself a native of the State of New York, his family, like many others whose record we have given in this volume, are of Connecticut origin. He claims descent from Eobert Fen- ton, a man of note among the settlers of the eastern part of Con- necticut, and who was one of the patentees of the town of Mans- field, when that town was set off from Windham, in 1703. During the Eevolutionary war, the family was noted for its patriotism, and furnished its full share of soldiers for that great struggle. The grandfather of the governor, about 1777, removed to New Hampshire, in which State his father was born. In the early part of the present century, Mr. Fenton, then an enterprising young farmer, removed to what is now the town of Carroll, Chautauqua county, New York, then a portion of the Holland land patent, where he purchased a tract of land, and by dint of constant hard work, brought this portion of "the forest primeval" into the condition of a pleasant and profitable farm. Here July 4, 1819 his son, REUBEN E. FENTON, was born. Young Fenton's early years were spent upon the paternal homestead, and though an amiable, friendly and popular boy 306 GOVERNOR REUBEN E. FENTON. 307 among his associates, lie seems to have developed no remarkable genius or ability in his boyhood. He was somewhat fond of military studies, and in the boyish trainings was uniformly chosen captain, and it was probably owing to this taste that he was chosen colonel of the 162d regiment, New York State militia, before he was twenty-one years of age. His opportunities for acquiring an education were very lim- ited, but they were well improved. He was a good scholar when he was in the common-school, and when, subsequently, he passed a few terms in different academies, he made rapid pro- gress as a student, and won the approbation of his preceptors for his manly qualities and exemplary deportment. He read law one year, not with the view of going into the profession, but to make himself familiar with the principles and forms of that science, under the impression that this knowledge would be useful to him in whatever business he might engage. At the age of twenty, he commenced business, with very limited means and under adverse circumstances. But the fact did not discourage him, nor turn him from his purposes. The world was before him, and what others had accomplished, young Fenton resolved should be done by him. He went at his work jvith all the earnestness and energy of his character, and a few /ears saw him a successful and prosperous merchant. While in this pursuit, he turned his attention to the lumber trade, as an auxiliary to his mercantile business. He was still a young man when he purchased his first " boards and shingles," and as he floated off upon his fragile raft, valued at less than one thousand dollars, there were not wanting those who wondered at his temerity, and the failure of his enterprise was confidently pre- dicted. But nothing could dampen his ardor. He tied his little raft safely on the shore of the Ohio, near Cincinnati, went into the city, found a customer, sold his lumber, and returned to hi? 308 MEN OF OUK DAY. home with a pride and satisfaction never excelled in after years, though he went the round with profits tenfold greater. Lum- bering became in a few years his principal business ; and to such a man, success and competence were but a matter of time. He soon enjoyed the reputation of being the most successful lum- berman on the Alleghany and Ohio rivers ; but this came only because he wrought it by untiring perseverance and indefati- gable energy. In 1843, Mr. Fenton was chosen supervisor of his native town, and held the position for eight successive years. Three of these eight he was chairman of the board, though the board was two to one "Whig, while he was a well-known Democrat. But he was courteous and affable, manly and upright, genial and sensible, and his opponents, by common consent, selected him to preside over their deliberations. In 1849, his friends nominated him for the assembly, and he came within twenty-one votes of being elected, though the suc- cessful candidate was one of the oldest and most popular men in the assembly district, which was strongly Whig. In 1852, he was put in nomination by the Democrats for Congress, and elected by fifty-two majority, though the district, from the manner in which it was accustomed to vote, should have given at least 3,000 majority against him. He took his seat, on the first Monday in December, 1853, in a House which was Democratic by about two to one. Mr. Douglas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, in the course of the session, was beguiled into embodying in a bill which provided for the organization as territories of Kansas and Nebraska, a re- peal of that portion of the Missouri compromise of 1820, which forbade the legalization of slavery in any territory of the United States, lying north of north latitude, thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. Mr. Fenton, with N. P. Banks, and quite GOVERNOR REUBEN E. FENTON. 309 a number of the younger Democrats, with Colonel Thomas H, Benton and other seniors, steadfastly opposed this proposition, and opposed the bill because of it. The bill was nevertheless forced through the House by a vote of 113 to 100, and became a law. In the division that thereupon ensued, Mr. Fenton took Republican ground with Preston King, Ward Hunt, George Opdyke, and other conspicuous Democrats, and he has never since been other than a Eepublican. In 1854, the American or Know Nothing party carried his district by a considerable majority (Mr. Fenton consenting to be a candidate on the Saturday previous to election), as they did a good many others in the State ; but, in 1856, he ran on the FREMONT ticket, and was elected, and thence re-elected by large and generally increasing majorities down to 1864, when he withdrew, having been nominated for Governor. He thus served five terms in Congress, each as the representative of the strongly Whig district composed of Chautauqua and Cattarau- gus counties, which contains many able and worthy men who were in full accord with its by-gone politics, and to the almost unanimous acceptance of his constituents. Immediately on entering Congress, Mr. Fenton espoused the cause of the soldiers of 1812, and shortly after introduced a bill providing for the payment of the property accounts between the United States and the State of New York, for military stores furnished in the war of 1812. This measure he con- tinued to urge upon the attention of Congress, and finally, on the 30th May, 1860, had the satisfaction to witness its passage in. the House by a vote of 98 to 80. He had a leading place on important committees, and performed the duties appertaining to these positions in a manner satisfactory to all. It is but simple truth to say that he was one of the quietly industrious and faithful members of the House. Nor