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STORKS 


'ERSWY    OP 


PREFACE. 


THE  plan  of  this  work  is  to  portray  the  life  of  Emery  A. 
Storrs,  during  a  remarkable  era  in  the  history  of  this 
country,  not  so  much  by  biographical  data  as  by  the  interwoven 
illustrations  of  the  brilliancy  and  strength  of  his  rare  intellectual 
endowments. 

From  his  early  manhood,  almost,  Mr.  Storrs  figured  conspic 
uously  at  the  bar  and  in  American  politics.  "The  graces  of  ora 
tory"  were  lavishly  granted  him,  and  the  proud  results  of  nat 
ural  intellectual  gifts  and  intense  habits  of  research  and  labor  were 
early  achieved.  His  stinging  ridicule,  his  humor,  his  forensic  and 
platform  eloquence,  tempered  by  wondrous  magnetism  and  a 
classic  style  of  thought  and  speech,  made  his  utterances  during 
the  last  quarter  of  a  century  always  sought  for  by  the  press  and 
repeated  by  readers  and  listeners. 

The  aim,  accordingly,  in  the  preparation  of  the  following  pages 
has  been  to  delight  again  the  public,  his  living  admirers,  by  string 
ing  upon  the  thread  of  biography  the  jewels  of  his  singularly 


M902517 


11  PREFACE. 

fertile  brain ;  and,  perchance,  to  perpetuate  for  an  unborn  public 
much  worthy  a  place  of  honor  upon  the  shelves  of  every  lover 
of  a  luminous  intellect. 

The  thanks  of  the  editor  are  especially  due  in  the  prosecution 
and  completion  of  this  labor  of  admiration  to  Mr.  William  J. 
Guest,  who  for  many  years  was  the  trusted  stenographer  of  Mr. 
Storrs,  without  whose  personal  familiarity  with  many  of  the  im 
portant  events  described — as,  for  instance,  the  great  Babcock  trial 
— the  work  could  scarcely  have  been  accomplished. 

I.  E.  A. 

Chicago,   1886. 


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TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

ORIGIN   AND   EARLY    EXPERIENCES. 

The  Storrs  Family — A  Good  New  England  Stock — His  Mother  a  Not 
able  Woman— Birth  of  Emery  A.  Storrs— The  Storrs  and  Garfield  Fami 
lies  of  Worcester,  New  York — A  Practical  Idea  of  Education- 
Literary  Leanings  in  Childhood — The  Boy  Editor — A  Hard  Stu 
dent  and  Versatile  Scholar — Specimens  of  his  Earliest  Compositions — 
His  First  Lecture — Admitted  to  the  Bar — Courtship  and  Marriage,  .  .  2 

CHAPTER  II. 

THREE    EARLY    LITERARY   GEMS. 

Essay  on  "Modern  Charity" — Experiment  in  Sermon  Writing — The 
Parable  of  the  Ewe  Lamb — Lecture  on  "Idealists  and  Utilitarians,"  4 

CHAPTER  III. 

WRITING    FOR   THE   PRESS,    1854—1857. 

Literary  Contributions  to  the  Buffalo  Newspapers— American  Maga 
zines  Thirty  Years  Ago — Southern  Literature — An  Historical  Curiosity 

Review  of  the  Life  of  General  Cass— Benton's  "Thirty  Years  in  the 
United  States  Senate  "—A  Prophetic  Forecast  of  the  Outcome  of  the 
Slavery  Agitation, 63 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE   KANSAS    TROUBLES,    1858. 

Mr.   Storrs'    First  Political  Speech—An  Effort  Worthy  of  His  Best  Days 

xi 


Xil  CONTESTS. 

— The  Kansas  Question  Discussed — President  Buchanan's  Message — 
The  Drift  of  the  Democracy— Truckling  to  the  South — Mr.  Storrs 
Predicts  How  it  will  End, 86 

CHAPTER  V. 

HUMILIATION   AND   A    NEW    LIFE. 

His  Last  Years  at  Buffalo — A  Stumble — Begins  to  Rise  at  Chicago — 
Early  Professional  Struggles — A  Secret  Side — Writing  Editorials  for 
the  Chicago  Press — "  English  Philanthrophy  " — "  A  Chapter  on  Board 
ing-Houses, "  103 

CHAPTER  VI. 

PROFESSIONAL    DILIGENCE. 

The  Hazard  Case — Outline  of  A  Model  Jury  Speech — His  Early 
Briefs,  a  Monument  of  Professional  Industry — Some  of  His  Work,  .  128 

CHAPTER  VII. 

OUR   NATIONAL    FUTURE. 

Patriotic  Address  on  the  Fourth  of  July,  1864— Our  Nation  the  Em 
bodied  Spirit  of  the  Great  Men  who  have  Contributed  to  its  Glory  in 
the  Past — A  Nation  Saved  at  such  a  Cost  of  Blood  and  Treasure 
will  Think  More  Highly  of  its  Privileges — Politics  will  be  Elevated  into 
Patriotic  Statesmanship — Our  National  Literature  and  Habits  of 
Thought, 141 

I 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION. 

Speech  at  Sycamore,  Illinois,  on  President  Lincoln's  Emancipation  Proc 
lamation—The  President's  Right  to  Issue  it  under  the  Constitution 
and  the  Law  of  Nations— Suspension  of  the  \Vrit  of  Habeas  Corpus- 
Arrest  of  Mr.  Vallandigham — The  Negro  as  a  Soldier :  .  .  156 

CHAPTER  IX. 

A   CELEBRATED   LIBEL    CASE. 

A  Soldier's  Widow  Complains  of  Oppression — The  Facts  Published  in 
the  Chicago  "Times"— The  "Times"  Sued  for  Libel— Mr.  Storrs' 
Argument  for  the  Defense — A  Terrible  Flagellation  of  the  Plaintiff  and 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

His  Witnesses — The  Case  Illustrated  by  Scripture  Parables — Appeal  to 
the  Humanity  of  the  Jury — The  Suit  Withdrawn  at  the  Close  of  Mr. 
Storrs'  Speech 173 

CHAPTER  X. 

JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY. 

Mr.  Storrs  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  1866 — Johnson's  Doctrine  that  the 
Rebels  Forfeited  no  Political  Rights — An  Exhaustive  Reply — John 
son's  Record  Reviewed, 196 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE   CAMPAIGN   OF    1 868. 

Mr.  Storrs  Electrifies  the  People  of  Maine — A  Triumphal  Progress — His 
Efforts  in  His  Own  State — The  Democratic  Party  Unchanged  and 
Unreformed — The  Reconstruction  Measures — The  Fourteenth  Amend 
ment — "Dead  Issues" — What  the  Republican  Party  Has  Achieved — 
Pendleton's  Repudiation  Plan — The  Record  of  Horatio  Seymour,  .  .  209 

CHAPTER  XII. 

'AN    ESTABLISHED    REPUTATION. 

A  Famous  Insurance  Case — Its  History — A  New  Way  to  Look  at  Cor 
porations  and  Individuals — A  Masterly  Argument — Capturing  the  Court, 
but  not  the  Jury — Standing  as  an  Insurance  Lawyer 213 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

POETICAL  ORATORY  AND  COLD  REASONING. 

What  a  Soldier's  Monument  Proclaims — An  Inspiration — An  Address 
of  Beauty — Sanctity  of  Contracts — Franchise  Property  Not  to  be 
Taken  Without  Process  of  Law — The  State  of  Illinois  and  the  Illinois 
Central — A  Discussion  Before  Governor  Palmer 221 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   FREE  TRADE  QUESTION,  1870. 

Mr.  Storrs'  Lucid  Exposition  of  Economic  Questions — The  High  Tariff 
a  War  Measure — A  Needless  Surplus  in  the  Treasury — A  General 
Demand  for  a  Reduction  of  Taxation — The  "  Protection  of  American 
Industry  "—The  Farmers  Need  to  be  Protected  Against  Protection— 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

"The  Greatest  Good  of  the  Greatest  Number,"  a  Fundamental  Prin 
ciple  of  American  Politics — Protection  and  Slavery — One  Kind  of  In 
dustry  Compelled  to  Pay  Tribute  to  Another — Protection  Diminishes 
Revenue — A  System  of  Legalized  Plunder  of  the  Consumer — Diversi 
fying  Labor  by  Legislation — "The  Pauper  Labor  of  Europe,"  ....  335 

CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   CAMPAIGN   OF    1872. 

The  "Liberal"  Republicans  and  the  Cincinnati  Convention — State  Con 
vention  of  Illinois — Mr.  Storrs,  at  Springfield,  Reviews  the  Situation — 
Civil  Service  Reform— Revenue  Reform— The  Tariff— The  National 
Debt — Resumption  of  Specie  Payments — The  Philadelphia  Convention 
— Speech  at  Ottawa,  Illinois — The  Cradle  of  the  Republican  Party— 
Grant's  Record — Trenchant  Review  of  the  Record  of  Horace  Greeley 
— The  One  Term  Principle — Speech  at  Freeport,  Illinois — Comparison 
of  the  "Liberal"  and  Republican  Platforms — Greeley  and  Lincoln — 
Speech  at  Dixon,  Illinois — The  Congregation  Dismiss  the  Choir — 
Greeley 's  Famous  Plan  for  the  Resumption  of  Specie  Payments — The 
Ku-Klux  and  Enforcement  Bills — Speech  at  Indianapolis — Scripture 
Illustrations — The  Conversion  of  Saul — Parable  of  the  Unjust  Servant 
— Speeches  at  Reading,  Pa.,  and  Other  Eastern  Cities, 247 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

PROFESSIONAL   PROSPERITY. 

His  Professional  Work  from  the  Fire  of  1871  to  1875 — Prominence  in 
Great  Cases — "Hell  as  a  Military  Necessity" — The  Congressional 
Election  of  1874 — Consolidation  of  the  Illinois  Supreme  Court,  .  .  -  293 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

A    DECORATION    DAY   ADDRESS. 

The  Honored  Union  Dead — What  They  Fought  and  Died  for — Tribute 
to  Charles  Sumncr, ^oj 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

LECTURES   ON   THE   ENGLISH    CONSTITUTION. 

Two  Lectures  to  the  Students  of  the  Chicago  Law  College — The  Four 
Great  Documents  which  form  the  Basis  of  the  Modern  English  Con 
stitution — "  Bailiffs  and  Constables  that  Know  the  Law  and  Mean  to 
Observe  it" — How  Magna  Charta  would  work  in  Chicago — History  of 
the  Crown  and  Parliament, 310 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

MUNICIPAL    REFORM. 

Organization  of  the  "Citizens'  Association  of  Chicago" — Mr.  Storrs 
Drafts  its  Constitution — Its  Objects — Suggestion  of  Subjects  for  Legisla 
tion — Advocates  Reorganization  of  the  City  Government  under  the  Gen 
eral  Law — Changing  Voting  Places  from  Saloons  to  Other  Quarters — The 
Proposition  to  Divide  the  Common  Council  into  Two  Houses — City 
Election  on  the  Charter  Question — The  Citizens'  Association  and  Mr. 
Storrs  Part  Company — Mr.  Storrs  in  Contempt  of  Court  for  a  Legal 
Opinion — His  Argument  in  Defense  of  Himself  and  Hi's  Associates — 
The  "  Fanning  Mill  Orator," 315 

CHAPTER  XX. 

PRACTICAL   TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION. 

The  Drinking  Habit  Not  Uncommon  Among  the  Early  Settlers  of  Chi 
cago — A  Change  after  the  Fire  of  1871 — Mr.  Storrs  Becomes  an 
Abstainer  and  an  Apostle — What  the  "Times"  Thought  of  His  Con 
version — Two  Temperance  Speeches — Correspondence  on  Prohibition 
— One  of  the  Founders  of  the  Citizens'  League  for  the  Suppression 
of  the  sale  of  Liquor  to  Minors — Apostrophe  to  Water, 333 

CHAPTER  XXI. 

THE    ST.    LOUIS    WHISKY    RING. 

History  of  the  St.  Louis  Whisky  Ring— Its  Method  of  Operatibns— The 
Prosecutions  Conducted  for  Political  Ends — Immunity  Given  to  the 
Worst  Offenders — An  Attempt  to  Cast  Discredit  upon  President  Grant 
by  Indicting  his  Private  Secretary — Prosecutions  run  in  the  Interest  of 
Secretary  Bristow's  Presidential  Aspirations — General  Babcock's 
Career — The  Mephistophelian  Arts  of  Joyce  and  Mac  Donald  in  Corres 
ponding  with  Him — Popular  Prejudice  Against  Babcock — Attitude  of 
President  Grant — His  Letter  to  Mrs.  Babcock, ....  3^6 

CHAPTER  XXII. 


THE  TRIAL  OF  GENERAL  BABCOCK. 


I. 

THE   PROSECUTION. 

Mr.  Storrs   Retained   as   Leading   Counsel  for    the  Defense    of    General 
Babcock — Opening  Speech  of  District  Attorney  Dyer — Con.  Megrue's 
Evidence   Ruled   Out — Mr.  Storrs'  Cross-Examination  of  the    Govern- 
2 


XVI  CONTEXTS. 

ment  Witnesses — Where  the  Ring  Got  their  Information  of  the  Coming 
of  Revenue  Agents — A  Conscientious  Gauger — Testimony  of  Abijah 
M.  Everest — Joyce's  Hocus  Pocus  with  the  Two  #500  Bills — Testi 
mony  of  the  Commissioner  and  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue — Argument  on  Admission  of  Telegrams — "Chops  and  To 
mato  Sauce" — How  Colonel  Broadhead  Accentuated  a  Telegram — 
Joyce's  Declarations  Ruled  Out — Testimony  of  Revenue  Agent 
Brooks — The  Government  Case  Closed, 369 

II. 

THE   DEFENSE. 

Opening  Speech  of  Ex-Attorney-General  Williams — What  Joyce's  "Mum" 
Dispatch  Meant — Mr.  Williams'  Personal  Experience  of  the  Cares  of 
Office — Splendid  Array  of  Witnesses  to  General  Babcock's  Character 
— Testimony  of  Supervisor  Tutton— jWhy  the  Order  Transferring  the 
Supervisors  was  Revoked — Disingenuous  Course  of  the  Prosecution. 
— The  District  Attorney  Walks  into  a  Trap  of  his  own  Construction- — 
Secretary  Bristow  Directly  Responsible  for  the  Revocation  of  the 
Order — Joyce's  Correspondence — Revenue  Agent  Hoag  the  Source  of 
the  Ring's  Information — Deposition  of  the  President — Judge  Porter's 
Motion  for  a  Direction  to  Acquit  Overruled — Colonel  Broadhead' s 
Argument  for  the  Prosecution — The  "Sylph"  Telegram — f losing  Ar 
gument  of  Mr.  Storrs  for  the  Defense — Judge  Porter  Follows — Gen 
eral  Dyer's  Reply — Judge  Dillon's  Charge  to  the  Jury 407 

«  > 

III. 

THE  VERDICT. 

The  Jury  Find  the  Defendant  Not  Guilty — An  Ovation  to  General  Bab- 
cock  and  Mr.  Storrs — The  General  Serenaded — Speech  of  Mr.  Storrs 
— Senator  Howe's  Opinion  of  the  Case, .  .  453 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

THE   CHICAGO   WHISKY   RING. 

History  of  the  Chicago  Seizures — The  "First  Batch"  Inform  on  the 
"Second  Batch,"  and  are  granted  Absolute  Immunity — Jacob  Rehm, 
the  Organizer  of  the  Chicago  Ring,  Becomes  the  Leading  Informer — 
Indictment  of  the  District  Attorney,  and  Other  Government  Officials, 
on  His  Information — Public  Astonishment — Discreditable  Course  of  the 
Government  Attorneys — Trial  of  Rush  and  Pahlman — Mr.  Storrs' 
Argument  for  the  Defense — Crushing  Denunciation  of  the  Government 
Witnesses— Government  Counsel  also  Come  in  for  a  Flaying — Al- 


CONTENTS.  XV11 

tercation  Between  Mr.  Storrs  and  the  Court — Chicago  "  Sewer  Poli 
ticians " — Trial  of  Supervisor  Munn — The  Jury  Refuse  to  Believe  Rehm, 
and  Munn  is  Acquitted — Dismissal  of  the  other  Indictments — Letter  of 
Mr.  Storrs  to  President  Grant — Comments  of  the  Local  Press — Efforts  to 
Implicate  Senator  Logan,  Congressman  Farwell,  and  the  Chicago 
Postmaster — Mr.  Storrs  Appointed  Special  District  Attorney — Brings 
Suit  Against  Rehm  for  Civil  Penalties — The  Suit  Dismissed — Judge 
Drummond's  Opinion, 457 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1876. 

Ratification  Meeting  in  Chicago — Colorless  Candidates — Speech  at 
Aurora,  Illinois — The  Records  of  the  Republican  and  Democratic 
Parties  Compared — The  St  Louis  Platform — Financial  Administration 
of  the  Republican  Party — Reduction  of  Taxation  and  Expenses — 
Tilden,  The  Friend  of  Tweed — Speech  at  Detroit — Review  of  the 
Democratic  Platform,  and  Tilden's  Record — Speech  at  Freeport,  Illi 
nois — Record  of  the  Democracy — Enforcing  the  Constitutional  Amend 
ments — A  New  Application  of  the  Parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son — 
Where  Tilden  was  During  the  War, 489 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

"CONSTRUCTIVE    CONTEMPT*'    AND    "TRIAL    BY   JURY." 

The  case  of  Wilbur  F.  Storey  for  Criticising  a  Grand  Jury — Mr. 
Storrs'  Views  upon  the  Subject — History  of  the  Law  of  Constructive 
Contempt — Illustration  of  Power  of  Lucid  yet  Comprehensive  In 
terpretation  of  a  Law  Question — Influencing  a  Judge — A  Lecture 
on  the  Origin,  History,  and  Merits  of  the  Jury  System 532 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

SOME    GREAT    CRIMINAL    TRIALS. 

Trial  of  Rudolphus  K.  Turner  for  Forgery— Contents  of  a  Forger's 
Trunk — Trial  of  Five  County  Commissioners  for  Fraud — How  a 
Young  Clerk  kept  Check  on  his  Employer— An  Arson  Case  gotten  up 
by  an  Insurance  Company  turns  out  to  be  a  Malicious  Prosecution, 
with  Blackmailing  Features 54o 


XVI 11  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XXVII. 

TRIAL   OF   ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN. 

The  Case  as  Viewed  by  Mr.  Storrs — The  True  Presentation — The  Evi 
dence — Forced  Warfare  of  Religions — The  Trial  Scenes — The  Acquit 
tal  of  the  Accused — Subsequent  History '548 

CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE. 

History  of  the  Douglas- Rose  Trouble — A  Plot  Against  an  Old  Soldier 
—Divides  First  a  School,  then  a  State — The  Trial  in  the  Courts— Mr. 
Storrs'  Great  Argument — A  Scientific  Fraud — The  Result 566 

CHAPTER    XXIX. 

THE    LAW    OF    LIBEL. 

The  Great  Fire  of  Chicago — Manuscript  of  a  Valuable  Treatise  De 
stroyed — Lecture  Based  on  the  Recollections  of  a  Lost  Book — His 
tory  of  the  Triumph  of  Juries  over  Judges — Some  Famous  Libel 
Instances — Multum  in  parvo 581 

CHAPTER   XXX. 

RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE    PAYMENTS. 

Mr.  Storrs  at  Sycamore,  Illinois,  1878 — Exploded  Theories  of  Finance 
— Does  Inflation  Inflate — History  of  the  Paper  Currency  Inflation 
in  the  Past — The  Panic  of  1873  not  Brought  About  by  a  Lack  of 
Currency — Proposition  to  "  Restore  Confidence  "  by  an  Act  of  Con 
gress — Fiat  Money  a  Project  of  Repudiation — The  Philosopher's 
Stone  a  Rational  Scheme  Compared  with  it — Mr.  Gladstone's 
Tribute  to  the  Achievements  of  America  in  Paying  her  Debt  ....  588 

CHAPTER   XXXI. 

VARIOUS    PUBLIC    UTTERANCES. 

Letter  to  Senator  M'Pherson  on  the  Silver  Bill — American  Commerce, 
1878 — The  Growth  of  Chicago— The  Purity  of  the  Bench  and  Bar 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

— The  Blodgett  Investigation — Lawyers  as  Legislators — Grant  for  a 
Third  Term — Mr.  Storrs'  Opinion  of  President  Hayes — A  Bric-a- 
brac  Cabinet 604 

CHAPTER   XXXII. 

CHICAGO    CITY    MISGOVERNMENT. 

The  Chicago  Municipal  Election  of  1879 — Mr  Storrs,  at  a  Mass-Meet 
ing  of  Republicans  in  Farwell  Hall,  Opposes  Handing  over  the  City 
Government  to  the  Democrats — Comparison  of  Republican  and 
Democratic  Municipal  Government — The  Election  Laws  which  the 
Brigadiers  in  Congress  Sought  to  Repeal — Carter  Harrison  Elected  614 

CHAPTER    XXXIII. 

NATIONAL    POLITICS    IN    1879. 

A  Political  Tour  in  New  York  State — At  Syracuse — Conservative  and 
Radical  Republicanism — Democratic  Hypocrisy — Attempt  to  Repeal 
the  Election  Laws — The  Murder  of  Chisholm  and  Dixon — Southern 
Idea  of  <;  Conciliation  " — Honest  Government,  National  Prosperity, 
and  no  Sectionalism — Sudden  Death  of  Hon.  Zachariah  Chandler  .  622 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

EMOTIONAL    INSANITY    IN    MURDER    CASES. 

Trial  of  Peter  Stevens  at  Chicago  for  the  Murder  of  his  Wife— A  Sad 
Story  of  Conjugal  Misery — The  Temptations  of  a  Great  City — The 
Plea  of  Emotional  Insanity  Set  Up  for  the  Defence — Mr.  Storrs 
Makes  a  Powerful  Argument  for  the  Defendant — The  Verdict .  .  .  633 


CHAPTER   XXXV. 

« 

AN    ADDRESS    TO    DOCTORS. 

A  Serio-comic  Address  to  a  Graduating  Class — Early  Recollections  of 
Home-made  Remedies — What  He  Knew  About  Doctors — Chicago 
the  Greatest  Medical  Centre  and  Distributer  of  Doctors  and  Diseases 
— The  Field  of  Medical  Jurisprudence — Medical  Experts  as  Others 
See  Them — Insanity  as  a  Defence  in  Criminal  Cases 638 


XX  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XXXVI. 

RECEPTION    OF    GENERAL    GRANT    IN    CHICAGO. 

General  Grant's  Return  from  his  Tour  Around  the  World — Reception 
in  Chicago — The  Union  Veteran  Club — Welcomed  by  Mr.  Storrs — 
National  Rights  Substituted  for  State  Rights — Political  Equality  of 
All  Citizens  must  be  Secured,  by  Force  if  Necessary— Justice  Better 
than  Peace — The  Obligations  of  the  Government  must  be  Fulfilled 
— The  Prodigal  Son  in  a  New  Dress — Banquet  of  the  Army  of 
Tennessee — Mr.  Storrs  Speaks  for  the  Patriotic  People  Who  Fed  and 
Clothed  Our  Armies — Calumet  Club  Reception  .  . 645 

CHAPTER    XXXVII. 

A    TRIP    TO    DEADWOOD. 

Proposition  to  Nominate  Mr.  Storrs  for  Congress — Comment  of  the 
Press — Letter  to  Hon.  William  Aldrich — A  Professional  Trip  to  the 
Black  Hills — Discomforts  of  the  Journey — His  Impressions  of  Dead- 
wood — Trial  of  County  Officials  for  Embezzlement — Mining  Inter 
ests  of  Dakota — Invitations  to  Take  Part  in  the  Campaign 654 

CHAPTER   XXXVIII. 

DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS. 

Preparations  for  the  Campaign  of  1880 — Organization  of  the  Friends 
of  General  Grant — Letter  of  Mr.  Storrs  on  "  Our  Southern  Fellow 
Citizens" — Correspondence  with  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne — Corre 
spondence  on  the  Political  Situation — Mr.  Storrs'  Tribute  to  the  Old 
Commander — "The  Independent  Scratcher  "  and  his  Record — De 
fection  of  Mr.  Washburne — Two  Rival  County  Conventions  Held  in 
Chicago — Mr.  Farwell's  Reliance  on  Lungs  and  Vertebrae — The  Illi 
nois  State  Convention — A  Faction  Fight — Argument  of  Mr.  Storrs 
on  Behalf  of  the  Grant  Delegates — Mr.  Washburne  Disclaims  Dis 
loyalty  to  General  Grant — Struggle  in  the  National  Convention  .  .  660 

CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    l88o. 

Preparations  for  the  Campaign — Organization  of  the  Friends  of  Gen- 


CONTENTS.  XXI 

eral  Grant — Mr.  Storrs  Addresses  the  Irish  Republicans  of  Chicago 
—Why  Irishmen  Should  Vote  the  Republican  Ticket — Why  They 
Should  Abandon  the  Democracy — The  Cook  County  Convention 
— The  State  Convention  at  Springfield — Mass  Meeting  in  Central 
Music  Hall — The  National  Convention — Opposition  Delegates — 
Mr.  Storrs'  Argument  for  the  Enforcement  of  the  Unit  Rule — His 
Great  Speech  in  the  Convention — Defection  of  Mr.  Washburne — 
The  "  Old  Guard"— Mr.  Storrs  at  Burlington,  Iowa — Speech  in 
Philadelphia — The  Democratic  Platform  Reviewed — What  its  Suc 
cess  Would  Mean — Its  Financial  Heresies — Mr.  Storrs  Addresses 
the  Colored  Republicans  of  Chicago — At  Oakland,  California — At 
Denver,  Colorado — Mr.  Storrs  Stumps  the  State  of  Ohio — Great 
Speech  at  Cleveland — At  the  Cooper  Institute,  New  York — Articles 
in  the  North  American  Review 683 


CHAPTER   XL. 

THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS. 

The  Cochrane  Case — The  Wisconsin  Law  as  to  the  Plea  of  Insanity — 
The  Ransom  Case — The  Illinois  Law  of  Justifiable  Homicide,  and 
the  Doctrine  of  Self-defence — The  Dunn  Case — Patent  Instruc 
tions  704 


CHAPTER    XLI. 

HISTORICAL   CHICAGO. 

Lecture  on  Behalf  of  the  Historical  Society — An  Effort  of  Lasting  In 
terest — The  Heart  of  a  Great  Empire — Chicago's  Famous  Historic 
Wigwam — The  Greatest  Loss  Suffered  in  the  Great  Fire  of  1871 — 
The  Past,  the  Present,  and  Mr.  Storrs'  Ideas  of  the  Garden  City — 
Facts  and  Fancies 725 


CHAPTER    XLII. 

THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1884. 

Scene  at  the  Closing  of  the   Chicago  Republican  Convention — An 
Oratorical  Achievement — An  Eloquent  Speech  Inspired  by  a  Tumult 


XXII  CONTENTS. 

— Work  Elsewhere  During  a  Campaign  of  Five  Months — Bris 
tling  Wit  at  Boston,  in  Tremont  Temple — Defence  of  the  Riffraff 
of  the  West — Our  Nation's  Shame — The  Tariff  Question  Again — 
Records  of  two  Rival  Political  Organizations — Defeat  of  his  Party, 
but  Faith  in  the  Future 73Q 

Ik 

CHAPTER   XLIII. 

LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION." 

Mr.  Storrs'  Last  Case — The  Election  Fraud  in  the  i8th  Ward  of  Chi 
cago — Joseph  C.  Mackin  and  Others  Tried  by  Information,  Instead 
of  on  Indictment — Mr.  Storrs  Moves  for  a  Writ  of  Error — The  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States  After  his  Death  Sustains  his 
Points — A  Posthumous  Victory 761 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 

THREE    MONTHS    IN    EUROPE. 

Rosy  Descriptions  of  Experiences  Abroad — Model  Letters  from  a 
Traveler — Impressions  of  Liverpool,  London,  Edinburgh,  and 
other  Points  of  Interest — Features  of  Foreign  Character  not  Usually 
Noticed — A  Bit  of  Business  with  Pleasure 781 

CHAPTER   XLV. 

THE    CONCLUSION. 

Some  Characteristics  of  Mr.  Storrs'  Wit — Illustrations  of  Repartee — 
His  Style  of  Oratory — Contrasted  With  Burke — A  Dramatic  In 
cident — Last  Scenes  and  Death  at  Ottawa — The  End  of  All  Mortal  .  794 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


EMERY  A.  STORKS  (Steel)     .  Frontispiece. 

PAGE 

FAC-SIMILE  STORRS  MEMORIAL  OF  THE  CHICAGO  BAR  (Illuminated)  3 

EARLY  HOME  OF  EMERY  A.  STORRS      .         .         .         .  ^     .         .  35 

FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  OF  JAMES  A.   GARFIELD       .         .                  .  689 

FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  OF  CHESTER  A.  ARTHUR         ....  739 

FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  OF  JAMES  G.   ELAINE           .         .         .         .  753 

FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  OF  ULYSSES  S.  GRANT             ....  780 

FAC-SIMILE  MEMORIAL  OF  THE  CITIZENS'  LEAGUE  OF  CHICAGO  80 1 


(xxiii) 


CHAPTER  I. 


ORIGIN  AND  EARLY  EXPERIENCES. 

• 

THE  STORKS  FAMILY— A  GOOD  NEW  ENGLAND  STOCK— HIS  MOTHER  A  NOTA 
BLE  WOMAN — BIRTH  OF  EMERY  A.  STORRS — THE  STORRS  AND  GARFIELD 
FAMILIES  OF  WORCESTER,  X.  Y. — A  PRACTICAL  FATHER'S  IDEA  OF  EDUCA 
TION — LITERARY  LEANINGS  IN  CHILDHOOD — THE  BOY  EDITOR — A  HARD 
STUDENT  AND  VERSATILE  SCHOLAR — SPECIMENS  OF  HIS  EARLIEST  COMPO 
SITIONS—HIS  FIRST  LECTURE— ADMITTED  TO  THE  BAR— COURTSHIP  AND 
MARRIAGE. 

THE  life  of  Emery  A.  Storrs  may  be  epitomized  as  that  of 
a  singularly  gifted  public,  private  citizen.  Humble  in 
his  birth,  he  was  yet  of  an  excellent  origin  ;  physically  ever  far 
from  robust,  he  was  mentally  something  giant-like  ;  untutored  by 
college  training,  his  style,  in  thought  and  speech,  was  classical ; 
untitled  by  school,  by  people,  or  by  rulers — never  an  occupant 
of  the  most  undignified  office — he  was  an  aristocrat  on  the  ro?- 
tra,  a  prince  in  politics,  and  a  king  in  debate. 

The  little  village  of  Hinsdale  nestles  to-day,  as  it  did  half  a 
century  ago,  close  by  the  side  of  a  gentle  stream  which  benignly 
flows  through  Cattaraugus  County,  New  York.  Mountains,  not 
frowning  heights,  but  the  hazy  undulations  characteristic  of  the 
Northern  Alleghenies,  encircle  protectingly  the  tiny  community 
as  though  to  ward  off  from  both  orchards  and  people  the  winds 
and  troubles  of  the  outside  world.  Here,  on  the  twelfth  day  of 
August,  1833^  was  born  Emery  Alexander  Storrs;  in  the  same 
house,  in  the  same  room,  on  the  twelfth  day  of  September,  1885, 
to  the  father  prostrated  by  illness,  was  imparted  the  news  of  the 
sudden  death  of  his  distinguished  son.  Emery  Alexander  Storrs 

25 


26  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

came  of  a  sterling  stock.  He  was  a  direct  lineal  descendant  of 
Samuel  Storrs,  who  came  from  Sutton,  Nottinghamshire,  Eng 
land,  as  early  as  1683,  from  whom  a  gifted  race  of  orators  has 
sprung.  Samuel  Storrs  was  one  of  the  twenty -two  to  whom  was 
granted  the  charter  of  organization  of  the  town  of  Mansfield, 
Connecticut,  in  May  of  1/03,  and,  brave  in  several  Indian  battles 
and  a  leader  in  council  deliberations,  this  first  of  his  family  in 
America  was  conspicuous  in  name  among  the  archives  of  the  New 
England  place ;  and,  here  and  there,  stamped  with  punctilious 
pride  on  the  now  yellowed  records — in  some  instances,  perhaps,  most 
unnecessarily  and  almost  inconsistently  stamped — appears  the  old 
England  crest  of  the  Storrs  family — an  ermined  banner  bearing 
the  figure  of  a  lion  with  uplifted  right  fore-leg,  while  above,  on 
the  faces  of  office,  rests  a  mailed  arm,  the  clenched  hand  of 
which  holds  a  mitred  cross.  Prominently,  thereafter,  the  name 
figures  in  the  Continental  annals  of  both  war  and  peace,  and 
almost  invariably  its  wearers  were  men  of  more  than  ordi 
nary  ability  and  influence.  By  the  marriage  of  the  Rev.  John 
Storrs  to  the  granddaughter  of  the  Rev.  Eleazer  Williams* 
was  born  early  in  September,  1763,  a  son,  christened  Richard 
Salter  Storrs,  who  graduated  at  Yale  College  twenty  years  later 
and,  settling  as  pastor  of  the  Long  Meadow,  (Mass.)  church, 
made  a  brilliant  reputation  as  a  scholar  and  speaker,  and  thus 
inaugurated  a  notable  minsterial  line  perpetuated  to-day  in  the 
well-known  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Salter  Storrs,  of  Brooklyn, .  N.  Y. 
It  would  be  idle,  in  such  a  work  as  this,  to  attempt  much  con- 
c^rning  an  ancestry  many  in  number  and  prolific  in  excellent  deeds, 
but  it  may  be  well  to  paragraph  briefly  the  name  of  Experience 
Storrs,  if  only  to  illustrate  what  has  so  often  transpired  in  the  his 
tory  of  families,  that  sons  equally  distinguished,  may  in  a  certain 
sense  occupy  reversed  positions.  In  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill, 
Colonel  Experience  Storrs  commanded  a  company  of  Connecticut 
men  who  fought  heroically  and  who  contained  among  their  num 
ber  Elias  Birchard,  an  ancestor  of  Ex-President  R.  B.  Hayes. 
It  is  related  how  Colonel  Storrs  was  the  chief  spirit  in  a  town 


*Elder  Williams  died  September  I,  1742,  leaving  four  daughters,  the 
eldest  of  whom,  Eunice,  married  the  Hon.  Shubael  Conant,  and  Eunice 
Conant,  their  daughter,  married  Dr.  Samuel  Howe,  and,  on  Dr.  Howe's 
demise,  became  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  John  Storrs,  a  grandson  of  Samuel. 


ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    EXPERIENCES.  2J 

meeting  held  at  Mansfield,  September  13,  1774,  to  subscribe  for  his 
embargoed  countrymen  in  Boston ;  how,  as  one  of  two  delegates,  he 
proceeded  later  to  Hartford  and  participated  in  the  convention  to 
devise  organized  continental  methods  of  aid  for  the  same  sufferers  ; 
how,  in  a  great  mass  meeting  of  inhabitants,  held  in  the  town  hall 
on  the  tenth  of  October,  1 774,  there  was  passed  a  remarkable  decla 
ration  of  freedom,  voicing  distinctly  the  coming  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  presented,  in  stirring  tones,  by  Colonel  Experience  Storrs  ; 
how,  in  1775,  after  the  thrilling  news  of  the  battle  of  Lexington, 
though  it  was  night  when  the  messenger  reached  the  usually  quiet 
town,  this  same  Colonel  Storrs  collected  a  band  of  ninety-three  vol 
unteers  and  marched  off  for  Boston  ;  and  how,  all  through  the  terri 
ble  years  of  war  which  ensued,  this  commander  and  his  Mansfield 
followers  supported  Washington. 

Nathaniel  Storrs  married  Harriet  Denny,  descendant  of  the  Den- 
nys  of  the  Pilgrim  stock,  and  removed  from  Mansfield  to  Worcester, 
Otsego  County,  New  York.  Their  son,  Thomas  D.  Storrs,  was  the 
father  of  the  Honorable  Alexander  Storrs,  the  father  of  Emery  A. 
Storrs.  Thomas  D.  Storrs  married  Catharine  Campbell,  a  daughter 
of  one  Alexander  Campbell  who  was  a  full-blooded  descendant  of 
the  celebrated  Scotch  family  of  that  name,  and  in  this  way  came  that 
"tincture  of  Scotch  sweet  strength"  of  which  the  late  Mr.  Storrs 
made  laughing  boast.  Alexander  Storrs,  the  father  of  Emery  A. 
Storrs,  was  nineteen  years  of  age,  when,  in  1827,  his  parents  removed 
from  Worcester,  the  place  of  his  birth,  to  Cattaraugiis  County, 
New  York,  where  he  has  continuously  resided  since  that  date,  his 
present  home,  erected  in  1831  precisely  as  it  now  stands,  being  one 
of  the  first  houses  in  that  quaint  little  village  of  Hinsdale.  To  this 
spot,  so  unpretentious  in  itself,  but  so  picturesquely  beautiful  in  its 
setting  in  1831,  Alexander  Storrs  brought  as  his  wife  Phcebe  Platt,  a 
descendant  of  the  worthy  family  of  that  name  of  Plattsburg,  New 
York. 

This  mother  of  the  late  Mr.  Storrs  was  a  somewhat  unusual  woman, 
and  there  were  many  traits  of  the  mother  manifested  in  the  brilliant 
son.  She  was  small  in  stature,  not  weighing  one  hundred  pounds  ; 
energetic  in  disposition ;  fond  of  books ;  well  posted  in  the  current 
events  of  the  day ;  and  possessed  a  voice  rich,  sweet,  and  full  as 
cathedral  music.  "  It  is  the  first  good  thing  of  earth,  I  recollect," 
said  the  son,  "it  has  reverberated  in  the  air  of  thought  many  a  time 


28  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

in  the  nights  of  my  absence  from  her,  and  if  ever  I  hear  angels' 
voices  I  know  whose  shall  be  the  leading  contralto."  The  father 
was  a  tall,  well-proportioned  man,  keen-eyed,  strong-marked  in  his 
features ;  of  good  rank  as  a  country  lawyer,  and,  withal,  somewhat 
prominent  as  a  "  squire,"  or  justice-of-the-peace,  for  more  than  forty 
years ;  looked  up  to  as  a  safe  counselor  by  all  the  inhabitants  of  his 
county;  in  1855  the  representative  of  his  district  in  the  New  York 
State  Legislature.  He  yet  lives,* sorrowing  his  wife  who  passed 
away  in  March,  1885,  only  a  few  months  before  the  loved  son.  By 
their  marriage  there  were  three  other  children  besides  Emery : 
Rosetta,  now  Mrs.  John  A  Grow,  of  New  York  City,  and  Caroline, 
wife  of  John  Adams,  of  Ischua,  New  York  State,  and  a  son,  Mar 
shall,  who  died  in  1855,  when  about  nine  years  of  age. 

The  Storrs  family  of  Worcester,  Otsego  County,  New  York,  were 
represented,  at  the  time  of  General  Garfield's  campaign  for  the  Pres 
idency,  by  a  cousin  of  Mr.  Alexander  Storrs,  who  bore  the  ancestral 
name  of  Nathaniel.  General  Garfield's  father's  family  had  been  res 
idents  of  Worcester,  and  he  had  after  much  diligent  research  collect 
ed  a  number  of  traditions  relating  to  his  own  progenitors  at  that 
period.  In  the  course  of  his  inquiries,  he  had  ascertained  that  a 
great-grandfather  of  Emery  A.  Storrs  had  attended  his  own  grand 
father  during  his  last  illness  ;  and  when,  during  the  campaign  of 
1880,  he  was  brought  into  immediate  and  frequent  contact  with  Mr. 
Storrs,  their  acquaintance  ripened  into  intimacy.  General  Gar- 
field  communicated  to  Mr.  Storrs  this  interesting  fact  of  the  bond 
between  the  families  in  the  following  pleasant  letter : 


"MENTOR,  OHIO,  July  20,  1880. 
"  HON.  EMERY  A.  STORRS, 

"99  Washington  Street, 

"Chicago,  111. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : — Accept  my  thanks  for  your  kind  letter  of  July  I9th. 
I  have  read  with  great  pleasure  your  very  able  and  effective  speech  at 
Burlington,  Iowa.  It  is  incisively  aggressive,  as  all  our  speeches  ought  to 
be.  The  attempt  to  put  our  party  on  the  defensive  on  my  behalf  cannot 
succeed.  I  am  particularly  obliged  to  you  for  what  you  say  in  reference 
to  the  De  Golyer  matter. 

"  From  what  your  father  writes,  it  is  clear  that  it  was  your  grandfather  who 
so  tenderly  and  courageously  took  care  of  my  grandfather  during  his  sick 
ness,  and  buried  him  after  his  death.  I  am  glad  to  know  this  fact.  It 
warms  my  heart  with  gratitude  to  know  that  I  have  found  a  living  descen- 

*  Since  the  penning  of  these  lines,  Aug.  25th,  1886,  Alexander  Storrs,  the  father,  died, 
aged  78  years. 


ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    EXPERIENCES.  2Q 

dant  of  the  man  whose   name  has   so   long  been   a   household   word  in   my 
family. 

"  Whenever  you  come  in  reach  of  me,  I  hope  you  will  call. 

"  Very  truly  yours, 

"J.  A.  GARFIELD." 


Collateral  testimony  to  the  same  fact  was  borne  to  Mr.  Storrs  by 
an  old  and  respected  citizen  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Robert  F.  Queal, 
for  many  years  a  prominent  member  of  the  Methodist  denom 
ination,  a  trustee  and  valued  officer  of  the  Northwestern  Uni 
versity  at  Evanston,  and  for  some  years  a  director  of  the  Chicago 
Public  Library,  of  whose  Managing  Board  he  was  one  of  the  first 
members.  Writing  under  date  February  7,  1881,  from  Millview, 
near  Pensacola,  Florida,  where  he  was  attending  to  business  inter 
ests,  this  gentleman  said  : 

"DEAR  SIR: — You  will  pardon  the  intrusion  of  one  having  no  personal 
acquaintance.  I  am  moved  to  write  this  note  by  seeing  your  name  so  gen 
erally  and  favorably  mentioned  by  the  Chicago  press  for  a  place  in  General 
Garfield's  Cabinet. 

"  I  am  a  native  of  Worcester,  Otsego  County,  N.  Y.,  and  a  year  or  two 
ago,  prompted  by  a  letter  written  by  General  Garfield  and  published  in  the 
local  newspaper  of  Worcester,  interested  myself  in  confirming  the  traditions 
General  Garfield  had  concerning  his  father's  family  as  connected  with  Wor 
cester.  This  I  was  able  to  do,  and  to  add  new  facts  of  interest  to  his  pre 
vious  knowledge.  This  service  on  my  part  led  to  a  very  pleasant  corre 
spondence  with  General  Garfield  while  he  was  still  a  member  of  Congress, 
to  a  call  upon  him  at  his  home  in  Washington,  and  to  a  brief  call  upon 
him  at  Mentor  after  his  nomination.  Even  before  his  election  to  the  Sen 
ate,  I  had  written  him  that  his  traditions  of  the  connection  of  a  Storrs  family 
with  the  sickness  and  death  of  his  grandfather  left  no  doubt  on  my  mind 
that  it  was  the  family  with  which  you  were  immediately  connected.  Pursuing 
my  inquiries,  I  called  last  summer  on  Nathaniel  Storrs,  your  father's  cousin, 
who  occupies  the  old  Storrs  homestead  on  '  Ingalls  hill '  or  '  West  hill '  in 
Worcester,  and  found  my  conjectures  fully  confirmed.  It  was  the  father 
of  Nathaniel — Rufus  Storrs — and  the  father  of  Rufus,  your  great-grandfather, 
that  attended  the  grandfather  of  General  Garfield,  Thomas  Garfield,  in  his 
last  illness,  nursed  and  cared  for  him  (his  wife  and  children  being  removed 
for  safety,  he  having  small-pox),  and  who,  with  one  other  neighbor, 
when  he,  a  "stalwart  man  of  thirty,  was  dead,  prepared  the  body  and  took 
it  upon  a  stone-boat,  at  three  o'clock  at  night,  with  a  yoke-  of  cattle  to 
burial. 

"1  stood  last  summer  on  the  site  of  the  log-house,  now  an  open  field,  on  a 
stony  hillside,  where  these  events  transpired  eighty  years  ago.  I  took,  in  July 
last,  to  the  General  and  his  mother,  some  souvenirs  of  the  place, — among  other 


3<D  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

things  a  fragment  of  the  rude  fire-place  and  hearth-stone  where  blazed  the 
fires  that  warmed  the  room  where  his  father  was  born,  and  where  he  was 
left  fatherless  at  two  years  of  age. 

"  Seeing  your  name  so  prominently  and  influentially  mentioned  in  con 
nection  with  General  Garfield's  cabinet,  I  was  impressed  that  it  would 
certainly  be  a  curious  circumstance  of  especial  interest  should  these  families, 
so  connected  in  offices  of  humanity  eighty  years  ago,  become  through  their 
descendants  officially  connected  in  such  high  place  in  the  administration  of 
the  government.*  *  *  I  said  to  General  Garfield  last  summer  that  I  thought 
the  birthplace  of  his  father  was  not  a  mile  from  where  your  father  was 
born." 

In  this  country,  the  early  life  and  experience  of  any  man  who 
seems  to  have  achieved  success  or  eminence  in  any  occupation 
or  pursuit,  on  investigation  prove  strikingly  similar  to  those  of 
many  others.  It  is  true  that  honor  and  fame  from  no  condition 
rise.  Given  a  reasonable  inheritance  of  sterling  blood,  ability  if 
only  of  an  average  degree  to  begin  with,  a  definite  longing,  and 
will  enough  to  be  persistent,  and  the  result  is  success  or  emin 
ence  or — an  early  death.  It  often  proves  a  magnificent  lever  to 
be  born  poor,  or  in  circumstances  which  tend  to  press  the  fac 
ulties  to  best  exertions,  but  neither  is  necessary.  Poverty  may, 
as  a  rule,  be  more  stimulating  towards  ambition,  for  it  is  natural 
to  flee  from  the  wolf;  but  blood  and  brains  are  not  necessarily 
fettered  by  gold,  no  more  for  the  growing  than  for  the  matured 
man.  Possession  of  wealth  ought  to  be  possession  of  that  which 
polishes  and  broadens.  The  boy,  Emery  A.  Storrs,  was  about 
the  average  American  boy  of  the  first  half  of  this  century.  He 
was  not  born  a  genius.  Brilliant  philippics,  a  wonderful  flow  of 
oratory,  did  not  stream  from  his  baby  lips.  The  keen  blade  of 
his  famous,  searching  wit  was  only  edged  after  the  grind  of  long 
years  of  intensest  application.  The  splendid  powers  of  the  advo 
cate  and  jurist  were  developed  in  toiling  study  when  the  mass 
of  his  fellows  were  wrapped  in  sleep.  He  possessed  genius,  surely, 
and  much  of  it,  but  such  genius  is  possible  for  all,  and  the 
shadows  of  his  genius,  from  encircling  his  eyes  during  many 
years,  deepened  into  his  tomb. 

The  boy,  Emery,  therefore  was  well-blooded.  He  attained, 
too,  in  time,  the  genius  of  hard  labor.  Moreover,  he  had  the 
stimulation  of  the  knowledge  that  to  live,  he  must  earn.  But  it 
would  have  been  better  in  his  case  if  he  could  have  been  born 
with  Fortunatus'  inexhaustible  purse,  for  inappreciation  of  money 


ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    EXPERIENCES.  31 

was  his  chief  evil  all  through  life ;  or  better  yet  would  it  have 
been  had  his  breath  been  drawn  in  the  air  of  that  favored  Greece 
he  so  loved  to  refer  to,  in  that  period  of  oratory  when  to  utter 
words  that  measured  music  to  listening  ears  was  to  have  wealth 
and  rank  poured  upon  the  utterer. 

He  had  certain  ability,  also,  or,  rather,  decided  proclivities 
which  were  judiciously  fostered  into  marked  characteristics :  a 
taste  for  letters  and  a  fondness  for  intellectual  approbation.  At 
the  age  of  four  he  had  spelled  through  the  easy  words  and 
stories  of  the  primers,  and  was  endeavoring  to  read  the  simpler 
newspaper  articles.  His  father  had  an  idea,  which  was  put  in 
practice,  that  the  parents  of  American  children  may  exercise  a 
strong  influence  for  the  good  of  the  rising  generation  by  sur 
rounding  and  interesting  the  young,  at  their  homes,  aside  from 
public  school  education,  with  various  fresh  primers  and  illustrated 
books  for  beginners,  by  discussion  at  the  fireside  over  the  school 
exercises  of  the  day,  and  by  exciting  their  attention  in  the  cur 
rent  events  of  the  nation  and  of  the  peoples  across  the  sea.  One 
result  of  such  gradual  molding  of  the  naturally  earnest  nature  of 
a  child  like  Emery  was  that  by  the  time  he  had  attained  the 
age  of  twelve  years,  he  was  both  a  versatile  scholar  and  a 
splendid  historian.  Doubtless  with  the  major  portion  of  the 
American  young  such  methods  of  inculcating  versatility  and 
historical  knowledge  would  work  no  other  end  than  good,  but, 
with  the  delicate  frame  and  enlarged  nervous  organization  of  this 
subject  there  were  unpromising  incidents — as,  for  instance, 
when  one  day  the  six-year-old  lad  was  found  seated  in  an  old 
rocking  chair,  his  slender  fingers  clasping  a  heavy7  book,  the 
large  head  drooped  on  the  narrow  breast,  the  whole  body  in  a 
deep  faint. 

This  taste  for  letters  is  clearly  shown  in  literary  attempts 
when  a  mere  child.  In  a  work  to  be  devoted  chiefly  to  illus 
trating  the  excellencies  of  his  best  and  maturest  years,  especially 
as  a  wit  and  orator,  it  may  be  construed  by  some  readers  to  be 
a  wasteful  digression  to  more  than  refer  to  a  strong  aptitude  for 
writing  possessed  in  years  which  in  most  lives  merge  into 
infancy ;  but  there  may  be  others  and  a  greater  number,  wrho 
will  not  only  pardon  but  be  pleased  at  the  introduction  in  these 
pages  of  one  or  two,  from  many,  of  the  incipient  indications  of 


32  LIFE    OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

that  strong  and  felicitous  intellectual   power  which  in  later   years 
so  often  stirred  and  delighted. 

Stored  away  in  a  little,  dark  garret-chamber  of  his  old  home 
was  what  might  be  called  the  treasure-box  of  the  mother.  Until 
death  had  hushed  to  earthly  ears  that  voice  which  was  always 
music — at  least  to  the  son  who  was  destined  so  soon  to  follow 
the  vanishing  melody — no  one  of  the  family  had  known  just 
what  that  box  contained.  It  was  filled  with  literary  efforts 
of  first  the  child,  and  then  of  the  eloquent  man.  School-boy 
compositions,  juvenile  attempts  at  poetry ;  then,  older  essays, 
newspaper  clippings,  political  notes,  and  printed  legal  briefs.  It 
was  the  old  repeated  story,  never  altogether  apart  from  pathos, 
the  mother's  hidden  worship  for  her  child. 

Among  the  treasures,  thus  preserved,  were  some  school  news 
papers,  several  pages  of  large  letter  paper,  carefully  lined  off  so 
as  to  resemble  a  regularly  printed  sheet.  Who  has  not  seen  and 
had  something  to  do  with  like  proud  types  of  literature !  They 
were  yellow  and'  torn,  but  "E.  A.  Storrs,  Editor,"  stood  forth 
boldly  as  did  all  the  characters  of  the  clear  chirography.  One, 
"The  Casket,"  dates  back  to  1842,  when  Emery  was  only  nine 
years  of  age,  but  there  was  a  smack  of  the  rich  humor,  always 
ready  on  the  tongue  of  the  speaker  of  a  later  period,  in  the  big- 
lined  prospectus  which  announced ; — "  The  Casket  is  published 
semi-monthly  at  this  place.  Devoted  to  Literature,  Mechanics, 
and  the  Arts;  also  Love,  Suicide  and  Murder."  There  is,  also,  a 
familiar  ring  in  the  "  Motto:  Justice  and  equal  rights  to  all  men 
in  whatsoever  rank  or  station  they  may  be  placed."  There  are 
really  remarkably  mature  sentiments  in  certain  "  editorials,"  with 
the  adjunct  "  E.  A.  S."  in  this  "Casket,"  as,  for  instance,  as  an 
illustration  of  his  political  taste  at  so  early  an  age,  is  one  headed 
(and  the  spelling,  capitalization,  etc.,  are  strictly  followed), 
"Thoughts  on  hearing  it  said  that  America  would  soon  lose  her 
independence : " 

"What,  America  lose  her  independence!  No,  never  as  long  as  she  con 
tinues  to  carry  out  those  principles  of  Justice  and  of  Right  which  now 
actuate  the  hearts  of  American  freemen.  As  long  as  we  continue  to  sup 
port  the  civil  and  religious  institutions  of  our  country,  as  long  as  we 
support  the  principles  of  our  forefathers,  who  will  speak  to  us  from  the 
tombs  and  say  America  can  be  governed  and  yet  be  free — no  doubt  can 
exist.  The  principles  of  our  government  are  such  that  we  can  exercise  our 


ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    EXPERIENCES.  33 

principles.  We  can  think  and  write  what  we  please.  The  press  is  free, 
and  it  is  the  press  that  will  lay  the  superstructure  of  our  national,  civil  and 
religious  character.  But  as  quick  as  we  love  power  and  forget  Right;  as 
quick  as  we  let  intriguing  politicians  get  the  hold  of  our  nation  ;  as  quick 
as  we  forsake  the  civil  and  religious  character  of  our  country  ;  as  quick  as 
the  fire  of  patriotism  ceases  to  burn  within  our  breast  ;  as  quick  as  we  for 
get  our  fathers  who  have  fought  and  bled  for  us  ;  as  quickly  as  we  let  the 
moral  character  get  corrupt  and  the  liberty  of  the  press  be  restricted, 
Then  will  America  begin  to  totter,  then  will  the  very  pillars  of  our  country 
totter  from  their  very  foundations.  And  happy  proud  America  will  be  no 
more.  Then,  fellow  citizens,  arouse  to  duty — go  forward  in  the  battle  field 
of  your  country  as  your  country — go  to  the  field  well  armed  in  the  cause 
of  your  native  land.  Remember  that  all  Nations  are  watching  us  with  a 
steady  and  unerring  eye,  watching  for  the  favorable  moment  when  they 
can  approach  our  native  land,  the  land  that  has  reared  us  from  our 
infancy.  The  land  that  gave  our  fathers  birth.  The  land  that  has  rocked 
us  in  the  cradle  of  liberty  and  Independence.  The  land  for  which  our 
forefathers  fought  and  had  lived  to  see  arrive  to  a  state  of  freedom  and 
Independence.  They  of  foreign  nations  will  approach  our  land  with  a 
torch  in  one  hand  and  as  a  firebrand  will  throw  it  at  our  land  and  strive 
to  set  fire  to  the  institutions  of  our  country.  Let  us  arouse  then  and 
extinguish  the  flame  which  they  might  kindle." 

The  orator's  fire  was  beginning  to  flame  in  the  nine-year 
breast. 

Among  the  miscellaneous  collection,  written  at  the  same  early 
age,  was  found  a  short  essay  on  the  subject  "  Nature,"  which  is 
even  a  better  illustration  than  the  one  already  given  of  the  ele 
vated  literary  tendency  of  the  boy.  After  dwelling  upon  the 
thought  that  the  subject  "  is  calculated  to  awaken  sensibilities  of 
taste  and  picture  to  us  scenes  which  will  create  in  our  bosoms 
the  most  pleasing  and  interesting  reflections,"  as  shown  by  the 
fact,  that  "the  green  lawn,  the  beautiful  grove,  the  vast  ocean, 
and  the  starry  heavens  are  all  admired  by  every  attentive 
scholar,"  he  writes: 

"The  hand  of  fashion  can  neither  change  their  form  nor  appearance.  Neither 
can  accident  touch  them  with  the  finger  of  change.  Who  can  view  the  beauti 
ful  works  of  nature  but  with  delight?  From  meditation  upon  the  works  of 
nature,  the  thoughts  become  exalted,  the  mind  is  raised  above  the  works 
of  art  and  placed  upon  the  author  of  these  wonderful  productions.  'It 
must  have  been  the  intention  of  the  All  Wise  Creator  to  make  extensive 
impressions  upon  us  in  placing  before  our  eyes  such  beautiful  objects  as 
constantly  meet  them.  'When  we  gaze  over  the  Universe,  we  are  led  to 
inquire  are  not  these  the  works  of  God  ? '  'Do  not  they  show  forth  his  works  ?' 

"We  are  ready  to  say  with  surprise,  '  how  mighty  is  that  Being  who  created 


34  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

such  a  variety  of  objects !  '  '  How  strange  that  any  person  possessed  of  moral 
and  religious  impressions  can  view  the  beautiful  displays  of  all  the  natural  ex 
istence  around  us  but  with  wonder  and  love.'  The  starry  heavens  have  excited 
the  interest  of  many  great  men,  such  as  Galileo,  Herschel,  Newton,  and  others. 
"The  flashing  meteor  darting  through  the  skies,  the  caves  and  caverns  of  the 
earth,  the  insect  that  creeps  beneath  our  feet,  the  lily  of  the  vale,  the  thunder 
that  rolls  above  us,  all  these  cannot  help  sending  through  the  mind  those  feel 
ings  of  awe  and  astonishment  which  will  compel  us  to  exclaim  in  wonder." 

There  are  crudities,  naturally,  in  this  composition,  but  with 
them  a  certain  beauty  of  expression. 

In  his  eleventh  year,  he  essayed  a  love  story,  under  the 
matter-of-fact  title  " Which  Shall  I  Choose?"  in  which  the  battle 
of  passions  in  the  mind  of  a  young  man  named  "Fernando," 
who  had  gone  in  the  pursuit  of  business  from  his  country  home 
and  "  sweet  village  love  upon  whom  his  affections  had  been 
bestowed "  to  a  stirring  city  scene  where,  among  other  tempta 
tions,  he  met  "a  lovely  maid,"  "her  brown  hair  hanging  in  curls 
on  her  snowy  neck" — was  portrayed,  with  the  somewhat  unusual 
result  of  his  marrying  neither.  The  tale,  no  doubt,  greatly 
impressed  the  academy  listeners  to  the  "Palladium"  in  which  it 
appeared. 

In  1846,  when  only  thirteen  years  of  age,  Emery  left  the 
"  Academy  "  of  Hinsdale  and  began  to  read  law  and  copy  legal 
papers  in  the  office  of  his  father.  He  had,  though  so  young, 
really  finished  the  practical,  if  not  very  elaborate,  curriculum  of 
that  little  institution  of  learning  in  his  native  village ;  and,  many 
months  prior  to  this  change  in  his  duties,  had  already  displayed 
a  fondness  for  political  events  which  was  to  cling  to  him  through 
life.  It  is  told  how  in  the  excitement  attendant  upon  the  elec 
tioneering  of  Polk  and  Dallas,  the  school  lad  primed  to  over 
flowing  with  newspaper  political  accounts  would  harangue  his 
fellows,  and  how  during  the  days  of  the  Mexican  war,  from  the 
commencement  to  the  close,  from  the  death  of  Ringgold  to  the 
battle  of  Chapultepec,  he  was  as  vigilant  a  reader  and  as  accurate 
an  authority  as  the  neighborhood  possessed.  For  two  years  he 
acted  as  his  father's  clerk,  and  there  are  many  evidences  of  his 
diligence  during  this  time,  in  reading  what  would  be  regarded  as 
weighty  matter  for  most  lads  of  his  age.  All  the  elementary 
works  on  law  were  carefully  read,  and  in  the  small  frame  office 
building,  standing  to-day  as  in  1846,  in  one  corner  of  the  home- 


ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    EXPERIENCES.  37 

lot,  appear  such  epitaphs  to  ended  labor  as  that  on  the  last  leaf 
of  the  final  volume  of  Kent's  commentaries:  "Completed  the 
reading  of  this  work,  August  /th,  1848,  E.  A.  Storrs." 

Sometime  in  the  fall  of  1848,  young  Storrs  entered  the  law 
office  of  Mr.  B.  Champlin,  of  the  Town  of  Cuba,  N.  Y.,  a 
lawyer  who  ranked  well  throughout  the  adjoining  counties  and 
who  later,  for  two  terms,  served  efficiently  as  attorney-general  of 
the  State  of  New  York,  Here  he  read  and  copied,  in  a  full 
round  hand,  and  "chored"  as  one  of  the  duties  in  those  healthy 
days  of  all  embryotic  lawyers. 

"One  day  in  the  spring  of  1850,"  says  General  Gustavus 
Scroggs,  now  a  retired  lawyer  of  Buffalo,  "while  sitting  in  the 
office  of  Mr.  Champlin,  at  Cuba,  waiting  for  his  appearance  for 
an  interview  relating  to  an  issue  in  which  we  were  jointly  acting, 
I  first  saw  the  late  Mr.  Storrs.  My  attention  was  first  attracted 
and  held  by  the  interested  way  in  which  the  little  clerk  with  the 
large  head  seemed  to  be  engaged  in  copying  a  voluminous 
legal  paper.  Getting  into  conversation  with  him,  I  found  he  was 
an  unusually  intelligent  young  man.  During  some  days  I  saw  a 
great  deal  of  my  acquaintance  thus  made,  and  the  result  was 
that,  having  first  broached  my  desire  to  Mr.  Champlin,  and 
receiving  his  assent,  I  entered  my  friend's  office  one  morning 
and  said: 

"'Emery,  how  would  you  like  to  be  a  Buffalo  lawyer?' 

"The  reply  was — 'The  country  mouse  envied  the  city  mouse, 
and  I  want  to  go,  if  only  for  a  time.'" 

General  Scroggs  was  of  the  firm  of  Austin  &  Scroggs,  Mr. 
Austin  being  at  the  time  district  attorney,  and  each  member 
ranking  well  in  the  legal  fraternity  of  the  city.  The  new  clerk 
soon  made  himself  indispensable.  Though  so  young,  the  marked 
intellectual  power  made  itself  felt,  and  one  of  the  firm  is  author 
ity  for  the  statement  that  it  soon  devolved  on  his  young  energies 
to  investigate  every  fresh  question  presented  his  masters  and  'to 
outline  in  a  great  measure  their  briefs.  The  politician  continued 
to  grow  with  the  lawyer.  He  voiced  to  his  fellow-students  in 
the  Buffalo  law  school,  which  he  soon  entered,  opinions  upon  all 
the  current  events  as  clear  cut  and  decided  as  though  it  was  the 
man  and  not  the  boy  who  had  been  surveying  the  field.  His 
positivism  of  idea  reached  even  into  his  home  letters.  Take,  for 


38  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

an  illustration,  a  sample  from  a  letter  written  to  his  father,  dated 
at  Buffalo,  No.  230  Main  Street,  June  23,  1850,  while  he  was 
not  yet  seventeen  years  old,  a  short  time  after  going  to  that 
city: 

"  We  are  pretty  well  crowded  with  business.  Mr.  Austin  is  at  the  court 
house  all  the  time.  On  Monday  there  is  to  be  tried  here  in  the  Supreme 
Court  a  case  which  will  be  of  the  greatest  interest  to  the  legal  and  medi 
cal  profession.  Perhaps  Doctor  Clarke  has  heard  of  the  case  ;  it  is  The 
People  vs.  Doctor  Loomis  and  Mr.  Robie,  libel  on  the  information  of 
Doctor  James  M.  White  of  this  city,  professer  of  Obstetrics  in  the  Medical 
College.  I  will  at  the  earliest  opportunity  forward  you  the  printed  testi 
mony  and  arguments  of  counsel  in  the  case  as  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  it 
will  be  interesting  to  you. 

"  Have  you  read  the  speech  of  Daniel  S.  Dickinson  at  Tammany  Hall? 
If  you  have  not,  do  so  the  first  time  you  see  it  as  it  is  as  splendid  an 
oratorical  effort  as  ever  you  saw  and  is  full  of  truths.  I  am  in  hopes  that 
Mr.  Clay's  compromise  resolutions  will  pass,  so  that  the  government  can 
have  some  peace  from  the  ceaseless,  useless,  and  highly  dangerous  incen 
diary  harping  on  the  slave  question. 

"  I  am  more  convinced  than  ever  of  the  folly  of  continually  keeping  this 
slavery  question  in  our  national  councils,  and  those  fanatics,  come  they 
from  the  North  or  the  South,  who  would  seek  to  make  the  harassing 
question  of  slavery  a  dividing  line  and  party  test  in  our  national  councils 
should  meet  the  treatment  and  fate  of  a  traitor.  By  persisting  in  their 
fool-hardy  measures,  they  will  finally  sap  and  undermine  the  glorious  fabric 
of  our  Republican  institutions,  founded  by  the  blood  and  treasure  of  pat 
riots,  '  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave,'  the  asylum  of  the 
oppressed  of  all  nations,  the  glory  of  patriots  and  philanthropists  and  the 
dread  of  monarchists  and  despots." 

Within  a  few  months  after  Gen.  Scroggs  had  taken  the  country 
boy  into  his  office,  he  earned  and  was  made  managing  clerk  and 
upon  him  devolved  the  preparations  of  all  the  firm's  cases.  In  the 
law  school,  too,  he  began  to  be  regarded  by  all  the  students  as 
a  legal  prodigy,  and,  though  the  youngest  in  his  class,  he  became 
the  acknowledged  leader.  His  extremely  sociable  disposition,  his 
love  of  anecdotes  and  continually  overflowing  humor,  cemented 
the  leadership  granted  by  his  mates.  A  faculty  of  eliminating 
the  grotesque  from  the  panorama  of  life  was  a  powerful  posses 
sion  even  in  these  student  days.  And  "  his  aim  and  determina 
tion,"  to  quote  from  the  description  of  him  as  given  by  a  fel 
low  student  of  those  days  who  is  now  himself  a  prominent  jurist 
"  not  to  be  outdone  by  any  human  being  were  he  old  or  young," 
extended  even  into  the  realm  of  anecdote  or  story,  for  nothing 


ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    EXPERIENCES.  39 

could  be  related,  imaginative  or  historical,  but  what  he  would 
match  and  surpass.  This  trait,  which  in  after  years  became  so 
marked  a  feature  in  his  intellectual  composition,  mingled  with  his 
strong  reasoning  powers,  became  soon  a  topic  of  general  com 
ment  in  Buffalo  and  so  enlivened  the  moot  courts  of  the  students, 
held  in  evenings,  as  to  draw  audiences  composed  not  only  of  the 
student  element  but  also  of  the  bar  and  bench  of  the  city. 

In  November  of  1853,  young  Storrs,  by  request,  enlarged  upon 
a  debate  which  had  attracted  considerable  attention  as  indulged 
in  by  this  debating  club,  and  presented  to  a  large  audience  in 
Lyceum  Hall  a  lecture  of  much  merit  upon  the  "  Growth  of  the 
Laws  of  Contract."  It  was  deemed  at  the  time  as  indicating 
much  promise  in  a  boy  not  yet  having  attained  his  majority, 
or  to  the  age  when  he  could  be  granted  his  law  diploma. 
The  lecture  was  one  of  close  presentation  of  the  law,  graphi 
cally  illustrated  by  familiar  examples,  and  at  times  had  a 
touch  of  eloquence  even  upon  a  subject  ordinarily  supposed 
to  be  dry  and  uninteresting.  Only  once  during  this  lecture  did 
his  spirit  of  humor  crop  out,  but  then  in  a  most  happy  way. 
In  response  to  a  question,  he  turned  and  said  that  the  law  did 
exercise  particular  care  over  the  class  which  could  not  be  included 
under  the  head  of  "  Husband  and  Wife "  (whom  he  had  been 
assuming  the  laws  of  the  day  especially  watched  over  and 
encouraged),  that  class  composed  of  beings  "  usually  designated  as 
bachelors  "  and  that  "  other  equally  unfortunate  class,  the  especial 
victims  of  the  shortcomings  of  the  class  last  aforesaid — traveling 
disappointments — disembodied  spirits  of  dead  hopes  and  buried 
affections  made  manifest  in  the  flesh,  and  known  as  old  maids." 
The  class  of  old  bachelors  he  thought  the  law  cared  for  by  com 
pelling,  in  the  shape  of  taxes,  to  contribute  to  the  support  and 
education  of  those  children  who  growing  up  should  pity  their 
choice  of  existence  :  the  class  of  old  maids,  "  more  unfortunate 
than  criminal,  the  law  grants  the  negative  privilege,  no  matter 
how  much  age  may  have  impaired  their  beauty  or  soured  their 
dispositions,  of  patroling  up  and  down  the  face  of  God's 
green  earth — <  fishers  of  men  ' — and  of  casting  their  lines  into  that 
great  river  of  contingencies  which  shortly  dividing  empties  into 
the  sea  of  glorious  consummation  or  the  gulf  of  utter  despair." 

Mr.  Storrs  was  admitted  to  the  practice  of  the  law  at  Batavia, 


4O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Genesee  County,  New  York,  on  the  fifth  day  of  September, 
1854,  and  at  once  became  a  member  of  the  newly  organized  firm 
of  Austin,  Storrs  &  Austin,  at  Buffalo.  Gen.  Scroggs  withdrew 
from  his  connection  with  Mr.  Austin,  and  a  son  of  the  latter 
was  joined  in  the  new  partnership  In  this  relation,  it  devolved 
upon  Mr.  Storrs  to  prepare  and  take  charge  of  the  law  issues 
of  the  extensive  business  of  the  firm. 

Only  two  days  after  his  admission  to  the  bar.  there  occurred 
the  consummation  of  what  had  filled  Mr.  Storr's  mind  even 
more,  perhaps,  than  legal  honors  for  many  months.  Sometime 
late  in  the  year  1852,  he  had  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  Miss 
Caroline  P.  Mead,  a  niece  of  William  Mead,  a  retired  lumberman 
of  Buffalo.  Mr.  Storrs  described  his  love  at  first  sight,  in  after 
years,  as  "consummate  goneness  at  incipient  comingness,"  but 
a  too  precipitate  display  of  the  passion  with  which  he  was 
inspired  subjected  the  nineteen-year-old  wooer,  for  such  he  at 
once  became,  to  most  cool  repulses,  not  only  on  the  part  of  the 
young  lady  but  also  from  the  uncle  in  whose  sole  custody  lived 
the  orphan  niece.  He  proved  a  good  pleader  in  his  own  cause, 
however,  and  within  a  short  half-year  had  not  only  secured  the 
favor  of  the  inflamer,  but,  as  is  not  always  the  case,  even  of  the 
at  first  obdurate  uncle.  Marriage,  however,  was  proscribed  until 
he  should  become  a  full-fledged  member  of  the  bar. 

"My  Dear; —  "  (He  wrote  to  an  intimate  friend  in  July,  1853.)  "I 
wonder  if  it  would  be  a  convincing  argument  in  the  law  class,  provided  I  as 
sume  the  position  that  private  laws  are  as  unbendingly  potent  as  public  laws, 
if  I  should  proceed  to  reason  that  the  stern  dictum  of  Uncle  William  Mead  as 
effectually  restricts  me  as  does  the  legislative  enactment  of  the  New  York  law- 
molders.  Uncle  W.  M.,  relentlessly  decrees  that  I  may  love  as  a  hus 
band — he  cannot  help  that!  He  cannot  interfere  with  the  commingled 
public  and  private  laws  of  Heaven, — until  I  am  handed  a  dried  piece  of  sheep 
skin  and  thereby  given  full  license  to  li-cense  I  have  attained  twenty-one  years 
and  have  waded  through  so  many  folios;  but  I  must  not  marry.  So  far,  no 
farther.  That  is  a  well  known  private  law.  The  statutes  say  I  can  read  law, 
know  law,  feel  like  a  lawyer,  so  long  as  I  wish,  but  I  cannot  be  a  lawyer  until 
I  am  twenty-one,  perhaps  until  a  third  of  my  life  has  gone.  That  is  a  public 
law!  I  am  now  and  shall  forever  be  an  advocate  that  knowledge,  not  years, 
determines  fitness.  Let  it  be  knowledge  of  law,  or  of  love,  or  of  office.  As  it 
is.sometimes  knowledge  is  not  power." 

He  was  married  to  Miss  Mead,  on  the  seventh  day  of  Sep 
tember,  1854,  in  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Buffalo,  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Lord  officiating. 


ORIGIN    AND    EARLY    EXPERIENCES.  41 

Those  intimate  with  the  private  life  of  Mr.  Storrs  can  tell  that 
until  the  night  of  his  death  love  for  wife  and  family  amounted 
to  passion.  Indeed,  it  was  strangely  deep,  tender,  confiding,  and 
unchanging.  For  wife,  for  family,  no  desire  was  allowed  to 
remain  ungratified.  The  combined  causes  of  impatience  for  the 
attainment  of  legal  manhood  seemed  but  to  steep  him  in  a  life- 
passion.  It  was  once  remarked  to  him  that  he  approached 
nearer  the  genuinely  poetic  in  his  best  arguments  and  addresses 
whenever  his  thoughts  appeared  to  encircle  a  fireside,  or  when 
ever  he  alluded  to  wife  or  mother. 

"Why  not,"  he  retorted,  "I  had  years  to  enkindle  the  glow 
for  mother;  and  for  wife, "  I  must  have  prepared  in  the  fires  of 
an  eternity." 


CHAPTER  II. 


THREE  EARLY  LITERARY  GEMS. 

AN  ESSAY  ON  "MODERN  CHARITY" — EXPERIMENT  IN  SERMON  WRITING — THE 
PARABLE  OF  THE  EWE  LAMB — LECTURE  ON  "IDEALISTS  AND  UTILI 
TARIANS." 

AN  early  illustration  of  the  possession  by  Mr.  Storrs  of  a 
strong  vein  of  sarcasm  in  his  composition  was  preserved  in 
a  little  effort  which  created  some  laughter,  much  applause,  and, 
it  must  be  confessed,  a  little  angry  blood,  at  the  time  of  its  intro 
duction.  A  hatred  of  sham  or  pretense  characterized  the  man, 
who  never  cloaked  either  his  merits  or  demerits,  and  none  ever 
lived  who  could  so  ruthlessly  as  he  strip  from  vainglory  all  the 
flimsy  pretext  of  godly  charitableness.  There  had  been  in  pro 
gress  in  the  little  city  of  Buffalo  during  the  fall  of  1855,  and 
prior  thereto,  a  gay  series  of  balls  for  "  sweet  charity's  sake,"  the 
conspicuous  management  of  which  had  been  suspected  of  head 
lining  itself  in  the  newspapers  more  for  personal  ends  and  grati 
fication  than  for  the  promotion  of  relief  for  the  unfortunate  poor. 
This  management  consisted  of  the  social  leaders  of  the  city, 
and,  as  is  usually  the  case,  while  many  knowing  ones  indulged 
in  significant  nods  and  winks,  no  one  crystalized  his  thoughts 
into  words  until,  boldly  over  his  signature,  appeared  in  the  lead 
ing  weekly  paper  a  bright  effusion  styled  a  sermon  on  "  Modern 
Charity."  The  lesson  of  the  sermon  was  so  manifest  and  so 
pointed,  in  the  light  of  all  the  existing  circumstances,  that  young 
Storrs  did  not  hear  the  last  of  it  for  many  a  day.  In  truth, 
though  preached  more  than  three  decades  ago,  there  is  pungency 
in  the  words  as  read  to-day. 

The   sermon    began    in    a   semi-humorous   tone    concerning    the 
42 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  43 

superficiality  of  those  who  fail  to  note  the  wonderful  changes 
which  the  progress  of  civilization  constantly  effects  in  mankind, 
and  of  those  who  could  not  have  failed  otherwise  to  perceive 
that  between  the  charity  which  now  exists  and  that  quality 
which  the  Bible  calls  charity  there  are  wide  and  essential  differ 
ences  ;  indeed;  charity,  as  we  would  understand  it  to  be  from  our 
Bibles,  has  been  so  much  improved  upon  in  the  progress  of  civili 
zation,  he  wrote,  as  to  bear  but  slight  resemblance  to  the  original, 
until  at  times  he  had  been  almost  led  to  believe  that  in  the  very 
many  modern  improvements  upon  it,  the  original  article  styled 
charity  had  been  refined  out  of  existence.  Examination  develops 
points  of  similiarity,  but,  nevertheless,  it  is  true  that — 

"Charity  as  it  now  is,  and  charity  as  it  was  two  thousand  years  ago 
should  operate  in  entirely  different  channels,  proceed  from  altogether  differ 
ent  motives,  be  devoted  to  entirely  different  purposes,  and  produce  altogether 
different  results  than  when  as  a  quality  of  the  human  heart  it  was  but  in 
its  infancy. 

"  Civilized  man  has  learned  vastly  to  extend  the  field  of  its  operations,  and 
in  its  various  elaborations  and  changes  it  bears  the  most  conclusive  testi 
mony  to  the  immeasurable  superiority  of  the  nineteenth  century  over  every 
other.  Knowing  full  well  that  we  do  not  properly  appreciate  the  results  of 
modern  civilization,  and  from  the  fact  that  but  very  little  has  been  written 
or  said  concerning  the  vast  improvements  in  social  position  and  in  every 
department  of  human  knowledge,  which  have  been  offered  for  mankind  in 
this  the  nineteenth  century,  it  would  seem  proper  that  the  modest  and 
retiring  disposition  so  characteristic  of  civilized  men  in  the  present  age  and 
which  leads  them  to  place  no  high  estimate  upon  their  own  powers,  and 
to  institute  no  comparisons  between  themselves  and  races  of  men  who 
have  lived  before  them,  at  all  unfavorable  to  the  latter,  should  be  broken 
in  upon  and  our  people  particularly  be  excited  to  a  just  estimate  of  their 
own  greatness  and  of  their  vast  superiority  over  their  ancestors. 

"  It  is  indeed  a  sublime  moral  spectacle  to  see,  as  we  have  seen,  the  first 
circles  of  our  society  moved  unanimously  and  simultaneously  to  the  exercise 
of  this  most  blessed  of  all  the  virtues!  Have  we  not  seen  multitudes  of 
the  fairest  gathering  at  a  fancy  ball,  an  institution  of  modern  invention, 
whose  hearts  beat  with  the  purest  sympathy  for  the  misery  and  wretched 
ness  of  the  shivering  poor  around  them.  That  was  the  kind  of"  charity 
which  cndureth  long.  When  we  reflect  that  those  delicate  forms  which 
before  had  never  been  clad  in  aught  save  the  costliest  fabrics,  to  decorate 
which  Parisian  taste  and  genius  had  been  exhausted  and  the  golden  fields 
of  California  taxed  to  their  utmost ;  those  forms  of  almost  etherial  lightness 
and  grace  which,  glistening  in  diamonds  and  robed  in  the  most  magnificent 
fabrics  of  the  East,  had  night  after  night  in  the  glitter  of  brilliantly  illumi 
nated  and  highly  decorated  halls  captivated  all  hearts,  for  the  purposes  of 


44 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 


charity — when  we  reflect  upon  all  this,  that  ancient  charity  which  would 
have  contented  itself  by  relieving  the  wretched  and  the  suffering  by  overt 
contributions  of  food  and  clothing,  or  by  furnishing  them  with  employment 
at  liberal  prices,  fades,  as  it  were,  into  insignifioance  in  the  comparison. 
-x-  *  *  *  HO\V  vastly  different  from  and  superior  to  the  old,  old-fashioned 
charity!  How  rude  and  vulgar  in  the  comparison  does  the  latter  appear! 
The  charitable  of  the  olden  time  would  have  hunted  out  the  miserable  and 
needy  objects  of  their  goodness  in  their  wretched  homes.  Descending  from 
their  high  position,  they  would  have  visited  dark  and  loathsome  alleys, 
attacked  famine  and  starvation  in  their  very  citadels,  and  so  far  undignified 
themselves  as  to  have  come  into  personal  contact  with  suffering  poverty 
and,  with  their  own  hands,  administered  relief  directly  to  it.  ModeVn 
charity  ingeniously  evades  all  these  unpleasant  accomplishments.  Instead 
of  making  the  proper  dispensation  of  charity  a  laborious  and  self-denying 
duty,  it  is  rendered  a  source  of  pleasure  and  amusement.  Healing  is  born 
to  the  sick  upon  waves  of  waltzing  music,  and  from  the  whirl  of  the  polka 
and  the  din  of  fashionable  entertainments  comes  bread  for  the  hungry  and 
clothing  for  the  naked.  Paul,  considered  in  his  age  and  generation  a  very 
wise  and  worthy  man,  in  his  instructions  to  his  church  at  Corinth  said: 
'  Charity  suffereth  long,  and  is  kind  ;  charity  envieth  not ;  charity  vaunteth 
not  itself,  is  not  puffed  up.'  Paul  is  now  ranked  with  fogies,  and  the 
present  system  of  charity  demonstrates  the  very  unphilosophical  basis  upon 
which  his  ideas  rest. 

"Moderns  have  discovered  that  example  is  the  most  effective  of  all  teach 
ers.  Advertising  was  an  art  entirely  unknown  to  the  people  to  whom  Paul's 
remarks  were  directed,  and  in  order  that  a  charitable  act  should  produce 
its  full  and  legitimate  effect  it  must  be  advertised,  it  must  be  published  as 
an  example.  If  Mr.  Davis  Doubloons,  the  opulent  and  charitable  banker, 
contributes  one  hundred  dollars  for  the  manufacture  of  bone  soup  for  the 
poor,  the  fact  must  be  announced  under  larger  capitals  and  with  many  com 
mendatory  remarks  in  order  that  Mr.  John  Crowsur  and  many  other  chari 
table  and  opulent  bankers  and  merchants  may  be  induced  to  do  likewise  ; 
thus,  we  see  readily  how  great  a  mistake  Paul  committed  when  he  said,  '  Charity 
vaunteth  not  itself — quite  as  great  a  mistake,  also,  in  saying  'Charity 
emrieth  not.'  We  have  discovered  what  Paul  did  not  know,  that  great  and 
beneficial  results  are  produced  by  emulation,  and  emulation  is  but  another 
name  for  envy.  Accordingly,  when  the  opulent  and  charitable  Mr.  Crowsur 
observes  in  all  the  morning  papers  the  announcement  of  the  munificent 
donation  of  his  neighbor,  Mr.  Doubloons,  the  noble  fire  of  emulation  seizes 
his  bosom,  and  he  immediately  contributes  one  hundred  and  twenty-five 
dollars  for  the  purchase  of  a  magnificent  Shakespeare  for  his  beloved  pastor. 
This  act  of  genuine  Qharity  being  immediately  published  through  the  length 
and  breadth  of  the  land  developes  the  same  quality  in  the  most  extraordi 
nary  quarters,  and  straightway  men  whom  the  world  before  had  considered 
given  up  entirely  to  the  worship  of  wealth  and  to  the  strife  after  worldly 
honors,  contribute  liberally  to  some  charitable  purpose. 

"  The    old-fashioned    charity  of  which    Paul   wrote    did    not   behave    itself 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  45 

unseemly,  sought  not  her  own,  was  not  easily  provoked,  thought  no  evil. 
The  leading  events  of  the  present  age  exhibit  in  a  very  striking  light  the 
decided  superiority,  in  these  respects  also,  of  modern  charity.  Modern 
charity  has  a  much  more  practical  basis,  well  knowing  that  in  allowing 
others  to  possess  what  is  not  properly  their  own  would  result  in  confused 
notions  of  the  rights  of  property,  it  distinctly  asserts  its  own  rights  and 
enforces  them. 

"Paul  and  his  believers,  following  a  morbid  and  unhealthy  sentiment  would 
have  seen  others  entertaining  the  most  heretical  and  unorthodox  ideas,  and 
would  have  extended  respect  to  honest  opinions  however  variant  from  theirs, 
using  only  argument  and  the  example  of  their  own  conduct  to  remove  these  opin 
ions,  thinking  that  human  nature  at  best  is  erring  and  that  the  human  under 
standing  is  not  always  correct.  Those  who  differed  essentially  from  them 
they  considered  as  friends,  whom  they  were  desirous  of  benefitting  by  conver 
sion  to  what  they  deemed  proper  belief,  rather  than  of  persecuting  for 
errors  of  the  understanding. 

"  How  much  more  practical  are  we  !  Knowing  that  in  this  nineteenth  century 
reason  has  reached  its  highest  development  and  that  human  prefectibility  has 
been  attained,  we  are  certain  that  our  opinions  are  correct  in  every  instance, 
and  that  they  are  the  only  ones  which  can  ensure  real  happiness  to  their  pos 
sessors.  Whenever,  therefore,  we  come  in  contact  with  those  whose  ideas  differ 
from  ours,  out  of  pure  charity  for  them  and  in  order  that  they  may  enjoy  that 
perfect  happiness  which  is  our  portion,  by  various  means  of  petty  persecu 
tion,  we  either  force  them  to  acknowledge  the  errors  of  their  belief,  or  banish 
them  from  society,  and  leave  them  to  the  enjoyment  of  that  miserable  existence 
which  such  wilfulness  richly  deserves.  *  *  *  *  * 

"  The  old-fashioned  charity  had  a  spirit  which  compassed  the  globe.  Bearing 
all  things,  believing  all  things,  hoping  all  things,  enduring  all  things,  it 
looked  with  tender  compassion  upon  man's  sorrows  and  sins,  pitied  his 
weaknesses,  by  active  exertions  relieved  his  miseries,  trusted  every  man  as 
a  brother  of  whom  God  was  the  common  parent,  considered  no  man  better 
than  another  but  all  erring,  all  needing  sympathy  and  assistance.  Even  in 
our  day  has  this  old-fashioned  charity  found  its  admirers.  Weak-minded 
and  impractical  men,  like  Thomas  Hood  singing  the  'Song  of  the  Shirt' 
and  the  '  Bridge  of  Sighs '  have  endeavored  to  excite  us  to  the  exercise  of 
the  Bible  charity;  but  the  crowded  alleys  of  our  populous  cities,  the  want 
and  the  wretchedness  which  stare  us  in  the  face  at  every  corner,  the 
thousands  of  ruined  and  abandoned  women,  exiles  from  home  and  outcasts 
upon  the  face  of  the  Earth,  the  pale  faces  and  stooping  forms  of  sewing 
girls  sustaining  life  upon  the  merest  pittance  of  wages,  all  abundantly 
testify  that  we  are  not  to  be  misled  by  any  such  false  appeals  to  our 
sympathies. 

"Modern  charity  spurns  the  shivering  beggar  from  its  door  and  refusing 
relief  sends  him  to  a  home  where  want  and  sorrow  never  come  ;  it  erects 
magnificent  churches  and  does  not  allow  them  to  be  contaminated  by 
plebian  worshipers;  it  teaches  sewing  girls  economy  and  self-denial  by 


46  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

limiting  their  wages,  and  forbearance  and  meekness  by  beating  them ;  it 
contributes  large  sums  of  money  in  disseminating  tracts  amongst  the  Hin 
doos  and  flannel  shirts  to  the  Patagonians,  and  praises  God  so  loudly  that 
the  wail  of  sorrow  and  the  sigh  of  the  broken  and  bleeding  heart  are  never 
once  heard." 

This  sarcastic  thrust  was  one  of  three  literary  productions, 
written  about  the  same  date,  unlike  in  their  general  tone  to 
any  other  emanations  of  their  author,  and  each  deeply  tinged 
with  an  earnest  religious  sentiment.  The  one,  "  Modern  Charity " 
appeared  "  October  20,  1855,"  the  second,  entitled  "The  Ewe 
Lamb,"  dated  "  December,  1855,"  it  cannot  be  certainly  said  was 
ever  before  shown  to  other  eyes  than  those  of  him  who  wrote  it  ; 
the  third  of  the  group,  "  Idealists  and  Utilitarians,"  was  written 
as  a  lecture  and  delivered  before  the  students  of  Medina 
College,  in  the  town  of  that  name,  New  York,  the  evening 
of  January  13,  1856.  The  second  named  in  its  historical 
order,  "The  Ewe  Lamb"  is  a  gem  of  religious  literature,  chaste 
and  beautiful  in  diction  and  far-reaching  in  its  powerful  lesson. 
It  would  be  difficult  in  all  English  letters  to  discover  anywhere  a 
more  perfect  type  of  a  logical  lesson  from  the  scriptures.  If  ever 
read  to  anyone,  it  must  have  been  at  some  religious  gathering 
about  the  time  it  was  written.  The  little  sermon,  however, 
deserved  a  better  fate  than  to  have  lain  hidden  for  more  than 
thirty  years.  Its  character  and  brevity  warrant  reproduction  in 
full : 

"And  the  Lord  sent  Nathan  unto  David.  And  he  came  unto  him,  and 
said  unto  him,  There  were  two  men  in  one  city  ;  the  one  rich  and  the  other 
poor.  The  rich  man  had  exceeding  many  flocks  and  herds  :  but  the  poor 
man  had  nothing,  save  one  little  lamb  which  he  had  bought  and  nour 
ished  up ;  and  it  grew  up  together  with  him,  and  with  his  children ;  it 
did  eat  of  his  own  meat,  and  drank  of  his  own  cup,  and  lay  in  his 
bosom,  and  was  unto  him  as  a  daughter.  And  there  came  a  traveler 
unto  the  rich  man,  and  he  spared  to  take  of  his  own  flock  and  of  his 
own  herd,  to  dress  for  the  wayfaring  man  that  was  come  unto  him  ;  but 
took  the  poor  man's  lamb,  and  dressed  it  for  the  man  that  was  come 
to  him.  And  David's  anger  was  greatly  kindled  against  the  man  ;  and 
he  said  to  Nathan :  As  the  Lord  liveth,  the  man  that  hath  done  this 
thing  shall  surely  die :  and  he  shall  restore  the  lamb  fourfold,  because 
he  did  this  thing,  and  because  he  had  no  pity.  And  Nathan  said  to 
David,  Thou  art  the  man. — 2  Samuel,  XII.,  1-7. 

"  There  is  not  in  the  whole  range  of  literature,  ancient  or  modern, 
sacred  or  profane,  a  narrative  more  pure  and  simple  in  its  style,  more 
touching  in  its  character,  or  carrying  with  it  a  better  lesson,  than  that  we 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  47 

make  the  subject  of  the  evening's  remarks.  Across  the  chasm  of  more 
than  three  thousand  years  that  lesson  comes  to  us  with  none  of  its  force 
impaired  and  quite  as  applicable  to  us  to-day  in  many  respects  as  to  the 
terrified  King  who  stood  at  the  close  of  its  recital  self-condemned  before  the 
stern  and  justice-meting  prophet. 