was he a silent represents- 310 MEN OP OUR DAY. tive. He could talk when there seemed a necessity for speak- ing. During his Congressional career, he delivered able and effective speeches against the repeal of the Missouri Comprom- ise act ; in advocacy of a cheap postal system ; the bill to ex- tend invalid pensions ; for the improvement of rivers and har- bors ; to regulate emigration to this country ; against the policy of the Democratic party with regard to Kansas ; for the final settlement of the claims of the soldiers of the Revolution; in vindication of the principles and policy of the Republican party ; on the Deficiency bill ; the bill to facilitate the payment of boun- ties ; on the repeal of the Fugitive Slave law ; on providing for payment of losses by the rebellion, etc. Mr. Fenton served in Congress nearly to the end of the war for the Union, of which he was one of the firmest and most efficient supporters. Believing the Union to be right and the rebellion wrong throughout, he gave his best energies to the national cause, voting steadily for taxes, loans, levies, drafts, and for the emancipation policy whereby they were rendered effectual. Men of greater pretensions were abundant in Con- gress, but there was none more devoted, or more ready to invoke and to make sacrifices for the triumph of the Union. In the fall of 1862, Mr. Fenton's name was favorably men- tioned in connection with the office of governor, but finding General Wadsworth was to be pressed for a nomination, Mr. Fenton promptly withdrew from the canvass, and yielded to the patriot- soldier his warmest support. In 1864, Mr. Fenton was designated as the standard-bearer of the Republican party, and chosen governor by a majority considerably larger than Mr. Lincoln's ; and two years later, he was unanimously re-nomina- ted, and chosen by an increased majority. The administration of Governor Fenton commenced at the culminating period of the war, and required the exercise of GOVERNOR REUBEN E. FENTON. 311 industry, method, decision, and the power of discriminating, originating, and executing. He brought to the discharge of his new position all these forces of body and mind, and proved patient amid perplexities, quick in his perceptions, safe in hip judgments, mastering toilsome details, and successfully meeting difficult emergencies. His practical training, his wide experi- ence, his luminous intellect and well-disciplined judgment, saved him from the failure that a man of less power might have encountered. His official relations with our soldiers did not weaken the attachments that had given him the honored title of the " soldier's friend." He was prompt to reward merit, and skilful to harmonize differences that often threatened demoralization and serious injury to many of the military organizations,then in the field. Upon the return home of the soldiers, Governor Fenton addressed a letter to the war commit- tees of the various districts in the State, in which he suggested the propriety of a hearty and spontaneous welcome to the heroic defenders of the country, on the part of the people of the State an ovation to demonstrate the gratitude of those whose battles they had so bravely fought. Governor Fenton's judicious course fully commanded the public confidence and approval, and at the close of the first year of his term, many of the most prominent and influential citizens of New York city addressed him a letter of thanks, promising him their hearty co-operation and support in his efforts to improve the condition and health of the metropolis. A few months later, when he visited New York city, thousands of the best men of New York waited upon him, in person to assure him of their respect and approval of his course. He found it necessary to veto several bills of the first Legisla- ture which sat after his election, in consequence of their de- priving the city of New York of valuable franchises, without 312 MEN OF OUR DAY. conferring compensating advantages. For these acts, he was thanked publicly, by a resolution of the Board of Supervisors of New York county. Governor Fenton's views upon the political issues which were involved in Mr. Johnson's attempted "policy" were ably expressed, in a letter addressed to the committee of a meeting held to ratify the action of the State Union Convention, in October, 1866, and soon after in a speech delivered at a large political gathering in Jamestown. During the canvass that followed, his opponents were unable to assail any portion of his official record, and his friends proudly pointed to it, as what a patriotic governor's should be. When, in August, 1866, Mr. Johnson, in the course of his political tour, generally known as " swinging round the circle," visited Albany, a proper regard for the high o,ffice he held, required that the governor of the State should proffer its hospitalities to him. Governor Fenton did so in the following brief but dignified address : " MR. PRESIDENT : "With high consideration for the Chief Magistrate of the Republic, I address you words of welcome in behalf of our citizens and the people of the State whose capital you visit. We extend to you and to your suite hospitality and greeting, and desire your safe conduct as you go hence to pay honor to the memory of the lamented Douglas, to the State also distinguished as the home and final resting place of the patriot and martyr, Lincoln. " I have no power to give due expression to the feelings of this assemblage of citizens, nor to express in fitting terms the respect and magnanimity of the whole people upon an occasion so marked as the coming to our capital and to our homes of the President of the United States. In their name I give assurance to your excellency of their fidelity, patriotism and jealous interest in all that relates to the good order, progress, and freedom of all the States, and of their earnest hope that GOVERNOR REUBEN E. FENTON. 313 peace will soon open up to the people of the whole land new fields of greater liberty, prosperity and power." The Eepublican party, in 1866, saw the necessity of selecting wise men for its nominees. The more discerning politicians felt that there was reason to fear an unfavorable result of the canvass. Herculean efforts were being made to defeat the party at the polls. A division had been created among those who had heretofore professed its principles. A number of influential gentlemen openly repudiated* its ideas in regard to reconstruction. The Philadelphia Convention had produced a schism, which it was feared might prove formidable, if not disastrous. Those who were the most pronounced in favor of the policy of President Johnson, were the most earnest in their opposition to Governor Fenton. The question naturally arose whether this marked hostility might not prove fatal to success, by stimulating the Conservatives to greater effort, and enabling them to exert more powerful influence over the moderate and doubtful portion of the party ; and whether a man less likely to be thus assailed might not be stronger. On the other hand, there was to be considered the effect which the leading measures of his administration had produced on the popular mind. His national policy had contributed in a marked degree to the success of the war. He had entered upon his term of office as successor to one who disapproved of many of the principal features of the war policy of the Government, and who had been elected because of his decided views in relation thereto. He had stimulated volunteering, and secured for the State a more just recognition of its rights ; had worked clear from the complications in which the public interest had been involved by the blundering and incompetency of the pro- vost marshal general ; and had relieved New York from a large portion of the dreaded burden of the draft. He had done 314 MEN OF OUR DAY. much, with the co-operation of the head of the State finance department, to originate a financial system which rendered the credit of the State stable and secure, and furnished the means to supply the demands of war, without being felt as oppressive. By his keen appreciation of the wants of the soldiers, his tender solicitude for their welfare, and his earnest efforts in their behalf, he had firmly attached them to himself. In his State policy, he had sought to foster all the material interests of the commonwealth; and had reluctantly interposed to the defeat of needed enterprises when their aid would render the burden of taxation onerous, and awaited a more favorable opportunity to join in giving them that aid. He was vigilant in his at- tention to the commercial wants of the State, both in the great metropolis and through its extensive lines of transit. This un- wavering devotion to the essential prosperity of the State, elicited confidence and commendation. All the discriminating judgment and forecast of the statesman had been displayed in a marked degree. These views were impressed on the minds of the representative men of his party, and when the Convention assembled, so strongly did they prevail, and so heavily did they outweigh adverse considerations, that no other name was suggested, and he was unanimously nominated by acclamation. The Democrats entered upon the canvass full of hope. Prominent places were given by them, on the State ticket, to Eepublicans who dissented from the principles enun- ciated by the Republican party, and nominations of a like character were made for many local offices in various portions of the State. The result showed that Governor Fenton's strength had not been miscalculated. He was re-elected by a majority five thousand larger than that given him in his first canvass. The year 1867 furnished the occasion for a continuation of a GOVERNOR REUBEN E. PENTON. 315 policy which had proved so acceptable, and it is not necessary that we should dwell upon its features. The absence of all malevolence in the heart of Governor Fen- ton, and the broad charity of his nature, were displayed during the past year. The remains of the rebel dead had been left unburied at Antietam. A letter from Governor Fenton, breath- ing the spirit of loyalty and humanity, decided the committee at once to an act both Christian and proper, and in accordance with the spirit of the law of Maryland, which authorized the pur- chase of a cemetery, and created a corporation to carry out the declared object of burying in it, all who fell on either side during the invasion of Lee at the battle of Antietam. In that letter he took the high ground that it " was a war less of sec- tions than of systems," and that the nation could confer decent burial on the southern dead while condemning and sternly opposing the heresies for which they had sacrificed themselves ; and that attachment to the Union and devotion to the most thorough measures for its preservation and restoration were not inconsistent with the broadest charity, and the observance of sacred obligations to the dead. This letter accomplished the intended purpose ; and the bones of the rebel soldiers who fell on that memorable field, will be interred as befitting not only a legal obligation, but the highest demands of civilization and our common humanity. In his message to the Legislature of 1868, Governor Fenton forcibly expressed himself in favor of materially reducing the number of items in the tax lists, and of a re-adjustment of the assessment laws now so glaringly unequal in order that every source of wealth might bear its just proportion of burden. He also took strong ground in defence of the inviolate maintenance of the national faith. In his usual terse and vigorous style, he argued against the legality of the Governments instituted by 316 MEN OF OUR DAY. President Johnson, after the cessation of active hostilities, and held that the reconstruction acts of Congress were necessary, because the Southern States had rejected, with scorn, the peace- offering of the Constitutional Amendment. He eloquently expressed himself in behalf of the rights of the freedman, in consideration of his manhood and loyalty, to protection through law, and to the elective franchise. Governor Fenton realizes that the people of New York have made him their Chief Magistrate, and that they look to him, and to no other person, for the faithful discharge of the duties of the responsible position. He is controlled by no clique he is the agent of no cabal. He patiently listens to all who desire to consult him, and then follows the dictates of his own good judgment. He has no prejudice so strong, nor partiality so great, as to lead him to do an unjust act. He is a careful thinker and a hard worker. No man ever labored more hours in the executive chamber than he does. What- ever work engages his attention, he attends to it personally, even to the minutest details. He is a decided radical, and yet he cannot be called an extreme man. There is just enough conservatism in his com- position to save him from doing an unwise or rash act. His mind is thoroughly practical. He is a man of decided convic- tions, and fearless in their expression, and yet his manner of address and style of composition are so gentle and courteous as to almost disarm opposition. A more upright man does not exist. Make it clear to him that a thing ought to be done, and he will do it, no matter who may advise differently. He has trod on great schemes and powerful lobbies in his State. He has defended public interest against the rapacity of organized theft. He has escaped the charge of connivance with any of these organized rings. GOVERNOR REUBEN E. FENTON. 