"This  David  seemed  to  have  been  above  all  men  chosen  and  honored 
of  God.  Fame,  riches,  every  temporal  and  physical  comfort  or  luxury, 
honor,  troops  of  friends,  success  in  battle,  triumph  over  foes,  all  these 
were  his,  and  it  would  have  seemed  that  all  temptation  or  occasion  for 
sin  had  been  removed  from  him.  He  saw,  however,  the  wife  of  Uriah, 
the  Hittite,  and  her  he  coveted  for  himself.  He  placed  the  faithful  servant 
in  the  front  rank  of  the  battle  where  the  contest  raged  the  hottest  and  the 
arrows  flew  the  thickest,  and  Uriah  fell  a  victim  to  the  passions  of  his  King. 

"And  now  observe  how  skillfully  the  old  prophet  wrought  up  the  guilty 
King  to  a  virtuous  indignation  of  his  own  act.  Against  the  rich  man  who 
would  take  the  poor  man's  lamb  to  dress  for  the  wayfaring  man  that  was 
come  to  him,  David's  anger  was  greatly  kindled  ;  the  punishment  to  be 
inflicted  was  condign  and  speedy.  He  felt  no  doubt  a  great  degree  of 
moral  exaltation  in  passing  such  severe  sentence  upon  and  in  showing  his 
hatred  of  the  merciless  and  cruel  act  narrated  by  the  prophet,  but  when 
the  stern  prophet  said  unto  him,  '  Thou  art  the  man,'  David  saw  at  once 
the  full  meaning  of  the  simple  story  so  touchingly  told  ;  and,  humiliated  and 
abased,  stood  self-condemned  before  his  accuser. 

"The  primary  lesson  conveyed  by  this  story  I  apprehend  to  be  this:  that 
right  sentiment  and  correct  religious  or  moral  belief  constitute  but  a 
small  portion  of  the  true  and  genuine  Christian  character.  Indeed,  that 
unless  these  sentiments  and  this  belief,  which  are  but  as  the  blossoms  upon 
the  tree,  flourish  and  ripen  into  the  fruit  of  active  good  deeds,  they  are  as 
worthless  as  those  blossoms  when  the  frosts  have  blasted  or  the  winds 
whirled  them  away  ;  and,  inasmuch  as  our  various  creeds  and  theologies 
elevate  belief  simply  into  such  high  places  among  the  catalogue  of  Chris 
tian  virtues,  this  truth,  apparently  so  plain  and  simple,  becomes  of  the 
vastest  importance  in  guiding  and  regulating  the  conduct  of  men. 

"  What  avails  it  that  he  who  professes  and  loudly  asserts  his  belief  in  the 
perfect  character  of  Christ  and  His  teachings,  overreaches  his  neighbor  by 
trickery  and  fraud,  gains  possession  of  his  means,  and  entertains  the  way 
faring  stranger  out  of  his  riches  so  basely  acquired?  What  avails  it  that 
he  who  asserts  as  his  belief  or  his  sentiment  the  great  leading  element  of 
Christianity  '  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,'  should  think  of  his  neighbor 
simply  as  a  tool  to  be  used,  one  of  the  rounds  of  the  ladder  upon  which 
he  is  to  step  in  his  climbing  after  fame  or  riches.  We  listen  to  the  story 
of  wrong  perpetrated  abroad ;  we  are  told  that  in  distant  lands  thousands 
are  perishing  for  food,  dying  of  want,  because  the  rulers  take  the  profits  of 
famishing  labor  ;  we,  as  did  David  of  old,  warm  into  virtuous  wrath,  are 
full  of  flaming  indignation,  while  the  wail  of  sorrow  and  the  cry  of  the 
broken  and  bleeding  heart  is  heard  uncomforted  at  our  very  doors.  We 
talk  loudly  of  our  far-reaching  charities,  but  the  crowded  and  reeking  and 


48  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A-    STORKS. 

loathsome  alleys  of  our  populous  cities,  the  multitudes  of  children  rapidly 
becoming  proficient  in  vice  and  crime,  the  thousands  of  ruined  and  aban 
doned  women,  are  the'  sorry,  the  tragical  commentaries  on  the  genuineness 
of  our  lofty  sentiment.  We  profess  the  largest  freedom  of  opinion,  the 
utmost  liberality  of  sentiment.  We  grow  fiercely  indignant  when  we  hear 
that  the  heathen  have  dined  off  a  missionary  or  that  some  good  man  a 
great  way  off  has  been  prohibited  the  utterance  of  his  opinion,  but  every 
day  we  immolate  upon  the  altar  of  our  self-conceit  some  other  missionary 
for  some  purpose  foreign  to  our  own.  We  taboo  and  shut  out  from  society 
the  utterer  of  an  heterodox  sentiment. 

' '  We  believe  in  the  universal  spread  of  the  great  truths  of  the  Christian  relig 
ion,  build  churches  wherein  that  religion  shall  be  preached,  and  place  the 
expense  of  salvation  at  so  high  a  price  that  no  plebian  can  ever  hope,  save 
through  some  lucky  enterprise,  to  grasp  it.  We  believe  in  and  talk  loudly 
of  the  purity  and  simplicity  of  the  Christian  character,  and  doze  over  a  con 
servative  sermon,  on  velvet  cushions  with  gilded  prayer  books,  glittering 
under  the  light  streaming  upon  them  through  generously  painted  windows. 
We  claim  to  be  proud  of  the  plain  and  simple  habits  of  our  fathers,  but 
broadcloth  and '  doe  skin  have  long  since  triumphed  over  sheep' s-gray  and 
satinet.  Merrimac  and  calico  are  now  only  worn  by  the  unregenerated. 
We  are  sorry  that  so  much  extravagance  exists,  but  bury  our  grief  under 
point  lace,  moire  antique,  and  sables.  Good,  conservative  men,  classed 
among  '  the  first  citizens '  will  have  a  dinner  of  many  courses,  and  dis 
course  to  the  poor  on  the  necessity  of  self-denial,  abstinence,  and  temperance. 

"Imagine  that  the  stern  old  prophet  should  approach  us  as  he  did  the 
Hebrew  King,  should  recite  to  us  in  terms  as  simple  and  as  beautiful  as  to 
his  royal  hearer  some  fancied  tale  of  wrong,  some  act  of  injustice,  would 
not  all  our  noble  sentiment  be  in  a  moment  aroused  ?  Would  we  not  call 
loudly  for  punishment,  and  finally  would  not  the  prophet  startle  us  from 
our  conceited  repose  by  the  terrible  rebuke  '  Thou  art  the  man ! '  And  so 
we  see  that  no  man's  salvation  rests  upon  his  belief,  upon  his  sentiment, 
upon  what  he  thinks  and  feels,  but  upon  what  he  does  in  the  world — upon 
what  good  he  actually  accomplishes.  If  I  see  my  neighbor  extremely  pious 
on  the  Sabbath.  If  he  worships  one  day  out  of  seven  in  the  most  orthodox 
church,  and  denounces  most  vigorously  the  sins  of  the  Babylonians,  the 
short-comings  and  the  coveteousness  of  the  Jews,  and  the  next  day  defrauds 
an  Israelitish  dealer,  I  claim  that  his  belief  avails  him  not,  it  is  but  the 
blossom  which  the  frosts  have  blasted,  which  the  winds  have  whirled  away. 
But  he  who  relieves  his  neighbor  in  distress,  who  every  day  of  his  life, 
from  Christian  motive  deals  honorably  and  fairly  with  his  fellow,  is  entitled 
to  and  will  receive  his  reward.  This  is  the  lesson  which  our  text  teaches. 
Let  us  heed  it." 

One  who  was  a  listener  to  the  lecture  on  "  Idealists  and  Utili 
tarians  "  narrates  graphically  the  circumstances  of  its  delivery  at 
Medina.  Mr.  Storrs  was  one  of  several  speakers  comprising  a 
"  students  course"  for  the  Winter  of  1855-6,  and  had  been 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  49 

selected  and  invited  as  one  of  the  lecturers  by  the  college  asso 
ciation,  some  members  of  which  had  heard  of  the  rising  fame  of 
the  Buffalo  lawyer  whose  original  utterances  had  already  extended 
by  admiring  repetition  through  the  neighboring  region.  It  trans 
pired  that  he  was  supposed  to  be  a  man  somewhat  mature  in 
years,  and  when  the  smooth-faced,  slightly  built  young  fellow, 
but  little  more  than  twenty-two  years  of  age,  met  the  reception 
committee  at  the  hotel  before  proceeding  to  the  hall,  the  first 
thought  was  that  there  had  been  a  mistake.  In  a  few  minutes, 
however,  the  stripling  was  holding  his  reception  committee,  as 
they  stood  crowded  about  the  stove,  in  rapt  admiration  at  the 
marvelous  flow  of  racy  sayings  pouring  forth  after  one  another 
as  though  the  fountain  was  inexhaustible.  In  1884,  during  the 
first  visit  to  Chicago  of  Mr.  Henry  Irving,  that  great  actor,  said 
to  a  friend,  "  I  sat  in  Mr.  Storrs'  room  last  night  for  a  half- 
hour,  I  had  thought,  until  rising  to  go  I  found  my  half-hour 
was  from  eleven  till  after  three  in  the  morning.  He  is  the  most 
wondrous  conversationalist."  So,  with  the  reception  committee 
at  Medina. 

The  night  was  one  following  a  day  of  heavy  snow,  and  it  was 
dark  and  intensely  cold,  yet  the  lecture-room  was  overflowing 
with  a  mixed  audience  of  citizens  and  students.  The  speaker 
when  he  took  his  position  upon  the  platform  appeared,  so  youth 
ful  was  his  figure  and  face,  like  a  mere  boy  of  sixteen  or 
eighteen  years  of  age,  and  a  murmur  of  surprise  was  plainly 
audible;  but  the  surprise  soon  merged  into  admiration.  Self- 
possessed,  with  marked  deliberation,  in  a  voice  remarkable  for 
its  tone  and  power,  the  young  orator  began  with  the  words  that 
in  the  course  of  his  very  limited  literary  experience  it  had  been 
his  fortune  to  listen  to  few  lectures  professing  to  exhaust  the 
subject  upon  which  they  were  based,  that  the  exceptions  he  had 
learned  to  be  attended  with  an  exceedingly  unfavorable  co-inci 
dent,  namely  that  the  patience  of  the  audience  was  exhausted 
about  the  same  time  or  perhaps  a  little  before  the  subject. 
After  analyzing  his  view  of  the  ideal  and  the  practical,  he  gradu 
ally  developed  his  theme  as  carefully  prepared  in  his  paper,  until 
becoming  warmed  by  his  fire  of  thought  he  less  and  less  con 
fined  himself  to  his  manuscript,  his  voice  quickened  in  its 
utterance,  now  rose  and  now  fell  with  the  modulation  of  his 
thought,  until,  seemingly  forgetful  of  himself  as  he  uttered  his 
4 


5O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

apostrophe  to  the  poetry  of  mechanical  enterprise,  he  stepped 
away  from  his  written  effort,  and  for  an  hour  and  a  half  held 
his  audience  entranced.  One  present,  and  now  living,  says  that 
the  by-play  of  wit  and  the  metaphors  evidently  inspired  by  the 
occasion  were  as  the  product  of  a  temporary  inspiration  not  to  be 
preserved  in  ink.  The  manuscript  of  this  attempt  on  the  part 
of  Mr.  Storrs  to  formally  lecture  was  worded  thus  : 

"A  very  eminent  philosopher,  who  now  sleeps  with  the  forgotten  dead, 
divided  mankind  into  two  classes;  those  who  had  been  hanged,  and  those  who 
had  not  been  hanged.  Fault  has  been  found  with  this  classification  as  being 
too  general.  The  division  of  our  present  society  into  Idealists  and  Utilitarians  is 
open  to  the  same  objection;  but,  I  apprehend,  nevertheless,  that  a  careful  and 
unbiased  consideration  of  the  pecularities  of  the  classes  I  have  mentioned,  may 
lead  us  to  avoid  the  defects  of  each,  and  to  strive  after  and  emulate  the  merits 
of  both.  If  any  such  result  be  obtained,  the  classification  will  be  sufficiently 
definite  for  our  present  purpose. 

"In  considering  this  subject,  I  must  be  allowed  to  give  the  widest  latitude  of 
meaning  to  the  words  Idealist  and  Utilitarian  which  their  customary  use  will 
permit;  a  latitude  somewhat  wider  perhaps,  than  a  strict  adherence  to  the 
terms  would  justify.  With  the  Idealist  I  shall  rank  the  philosopher,  the  thinker 
and  the  man  of  letters;  with  the  Utilitarian,  I  shall,  also,  include  many  whom 
the  strict  meaning  of  the  word  would  not  embrace. 

"  My  present  purpose  futhermore,  is  to  consider  only  the  Idealists  and 
Utilitarians  who  are  honest  in  the  opinions  which  they  hold.  With  the 
Idealist  who  is  so,  merely  because  it  is  genteel  to  be  so,  whose  highest 
idea  of  the  divine  spirit  of  poetry  finds  its  manifestations  in  a  Byronical  and 
an  assumed  misanthropic  hatred  of  mankind,  whose  philosophy  or  idealism 
is  the  result  rather  of  a  diseased  stomach  the  effect  of  late,  suppers,  than 
genuine  thought  or  inspiration  ;  with  the  Utilitarian,  who  creates  books  and 
authors  merely  to  exhibit  his  own  superior  wisdom  and  who  wilfully  shuts 
his  eyes  against  everything  in  the  shape  of  a  stubborn,  universally-acknow 
ledged  fact, — with  these  men  we  have  nothing  to  do  ;  it  would  require  a 
distinct  lecture  to  give  these  base  frauds  and  counterfeits  their  full  deserts. 

"  It  has  of  late  been  quite  the  fashion  with  a  certain  class  of  our  writers 
to  decry  and  lament  the  practical  and  utilitarian  tendencies  of  the  age.  In 
this  blind  and  short-sighted  crusade  of  the  ideal  against  the  practical,  I  con 
sider  a  great  mistake  is  made.  It  is  the  nature  of  man,  at  least  of  specu 
lative,  thinking  man,  when  told  that  a  thing  is  valuable  to  inquire  why  it  is  so, 
what  has  it  accomplished  ;  show  us  some  beneficial  result  proceeding  from 
your  system  or  idea  before  asking  us  to  admire  it ;  these  questions  and  this 
demand  are  eminently  just  and  proper,  and,  therefore,  those  ideas  which 
assume  a  tangible  shape,  and  produce  some  immediate  and  visible  result, 
will  always  be  the  most  popular  and  the  most  praised. 

"  The  thinker,  the  philosopher,  in  the  quiet  and  seclusion  of  his  study,  shut 
out  from  contact  with  the  busy  world,  after  laborious  thought  and  investiga- 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  5  I 

tion,  originates  in  his  mind  a  system  of  philosophy,  or,  perhaps,  an  idea 
applicable  to  some  mechanical  project  which  he  conceives  to'  be  of  the  most 
vital  interest  and  importance.  Of  its  value,  he  has  the  very  highest  notion. 
He  proclaims  it  to  the  world,  and  asks  the  world  to  recognize  its  importance 
and  to  bestow  upon  him  the  full  measure  of  praise,  to  which,  in  his  own 
mind,  such  a  brilliant  discovery  justly  entitles  him.  The  probabilities  are, 
that  the  great  mass  of  mankind  are  unable  to  see  the  system,  or  idea,  with 
the  same  eyes  as  he  to  whom  it  owes  its  origin.  In  a  matter  of  such 
importance  they  ask  for  proof.  If,  they  say,  you  have  really  climbed  the 
highest  mountain  of  thought,  have  reached  the  very  summit,  and  plucked 
any  portion  of  the  bright  fruits  growing  thereon,  be  kind  enough  to  give  us 
who  are  yet  toiling  in  the  valleys  of  mediocrity,  in  the  deep  shadows  of  the 
high  mountain,  some  demonstrative  evidence  of  the  success  which  you  claim 
to  have  achieved. 

"  If  you  have  indeed  the  true  knowledge  planted  directly  within  the 
centre  of  your  intellectual  garden,  the  right  to  the  unlimited  use  and 
enjoyment  of  its  fruits,  convince  us  who  are  not  equally  fortunately  situated 
of  the  justness  of  your  assertion  by  permitting  us  to  see  and  taste  the 
fruit ;  although  we  are  not  geniuses,  nor  philosophers  like  yourself,  we  can 
still  be  convinced  by  competent  proof,  our  minds  are  open  to  conviction, 
but  we  have  been  before  now  so  bitterly  deceived  by  glittering  specimens 
held  at  a  tempting  distance,  that  our  experience  teaches  us  to  surrender 
ourselves  converts  to  no  theory,  or  idea,  or  system  of  whatever  kind  with 
out  the  completest  evidence  of  its  genuineness. 

"  The  Idealist  very  much  mistakes  his  true  interest  in  bestowing,  as  many 
of  them  do,  such  unmeasured  abuse  upon  the  practical.  They  seem  to 
overlook  the  great  fact,  that  the  object  for  which  they  are  so  earnestly 
striving  is  to  secure  the  practical  operation  of  their  ideas  and  theories  ;  of 
what  earthly  use  is  an  idea,  resting  merely  in  the  mind  and  taking  no 
practical  channel?  If  a  man's  head  be  full  of  this  class  of  ideas,  which  in 
their  application  to  the  wants  of  mankind  can  produce  no  beneficial  results, 
either  to  his  physical,  moral,  intellectual,  or  social  nature,  it  would  be  well 
to  give  them  immediate  notice  to  quit,  turn  out  the  entire  vagabond 
company,  and  substitute  in  its  place  the  multiplication  table,  or  the  rule 
of  three.  In  point  of  fact  utter  emptiness  would  be  preferable. 

"That  class  of  ideas  which  cannot  be  driven  in  any  practical  road,  nor 
harnessed  and  compelled  to  work  in  any  useful  way,  were  undoubtedly 
intended  by  Divine  Providence  in  His  inscrutable  wisdom  to  fulfil  some 
useful  mission  ;  but  no  human  sagacity  has  ever  yet  been  able  to  fathom 
his  designs  in  inflicting  them  upon  mankind.  Wars,  pestilence  and  famine 
keep  down  the  surplus  population — our  war  with  Mexico,  for  example,  rid 
many  of  our  large  cities  of  gangs  of  loafers  and  swindlers,  who,  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  nature,  would  have  infested  society  for  years.  Thunder 
storms  clear  the  atmosphere.  Large  freshets  destroying  the  products  of  an 
entire  year's  industry,  fructify  and  make  more  useful  the  soil.  Boils  and  car 
buncles  are  troublesome  things  to  be  sure,  but  they  purify  the  blood.  All 
the  ills  indeed  to  which  flesh  is  heir  have  some  beneficial  results,  but  on 


52  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

this  crowded  planet,  an  idea  which  cannot  be  made  to  work,  is  like  a  bull 
in  a  china  shop,  very  much  out  of  place,  and  the  sooner  it  is  starved  out 
of  existence  the  better. 

"This  rage  of  ideas  has  in  many  instances  reached  a  sickening  excess. 
That  class  of  philosophers  who  pride  themselves  so  highly  upon  their 
heaven-born  genius  rail  with  the  utmost  virulence  against  everything  which 
can  be  turned  to  a  useful  purpose.  They  censure  us  in  their  wisdom 
because'  we  cover  our  land  with  the  network  of  railroads ;  call  us  gross 
materialists  because  we  plough  the  ocean  with  our  steamships.  Deprecate 
and  decry  as  altogether  wrong  and  out  of  place  that  noble  spirit  of 
enterprise  so  characteristic  of  our  age  which  whitens  every  sea  with  the 
sails  of  a  commerce  so  extended  that  its  fibres  intimately  interlace  the  fate 
of  kingdoms.  The  captious  Idealist  fails  to  perceive  what  every  one  must 
feel,  that  that  ceaseless  activity,  that  grand  march  of  the  human  mind,  that 
warfare  of  light  and  knowledge  against  oppression  and  ignorance  and 
superstition  and  fraud  which  is  now  being  waged  all  over  the  world,  and  in 
which  we  are  all  more  or  less  actively  engaged,  is  a  sublimer  epic  than 
ever  poet  sang  or  dreamed.  Poetry,  is  that  what  you  desire?  Do  you  find 
no  poetry  in  that  invincible,  that  sublime  perseverance  and  enterprise 
which  enabled  the  stern  and  hardy  Puritan  to  triumph  over  every  obstacle, 
subdue  the  elements  themselves,  and  to  convert  the  cold,  rocky  and  sterile 
soil  of  New  England  into  a  fertile  garden?  Was  it  not  the  divine  inflatus 
which  has  erected  the  altar  of  human  worship  in  the  human  heart,  which 
has  peopled  a  continent,  rich  in  every  variety  of  agricultural  product,  which 
has  demonstrated  the  great  idea  of  self-government,  which  has  called  into 
existence  a  literature  broad  and  catholic  in  its  spirit,  a  literature  which  even 
in  its  infancy  has  achieved  for  itself  immortality.  Poetry  ?  why  my  captious 
critic,  the  shrill  defiant  whistle  of  that  locomotive  which  you  affect  to 
despise  so  much,  grimed  with  smoke,  rushing  in  its  mighty  course  uith 
thousands  on  its  back,  demonstrating  as  it  does  the  triumph  of  mind  over 
the  apparently  most  uncontrollable  of  physical  agents,  sings  its  grand  song 
of  human  progress  with  a  cadence  which  drowns  your  fault-finding  in  its 
sublime  charms,  and  beats  your  intangible  philosophy,  your  intractable 
ideas,  out  of  sight. 

"Of  what  use,  say  we  to  the  Idealists,  are  ideas,  except  they  be  made 
productive  of  some  good  to  the  human  race? 

"What  is  the  use  of  learning  and  thought  and  systems  of  philosophy 
unless  they  operate  in  some  way  or  the  other  to  benefit  and  improve  mankind  ? 
A  genuine  idea  is  not  a  dead  unproductive  thing,  it  will  make  itself  felt,  it 
will  come  down  from  its  high  spiritual  existence,  clothe  itself  with  robes  of 
materiality,  and  wear  them  gracefully,  and  to  some  useful  purpose.  Don't 
rail  at  the  practical ;  it  is,  as  it  were,  the  noblest  ideas  which  have  ever 
endowed  genius ;  it  is  born  of  Heaven  and  Immortality,  made  manifest  in 
the  flesh.  Every  practical  result  in  mechanics,  in  morals,  and  in  our  intel 
lectual  or  social  nature,  is  but  an  idea,  the  result  of  human  thought  and 
investigation  operating  in  its  proper  and  legitimate  channel.  . 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  53 

"When  we  look,  on  the  querulous  and  fault-finding  philosopher,  upon 
the  deep  seams  which  care  has  ploughed  in  your  forehead,  at  the  grey 
hairs  prematurely  making  their  appearance,  at  those  u^ly  wrinkles  with 
which  bad  temper  has  disfigured  your  face,  we  much  prefer  to  remain  in 
the  quiet  contentedness  of  what  you  call  our  stupidity  and  ignorance,  than 
to  barter  it  N  away  for  the  learning,  the  wisdom  which  only  serves  to 
embitter  your  temper,  and  which  you  are  not  able  to  turn  to  any  good 
account.  We  tell  you,  and  all  of  your  like,  that  with  all  your  noise,  with  all 
your  talk  about  our  gross  stupidity,  our  degrading  materialism,  unless  your  wis 
dom  can  be  made  to  produce  some  good  in  the  world,  we  shall  beg  leave  most 
respectfully  to  consider  you  but  another  species  of  that  already  mighty  host 
denominated  humbugs. 

"The  Ultra-Utilitarian  has  also,  it  will  be  seen,  his  peculiar  defects  and  short 
comings.  He  looks  only  to  the  thing  itself  and  despises,  or  affects  to  despise, 
the  source  from  which  it  originated.  He  owns  steam-boats  and  railroad  stocks  ; 
is  a  director  in  telegraph  companies  ;  lights  his  house  with  gas  ;  advertises  largely 
in  the  daily  newspapers,  but  yet  it  never  once  occurs  to  him  but  that  these 
things  were  always  so.  He  seems  to  think  that  steamboats  and  locomotives 
were  born  into  existence  complete  at  once,  or  like  Dogberry's  reading  and 
writing  came  by  instinct.  He  knows,  to  be  sure,  that  poles  are  set  and  wires  ex 
tended  for  telegraphic  communications,  but  as  to  who  first  did  these  things  or 
why,  he  had  no  more  idea  than  had  his  Britannic  Majesty,  George  III.,  how 
the  apples  ever  got  inside  the  dumpling.  He  looks  simply  at  the  effect  and 
never  at  the  cause.  He  has  a  profounder  respect  for  the  owner  of  a  line  of 
ocean  or  lake  steamers,  than  for  Mr.  Robert  Fulton  who  never  kept  a 
bank  account.  He  has  a  holy  horror  of  sentiment  of  all  kinds.  He 
teaches  his  children  facts  and  enforces  upon  them  that  profound  piece  of 
philosophy  'Money  makes  the  mare  go.'  His  own  morality  is  summed  up 
in  that  selfish  little  maxim,  'Honesty  is  the  best  policy.' — Be  honest,  not 
because  it  is  a  Christian  duty,  a  moral  obligation,  but  because  you  can 
make  more  money  that  way  in  the  long  run.  He  gives  a  false  and  ridicu 
lous  pre-eminence  to  the  effect  over  the  cause.  He  sees  the  practical 
working  of  the  steam-engine  and  the  locomotive,  but  of  -the  great  principle 
which  propels  them,  the  idea  which  underlies  it  all,  he  knows  nothing.  He 
cannot  recognize  merit  in  any  idea  or  principle  or  thing,  save  where  it 
operates  directly  within  the  cognizance  of  the  senses,  upon  the  material 
substances  ;  hence  in  him,  literature,  poetry,  find  no  friend.  He  laughs  and 
sneers  in  his  contemptuous  way  at  every  appeal  to  high  sentiment ;  to  kind 
and  gentle  sympathies,  to  humane  and  tender  emotions,  to  noble  and  lofty 
aspirations,  denominating  it  as  stuff  and  sickly  sentimentality,  and  those 
who  know  and  excite  all  the  emotions,  weak-minded  and  sentimental.  Weak- 
minded  and  sentimental !  Who  are  you  ?  shouting  that  it  is  dark  because 
thick  scales  of  prejudice  shut  from  you  the  glorious  sunlight?  you  who 
insist  that  no  cry,  nor  sorrow,  nor  distress  is  ever  heard  because  the  noise 
of  your  busy  machinery  has  made  you  deaf?  you  who  laugh  at  and  scorn 
human  affections,  sympathy,  and  high  and  noble  ambitions,  because  the 
feverish  heat  of  trade  has  dried  up  the  juices  of  your  body,  and  sucked 


54  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  life  blood  out  of  every  generous  emotion  ?  You,  you  old  mummy,  what 
have  you  ever  done  in  the  world  or  for  it?  Had  mankind  all  been  like 
you  we  should  still  have  clung  to  our  primitive  fig-leaves  and  war-clubs; 
which  latter,  you  know,  are  very  practical  things. 

"Steamboats,  railroads,  telegraphs,  gas-lights,  where  would  they  all  have 
been,  but  for  those  troublesome  Idealists  whom  you  facetiously  call  shiftless 
fellows,  and  abuse  so  mercilessly? 

"  Whence  came  those  steamboats  which  have  enriched  you,  those  rail 
roads  covering  our  entire  extent  of  country  with  a  network  of  iron;  the 
telegraph  with  its  lightning  messengers  of  intelligence  ;  the  free  schools 
educating  at  public  expense  every  child  in  the  land  ;  those  daily  news 
papers  spreading  before  us  at  morning  and  evening  news  from  every 
quarter  of  the  globe  ?  Ask  Robert  Fulton,  and  John  Fitch,  and  Guttenberg, 
and  Morse,  quiet  thinkers  only,  what  hand  they  have  had  in  these  great 
features  of  the  age.  Long,  long  before  these  had  material  existence,  they 
were  ideas  in  the  minds  of  these  men  ;  ideas,  the  results  of  days  and  nights 
of  anxious  thought  and  study,  and  experiment  continued  under  discourage 
ment  and  reproach,  and  the  fierce  struggle  for  existence  from  day  to  day  ; 
mere  ideas,  projects  only,  and  many  a  practical  man  like  yourself,  engaged 
in  the  legitimate  business  of  banking  or  merchandise,  calling  these  very 
men  crazy,  and  some  of  the  more  kindly  hearted  ones  pitying  them  sincerely 
for  these  unfortunate  aberrations  of  reason.  But  further  still  than  this ;  the 
ideas  which  these  men  inventors  have  turned  to  such  practical  account,  in 
many  instances,  originated  hundreds  of  years  before  them  in  the  mind  of 
some  poor,  famishing  author. 

"This  idea  thrown  out  upon  the  world  at  a  time  of  intellectual  barren 
ness  took  no  deep  root  and  hardly  survived  the  unfruitful  soil  in  which  it 
was  first  planted  or  the  chilling  winds  to  which  it  was  originally  exposed  ; 
still  it  lived  until  some  mind  which  could  appreciate  its  value  and  properly 
estimate  its  importance,  breathed  new  life  into  its  decaying  spirit  and 
clothed  its  spiritual  form  with  robes  of  materiality,  and  thus  the  seed,  which 
the  poor  author  in  want  and  sorrow  and  neglect  had  sown,  long  years 
after  his  mind  had  ceased  to  act,  and  his  name  had  become  forgotten 
amongst  men,  produced  its  legitimate  results  in  great  practical  benefits  to 
mankind,  for  whose  good  he  had  so  zealously  and  self-denyingly  labored. 

"The  most  damaging  error,  however,  of  the  Ultra-Utilitarian  rests  on  his 
mistaking  the  means  for  the  end.  If  our  civilization  of  which  we  boast  so 
highly,  consists  merely  in  our  increased  and  enlarged  abilities  to  make 
money,  it  is  most  certainly  a  bad  bargain  when  we  consider  the  self-inde 
pendence  and  freedom  which  we  have  given  in  exchange  ;  it  is  not  worth 
the  possessing  :  But  all  those  magnificent  achievments  of  human  science/ 
and  investigation,  so  distinctive  of  modern  civilization,  tend  to  much  higher 
and  nobler  purposes.  Their  legitimate  object  is  to  increase  the  happiness 
of  mankind,  to  alleviate  his  sufferings,  to  enlarge  and  liberalize  his  industry, 
to  better  and  purify  his  heart.  To  these  results  should  all  human  endeavor 
be  directed,  and  he  who  in  any  way  contributes  to  this  end  is  indeed  a 
public  benefactor. 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  55 

"The  mere  fact  that  I  possess  money,  of  itself  renders  me  none  the 
happier ;  the  only  pleasure  I  can  derive  from  it  consists  in  the  uses  to 
which  it  may  be  applied.  The  rich  man  who  uses  his  wealth  in  alleviating 
and  relieving  human  sorrow  and  misery,  who  feeds  the  hungry,  clothes  the 
naked,  enlightens  the  darkened  mind,  assists  the  unfortunate,  cheers  and 
encourages  the  depressed  in  spirit,  or  enlarges  and  cultivates  his  own 
understanding,  is  indeed  one  of  the  happiest  of  men,  but  his  wealth  is 
only  the  means  by  which  it  is  secured. 

"The  accumulation  of  dollars,  is  not  then  the  great  end  and  aim  of 
human  existence.  If  it  were  so,  our  literature  need  consist  of  nothing  more 
than  ledgers  and  books  of  account,  counterfeit  bank-note  detectors  or 
biographies  of  eminent  showmen.  If  it  were  so,  all  those  kindly  and 
gentle  emotions  dignifying  and  exalting  human  nature  would  be  utterly 
extinguished,  the  voice  of  compassion  and  the  wail  of  sorrow  would  be 
drowned  in  their  din  of  trade  and  the  clamor  of  traffic,  the  hand  of  charity 
would  be  forever  closed ;  reason,  the  divinest  attribute  of  man,  would  be  made 
the  servant  of  the  hard  task-master ;  wealth,  chained  to  factory  wheels, 
sunk  to  mere  instinct,  would  leave  the  wide  and  glorious  fields  of  human 
thought  and  investigation  untrodden.  No  more  would  pity  find  a  place 
within  the  bosom  of  man,  melting  and  subduing  with  her  gentle  pressure 
his  cold,  hard  heart.  Imagination,  shorn  of  her  wings  and  stripped  of  her 
heaven-derived  attributes,  would  plume  herself  for  no  further  flights.  The 
gentle  spirit  of  Poesy,  chilled  by  the  cold  contact  of  figures,  would  be 
frighted  from  the  face  of  the  earth  by  long  files  of  belligerent  Statistics, 
clad  in  arms  and  armour  of  solid  facts ;  or  venturing  here  perhaps  too  long 
would  be  crushed  beneath  huge  volumes  of  accounts  current  and  buried  at 
last  in  a  patent  salamander  safe,  with  a  ledger  for  its  headstone  and  a  day 
book  at  its  feet,  and  would  be  secured  in  its  last  honors  by  one  of  Hobb's 
inimitable  locks. 

"You  have  done  much,  you  practical  men  with  your  keen  sagacity,  your 
business  tact,  your  calculating  minds,  your  large  enterprises,  your  ceaseless 
activity  for  the  good  of  mankind.  You,  too,  although  you  may  not  know 
it,  have  hearts  within  you  that  can  be  made  to  feel.  Long  years  ago,  when 
still  you  were  lingering  in  the  broad,  bright  galleries  of  youth,  with  its 
beautiful  visions  spread  out  so  clearly  before  you,  you  despised  all  base  and 
sordid  motives,  you  longed  but  for  fame,  the  fame  of  being  great  and  good  ; 
you  lingered  yet  long  over  the  record  of  those  great  names  which  have 
endeared  themselves  to  the  world  ;  you  desired  to  ransack  and  explore  every 
department  of  human  knowledge,  to  vindicate  right  and  justice  and  truth 
wherever  you  found  it,  and  you  would  then  have  condemned,  not  with  the  cool 
circumspect  manner  of  ycur  later  days,  but  with  warm,  impassioned  and  honest 
denunciation,  every  act  of  wrong,  no  matter  how  exalted  the  source  from 
whence  it  came.  Full  well  we  know,  that  in  the  quiet  of  your  own  home,  when 
the  shutters  are  all  closed,  when  the  restless  spirit  of  trade  has  hushed  itself  to 
sleep  until  the  morrow's  sun  shall  wake,  and  the  shadows  of  the  night  fall 
thickly  upon  you,  your  mind  in  its  busy  workings  swiftly  turns  you  out  of  the 
highways  of  trade,  out  of  the  close  and  crowded  temples  which  Mammon 


56  LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

has  erected  for  its  worshipers,  back,  back,  back,  over  every  step  of  that 
long  journey  you  once  have  traveled.  You  count  again  the  mile-stones 
which  you  so  hurriedly  passed  ;  as  you  proceed,  less  and  less  difficult 
becomes  the  way  ;  you  hear  now,  not  very  far  away,  the  clear  old  melodies 
which  gladdened  you  in  your  boyhood  ;  breezes,  loaded  with  the  fragrance 
of  the  clover  and  the  honey-suckle,  fan  your  feverish  brow;  at  last  you  come 
home  upon  that  broad  and  beautiful  country  where  youth  with  you  once  held 
high  festival;  its  clear  pure  air,  its  glorious  and  boundless  extent,  its  numberless 
beauties,  charm  and  delight  you.  Memory — the  kindliest  agent  of  the  human 
mind — like  the  sunshine  upon  a  distant  mountain,  hides  in  deep  shadow  every 
rocky  point,  smooths  every  rough  place,  and  brings  into  strong  clear  light 
every  spot  of  verdure  and  of  green, 

"  You  linger  long  upon  that  picture.  Wealth  you  have,  but  what  of  that? 
— wealth,  wealth  that  cannot  be  counted  and  still  your  anxious  and  care 
worn  face !  the  deep  seams  upon  your  forehead,  the  gray  hairs  scattered 
over  your  temples,  betray  to  us  that  your  mind  is  ill,  very  ill  at  ease.  You 
think  in  your  quiet  now  and  ponder  upon  the  lesson  your  past  life  has 
taught ;  you  sigh  and  are  sad  over  the  retrospect ;  and  the  bright  and 
glorious  days  of  your  youth,  how  you  wish  they  might  return  ;  the  dear 
friends  of  that  olden  time  who  loved  with  a  devotion,  which  in  your  later 
days  you  have  never  experienced — they  too  are  all  gone  :  Father,  mother, 
brother,  sister,  wife,  children — all  gone,  and  such  complete  control  has  the 
fierce  demon  of  business  held,  that  until  now  you  had  long  since  ceased  to  think 
of  them  ;  and  now  you  count  your  gains  and  feel  that  there  is  still  some 
thing  immeasurably  superior  to  all  your  hoarded  wealth  ;  you  feel  that  in 
exchanging  purity  of  heart,  loftiness  of  purpose,  and  the  stern  convictions 
of  right  for  the  blandishments  of  wealth — a  fearful  bargain  has  been  driven. 
Full  well  we  know  that  he,  who  by  \<rhat  he  has  written  or  uttered,  excites 
the  passions  for  knowledge  in  the  mind,  enlarges  our  sympathies,  betters 
our  hearts,  corrects  and  purifies  our  desires,  invests  us  with  that  Christian 
courage  which  dares  to  do  anything  right  and  fears  to  do  anything  wrong,  is 
entitled  to  our  lasting  love  and  respect,  and  has  nobly  fulfilled  his  mission 
upon  earth.  How  we  love  to  linger  over  the  ground  which  these  high-priests 
of  nature  have  made  holy  and  sacred  ;  in  the  quiet  of  our  study  where  blind 
old  Homer  sings  once  more  his  inspired  song  ;  where  Byron,  and  Shakes 
peare,  and  Milton,  and  all  the  great  men  of  all  ages  past  are  guests  at  our 
bidding,  we  feel  our  hearts  inspired  with  new  and  higher  purposes,  we  look 
back  upon  that  long  line  of  great  names  which  has  cheered  us  in  our  sad 
ness,  enlightened  us  in  our  ignorance,  guided  by  gentle  and  kindly  influen 
ces  in  our  wayward  wanderings  and  opened  the  heart  to  melting  charities. 
We  see  these  great  benefactors  to  their  race,  guiding  lights  in  the  sub 
lime  march  of  human  improvement  far,  far  in  advance  of  that  great' 
host  for  whom  they  are  laboring  ;  despised,  ill-appreciated,  persecuted 
by  ignorance  and  malice,  struggling  fiercely  for  subsistence — what  now 
would  we  give  in  exchange  for  the  noble  lessons  these  men  have  taught 
and  are  every  day  teaching  us? 

"How  full  now  is  the  measure  of  their  fame!     The  sublime  song  of   the 


THREE    EARLY    LITERARY    GEMS.  57 

noble,  blind  and  Puritan  poet,  even  across  the  gulf  of  years,  wakes  its  echo 
in  every  heart.  Bacon,  the  politician  is  no  more,  but  Bacon  the  thinker, 
Bacon  the  author,  standing  far  in  advance  of  the  times  in  which  he  lived, 
seeing  with  his  clear  eye,  and  embracing  with  his  great  mind  every  depart 
ment  of  human  knowledge,  will  be  a  household  word,  when  the  monarch 
to  whom  he  cringed  will  be  forgotten.  And  dear  and  cherished  in  every 
heart,  shall  be  the  memory  of  thee,  thou  gentle,  good,  generous,  whole- 
souled,  wayward  Oliver  Goldsmith  ;  bright  upon  Glory's  column  is  thy  name 
inscribed,  and  tenderly  in  every  heart  which  loves  its  kind  shall  thy  memory 
be  cherished!  And  while  we  reverence  so  highly  the  great  departed  ones 
from  whose  examples  and  teachings  we  may  all  learn  to  be  wiser  and 
better,  we  should  not  pass  over  in  silence  the  thinker,  the  author  of  our 
own  times.  We  must  not  content  ourselves  with  venerating  the  names  that 
have  preceded  us,  nor  yet  in  writing  praises  upon  their  tombstones,  but 
by  active  exertion  strive  to  render  ourselves  worthy  descendents  of  such 
noble  ancestry.  Because  there  were  giants  in  those  days,  it  can  certainly 
be  no  good  reason  that  we  should  be  all  dwarfs  and  Lilliputians  in  these 
days.  Because  they  were  great  and  good  and  pure,  this  is  no  reason  that 
we  should  be  small  and  base  and  mean.  The  destiny  of  the  human  race 
is  progressive,  and  we  have  all  the  learning  of  all  who  have  preceded  us 
as  a  beginning  for  ourselves.  The  Idealist  of  every  kind  has  his  mission 
and  his  proper  sphere  of  action ;  the  Utilitarian  his.  Let  all,  then,  use  the 
past  as  a  solemn  teacher.  Act  in  the  grand  present  with  its  teeming  pro 
jects,  worthily  and  honestly,  and  thus  secure  success  in  the  future. 

"  Standing  just  upon  the  threshold  of  another  year,  with  the  traces  which 
the  past  have  left  of  sorrow,  and  joy,  and  warning  still  fresh  before  us, 
begin  it  with  high  and  pure  resolve.  Remember,  Oh  poet  and  philosopher 
and  thinker,  that  the  business  of  this  life  is  stern  and  real,  the  field  is  the 
earth,  and  its  good  is  immortality.  Train,  then,  your  genius,  to  the  high 
purpose  of  benefiting  your  fellow-man.  Be  an  active,  earnest  soldier  in 
this  great  battle  of  life,  and  even  here  for  you  shall  Fame  blow  her  loudest 
trumpet.  Look  backward  upon  the  past  with  all  its  solemn  warnings, 
its  gay  rejoicings,  its  striking  contrast  of  pageant  and  parade  and  sorrow 
and  distress,  of  hope  buoyant  and  bright,  of  disappointment  and  despair, 
of  errors  and  repentance;  and  forward  to  the  solemn  future  in  which  we 
are  called  to  act.  Think,  Oh  ye  practical  men  of  the  world,  full  of  its 
schemings  and  its  plans,  bounteously  blessed  with  wealth,  think  of  the 
solemn  purposes  of  life.  Despise  not  the  fairer  feelings  of  our  nature ; 
scorn  not  those  who  seek  to  excite  them  to  action.  Hear  the  cry  for  help, 
coming  from  the  distressed  and  bleeding  heart,  which  rises  above  the  noise 
and  tumult  of  our  active  life  and  never  ceases.  Hear,  and  hearing,  heed. 
Out  of  thine  abundance,  turn  sorrow  into  gladness  and  misery  into 
lightness  of  heart.  Learn  lessons  of  wisdom,  not  only  from  the  experiences 
of  your  own  life,  but  from  the  recorded  experience  of  the  lives  of  others. 
Despise  not  books,  for  they  are  the  treasured  greatness  of  all  the  ages. 
Nobly  indeed  has  it  been  said  by  him  in  whom  met  all  that  is  good,  both 
in  the  ideal  and  practical,  the  puritan  warrior  and  the  sublimest  of  poets : 


58  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

'  Books  are  not  absolutely  dead  things,  but  do  contain  a  progeny  of  life  in 
them  to  be  as  active  as  that  soul  was  whose  progeny  they  are ;  nay,  they 
do  preserve  as  in  a  vial  the  purest  efficacy  and  extraction  of  that  living 
intellect  that  bred  them.  I  know  they  are  as  lively  and  as  vigorously  pro 
ductive  as  those  fabulous  dragon's  teeth  which  being  sown  up  and  down 
may  chance  to  spring  up  armed  men,  and  yet  on  the  other  hand  unless 
wariness  be  used,  as  good  almost  kill  a  man  as  kill  a  good  book ;  who 
kills  a  man  kills  a  reasonable  creature,  God's  image  ;  but  he  who  destroys 
a  good  book,  kills  reason  itself;  kills  the  image  of  God  as  it  were  in  the 
eye.  Many  a  man  lives  a  burden  to  the  earth,  but  a  good  book  is  the 
precious  life-blood  of  a  master-spirit  embalmed  and  treasured  up  on  pur 
pose  to  a  life  beyond  life.'  " 


CHAPTER  III. 

WRITING  FOR  THE  PRESS. 

1854—1857. 

LITERARY  CONTRIBUTIpNS  TO  THE  BUFFALO  NEWSPAPERS — AMERICAN  MAGA 
ZINES  THIRTY  YEARS  AGO — SOUTHERN  LITERATURE — AN  HISTORICAL  CURI 
OSITY—REVIEW  OF  THE  LIFE  OF  GENERAL  CASS— BENTON's  "THIRTY 
YEARS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  SENATE" — A  PROPHETIC  FORECAST  OF  THE 
OUTCOME  OF  THE  SLAVERY  AGITATION. 

AS  early  as  1854,  Mr.  Storrs  was  contributing  to  the  press 
literary  articles  of  considerable  merit,  as  a  means  of  util 
izing  the  leisure  intervals  which — though  not  so  in  his  case — 
most  young  lawyers  find  come  too  often  while  waiting  the  devel 
opment  of  professional  practice.  The  columns  of  the  Buffalo 
Commercial  Advertiser  contained  several  of  his  productions,  and 
one  in  particular,  being  a  review  of  the  current  magazine  litera 
ture  of  the  day,  is  so  ably  written  that  an  extract  from  it  will 
be  read  with  interest  by  all  who  knew  Mr.  Storrs  in  the  zenith 
of  his  fame.  It  shows  also  of  what  different  stuff  the  magazines 
of  that  time  were  made  up  from  those  of  the  present  day. 