317 He has won the grateful regard of the Eepublicans of the State. The Kepublican State Convention, of New York, held at Syracuse, February 5, 1868, composed of three hundred and eighty-four delegates, unanimously adopted the following reso- lution : " Resolved, That EEUBEN B. FENTON is the first choice of the Union Kepublican party in this State for the office of Vice- President. His early and consistent identification with the cause of human freedom, his patriotic services in Congress, the fidelity and sagacity he has displayed in the office of Chief Magistrate of the State, his earnest and uniform devotion to the wants and interests of soldiers, his popularity, as attested by being twice elected Governor over strong antagonists, as well as his great prudence and firmness, give assurance that his nomination would inspire universal confidence and enthusiasm, and be followed by the triumphant success of the whole ticket." More brilliant men may have occupied the executive chair in the State of New York, than Governor Fenton, but it has been filled by no more sagacious statesman, and by no more consci- entious man, and such will be the verdict of those who shall impartially write a history of the times wherein we live. HON. OLIVER PERRY MORTON. PERRY MORTON was born in Wayne county, Indiana, on the 4th of August, 1823, and, becoming an orphan while yet very young, was placed under the care of his grandmother and two aunts, living in Hamilton county, Ohio. In early youth he served for awhile with a brother in the hatter's trade, but, in 1839, was placed at school in his native county, under the tuition of Professor S. K. Hos- hour, then principal of the Wayne county seminary, and now a professor in the Northwestern Conference university, at Indi- anapolis. His honored instructor says of him, at this period of his life, " If some knowing genius had then suggested to me that the future governor, par excellence, of Indiana, was then in the group around me, I would probably have sought him in a more bustling form, with brighter eyes and a more marked head than Oliver's. But time has shown that in him was the mens sana in corpora sano, which the college, the acquisition of jurisprudence, legal gymnastics at the bar, the political crisis of the past, and the present exigencies of the nation, have fully developed, and now present him the man for the most responsi- ble position in the gift of a free people." After leaving the seminary, young Morton entered Miami university, at Oxford, Ohio, where he appears under a more favorable guise, as the star member of the Beta Theta Pi society, and the best debater in the college. Leaving the university without graduating, he 318 HOX. OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 319 went to Centreville, Indiana, and began the study of law with the Hon. John S. Newman, bending all his energies to the tho- rough acquisition of his profession. In 1845, he married Miss Lucinda M. Burbank, of Centreville, a lady of rare intelligence and refinement, whose untiring and benevolent efforts, during the recent war of the civil rebellion, for the relief of the Indiana volunteers, have honored both herself and her husband. Admitted to the bar in 1846, Mr. Morton soon took a front rank as a jurist and advocate, commanding, by his natural and acquired abilities, a large and lucrative practice. In the spring of 1852, he was elected circuit judge, acquiring among his fel- low-members of the bar, as well as in the public estimation, a high reputation for thoroughness and fairness. When, in the spring of 1854, the Democratic party, of which he had always been a member, repealed the Missouri compromise and passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he promptly seceded from the party, and thenceforth co-operated with the Eepublican party in its efforts to stay the spread of slavery and slave territory. Yet on the subject of free trade, internal improvements, etc., he re mained essentially in harmony with this old party, nor did he repudiate these principles in his departure from the Democracy, or in his acceptance of the nomination for the governorship of Indiana, which was tendered to him, in 1856, by acclamation. Having consented to head the Eepublican State ticket, he accom- panied his Democratic competitor Ashbel P. Willard in a vigorous and thorough canvass of the entire State, doing noble work, wherever he went, for the cause of Eepublicanism. Yet, although he was defeated, the large vote which he received, con- sidering the many difficulties under which he labored, and the youth of his party in the State, was justly to be considered a victory. From this time forward, Morton ? s character seemed to develop into new strength and harmony, and the superiority of 820 MEN OF OUR DAY. his mental organization became more generally acknowledged. From the end of this campaign, however, to the commencement of that of 1860, he asked no honors of his party, but was con- tent to labor, energetically and constantly, for the promotion of its success. His sound 'judgment and eminently practical mind gave him new influence in political councils, where he was acknowledged as the best of engineers and an authority as a frarner of policy. The Republican party in Indiana, from its inception to 1860, owes its advancement largely to his untiring zeal, wise counsels, and personal influence. When that important campaign opened, Mr. Morton's name again appeared on the Republican ticket as nominee for lieu- tenant-governor, " for reasons which were, at that time, supposed to have some weight, but which have since faded so completely that it seems almost incredible that he was ever thought of for so inferior a position." Again he plunged into the canvass of the State with that vigor of intellect and body which few men possess, in an equal degree, showing a scope of view and a con- cise, but logical, method of* statement and argument which rendered him unanswerable by his Democratic opponents, and which entitled him to the front rank of expounders of the Re- publican doctrines. The Republican ticket in Indiana, as in all the Northern States, was successful, and, on the 14th day of Jan- uary, 1861, he was duly qualified as lieutenant-governor, and took his seat as president of the Senate. He occupied this posi- tion but two days, when, in consequence of the election, by the Legislature, of the governor elect Hon. Henry S. Lane to the Senate for a six-years' term, he became Governor of Indiana, and took the oath of office. Upon assuming the executive chair, Governor Morton found the public interests in a critical condition. Under previous loose, corrupt administrations, the public treasury had been depleted by wanton extravagance and HON. OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 321 official peculation, the sinking fund had been miserably misman- aged, and a regular system of frauds had been carried on by State and county officers in the disposition of the swamp lands, until the credit of the State abroad was so much impaired that she had become a borrower to pay her debts, and was, literally, " a by-word among her own citizens." The new governor set himself earnestly to work to bring order out of confusion, to renovate the different departments of government, to replenish a depleted treasury and to redeem the credit of the State. He inaugurated a new era of honesty, economy, and good financial management, which saved the State many millions of dollars, and rescued her name from infamy and distrust. But a new and still more threatening danger was to be averted from his beloved "Hoosier State." The gathering cloud of disunion and civil war hung over the country, and it became evident that Indiana was afflicted with so large a share of disloyalty, that the advocates of secession even confidently counted upon material aid from her, in the shape of men and arms, in their proposed treasonable designs. Governor Morton was determined, however, that this scarce concealed treason should be nipped " in the bud," and to commit his State fully and unequivocally on the side of freedom and loyalty. Early in the spring of 1861, he visited the President at "Washington, and assured him, that if he pursued a vigorous policy, he could pledge him at least six thousand Hoosiers for the defence of the Union. When, at length, in April, the attack upon Sumter had both startled and fired the northern heart, and the Presi- dent issued his call for seventy-five thousand troops Indiana's quota being fixed at six regiments, of seven hundred and fifty men each Governor Morton issued a proclamation, which, in eight days, rallied over twelve thousand men to the defence of the national flag. The first six regiments marched promptly 21 322 MEN OF OUR DAY. forward to the field, attracting at all points general admiration and surprise at the perfection of their equipment; and Governor Morton's efficiency was held up as an incentive for other State executives to follow in nearly all the northwestern States ; and hardly had these first troops reached the field, before the ever- thoughtful governor sent agents to follow their footsteps, at- tend to their wants, and see that all their little needs were supplied while in health, and that they were properly cared for when sick. With Governor Morton, indeed, may be said to have originated the plan of sending State agents to visit and care for troops in the field ; and, throughout the war, his agents uniformly distanced those of all other States. A few days after, the governor tendered an additional six regiments to the President. His message to the Legislature, which he had called in extra session, was full of determined and lofty patriotism. Laying aside all party prejudices, he required only loyalty and capacity as the necessary qualifications for positions of influ- ence ; and so great, indeed, was the liberality shown by him to the Democracy, as to arouse the jealousy of the Eepublicans, who criticised his course with much severity during this special session. Meanwhile, the neighboring State of Kentucky was in a very precarious state. Its governor, Magoffin (at heart a seces- sionist), was endeavoring not only to play into the hands of the South by preventing Kentucky from joining the hosts of free- dom, but to draw Indiana, Ohio, and other northern border States also into their power, by inducing them to hold a po- sition of neutrality, and assume the character of sovereign medi- ators between Government and the seceded States. Governor Morton, however, was not deceived by this specious plea of neu- trality. He firmly rejected all propositions to that effect from Governor Magoffin ; and, desirous of keeping Kentucky " in HON. OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 323 the Union," lie dispatched thither numbers of his own secret agents, by whom he was promptly advised of the plans and operations of the secessionists in every part of that State. On the 16th of September, 1861, Governor Morton received from one of these agents, information of Zolli coffer's advance into Kentucky, to a point some fourteen miles beyond the Tennessee line, and of a corresponding advance by Buckner's rebel force towards Louisville. The governor promptly countermanded an expedition under General Eousseau, which was just starting for St. Louis, and ordered the force to cross the Ohio into Ken- tucky at the same time hastening every available man in Indiana, to the defence of Louisville, the safety of which was thus assured beyond a doubt. Fully convinced, now, that Kentucky's neutrality was at an end, and that her soil was actually invaded by the rebels, Gov- ernor Morton withdrew his secret agents, and, appealing to his Hoosiers for help, to redeem the sister State from the enemy, he sent forward regiment after regiment into Kentucky, and before many months had passed, the Federals held Bowling Green, Zollicoffer was killed, his troops defeated at Mill Spring, and the soil of Kentucky cleared of rebels. This generous conduct endeared the governor to the Unionists of Kentucky, who virtually adopted him as their governor. We cite an in- cident in point. " Shortly after Kentucky was cleared of rebel troops, a very wealthy lady of Frankfort, the owner of a large number of slaves, visited some friends in Indianapolis, and on the second day of her visit inquired for Governor Morton. Upon ascertaining that he was absent, and would not return for several days, she prolonged her visit somewhat beyond the time she had intended to remain. The day for the governor's return having arrived, and he not appearing, the lady extended her visit still several days more, saying she would not leave In- 324 MEN OF OUR DAY. dianapolis until she had seen him. A friend inquiring of her the reason why she was so anxious to see the Hoosier governor, she replied, " Because he is our governor, as well as yours, and has been ever since the beginning of the rebellion." And we are reminded, also, of the Indiana soldier, who interposed to stop an angry altercation in the streets of Frankfort, Kentucky, as to whether Magoffin (de facto), or Johnson (provisional), was governor of Kentucky, by the remark " Hold on, gentlemen, you are all mistaken. I will settle this controversy. Neither of your men is governor of Kentucky, but Governor Morton, of Indiana, is governor of Kentucky, as his soldier-boys, with their blue coats and Enfield rifles, will soon show you." Despite the discouraging impressions produced upon the public mind, by the reverses to the national arms in the fall of 1861, twenty volunteer regiments were added to the twenty -four Indiana regiments already in the field by the end of the year, a result of the ever- constant fidelity of Governor Morton in following the absent troops, securing their pay, attending to their personal wants, and providing for their families at home. But the same energy and fraternal care which inspired confidence in the volunteers, also excited envy and detraction at home, among a certain class of ambitious politicians and traitors to the national cause. Charges of mismanagement in State mili- tary matters, of