"  No  class  of  publications,"  he  says  in  an  article  in  this  paper,  dated  March 
n,  1854,  "outside  the  daily  press,  occupies  a  more  important  position  than 
magazines  in  the  literature  of  the  day.  Filled  with  articles  of  general  interest 
upon  topics  which  occupy  the  public  mind  for  the  time  being,  flavored  with 
the  spices  of  variety,  placed  before  the  people  in  a  cheap  and  attractive  form, 
they  are  read  with  avidity,  and  enjoy  a  wide  spread  and  large  circulation. 
A  magazine  can  therefore  be  made  productive  of  much  good  or  of  great  evil, 
according  as  its  tone  and  style  are  healthful,  sound  and  pure,  or  corrupt  and 
baneful.  Finding  their  way  into  the  hands  of  the  young,  their  essays  are  read 
with  more  attention  than  newspaper  articles  receive,  and  make  a  more  lasting 
impression  than  is  caused  by  lengthy  reviews  and  tales.  Remembering  these 

59 


6O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

facts,  we  regard  as  a  misfortune  the  existence  of  so  many  sickly,  trashy  maga 
zines  in  this  country.  At  present  we  are  surfeited  with  such  publications. 
Every  city  of  any  size  must  now  have  its  magazine,  as  necessarily  as  its  daily 
paper.  In  consequence  a  flood  of  periodicals  is  poured  forth  over  the  land, 
miserably  edited,  foisting  upon  the  world  the  crude  notions  of  inexperienced 
men,  and  lowering  instead  of  elevating  the  standard  of  literary  taste.  They 
are  made  the  repository  of  '  prize  tales'  and  mawkish  poetry,  and  their  attrac 
tion  is  heightened  by  colored  plates  of  fashions  or  trumpery  illustrations.  As 
they  make  their  monthly  appearance,  newspaper  after  newspaper  heralds  their 
coming  with  a  puff,  and  aids  in  extending  a  circulation  which  can  only  prove 
injurious  to  the  public.  It  is  time  that  the  press  should  refrain  from  bepraising 
all  such  trash,  and  should  in  their  notices  of  literary  periodicals  discriminate 
between  the  good  and  the  bad." 

Among  the  worst  of  the  magazines  of  that  day  he  reckoned 
Godey's  Lady's  Book,  Sartairis,  and  Grahauis.  The  Knicker 
bocker  he  considered  only  a  shade  better.  "  The  principal  con 
tributors  for  these  publications,"  he  said,  "are  young  gentlemen 
and  ladies  who  are  desirous  of  seeing  their  effusions  in  print; 
who  imagine  that  to  write  poetry,  it  is  only  necessary  that  they 
should  rhyme ;  who  have  read  Byron,  Moore,  and  other  modern 
poets ;  who  are  enraptured  with  Willis  and  dote  upon  Morris,  and 
are  seized  with  an  attack  of  inspiration  which  they  spend  through 
the  pages  of  a  magazine." 

Harper  s,  being  then  mostly  made  up  of  selections  from  Eng 
lish  magazines,  was  better  than  the  ones  above  mentioned,  but 
still  did  not  come  up  to  Mr.  Storrs'  standard.  "  Where  this  rule 
is  departed  from,"  he  says,  "  the  matter  is  pretty  certain  to  be 
bad,  as  is  very  well  evidenced  in  the  effort  of  Mr.  Abbott  to 
sanctify  Napoleon,  and  the  sentimentalisms  of  Mr.  T.  Addison 
Richards.  Harper  s  is  got  up  with  an  especial  reference  to  the 
dollar ;  the  best  articles  in  it,  being  stolen,  cost  nothing,  and  the 
wood-cuts  and  illustrations  from  PiuicJi  tend  in  no  slight  degree 
to  extend  its  circulation.  The  selections  are  generally  made  with 
but  little  judgment ;  they  are  such  as  we  all  have  read,  or  have 
had  an  opportunity  of  reading  where  they  originally  appeared, 
and  on  the  whole  it  is  quite  surprising  that  so  big  a  book  can 
be  so  useless." 

He  commended  Littell  s  Living  A^e  because  its  selections  from 

o  c> 

other  magazines  were  judiciously  made.  The  best  American 
magazine  of  that  day,  according  to  Mr.  Storrs,  was  Putnam's 
Monthly.  "  The  first  number  of  this  really  excellent  periodical," 


WRITING    FOR    THE    PRESS.  6 1 

he  says,  "  was  cheering  to  those  who  had  been  for  so  long  a 
time  sickened  by  the  stuff  so  extensively  patronized  among  us, 
and  inspired  a  hope  that  something  in  the  magazine  department 
might  be  produced  in  our  country  worthy  of  the  talent  that  is  in 
it.  The  result  has  been  gratifying  "in  the  extreme.  A  series  of 
able  and  well  considered  articles  has  appeared  in  this  magazine, 
establishing  beyond  a  doubt  the  fact  that  America  is  able  to  sus 
tain  a  periodical  comparing  favorably  with  many  of  the  most 
respectable  of  the  Scotch  and  English  reviews.  The  increasing 
popularity  of  Blackwood  and  Putnam  in  this  country  is  an  uner 
ring  indication,  not  only  that  a  great  number  of  our  citizens  possess 
sound  literary  taste,  but  also  that  we  have  talent  among  us,  which, 
if  properly  cultivated  and  directed,  may  achieve  great  and  bene 
ficial  results  in  the  world  of  letters." 

To  the  Buffalo  Daily  Republic,  May  8,  1857,  he  contributed  an 
article  on  "  Southern  Literature,"  which  is  here  given  in  full,  not 
alone  because  of  the  ability  with  which  it  is  written,  but  also 
because  the  literature  which  it  embalms  has  now  become  an  his 
torical  curiosity : 

"  Notwithstanding  all  the  doubts  that  had  been  expressed  upon  that  subject, 
there  is  a  Southern  literature.  It  is  a  literature  differing  from  any  other  upon 
the  face  of  the  civilized  globe — unquestionably  original  ;  formed  upon  no 
models  now  known  amongst  men  ;  having  no  traits  in  common  with  any 
other  of  which  we  now  have  knowledge  ;  striving  after  none  of  those  objects 
to  the  attainment  of  which  other  kinds  of  literature  are  devoted  ;  and  based 
upon  none  of  those  ideas  which  have  given  character  and  life  to  all  pre 
vious  literary  productions. 

"  This  Southern  literature,  so  remarkable  in  all  its  characteristics,  derives 
its  inspiration  from  the  '  peculiar  institution '  with  which  the  sunny  South 
alone  is  now  blessed  ;  and  the  cause  from  which  its  inspiration  is  derived 
determines  its  character,  and  is  a  very  correct  index  of  its  merits.  The 
institution  of  slavery  is  democratic,  and  therefore  Southern  literature  is 
democratic.  The  institution  of  slavery  is  conservative,  and  therefore  South 
ern  literature  is  conservative.  The  institution  of  slavery  is  a  Christian  insti 
tution,  deriving  its  sanctions  and  existence  from  the  Bible,  supported  and 
sustained  by  all  pious,  good,  and  devout  men,  from  the  Apostle  Paul 
down  to  the  present  time,  and  therefore  Southern  literature  is  Christian- 
like,  pious,  meek,  gentle,  and  long-suffering.  The  institution  of  slavery  is 
a  republican  institution,  and  therefore  Southern  literature  is  republican,  and 
watches  with  great  care  the  interests  of  our  government,  and  strives  to  its 
uttermost  to  spread  republican  doctrines.  The  institution  of  slavery  is  a  law 
and  order  institution,  and  therefore  Southern  literature  respects  the  law  and 
seeks  to  preserve  order.  The  institution  of  slavery  is  a  humanitarian  insti- 


62  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

tution,  and  therefore  Southern  literature  is  humanitarian;  sheds  barrels  of 
tears  over  the  miseries  of  a  free  society  ;  feels  dreadfully  for  the  sufferings 
of  the  Irish,  the  Coolies,  the  pauper  population  of  Europe,  English  opera 
tives,  and  in  fact  for  everybody  that  is  not  as  happy,  and  fat,  and  con 
tented  as  themselves  and  their  slaves. 

"What  a  nice  literature!  How  strange  it  is  that  it  has  so  long  hid  its 
light  under  a  bushel ;  what  a  proof  of  the  perversity  of  the  human  intel 
lect,  of  the  obtuseness  of  our  perceptions,  that  its  merits  have  not  been 
earlier  discovered ! 

"It  is  to  us  a  source  of  exceeding  great  pleasure  to  be  able  to  lay  before 
our  readers  the  proofs  of  the  correctness  of  the  position  which  we  have 
taken.  Mr.  J.  D.  B.  De  Bow  is  the  editor  of  the  Review,  published 
monthly  in  New  Orleans  and  Washington,  called  De  Bow  s  Review,  adapted 
primarily  to  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union,  and  which  is  the  principal 
exponent  of  Southern  sentiment,  and  the  chief  channel  through  which 
Southern  literature  publishes  itself  to  an  admiring  world.  The  April 
number  is  now  before  us,  and  abounds  with  these  striking  features  which 
we  have  before  mentioned.  The  article  which  more  particularly  attracts 
our  attention  is  entitled  '  The  Conservative  Principle ;  or,  Social  Evils  and 
their  Remedies.'  The  writer  is  manifestly  a  very  patriotic  gentleman.  He 
has,  as  the  editor  informs  us,  '  prepared  and  published  several  valuable 
works,  among  them  a  late  one,  entitled  '  Cannibals  All,  or  Slaves  without 
Masters,'  which  have  for  their  aim  a  defense  of  slavery  from  a  higher 
standpoint.'  This  patriotic  gentleman  was,  as  a  matter  of  course,  sorely 
frightened  at  the  largeness  of  the  Republican  vote  at  the  late  Presidential 
election,  and  in  opening  his  article  he  says: — 'The  Republican  majority  in 
the  House  of  Representatives,  and  the  large  sectional  vote  obtained  by 
Fremont,  are  facts  which,  taken  alone,  suffice  to  show  that  our  Union  is 
imperiled.  As  the  danger  becomes  more  imminent,  the  thoughtful,  the 
prudent,  and  the  patriotic  should  combine  more  closely,  and  redouble  their 
efforts  to  avert  it ;  for  none  but  the  rash,  the  thoughtless,  and  the  wicked 
can  look  with  indifference  to  an  event  so  pregnant  with  consequences,  for 
weal  or  woe,  not  only  to  Americans,  but  to  all  civilized  mankind.'  Cer 
tainly  not,  and  the  larger  the  Republican  majority  the  more  imminent  is 
the  danger,  and  thoughtful  and  prudent  and  patriotic  men  ought  to  com 
bine  at  once  to  put  a  stop  to  it. 

"  Having  stated  the  dangers  which  so  closely  environ  us,  we  are  informed 
how  all  these  dangers  may  be  averted.  '  The  slavery  principle  is  common 
ground,  on  which  conservatives,  north  and  south,  may  combine,  and  from 
which  they  may  assail  abolition  and  socialism,  defend  and  preserve  the 
Union,  protect  the  sanctity  of  marriage,  secure  private  property,  maintain 
parental  authority,  and  conserve  all  other  institutions.'  Probably  very 
many  of  our  readers  have  a  lingering  idea  that  our  present  system  of  Gov 
ernment  is  based  upon  a  broad  and  great  principle,  that  of  human  equality  ; 
that  its  purpose  was  to  secure  to  every  one  the  full  and  free  enjoyment  of 
life,  liberty,  and  property  ;  that  its  founders  regarded  self-government  as  the 


WRITING    FOR    THE    PRESS.  63 

surest  means  by  which  these  results  were  to  be  obtained,  and  that  the 
preservation  of  the  Union  formed  for  these  purposes  depended  upon  the 
complete  and  thorough  recognition  of  the  principle  of  equal  rights,  from 
which  its  existence  was  derived.  But  we  have  happily  reached  a  much 
more  enlightened  position  than  that  occupied  by  the  fathers  of  the  republic. 
To  establish  universal  freedom  upon  this  continent  we  must  keep  millions 
in  bondage.  To  secure  equal  rights  to  all  we  must  deprive  an  entire  class  of 
all  rights  whatever.  To  preserve  a  government  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  equality  of  privileges  we  must  unite  upon  a  principle  which  denies 
the  possible  existence  of  any  such  equality.  The  institution  of  slavery 
threatens  the  existence  of  the  Union,  and  therefore  instead  of  restricting  it 
within  its  present  limits,  conservatives  should  unite  to  extend  and  perpetuate 
it.  Among  slaves,  marriage  has  no  sanctities,  property  no  rights,  parents 
no  authority,  and  therefore  the  slavery  principle  is  common  ground  upon 
which  we  can  all  unite  in  order  to  protect  the  sanctity  of  marriage,  secure 
private  property,  and  maintain  parental  authority.  The  institution  of 
slavery  is  at  war  with  and  repugnant  to  all  other  civilized  institutions,  and 
therefore  upon  the  slavery  principle  should  we  all  unite  '  to  conserve  all 
other  institutions.' 

"Very  clear  and  plain  indeed.  The  logic,  to  be  sure,  would  not  work 
under  Whately,  would  not  pass  muster  in  schools, — it  scorns  and  tramples 
upon  all  precedents — in  short,  it  is  unqualifiedly  original ;  it  is  a  Southern 
institution  in  its  very  highest  manifestation.  Very  many  stupid  people  will 
yet  unquestionably  have  their  doubts,  but  with  '  the  thoughtful,  the  prudent, 
and  the  patriotic,'  the  old  order  of  things  will  be  entirely  reversed,  and  t-o-p 
will  spell  bottom. 

"Thus  much  for  the  logic  of  Southern  literature  ;  and  now  for  its  philoso 
phy.  Society  is  of  itself  the  practical  assertion  that  man  has  property  in 
man.  He  cannot  live  alone.  By  mere  force  of  nature,  by  intuitive  neces 
sity,  the  strong  protect  and  control  the  weak,  the  weak  serve  and  obey  the 
strong  ;  but  the  property  in  each  case  is  mutual.  The  husband  is,  by 
nature  as  well  as  law,  master  of  wife  and  children,  and  bound  to  provide 
for,  protect  and  govern  them  ;  they  are  his  property,  but  he  is  equally  theirs. 
This  is  the  germ  and  nucleus  of  all  government,  and  of  all  property  of 
man  in  man.'  Society  has  heretofore  been  considered  as  a  compact,  an 
agreement,  by  which  certain  rights  or  privileges  were  recognized,  certain 
duties  enforced,  and  as  altogether  voluntary  and  mutual  in  its  origin.  We 
do  not  profess  any  acquaintance  with  the  law,  but  we  confess  being 
somewhat  startled  by  the  doctrine  that  the  wife  is  the  property  of  the 
husband.  We  have  never  yet  heard  of  an  instance  of  a  husband  pawn 
ing  his  wife,— mortgaging  her,— turning  her  out  as  a  collateral,  or  get 
ting  a  discount  on  her ;  but  when  this  philosophy  comes  to  be  more 
generally  understood,  such  instances  will  no  doubt  be  frequent.  But  then, 
the  husband  is  equally  the  property  of  his  wife.  This  philosphy  would 
apply  remarkably  well  to  African  slavery,  if  the  same  reciprocity  existed. 
It  would  all  work  very  well  indeed  if  the  negro  had  the  same  power 
to  sell  the  master  that  the  master  has  to  sell  the  negro.  The  'germ 


64  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS: 

and  nucleus  of  our  government '  has  hitherto  been  understood  to  be  human 
equality,  but  Southern  literature,  with  its  remarkable  keenness,  has  dis 
covered  that  it  is  the  principle  that  'man  has  property  in  man.'  We  must 
reconcile  ourselves  to  this  doctrine.  Wisdom  has  uttered  it ;  let  no  man 
attempt  to  gainsay  it. 

"  But  it  must  not  be  understood  that  the  writer  of  this  remarkable  article 
is  theoretical  merely.  The  black  Republican  party  is  a  live,  large  fact,  a 
stubborn  one,  and  it  must  be  met ;  and  the  manner  in  which  it  is  to  be 
met  will  recommend  itself  to  every  practical  mind.  '  To  meet  the  issues  as 
now  tendered  by  the  black  Republicans,  conservatives  are  compelled  to 
maintain  that  slavery  in  the  abstract  is  right.  Negro  slavery  is  not  profita 
ble  or  useful  at  the  North,  and  the  area  and  forms  of  white  slavery  should 
not  be  increased  while  there  is  room  in  the  unsettled  portions  of  the  earth 
for  free,  laborers  to  become  proprietors.  This  is  the  only  common  ground 
on  which  we  can  meet, —the  only  way  to  save  the  Union, --to  save  religion, 
marriage,  property,  government,— nay,  society  itself.'  By  and  by,  when  we 
get  a  little  more  crowded,  white  slavery  must  necessarily  be  established ; 
but  inasmuch  as  it  is,  on  the  whole,  rather  more  agreeable  to  most  men  to 
be  proprietors  than  slaves,  the  good  time  will  be  deferred  until  government 
land  is  taken  up.  Then  the  Union  will  be  safe. 

"  The  writer,  with  his  usual  sagacity,  has  discovered  that  something  more 
than  the  mere  concession  to  this  principle  is  necessary,  and  on  that  head 
he  says  :  '  But  the  recognition  and  adoption  of  this  principle  will  avail  us 
naught,  so  long  as  we  continue  idle,  indifferent,  and  passive.  We  must 
imitate  their  zeal  and  activity.  Our  cause  is  a  better  one  ;  our  numbers  and 
our  means  greater.  We  must  meet  agitation  by  counter-agitation  ;  propa- 
gandism  by  counter-propagandism.  We  must  support  and  establish  presses, 
deliver  lectures,  and  write  books  and  essays,  to  sustain  the  cause  of  gov 
ernment  against  anarchy,  of  religion  agaist  infidelity,  of  private  property 
against  agrarianism,  and  of  female  virtue  and  Christian  marriage  against 
free  love.  We  must  invoke  the  strong,  all-pervading  arm  of  Christian  com 
mon  law  which  our  ancestry  brought  from  England.'  The  South  has 
already  built  large  cities,  established  flourishing  commercial  sea-ports,  built 
railroads,  and  diffused  general  intelligence  by  resolutions;  and  it  will,  no 
doubt,  find  it  very  easy  to  establish  and  support  presses  in  the  same  way. 

"Thus  far  we  have  had  the  statement  of  the  dangers  which  imperil  the 
Union,  the  theory  of  the  true  government,  and  the  practical  application  of 
the  theory  ;  and  it  only  now  remains  to  state  the  results,  which,  it  will  be 
seen,  are  truly  magnificent.  '  In  vindicating  negro  slavery  as  one  of  the 
established  institutions  of  the  country,  and  in  aiding  to  perpetuate  it,  and 
extend  it  into  new  territories,  you  will  strengthen  the  Union  and  add  pros 
perity  to  the  North.  Slavery  has  ever  been  in  reality  the  strongest,  almost 
the  only  bond  of  union  between  North  and  South.  It  begets  diversity  of 
pursuits  and  of  products,  supplies  markets,  supports  trade  and  manufactures, 
occasions  mutuality  of  dependence,  and  prevents  undue  rivalry  and  compe 
tition  between  the  two  sections.  In  its  absence  our  pursuits  and  products 
would  be  similar,  trade  and  intercourse  would  cease,  the  one  would  furnish 


WRITING    FOR    THE    PRESS.  65 

no  Inarket  to  the  other  section,  competition  and  rivalries  would  arise,  and  a 
useless  and  cumbrous  Union  would  soon  be  dissolved.  .  Slavery  makes 
Europe  dependent  on  us.  We  help  greatly  to  feed  and  clothe  her,  and  to 
sustain  her  commerce  and  manufactures.  Blot  out  negro  slavery,  and  you 
arrest  the  trade  of  the  world,  take  away  men's  breakfast  and  supper, 
reduce  their  dinners,  and  strip  them  of  half  their  clothing.'  Heretofore,  we 
have  ascribed  much  of  the  material  prosperity  of  our  country  to  the  dignity 
of  free  labor.  We  know  what  it  has  accomplished.  We  know  that  it  has 
surmounted  every  obstacle  ;  that  it  has  subdued  the  elements  themselves ; 
that  the  sterile  and  unproductive  soil  of  New  England,  by  it,  has  become 
rich  and  fertile ;  that  it  has  built  cities,  felled  forests,  established  schools, 
and  created  a  commerce  the  sails  of  which  whiten  every  sea,  the  fibres  of 
which  are  interlaced  with  the  fate  of  kingdoms.  We  know  that  prosperity 
and  refinement  have  always  attended  it ;  that  it  has  been  to  us  the  source 
of  that  material  and  intellectual  greatness  of  which  we  are  so  justly  proud. 
We  know  that  it  has  filled  our  Territories  with  thriving  and  industrious 
commundes ;  developed  thfeir  resources  ;  made  them  rich,  prosperous,  and 
powerful.  To  Southern  literature  was  it  left  to  discover  that  all  these  results 
are  as  naught ;  that  the  system  of  labor  which  has  impoverished  and  worn 
out  a  soil  naturally  productive  and  fruitful,  which  has  suffered  grass  to 
grow  in  the  streets  of  cities,  which,  with  every  advantage  in  its  favor,  has  a 
commerce  puny  and  weak,  which  resorts  to  violence  and  bloodshed  as 
the  arbiter  of  disputes,  which  dethrones  justice  and  substitutes  the  bludgeon 
and  the  bowie-knife  in  its  stead — should  supersede  free  labor,  be  extended 
into  new  territories,  and  degrade  and  destroy  it. 

"  Certainly,  the  black  Republicans,  who  vindicate  free  labor,  and  wish 
success  to  it,  are  dangerous  men.  They  must  be  met ;  and,  after  the  South 
has  established  a  few  more  presses,  and  written  a  few  more  books  and 
essays,  'the  thoughtful,  the  prudent,  and  the  patriotic,'  North  and  South, 
will  find  this  blessed  slavery  principle  common  ground,  upon  which  they 
may  all  comfortably  and  happily  combine.  Peace  be  with  them !  There  is 
not  a  particle  of  flunkey  ism  about  them!  certainly  not!" 

To  the  same  paper,  in  March  1857,  he  contributed  a  review  of 
the  "  Life  and  Times  of  Lewis  Cass,"  then  just  published.  This 
article  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  the  caustic  satire  of  which  he 
was  so  great  a  master.  He  ridicules  the  biographer's  style  in  a 
manner  worthy  of  Macaulay's  well  known  essay  on  Robert 
Montgomery.  A  short  extract  will  suffice  here : 

"This  very  remarkable  book  has  been  sadly  neglected.  We  do  not 
recollect  to  have  seen  any  notice  'whatever  relating  to  it  since  its  publica 
tion.  Having  been  published  at  about  the  same  time  as  Prescott's  •  Philip 
the  Second,'  Macaulay's  fourth  volume  of  the  'History  of  England,'  and 
Motley's  'Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic,'  it  is  altogether  probable  that  Mr. 
Smith's  book  was  lost  sight  of  in  consequence  of  the  very  general  attention 
which  the  public  bestowed  upon  these  works.  Literary  justice  is  prover- 
5 


66  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

bially  tardy  in  its  coming,  and  tke  proper  appreciation  of  a  writer's  merits 
is  frequently  postponed  to  a  succeeding  generation.  This,  we  are  appre 
hensive,  will  on  the  whole  be  the  fate  of  Mr.  Smith. 

"Our  purpose  more  particularly  is  to  call  attention,  first,  to  the  fact  that 
such  a  book  has  been  really  published  ;  and  secondly,  to  a  few  peculiarities  of 
the  author's  style.  And  first,  the  existence  of  a  book  entitled  as  above  is 
a  positive  matter  of  fact,  which  we  can  establish  to  the  satisfaction  of  any 
doubting  individual  by  the  production  of  the  book  itself.  And  now  let  us 
listen  to  what  Mr.  Smith  has  to  say,  and  see  how  he  says  it. 

"Any  criticism  which  we  might  be  disposed  to  make  upon  the  historical 
accuracy  of  the  book,  any  objections  which  we  might  be  disposed  to  urge, 
are  foreclosed  at  the  outset  by  the  author  himself,  who  informs  us,  on  the 
first  page  of  the  first  chapter, — "The  following  pages  will  disclose  to  the 
reader  a  minute  and  true  history  of  the  life  and  character  of  an  eminent 
citizen  of  the  American  republic."  How  much  more  quiet  would  pervade 
the  literary  world  were  Mr.  Smith's  example  generally  followed.  We  know 
now,  that  ''The  Life  and  Times  of  General  (Ass"  is  true,  because  Mr. 
Smith  says  so.  What  a  pity  that  Mr.  Macaulay  had  not  made  a  similar 
statement  in  the  opening  of  his  "History  of  England;"  what  a  vast  deal  of 
angry  discussions  and  sharp,  excited  criticism  would  have  been  saved  thereby ! 
Quaker  spirit  would  not  then  have  been  aroused  as  it  has  has  been  by 
his  attack"  on  Penn,  and  Scotchmen  would  have  quietly  and  meekly  sub 
mitted  to  the  drubbing  which  their  ancestors  have  received  at  his  hands. 

"'In  the  village  of  Exeter,  in  the  State  of  New  Hampshire,  may  be  seen 
a  small,  unpretending  wooden  dwelling-house,  which  has  withstood  the 
wear  of  the  elements  upwards  of  three  quarters  of  a  century.'  Mr.  Theoph- 
ilus  Gilman,  in  the  year  1782,  occupied  that  wooden  dwelling-house,  and 
'on  the  ninth  day  of  October,  in  that  year,  in  this  house,  Lewis  Cass  was 
born ! '  Ordinary  historians  would  have  said  that  Lewis  Cass  was  born  at 
Exeter  in  the  State  of  New  Hampshire  on  the  ninth  day  of  October  A.  D. 
1782,  but  this  history  is  not  only  true  but  minute.  He  was  born  in  a  house, 
and  that  house  was  not  a  barn  nor  a  dry  goods  store,  but  a  dwelling- 
house  ;  it  was  small  and  unpretending,  built  of  wood,  and  at  that  time  Mr. 
Theophilus  Gilman  occupied  it ;  and  it  is  now  on  exhibition  and  may  be 
seen  at  Exeter,  New  Hampshire,  by  any  individual  who  will  take  the 
trouble  to  go  there. 

"Time  and  space  will  not  permit  us  to  follow  the  General  through  the 
various  stages  of  his  military  and  political  career,  and  as  we  stated  at 
the  outset  that  our  purpose  was  not  to  discuss  any  questions  relating  to 
the  historical  accuracy  of  the  book,  but  rather  to  call  attention  to  the 
peculiar  manner  in  which  it  is  written,  we  will  content  ourselves  with,  fur 
nishing  a  few  more  quotations  sufficiently  pointed  and  peculiar  to  indicate 
the  general  style  of  the  author. 

"At  page  325,  in  speaking  of  the  appointment  of  General  Cass  as  Minister  to 
France,  the  author  indulges  in  the  following  happy  and  suggestive  remarks: 
'He  was  now  exchanging  primeval  solitudes,  the  haunts  of  the  red  man,  and  of 
the  animals  his  co-tenants  of  the  forest,  whom  God  had  given  him  for  his 


WRITING    FOR    THE    PRESS.  6/ 

• 

support,   for  the   highest  state  of  improvement.'     The  idea  that   God  gave   to 
General  Cass  Indians  for  his  support,  is,  to  say  the  least,  somewhat  startling. 

"At  page  368  the  author  says  of  General  Cass  :  'He  was  in  Sidon  situated  on 
the  sea-coast  and  in  a  state  of  misery  and  decadence.1  Although  the  General 
is  now  in  a  state  of  decadence,  we  had  been  accustomed  to  date  its  com 
mencement  from  the  year  1847.  From  this,  however,  it  would  appear  that  he 
had  been  in  a  bad  way  much  longer  than  was  generally  supposed. 

"  During  his  residence  at  the  French  Court,  General  Cass  was  charged 
with  being  a  courtier,  a  charge  which  the  author  thus  conclusively 
silences : — '  General  Cass  a  courtier !  He  who  had  paddled  his  canoe 
thousands  of  miles  on  the  lakes  and  rivers  of  the  west ;  he  who  had  worn 
his  hunting  shirt  in  company  with  the  buffalo,  cut  his  piece  of  venison  steak 
from  the  rib,  and  roasted  it  in  the  woods ! '  Mr.  Smith  is  certain  to 
afford  information  upon  every  subject  which  he  touches.  Not  only  do  we 
learn  here  that  General  Cass  was  not  a  courtier,  but  a  new  and  important  fact 
is  developed  in  natural  history.  The  buffalo,  adopting  the  habits  of  civil 
ized  life,  quite  as  easily  and  readily  as  the  Indian,  with  wonderful  sagacity 
had  perceived  the  many  conveniences  of  a  hunting  shirt,  had  made  it  a 
part  of  his  wardrobe,  and  wore  it  in  company  with  General  Cass.  The 
Buffalo  wore  a  hunting  shirt ;  General  Cass  wore  a  hunting  shirt.  The 
buffalo  is  not  a  courtier ;  therefore  General  Cass  is  not  a  courtier. 
Q.  E.  D. 

"  General  Cass,  after  an  absence  of  twelve  years,  returned  home.  The 
author  feelingly  says  :  '  Many  of  his  old  cherished  neighbors  and  personal 
friends  had  gone  the  way  of  all  flesh  ;  some  had  removed  farther  west.' 
We  trust  the  author  will  be  good  enough,  in  his  second  edition,  to  give  us 
the  exact  geographical  location  of  that  country  which  is  '  farther  west '  than 
'the  way  of  all  flesh.' 

"This  book,  it  must  be  remembered,  is  the  first  attempt  of  Mr.  Smith  in 
this  department  of  literature,  and  there  is  no  telling  what  he  may  accom 
plish  in  the  future.  In  conclusion  we  will  add,  that  if  General  Cass  can 
stand  any  further  attempts  on  his  life  like  the  present  one,  he  is  a  much 
tougher  old  gentleman  than  we  had  supposed  him  to  be." 

His  most  elaborate  journalistic  effort,  at  this  time,  however, 
was  a  review  of  Thomas  H.  Benton's  "Thirty  Years  in  the 
United  States  Senate,"  which  appeared  in  the  Buffalo  Daily 
Republic  of  September  17,  1857.  In  that  article  he  carefully 
traced  the  whole  history  of  the  slavery  agitation,  which  originated 
at  the  South,  and  ripened  finally  into  open  rebellion  in  1 86 1. 
Mr.  Benton's  account  of  its  inception  is  brief  and  pithy. 

"The  regular  inauguration  of  this  slavery  agitation,"  he  says,  "dates  from 
the  year  1835,  but  it  had  commenced  two  years  before,  and  in  this 
way:  Nullification  and  disunion  had  commenced  in  1830  upon  complaint 
against  protective  tariff.  That  being  put  down  in  1833,  under  President 
Jackson's  proclamation  and  energetic  measures,  was  immediately  substi- 


68  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

tuted  by  the  slavery  agitation.  Mr.  Calhoun,  when  he  went  home  from 
Congress,  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  told  his  friends  that  the  South  could 
never  be  united  against  the  North  on  the  tariff  question  ;  that  the  sugar 
interest  of  Louisiana  would  keep  her  out,  and  that  the  basis  of  Southern 
union  must  be  shifted  to  the  slave  question.  Then  all  the  papers  in  his 
interest,  and  especially  one  at  Washington,  dropped  tariff  agitation  and 
commenced  upon  slavery  ;  and,  in  two  years,  had  the  agitation  ripe  for 
inauguration  on  the  slavery  question.  And,  in  tracing  this  agitation  to  its 
present  stage,  and  to  comprehend  its  rationale,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that 
it  is  a  mere  continuation  of  old  tariff  disunion ;  and  preferred  because 
more  available." 

The  Southern  press,  inspired  by  Mr.  Calhoun,  demanded 
among  other  things  that  the  abolitionists  should  be  put  down 
by  legislation  in  all  the  Northern  States.  Mr.  Storrs  reviews  in 
succession  the  various  attempts  made  by  Southern  politicians  to 
force  the  extension  of  slavery  into  the  Territories,  and  thus 
vigorously  and  impressively  sums  up  the  whole  agitation  and  its 
inevitable  consequences : 

"In  1835,  when  the  first  agitation  manifests  and  calls  for  a  Southern  con 
vention,  and  invocation  to  unity  and  concert  of  action,  came  forth  in  the 
Charleston  Mercury,  the  cause  of  disunion  was  then  in  the  abolition  socie 
ties  established  in  some  of  the  free  States,  and  which  these  States  were 
required  to  suppress.  Then  came  the  abolition  petitions  presented  in  Con 
gress  ;  then  the  mail  transmission  of  incendiary  publications ;  then  the 
abolition  of  slavery  in  the  District  of  Columbia  ;  then  the  abolition  of  the 
slave  trade  between  the  States;  then  the  exclusion  of  slavery  from  Oregon  '» 
then  the  Wilmot  proviso  ;  then  the  admission  of  California  with  a  free  con 
stitution.  Each  of  these  in  its  day  was  a  cause  of  disunion,  to  be  effected 
through  the  instrumentality  of  a  Southern  convention,  forming  a  sub- 
confederacy,  in  flagrant  violation  of  the  Constitution,  and  effecting  the 
disunion  by  establishing  a  commercial  non-intercourse  with  the  free  States. 
After  twenty  years  of  agitation  upon  these  points,  they  are  all  given  up. 
The  Constitution  and  the  Union  were  found  to  be  a  mistake  from  the 
beginning,  an  error  in  their  origin,  and  an  impossibility  in  their  future 
existence,  and  to  be  amended  into  another  impossibility,  or  broken  up 
at  once. 

"The  history  of  slavery  agitation,  its  origin  and  its  purposes,  is  full  of 
instruction  and  warning.  An  agitation  for  which  the  North  is  not  responsi 
ble,  owing  its  origin  to  the  South,  a  patriotic  Southerner  at  an  early  day 
saw  and  regretted.  Mr.  Madison,  in  the  year  1836,  writing  upon  this 
subject,  charges  the  inauguration  of  the  slavery  agitation  to  Southern  men. 
'He,'  says  Mr.  Benton,  'wrote  with  the  pen  of  inspiration  and  the  heart  of 
a  patriot,  and  with  a  soul  which  filled  the  Union,  and  could  not  be 
imprisoned  in  one  half  of  it.  He  was  a  Southern  man  ;  but  his  Southern 
home  could  not  blind  his  mental  vision  to  the  origin,  design,  and  conse- 


WRITING    FOR    THE    PRESS.  69 

quences  of  the  slavery  agitation.'  That  agitation  has  at  last,  we  trust, 
reached  its  culminating  point ;  the  issue  which  Southern  politicians  have 
so  long  sought  to  force  upon  us  is  at  last  distinctly  and  openly  before  the 
people.  Designing  from  the  outset  to  make  slavery  extension  the  control 
ling  object  of  our  government,  or,  failing  in  that,  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
they  have  been  so  far  successful  in  their  main  purpose,  through  the 
assistance  of  Northern  votes,  secured  by  their  oft  repeated  cries  of  disunion, 
or  by  holding  out  to  Northern  representatives  the  allurements  of  office. 
We  have  tried  the  experiment  of  abandoning  the  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  our  institutions  were  established,  the  teachings  of  our  fathers, 
and  their  construction  of  the  constitution  ;  the  experiment  has  been  most 
alarming  in  its  results. 

"That  compromise  which  every  prominent  man  in  the  country  but  a  few  years 
since  regarded  as  sacred,  which  Democratic  Presidents  and  Democratic  party 
leaders  invoked  us  to  preserve  and  continue,  has  been  sacrificed  to  a  modern, 
Southern-slavery-extension  constitutional  construction,  and  all  the  evils  which 
were  predicted  as  the  result  of  disturbing  that  compromise  we  already  ex 
perience.  Do  we  need  any  other  or  further  proof  that  the  purpose  of  Southern 
politicians  and  their  abettors  at  the  North  is  to  change  the  character  of  our 
government,  and  to  make  slavery  extension  its  leading  element  ?  Recognizing 
at  first  the  right  of  Congress  to  legislate  upon  the  question  of  slavery  in  the 
Territories,  when  the  exercise  of  that  right  would  inure  to  their  benefit,  as  in 
the  cases  of  the  admission  of  Missouri  and  Texas  ;  then  denying  it,  and  claiming 
it  for  the  people  of  the  Territories,  as  in  the  case  of  Oregon  ;  and  lastly, 
denying  the  right  both  of  Congress  and  the  people  of  the  Territories,  when 
California  asked  for  admission  as  a  free  State  ;  these  dogmas  were  but  a  short 
time  since  scouted  and  ignored  by  the  very  men  who  now  sacrifice  the  peace, 
the  harmony,  the  existence  of  the  government,  in  order  to  establish  them.  The 
Democratic  party  has  openly  and  distinctly  adopted  the  very  principle  which 
in  1848  it  almost  unanimously  rejected.  The  Know-Nothing  party  in  the  South 
adopts  as  a  leading  element  in  its  political  creed  the  extreme  Calhoun  doctrine 
of  no  right  anywhere  to  keep  slavery  out  of  free  territory,  and  that  the  Consti 
tution  carries  it  with  it  and  establishes  it  everywhere. 

"Civil  war  and  bloodshed  in  the  Territories  ;  division  and  alienation  of  feeling 
between  sister  States  ;  threats  of  disunion  ;  inability  of  the  government  to 
protect  its  citizens  ;  quarrels  and  disgrace  abroad  ;  these  are  the-  legitimate, 
the  natural  and  necessary  results,  upon  experiment,  in  adopting  Southern 
constitutional  constructions,  of  our  departure  from  the  primary  and  palpable 
intent  and  meaning  of  the  Constitution  itself.  It  is  time  now  to  pause, 
before  pursuing  still  farther  this  dangerous  system  of  innovations  which  the 
Democratic  and  Know-Nothing  parties  propose  still  to  follow.  By  continuing 
this  dangerous  system,  results  still  more  disastrous  must  follow.  The 
issue  is  unmistakable  ;  shall  we  bring  the  country  back  to  the  old  sys 
tem  of  policy,  under  which  it  so  long  prospered,  which  gave  it  its 
strength  at  home  and  its  dignity  and  character  abroad,  or  shall  we  incorporate 
into  it  the  doctrine  of  slavery  propagandism,  which  must  result  in  its 
overthrow  ? 


7<D  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"These  are  solemn  questions;  let  every  man  put  them  to  himself.  He 
will  see  at  once  that  the  present  Republican  party  is  eminently  conser 
vative  ;  that  it  reposes  on  those  great  principles  which  the  fathers  of  the 
republic  cherished,  under  which  the  country  prospered  ;  that  it  construes 
the  Constitution  to  operate  nationalizing  freedom,  and  conferring  the  power 
upon  Congress  to  do  it.  The  storm  which  this  modern  policy  has  raised 
is  already  beyond  the  control  of  its  authors.  The  fire  which  they  have  so 
recklessly  kindled  will  consume  them.  "They  have  sown  the  wind  ;  they 
will  reap  the  whirlwind." 


CHAPTER  IV. 

•  • 

THE  KANSAS  TROUBLES. 

1858. 

MR.  STORKS'  FIRST  POLITICAL  SPEECH,  DELIVERED  IN  CATTARAUGUS  COUNTY, 
NEW  YORK — AN  EFFORT  WORTHY  OF  HIS  BEST  DAYS — THE  KANSAS  QUES 
TION  DISCUSSED — PRESIDENT  BUCHANAN'S  MESSAGE — THE  DRIFT  OF  THE 

DEMOCRACY — TRUCKLING    TO    THE    SOUTH — MR.    STORRS    PREDICTS    HOW   IT 
WILL   END. 

T    HAVE  always  been  a   Republican,"  said   Mr.  Storrs   in  a 


I 


speech  delivered  in  Horticultural  Hall,  Philadelphia,  in  the 
fall  of  1880.  "The  Lord  was  very  good  to  me,  and  postponed 
my  birth  so  late  that  I  had  never  had  occasion  to  vote  the 
Democratic  ticket.  I  voted  first  for  John  C.  Fremont.  I  kept 
straight  at  it  ever  since,  voting  the  Republican  ticket." 

Two  years  after  he  cast  his  first  vote,  for  the  first  candidate  put  in 
nomination  by  the  newly  formed  Republican  party,  Mr.  Storrs, 
addressed  a  mass  meeting  at  Ellicottsville,  Cattaraugus  County, 
New  York  State,  October  19,  1858,  in  behalf  of  the  Republican 
candidates  at  the  State  election.  In  that  speech  he  reviewed  the 
questions  at  issue  between  Republicans  and  Democrats,  which 
finally  culminated  in  open  war,  and  particularly  the  dispute  on 
the  admission  of  Kansas  as  a  State  under  Buchanan's  administra 
tion,  which  at  that  time  was  agitating  the  whole  country.  Those 
who  have  heard  Mr.  Storrs'  campaign  speeches  in  his  later  years 
only,  will  be  surprised  to  find  that  even  while  yet  a  young  man, 
having  only  recently  attained  his  legal  majority,  his  first  political 
address  of  which  there  is  any  record  is  characterised  by  the 
same  maturity  of  thought,  the  same  clear  logic,  and  the  same 
pointed  wit  that  marked  the  best  efforts  of  his  later  life. 


72  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

The  germ  of  all  true  patriotism  is  love  of  home  and  the  place 
of  birth.  Mr.  Storrs  was  always  attached  to  his  home  in  Catta- 
raugus  County,  and  proud  to  boast  of  belonging  to  it ;  and  Cattarau- 
gus  County  was  always  proud  of  him,  watched  with  parental  interest 
his  career,  and  rejoiced  over  each  of  his  legal  and  political  tri 
umphs.  At  the  outset,  Mr.  Storrs  said  : 

"It  is  always  to  me  a  source  of  peculiar  pleasure  to  meet  the  citizens  of 
the  County  of  Cattaraugus  ;  but  it  is  particularly  so  on  an  occasion  like  the 
present,  when  we  are  come  together  to  discuss  those  political  issues  upon 
the  proper  determination  of  which  the  present  prosperity  and  future  great 
ness  of  the  State  and  Nation  depend.  Wherever  my  residence  may  be, 
Cattaraugus  will  always  be  home  ;  and  I  have  watched,  and  shall  continue 
to  watch  with  eager  and  delighted  interest,  its  career  of  advancing  pros 
perity.  I  have  lived  long  enough  to  see  great  changes  worked  in  our 
good  old  County.  I  have  seen  vast  inroads  made  upon  its  magnificent 
forests,  and  fields  of  waving  grain  and  cultivated  farms  where  once  the 
maple  and  the  pine,  standing  like  tall  sentinels,  shut  out  the  sunshine  from 
the  soil — its  clear  and  swift-running  streams  now  turning  the  wheels  of  busy 
machinery — the  locomotive  whirling  along  the  iron  track  the  long  and 
heavy-freighted  train — its  academies  and  common  schools  second  to  none 
in  the  State — the  Genesee  Valley  canal,  so  long  deferred,  affording  cheap 
and  easy  transit  for  its  products  to  the  great  commercial  emporium,  nearly 
completed, — and  its  free  and  intelligent  men  asserting  the  supremacy  of 
right  over  all  party  and  political  ties,  and  carrying  high  and  waving 
proudly  before  them  the  banner  of  Republicanism.  For  all  these  evidences 
of  material  and  physical  thrift  and  prosperity,  as  a  son  of  Cattaraugus,  I 
have  every  reason  to  be  proud  of  my  old  home  ;  but  I  am  more  particularly 
so  when  I  remember  that  in  the  glorious  contest  of  1856,  in  the  rushing 
tide  of  free  and  enlightened  sentiment  which  swept  through  it,  the  Demo 
cratic  party  was  drifted  high  and  dry  on  the  bleak  shores  of  political  defeat 
and  clissappointment,  and  their  once  proud  front  dwindled  down  to  a  mere 
squad  of  postmasters  and  their  deputies. 

"  Once  more  we  are  called  together  for  the  discussion  of  political  questions, 
and  soon  shall  we  be  called  to  act  upon  them.  The  action  which  we  take 
should  be  determined  in  the  same  manner  we  would  determine  any  ques 
tion  of  business  interest  ;  and  in  politics  as  in  everything  else,  we  should 
have  a  reason  for  the  faith  that  is  in  us.  Political  parties,  when  honestly 
organized,  are  intended  simply  to  represent  and  if  possible  establish  and 
enforce  the  sentiments  upon  some  particular  political  topics^which  its  mem 
bers  entertain.  It  was  in  this  way  and  for  these  purposes  that  our  parties 
were  in  the  early  history  of  the  country  called  into  being  ;  the  party  itself 
being  subsidiary, — simply  a  means  to  an  end  ;  the  machinery/  so  to  speak, 
by  which  certain  results  were  to  be  attained.  A  party,  properly  so  called, 
no  more  consists  in  its  name  than  a  man  in  his  pantaloons.  If  upon  the 
question  of  a  re-charter  of  the  United  States  liank  I  should  oppose  such 
re-charter,  and  should  act  with  a  party  holding  the  same  views  I  did  upon 


THE    KANSAS   TROUBLES.  73 

that  question,  this  could  certainly  be  no  reason  why  upon  another  and 
newer  question,  raised  after  the  settlement  of  the  former,  upon  which  the 
same  party  held  directly  opposite  views  to  my  own,  I  should  act  with  them 
also.  That  would  be  inconsistency,  and  the  only  kind  of  political  inconsis 
tency.  Politics  in  this  light  becomes  a  science  ;  something  more  than  a  con 
temptible  squabble  for  power  and  its  emoluments.  Voting,  too',  when  the 
vote  represents  an  idea,  is  the  most  dignified  and  solemn  act  a  freeman  can 
be  called  upon  to  perform.  A  vote,  then,  is  a  live  thing  ;  and  who  can 
doubt  that  in  1856  every  Republican  vote  cast  'shrieked  for  freedom'?  All 
we  have  to  do  at  this  election  is  simply  to  satisfy  ourselves  what  the  issues 
are  which  are  now  presented  to  us,  and  what  political  organization  embo 
dies  and  reflects  our  sentiments  upon  them.  The  questions  involved  in  the 
present  election  are  State  and  National.  In  that  order  I  propose  to  consider 
and  discuss  them  with  you,  candidly,  fairly,  courteously." 

He  then  discussed  the  questions  of  State  politics  which  were 
uppermost  at  that  time,  among  them  the  bill  making  an  appro 
priation  for  the  enlargement  of  the  Erie  canal,  which  the  Repub 
licans  supported,  but  which,  on  an  appeal  by  the  Democrats,  was 
decided  by  the  New  York  Court  of  Appeals  to  be  unconstitu 
tional.  Turning  to  national  politics,  he  said : 

"Those  great  issues  for  which  we  battled  in  1856  are  by  no  means 
settled  or  ended,  and  the  result  of  the  present  election  in  this  State  is  to 
exercise  an  important  influence  in  their  proper  determination.  It  is  quite 
unnecessary,  I  apprehend,  for  me  to  dwell  at  any  length  upon  the  earlier 
history  of  the  Kansas  troubles.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  in  the  election  of 
1856,  the  principle  contended  for  by  the  Democratic  party,  and  claimed  to 
be  a  part  of  the  Democratic  platform,  was  '  Popular  Sovereignty,'  and 
that,  by  the  prophets  of  the  party  at  the  North,  was  said  to  mean  the 
right  of  the  people  of  Territories  acting  in  their  territorial  capacity  to  deter 
mine  for  themselves  whether  they  would  or  would  not  have  slavery  in  the 
Territories.  We,  as  Republicans,  claimed  that  this  platform  would  be  dif 
ferently  construed,  so  as  to  deprive  either  the  people  of  the  Territories,  or 
Congress,  of  the  right  to  determine  that  question.  We  further  claimed  that 
Congress  had  the  right  to  legislate  upon  this  question,  and  should  exercise 
the  right.  The  great  practical  end  to  be  attained  was  the  freedom  of 
Kansas.  We  were  beaten.  Popular  sovereignty  seemed  to  be  the  settled 
policy  of  the  country.  It  was,  at  all  events,  the  principle  upon  which  Mr. 
Buchanan  was  elected,  and  all  we  could  then  do  was  to  ask  that  the  prin 
ciple  established  by  his  election  should  be  faithfully  and  fairly  carried  out. 
How  were  we  met?  First  by  the  dictum  of  the  Supreme  Court,  placing 
upon  the  Constitution  the  very  construction  which  we  as  a  party  claimed 
would  be  put  upon  it,  blowing  the  doctrine  of  popular  sovereignty  to  atoms, 
and  carrying  slavery  affirmatively  into  the  Territories.  This  doctrine,  so 
much  at  war  with  the  past  policy  of  the  country,  was  forthwith  made  a 
test  of  Democracy.  The  infamous  Lecompton  swindle  was  sought  to  be 


74  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

forced  upon  the  people  of  Kansas.  Failing  in  that,  and  using  the  entire 
power  of  the  government  to  accomplish  the  object,  the  English  bill  was 
pushed  through,  approaching  the  people  of  Kansas  with  a  sword  in  one 
hand  and  a  purse  in  the  other, — permitting  them  to  come  in  as  a  slave 
State  with  less  than  one-half  the  population  required  for  her  admission  as  a 
free  State.  The  people  of  Kansas  rejected,  with  an  overwhelming  majority, 
this  mercenary  and  contemptible  proposition,  and  now  to-day  we  stand, 
this  Kansas  question  no  nearer  settled  than  ever,  and  the  victories  of  1856 
profitless  and  fruitless,  unless  followed  up  by  like  success  in  1858. 

"  Kansas  will  probably  apply  for  admission  as  a  State  this  coming  winter, 
and  then  comes  'the  tug  of  war.'  Then  is  to  be  settled  the  final  ques 
tion  whether  she  shall  be  admitted  with  her  present  population  as  a  free 
State,  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  the  English  bill. 

''  Now  in  view  of  these  facts,  who  is  there  so  stupid  or  so  blind  as  to 
call  the  Kansas  question  settled  ?  It  is  a  favorite  remark  of  the  Democracy 
that  '  Kansas  is  played  out/  when,  as  you  see,  the  fact  is  that  if  settled  at 
all  it  is  settled  against  us,  Kansas  to-day  being  by  the  action  of  the  Supreme 
Court  a  slave  Territory.  Whether  she  shall  be  a  free  State  remains  yet  to 
be  determined,  and  until  the  last  act  of  her  admission  into  the  Union  with 
a  free  constitution  is  consummated,  until  this  modern  Democracy,  which  has 
done  more  to  debauch  public  sentiment  upon  those  great  principles  upon 
which  the  government  is  established  than  all  other  political  organizations 
put  together,  is  overthrown,  every  Republican  who  in  the  least  degree  relaxes 
his  energy  or  moderates  his  zeal  is  guilty  of  treason  to  the  cause  which  he 
has  espoused. 

"  Mr.  Buchanan  is  kind  enough  in  his  message  to  say  that  we  have  had 
enough  of  this  Kansas  business,  and  that  it  is  high  time  that  it  was  stopped, 
and  the  attention  of  the  people  called  to  more  important  business.  We 
quite  agree  with  our  venerable  chief-magistrate.  It  is  high  time  that  the 
Kansas  troubles  were  stopped.  It  is  high  time  that  the  Kansas  agitation 
was  ended  ;  but  of  one  thing  Mr.  Buchanan  and  his  followers  may  rest  well 
assured,  that  the  Kansas  business  will  not  be  stopped,  the  Kansas  agitation 
will  not  cease,  until  the  causes  which  have  produced  it  cease  also.  When 
gentlemen  undertake  to  sow  wind,  they  may  safely  calculate  to  reap  a  tol 
erably  large  crop  of  whirlwind  ;  and  when  the  Kansas  troubles  and  the 
agitation  consequent  upon  them  are  ended,  Mr.  Buchanan  and  his 
party  will  be  ended  also,  and,  following  the  President's  advice,  the 
people  will  then  turn  their  attention  to  'more  important  matters.'  One  thing 
is  certain,  that  to  the  Democratic  party  the  Kansas  question  has  proved  a 
most  unfortunate  .operation — a  speculation  quite  as  disastrous  as  that  recorded 
in  the  early  history  of  our  race,  when  Adam  and  Eve  went  into  the  fruit 
business  together. 

"In  the  course  of  the  present  campaign,  how  have  these  new  questions 
been  treated  by  our  Democratic  friends?  Many  of  you  have  had  the 
pleasure  of  listening,  this  fall,  to  Mr.  Seymour,  one  of  the  ablest  men  in 
the  ranks  of  the  Democratic  party  in  this  State.  Did  he  have  anything  to 


THE    KANSAS    TROUBLES.  75 

say  about  Lecompton,  the  English  bill,  the  coming  application  for  the 
admission  of  Kansas,  or  about  your  State  policy?  Not  at  all;  he  left  the 
subject  at  the  Pyramids.  After  a  fine  salutatory  to  the  Atlantic  cable, 
which,  by  the  way,  is  not  running  for  Governor,  and  is  as  difficult  to  get 
an  answer  from  as  a  Democratic  politician,  he  gives  a  learned  definition  of 
the  word  'slave,'  its  aspect  under  the  Romans,  and  Solomon's  opinion 
about  it.  Solomon  was  undoubtedly  a  wise  and  worthy  gentleman,  but  we 
submit  that  he  is  not  to  be  taken  as  authority  upon  our  canal  policy  or 
the  Kansas  question.  Would  it  not  be  safe  for  our  Democratic  friends  to 
come  down  to  later  dates?  Let  them,  by  all  means,  venture  as  far  as  the 
discovery  of  the  continent,  and  in  1860  we  will  meet  them  at  the  landing 
of  the  Puritans. 

"Gentlemen,  I  have  the  profoundest  respect  for  a  Democratic  Conven 
tion.  I  would  as  soon  think  of  speaking  disrespectfully  of  the  Equator  or 
the  North  Pole  as  of  a  Democratic  platform.  I  know  that  Democratic 
Conventions  have  heretofore  done  a  great  many  strange  and  curious  things. 
I  know  that  they  are  able  to  do  so  again.  I  acknowledge  reverently  the 
power  of  a  Democratic  resolve.  The  feats  of  the  India  rubber  man,  of 
the  ground  and  lofty  tumbler,  or  of  the  man  that  swallows  the  sword, 
although  calculated  to  excite  wonder,  are  tame  and  spiritless  when  compared 
with  the  feats  accomplished  by  the  Western  State  Democratic  Convention  in 
the  year  of  grace  1858.  As  proofs,  let  facts  be  submitted  to  a  candid 
world." 

Mr.  Storrs  here  read  the  resolutions  in  the  Democratic  plat 
form  on  the  administration,  and  on  Kansas,  and  added  : 

"  It  must  be  confessed  these  resolutions  open  most  amiably.  Cagger  and 
Richmond  are  '  content  that  the  American  people  should  judge  the  admin 
istration  of  James  Buchanan  by  its  acts.'  With  this  kind  permission,  the 
American  people  will  proceed  to  do  that  very  thing,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  Cagger  and  Richmond  are  contented  with  the  manner  in  which  that 
administration  has  been  judged  by  the  people  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio, 
Indiana,  and  Iowa.  They,  foolish  people,  have  not  yet  done  shrieking  for 
freedom. 

"We  are  further  told  that  the  administration  of  James  Buchanan  has 
'confirmed  the  faith  of  the  people  in  the  enduring  JJnion  of  the  States.' 
It  has,  indeed  ;  for  if  the  people  of  this  country  can  live  through  such  an 
administration,  any  other  afflictions  they  could  bear  with  equanimity  and 
composure. 

"  Secondly,  they  resolve  '  that  the  settlement  of  the  Kansas  question  by 
the  vote  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Territory  has  removed  that  subject  from 
Congress.'  We  have  yet  to  learn  that  it  is  settled.  We  know  that  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Territory,  under  the  Democratic  creed,  are  denied  the 
right  of  settling  it.  We  know  that  the  subject  is  only  removed  from  Con 
gress  when  Congress  is  not  in  session,  and  that  next  winter  it  will  be 
promptly  on  hand  to  trouble  its  inventors.  A  crab  was  defined  by  a  scien 
tific  gentleman  to  be  an  animal  that  walked  backwards,  turned  red  when 


76  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

boiled,  and  shed  its  legs  in  the  winter.  A  French  savant  said  that  the 
definition  was  correct,  with  three  exceptions,  namely,  the  crab  did  not  walk 
backwards,  did  not  turn  red  when  boiled,  and  did  not  shed  its  legs  in  the 
winter.  But  the  coolest  portion  of  the  resolve  is  yet  to  come,  and  it  pro 
ceeds  to  assert  that  the  settlement  of  the-  Kansas  question  has  left  the  future 
disposition  of  its  internal  affairs  to  its  own  people,  subject  only  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States.  Gentlemen,  the  dodge,  'subject  only  to  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,'  we  have  learned.  We  were  caught  there 
once ;  that  was  the  fault  of  the  Democratic  party.  If  we  are  caught  again, 
it  will  be  our  fault.  Every  Democratic  platform  has  a  peculiar,  distinguish 
ing  mark,  by  which  it  can  everywhere  be  recognized.  There  are  some  men 
whose  business  is  advertised  in  their  countenances.  We  can  always  recog 
nize  a  quack  doctor,  a  Jew  peddler,  and  a  Democratic  Member  of  Assembly 
at  first  sight. 

"  Our  Democratic  friends  seem  to  derive  great  consolation  from  the 
reflection  that  they  are  conservative  ;  but  that  is  not  what  ails  them. 
'A  great  many  good  people,'  said  that  brilliant  and  witty  English 
divine,  Sydney  Smith,  '  think  they  are  pious,  when  they  are  only  bilious. 
Many  a  young  gentleman  turns  down  his  shirt  collar,  retires  from  the 
world  in  disgust,  reposes  himself  on  the  banks  of  some  murmuring 
stream,  and  thinks  that  he  is  a  misanthrope  and  a  poet,  when  his 
stomach  is  only  out  of  order.  Many  a  man  thinks  he  is  inspired  when 
he  is  simply  dyspeptic,  and  many  a  worthy  old  gentleman  puts  his 
hands  loftily  under  his  coat  tails,  spreads  out  his  feet,  stands  with  his 
back  to  the  fire,  and  thinks  he  is  a  conservative  when  he  is  only  a 
flunkey.'  We  have  a  large  number  of  these  illustrious  ghosts,  long  since 
politically  entombed  by  the  people,  whose  principal  business  seems  to  be 
that  of  saving  the  Union !  Every  question  of  interest  to  them  seems 
bristling  with  danger.  They  have  any  number  of  medicines  and  pre 
scriptions  for  it,  they  sit  up  with  it  nights,  preserve  it  by  Union-saving 
committees,  and  are  constantly  on  the  ground  with  their  glue-pots  at 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line  to  stick  the  Union  together.  Whenever  any 
question  having  the  remotest  relation  to  the  institution  of  slavery  is 
broached,  these  solemn  old  doctors  are  clamorous  in  their  cries  of  dan 
ger  to  the  Union  ;  and  when,  at  the  ensuing  session  of  Congress,  Kansas 
shall  knock  at  the  door  of  the  confederacy  and  demand  admission  as  a 
free  State,  you  will  see  them  running  for  their  medicaments,  and  their 
cordials,  their  paregoric  and  catnip,  their  laudanum  and  pennyroyal ;  a 
nigger  will  be  in  the  question,  and  the  Union  in  danger!" 

His  denunciation  of  the  " mugwumps"  of  those  days  was  as 
vigorous  and  scorching  as  anything  he  ever  uttered  about  the 
same  class  of  people  in  subsequent  campaigns. 

"Prominent  among  these  so-called  conservatives  is  the  sage  of.Bingham- 
ton,  the  venerable  Daniel  S.  Dickinson.  It  is,  perhaps,  unkind,  by  word  or 
deed,  to  add  to  the  griefs  of  Daniel.  Thrust  without  ceremony  from  the 
doors  of  the  State  Convention,  he  has  strong  claims  upon  our  sympathy. 
He  comes  to  his  party  in  his  grief,  and  says  ; 


KANSAS    TROUBLES.  77 

f 

1  Pity  the  sorrows  of  a  poor  old  man, 

Whose  trembling  limbs  have  brought  him  to  your  door ; 
His  days  have  dwindled  to  the  shortest  span,— 

Oh,  give  relief,  and  Heaven  will  bless  your  store!' 

"  It  is  all  of  no  avail ;  he  asks  for  bread,  Peter  gives  him  a  stone.  Mr. 
Dickinson  and  men  of  that  class  seem  to  be  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
whenever  they,  are  driven  from  political  life,  all  political  vitality  and 
advancement  cease.  They  stand  waiting  on  the  banks  of  the  stream  for 
the  water  to  run  by, — making  no  more  progress  than  a  blind  ass  in  a 
bark  mill.  Mr.  Dickinson  is  mistaken.  Ever  since  his  retirement  to  the 
quiet  of  his  native  village,  the  world  has  been  going  right  on ;  the 
order  of  nature  has  not  been  changed  ;  and  I  will  venture  to  remark  that 
should  Mr.  Dickinson  never  hold  office  again,  the  seasons  would  still 
come  and  go  in  their  natural  course.  We  should  have  snow  in  February 
and  hot  weather  in  August,  and  Thanksgiving  some  time  in  November,  as 
usual. 

"No  class  of  men  are  more  disposed  in  some  respects  to  follow 
scriptural  injunctions  than  the  conservatives.  Let  their  Southern  brethren 
ask  for  their  coat ;  they  will  straightway  not  only  give  them  that  but  their 
hats,  vests,  and  the  balance  of  their  wardrobe  also.  Do  they  ask  for 
Kansas?  Take  that,  Minnesota,  Oregon  if  possible,  and  a  few  other  small 
Territories  by  way  of  remembrance.  Gentlemen,  haven't  we  had  about 
enough  of  this  spirit  of  flunkeyism?  Isn't  it  about  time  for  us  to  be  men,  true 
to  ourselves,  true  to  those  great  principles  upon  which  our  government  is 
based,  and  for  once  let  conscience  and  judgment  go  together?  Be  assured 
that  in  the  long  run  the  right  side  is  the  expedient  side,  and  must  ulti 
mately  triumph.  If  the  experiment  of  being  men  does  not  succeed,  we  can 
relapse  again  into  flunkeyism.  We  have  had  long  experience  at  it,  have 
given  it  a  fair  trial  ;  it  has  signally  and  disastrously  failed. 

His  conclusion  was  prophetic  : 

"  We  are  asked  where  we  are  coming  out.  That  is  not  a  question 
for  us  to  answer ;  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  go  in  right,  and  trust  in  a 
good  Providence  to  bring  us  out  right.  When  a  man  goes  in  at  the 
wrong  gate,  it  is  asking  altogether  too  much  of  Providence  by  some 
special  interposition  to  bring  him  out  at  the  right.  '  I  will,'  said  the 
Mussulman,  'unloose  my  camel,  and  commit  him  to  God.'  'First  hitch 
your  camel,'  said  Mahomet,  '  and  then  commit  him  to  God.' 

"The  Democratic  party  seems  to  have  a  holy  horror  of  agitation. 
What  other  or  better  way  is  there  for  a  free  people  to  arrive  at  correct 
conclusions  on  any  given  subject,  than  by  a  full  discussion  of  it  ? 
Agitation  is  as  necessary  in  the  political  as  in  the  moral  or  physical  world. 
The  darkest  periods  in  this  world's  history  are  those  in  which  free  discus 
sion  was  prevented.  No  great  reform  has  ever  yet  been  effected  without  it, 
and  it  sometimes  requires  the  earthquake  to  upheave  to  the  surface  the  ores 
of  truth  from  under  the  layers  of  ignorance  and  falsehood  which  had 
covered  them.  When  the  atmosphere  in  our  still  and 'sultry  summer  days  is 


78  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

charged  with  malaria  and  pestilence,  the  Almighty  sends  the  thunder-storm, 
and  the  rain,  and  the  whirlwind,  and  in  the  commotion  of  the  elements 
which  follows  the  air  is  cleansed  and  purified,  and  we  can  breathe  again 
with  safety.  If  necessary,  by  such  means  must  our  present  choked  and 
pestilential  political  atmosphere  be  purified  ;  and  as  a  free  people,  wherever 
there  is  a  wrong  to  right,  or  a  great  truth  to  be  asserted  and  advanced, 
we  shall  claim  and  assert  the  right  of  the  freest  discussion. 

"Was  there  ever  so  pitiable  a  spectacle  as  that  of  the  present  Democratic 
party?  All  the  old  principles  which  gave  it  strength  and  dignity  as  a  party 
sacrificed  and  abandoned,  submitting  quietly  to  the  dictation  of  its  Execu 
tive,  believing  everything  that  its  Executive  believes,  and  seeing  everything 
that  its  Executive  sees,  its  followers  are  as  pliant  as  the  facile  Polonius, 
when  Hamlet  says  : — 

"Do  you  see  yonder  cloud,  that  is  almost  in  shape  of  a  camel? 

"Polonius — 'By  the  mass,  and  'tis  like  a  camel  indeed.' 

"Hamlet — '  Methinks  it  is  like  a  weasel.' 

"Polonius — 'It  is  backed  like  a  weasel.' 

"Hamlet — 'Or  like  a  whale.' 

"Polonius — 'Very  like  a  whale.' 

"The  Hards  and  Softs  are  both  fleet  in  their  chase  after  Executive  favor, 
— the  contest  ve*y  like  that  between  the  dog  and  the  fox,  when  it  was 
neck  and  neck,  neck  and  neck,  if  anything,  the  dog  a  little  ahead.  Our 
principles,  gentlemen,  are  the  same  they  have  ever  been.  The  great 
practical  end  to  be  attained  is  the  freedom  of  Kansas  and  the  overthrow 
of  Democratic  policy.  Do  you  ask  what  influence  this  State  election  is  to 
have  upon  it?  Think  of  the  courage  which  a  success  in  our  great  State 
would  infuse  into  the  heart  of  every  Republican  in  the  country  ;  and  we 
ourselves  will  go  into  the  contest  in  1860  with  drums  beating  and  banners 
flying,  and  success  made  certain. 

"The  days  of  Democratic  misrule  are  numbered.  From  the  waving 
prairies  of  Iowa  to  the  coal  and  iron  fields  of  Pennsylvania,  the  shouts  of 
victory  are  sweeping  over  the  land.  Indiana  and  Ohio  are  swelling  in 
grand  chorus  the  glad  song  of  triumph.  They  have  nobly  wheeled  into  the 
Republican  line,  and  are  proudly  keeping  step  to  the  music  of  freedom. 
And  New  York  is  unworthy  of  her  high  position  if  she  does  not  drive 
Lecomptonism  from  her  borders,  to  the  cypress  and  willow  swamps  of 
Carolina.  Upon  congressional  action  this  Winter  depends  the  freedom  of 
Kansas  ;  and  as  far  as  your  member  of  Congress  is  concerned,  his  past 
record  is  clear,  consistent  and  unflinching  in  opposition  to  the  extension  of 
slavery.  Put  in  nomination  by  the  soundest  men  in  your  county,  always 
having  been  true  to  the  principles  we  advocate,  honest,  faithful,  capable,* 
he  will  receive  the  vote  of  every  good  Republican  in  the  district  who 
desires  the  success  of  Republican  doctrines.  A  political  party  is  something 
more  than  a  debating  society.  If  it  proposes  to  accomplish  any  practical 
results,  it  must  have  organization,  and  its  candidates  must  be  supported. 
The  only  question  we  as  Republicans  are  to  ask  is, — Is  the  candidate 
honest,  capable,  and  faithful  to  the  principles  of  the  party  ?  This  answered 


KANSAS   TROUBLES.  79 

in  the  affirmative,  there  is  but  one  course  for  every  true  Republican,  and 
that  is  to  give  to  those  candidates  a  hearty  and  vigorous  support.  A  Dem 
ocratic  convention  is  a  poor  place  for  a  man  to  get  his  Republicanism 
endorsed  ;  and  if  I  desired  to  travel  on  the  strength  of  my  Republicanism, 
I  should  not  go  to  a  Democratic  convention  for  my  credentials.  To  you, 
Republicans  of  Cattaraugus,  do  we  look  for  success  in  the  coming  contest. 
The  victories  of  1856  were  but  beginnings  in  the  contest  to  follow.  Soon  are 
we  to  reap  the  practical  results  of  those  victories.  Let  every  man  feel  that 
upon  himself  personally  rests  the  responsibility.  There  is  yet  nerve  and 
muscle  enough  left  in  the  popular  ami  to  shatter  the  Democracy  to  atoms  ; 
and  when  at  last,  one  after  another,  those  magnificent  Western  empires 
shall  take  positions  in  the  line  of  States,  joining  in  the  march  of  advancing 
civilization,  with  the  song  of  Freedom  on  their  lips,  and  its  bright  star 
glittering  full  upon  their  foreheads,  we  will  join  in  that  grand  festival 
in  which  the  North  and  the  South,  the  East  and  the  West  shall  strike 
hands  in  a  common  brotherhood  of  interests,  whose  high  purpose  it  shall  be 
to  extend  all  over  this  vast  continent  Republican  doctrine,  and  establish 
upon  it,  for  all  time  to  come,  Republican  institutions." 


CHAPTER  V. 


HUMILIATION  AND  A  NEW  LIFE. 

THE  LAST  YEARS  AT  BUFFALO — A  STUMBLE — BEGINS  TO  RISE  AT  CHICAGO — 
EARLY  PROFESSIONAL  STRUGGLES — A  SECRET  SIDE — WRITING  EDITORIALS 
FOR  THE  CHICAGO  PRESS — ENGLISH  PHILANTHORPY — "A  CHAPTER  ON 
BOARDING  HOUSES." 

DURING  Mie  three  years  immediately  succeeding  his  admis 
sion  to  the  bar,  the  world  looked  exceedingly  bright  for 
Mr  Storrs.  For  a  young  man,  he  had  suddenly  attained  a  high 
rank  at  the  Buffalo  bar,  he  was  a  general  social  favorite,  his 
oratorical  abilities  were  surely  extending  his  fame,  and  already 
his  name  was  beginning  to  be  linked  with  honorable  positions. 
Unfortunately,  he  began  to  live  beyond  his  means,  and,  as  has 
been  the  history  of  many  others  in  this  world  of  deceit,  too  sud 
den  success,  though  really  merited,  encourages  a  downfall.  To 
gratify  the  demands  of  vanity  and  the  caprice  of  fashion,  against 
his  own  judgment,  he  purchased  an  elegant  residence  on  Dela 
ware  Avenue  in  Buffalo,  and  removed  to  it,  leaving  a  very  com 
modious  and  comfortable  house  which  was  better  than  those 
occupied  by  many  a  millionaire.  From  this  time,  until  the  final 
collapse  which  eventually  came,  he  was  forced  to  adopt  and 
maintain  a  style  of  living  which  was  far  beyond  his  means.  To 
keep  up  and  hold  out,  he  borrowed  money  wherever  he  could, 
and  when  this  resource  failed  him,  he  resorted  to  other  shifts, 
adopting  means  at  times,  not  altogether  commendable.  About 
this  period,  however,  when  he  yielded  to  the  temptations,  which 
professional  success  and  general  flattery  encouraged,  to  enter  upon 
a  course  of  extravagance,  it  might  be  said  in  extenuation,  that  he 
80 


HUMILIATION     \ND    A    NEW    LIFE.  8 1 

was  counting  upon  resources  other  than  those  which  came 
legitimately  from  the  practice  of  his  profession.  He  had  engaged 
in  real  estate  speculations  in  Buffalo,  and  his  expectations  from 
this  venture,  colored  as  they  were  by  his  fancy,  were  almost  fab 
ulous.  Impetus  was  thus  lent  to  his  excessive  expenditures  and 
to  his  prodigality  in  living.  His  real  estate  speculations  proved 
disastrous  and  he  failed  to  meet  his  obligations — then  came 
insolvency  and  a  most  humiliating  fall  from  his  briefly  maintained 
high  estate.  Unable  or  unwilling  to  endure  this  abrupt  termina 
tion  of  his  late  prosperity,  in  the  early  part  of  1858,  he  abandoned 
Buffalo  and  went  to  live  in  the  city  of  New  York.  Here 
without  clients,  he  swung  out  his  shingle  and  attempted  to  inau 
gurate  a  new  career ;  but  he  continued  to  err  in  his  methods. 
There  was  no  apparent  effort  on  his  part  to  keep  his  expenses 
within  the  limits  of  his  income.  The  result  was,  he  was  unable 
to  sustain  himself  in  New  York  and  he  was  compelled  to  leave 
the  city.  He  went  home  in  the  winter  of  1859,  to  Hinsdale, 
where  he  had  left  his  family,  and  very  soon  thereafter,  not  more 
than  two  weeks,  accompanied  by  his  wife  and  baby  son,  he 
turned  his  face  to  the  growing  city  of  Chicago.  His  brother-in- 
law,  Mr.  John  A.  Grow,  was  at  the  time  a  practicing  lawyer  in 
Chicago ;  he  entered  into  a  partnership  with  him,  and  for  two  or 
three  months  lived  at  the  Grow  residence,  at  No.  454  West 
Jackson  street,  a  dwelling  since  destroyed  by  fire.  Leaving  this 
home,  boarding-house  existence  was  tested.  The  first  Chicago 
partnership  lasted  but  six  months. 

The  first  case  in  which  he  appeared  after  his  arrival  in  Chicago 
was  before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Ottawa,  (Benedict  et  a/.,  vs. 
Prescott  et  al.).  His  next  appearance  was  in  the  Circuit  Court, 
before  Judge  Manierre,  in  two  important  habeas  corpus  cases 
ex  rel.  Lawslager.  These  cases  were  bitterly  contested,  but  he 
won  in  all  of  them. 

His  unusual  legal  abilities  soon  again  made  him  conspicuous 
in  the  circle  of  his  duties,  but  the  task  of  supporting  himself  and 
family  and  of  gradually  wiping  out  the  cloud  of  indebtedness, 
which  he  had  fled  from,  was  the  weary  one  extending  through 
many  years.  Born  and  matured  in  an  atmosphere  of  strictest 
integrity,  sensitive  and  proud  by  disposition,  he  suffered  keenest 
punishment  through  many  of  the  most  active  years  of  his  life, 


82  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

when  surrounded  by  admirers  and  flatterers,  but  by  slanderers 
often  as  well  as  by  loving  friends,  in  an  unsupported,  silent,  and,  at 
times,  almost  desperate  struggle  to  pay  off  dollar  for  dollar,  with 
full  interest,  those  who  had  suffered  by  his  fanatical  speculations 
during  the  last  years  of  his  residence  at  Buffalo.  He  fully  suc 
ceeded  in  his  task,  but,  though  it  consumed  years  of  his  life  and 
caused  him  often  to  be  misunderstood,  none  but  his  family,  and 
a  very  limited  inner  circle  of  friends,  knew  of  his  "  incubus  of 
shame,"  as  he  himself  once  expressed  it.  In  fact,  the  bitter  cup 
of  his  life  was  his  sudden  and,  as  he  himself  once  confessed, 
uncalled-for  wrong  to  himself  as  well  as  others,  but  he  never 
lay  bare  his  wound  to  an  unsympathetic  public,  preferring  rather 
to  be  misunderstood.  It  was  only  at  the  rarest  intervals,  indeed 
did  he  ever,  after  his  change  of  residence  to  Chicago,  allude  even 
in  the  presence  of  his  family  to  those  early  years  which  opened 
so  promisingly  only  to  be  submerged  in  humiliation.  Once  he 
wrote  thus  to  his  father: 

"  I  was  crazed,  I  think,  for  a  time  thinking  in  my  foolishness  that  any 
thing  could  be  attained  by  brains — even  impossibilities.  I  will  make 
all  right  in  time,  if  life  be  granted  me  *  *  but  the  world,  and  that  is 
one  of  my  most  sensitive  punishments,  misunderstands.  I  should  cry  out, 
let  him  who  hath  not  sinned  first  cast  a  stone." 

To  a  sister  he  once  said,  "  I  am  tired  enough  sometimes  to 
die,  but  I  am  becoming  calloused  to  uncertain  criticism  based 
on  mere  lack  of  knowing." 

It  was,  though,  only  natural  that  the  world  should  frequently 
wonder  over  the  anomaly  of  so  gifted  a  man,  known  to  be 
earning  large  fees,  who  never  seemed  burdened  with  surplus 
funds,  and,  for  that  matter,  whose  general  financial  standing  was 
not  of  the  best.  It  is  a  fact  that  Mr.  Storrs  gradually  extermi 
nated,  and  in  an  honorable  way,  debts  which  could  have  been 
ignored,  because  of  lapse  of  time  and  statutory  provisions ;  but  it 
is  also  a  fact,  that  though  so  performing,  and  though  refusing, 
point-blank  to  take  advantage  of  bankruptcy  laws,  he  found  it 
almost  physically  impossible  to  place  the  proper  valuation  upon 
money  which  he  could  earn  so  easily.  He  suffered  keenly  over 
the  consciousness  of  this  weakness,  for  he  was  fully  cognizant 
that  it  injured  his  influence  and  power,  but,  strange  as  it  may 
seem  to  so  assert,  he  usually  affected  to  despise  great  possessions 
of  gold.  A  rich  New  Yorker  who  had  been  ladening  his  con- 


HUMILIATION    AND    A    NEW    LIFE.  83 

versation,  in  a  little  company,  with  frequent  statements  that  "  Mr. 
So  and  So  was  worth  two  millions "  and  "  Mr.  So  and  So  was 
worth  three  millions,"  apparently  realizing  no  qualification  for  a 
a  man  but  that  of  wealth,  was  effectually  silenced  by  the  signifi 
cant  way  in  which  Mr.  Storrs  said,  "  I  am  tired  of  hearing  of 
mean  men." 

Professional  duties,  however,  while  they  steadily  devolved  more 
weightily  upon  him,  from  the  very  outstart  in  the  new  field,  did 
not  prevent  the  young  lawyer  from  again  displaying  his  natural 
inclination  for  appearing  in  type.  It  was  on  the  edge  of  the 
great  Rebellion ;  a  loud  element  was  demanding  all  over  the  North 
that  President  Lincoln  should  issue  a  proclamation  declaring  the 
slave  free ;  but  Mr.  Storrs  was  of  that  company  of  reasoners  who 
advocated  that  the  North  should  first  secure  that  controlling,  over 
whelming  power  to  enforce  instant  acquiescense,  which  should  be 
co-existent  with  proclamations.  He  wrote  a  series  of  bitingly  sarcas 
tic  editorials  for  the  Chicago  Post  upon  this  demand  for  an  emanci 
pation  proclamation  at  its  incipiency.  One  excerpt  from  a  single 
paragraph  in  an  extended  criticism  of  "  Three  Measures  for  Crush 
ing  Rebellion,"  advanced  by  the  Tribune  in  September,  1861,  will 
suffice  as  a  sample  of  his  method  of  ridiculing  that  newspaper 
because  of  such  positions  as  -"calling  for  a  declaration  of  free 
dom  "  and  that  "  such  an  emancipation!  means  cessation  of  war." 
Mr.  Storrs  wrote : 

"While  the  rebel  General  Lee  is  menacing  Washington  in  front  of  200,000 
armed  men — while  Cincinnati  is  in  danger,  it  would  be  a  little  difficult  to 
liberate  slaves  in  Mississippi  and  Georgia.  Slaves  cannot  be  liberated  by 
our  armies,  until  our  armies  succeed  in  flogging  their  masters.  And  so 
long  as  our  armies  are  unable  to  take  a  step  in  advance  towards  Richmond, 
without  being  met,  overpowered  by  superior  numbers  and  driven  back  by 
rebels  in  arms,  the  business  of  liberating  slaves  by  the  military  power,  will 
not  we  venture  to  suggest,  meet  with  very  great  success.  The  Tribune 
sees  this.  It  does  not  expect  that  the  slaves  shall  be  liberated  in  that 
manner,  but  by  the  infinitely  easier  method  by  which  the  Dutch  Governor 
Worter  Von  Twiller  beat  off  the  English  from  New  Amsterdam — by  which 

the   Mexican  generals  defeated  the  invading   army  lead  by    General  Scott 

by  which  Hunter  set  the  bondsmen  free  in  South  Carolina — by  which  Pope 
abolished  all  'lines  of  retreat' — namely,  BY  PROCLAMATION!!  It  calls  for  a 
declaration  of  freedom,  and  declares  « that  so  long  as  we  neglect  this  most 
obvious  and  righteous  means  of  weakening  the  enemy,  we  shall  deserve  all 
the  calamities  that  a  just  God  may  now  and  hereafter  put  upon  us.'  Let 
it  be  done  at  once!  The  time,  the  Tribune  says,  has  come.  And  when 


84  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  President,  beleagured  as  he  is  at  Washington,  issues  his  proclamation 
declaring  all  the  slaves  in  Georgia  and  Mississippi  free,  you  will  see  the  rebel 
hosts  melt  away  at  once,  and  flee  to  their  homes  in  hot  haste,  in  order  to 
reach  there  ahead  of  the  proclamation !  Then,  let  Davis,  if  he  dare, 
retaliate  by  issuing  a  proclamation  declaring  that  all  the  prisoners  in  our 
county  jails  and  state  penitentiaries  shall  be  liberated — he  will  be  too 
late — and  his  proclamation  will  be  jeered  and  hissed  at  as  a  base, 
miserable  invention  of  the  'high  old  original'  proposed  by  the  Chicago 
Trib  une  !" 

In  a  somewhat  loftier  tone,  Mr.  Storrs,  in  an  editorial  in  the 
Post  of  Thursday,  September  25,  1861,  reviewed  a  meeting  of 
the  "  Christian  men  of  Chicago,"  held  at  Bryan  Hall  the  Saturday 
evening  previous.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Culver  took  the  stand,  introduced 
and  read  some  resolutions,  and  made  a  speech  in  which  he  said, 
for  instance,  "If  I  had  the  power  as  President  Lincoln  has  to 
free  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it  if  I  died  the  next  moment  and 
the  nation  perished,  I  would  do  it,  for  it  would  be  just.  God  is 
on  the  side  of  justice,  and  he  who  is  on  God's  side  is  always 
right."  Reviewing  the  purposes  of  the  meeting  and  the  address 
of  Dr.  Culver,  Mr.  Storrs  characterized  such  sentiments  as  "  the 
love  of  one's  individual  views,  rather  than  a  love  of  country," 
and  he  made  a  strong  comparison  in  which  he  portrayed  what 
the  patriot  preacher  of  the  days  of  the  Pilgrims  would  have 
taught : 

"The  patriot  of  the  ancient  order  would  have  told  his  hearers  that 
although  war  was  a  frightful  calamity  to  be  visited  upon  any  nation,  yet 
there  were  greater  calamities  than  war,  among  which  would  be  the  peace 
ful  surrender  of  national  unity  and  of  constitutional  government  ;  that  one 
of  the  highest  virtues  which  the  Almighty  had  placed  in  the  heart  of  man 
was  love  of  country,  and  one  of  the  greatest  sins  was  treason  against  it; 
that  in  the  present  war  is  involved  not  only  our  national  unity  and  our 
territorial  integrity,  but  that  the  success  or  failure  of  the  experiment  of  self- 
government,  so  nobly  commenced  upon  this  continent,  and  which  had 
already  achieved  results  the  most  colossal  and  resplendent  in  history,  would 
be  determined  for  all  time  to  come  ;  that  the  sword  had  never  been  drawn 
and  blood  had  never  been  shed  in  a  holier  cause,  and  that  every  soldier 
who  died  fighting  for  it  died  a  martyr  to  a  principle  as  noble  and  sublime 
as  ever  moved  the  human  arm,  or  lifted  up  a  human  heart  with  courage  ; 
that  the  interests  of  humanity  and  of  good  government  everywhere, 
demanded  that  such  a  war  should  be  waged  with  a  united,  earnest,  self- 
sacrificing  vigor;  that  all  minor  questions  concerning  which  men  differed, 
should  be  buried  out  of  sight ;  that  individual  prejudices  should  be  torn 
from  the  heart  and  sacrificed  to  the  one  great  object — the  putting  down  of 
armed  rebellion  ;  that  discord  and  dissension  should  cease  at  home,  and 


HUMILIATION    AND    A    NEW    LIFE.  '85 

every  word  or  act  which  might  tend  to  it  should  be  ignored  ;  that  the  gov 
ernment  must  at  all  hazards  and  at  any  cost  or  sacrifice  be  saved,  and  the 
rebellion  ended.  Thus  would  the  old  patriot-preacher  have  addressed  his 
hearers,  and  thus  would  he  have  urged  them  on  to  battle,  giving  practical 
point  and  emphasis  to  his  advice  by  following  it  himself.  Not  so  the  modern 
patriot-preacher.  No  such  weakness  troubles  him.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Culver  has 
his  private  views  concerning  the  negro  ;  his  mind  is  made  up  as  to  the  cause 
of  the  war.  Constitutional  government,  national  unity,  and  the  liberties  of 
twenty  millions  of  people,  are  in  his  clear  and  more  broadly  expanded  patriotic 
vision,  as  nothing;  the  oppressed  African  is  everything." 

As  he  wrote  thus  from  time  to  time,  usually  editorially,  he 
dwelt  in  various  ways  upon  every  phase  of  the  many  war  ques 
tions  ;  their  importance  being  often  local,  or,  if  otherwise,  finally 
adjudicated  upon  by  force  of  arms  and  many  times  discussed  as 
well  by  pen,  to  reproduce  which  in  these  pages  can  hardly  inter 
est.  He  treated  in  quite  an  original  method,  however,  the  pro 
nounced  attitude  of  a  certain  large  class  of  the  English  people 
toward  the  Union,  about  date  of  November  9,  this  same  first 
year  of  the  Rebellion,  in  an  elaborate  article.  Heading  his  article 
"British  Charity"  he  became  humorously  venomous  as,  after  a 
general  dissertation,  he  proceeded  to  write: 

"  Sydney  Smith  once  said  that  an  Englishman's  idea  of  charity  was  this  : 
If  A  sees  13  in  trouble,  he  is  exceedingly  anxious  to  have  C  relieve  him. 
A  peculiar  feature  of  modern  philanthropy,  as  illustrated  by  the  British 
humanitarians,  is  its  far-reaching  extent.  No  people  are  too  remote.  It  cir 
cles  the  globe  and  ransacks  the  remotest  corners  of  the  earth  to  find  sub 
jects  upon  which  it  may  be  exercised.  It  possesses  that  telescopic  vision 
which  can  see  nothing  in  its  immediate  vicinity,  and  can  only  perceive  suf 
fering  at  vast  distances.  The  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  starving 
men  and  women,  cooped  up  in  its  own  immediate  vicinity  and  thronging 
the  streets  of  its  cities,  are  not  the  objects  for  which  British  philanthropy 
seeks  ;  nor  do  their  cries  of  suffering  ever  reach  the  ears  of  the  titled  and 
aristocratic  humanitarians  who  assemble  at  Exeter  Hall  to  wail  in  concert 
over  the  sins  of  the  unclad  Patagonians  and  the  horrors  of  African  slavery. 

"For  half  a  century  this  country  has  been  an  especial  object  of  this  high- 
toned  charity.  The  tears  that  the  Duchess  of  Devonshire  and  her 
associates  have  shed  over  the  sufferings  of  the  oppressed  black  man  on 
this  continent  have  been  sufficient  in  quantity,  if  rightly  applied,  to  wash 
away  every  sin  denounced  in  the  decalogue.  Year  after  year  have  these 
amiable  and  high-toned  philanthropists  mourned  over  the  sufferings  of  the 
negro,  and  bewailed  the  enormity  of  the  sin  which  held  him  in  bondage. 
The  English  poet  and  the  painter  have  at  the  call  of  their  noble  humani 
tarian  patrons,  painted  and  displayed  to  the  world  the  frightful  horrors  of 
African  slavery,  and  denounced  the  American  republic  as  guilty  of  the 


86  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

greatest  sin  known  amongst  nations.  The  institution  of  slavery,  they 
decided,  was  a  barbarism,  and  the  community  which  fostered  it  were  bar 
barians.  They  sent  their  missionaries  across  the  seas  to  convert  us  from  so 
heinous  a  sin,  and  to  inaugurate  a  movement  which  should  result  in  the 
liberation  of  the  negro.  The  British  government  has  year  after  year  lent 
its  assistance  to  the  holy  work  in  which  its  Dukes  and  Duchesses  were 
engaged,  and  has  divided  the  immense  weight  of  its  influence  between  the 
grand  projects  of  evangelizing  the  thronging  millions  of  the  Indies  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet  and  the  mouth  of  the  cannon,  civilizing  the  Chinese 
up  to  an  appreciation  of  the  use  of  opium,  and  the  liberation  of  the  black 
man  on  this  continent. 

"Thousands  of  our  own  people  caught  the  contagion  of  this  noble  example. 
The  grand  chorus  of  lamentation  over  the  sin  of  slavery  which  for  fifty 
years  has  uninterruptedly  gone  up  from  Exeter  Hall,  has  been  repeated 
here.  The  sighs  of  English  nobility  have  blended  with  those  of  our  untitled 
philanthropists.  Together  have  their  tears  been  shed.  The  irresistible 
attraction  which  draws  men  and  women  united  in  the  same  holy  purpose 
indissolubly  together,  had  united  the  English  humanitarian  and  the  Ameri 
can  philanthropist,  so  strongly  that  the  connection  could  never  be  severed. 

"The  rebellion  of  the  southern  states  against  the  government  offered  a 
magnincient  opportunity  for  the  practical  display  of  this  modern  English 
charity.  The  slave-holding  power,  instead  of  being  at  all  intimidated,  or 
converted  by  the  holy  zeal  of  English  philanthropists  and  their  co-opera 
tors  in  this  country,  had  yearly  increased  its  demands,  exacted  concession 
after  concession,  until  it  finally  culminated  in  the  division  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  at  Charleston.  So  far  from  listening  to  and  heeding  the  pious 
exhortations  of  that  type  of  modern  philanthrophy,  the  Duchess  of  Devon 
shire,  the  southern  politician  insisted  that  slavery  was  a  divine  institution,  the 
very  corner  stone  of  civilization. 

"To  give  full  emphasis  to  this  idea,  the  rebellion  was  inaugurated,  and  the 
power  of  the  general  government  insulted  and  defied.  Of  course,  in  such  a 
struggle,  when  the  slave-holder  was  arrayed  in  arms  against  the  government, 
the  philanthropists  of  this  country  looked  to  their  brothers  in  Great  Britain  for 
comfort  and  assistance.  Alas,  for  the  vanity  of  all  earthly  hopes!  They  had 
not  long  to  wait  to  discover  the  terrible  error  into  which  they  had  fallen. 