corruption in official appointments and the awarding of contracts, became so frequent that, finally, in December, 1861, a Congressional Committee of Investigation visited Indianapolis, at the urgent and frequently repeated re- quest of the governor, and instituted a rigid examination of the management of the military affairs of tne State. Their pub- lished report not only vindicated Governor Morton from all blame, but developed, in the most incontestable manner, his care to prevent fraud, peculation, and waste. It has been well HOIST. OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 325 said of him, at this period, that, " as the war progressed, and the execution of all plans proposed by him resulted success- fully, he rose in the estimation of the President and Cabinet, until it was finally admitted by the knowing ones at Washing- ton, that his influence with the powers at that city was greater than that of any other man, outside of the national executive department, in the country. His thorough knowledge of the people of the northwest, his ready tact in adapting means to ends, his great forecasting and combining powers, and above all his energy and promptness in the performance of all labor assigned him, secured to him a deference which few men in the nation enjoyed ; and more than once was his presence requested, and his counsel solicited, in matters of the greatest importance to the Government." The depression of the public mind during the winter of 1861-62, seemed only to rouse Governor Morton to still greater resolutions and endeavors ; and by his indefatigable exertions, six regiments, by the last of February, 1862, were added to the number of those already in the service. About the commence- ment of the year, a wide-spread and formidable western con- spiracy, in aid of the Southern Eebellion, was discovered to ex ist in most of the loyal States, known, in some places, as the " Star in the "West," in others, as the " Self Protecting Broth- ers," " Sons of Liberty," etc., but most generally, as " The Order of American Knights," in affiliation with the southern society of " Knights of the Golden Circle." The order became quite popular in the southern counties of Indiana, and its members were especially virulent in denunciation of the administration, the " abolition war," and Governor Morton. Against him they especially charged, with a persistence which seemed to be proof against repeated denials, that he was instrumental in pro- curing the imposition, by Congress, of oppressive taxation ; and, 326 MEN OF OUR DAY. also, corruption in the appointment of the first State quarter- master-general ; notwithstanding, in relation to the first charge, that he had by good engineering so managed, that Indiana's share of this taxation had been "offset" by the sum due to the State, by the General Government, for advances made by the former in equipping the Indiana volunteers, etc., and in regard to the quartermaster, ignoring the fact, that that able officer, as well as many to whom he had given the best contracts, belonged to the Democratic party. More than this, also, they had the meanness to accuse Governor Morton of appropriating, secretly, to his own use, the county and personal donations made to sol- diers in camp ; although, the governor, as was well known, had borrowed on his own responsibility $600,000, with which he had paid bounties to regiments, which had refused to obey marching orders, unless they received the money. Indiana, indeed, at the commencement of the year 1863, was in a most precarious condition. Secret enemies had succeeded, by the most unscrupulous means, in securing the election, on what was familiarly known as the " butternut ticket," of a Le- gislature principally composed of men determinedly opposed to the prosecution of the war, and who had deliberately sought seats in that body for the purpose of thwarting all loyal effort, and encouraging the cause of rebellion. These men, from the first, evinced a fixed determination to insult the executive of the State, deprive him of all power, and seize in their own hands the entire control of every department of the State government. On the second day of the session, the Senate received from the governor the usual biennial message, and ordered it to be printed ; but the House refused to receive it, returned it to the governor, and passed. a resolution receiving and adopting the message of the Governor of New York. Beginning its legislative career with this deliberate insult to the executive, it continued, during HON. OLIVER PERRY MORTON. 327 its session of fifty-nine days, to pursue its revolutionary policy with increased violence, and an open disregard of constitutional obligations, and even of ordinary decency. Occupying its time chiefly with the introduction of disloyal resolutions and the ut- terance of factious and treasonable sentiments, which were calcu- lated to incite the people to resistance to Government, all the necessary and legitimate subjects of legislation were disregarded or kept back ; and, during the entire session, with a quorum in each House, every appropriation was suppressed until the last day, (when it was known that a quorum could not be had in the House,) except that for their own per diem and mileage, which was passed on the first day of the session. This dastardly conduct, of course, burdened Governor Morton and the loyal officers of the State government with an immense load of responsibility. The benevolent institutions, the State arsenal, the soldiers in the field and hospital, the soldiers' fami- lies at home, the pay due the " Legion " for services at various times in repelling invasion on the border, the corps of special surgeons, military claims, the State debt, and the numerous other important measures and objects requiring prompt and liberal appropriations, were left utterly unattended to although there was money enough in the treasury by a set of men who did not forget to draw their own pay and mileage, and appropriate nearly $20,000 to the State printer. But the governor was nothing daunted by this disgraceful and perplexing state of affairs. ' Believing that to close the asylums would be a shame and a disgrace a crime against humanity itself and that to call back the Legislature, after their dastardly conduct of the previous session, would be not only useless but perilous to the peace and the best interests of the State, he established a bureau of finance, and so great a degree of success attended his efforts in obtaining money that he was enabled sue- 328 MEN OF OUR DAY. cessfully to carry on all the institutions of the State, and keep the machinery of government in motion, until the next regular meeting of the Legislature. On the 20th of July, 1863, Governor Morton, being in Cin- cinnati, Ohio, received the compliment of a request from the common council of that city, that he would sit for his portrait, to be hung in the City Hall, as a fitting remembrance of the indebtedness felt by the citizens to him for his services during the war. On the 23d of February, 1864, the Union State Con- vention placed his name at the head of the Union ticket for 1864. It was with the commencement of this campaign " that the great work of Governor Morton's life began ; a work more varied and arduous than, perhaps, was ever undertaken by any other State executive." The " Democratic " Legislature of 1863 had, with the aid of the State officers of that period, surrounded him with such embarrassments that the performance of his civil functions was a most difficult and complicated task. Frequent calls for new levies of troops, the organization of regiments, and their preparation for the field, greatly increased his military labors. The wants of the sick and wounded soldiers at the front were daily multiplying, and thousands of dependent families at home had to be supported. The governor's well-known supe- riority in council, the ability which marked the success which attended his plans and measures, induced frequent demands for his presence at Washington. And yet, not only were these du- ties civil and military, official and extra- official not neglected, but they were performed with a readiness, skill and complete- ness which marked Governor Morton as one of the most extra- ordinary men of his times, and covered the name of Indiana with glory. In addition to all this, he gave his own personal attention to the campaign, delivering frequent speeches, which were powerful, and productive of incalculable good. Towards HON. OLIVER PEERY MORTON. 329 the close, also, of the campaign, the atrocious designs of the " Sons of Liberty " seemed about to culminate in open revolt and anarchy. Over eighty thousand members, as was afterwards proved, existed in the State, thoroughly armed, waiting for the signal, to rise at the polls on election day, and Governor Morton's life was especially marked. But he was prepared for the emer- gency ; his secret detectives were operating in every part of the State, and by their dexterity, the executive was constantly and promptly advised of all the schemes and designs of the con- spirators. He possessed the knowledge of their financial re- sources, their military force and plans, their places of rendez- vous, their purchases of arms, and, through his agents, was " on hand " at every point, to foil every move, break tip every plot, and suppress every incipient outbreak of disloyalty. Yet he wisely deferred any open, complete exposure of the " Sons of Liberty " until after the election, when a military court of in- quiry was convened, before which the Indiana ringleaders of treason were tried, convicted and punished. This detective work was the most important of the many signal services ren- dered to the State by .Governor Morton; and not to the State only, but to the Government of the United States itself. The Governor was re-elected by a sweeping majority, and under the new draft, the men of Indiana sprung promptly for- ward to the aid of Government. It was no longer thanks to Governor Morton's labors for the soldiers a disgrace to belong to an Indiana regiment, and soldiers of other States were fre- quently heard to say to the " Hoosier boys :" " We wouldn't mind fighting, if we had such a governor as you have." " During the winter of 1865," says a friend of the governor, " he was the most ubiquitous man in the United States. First at Washington, in council with the President ; then at the front, surveying with his own eyes the battle-field ; moving in person 330 MEN OF OUR DAY. through the hospitals, ascertaining the wants of the sick and wounded ; supervising the operations of his nun: erous agents ; then at home, directing sanitary movements, appointing extra surgeons and sending them to the field, projecting new plans for the relief of dependent women and children, attending personally to all the details of the business of his office." And, when the war came to a glorious termination, he was the first to welcome the returning heroes to the State capital, where they were sump- tuously entertained, at the public expense ; promptly furnished with their pay, and sent rejoicing to their homes, with no un- necessary delay feeling that their governor cared for them, as a father doth for his children. And, then, when the rush of business was over when, for the first time in five years, he felt in some degree relieved from the immense weight of official responsibility and embarrassment, of gigantic difficulties he had been obliged to combat in placing Indiana in the front rank of loyal States ; of his intense and incessant anxiety for the success of the Union cause then the high strung frame gave way, and in the summer of 1865, he was attacked with paralysis. Accordingly, by the advice of his physicians, he embarked with his family for Italy, followed by the prayers of thousands of loving hearts in Indiana, and by the respect of the nation. After his return to this country, he was elected to the United States Senate, on the Eepublican ticket, and as the successor of Hon. Henry S. Lane, for the term ending March, 4th, 1873. In the Senate, though embarrassed and restrained from the active labors he so much desires to perform, by the still feeble condition of his health, the result of those years of overwork, he has yet rendered excellent service to the country he so ardently loves. As a member of the important Committees on Foreign Eelations, on Military Affairs, and on Agriculture, his counsels have been of great advantage to the Senate. His HON. OLIVER PERRY MORTON.. 331 speech on reconstruction, delivered in the winter of 1868, was the most profoundly logical and able argument on that subject delivered in the Senate, and even the enemies of reconstruc- tion acknowledged its power. When the time shall come, as come it will, when a grateful country shall rear statues to the men whose patriotic loyalty, great executive ability, and active, comprehensive intellect contributed most signally to the triumph of freedom and right, amid that host of heroes and martyrs, two names shall stand forth resplendent with glory and honor, the names of JOHN ALBION ANDREW and OLIVER PERRY MORTON. On these, the highest art of the sculptor shall be lavished, and fair hands shall crown the brows of these 'impersonations of the most loyal and gifted of American Governors with imperishable laurels. GOVERNOR RICHARD YATES. MONGr the many loyal governors of States, who seemed, during their country's hour of peril, to be providentially and emphatically " the right men in the right places." RICHARD YAT"ES, Governor of Illinois, was conspicu- ous for earnest patriotism, great executive ability and prudence and burning eloquence. Born at Warsaw, Gallatin county, Kentucky, on the 18th of January, 1818, he became, by his father's removal, a resident of Springfield, Illinois, in the year 1831. Enjoying the advantages of a liberal education, he graduated from Illinois College at Jacksonville; and subse- quently studied the profession of law with Colonel J. J. Hardin, who fell in the Mexican War. Entering upon the active practice of his profession, he mingled also with considerable success in politics, and represented his district in the Illinois Legislature in 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1848, and 1849. In 1850 he received the Congressional nomination of a Whig Convention, and was elected ; finding himself, when he took his seat in the Thirty-second Congress, the youngest member of that body. The next year, despite a change in the district, which, it was supposed, secured it to the 'opposite party, he was re-elected over Mr. John Calhoun, a popular leader of the opposition. At the next election, however, he was defeated; his district sustaining, by its vote, Senator Douglas's Nebraska Bill. In GOVERNOR KICHARD YATES. . 