"  Instead  of  the  old  style  of  lamentation  over  the  sorrows  of  the  oppressed 
African,  English  charity  assumed  a  different  shape,  and  broke  out  in  a  new 
spot.  A  new  light  has  dawned  upon  the  English  mind.  The  injured  and 
chivalric  southerner  is  now  the  especial  object  of  English  pity,  and  the 
unholy  attempt  to  coerce  him  into  submission  to  the  government,  is  the 
staple  of  British  denunciation.  English  philanthropy  has  stuffed  its  ears  with 
cotton,  and  can  hear  no  longer  the  cries  of  the  suffering  Congo.  It  sees 
not  the  earnest  struggle,  the  self-sacrificing  devotion  of  a  great  people  to 
preserve  their  national  integrity,  but  it  professes  to  see,  in  its  dove-like 
simplicity,  the  horrors  of  a  civil  war,  which  it  proposes  kindly  to  prevent 
by  an  armed  intervention  in  behalf  of  the  slave-holder  and  rebel.  It 
shudders  over  the  contemplation  of  servile  insurrections  which  for  long 


HUMILIATION    AND    A    NEW    LIFE.  8/ 

years  its  has  striven  to  produce.  It  bewails  the  prostrate  condition  of 
its  new  allies,  whom  it  once  denounced  as  barbarians.  It  sends  up  long 
exhortations  against  the  horrors  of  war,  while  the  bleaching  bones  of 
thousands  of  helpless  Hindoos,  slaughtered  by  its  armies,  whiten  the  soil 
of  a  country  which  it  has  robbed  and  devastated." 

This  chapter,  and  these  selections  as  illustrations  of  his  writings 
to  the  press  at  this  period,  can  be  well  closed  by  an  article,  which 
appeared  in  a  Chicago  Sunday  paper  in  November  of  1861;  it  is 
a  comically  grave  treatise  on  what  half  of  the  world — the  saddest 
half,  too ! — know  full  well,  and  which  he  himself  styled  "A 
Chapter  on  Boarding-houses  :  " 

"Next  to  the  war,  the  subject  of  boarding-houses  is  to  the  Chicago  public 
of  perhaps  greater  importance  than  any  other.  While  the  rent  of  an  ordinary 
tenement  is  five  hundred  dollars  per  year,  men  of  limited  incomes  must  of 
necessity  adopt  some  other  mode  of  living  than  that  of  housekeeping. 
Boarding,  then,  is  not  altogether  a  matter  of  choice,  but  in  the  great 
majority  of  instances  one  of  necessity.  The  subject  is  therefore  one  of  great 
importance,  and  we  propose  to  treat  it  in  that  serious  manner  befitting  its 
gravity  and  importance. 

"  It  will  first  be  proper  to  arrive  at  an  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  the 
word  'boarding-house.'  There  is  in  Webster's  dictionary  no  such  word  to  be 
found.  We  find  the  word  'boarding-school,'  but  not  'boarding-house.'  The 
verb  '  board  '  is,  however,  defined  thus  : — '  To  furnish  with  food,  or  food  and 
lodging  for  a  compensation.'  The  noun  'house,'  in  its  general  sense,  is  defined 
thus  : — '  A  building  or  shed  intended  or  used  as  a  habitation  or  shelter  for 
animals  of  any  kind,  but  appropriately  a  building  or  edifice  for  the  habita 
tion  of  man,  a  dwelling-place,  mansion  or  abode  for  any  of  the  man  species. 
It  may  be  of  any  size,  and  composed  of  any  materials  whatever — wood, 
stone,  brick,  etc.'  We  define  'boarding-house,'  therefore,  thus: — 'A 
dwelling-place,  mansion,  or  abode  for  any  of  the  human  species,  where  food, 
or  food  and  lodging,  are  furnished  for  a  compensation.' 

"  For  the  purpose  of  a  more  accurate  understanding  of  tbe  subject,  we 
would  divide  boarding-houses  into  two  classes,  viz  :  The  private  boarding- 
house,  and  the  public  boarding-house.  The  difference  between  the  two 
may  be  said  to  consist  in  the  fact  that  the  former  is  usually  built  as  a 
private  residence,  and  continues  to  be  occupied  as  such  by  the  person  fur 
nishing  the  food,  or  the  food  and  lodging;  while  the  latter  partakes  more 
of  the  character  of  a  hotel, — boards  more  people  than  the  private  boarding- 
house,  and  differs  from  a  hotel  more  particularly  in  the  fact  that  its  guests 
are  permanent  occupants,  or  comparatively  so. 

"  Private  boarding-houses  are  at  least  of  three  distinct  classes :  First,  the 
'genteel'  private  boarding-house.  Second,  the  private  boarding-house 
'just  five  minutes  walk  from  the  post  office.'  Third,  the  private  boarding- 
house  where  a  gentleman  and  his  wife  or  two  single  gentlemen  will  be 
taken,  and  positively  no  others,  references  given  and  required." 


88  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A    STORKS. 

"The  gentility  of  the  'genteel'  private  boarding-house  is  not  to  be  found 
usually  in  the  house,  or  its  location,  nor  in  the  food  or  lodging  furnished, 
nor  in  any  of  its  appointments  or  surroundings,  but  in  the  persons  who 
keep  it,  and  in  the  compensation  required  by  them.  The  industrious 
searcher  after  a  boarding-house  may  know  when  he  has  found  a  genteel 
private  boarding-house  for  himself  and  family  by  observing  the  presence  or 
absence  of  the  following  symptoms  : 

"  He  will  usually  find,  as  he  stands  upon  the  threshold  of  the  house  he 
is  about  to  enter,  an  indented  gutta-percha  foot-mat,  looking,  so  far  as  the 
indentations  are  concerned,  very  much  like  an  overdone  and  over-sized 
waffle  ;  the  bell-knob  will  be  of  brass ;  there  will  usually  be  a  doorplate. 
When  he  rings  the  bell,  he  will  find  that  the  bell  machinery  is  somewhat 
disarranged,  and  after  waiting  some  length  of  time,  a  servant  will  cautiously 
open  the  door,  and  as  cautiously  permit  him  to  enter.  He  will  inquire 
whether  boarders  are  taken  there.  The  answer  will  be  evasive,  and  unsat 
isfactory,  but  he  will  be  requested  to  take  a  seat  in  the  parlor  until 
Madame  is  consulted.  As  the  servant  disappears  in  the  distance,  through 
the  door  which  she  opens  to  enter  her  peculiar  sphere  will  come  the 
poignant  odors  of  boiled  pork  and  cabbage.  He  enters  the  parlor;  finds  a 
piano,  and,  if  it  be  in  the  winter  season,  a  fire  burning  with  an  apparent 
doubt  as  to  whether  it  has  a  right  to  burn.  The  piano  will  be  opened,  and 
on  the  rack  he  will  observe  '  Then  you'll  remember  me,'  '  False  one,  I 
love  thee  still,'  and  the  latest  two-shilling  war  ballad.  Over  the  piano  he 
will  observe  the  engraving,  in  a  gilt  frame,  of  •  Shakespeare  and  his  Con 
temporaries.'  Over  the  mantel  will  be  hung,  also  in  a  gilt  frame,  'The 
Village  Blacksmith.'  On  the  centre  table  he  will  observe  a  photographic 
album,  and  suspended  from  the  chandelier  a  basket  of  beads,  curiously 
wrought.  He  will  seat  himself  in  a  rocking  chair,  covered  all  over  with  a 
tidy,  and  while  doing  so  will  have  occasion  to  notice  in  the  back  parlor  a 
pale,  genteel  looking  young  lady,  engaged  in  working  a  green  dog,  with 
red  ears,  on  a  pink  ground.  All  those  things  he  will  have  plenty  of  time 
to  discover  before  Madame  arrives.  He  will  wait  long  and  anxiously,  and 
finally  will  hear  the  rustling  of  silks  through  the  hall,  and  Madame,  a  lady 
of  mature  years  in  an  excellent  state  of  preservation,  and  elegantly  clad, 
will  enter.  He  will  begin  to  think  he  has  mistaken  the  place.  He  will 
tremblingly  and  doubtingly  make  known  his  business.  A  long  pause  will 
ensue,  during  which  Madame  will  examine  him  critically.  She  will  at 
length  ask,  '  Who  informed  him  that  she  kept  a  boarding-house  ? '  That 
question  answered,  she  will  respond  that  she  does  not  keep  a  boarding- 
house,  never  did,  and  will  not  until  she  is  obliged  to.  The  gentleman 
apologizes  for  his  mistake  and  proceeds  to  take  his  departure,  when  Mad 
ame  adds  that  although  she  does  not  keep  a  boarding-house,  still  there 
are  stopping  with  her,  for  company's  sake,  two  or  three  very  pleasant 
families  and  acquaintances  of  hers ;  that  she  has  one  delightful  room 
unoccupied,  which,  under  the  circumstances,  in  view  of  the  difficulty  of 
getting  good  boarding-places,  she  might  be  induced  to  let  to  a  real 
gentleman  with  a  small  family,  and,  for  the  purpose  of  accommodating, 


HUMILIATION    AND   A    NEW    LIFE.  89 

she  would  let  it  to  him.  The  gentleman,  delighted  beyond  measure  at 
his  good  fortune,  examines  the  room ;  and  although  it  is  rather  small, 
and  rather  dark,  and  rather  inconvenient  of  access,  and  rather  too 
scantily  furnished;  in  vievr  of  the  very  fine  society  and  many  home 
comforts  which  his  family  can  have, — the  parlors  always  being  open — 
he  concludes  to  take  it  at  a  price  somewhat  higher  than  he  would  pay 
at  the  Sherman  or  the  Tremont. 

"  He  takes  his  departure  with  many  bows  and  smiles,  and  hastens  to  the 
wife  of  his  bosom,  to  advise  her  of  his  extreme  good  fortune.  She  main 
tains  a  provoking  reticence,  simply  inquiring  the  age  of  the  hostess,  whether 
she  has  any  daughters,  whether  there  are  closets,  or  a  wardrobe,  and  a 
place  for  storing  trunks ;  and  prepares  to  leave.  Upon  their  arrival,  they 
find  no  closets,  no  wardrobe,  no  place  for  storing  trunks ;  the  stove 
smokes ;  the  door  won't  shut ;  the  windows  won't  open ;  but  finally  they 
are  settled.  He  hurries  to  dinner,  and  Madame,  after  introducing  them 
to  a  large  number  of  other  boarders,  informs  him  that  they  all  are  very 
fond  of  boiled  dinners,  and  they  have  one  that  day.  She  again  informs 
him  that  her  boarders  are  all  dyspeptic  and  eat  no  pastry,  but  that,  if 
he  desires  it,  she  has  pastry,  which  she  will  get  for  him  especially.  At 
the  end  of  the  week  he  finds  many  extras  on  his  board  bill,  for  fixing 
stove  and  windows,  and  for  closet  and  store-room.  His  further  experi 
ence  shows  him  that  the  meat  is  mostly  cold  shoulder,  and  the  gentility, 
an  anxious  spirit  of  investigation  on  the  part  of  the  hostess  and  the 
other  boarders  into  his  business,  its  present  profits,  and  its  future  pro 
spects.  He  comes  home  to  find  his  wife  wretched  and  in  tears.  The 
lady  of  the  house  has  pronounced  her  diamonds  paste,  her  gem  of  a 
watch  pinchbeck,  her  gold  oroide,  and  her  new  silk  dresses  second-hand. 
The  servant  girls  plunder  his  wife's  wardrobe:  Madame  and  her  daugh 
ters  borrow  her  furs ;  and  finally  Madame  would  like  to  know  whether 
he  couldn't  as  well  as  not  advance  two  or  three  month's  board.  It  is 
the  last  straw  that  breaks  the  camel's  back.  He  proposes  to  leave,  and 
goes  again  up  and  down  streets  and  avenues,  vowing  that  he  will  never 
again  enter  a  'genteel'  private  boarding-house. 

"The  boarding-house  'five  minutes  walk  from  the  post  office,'  he  finds 
to  be  either  in  the  vicinity  of  the  Bull's  Head,  Lake  View,  or  Hyde  Park. 
The  boarding-house  'where  positively  no  other  boarders  are  taken,'  is 
thronged  and  overrun  with  clerks,  musicians,  soldiers,  and  dancing-masters. 
He  starts  for  the  public  boarding-house,  the  peculiar  features  of  which  I 
reserve  for  another  time." 


CHAPTER  VI. 


PROFESSIONAL  DILIGENCE. 

THE   HAZARD   CASE — AN  OUTLINE  OF   A  MODEL    SPEECH  TO  A   JURY — HIS    EARLY 
BRIEFS,    A   MONUMENT  OF   PROFESSIONAL  INDUSTRY— SOME  OF    HIS   WORK. 

QUESTIONS  relating  to  the  liability  of  railroad  corporations 
for  injuries  sustained  by  individuals,  whether  passengers  or 
not,  by  reason  of  the  negligence  of  those  in  their  employ,  are  fre 
quently  difficult  of  satisfactory  solution,  often  very  embarrassing  to 
courts,  and  always  of  grave  public  importance.  The  railroad 
interests  of  this  country  have  increased  with  the  added  days  of 
the  last  half  century.  Millions  of  money  are  yearly  invested 
in  the  construction  and  equipment  of  railroads,  and  yearly,  also, 
are  the  lives  of  millions  of  people  dependent  upon  the  care  and 
skill  with  which  railroads  are  managed.  Thus  while  the  benefits 
which  enterprises  of  such  magnitude  confer  upon  the  country, 
together  with  the  vast  sums  of  money  invested  in  them,  should, 
on  the  one  hand,  admonish  courts  to  exercise  proportionate  cau 
tion  lest  such  capital  and  its  legitimate  beneficial  achievements  be 
checked,  through  the  establishment  of  any  hastily  considered  rule 
governing  their  liability,  at  the  same  time,  the  public  who  resort 
to  that  method  of  traveling  should  be  protected  with  a  care 
equally  zealous,  and  as  the  slightest  negligence  by  the  employes 
of  a  railroad  may  work  the  most  disastrous  consequences,  it  should 
be  unsparingly  punished,  since  in  no  other  way  can  the  public 
interests  be  conserved  or  the  safety  of  individuals  be  insured. 

Regarded    from    any    point    of  view,    the    case    of    Erastus    W. 
Hazard,    against    the    Chicago,    Burlington    &    Quincy    Railroad 
Company   was   an    important    one.       Mr.    Hazard   was    a    lawyer 
90 


PROFESSIONAL    DILIGENCE.  9! 

well  and  favorably  known  throughout  the  State  of  Illinois.  The 
injury  sustained  by  him  was  very  serious  in  character  and 
deprived  him  permanently  of  the  use  of  a  leg.  The  defendant,  the 
Chicago,  Burlington^  &  Quincy  Railroad  Company,  was  one  of  the 
most  important  railroad  lines  in  the  country,  running  through  a 
territory  of  exceeding  agricultural  richness,  connecting  the  city 
of  Chicago  with  the  Mississippi  River  at  Burlington,  in  the  State 
of  Iowa,  and  at  the  city  of  Quincy  in  the  State  of  Illinois.  The 
case  was  tried  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  with 
great  ability  on  both  sides.  J.  Manning  and  E.  Van  Buren, 
prominent  at  the  Northwestern  bar  of  those  days,  appeared  for 
the  plaintiff,  and  the  distinguished  railroad  legal  firm  of  Walker, 
Van  Arman  &  Dexter  for  the  railroad  company.  The  facts, 
briefly,  were  as  follows : 

Mr.  Hazard  took  passage  upon  a  freight  train,  running  from 
Kewanee  to  Galesburg,  only  one  passenger  train  being  put  upon 
the  road  daily.  Attached  to  this  freight  train  was  a  car  used 
for  the  conveyance  of  passengers,  with  cushioned  seats,  having  a 
door  at  each  end  of  the  car.  Mr.  Hazard  "paid  the  usual  fare, 
and  when  within  a  short  distance  of  Galesburg  asked  the  conductor 
if  there  would  be  supper  in  readiness  at  the  depot.  He  was  told 
that  there  would  not  be  at  that  hour  of  the  night ;  he  then  asked 
the  conductor  where  they  were  to  stop.  The  conductor  said  he 
could  not  tell,  but  as  the  train  run  very  slowly  before  reaching  the 
regular  station,  business  men  made  it  a  custom  of  getting  off  the 
train  before  it  reached  that  point,  and  when  the  train  slowed  up 
that  he  might,  if  he  wished,  get  off  safely.  Mr.  Hazard  then 
went  to  the  front  end  of  the  car  and  the  conductor,  told  him  he 
had  better  get  out  of  the  rear  end ;  he  did  so,  but  while  still  at 
the  door,  with  one  hand  holding  the  side  of  the  door,  the  train 
was  suddenly  jerked,  and  Mr.  Hazard  was  thrown  from  the  plat 
form,  striking  in  the  rear  of  the  car,  and  his  ankle  was  dislocated 
and  fractured,  resulting  in  the  loss  of  the  lower  part  of  his  limb. 
There  was  no  railing,  guard,  chain,  or  other  protection,  on  the 
rear  platform. 

The  case  was  tried  before  a  jury  at  a  session  of  the  Circuit 
Court,  Knox  County,  and  a  verdict  rendered  for  the  plaintiff  in 
the  sum  of  eleven  thousand  dollars.  The  railroad  company 
appealed  from  the  decision  to  the  Supreme  Court,  which  set  aside 


92  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  judgment  on  the  ground,  chiefly,  of  excessive  damages.  It 
was  at  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  in  1861,  that  Mr.  Storrs 
was  called  in,  having  been  retained  for  the  purpose  of  reviewing 
the  opinion  given  by  Justice  Breese  from  the.  Supreme  Bench  of 
Illinois. 

The  review  prepared  by  Mr.  Storrs  was  one  of  the  most  elab 
orate,  perhaps,  ever  presented  on  the  subject  before  such  a  court ; 
it  filled  a  duodecimo  volume  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  closely 
printed  pages.  In  it,  were  traced  the  rulings  of  both  English 
and  American  judiciaries,  from  the  earliest  date,  comprehensively 
yet  succinctly,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  a  polished  style  such  as 
to  make  interesting  the  dry  topics  of  law  to  the  most  casual 
reader.  He  discussed  the  care  required  of  a  railroad  company, 
both  in  the  construction  of  its  cars  and  the  management  of  its 
trains ;  the  degree  of  care  the  law  demanded  of  passengers,  and 
the  effect  of  negligence  upon  both  parties ;  the  rules  by  which 
the  damages  sustained  are  to  be  measured ;  the  conclusion  of  the 
finding  of  a  jury ;  how  far  a  court  can  look  into  the  facts  them 
selves,  and  the  various  other  questions  arising  under  such  circum 
stances.  It  is  to  be  regretted,  for  the  edification  of  both  the 
lawyers  and  the  well-informed  element  of  the  people,  that  the 
masterly  argument  and  review  can  not  be  reprinted  entire. 
The  result,  however,  was,  that  a  new  trial  was  granted  and  heard 
in  October,  1865,  in  the  United  States  District  Court  for  the 
Northern  District  of  Illinois,  when  the  jury  again  gave  a  large 
verdict  against  the  railroad  in  the  sum  of  fifteen  thousand  dollars. 
In  the  second  trial  Mr.  Storrs  made  the  closing  argument  to  the 
jury.  His  speech  consumed  three  hours  of  time.  The  notes, 
written  in  a  bold  hand,  during  the  progress  of  the  speech  of  Mr. 
Van  Arman  who  preceded  him,  and  from  which  he  made  his 
argument,  exist  entire.  They  are  presented  here  just  as  their 
maker  headed  and  arranged  them,  and  afford  a  model  for  the 
outlining  of  any  like  address ;  rough  sketch,  as  they  are,  these 
notes  mark  luminously  the  logical  workings  of  the  mind  of  one 
of  the  greatest  of  trial  lawyers,  and  there  creeps  out  from  between 
the  condensed  lines  that  singular  humor  and  power  of  ridicule 
which  Mr.  Storrs  possessed.  The  notes  were  as  follows : 


PROFESSIONAL   DILIGENCE.  93 

/ 

UNITED    STATES    CIRCUIT    COURT. 
NORTHERN  DISTRICT  OF  ILLINOIS. 


ERASTUS  W.  HAZARD, 

vs. 
THE  CHICAGO,  BURLINGTON  AND  QUINCY  RAILROAD  COMPANY. 


Memorandum  for  Argument  to  the  Jury. 


October  25,  1865. 

I. 

The  patient  attention  given  by  the  Jury. 

II. 
I  have  kept  my  promise  made  in  my  opening. 

I  have  proved  every  fact  that  I  promised  to  establish. 

The  defendant  has  taken  precisely  the  course  I  told  you  he  would 
adopt. 

III. 
Has  Mr.    Van   Arman   established   the   facts   stated   in   his   opening? 

He  told   you   that   a   railroad   corporation  is   a   beneficial  power. 
Has   he    shown   it? 

That  the  careless  men  are  almost  the   only   ones   who  get  hurt. 
Has   he    proved   it? 

That  the   prejudice   against   railroads   is   the   result   of  ignorance. 
Has   that   been   proved? 

Are   railroads  beneficent    powers  and  is  the   prejudice   against   them   the 
result   of  ignorance  ? 

Has   this   road  been   beneficent  to   Hazard? 


94  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

Is  it  to   take   a   position   as   one   of  our  charitable   institutions  ? 
Is   this   prejudice   the   result   of  ignorance? 

The   outcry   made   by   railroads   against  the   prejudice   of  jurors. 
The   Camden   &   Amboy. 

"    N.  Y.    Central. 

"    Penna. 

"    Baltimore    £   Ohio. 

"    Western   roads   and   freights. 
The   carelessness   of  life   and   limb. 
Norfolk — Bergen  Tunnel.     3000   killed  the   past  year. 

The   feeling   of  hostility   necessary. 

Both   counsel   for  defendant   depreciate  this  feeling. 

Walker  says  he   is  no   orator. 

Proves  it  by   a  four  hours   speech. 
And   that  he   is   no   poet. 

But  deals  in   nothing  but  finery. 

Van   Arman    in   his   simplicity    had    supposed  that  no    blame  would    be 
attached  to  defendant. 

Both  profess  great  candor  and  prove  it  by  the  manner  in  which  they 
discuss  the   facts. 

IV. 

The  general  features  of  the  defense. 
The   swarms   of  witnesses. 
The   malignity   of  the   defense. 
The   savage   attacks   on  the   plaintiff. 
The   spies   and   informers. 
The   manufactured   experiment. 
The  evident  servility   of  its  employes. 
The  impudent  questions   put  to   our   Hannibal  witnesses. 
The   exhibition   of  moneyed   power. 

The   consequent  importance   of  the   case  as  vindicating  the  right  of  trial 
by  jury. 

V. 

The   law   of  the   case. 

The   carrier  and   the   passenger. 


PROFESSIONAL   DILIGENCE.  95 

Van  Annan  s  precipice — No  liability  if  a  man  falls  over — But  the 
owner  of  the  precipice  must  not  jerk  it  while  paying  spectators  are  stand 
ing  on  the  brink. 

VI. 

The   case   as  made   by   us. 

State  it. 
Wherein  does  it  differ  from  theirs  and  what  are  the  disputed  facts? 

1.  Was    it    the    practice    of    the    defendant    to    carry  passengers    on    this 
train  ? 

2.  Was  the  jerking  of  the  train  necessary  and  unavoidable  ? 

3.  Is  a  guard  chain  or  bar  useful  or  necessary  for  the   protection  of  the 

passenger  ? 

4.  Did   the   plaintiff  proceed   to   alight   from   the   train   at   the   instance, 
advice,  or  suggestion  of  the  Conductor. 

The  practice  of  the  defendant  to  carry  passengers  on  that  train  is  shown. 

1.  By  Van  Arman's  admissions  in  his  opening. 

2.  The  Case  in  the  Supreme  Court   so   finds  it. 

3.  The   evidence   of  Garretson. 

"             "  "  Morse. 

"             "  "  Fitch. 

"             "  "  Cutton. 

"            "  "  Beardsley. 

"            "  "  Marshall   Hazard. 

"             "  "  Plaintiff. 

Contra. 

Col.    Hammond  and   Cheney. 

Read  time   Card. 
The  Jerking. 
State   the   exact  question. 

1.  Steam  can  be   applied  gradually,  little   by  little. 

2.  Brakes    applied    to    prevent    slack.     Defendants    witnesses    show  this. 

3.  Not   necessary   to  let  on  steam  at  all  in  this  case.     Twenty-six   out 
of  thirty-two   depositions  prove   it. 

4.  This    exact    case  has   not  been  put    to    a    single   one   of    defendants 
witnesses  in   deposition. 

5.  Clark,   the   Engineer,   was  not  sworn  about  it. 

6.  The   experiment. 


96  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

7.  Garfield,    Patch,    Birch,    Bush,   Jarret,    and   Col.    Hammond. 

8.  The    two    Experimental    trips.     Col.     Hammond    and    the    Prince    of 
Wales ;    the    last    Experiment,   including   a  description   of    Col.    Hammond. 
The   Queen's   letter. 

The   guard   chain   or  bar. 
State   the   real   question. 

In   use   on   over  forty   roads,    on  caboose   and   way   cars. 
A  question   to   be   determined   by   our   own   knowledge. 

The   defendants  testimony   on  this  point  exhibits  the   coercive  power  ot 
Railroads. 

Patch  with  his  feet  in   the   chain. 

Hammond   with   a  chain   as  high   as  his   neck. 


Entitled  to  recover  on   Bush's   statement. 


Was   Hazard   advised   &c.,   to  get  off  at  the   next   crossing? 
This   is  a  question   of   veracity   between   Bush   and   Hazard. 
Is   Bush   entitled   to   credit  ? 

1.  He   swears  that  it  was  not  the   practice  to  carry  passengers  on  that 
train. 

This  is   contradicted   by   six   witnesses. 

2.  That   Hazard   attempted  to  get   on   the   train   before  it  stopped. 

Contradicted   by  Garretson   circumstantially. 

3.  That  he   asked    Hazard   if  he  had   a  ticket. 

Contradicted. 

4.  That   there  were    no   other   passengers   on   the  train. 

Contradicted. 

5.  That  the   ticket  was   endorsed. 

Contradicted   by    Hazard   and  his  former  testimony. 

6.  His   statement   to   the  Company. 

His   date,    etc. 

7.  His  first   conversation   with    Hazard. 
Read   Sumbard" s   deposition. 
Record    Page    133,    137. 

Comment   on   Van   Arman. 
Read  TAYLOR'S  deposition. 


PROFESSIONAL   DILLIGENCE.  97 

How   this   conversation    occurred   and    why    Hazard   sent  for   him    again. 

8.  The   second  conversation. 
Marshall    Hazard's  testimony. 

9.  The   probabilities  of  the   case. 

Why  would  Hazard  suggest  getting  off  BEFORE  getting  to  the  passenger 
depot  when   he   knew  the   train   was   not  going  there. 

Bush   agrees   that   he   wanted  to  go   there   and  get   a   supper. 

But  the   fact  is,    Bush   himself  desired  to  leave   the  car  when   he   told 
Hazard  to,    and  started  to   do  so. 

10.  Bush's    account   of  Hazard's   fall — sum   all   up. 
The  attempt   to   impeach    Hazard. 

The   instruments  are 

PATCH,  GOODRICH  AND  BUNCE. 

The  vilest  product  of  modern   civilization  is  the  man  gossip  and  informer. 
The  business  of  a   scavenger  is   respectable   in   comparison. 

Railroad   corporations  have   pulled    down    from    the   stars  great    men, 
but  they   went  down   into  the   mud   and  grubbed   up  Patch   and  Goodrich. 

PATCH. 

1.  Who  is  he? 

2.  His  manner  on  the  stand.     The  sycophant 

3.  His  double  swear. 

4.  He  testifies  as  to  Hazard's  opening. 

5.  He    comes   back   and  testifies    for    the   first  time  to  a  conversation   at 
Hazard's  house. 

6.  Contradicted  as  to  the  opening  by  Beardsley  and  Ford. 

7.  As  to  the  conversation  by  all  the  circumstances. 

He  must  have  started  very  early  for  Hazard's  house. 
The  defence  are  ashamed  of  him  and  abandon  him. 
Good  Bye,  Patch. 

GOODRICH. 

i.  Who  is  he? 
7 


98  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

2.  Ashamed   of  his   position — nervous   and   twitching. 

3.  His  testimony  ;   time   and  plan.     His  haste   to  tell  Ward. 

4.  How  contradicted  ? 

5.  Walker  and  Van   Arman  water  haul. 

Was  it    candid? 
Good  bye,  Mr.    Goodrich. 

When  we    want  a  conversation   carried   on    thirty   feet    off,    over    a    six 
foot  wall,    and  through   a  twenty-five   foot  house,    we'll  send  for  you. 

BUNCE. 

Who  and   what  was  he? 

Read   his   testimony,  Record,  p.   117. 
It  contradicts  every  thing  else,  and 
Is  contradicted  by  Hazard. 


Hazard's  self-impeachment. 

The   solemn  change — The   large   promise   and   the  small   performance. 

More  thunder  than   rain. 
Read  Hazard's   testimony. 
About  being  nine  feet  from  the   door. 

Charges  made  against    Hazard. 
A  miserable   wretch. 

Hazard's  statements  false  as  false  can  be. 
His  professional  standing  turned  into  ridicule. 

Not  content  with  crippling  him  for  life,  they  seek  to  blast  his  good  name 
and  blacken  his  character. 

Is  not  this  a  power  to  be  dreaded  and  feared. 
They  maim  him,  spy  upon  him,  and  ask  you  to  help  them. 
You  are  the  only  shield  he  has. 
The  measure  of  damages. 

Show  the  incurable  and  permanent  character  of  the  injury. 
Its  effect  upon  general  health. 


PROFESSIONAL    DILIGENCE.  99 

It  has  incapacitated  him  for  business  and  destroyed  his  future. 

The  extent  of  his  business  before  the  injury. 
The  growing  power  of  monopolies  must  be  checked. 
Van  Arman's  ridicule  of  the  use  of  legs  to  a  lawyer. 

Van  Arman's  legs  have  been  of  great  service  to  him. 

They  have  carried  him  rapidly  out  of  many  a  tight  place,  have  been 
his  best  friends,  it  is  unkind  in  him  to  speak  so  poorly  of  them. 

Van  Annan  says  he  is  low  Dutch.     His  talk,  if  Dutch  at  all,  is  very  low 
Dutch. 

His  friend  Doty  the  thief  was  a  sympathetic  man. — Hence  thieves  are 
sympathetic  men,  and  sympathetic  men  are  thieves. 

In  becoming  jurors   you   do   not   cease   to   be   men. 

It  is  proper  that  you  should  sympathize  with  Hazard's  misfortunes 
and  proper  that  you  should  punish  the  author  of  his  misfortunes. 

Corporations  have   no   sympathies  because   they   have   no   souls. 

Hence  you  can't  hurt  the  defendant's  feelings  by  giving  a  heavy 
verdict  against  it,  because  it  has  no  feelings. 

Van  Arman's  sympathies  for  the  defendant  would  not  be  greatly 
excited,  for  he  substantially  admits  that  he  has  no  sympathies  for  anything. 

The   nearest  he   ever  came  to  being  sympathetic   was,  in  having  a  thief 
friend  who   had   some   sympathy  for  the   sorrows  of  others. 

Better  be  Doty  the  thief,  in  a  prison  but  with  some  human  sympathies 
about  him — than  Van  Arman  at  large,  confessedly  the  soulless  attorney 
of  a  soulless  corporation. 

Doty  would   not   swop   places. 
Conclusion. 

During  the  four  years  in  which  the  Hazard  case  dragged  along 
it  was  by  no  means  the  sole  thing  that  occupied  Mr.  Storrs' 
attention;  they  were  years  overflowing  with  work,  and  no  man 
ever  worked  more  intensely  over  the  topics  in  hand  than  this 
same  man  whose  brilliant  wit  and  capability  were,  as  is  often  the 
case,  ascribed  to  genius.  He,  himself,  always  talked  of  the 
genius  of  labor.  Frequently  he  has  been  known  to  say,  "  wrork 
is  the  only  progenitor  of  genius." 


100  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Once  in  a  conversation,  he  was  asked  how  he  first  began 
public  speaking.  The  reply  was,  "I  filled  myself  up  and  then 
there  was  a  flow."  Frail  as  he  was  physically,  in  the  early  years 
of  his  life  he  toiled  often  through  all  the  night.  It  was  his 
habit  to  review  thoroughly  during  the  nights  of  his  long  trials, 
every  line  of  evidence  and  law  that  had  been  advanced  during 
the  day.  "I  make  it  a  rule  of  my  lawyer's  life,"  he  said,  "to 
know  all — both  law  and  fact — that  can  possibly  be  advanced  for 
and  against." 

The  late  Hon.  Thomas  Hoyne,  himself  one  of  the  most  suc 
cessful  lawyers  of  the  West,  related  that  he  had  retained  Mr. 
Storrs  to  assist  him  in  an  important  case  during  the  year  1864. 
The  hearing  had  continued  several  days.  It  had  reached  the 
stage  when  Mr.  Storrs  was  to  present  the  case  before  the  jury 
the  following  morning.  Just  before  the  court  sat  in  the  morning, 
Mr.  Storrs  walked  into  Mr.  Hoyne's  office,  his  face  wan  and  his 
eyes  bleared.  "You  look  as  though  ill  to  death,"  was  Mr. 
Hoyne's  greeting. 

"  On  the  contrary,"  was  the  reply,  "I  have  been  arranging  the 
ceremonies  for  the  funeral  of  the  other  side.  It  took  me  until 
four  o'clock  this  morning  to  go  through  the  evidence,  and  then, 
on  the  strength  of  my  wife's  good  coffee,  I  prepared  my  argu 
ment." 

Mr.  Hoyne  concluded:     "It  was  an  argument,  too." 

If  there  existed  no  other  evidence  of  his  intense  working 
habits,  his  early  briefs  would  be  a  monument  in  themselves.  In 
the  Hazard  case,  for  example,  he  referred  in  his  law  argument 
to  more  than  two  hundred  reports,  and  in  his  private  memoranda 
every  case  cited  appears  carefully  digested,  with  notes  indicating 
the  degree  of  weight  each  authority  carried  upon  the  question  at 
issue.  Moreover,  it  seemed  as  though  he  never  varied  the 
amount  of  labor  placed  upon  a  matter  in  which  he  had  been 
retained  in  proportion  to  the  sum  involved.  "I  take  it,"  he 
once  remarked,  "that  each  question  assigned  an  attorney  embodies 
some  vital  principle,  and  it  may  be  that  which  is  little  in  money 
is  big  with  law."  Doubtless,  he  so  governed  himself  as  a  lawyer. 
To  the  world,  seeing  only  the  result,  he  often  appeared  "a 
genius,"  so  smoothly,  almost  flippantly  at  times,  did  he  deal 
with  law  and  facts,  and  he  was  seldom  credited  with  what  he 


PROFESSIONAL    DILIGENCE.  IOI 

himself  deemed  the  more  creditable,  namely,  severe  work ;  but 
the  voluminous  remains  of  his  legal  work  of  even  those  earliest 
years  in  Buffalo  and  in  Chicago,  testify  to  his  enormous  capacity, 
though  weak  in  body,  to  accomplish  Herculean  tasks.  In  the 
case  of  the  City  of  Chicago  vs.  one  Allen  Roberts,  heard,  in 
1859,  in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  the  Northern  Dis 
trict  of  Illinois,  he  cited  and  commented,  in  one  brief,  from  and 
upon  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  authorities  upon  the  right 
and  duties  of  individuals  in  the  use  and  enjoyment  of  public  high 
ways.  On  the  1 6th  of  September,  1859,  Erastus  Warner  was  arrested 
for  gaming  on  the  fair  grounds  of  the  United  States  Agricultural 
Society,  and  in  a  trial  before  the  Hon.  George  Manierre,  it  took 
over  three  hundred  carefully  analyzed  authorities  for  Mr.  Storrs 
to  present  to  his  Honor  a  review  broad  enough,  in  his  judgment, 
to  cover  the  one  point  of  law  really  involved  in  the  case.  In 
representing  Elliot  Anthony,  the  well-known  judge  and  writer  on 
legal  topics,  at  Chicago,  in  February,  1860,  in  an  action  to 
recover  damages  against  one  R.  G.  Clendennin,  who  was  sheriff 
of  Whiteside  County,  and  had  failed  properly  to  act  as  such 
officer  under  an  execution  placed  in  his  hands  by  Judge  Anthony, 
Mr.  Storrs  presented  to  the  notice  of  the  adjudicating  court  over 
two  hundred  and  eighty  authorities.  At  the  close  of  the  defense 
in  the  Cook  County  court,  of  Illinois,  1860,  of  a  thief  who  claimed 
that  the  stolen  goods,  found  in  his  possession,  were  placed  upon 
his  person  when  he  had  been  stupefied  by  drink,  the  wondering 
court  exclaimed:  "Mr.  Storrs,  by  your  labor  one  would  think 
you  were  defending  all  the  alleged  thieves  on  earth  whom  you 
thought  innocent."  "  So  I  am,  your  Honor,"  came  the  quick 
response,  "  in  removing  the  stain  of  one."  He  lugged  into  court, 
July  29,  1862,  nearly  four  hundred  English  and  American  cita 
tions,  in  a  question  involving  the  validity  to  land-title  of  one 
Flora  N.  Mills,  the  deed  of  the  property  not  having  been 
recorded  before  a  subsequent  purchaser  stepped  into  possession. 
In  1 86 1,  at  Milwaukee,  in  a  masterly  argument  made  by  Mr. 
Storrs,  on  the  application,  construction,  and  constitutionality  of 
the  homestead  exemption  laws,  of  Wisconsin  passed  in  1858,  as 
to  certain  rights  acquired  by  creditors  under  them,  he  argued 
broadly  from  the  principles  of  law  that  all  state  legislation 
impairing  the  obligation  of  contracts  is  unconstitutional  and  void; 


IO2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

that  the  obligation  of  a  contract  consists  in  its  binding  force 
upon  the  parties  and  the  rights  and  duties  which  arise  under  it; 
that  the  laws  in  existence  at  the  time  of  a  contract  are  attached 
to  and  form  a  part  of  it  and  contracts  are  presumed  to  be  made 
with  reference  to  those  laws;  that  all  rights  which  are  secured 
under  a  contract  are  vested  in  their  character,  and  that  no  subse 
quent  legislation  can  deprive  the  party  of  rights  so  secured ;  that 
the  lien  of  a  judgment  is  a  vested  right,  and,  when  once  obtained,  f 
cannot  be  impaired ;  and  that  any  legislation  which  deprives  a 
party  of  the  remedies  existing  for  the  enforcement  of  a  right, 
renders  the  right  itself  useless,  and  is  unconstitutional — and,  in 
support  of  these  various  positions  he  advanced  decisions  number 
ing  over  five  hundred.  It  must  be  remembered,  too,  every  case 
cited  by  him  in  Court  was  first  carefully  digested,  usually  in 
writing,  before  proposed  for  consideration.  No  lawyer  living 
ever  knew  Mr.  Storrs  to  refer  to  an  authority  every  component 
part  of  which  he  did  not  seem  to  be  thoroughly  familiar  with. 
It  was  such  labor,  let  it  be  repeated,  that  earned  his  reputation 
as  a  great  lawyer.  He  could  well  be  pardoned,  then,  for 
writing  to  his  wife,  from  Chicago,  under  date  of  June  19,  1860: 

"When  hardly  24  years  of  age,  I  stood  as  prominently  at  the  bar  as 
any  young  man  in  the  State  of  New  York.  At  that  age,  from  among 
the  ablest  men  in  the  State  I  was  selected  to  represent  the  interests  of 
the  Republican  party  in  a  very  important  portion  of  that  State." 

After  referring  to  his  early  struggles  in  Chicago,  he  continues: 

"  I  am  intrusted  with  cases  involving  large  interests,  and  difficult  and  intri 
cate  questions.  I  am  treated  with  marked  consideration  and  respect  by  every 
Judge  upon  the  bench,  and  my  arguments  and  suggestions  are  attentively 
listened  to  and  most  thoroughly  considered.  Every  Judge  upon  the  bench 
is  my  active  and  personal  friend  ;  every  lawyer  very  happy  to  get  my 
opinion,  and  my  business  is  rapidly  increasing.  *  *  *  * 

"I  am  dreaming  no  dreams  of  the  future,  but  working  hard  each  day, 
trusting  that,  with  the  present  well  attended  to,  the  future  will  be  made 
secure.  I  am  a  prouder  man  to-day  than  I  ever  was.  I  have  much 
more  to  be  proud  of.  I  am  proud  of  my  darling  wife,  who  stood  by 
me  through  those  dark  and  terrible  days  with  a  courage  which  people  here 
had  not  the  capacity  or  the  nobility  of  heart  to  understand  or  appreciate. 

"  I  am  proud  of  that  dear  wife,  who,  sorely  tried  as  she  has  been,  has 
never  yet  surrendered  or  given  up  her  faith  or  devotion  in  her  husband.  I 
am  proud  of  that  dear  wife,  who  has  offered  up  so  much  for  me  on  the 
altar  of  that  pure  and  holy  affection,  and  will  for  it  yet  reap  her  reward. 


PROFESSIONAL   DILIGENCE.  1 03 

"  I  am  proud  of  a  wife  who  in  the  darkened  hour  has  yet  seen  some 
brightness  in  the  future,  and  who  has  bravely  suffered  through  it  all." 

In  this  manner,  with  this  spirit,  Emery  A.  Storrs  worked  on 
and  upward  for  years,  until  the  mention  of  almost  any  important 
Western  case  was  but  in  connection  with  his  name. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


OUR  NATIONAL   FUTURE. 

A  PATRIOTIC  ADDRESS  ON  THE  FOURTH  OF  JULY,  1864 — OUR  NATION  THE 
EMBODIED  SPIRIT  OF  THE  GREAT  MEN  WHO  HAVE  CONTRIBUTED  TO  ITS 
GLORY  IN  THE  PAST — A  NATION  SAVED  AT  SUCH  A  COST  OF  BLOOD 
AND  TREASURE  WILL  THINK  MORE  HIGHLY  OF  ITS  PRIVILEGES — POLITICS 
WILL  BE  ELEVATED  INTO  PATRIOTIC  STATESMANSHIP — OUR  NATIONAL 
LITERATURE  AND  HABITS  OF  THOUGHT. 

IN  a   letter   dated    May    12,   1879,  Mr.  Storrs    says   to  a  corre 
spondent  who  had    invited   him  to  deliver  a  Fourth  of  July 
address  at  Monmouth,  Illinois : 

"I    have    about   made    up  my    mind    to    celebrate    the    coming    Fourth    as 

a     private     citizen,    and     at  home.     I     have    delivered    an    address    every 

Fourth    of  July   since   1855,  and    am  inclined  to  make    this   year   an  excep 
tion." 

He  had  certainly  well  earned  his  holiday, — one  in  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  The  earliest  of  his  Fourth  of  July  speeches  that  has 
been  preserved  is  here  given  from  his  own  manuscript.  It  was 
delivered  in  Chicago  on  the  fourth  recurrence  of  the  national  anni 
versary  after  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  :— 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN  :  I  purpose  to  speak  to  you  to-night  concerning 
'Our  National  Future.'  I  purpose  so  to  speak  not  as  a  politician,  nor  as  the 
advocate  of  any  particular  policy.  I  speak  in  the  interests  of  no  man,  nor 
set  of  men  ;  in  behalf  of  no  party,  unless  it  be  that  great  party  of  the 
country  ;  found  everywhere  and  whose  adherents  nearly  one  million  in  num 
ber  have  carried  our  flag  through  the  storm  and  roar  of  an  hundred  battles, 
and  have  bared  their  breasts  in  the  defense  of  the  best  Government  the 
world  has  ever  seen.  Our  National  Future: — What  is  it  to  be?  Never  since 
Governments  existed  among  men  has  a  mightier  question  been  presented, 
nor  one  in  which  mankind  everywhere,  to-day  and  for  all  time  to  come, 
have  a  deeper  interest. 
104 


OUR  NATIONAL  FUTURE.  10$ 

The  purpose  of  a  nation  is  to  train  men ;  that  nation  which  trains  the 
best  men  is  the  best  nation  ;  and  that  nation,  which  gives  to  human  thought 
its  largest  scope  and  freest  range  ;  which  without  shackles  or  hinderances 
places  in  every  man's  hands  the  implements  by  which  he  is  to  work  out 
his  own  success ;  which  makes  of  each  individual  the  architect  of  his  own 
fortunes,  and  which  limits  the  range  of  human  thought  and  human  enter 
prise,  only  within  the  boundaries  of  absolute  right  and  justice  ;  that  nation 
trains  the  best  men  and  is  therefore  the  best  nation. 

And  so,  embodied  in  this  question, — 'What  shall  be  our  national 
future?' — is  not  merely  whether  Jefferson  Davis  shall  fail  or  succeed, 
whether  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States  of  America  shall  by  rebellious 
bayonets  be  crowded  from  the  Gulf  to  the  very  gates  of  our  National  Capi 
tal  ;  but  what  is  of  vastly  more  consequence  than  these  even,  whether  the 
experiment  of  seltgovernment  so  magnificently  inaugurated  upon  this  con 
tinent  shall  be  a  final  success,  gladdening  the  hearts  of  good  men  every 
where  through  all  the  ages  to  come,  or  whether  disastrous  defeat  shall 
overtake  its  champions,  and  it  be  pronounced  a  failure  for  evermore.  For 
this  sublime  experiment  failing  here  does  fail  for  evermore.  And  hence 
it  is  that  in  the  solution  of  this  mighty  question  all  interests  are  affected. 