333 * Congress lie proved himself a stern, persistent, uncompromising antagonist of every movement for the extension of the area of slave territory ; and his opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, marked him as a firm and able member, whose opinions were entitled to respect. Eeceiving, in 1850, the nomination of the ^Republican State Convention, as its candidate for governor, he was elected, after a most spirited and exciting canvass. His inaugural message to the General Assembly of the State, on the 14th of January, 1861, had the ring of true and lofty patriotism. Much space was devoted to a consider- ation of the critical condition of the national fortunes ; and in discussing them, he showed that, while disposed to tender to the Southern States every lawful measure of pacification, the State of Illinois, as represented by its chief executive officer, would maintain the Union and vindicate the right of consti- tutional majorities. The first call for troops, made by the Secretary of War, found Illinois, as well as most of the Northern States, without an available, efficient, armed and organized militia ; with an appalling scarcity of arms and munitions of war, and in a general state of unpreparedness. But, on the same day on which the governor received the call of the War Department, he convened a special session of the Legislature, to be held on the 23d of April. His proclamation was itself a stirring, eloquent appeal to the patriotism of the imperial State over which he presided, and it fell with magic power upon waiting and loyal hearts. Within ten days, over ten thousand men had tendered their services. Illinois was "on the border," and liable to immediate invasion, and when,, on the 19th of April, Governor Yates received from the War Dapartment, a telegram instructing him to send a brigadier-general to Cairo-a valuable stragetic point, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi 336 MEN OF OUR DAY. Department], in the midst of harvest season, and without resort to a draft, over fifty thousand men volunteered in the army of the re- public, from the State of Illinois. In strong contrast, however, to this action on the part of the people, was that of their repre- sentatives who formed the General Asssembly of 1863-4. It would seem as if no heart among them could have been deaf to the fiery eloquence of the governor's message, of which we present the closing sentences : " I can think of no peace worth having, short of crushing out the rebellion, and the complete restoration of the authority of the government. The only way to honorable and permanent peace is through war desolating, exterminating war. We must move on the enemy's works. We must move forward with tremendous energy, with accumulated thousands of men,' and the most terrible enginery of war. This will be the short- est road to peace, and be accompanied with the least cost of life and treasure in the end. " If our brave boys shall fall in the field, we must bury the dead, take care of and bring home the sick and wounded, and send fresh battalions to fill up the broken ranks, and to deal out death, destruction, and desolation to the rebels. We might talk of compromise, if it affected us alone, but it would affect our children's children in all the years of the future. The interests to be affected are far reaching, and universal to humanity, and lasting as the generations of mankind. I have never had my faith in the perpetual union of these States to falter. I believe this infernal rebellion can be ought to be and will be subdued. The land may be left a howling waste, desolated by the bloody footsteps of war, from. Delaware Bay to the Gulf, but our territory shall remain unmutilated, the country shall be one, and it shall be free in all its broad boundaries, From Maine to the Gulf, and from ocean to ocean. 'In any event may we be able to act a worthy part in the ymg scenes through which we are passing ; and should the star of our destiny sink to rise no more, may we feel for our- GOVERNOR RICHARD YATES. 337 selves, nnd may history preserve our record clear before heaven arid earth, and hand down the testimony to our children, that we have done all, periled and endured all to perpetuate the priceless heritage of Liberty and Union unimpaired to our posterity." Unmindful, however, of the solemnity and magnitude of the issues then pending, a majority of these representatives disre- garded the wise and patriotic suggestions of the governor's message reccommending legislative provisions for taking the votes of the State's troops then in the field ; the erection of a hospital or soldier's home ; liberal bounties to volunteers, etc. And their conduct was so far regardless of the dignity and best interests of the State, as to render necessary the exercise of ex- treme parliamentary strategy in order to prevent legislation which would inevitably have blasted the fair fame of the State. Finally, availing himself of a disagreement between the two houses as to the time of final adjournment, Governor Yates exercised a power placed in his hands by the constitution and prorogued the Legislature until the 31st of December, 1864, the day when its legal existence would terminate by law and that body, upon whom the blow fell like a thunderbolt, were thu? saved from disgracing themselves and their constituents. "With the close of 1864, closed, also, Governor Yates's guber- natorial record, of which it has been fitly said, that " it waa providential that a man with his spirit and activity was in the executive chair. He was as fully committed to freedom as against slavery, nor did he ever falter in his position. He stood as an iron pillar, when locally in a minority, and waited for the day when truth should triumph. As governor he was the soldier's friend. On the field he went with them under fire, used every possible exertion to forward them sanitary supplies, to bring the wounded into hospitals and to their homes. 22