Upon  the  triumph  of  the  National  arms  depends  not  only  all  that  we  have  of 
material  and  physical  consequence,  but  disaster  to  the  mighty  cause  is  ruin 
to  all  the  glorious  promises  of  our  ideal  future  as  well.  I  need,  I  am 
sure,  on  this  occasion  and  in  this  community  indulge  in  no  exhortations  to 
faithfulness  to  our  cause.  It  has  been  defended  as  never  cause  was 
defended  before.  With  a  zeal  loftier  and  holier  than  that  which  fired  the 
hearts  of  the  followers  of  the  hermit  to  rescue  from  the  profanation  of  infidel 
presence  the  tomb  of  the  Lord,  have  the  millions  of  this  great  republic 
lavished  blood  and  treasure  to  rescue  from  the  profanation  of  rebel  hand, 
the  sacred  depository  of  human  freedom.  We  fight  then  for  the  Nation, 
and  this  includes  not  merely  the  territory  which  makes  up  its  physical 
extent,  but  the  idea  which  is  embodied  in  it.  Our  nation  is  not  simply 
thirty-four  States,  but  it  is  all  the  glory  of  our  past,  all  the  hope  and 
promise  of  the  future.  We  are  the  trustees  of  this  continent  not  for  our 
own  interests  alone  but  for  mankind  everywhere.  We  have  been  fighting 
now  for  nearly  three  years  to  save  this  nation,  not  for  the  value  of  its  cot 
ton  and  wheat  and  corn  and  manufacturers,  but  for  the  value  of  the  hope, 
the  ideas,  the  aspirations,  the  tendencies  which  it  embodies  and  of"  which  it 
is  the  Divinely  chosen  champion.  To-day  the  Nation  for  whose  salvation 
we  are  fighting  is  the  embodied  spirit  of  the  great  departed  ones  who  have 
contributed  to  its  glory.  Our  nation  is  the  wise  forecast  of  Washington  ;  the 
sturdy  patriotism  of  Adams ;  the  earnest  philosophic  love  of  equal  rights  of 
Jefferson  ;  the  clear  and  penetrating  vision  of  Hamilton  ;  the  fiery  zeal  of 
Clay ;  the  intellectual  grandeur  of  Webster ;  the  indomitable  honesty  of 
purpose  of  Jackson.  Every  great  man  or  woman  who  has  ever  lived  in  it 
and  contributed  to  its  growth,  has  infused  the  ideas  which  have  constituted 
that  greatness  into  the  national  life  and  thus  has  each  one  become  a  part 
of  the  nation. 


106  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

The  Nation  which  we  now  fight  to  save  is  all  the  heroic  endurance, 
lofty  fortitude,  patient,  uncomplaining  patriotism  of  the  revolutionary 
fathers.  The  broad  and  world  embracing  enterprise,  the  marvellous  activ 
ity,  the  wonderful  progressiveness  of  their  children,  knit  indissolubly 
together  by  that  Divine  idea  of  self-government  which  inspired  the  fathers 
through  the  bloody  toils  of  its  creation  and  which,  if  faithfully  adhered  to, 
will  crown  with  triumphant  glory  the  efforts  of  their  children  for  its 
everlasting  perpetuation. 

This  Nation  then,  is,  so  to  speak,  the  spirit  of  representative  Government 
made  manifest  in  the  flesh  of  its  people.  The  grand  old  puritan  poet  John 
Milton,  who  although  he  saw  not  with  earthly  vision,  did  see  with  the  infin 
itely  clearer  perception  of  an  earnest,  holy  and  exalted  vision  said  "  Better 
kill  a  man  than  a  good  book.  Who  kills  a  man  kills  a  reasonable  creature, 
God's  image,  but  who  kills  a  good  book  kills  the  image  of  God  as  it  were 
in  the  eye."  And  so  I  say  better  that  our  darlings  should  all  perish  in  this 
mighty  struggle  than  that  it  be  not  prosecuted  to  success.  They  are  it  is  true 
God's  noblest  images,  but  who  kills  this  nation,  the  embodiment  of  all  these 
heaven  born  aspirations,  these  grand  ideas,  kills  the  image  of  God  as  it 
were  in  the  eye.  For  this  Nation  is  the  precious  life-blood  of  all  these  mas 
ter-spirits  embalmed  and  treasured  up  on  purpose  for  a  life  beyond  life. 
We  are  "here  in  this  mighty  north-west  from  every  portion  of  the  country  ; 
from  every  quarter  of  the  globe.  The  spirit  of  our  institutions,  now  imperiled, 
and  which  we  now  fight  to  save,  has  drawn  us  hither.  We  come  from  the 
shadows  of  the  old  South  Church,  baptized  as  it  has  been  in  the  waters  of  a 
religious  faith  ;  from  the  fields  of  Lexington  and  Concord  where  the  first 
shot  of  a  farmer-soldier  was  fired,  a  shot  which  was  heard  all  around  the 
globe  ;  from  the  grand  old  Empire  State  with  its  long  line  of  noble  names 
and  its  long  list  of  heroic  achievements,  with  its  colossal  commerce,  the 
fibres  of  which  intertwine  the  fate  of  kingdoms  and  which  stands  like  the 
angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  one  foot  resting  on  the  sea  and  the  other  upon 
the  land  and  mistress  of  both  ;  from  the  old  Keystone,  glorified  by  the 
greatness  of  Penn  and  Franklin,  and  whose  reddened  fields  at  Gettysburg 
are  sanctified  by  the  blood  of  heroes  dying  to  save  the  cause,  for  which 
Penn  and  Franklin  lived  and  died  before  them  ;  from  the  old  world  too 
with  its  noble  traditions  and  with  its  noble  names  are  we  here  as  well 
All  these  memories,  all  these  exalted  deeds  have  we  brought  hither  with  us, 
the  idea  of  free  government  crystalizing  them  all  about.  These — these 
thus  fused  together  ;  thus  working  out  their  colossal  results  through  us  on 
these  fruitful  plains  are  our  nation's,  and  how  worthily  that  nation  has  been 
defended  by  her  north-western  sons,  history  has  already  recorded.  For 
this  nation  thus  constituted  by  divine  appointment  the  custodian  of  the 
dearest  and  most  priceless  interests  ever  entrusted  to  a  people's  keeping  are 
we  fighting,  and  so  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  mighty  issues  involved 
is  the  warfare  waged.  Never  before  has  this  world  seen  such  awful  conse' 
quences  hanging  dependent  upon  the  dread  arbitrament  of  war.  Never 
before  has  this  world  seen  a  continent  shaken  at  one  moment  as  it  were  from 


OUR  NATIONAL  FUTURE.  IO/ 

centre  to  circumference  by  the  shock  and  roar  of  battles  waged  by  countless 
numbers  on  either  side  ;  campaigns  with  empires  for  their  theatre,  and  the 
red  flames  of  the  rebellion  lighting  up  the  whole  heavens  with  the  inten 
sity  of  their  glow.  It  is  well  that  the  Titanic  forces  to  which  this  continent  has 
given  birth  and  which  it  has  nurtured,  should  settle  these  questions  of  Titanic 
proportions.  It  is  well  that  where  the  serpent  of  treason  assumes  such 
frightful  dimensions,  frightful  from  the  great  sin  of  the  treason  against 
such  a  nation,  that  Herculean  strength  should  be  called  upon  to  strangle 
it.  It  is  well  that  since  so  broad  and  conspicuous  a  theatre  has  been 
assigned  upon  which  to  test  man's  capacity  for  self-government  that 
when  the  hour  of  final  trial  comes,  the  trial  shall  be  as  broad  and 
conspicuous  as  the  theatre  assigned  to  it,  so  that  the  great  battle  fought 
and  won  once,  is  fought  and  won  forever.  Standing  as  we  do  to-night 
upon  that  narrow  isthmus  of  but  two  or  three  days  which  separates  the 
years  that  have  passed  from  those  years  that  are  to  come,  it  is  natural 
for  us  to  pause  and  ask  of  each,  What  have  the  coming  years  in  store 
for  us?  I  speak  to  you  this  night  the  language  of  exultant  hope.  Hope 
for  the  great  nation  we  love  so  justly  'and  so  much.  Hope  for  our 
country's  future.  Hope  for  ourselves  and  for  our  children  And  even 
now,  wandering  in  the  thin  uncertain  light  which  I  take  to  be  the 
promise  of  a  rapidly  approaching  and  glorious  dawn,  as  with  eager  eyes, 
we  watch  the  moving  clouds  that  yet  overspread  the  sky,  as  we  ask  of 
the  watchmen  stationed  upon  the  watch  towers  and  citadels  of  the 
Union,  'Watchman  what  of  the  night?'  the  answer  comes  back  to  us, 
strong  and  clear,  and  full  of  assuring  hope  'All  is  well,'  'All  is  well,' 
'  All  is  well : '  and  despite  our  early  disasters  and  defeat,  despite  the 
long  and  wearisome  and  sometimes  almost  disheartening  delay,  despite  the 
gloom  that  has  overspread  us,  the  cause  of  the  Union,  the  cause  of 
good  government  everywhere,  the  cause  of  an  advancing  civilization 
borne  on  the  broad  and  ample  shoulders  of  its  worthy  and  heroic  defen 
ders,  and  upheld  by  the  strong  arms  of  the  stalwart  sons  of  the  North 
west,  thank  God,  moves  gloriously  and  nobly  on. 

"  I  have  then  no  doubt  as  to  the  result  of  this  mighty  contest  and 
who  can  have  ?  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the  power  of  our  Government 
will  assert  itself  in  triumph.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  this  the  most  wicked, 
hellish  and  infernal  rebellion  which  has  ever  blackened  the  annals  of  history 
will  be  ground  to  powder.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  our  national  integrity 
will  be  preserved.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  the  Union  of  these  States  will 
be  restored  and  that  the  nation  will  emerge  from  the  fiery  trial  through 
which  it  has  passed  brighter  and  better  and  stronger  than  it  has  ever  been  • 
before.  It  would  be  impossible  however,  that  a  conflict  mighty  as  that  from 
which  we  are  now  I  trust  emerging,  should  not  leave  its  deep  and  perma 
nent  impress  upon  our  future  national  character.  It  will  give  tone  to  our 
politics,  our  literature,  and  our  feelings  as  a  people  for  ages  and  ages  to 
come.  A  nation  saved  at  such  a  tremendous  expenditure  of  life  and  treasure, 
whose  title  to  the  claims  of  nationality  is  written  all  over  with  the  blood  of 
heroes,  will  think  more  highly  of  the  privileges  which  it  confers  than  it  ever 


IO8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

thought  before.  Purchased  at  a  price  so  dear,  and  rescued  from  destruction 
at  a  cost  so  fearful,  it  will  be  valued  accordingly,  and  preserve  through  all  the 
future,  the  name  and  privilege  of  an  American  citizen.  Knowing  how  much 
they  have  cost,  they  will  be  prized  and  cherished  as  they  have  always  deserved 
to  be,  but  as  they  have  never  been.  And  so  it  will  come  to  pass,  that  for 
the  times  to  come,  the  people,  who  make  this  nation's  greatness  and  who 
served  it  in  its  trial,  will  watch  its  interests  with  jealous  eyes,  and  guard  its 
honor  with  an  earnest  and  a  lofty  zeal.  Then  it  will  come  to  pass  that  the 
mere  politician  shall  no  more  trifle  with  its  glory,  trade  away  its  honor, 
or  sacrifice  its  interests  for  the  advancement  of  his  selfish  ends.  While 
genuine  patriotism  comes  out  of  the  fiery  ordeal  purified  by  its  trials,  the  base 
dross,  which  clamoring  demagogues  and  politicians  have  imposed  upon 
the  country  heretofore,  has  been  utterly  consumed.  We  shall  see  when  this 
war  is  ended  the  demise  of  flunkeyism.  Politics  as  I  think  will  be  lifted 
from  its  old  close  and  personal  surroundings  into  the 'clear,  pure,  healthy 
regions  of  genuine  patriotic  statesmanship.  Our  legislation  infused  with  the 
loftier  spirit  thus  breathed  into  it  will  be  characterized  by  a  comprehensive 
breadth,  by  a  national  vigor  which  it  has  not  known  for  long  years  past. 
Keeping  steadily  before  it  the  great  idea  upon  which  the  nation  is  rested, 
and  the  complete  triumph  which  it  is  the  purpose  of  our  national  existence 
to  achieve,  it  will  faithfully  remember,  and  remembering,  earnestly  endeavor 
to  execute  its  high  mission  to  its  fullest  purpose.  WTe  shall  all  the  better 
understand  that  fields  may  be  tilled  and  cities  builded  and  yet  a  nation  not 
be  prosperous  nor  truly  great.  We  shall  well  know  that  the  nation  itself  is 
of  infinitely  greater  value  than  any  special  interests  however  highly  we  may 
prize  them,  since  we  have  learned  that  the  full  and  perfect  employment  of 
a41  these  interests  results  from  our  great  fundamental  national  idea,  and 
that  when  that  perishes  all  else  will  perish  with  it.  I  am  not  claiming  that 
scoundrelism  in  politics  will  cease  altogether  at  the  close  of  the  war.  So 
thoroughly  chronic  have  scoundrelism  and  base  selfishness  become  with  some 
of  those  who  have  hitherto  disgraced  the  name  of  politics  by  calling  them 
selves  politicians,  that  I  fear  the  disease  is  altogether  ineradicable  in  them. 
What  I  do  mean  to  say  is  this  :  that  the  people  have  always  appreciated 
the  greatness  of  our  nation  and  its  value  infinitely  better  than  politicians  as 
a  class  have  done  ;  that  had  its  salvation  been  entrusted  to  politicians  alone 
it  would  have  miserably  perished  the  first  year  of  the  rebellion  ;  that  the 
loyal  hearts  and  strong  arms  and  earnest  will  of  the  people  have  saved  it, 
and  that  in  the  future  they  will  watch  the  management  of  our  national 
affairs,  and  the  conduct  of  our  public  men  with  a  vigilance  so  keen  as  to 
be  a  continuing  terror  to  the  demagogue  and  the  mere  partisan.  Straight 
forward  honesty  of  purpose  in  the  management  of  public  affairs  the 
people  of  this  country  have  always  appreciated  and  always  rewarded.  Still 
more  will  they  do  so  in  the  future.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  but  that  swindlers 
will  yet  ask  for  place,  nor  that  scoundrels  will  not  occasionally  steal  into 
office.  Hereafter  however  this  will  be  the  exception.  Our  public  men 
will  be  inspired  by  higher  motives.  The  people  themselves  will  realize 


OUR  NATIONAL  FUTURE.  IOQ 

"more  completely  than  they  have  ever  done  before  the  value  of  this  Union. 
There  will  be  greater  care  exercised  in  framing  laws.  And  they  will  be 
more  scrupulously  obeyed.  These  mighty  convulsions  are  as  necessary  in 
the  moral  and  political  as  they  are  in  the  material  world.  When  the  air 
is  charged  with  Malaria  and  pestilence,  the  Almighty  sends  the  thunder 
storm,  and  the  rain  and  the  whirlwind.  And  in  the  commotion  of  the 
elements  which  follows  the  air  is  cleansed  and  purified,  and  we  can  breathe 
again  with  safety.  And  so  by  the  thunders  of  this  war  has  our  political 
atmosphere  been  so  throbbed  and  convulsed,  that  it  is  vastly  cleansed  and 
purified.  The  patriotic  impulses  of  the  people,  which  here  only  slumbered 
thank  God  in  the  years  past,  have  been  thoroughly  awakened  by  the  rude 
shock  of  war.  And  the  old  fires  burn  now  as  brightly  as  when  our  fathers 
through  the  long  and  weary  years,  plucked  this  jeweled  Continent  from 
foreign  hands  and  gave  it  as  a  priceless  treasure  to  us,  their  children,  to 
keep  as  the  Ark  of  all  good  government,  for  all  peoples  for  all  time  to 
come. 

"  Not  less  marked  or  decided  in  character  will  be  the  impress  which  will  be 
left  upon  our  national  literature  and  our  habits  of  thought.  The  meditations 
of  the  philosopher :  the  dreams  of  the  poet  -  the  fancies  of  the  romancer 
will  all  years  and  years  hence  be  colored  by  it  and  draw  their  inspiration 
from  it.  Literature  whether  it  be  in  the  tomes  of  the  philosopher  or  in  the 
song  of  the  poet,  has  always,  since  the  world  began,  drawn  its  holiest 
inspiration  and  its  clearest  expression  from  patriotic  feelings  and  impulses. 
Since  the  blind  old  poet  sang  the  contests  between  Hector  and  Achilles, 
down  to  this  very  moment  that  literature  which  will  live,  because  it  is  the 
expression  of  the  human  heart  wherever  it  may  be,  is  that  which  clothes 
one's  country  with  all  the  beauties  which .  the  lover  sees  in  the  mistress 
whom  he  adores,  and  which  ranks  the  heroes  of  the  native  land  among 
the  good  and  great  of  the  world. 

"The  poet  is  he  'whom  the  heart  of  man  permanently  accepts  as  a  sin 
ger  of  its  own  hopes,  emotions  and  thoughts,  and  poetry  is  that  song,'  and 
in  what  channels  are  the  hopes  emotions  and  thoughts  of  men  more 
constantly  directed  than  the  love  of  country  and  of  home?  Every  other 
emotion  of  the  human  heart  may  perish  and  die  out,  but  this  love  of  native 
land  will  linger  still.  How  its  glory  becomes  our  glory  ;  how  its  pride  becomes 
our  pride  ;  how  its  disasters  are  made  our  own.  This  love  of  country  is 
one  of  the  loftiest  virtues  which  the  Almighty  has  planted  in  the  human 
heart,  and  so  treason  against  it  has  been  considered  among  the  most  damn 
ing  sins.  The  History  of  the  world  teaches  us  that  every  great  convul 
sion  like  that  through  which  we  are  now  passing  has  given  new  life  and 
stimulus  to  intellectual  exertion.  Such  wars  as  these  tear  up  old  formulas  by 
the  roots  and  scatter  the  fetters  which  have  bound  the  human  mind  in 
special  ruts  and  channels  to  the  winds.  The  chariot  wheels  of  war 
break  down  most  mercilessly  old  barriers  ;  and  the  thunder  of  battles,  and 
the  bugle  blast,  summon  from  the  deepest  recesses  of  the  human  heart  its 
deepest  feelings  and  emotions,  and  give  to  them  an  intensity  and  vigor  of 
expression  which  the  summer  days  of  peace  may  never  know.  Who  when 


IIO  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

he  thinks  of  this  our  native  land,  of  its  glorious  past,  so  brief  yet  so  marvel 
lously  great,  with  its  history  thronging  with  names  that  have  honored  human 
nature  and  added  to  the  dignity  of  our  common  manhood  ;  of  its  mighty 
physical  resources  ;  of  its  vast  territorial  extent  ;  of  its  sublime  present  and  the 
promise  of  its  future,  but  that  feels  the  heart  throb  with  quicker  beat ;  the 
blood  run  with  swifter  course  ;  the  feeling  of  inspiration  changing  our  very 
nature  almost  and  lifting  us  far  above  the  dull  level  of  our  ordinary  thought. 
And  when  added  to  that  history  of  the  past,  and  adding  new  lustre  to 
the  promise  of  the  future  is  the  record  of  this  mighty  rebellion  crushed  ;  who 
can  doubt,  but  that  the  literature  of  our  country,  embodying  this  grand  and 
ennobling  experience,  will  in  the  years  to  come  grow  broader,  higher,  and 
weightier, — the  expression  of  a  nation  which  has  left  behind  the  period  of 
joyous  infancy,  and  attained  through  fierce  tribulation  the  dignity  and 
gravity  of  a  noble  manhood  ?  I  look  for  all  these  results,  and  many 
more,  to  the  great  crisis  which  our  nation  is  now  passing  through  ;  and  I 
look  to  its  future  with  confident  hope  and  expectations. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


LINCOLN'S   EMANCIPATION   PROCLAMATION. 

SPEECH  AT  SYCAMORE,  ILLINOIS,  ON  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION 
PROCLAMATION— THE  PRESIDENT'S  RIGHT  TO  ISSUE  IT  UNDER  THE  CON 
STITUTION  AND  THE  LAW  OF  NATIONS — SUSPENSION  OF  THE  WRIT  OF 
HABEAS  CORPUS — ARREST  OF  MR.  VALLANDIGHAM — THE  NEGRO  AS  A 
SOLDIER. 

THE  proclamation  of  President  Lincoln,  issued  in  the  fall  of 
the  second  year  of  the  war,  that  in  all  such  rebellious 
States  as  had  not  returned  to  their  allegiance  by  the  first  of 
January,  1863,  the  slaves  would  be  declared  free,  and  capable  of 
enlistment  into  the  Union  armies,  was  of  course  met  at  the  North 
with  a  great  deal  of  Copperhead  opposition.  As,  at  the  outbreak 
of  the  rebellion,  Mr.  Storrs  condemned  the  action  of  those  impul 
sive  fanatics  who  demanded  of  Mr.  Lincoln  the  instant  libera 
tion  of  the  Southern  slaves  by  proclamation,  heedless  of  the  fact 
that  our  armies  then  were  in  no  condition  to  enforce  any  such 
order,  but  were  barely  holding  their  own  ground,  so  now,  when 
the  sagacious  President  had  seen  that  the  time  was  ripe,  that 
the  hour  had  come,  and  that  such  a  proclamation  would  be  not 
a  mere  brutum  fulmen  but  a  thing  possible  to  be  carried  into 
effect  with  advantage  to  the  Union  cause,  Mr.  Storrs  enthusias 
tically  endorsed  the  President's  action,  and  zealously  defended  it. 
He  had  to  defend  it  on  constitutional  grounds,  for  the  favor 
ite  argument  of  its  Copperhead  opponents  was  that  the  procla 
mation,  and  indeed  all  the  leading  measures  of  the  administration, 
— the  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  disaffected  locali 
ties,  the  military  arrests  of  Confederate  sympathizers  at  the  North, 
the  conscription  law,  and  the  use  of  negroes  as  soldiers,  were 
all  unconstitutional. 

1 1 1 


112  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

A  large  and  enthusiastic  mass  meeting  was  held  in  Chicago  to 
ratify  the  President's  proclamation.  The  feeling  called  out  by  it 
was  intense,  and  while  on  the  one  hand  the  Copperhead  element 
were  furious  in  their  denunciation  of  it,  all  loyal  men,  and 
especially  all  Republicans  and  all  the  old-time  friends  of  the 
slave,  rejoiced  over  it  as  did  the  Jews  over  the  proclamation  of 
Cyrus.  There  was  not  room  enough  in  the  hall  where  the  ratifi 
cation  meeting  was  held  to  admit  all  who  desired  to  be  present. 
A  committee  on  resolutions  was  appointed,  of  which  Mr.  Storrs 
was  a  member,  and  his  hand  is  clearly  discernible  in  the  resolu 
tions  which  were  adopted.  The  first  certainly  was  drawn  by 
him.  It  sets  forth  that  the  object  for  which  the  war  was  being 
prosecuted  was  the  preservation  of  our  national  unity  and  integ 
rity  ;  that  to  secure  that  end  the  President,  as  Commander-in- 
Chief,  had  the  rightful  power  and  authority  to  use  all  necessary 
means  to  strengthen  the  arms  of  the  government  and  weaken 
and  disable  its  enemies ;  that  the  meeting  recognized  the  procla 
mation  as  a  war  measure,  a  means  to  secure  the  object  for  which 
the  war  was  prosecuted,  and  as  such  "  alike  warranted  by  the 
constitution,  justified  by  necessity,  recognized  by  the  rules  and 
usages  of  war,  and  which,  if  earnestly  supported  by  the  people 
and  enforced  by  our  generals  in  the  field,  will  'result  in  so  weak 
ening  the  power  of  the  rebellion  as  to  insure  the  final  triumph 
of  our  arms  and  the  restoration  of  the  government."  The  third 
declared  the  preservation  of  the  Union  to  be  paramount  to  all 
other  considerations,  and  pledged  the  meeting  to  support  "  any 
and  all  means,  recognized  by  the  rules  and  usages  of  war,  which 
may  be  adopted  by  the  Commander-in-Chief  of  our  army  and 
navy  to  secure  the  success  of  our  arms  and  the  overthrow  of 
armed  rebellion." 

Mr.  Storrs  made  an  able  speech  in  support  of  the  resolutions, 
defending  the  action  of  the  President  on  constitutional  grounds 
and  by  the  authority  of  international  law,  and  closed  with  an 
eloquent  appeal  to  young  men  to  stand  by  the  government,  and 
to  evince  their  patriotism  by  their  actions.  The  report  in  the 
local  papers  was  wretchedly  inadequate,  but  the  Tribune  said  of  it, 
"  His  whole  speech  was  an  admirable  production,  and  there 
was  frequent  applause  during  its  delivery." 

He   was   invited   to   deliver   the   same   argument  over  again  at 


LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.  113 

Sycamore,  Illinois,  which  he  did  in  the  middle  of  September. 
1863,  and  this  time  arrangements  had  been  made  for  a  fair 
report,  which  is  here  given  : 

"  He  began  by  saying  that  the  questions  he  was  about  to  discuss  were 
among  the  most  important  that  any  people  was  ever  called  upon  to 
consider;  that  these  discussions  could  hardly  be  classed  as  political  dis 
cussions  ;  they  were  higher,  and  above  politics.  When  a  man  whose 
house  is  on  fire  counsels  as  to  the  best  means  of  putting  the  fire  out, 
he  would  not  be  discussing  politics ;  neither  is  the  question  whether  we  shall 
assist  the  government  in  the  measures  it  sees  fit  to  adopt  for  the  preservation  of 
its  existence.  No  man  should  decline  to  take  sides  in  this  controversy  ;  this  is 
no  time  for  neutrality.  My  purpose  in  speaking  to-night  is  to  furnish  some 
reasons  for  the  faith  that  is  in  me,  some  suggestions  why  the  adminis 
tration  should  receive  from  all  parties  the  fullest,  freest,  most  cordial 
support.  The  public  should  at  all  times  cherish  a  feeling  of  confidence 
in  its  rulers ;  especially  should  we  now. 

"  I  stand  here  to  urge  reasons  why  we  should  have  the  fullest  confi 
dence  in  this  administration.  I  shall  discuss  from  a  legal  stand-point  the 
leading  measures  of  the  administration,  which  are,  the  Emancipation 
Proclamation  of  the  President,  the  military  arrests,  the  conscription  law, 
and  the  use  of  negroes  as  soldiers ;  and  I  propose  to  prove  each  of 
these  measures  strictly  defensibe,  not  from  the  law  of  necessity,  but  on 
the  most  strictly  logical  grounds.  Now,  it  is  our  duty  in  times  like 
these  to  be  extremely  liberal  toward  an  administration  surrounded  as  ourj 
is  by  such  perils  as  never  before  environed  a  government,  yet  every 
one  of  the  acts  named  may  be  fearlessly  submitted  to  the  most  rigid 
criticism. 

"The  Emancipation  Proclamation,  we  are  told,  is  unconstitutional;  that 
it  does  no  harm  to  the  south,  but  divides  the  north.  We  are  told  that 
the  President  has  violated  the  constitution,  and  since  he  has  now 
changed  the  object  of  the  war  to  a  war  for  the  destruction  of  slavery,  we  should 
withdraw  our  support  from  his  administration.  It  is  not  possible  that 
any  constitution  should  prescribe  all  the  rules  by  which  a  war  should  be 
waged.  Our  constitution  has  done  all  that  it  was  possible  to  do  in 
giving  Congress  power  to  declare  war  and  suppress  insurrection,  and  in 
constituting  the  President  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  nation.  But  how  the  war,  when  once  declared,  shall  be  waged, — 
how  invasion  shall  be  repelled,  and  the  means  by  which  insurrection 
shall  be  suppressed, — it  has  not  attempted  to  define,  and  it  would  be 
simply  ridiculous  to  do  so.  There  is,  however,  a  system  of  laws  made 
by  the  common  consent  of  nations  determining  all  matters  of  this  char 
acter,  to  which  we  may  refer  for  an  answer  to  all  these  questions.  I 
mean  the  law  of  nations.  The  government  cannot  lay  down  rules  for 
the  waging  of  war  which  would  be  binding  upon  England,  nor  can 
England,  by  any  rules  of  her  own  making,  bind  us.  These  are  ques 
tions  which  the  people  of  no  one  nation  by  their  organic  law  are  com- 


I  14  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

petent  to  settle,  for  the  obvious  reason  that  wars  are  waged  between 
different  nations.  The  parties  to  be  affected  by  these  rules  are  nations ; 
and  hence,  in  making  these  rules,  nations  are  the  contracting  parties. 
Nor  can  one  nation,  by  its  fundamental  law,  or  constitution,  assume  to 
itself  the  right  to  determine  in  what  manner  a  civil  war  shall  be 
waged,  or  a  rebellion,  when  assuming  sufficiently  formidable  proportions 
to  be  called  a  civil  war,  shall  be  suppressed.  These  are  determined  as 
well  by  the  law  of  nations  as  the  rules  which  govern  independent 
States  in  waging  war  with  each  other.  Vattel  declares  that  when  a 
rebellion  assumes  such  formidable  proportions  as  to  make  head  against 
the  State,  then  it  is  a  civil  war,  and  both  parties  are  regulated  and 
governed  by  the  same  rules  which  govern  independent  States  at  war 
with  each  other.  The  question,  then,  so  far  as  the  proclamation  of 
Emancipation  is  concerned,  is,  Is  the  liberation  of  the  slaves  of  the 
enemy  a  means  which  the  law  of  nations  justifies  the  government  in 
using?  For,  if  it  be  justified  by  the  law  of  nations,  then  it  is  con 
stitutional. 

"  The  constitution  confers  authority  to  declare  war  and  suppress  insur 
rection.  In  conferring  that  power,  it  also  gives  by  a  necessary  implica 
tion  the  right  to  use  all  those  means,  recognized  by  civilized  nations,  by 
which  war  may  be  waged  or  insurrection  suppressed,  and  hence  the  law 
of  nations  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  constitution  as  though  written  in 
it.  That  the  law  of  nations  is  a  part  of  the  great  body  of  the  common 
law  of  this  country  was  declared  by  the  Continental  Congress,  and  is  a 
doctrine  which  has  since  received  the  sanction  of  no  less  an  authority 
than  Chancellor  Kent.  Now,  Vattel  declares  that  in  waging  a  war  we 
have  the  right  to  deprive  the  enemy  of  every  means  which  may  augment 
his  strength  or  enable  him  to  make  war  ;  and  again,  that  we  may  use 
all  those  means  which  may  tend  to  weaken  the  enemy  or  strengthen 
ourselves ;  and  the  whole  doctrine  is  summed  up  by  him  in  one  sen 
tence, — Right  goes  hand  in  hand  with  necessity  and  the  exigencies  of 
the  case.  Whatever  means,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  to  use,  either  to 
weaken  the  enemy  or  strengthen  ourselves,  the  government  clearly  has 
the  right  to  use.  Who,  then,  is  to  judge  of  the  necessity?  Is  it 
Lincoln,  or  Vallandigham  ?  Upon  the  President  of  the  United  States,  as 
Commander-in-Chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  devolves  the  especial 
duty  to  protect  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  as 
the  head  of  our  forces,  on  him  devolves  the  responsibility  of  so  using 
them,  of  furnishing  them  with  such  means,  of  so  augmenting  their 
strength,  of  so  weakening  the  hands  of  the  enemy  whom  they  shall  be 
compelled  to  meet,  that  they  may  be  successful  in  overcoming  all  resis 
tance  to  the  enforcement  of  the  laws,  and  all  attempts  to  overthrow  the 
government.  It  will  require  no  argument  to  show  that  he  upon  whom 
the  responsibility  and  duty  of  accomplishing  a  particular  end  is  devolved 
is  also  clothed  with  full  power  to  select  such  means  as  to  him  may 
seem  necessary  to  the  accomplishment  of  that  end.  Plain,  however,  as 
this  proposition  is,  we  are  not  left  without  authority.  The  Supreme 


LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.  115 

Court  of  the  United  States,  as  well  as  many  of  the  most  eminent 
statesmen  of  our  earlier  history,  have  repeatedly  declared  the  rule  in 
substance  as  I  have  stated  it.  The  President,  then,  must  have  the 
right  to  determine  whether  the  liberation  of  the  slaves  is  one  of  the 
necessary  means  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  the  war.  This  right, 
established  as  well  by  our  own  judicial  decisions  as  by  the  law  of 
nations,  must  also  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  constitution.  Hence,  in 
issuing  that  proclamation,  the  President  did  not  suspend  the  constitution, 
but  called  into  life  its  powers  against  those  in  arms  seeking  to  over 
throw  it. 

"But  can  we  not  see  that  the  means  was  necessary  and  proper? 
Pollard,  writing  the  Southern  view  of  the  rebellion,  in  his  history  of  the 
first  year  of  the  war,  concludes  by  way  of  encouragement  to  rebels  by 
saying  that  thus  far  the  war  has  proved  that  the  system  of  slavery  has 
been  an  element  of  strength  to  the  South,  a  faithful  ally  to  •  their 
armies ;  the  slave  has  tilled  their  fields  while  his  master  has  fought.  It 
is  probable  that  Mr.  Pollard  is  quite  as  well  advised  upon  that  subject 
as  his  Copperhead  friends  at  the  North,  and  understands  the  subject 
quite  as  well  as  they.  If  it  has,  then,  been  an  element  of  strength  to  the 
south,  why  not  weaken  or  altogether  destroy  that  element  of  their  strength  ? 
If  the  slave  has  tilled  while  the  master  has  fought,  tilling  is  as  neces 
sary  as  fighting,  and  the  slave  has  thereby  been  made  as  efficient  an 
enemy  to  the  government  as  his  master ;  and  if  we  have  the  right  to 
kill  the  fighting  master,  we  have  the  same  right  to  appropriate  the  ser 
vices  of  the  equally  efficient  tilling  sjave.  If  the  slave  has  hitherto  been 
a  faithful  ally  to  the  South,  the  government  surely  has  the  right  to 
break  up,  if  possible,  the  alliance,  and  I  think  to  enter  into  the  same 
alliance  itself.  Even  a  Copperhead  will  probably  not  deny  that  if  it  is 
constitutional  for  the  South  to  form  an  alliance  with  the  slave  for  the 
purpose  of  destroying  the  government ;  it  is  equally  competent  for  the 
government  to  form  an  alliance  with  the  slave  for  the  purpose  of 
saving  itself.  The  Proclamation  of  Emancipation  simply  declares  that  after 
a  certain  time  therein  named,  and  within  certain  territory,  all  slaves  shall  be 
free,  and  that  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  government  and  its  armies  to 
protect  them  in  their  freedom.  This  freedom  of  the  slave  is  a  complete 
destruction  of  that  element  of  Southern  strength ;  a  complete  severance 
of  the  alliance  between  them  and  the  Southern  Confederacy.  It  is  a 
military  measure,  so  declared  by  the  proclamation  itself;  equivalent 
to  an  order  to  every  General  in  the  field  to  liberate  the  slave  where- 
ever  he  may  be  found  within  the  territory  named.  If  it  would  be 
constitutional  actually  to  take  possession  of  every  slave,  thus  liberating 
him  and  depriving  the  rebel  master  of  his  services,  it  must  surely  be 
constitutional  to  order  it  done  ;  in  other  words,  it  must  be  constitutional 
to  attempt  to  do  what  it  would  be  constitutional  to  succeed  in  doing.  If 
the  proclamation  would  be  constitutional  provided  it  could  be  made  com 
pletely  operative  and  effectual,  the  fact  that  to  a  certain  extent  it  might  be 


Il6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

ineffectual  would  not  make  it  unconstitutional.  In  another  light,  however, 
is  the  constitutionality  of  the  proclamation  clearly  shown.  The  South 
has  always  claimed,  and  the  dictum  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  the  Dred 
Scott  case  plainly  '  declares,  that  slaves  are  property.  If  so,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  same  right  exists  in  our  armies  to  take 
it  as  any  other  kind  or  species  of  property.  The  right  to  deprive  the 
enemy  of  his  goods  and  possessions, — of  all  those  means  which  in  any  way 
enable  him  to  carry  on  a  war, — is  well  established  by  the  law  of  nations, 
and  is  usually  acted  upon.  If  our  armies  have  this  right,  it  is  because  the 
rules  of  civilised  warfare  accord  it  to  them.  The  President  is  Commander- 
in-Chief  of  those  armies,  and  his  proclamation  is  simply  an  order  to  the 
armies  under  his  command  to  do  precisely  that  which  all  concede,  without 
such  order,  they  would  have  the  right  to  do.  If  it  be  constitutional  for  our 
armies,  without  an  express  order,  to  liberate  slaves,  clearly  it  could  not  be 
unconstitutional  to  order  them  so  to  do.  The  Constitution  has  made  the 
President  Commander-in-Chief,  and  in  so  doing  has  necessarily  clothed 
him  with  all  the  power  pertaining  to  that  position.  The  Constitution  creates 
Judges,  and  fixes  the  period  of  their  office  ;  and  in  thus  creating  the  office 
it  confers  all  the  power  pertaining  to  it.  The  judicial  acts  of  such  an 
officer  within  the  range  of  his  judicial  duties  are  therefore  constitutional, 
not  because  the  Constitution  has  especially  provided  the  measure  in  which 
those  duties  shall  be  discharged,  but  because  in  creating  the  office  it  has 
given  by  a  necessary  implication  the  right  to  the  use  of  all  such  means  as 
might  be  necessary  to  discharge  its  functions.  So,  too,  in  making  the 
President  of  the  United  States  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  armies,  it  has 
given  him  the  power  to  do  all  such  acts  as  may  be  necessary  to  discharge 
the  duties  of  that  position.  As  well  might  it  be  claimed  that  the  punish 
ment  by  a  Judge  of  an  individual  for  a  contempt  of  court  would  be  an 
unconstitutional  act,  because  the  power  so  to  punish  was  not  specifically 
conferred,  as  to  say  that  the  proclamation  of  emancipation  is  unconstitu 
tional  because  the  right  to  issue  it  is  not  specifically  given.  It  can  hardly 
be  claimed  but  that  if  actually  in  the  field  the  Commander-in-Chief  could 
regulate  the  operations  of  our  armies  and  control  their  movements.  His 
powers  are  none  the  less  out  of  the  field  than  in  it.  All  other  army 
officers,  of  whatever  grade,  are  subordinate  to  him  ;  and,  regarded  merely 
as  a  military  measure,  the  proclamation  of  emancipation  simply  declares 
that  after  the  expiration  of  a  certain  period  of  time  the  master  shall  no 
longer  control  or  have  property  in  the  slave,  and  it  is  an  order  issued  by 
one  highest  in  command  that  military  force  shall  be  exerted  to  that  end. 

"  It  must  be  remembered  in  this  connection  that  the  government  has  the 
right  to  demand  the  service  of  all  its  subjects  for  its  own  preservation.  The 
law  of  self-preservation,  says  Vattel,  applies  as  well  to  nations  as  to  indi 
viduals.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  government  to  protect  all  its  citizens  in  the 
enjoyment  of  their  rights  ;  it  is  equally  the  duty  of  the  citizen  to  protect  the 
government  when  its  rights  or  existence  are  threatened  or  imperiled. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  but  that  the  government  could  enforce  the  service 
of  the  indentured  apprentice,  or  of  any  person  bound  to  service  for  any 


LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.  1 1 7 

period  of  time.  If  it  have  this  right,  and  it  cannot  be  dispuced  that  it  has, 
the  length  of  serving  can  make  no  difference  with  its  exercise.  It  would 
have  the  right  to  draft  into  the  armies  men  bound  to  service  for  ten  years 
as  well  as  those  bound  for  five.  It  could,  therefore,  annul  a  contract 
requiring  service  for  life,  as  well  as  for  a  certain  number  of  years.  In 
other  words,  it  could  declare  the  relation  of  master  and  slave  at  an  end  as 
well  as  the  relation  of  master  and  apprentice.  To  deny  the  conclusion 
would  be  to  say  that  the  government  is  at  liberty  to  annul  contracts 
between  its  own  citizens  when  the  safety  of  the  State  demands  it  but  can 
not  thus  affect  its  enemies  under  a  like  emergency. 

"But  it  is  also  insisted  that  slavery  is  a  'domestic  institution/and  therefore 
the  President  has  no  more  right  to  interfere  with  it  than  he  would  have  to 
interfere  with  the  institution  of  marriage.  It  is  said  that  Jeff.  Davis  might 
with  as  much  propriety  issue  a  proclamation  declaring  all  marriage  contracts  at 
the  North  dissolved,  as  Lincoln  could  declare  by  proclamation  all  slaves 
free.  I  fail  to  see  the  point  or  applicability  of  this  illustration.  We  yet 
consider  every  State  in  the  Union  as  owing  allegiance  to  the  general  gov 
ernment,  and  the  people  of  every  State  as  owing  obedience  to  its  laws.  To 
compel  that  allegiance  and  to  secure  obedience  to  those  laws,  the  war  is 
waged  on  our  part.  Lincoln  is  the  constitutionally  elected  and  rightful  head 
of  the  government,  and  it  is  his  sworn  duty  to  enforce  the  laws  throughout 
its  entire  territorial  extent.  On  the  other  hand,  Davis  is  a  usurper.  The 
South,  under  the  Constitution,  is  compelled  to  recognise  the  right  of  Lincoln 
as  the  head  of  the  government  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  North,  and 
indeed  the  whole  country,  are  bound  to  deny  and  contest  the  right  of  Davis 
to  exercise  authority  over  any  portion  of  it.  But  slavery  is  quite  a  different 
thing,  I  imagine,  from  the  institution  of  marriage.  I  can  see,  clearly  enough, 
wide  differences  between  the  relations  of  husband  and  wife  and  master  and 
slave.  The  husband  cannot  sell  the  wife.  He  cannot  mortgage  her.  He 
cannot  compel  her  to  work  in  trenches  nor  upon  fortifications.  He  has  no 
right  of  property  in,  nor  any  asserted  ownership  of  her,  while  the  master 
has  all  these  powers  over  the  slave,  and  claims  and  uses  him  as  property. 

"  The  value  of  the  slave  to  the  cause  of  the  rebellion  rests  upon  these  very 
facts,  and  slavery  is  an  element  of  strength  in  a  military  point  of  view 
because  of  the  absolute  control  which  the  master  exercises  over  the  slave. 

"  The  power  of  the  master  to  control  the  labor  and  services  of  the  slave 
once  at  an  end,  the  institution,  if  it  may  be  so  called,  so  far  from  being  an 
element  of  strength  to  the  rebellion  and  an  ally  to  its  arms,  becomes  rather 
an  element  of  weakness  and  an  open  enemy  to  its  treason. 

"If  slavery  is  an  institution,  it  is  so  simply  because  by  the  laws  or  cus 
toms  of  the  Southern  States  the  master  has  the  right  of  property  in  the 
negro.  This  asserted  right  of  property  is  all  there  is  of  slavery  as  an  insti 
tution.  By  the  laws  of  South  Carolina  the  ownership  of  negroes  is  as  much 
an  institution  as  the  ownership  of  horses,  as  by  those  local  laws  the  rights 
of  the  owner  are  in  each  case  the  same.  But  a  difference  is  made  between 
these  two  institutions,  in  that  the  one  is  called  '  domestic'  and  the  other  is 
not.  All  that  that  amounts  to  is  simply  this,  that  the  relations  between  the 


Il8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A     STORKS. 

negro  and  his  owner  are  domestic,  while  those  existing  between  the  horse 
and  his  owner  are  not.  I  cannot  see  that  this  fact  gives  to  the  owner  of 
the  negro  any  rights  superior  to  those  enjoyed  by  the  owner  of  the  horse. 
If  a  Southern  planter  should,  for  instance,  bring  his  pigs  into  his  house,  or 
keep  his  horses  under  the  same  roof  which  sheltered  his  own  family,  the 
relations  between  the  planter  and  his  pigs  and  horses  might  thereby  be 
sufficiently  intimate  and  familiar  to  make  them  domestic  ;  but  this  govern 
ment,  I  apprehend,  would  have  the  same  right  to  take  and  appropriate  the 
horses  or  the  pigs  that  it  would  have  had  they  been  treated  as  horses  and 
pigs  usually  are. 

"  The  right  thus  to  take  them,  and  thereby  break  up  those  domestic  rela 
tions,  rests  upon  the  broad  ground  that  they  are  property,  and  may  be  used 
against  the  government ;  and  the  right  is  none  the  less  because  the  property 
is  considered  as  particularly  valuable.  In  short,  if  slaves  are  to  be  regarded 
as  property,  then  the  right  of  the  government  to  take  them,  and  the  right 
of  the  Commander-in-Chief  to  order  them  to  be  taken,  are  undisputed.  If 
not  property,  then  the  South  has  no  right  to  complain.  If  the  slave  is  not  the 
property  of  the  master,  then  the  master  has  no  right  to  his  services,  and  the 
Commander-in-Chief  must  clearly  have  the  right  to  prevent  those  services 
being  in  any  way  used  either  to  strengthen  the  hands  of  the  rebellion 
or  to  resist  the  armies  of  which  the  Commander-in-Chief  is  the  head. 

"  Having  discussed,  as  freely  as  time  will  permit,  the  constitutionality  of  the 
proclamation,  I  proceed  to  consider  the  objections  which  have  been  urged 
against  the  rightfulness  of  military  arrests.  It  is  claimed  by  the  opponents 
of  the  administration  that  the  President  has  no  constitutional  right  to  sus 
pend  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  nor  has  Congress  that  right,  unless  the 
necessity  actually  exists,  and  that  of  the  existence  of  that  necessity  the  Courts 
have  the  right,  as  against  Congress,  to  determine.  The  right  to  suspend  the 
writ  of  habeas  corpus  is  derived  from  that  portion  of  the  Constitution  which 
declares  that  'the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall  not  be  sus 
pended,  unless  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public  safety  may 
require  it.'  The  precise  meaning  of  this  language  is  that  the  privilege  of 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  may  be  suspended,  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or 
invasion  the  public  safety  may  require  it,  but  not  in  any  other  cases.  Two 
questions  here  arise,  the  first  of  which  is, — By  whom  may  the  privilege  of 
the  writ  be  suspended  ?  Second, — Who  is  to  determine  when  the  public 
safety  requires  its  suspension  ? 

"The  right  of  the  President  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  is  deduc- 
ible,  in  my  judgment,  from  the  Constitution  itself,  from  the  history  of  the 
particular  clause  in  question,  and  from  the  necessities  of  the  case.  Now, 
it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  Constitution  does  not  limit  this  right  to  any 
particular  branch  of  the  government.  It  does  not  declare  that  Congress 
shall  not  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ,  and  if  it  did,  it  would  certainly 
carry  with  it  the  idea  that  no  power  but  Congress  could  suspend  it.  That 
the  Convention  which  framed  the  Constitution  did  not  intend  to  limit  the 
right  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  to  Congress  alone,  becomes  the 
more  clearly  apparent  in  view  of  the  history  of  this  clause.  Mr.  Pinckncy, 


LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.  119 

a  delegate  in  that  Convention,  on  the  27th  of  August,  1787,  moved  the 
adoption  of  the  following  clause ; — '  The  privileges  and  benefits  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  shall  be  enjoyed  in  this  government  in  the  most  expedi 
tious  and  ample  manner,  and  shall  not  be  suspended  by  the  legislature 
except  upon  the  most  urgent  and  pressing  occasions,'  etc.  This  proposition 
clearly  indicated  a  disposition  to  limit  the  right  of  suspension  to  Congress 
alone,  and  had  it  passed  in  that  shape  it  would  probably  have  been  so 
construed.  But  that  the  Convention  did  not  intend  thus  to  limit  the  exer 
cise  of  this  power  is  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  the  proposition  of  Mr. 
Pinckney  was  not  adopted  by  the  Convention,  but  that  Mr.  Gouverneur 
Morris  moved  instead  that  'the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  shall 
not  be  suspended  unless  when,  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  the  public 
safety  may  require  it.1  This  the  Convention  adopted,  and  thus  it  now 
stands.  The  whole  matter  may  then  be  thus  summed  up :  The  Convention 
which  framed  the  Constitution  were  asked  to  limit  the  right  of  suspending 
the  privilege  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  to  Congress,  which  they  refused 
to  do, — showing  clearly  that  they  did  not  intend  to  confine  the  exercise  of 
that  power  to  Congress  alone,  but  to  repose  it  either  in  Congress  or  the 
President,  as  the  exigencies  of  the  case  might  demand.  But  it  is  argued 
that  because  this  clause  is  found  in  that  section  of  the  Constitution  which 
is  otherwise  merely  restrictive  of  the  powers  of  Congress,  that  therefore  this 
shall  be  so  considered.  This  is  easily  answered  by  the  fact  that  the  clause, 
as  it  now  stands,  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Morris  as  a  distinct  and  independ 
ent  proposition,  was  adopted  as  such,  and  not  at  the  same  time  with  the 
other  portions  of  the  section  in  which  it  is  embraced.  It  found  its  way 
into  that  section  not  by  any  direct  action  of  the  Convention,  but  was 
placed  there  by  the  'committee  of  style  and  arrangement.'  And  this  \vas 
the  whole  duty  of  that  committee.  In  this  particular  case,  the  impropriety 
of  inferring  any  particular  intention  of  the  Convention  from  the  position 
which  the  clause  now  holds  is  shown  by  recurring  to  the  journal  of  the 
Convention,  from  which  it  appears  that  Mr.  Morris  made  the  motion 
expressly,  and  so  it  was  adopted  by  the  Convention,  as  an  amendment  to 
the  Judiciary  article.  There  is  nothing,  therefore,  either  in  the  language 
of  the  Constitution  itself  nor  in  fts  contemporary  history  at  all  inconsistent 
with  the  right  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  suspend  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the 
public  safety  may  require  it. 

"There  being,  then,  no  special  limitatiqn  of  the  right  to  suspend  the 
privileges  of  the  writ,  it  can,  I  think,  be  demonstrated  that  the  President 
as  well  as  Congress  must  at  times  have  that  right.  The  object  to  be 
accomplished  is  the  preservation  of  the  public  safety  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
the  Constitution  particularly  declares  that  the  public  safety  cannot  be  suffi 
ciently  jeopardized  except  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion.  In  no  event, 
therefore,  except  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  can  the  privilege  of  the 
writ  be  suspended  ;  and  not  then,  unless  the  public  safety  may  demand  it. 
The  time  when  this  power  may  be  exercised  is  pointed  out  by  the  Constitu 
tion.  The  purpose  for  which  it  may  be  thus  exercised  is  also  declared. 
Indeed,  the  fixing  of  the  time  indicates  the  purposes  to  be  achieved. 


I2O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"  If  the  doctrine  contended  for  by  the  opponents  of  the  administration 
were  correct,  that  Congress  alone  could  suspend  the  \vrit,  the  very  pur 
pose  and  object  of  this  important  feature  of  the  Constitution  might  be  defeated. 
The  nation  might  be  convulsed  as  it  now  is  by  a  rebellion,  or  invaded  by 
foreign  foes  :  the  public  safety  might  imperatively  demand  the  suspension  of 
the  writ  of  habeas  corpus ;  yet  Congress  might  not  be  in  session,  and  the 
imperative  demands  of  public  safety  would  remain  unanswered.  The  object 
to  be  secured  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  is  the  public  safety.  To  this 
end  the  Constitution  has  declared  that  the  privilege  of  the  writ  may  be  sus 
pended  ;  and  in  view  of  the  fact  that  this  suspension,  if  left  to  Congress 
alone,  might  not  be  effected  at  such  time  as  the  public  safety  might  require 
it  to  be  done,  it  has  wisely  left  undetermined  the  question  as  to  what  par 
ticular  branch  of  the  government  shall  exercise  this  power,  leaving  that  to 
be  solved  by  the  emergencies  contemplated  by  the  clause  which  conferred 
the  power.  As  representing  the  military  arm  of  the  government, — as  being 
the  head  of  its  armies, — and  the  necessities  which  call  for  the  suspension 
of  the  writ  being  in  most  cases  of  a  military  character, — it  would  seem 
obvious  that  whenever  Congress  is  not  in  session  the  President  of  the  United 
States  must  have  the  power  to  preserve  the  public  safety  in  the  manner 
indicated  by  the  Constitution. 

"But  who  is  to  judge  of  the  necessity  which  would  justify  the  exercise 
of  this  power?  The  character  of  the  necessity  is  determined  by  the  con 
stitution  ;  namely,  when  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion  the  public  safety 
may  require  it.  In  such  cases  it  is  necessary,  of  course,  before  the  privilege 
of  the  writ  can  be  suspended,  that  rebellion  or  invasion  must  exist  as  a 
matter  of  fact ;  and  beyond  that,  the  public  safety  must  be  so  imperilled  as 
to  make  the  suspension  of  the  writ  necessary  to  its  preservation.  Now,  it 
would  be  absurd  to  insist  that  the  right  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  should  be  exercised  either  by  Congress  or  by  the  Presi 
dent,  but  that  the  time  when  it  should  be  done  should  be  submitted  to  the 
judiciary.  Clearly  enough,  in  clothing  Congress  or  the  President  with  the 
right  to  suspend  the  privilege  of  the  writ  when  its  suspension  becomes 
necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  public  safety,  the  right  of  determining 
the  existence  of  that  necessity  must  also  rest  either  in  Congress  or  the 
President.  To  say  that  the  Supreme  Court  has  a  supervisory  control  over 
the  exercise  of  this  discretion  is  to  deny  its  existence  altogether  elsewhere  ; 
for  if,  when  the  President  exercises  his  discretion  as  to  the  necessity,  the 
Courts  may  supervise  it,  then  it  becomes  not  the  President's  discretion  but 
the  discretion  of  the  Court ;  and  the  Constitution  would  be  made  to  read 
thus: — 'The  writ  of  habeas  corpus  may  be  suspended  by  Congress  or  the 
President  in  cases  of  rebellion  or  invasion,  whenever  the  Supreme  Court 
shall  deem  such  suspension  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  public 
safety.1 

"It  is  alleged,  however,  that  the  arrests  made  by  the  government  have 
been  an  unconstitutional  interference  with  the  rights  of  the  citizens, and  that 
no  such  arrests  can  be  made  in  a  community  professedly  loyal  without  the 
process  of  law.  The  liberty  of  speech  and  the  freedom  of  the  press,  we 


LINCOLN  S    EMANCIPATION    PROCLAMATION.  121 

are  told,  have  been  invaded  and  trampled  upon  without  justification  or 
necessity.  The  arrest  of  Vallandigham  has  excited  more  discussion  than 
any  other,  and  upon  that  a  direct  issue  has  been  made  with  the  adminis 
tration.  This  arrest  is  denounced  on  the  ground  that  Vallandigham  was  not 
connected  either  with  the  army  or  navy  ;  that  Ohio  is  a  loyal  State,  and 
that  war  does  not  prevail  there  ;  that  no  military  operations  were  being 
actively  carried  on  there  ;  and  that  consequently  martial  law  could  not  be 
declared,  nor  could  the  laws  of  war  be  applied  to  any  of  its  citizens  not 
actively  engaged  in  the  military  service.  But  it  is  not  true  that  the  opera 
tions  of  this  war  are  confined  to  the  immediate  territory  in  which  battles 
are  fought  and  armies  are  moved.  There  is  war  as  well  in  Ohio  as  in 
Virginia.  Wherever  there  is  any  of  the  slightest  opposition  to  the  government 
in  the  prosecution  of  the  war,  or  the  slightest  assistance  rendered  to  the 
rebellion  in  its  efforts  to  overthrow  the  government,  there  is  war.  In  some 
portions  of  the  country,  loyalty  dominates  and  controls  society.  In  others, 
rebellion  controls  and  dominates.  There  is  no  place  so  dark  but  that 
some  prayer  is  offered  for  the  success  of  our  cause  ;  there  is  no  place  so 
light  but  that  lurking  treason  may  be  found. 

"The  agencies  invoked  by  this  rebellion  to  its  support  are  multiform.  The 
means  which  it  uses  to  accomplish  success  are  various.  The  rebellion 
demands  not  only  soldiers  and  cannon,  and  the  ordinary  implements  of  war, 
but  sympathy  and  argument  to  support  its  cause  at  home,  to  weaken  its 
enemies,  and  to  give  it  dignity  and  support  abroad.  Whoever  aids  the 
rebellion  in  either  of  these  particulars;  whoever,  by  speech  or  writing,  con-, 
tributes  to  the  unity  of  its  people,  to  the  weakening  of  our  own,  to  the 
undermining  of  public  confidence  in  our  eventual  success,  to  the  with 
holding  of  troops  from  the  service,  to  their  desertion  when  once  engaged 
in  the  service,  is  as  much  an  enemy  to  the  government  and  as  much  at 
war  with  it  as  he  who  carries  arms  in  his  hands.  Wherever  such  a  con 
dition  of  things  exists  there  is  insurrection, — there  is  war.  Whoever  engages 
in  such  an  enterprise  is  an  insurgent.  All  these  are  the  means  which  the 
rebellion  calls  to  its  aid ;  these  are  the  elements  which  it  enlists  in 
its  behalf;  these  are  the  instruments  by  means  of  which,  as  well  as  by 
armies,  it  wages  war  against  the  nation.  All  these  helps  combine  to 
make  up  the  strength  and  power  of  the  insurrection  ;  and  we,  therefore, 
while  at  war  with  the  insurrection,  are  at  war  with  every  part  of  it.  Our 
purpose  is  to  cripple  and  destroy  every  element  of  its  strength  ;  to  meet  and 
overcome  every  means  which  it  uses  for  the  futherance  of  its  designs.  If 
armies  are  arrayed  against  the  government,  we  meet  and  crush  them.  If 
the  institution  of  slavery  is  used  against  the  national  life,  we  meet  and 
crush  it.  If  seditious  speech  and  seditious  writing  are  used  to  weaken  our 
own  strength  and  encourage  and  embolden  the  adversary,  we  meet  and  crush 
that  as  well.  All  these  agencies  are  parts  of  the  insurrection,  and  we  are 
at  war  with  every  part  of  it.  Whatever  strengthens  rebels  weakens  us ; 
whatever  encourages  and  emboldens  them  dispirits  and  disheartens  us. 
Wherever  any  of  these  means  are  used  against  us,  there  is  insurrection  ;  and 
wherever  there  is  insurrection  there  is  war.  It  would  be  strange  indeed  if 


122  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

rebels  should  have  greater  rights   against  the  government  than  the  govern 
ment  possesses  for  its  own  defence. 

"To  me  it  appears  that  the  right  of  the  military  power  to  arrest  and 
punish  the  citizen  depends  not  upon  the  place  where  the  alleged  offence  is 
commited,  but  upon  the  nature  of  the  offence.  If  Vallandigham,  at  Dayton, 
discourages  einlistments,  encourages  desertions,  creates  disaffection  and 
excites  disco'ntent  in  the  army,  I  can  see  no  good  reason  why  he  has  not 
made  himself  as  amenable  to  military  trial  and  punishment  as  if  the  same 
offence  had  been  committed  at  Vicksburg  or  Chattanooga.  What  difference 
is  there  in  the  nature  of  the  offence  and  the  consequences  which  flow  from 
it, — between  persuading  the  soldier  to  desert  by  arguments  addressed  to  him 
in  his  camp  and  addressed  to  him  from  a  distance?  What  difference  is 
there  between  actually  going  to  the  field  where  military  operations  are  con 
ducted,  and  enticing  the  soldier  to  desert,  and  remaining  at  home  and 
accomplishing  the  same  object  by  writing  him  letters?  Any  step  taken,  any 
means  used  which  may  weaken  or  tend  to  weaken  the  military  arm  of  the 
government,  no  matter  where  that  step  is  taken  or  those  means  are  used,  is 
an  offence  against  the  laws  of  war,  and  properly  punished  by  those  laws. 
The  laws  of  war  prevail  in  time  of  war,  and  that  military  power  may  be 
exerted  to  protect  and  preserve  armies  is,  it  seems  to  me,  quite  too  clear  to 
admit  of  argument.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  has  said  that 
4  if  war  be  actually  levied,— that  is,  if  a  body  of  men  be  actually  assembled 
for  the  purpose  of  effecting  by  force  a  treasonable  purpose — all  those  who 
perform  any  part,  however  minute  or  however  remote  from  the  scene  of 
action,  and  who  are  actually  leagued  in  the  general  conspiracy,  are  to  be 
considered  as  traitors.'  The  right  of  the  President,  therefore,  to  order  the 
arrest  of  such  men  as  Vallandigham  is  embraced  clearly  within  the  scope 
of  his  duties  as  Commander-in-Chief.  Whenever,  for  the  security  of  the 
armies  in  the  field,  or  the  preservation  of  our  strength  at  home,  such  arrests 
become  necessary,  then  let  them  be  made.  The  freedom  of  speech  and  of 
the  press  are  indeed  the  highest  privileges,  but  when  these  are  used  to  over 
throw  the  very  government  under  which  they  are  enjoyed,  then  they  cease 
to  be  rights,  but  are  wrongs  which  assume  the  largest  proportions  and  are 
fruitful  of  the  most  alarming  consequences.  When  Vallandigham  roams 
about  the  country,  seeking  by  every  means  to  excite  popular  discontent ;  to 
impair  and  weaken  the  efficiency  of  our  arms ;  to  discourage  enlistments ;  to 
encourage  desertions ;  to  weaken  ourselves  and  to  strengthen  the  rebellion, 
he  is  simply  turning  against  the  government  the  very  privileges  which  he 
derives  from  the  government.  I  fail  to  see  that  Vallandigham  possesses  any 
greater  rights  to  stir  up  sedition  among  us  here  than  he  would  have  to  work 
to  the  same  end  were  he  in  the  rebel  States.  If  Vallandigham  should,  as  a 
citizen  of  Virginia,  endeavor  to  weaken  our  strength  by  speeches  and  by 
publications,  no  one  would  doubt  the  right  of  the  government  to  stop  his 
speaking  whenever  it  could  lay  its  hands  upon  him.  I  cannot  understand 
how  it  is  that  he  has  larger  privileges  in  Ohio  than  in  Virginia.  I  fail  to  see 
that  seditious  speeches  or  conduct  is  any  the  less  an  offence  when  perpe 
trated  in  Ohio,  which  is  confessedly  loyal,  than  when  perpetrated  in  South 


LINCOLN'S  EMANCIPATION  PROCLAMATION.  123 

Carolina,  which  is  confessedly  disloyal ;  and  hence  I  say  that  in  spouting 
sedition  in  a  loyal  community,  where  converts  to  such  sedition  may  be  made, 
Vallandigham  is  as  guilty  in  fact  and  inflicts  greater  damage  than  he  would 
by  seditious  talk  in  a  disloyal  community,  where  no  converts  were  to  be 
made.  The  President,  as  I  have  already  said,  is  clothed  with  all  the 
powers  of  Commander-in-Chief.  He  may  as  well  meet  and  overcome  resis 
tance  to  the  government  here  as  elsewhere.  If  such  resistance  is  by 
speaking  or  writing,  he  may  overcome  that  by  arresting  and  punishing  the 
seditious  speaker  or  writer.  This  is  precisely  what  has  been  done  in  the 
case  of  Vallandigham.  When  brought  before  the  court  on  the  writ  of 
habeas  corpus,  the  court  refused  his  discharge  on  the  ground  that  the 
offence  with  which  he  was  charged  was  one  against  the  laws  and  usages 
of  war,  against  the  military  arm  of  the  government,  and  therefore  properly 
cognizable  by  military  tribunals.  By  a  military  tribunal  he  was  tried,  con 
victed,  and  punished.  Of  his  guilt  there  can  be  no  doubt.  He  sought  to 
break  up  and  destroy  the  army.  He  voluntarily  and  vauntingly  brought 
himself  in  conflict  with  the  military  arm  of  the  nation,  and  he  was  crushed 
in  the  encounter.  .The  military  power  being  employed  for  the  preservation 
of  the  nation,  and  Vallandigham  for  its  destruction,  they  met  as  inevitably 
as  the  army  of  Pemberton  met  that  of  Grant  at  Vicksburg,  and  with  like 
results.  If  Mr.  Vallandigham  and  his  followers  do  not  like  the  use  of 
military  force  against  them,  they  had  better  not  array  themselves  against 
military  force  ;  and  whenever  they  choose  to  do  so,  they  may  be  prepared 
to  take  the  consequences.  . 

"An  opposition  to  the  government  as  bitter  and  malignant  as  that  which 
proceeds  from  any  other  source  is  made  on  the  ground  of  the  employment 
of  negroes  as  soldiers.  I  am  unable  to  see  why  it  is  not  infinitely  better 
that  the  negro  should  fight  for,  rather  than  against  us.  There  certainly  can 
be  no  legal  objection  to  it,  for,  if  we  have  the  right  to  deprive  the  master 
of  the  services  of  the  negro,  we  clearly  have  as  much  right  to  require  the 
services  of  the  negro  in  our  own  behalf  as  we  have  to  command  the 
services  of  white  men.  I  am  not  prepared  to  admit  that  the  negro  is 
relieved  from  his  responsibilities  to  aid  the  government  because  of  his  color. 
I  know  of  no  provision  in  the  Constitution  which  declares  of  what  color  our 
armies  shall  be  constituted.  There  being,  then,  no  legal  objection,  it 
becomes  a  question  of  policy  merely,  and  to  the  past  history  of  the  nation 
I  appeal  for  the  determination  of  that  question.  When  I  remember  that 
the  first  blood  shed  in  the  revolution  was  the  blood  of  a  negro,  Crispus 
Attucks;  that  at  Bunker  Hill  negroes  fought  side  by  side  with  white  men, 
and  that  among  the  heroes  of  that  day  is  Peter  Salem,  the  negro  ;  that  in 
Massachusetts,  negroes,  bond  and  free,  were  enlisted  in  the  Continental 
armies ;  that  Connecticut  passed  laws  for  that  very  purpose,  giving,  as  the 
reward  of  such  service,  freedom  to  the  slave ;  that  Rhode  Island  sent  its 
negro  brigade,  which  fought  under  the  eyes  of  Washington  and  Lafayette,, 
and  always  with  credit ;  that  more  negroes  were  in  the  service  of  the  coun 
try,  enlisted  from  the  New  England  States,  than  there  were  white  soldiers 


124  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

from  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  ;  that  the  legislatures  of  Maryland,  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  authorized  the  enlistment  of  negroes,  bond 
and  free,  with  the  approbation  of  every  general  in  our  armies ;  that  by 
direction  of  Congress  Henry  Laurens  went  to  Georgia  and  South  Carolina, 
with  all  the  aid  which  Washington  could  render  him,  to  enlist  negroes 
there  in  the  service  of  the  country, — a  step  made  necessary  because  neither 
Georgia  nor  South  Carolina  had  contributed  their  quota  of  troops ;  that  of 
the  army  of  Washington  at  Monmonth  755  were  negroes;  that  during  our  last 
war  with  Great  Britain  the  services  of  the  negro  were  again  invoked  ;  that 
one  fourth  of  Perry's  force  at  Lake  Erie  were  negroes;  that  Jackson 
enlisted  them  at  New  Orleans,  promised  them  their  freedom  for  their  ser 
vices,  and  faithfully  kept  his  promise  good ;  and  when,  added  to  all  these 
teachings  of  our  past  history,  I  remember  the  services  of  the  slaves  at 
Milliken's  Bend,  Port  Hudson,  and  Fort  Wagner,  I  prefer  to  base  my 
judgment  as  to  the  expediency  and  policy  of  this  measure  rather  upon  the 
records  of  our  history,  the  teachings  of  our  experience,  and  the  united  testi 
mony  of  the  great  men  and  the  great  events  of  our  national  career,  than 
upon  the  carping  criticisms  of  the  mere  politicians,  or  thfi  elegant  conserva 
tism  of  Governor  Seymour  and  'his  friends.1  Washington,  Jefferson,  Adams, 
Laurens,  Greene,  Lafayette,  Hamilton,  Jay,  Knox,  and  Henry,  of  our 
revolutionary  history, — Jackson,  Perry,  Scott,  and  Van  Rensselaer,  in  our 
more  modern  history, — judged  it  wise  to  use  the  negro  as  a  soldier,  and 
acted  upon  that  judgment.  Seymour,  Vallandigham,  Voorhees,  and  Single 
ton  think  otherwise.  I  have  no  difficulty  in  making  choice  as  to  whom  I 
shall  follow.  I  have 'already  made  my  choice.  I  prefer  the  precedents  of 
our  early  history,  and  the  teachings  of  the  wise  and  great  men  who  have 
made  that  history  glorious,  to  the  sophisms  of  Seymour  and  his  associates. 
I  shall  act  upon  that  preference  in  the  future ;  and  I  doubt  not  that  the 
great  mass  of  the  people  will  also. 


CHAPTER  IX, 

A   CELEBRATED  LIBEL  CASE. 

1865. 
A   SOLDIER'S   WIDOW   COMPLAINS    OF    OPPRESSION — THE   FACTS   PUBLISHED 

IN  THE  CHICAGO  TIMES — THE  TIMES  SUED  FOR  LIBEL — MR.  STORRS* 
ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  DEFENSE — A  TERRIBLE  FLAGELLATION  OF  THE 
PLAINTIFF  AND  HIS  WITNESSES — THE  CASE  ILLUSTRATED  BY  SCRIPTURE 
PARABLES— APPEAL  TO  THE  HUMANITY  OF  THE  JURY— THE  SUIT  WITH 
DRAWN  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  MR.  STORRS*  SPEECH. 

IN  1865  Mr.  Storrs  was  retained  for  the  defense  in  an  action 
for  libel  brought  by  Judge  Van  H.  Higgins  against  Wilbur 
F.  Storey,  proprietor  of  the  Chicago  Times.  The  case  excited 
widespread  interest,  both  from  the  prominent  position  in  the  commu 
nity  which  the  parties  occupied,  and  from  the  peculiar  nature  of  the 
facts  involved.  It  brought  Mr.  Storrs  at  once  to  the  highest  round  of 
popularity  and  eminence  at  the  Chicago  bar,  and  started  him 
with  a  well-earned  and  firmly  established  reputation  upon  that 
brilliant  career  of  professional  prosperity  which  was  so  suddenly 
terminated  by  his  premature  death.  His  management  of  the  case 
for  the  defense  was  marked  by  all  the  skill  and  ability  which 
characterized  him  in  greater  cases  in  later  times ;  and  his  closing 
argument  was  such  a  terrible  flagellation  of  the  plaintiff  and  his 
witnesses  as  had  never  been  heard  before  in  a  Chicago  court 
room. 

The  suit  grew  out  of  the  publication  in  the  Times  of  an  affida 
vit  made  by  the  widow  of  a  soldier  named  McMurray,  who  was 
killed  in  one  of  the  earliest  battle  of  the  rebellion.  In  the  year 
1855,  Higgins  had  sold  to  Mr.  McMurray  three  houses  and  lots 

125 


126  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

for  $4800.  He  agreed  to  give  him  eight  years  to  pay  for  them. 
McMurray  was  a  young  man  and  had  just  been  married.  The 
crash  of  1857  came  and  prostrated  all  business,  but  McMurray 
struggled  along  until  he  had  paid  $1600  in  money  and  $3500  hi 
improvements  on  the  property.  Then  the  civil  war  broke  out,  and 
Higgins  made  an  arrangement  with  McMurray  by  which  the 
latter  was  to  join  the  army,  and  apply  $100  a  month  out  of  his  pay 
towards  the  extinction  of  his  debt  to  Higgins.  Mrs.  McMurray 
had  strong  objections  to  this  proposal ;  she  did  not  want  her 
husband  to  go  to  the  war ;  but  her  objections  were  so  far  over 
come  by  Higgins  promising  to  give  her  a  house  and  lot  in  the 
event  of  her  husband's  death,  and  to  give  him  eight  or  nine 
years  more  to  pay  in  any  event,  that  McMurray  did  go  to  the  war. 
His  death  followed  in  a  short  time.  His  dead  body  was  brought 
home,  and  buried  in  Chicago.  In  about  six  weeks  afterwards, 
Higgins  commenced  a  suit  to  foreclose  the  contract,  in  his  own 
court,  where  he  was  one  of  the  judges.  A  decree  \vas  rendered 
against  the  poor  widow,  and  the  property  sold,  Higgins  becom 
ing  the  purchaser.  He  sold  the  certificate  of  purchase  to  a  Mrs. 
McDonald,  whom  he  owed.  After  the  expiration  of  the  time 
of  redemption  he  filed  a  petition  for  a  writ  of  possession.  Mrs. 
McMurray  opposed  the  petition  by  filing  counter  affidavits 
showing  the  facts,  and  the  judge  who  heard  the  case  denied  the 
petition  and  refused  the  writ  of  possession.  The  case  attracted 
the  attention  of  Mr.  Storey,  and  the  widow's  statement,  or  the 
substance  of  it,  was  published  in  the  Times.  Judge  Higgins 
thereupon  brought  suit  against  Mr.  Storey  for  libel.  The  defense 
svas  the  general  issue,  or  a  plea  of  not  guilty,  and  one  of  justi 
fication  ;  that  the  defendant  published  the  statement  with  good 
motives  for  justifiable  ends,  and  that  he  had  a  right  to  believe 
that  it  was  true. 

The  case  was  tried  before  Judge  Williams  in  the  Circuit  Court. 
The  room  was  crowded  thoughout  the  trial ;  the  patriotic  feelings 
aroused  by  the  war  lending  special  interest  to  this  case.  Mr.  Storrs' 
closing  argument  for  the  defense  was  delivered  on  the  day  after 
a  national  Thanksgiving  for  the  success  of  the  Union  arms  ;  and 
every  word  was  listened  to  with  eager  and  earnest  attention.  He 
began  as  follows : 

"The    rest    which    yesterday's    intermission    afforded    us    from    this   very 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE.  1 2/ 

•wearisome  and  protracted  trial,  was,  I  presume,  quite  as  grateful  to  your 
selves  as  it  certainly  was  to  me.  It  seems  eminently  fitting  and  appropriate,  after 
we  have  spent  one  day  of  thanksgiving  for  the  many  blessings  which 
the  patriotism  and  sacrifices  of  our  soldiers  have  secured  to  us,  that  we 
should  come  together  this  bright  and  beautiful  morning  further  to  con 
sider  and  finally  to  decide  a  case,  the  result  of  which  will  determine  in 
just  what  estimation  we  really  and  substantially  hold  these  services. 

"The  custom  of  an  annual  thanksgiving  is  as  old  as  our  history,  and 
it  is  as  beautiful  as  it  is  old.  It  is  then  that  families  which  have  long 
been  separated  come  together  under  the  old  roof-tree  and  the  fires  of 
affection  are  relighted  about  all  our  homes.  It  is  then  that  the  old 
domestic  associations  are  revived,  and  those  better  and  nobler  emotions, 
which  a  year's  contact  with  the  world  may  have  nearly  buried,  are 
again  renewed  ;  and  I  am  sure  that  yesterday,  while  you  were  home 
around  your  abundant  boards,  while  you  had  cause  for  rejoicing  in  the 
comforts  around  you,  you  did  not  forget  the  poor  and  sorrowing  whom 
we  have  always  with  us.  Yesterday's  thanksgiving  was  one  of  a  pecu 
liar  character,  and  the  reasons  for  our  rejoicings  were  of  a  particular 
and  especial  nature.  We  have  passed  through  four  years  of  war,  and  the 
dark  clouds  which  have  hung  over  our  country  for  all  that  time  have 
finally  been  lifted  and  riven.  Our  nation  has  been  saved,  and  the  sil 
ken  banners  of  peace  are  unfurled  over  all  the  republic.  The  Almighty- 
has  carried  us  through  the  perils  of  a  great  rebellion.  The  great  prin 
ciple  of  self-government  has  been  vindicated  on  this  continent,  and 
its  blessings  will  be  perpetuated  for  ages  to  come.  It  is  for  these  things 
we  felt  devout  and  thankful  yesterday,  and  also  to  the  soldiers  who 
bared  their  breasts  and  periled  their  lives  that  this  nation  might  be 
saved.  Our  rejoicing  was  not  unmixed  with  pain,  for  we  could  not 
help  remembering  that  there  were  vacancies  in  many  a  family  circle, 
and  that  many  a  fireside  was  wreathed  with  mourning.  We  could  not 
help  remembering  that  the  sable  wreaths'  of  woe  shadowed  many  a 
home,  into  which  should  no  more  enter  the  father,  the  husband,  the 
brother,  or  the  son,  who  would  never  more  respond  to  the  call  for  the 
annual  festival  of  love  and  affection.  And  I  am  sure  that  in  all  our 
Western  homes,  while  we  sorrowed  with  those  who  thus  sorrowed,  and 
while  we  honored  the  living  brave,  we  did  not  forget  the  glorious 
dead  ;  I  am  sure  that  in  our  thanksgiving  yesterday  we  did  honor  to 
them,  and  that  we  will  not  cease  to  remember  and  to  honor,  for  all 
time  to  come,  those  soldiers,  and  the  blessings  and  the  name  they  have 
left  behind  them.  And  I  doubt  not  that  yesterday  many  of  you,  and 
perhaps  all  of  you,  thought  of  the  families  of  those  soldiers, — of  the  soldier's 
widow,  soldier's  child,  and  particular)'  of  this  woman,  and  how  many  claims 
she  had  upon  our  sympathy,  upon  our  kindest  regards  and  our  tender- 
est  affection.  And  you  might,  perhaps,  have  drawn  two  contrasting 
pictures  yesterday  ;  the  one  showing  the  plaintiff  in  his  luxurious  and 
well-appointed  home  with  his  family  all  about  him  in  a  proper  attitude 


128  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

for  devotion  and  thanksgiving,  or  in  a  spacious  church,  where  the  sub 
dued  light  came  streaming  in  through  stained  windows  upon  cushioned 
seats  and  gilded  prayer-book,  joining  in  the  exercises  appropriate  to  the 
day  and  the  occasion,  thanking  God  that  such  as  McMurray  had  secured 
to  him  the  blessings  of  a  quiet  country  and  a  peaceful  home  ;  and, 
amid  the  pealing  harmonies  of  the  organ,  leaving  the  lofty  sanctuary, 
satisfied  that  he  had  violated  no  statute,  and  that  he  had  studiously 
observed  all  the  decorous  proprieties  of  life.  On  the  other  hand  was 
this  poor,  smitten,  helpless,  childless  woman,  in  an  obscure  and  remote 
portion  of  the  city.  Thanksgiving  had  no  charms  for  her,  because  it 
revived  in  her  the  memory  of  her  great  loss,  and  with  bowed  head  and 
streaming  eyes  she  knelt  before  God  in  her  lonely  room.  It  was  not 
without  hope  that  she  thanked  God  that  her  husband  had  died  in  a 
cause  so  noble,  and  she  only  asked  that  that  justice  to  which  she  was 
well  entitled  from  this  people  and  community  should  be  meted  out  to 
her,  and  that  her  cause  should  be  vindicated  by  this  jury.  For  it  is 
her  cause.  The  record  tells  you  that  Judge  Higgins  is  the  plaintiff,  and 
that  Storey  and  Worden  are  the  defendants ;  but  your  hearts  tell  you 
that  this  woman  is  the  plaintiff,  and  that  Higgins  is  the  defendant.  If 
a  stranger  had  been  in  this  court  while  this  trial  was  in  progress,  and 
he  had  never  examined  the  record,  could  he  have  come  to  any  other 
conclusion  ?  The  simple  question  to  be  decided  is  whether  this  woman 
has  been  justly  treated  by  this  man.  These  defendants  here  are  merely 
nominal  defendants.  They  are  made  defendants  because  they  have 
espoused  the  widow's  cause,  and  because  they  dared  to  give  to  the 
public  the  facts  in  her  case,  and  to  ask  that  the  public  punish  the  man 
who  has  so  outrageously  wronged  her.  That  is  the  position  that  they 
hold  in  this  case.  They  represent  the  widow  ;  and  if  you  say  that  they 
are  not  guilty,  but  that  they  have  done  right  in  exposing  to  the  eyes 
of  the  public  the  wrongs  which  that  woman  has  suffered,  then  you 
vindicate  the  cause  of  the '  soldier's  widow,  and  you  assert  the  better 
cause  of  common  humanity  and  honorable  dealings  between  man  and 
man." 

After  recapitulating  the  circumstances  out  of  which  the 
trouble  between  Mrs.  McMurray  and  Higgins  arose,  and  in 
which  the  trouble  between  Higgins  and  the  Times  originated, 
Mr.  Storrs  said  : — 

"The  substantial  facts  that  we  have  alleged  in  our  justification  are, 
that  Higgins  induced  McMurray  to  go  to  the  war  under  promise  of  pro 
tection  to  his  family ;  that  he  agreed  to  give  him  eight  or  nine  years 
in  any  event  to  pay  for  the  property ;  that,  in  the  event  of  his  death, 
he  would  secure  to  his  widow  one  of  the  houses  and  lots ;  that 
McMurray  died,  and  Higgins,  in  violation  of  his  promise,  soon  after 
commenced  a  suit  in  his  own  court  to  foreclose  the  contract,  and  has 
tened  it  to  a  decree ;  that  Higgins  purchased  the  property  under  the 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE. 

decree,  the  widow  having  a  year  in  which  to  redeem ;  that  the  widow 
employed  Wilson  and  Asay  as  her  counsel  to  take  the  case  to  the 
Supreme  Court,  and  that  they  were  going  to  take  it  there,  but  were 
prevented  from  doing  so  by  Higgins  agreeing  to  find  a  purchaser  who 
would  pay  #400  for  the  right  of  redemption ;  that  Higgins  violated  this 
promise,  and  a  petition  for  a  writ  of  possession  was  filed,  and  argued 
and  refused.  These  are  the  facts  we  have  substantially  set  up  in  our 
plea,  and  the  facts  we  are  called  upon  to  investigate. 

"Now,  one  step  further,  for  it  will  aid  us  in  our  investigation  if  we 
understand  which  of  these  facts  are  controverted.  That  Higgins  com 
menced  suit  in  his  own  court  for  the  foreclosure  of  the  contract  and 
obtained  a  decree,  is  proved  by  the  record  of  the  court.  It  is  shown 
by  the  bill  filed,  and  by  all  the  proofs  in  the  case,  and  is  not  denied 
here ;  and  therefore  we  need  not  trouble  ourselves  any  further  about 
that.  That  he  obtained  a  decree  in  his  own  court  is  a  fact  patent  in 
the  case  to  every  one.  That  he  purchased  the  property  under  that 
decree  is  shown  by  the  record,  and  is  not  denied.  That  Wilson  and 
Asay*  were  employed  to  take  the  case  to  the  Supreme  Court  is  not 
denied.  That  Higgins  promised  to*  find  a  purchaser  who  would  pay 
£400,  for  the  right  of  redemption  is  proved  by  Judge  \Vilson,  and  is  not 
attempted  to  be  denied.  That  he  violated  that  promise  is  also  proved 
by  Judge  Wilson,  and  is  a  fact  uncontradicted  and  uncontradictable  by 
the  facts  in  this  case.  That  the  petition  for  the  writ  of  possession  is 
filed  is  proved  by  the  writ  itself.  That  it  was  resisted  and  denied  is 
proved  by  the  affidavits  on  file,  and  by  Judge  Wilson,  and  it  is  not 
denied.  These  are  the  uncontroverted  facts. 

There  are  but  three  facts  about  which  there  is  any  dispute ;  just  three 
facts.  WTe  have  sifted  the  vast  volume  of  chaff  out  of  this  case,  and 
now  we  have  got  at  the  heart  of  it,  and  can  see  precisely  what  is 
necessary  for  us  to  discuss,  and  what  you  are  called  upon  to  consider. 
The  first  controverted  fact  of  any  importance  in  this  case, — the  first  question 
about  which  any  dispute  arises, — is,  Did  Higgins  induce  McMurray  to  go  to 
the  war?  The  second  is,  Did  he  promise  to  be  a  brother  and  a  protector 
to  his  family,  and  to  give  her  one  of  the  houses  and  lots  in  the  event  of 
his  death,  and  eight  or  nine  years  to  pay  for  them  all  in  any  event?  And, 
third*,  Was  this  suit  hastened  to  a  decree  ? 

These  are  all  the  controverted  facts  in  the  case.  There  are  no  other  facts 
that  are  disputed,  or  about  which  there  can  be  any  dispute.  Now,  then, 
all  three  facts  which  we  have  set  forth  in  our  plea  are  proved  by  Mrs. 
McMurray.  It  therefore  becomes  a  vital  question  in  that  connection,  Is  she 
entitled  to  belief?  In  the  first  place,  Are  the  probabilities  in  favor  of  the 
story  which  she  tells?  And  in  the  next  place,  Is  there  any  improbability 
about  the  story  which  she  tells?  She  tells  you  that,  soon  after  the  war 
broke  out,  Higgins  commenced  going  to  her  house  ;  that  she  saw  him  there 
three  or  four  times  ;  that  her  husband  had  not  made  up  his  mind  to  go  to  the 
war  then  ;  that  she  did  not  wish  him  to  go,  and  was  persistent  in  her  objection 
to  it ;  that  she  feared  that  she  would  not  be  taken  care  of ;  that  she  had  a 


I3O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

sick  child,  and  another  one  was  about  to  be  born  ;  and  that  her  husband, 
anxious  to  soothe  her  fears  and  calm  her  anxieties,  proposed  to  give  her 
an  introduction  to  Higgins,  for  the  purpose  of  having  added  to  his  efforts 
the  more  persuasive  eloquence  of  Judge  Higgins  ;  and  accordingly,  for  that 
purpose,  he  took  his  wife  down  town,  and  they  met  Judge  Higgins  on  the 
street.  They  talked  to  him  about  McMurray  going  to  the  war,  and  she 
said  she  did  not  want  her  husband  to  go.  Higgins  tells  her  that  it  will 
be  a  very  short  war,  and  that  there  is  not  going  to  be  much  danger ; 
that  it  will  blow  over  in  a  little  while  ;  that  McMurray  is  about  as  safe 
in  the  army  as  he  is  at  home,  and  that  if  he  goes  it  will  enable  him 
to  pay  off  the  incumbrances  upon  the  property  ;  and  then  he  says,  '  I 
will  be  a  brother  and  a  protector  to  you  ;  I  will  take  care  of  you,  if 
you  are  not  extravagant.'  She  is  soothed,  but  not  altogether  satisfied; 
and,  a  few  days  after,  they  go  to  Van  H.  Higgins'  house.  Mr.  McMurray 
desired  that  some  settlement  should  be  made  between  him  and  Higgins,  so 
that  he  could  leave  his  affairs  entirely  in  safety,  and  she  desired  to  know 
first  what  position  it  would  leave  her  in.  Higgins  again  tells  her  that  the 
war  is  going  to  be  a  short  one,  and  he  called  her  attention  to  the  uncer 
tainty  of  human  life  and  the  certainty  of  death.  He  says  that  all 
must  die,  and  that  all  may  die  at  any  time  ;  that  McMurray  may 
die  if  he  stays  at  home.  He  says  that  the  war  is  going  to  be  a 
short  one,  and  that  there  is  not  much  danger ;  that  if  McMurray 
goes  to  the  war,  he  can  earn  $120  a  month  as  Captain  in  the  Jackson 
Guards,  and,  says  he,  'You  can  give  me  $100  a  month,  and  keep  $20 
for  yourself,  and  let  your  wife  have  the  rents,  and  everything  shall  be 
happy.  If  any  accident  happens,  your  wife  shall  have  one  of  the  houses 
and  lots,  and  if  you  come  back,  you  shall  have  eight  or '  nine  years  more 
to  pay  for  the  property  in.'  Thus  assured,  he  was  satisfied,  and  he  goes 
to  the  war.  This  is  her  story,  and  the  counsel  tell  us  that  this  story  is  not 
probable.  They  say  it  is  not  natural  that  Van  H.  Higgins  should  have 
iuduced  this  man  to  go  to  the  war  in  this  way,  because  there  was  no 
trouble  in  raising  soldiers  at  that  time  ;  and  Mr.  Swett  in  this  connection 
has  spoken  to  you  about  the  magnificent  enthusiasm  of  the  people  in  1861. 
Why,  then,  forget  that  we  did  not  say  that  he  induced  him  to  go  to 
the  war  from  motives  of  patriotism.  We  have  never  charged  any  such 
thing  as  that  upon  him.  We  could  not  have  proved  it.  We  do  not 
pretend  that  any  mere  motives  of  patriotism  induced  him  to  persuade 
McMurray  to  go  to  the  war.  What  was  his  motive  ?  What  are  the 
probabilities  of  this  story?  McMurray  owed  him  'moneys,'  and  Higgins 
wanted  his  pay.  He  saw  that  the  profession  of  the  law  was  going  to 
be  prostrated,  and  it  has  been.  He  desired  McMurray  to  go  to  the  war 
and  earn  #120  a  month,  and  pay  him  £100  of  it.  That  was  the 
arrangement  and  agreement  between  the  parties,  and  that  was  a  sufficient 
motive  to  animate  the  plaintiff  in  this  case  to  induce  McMurray  to  go 
to  the  war.  What  motive  had  McMurray  for  going?  Do  they  intend  to 
say  that  all  his  motive  was  that  he  might  pay  on  his  property,  and 
get  it  clear?  Do  they  intend  to  claim  that  Van  H.  Higgins  had  all 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE.  131 

the  patriotism  and  that  McMurray  had  none?  I  have  no  doubt  that  he 
was  inspired,  to  a  certain  extent,  by  that  same  spirit  of  patriotism  which 
animated  so  many  to  offer  their  lives  in  the  defence  of  their  country. 
He  loved  his  adopted  country.  But  there  were  his  wife  and  children, 
and  just  between  them  there  stood  this  land  contract  with  Higgins. 
When  he  thought  of  his  country  he  desired  to  go.  When  he  thought 
of  the  condition  of  his  wife  and  children,  he  saw  that  he  could  not  go. 
That  contract  loomed  up  before  him  in  all  its  great  proportions.  But 
when  he  is  told  that  he  could  go  and  leave  that,  that  if  he  dies  his 
wife  shall  have  a  home,  and  that  he  shall  have  more  time  to  pay  for 
it  all  in  any  event,  that  turns  the  scale,  and  he  concludes  that  he  will 
go.  And  upon  this  fact,  there  being  no  contradition,  it  must  be  taken 
as  proved.  It  is  proved  from  the  testimony,  and  from  the  inherent 
probabilities  of  the  case,  that  Higgins  induced  McMurray  to  go  to  the 
war. 

"  Now  there  is  another  feature  to  which  I  wish  to  call  your  attention.  We 
desired  to  show  by  the  declarations  that  McMurray  made  to  his  wife  that 
these  were  the  determining  motives  with  him  ;  that  he  had  not  decided  to 
go  until  this  arrangement  was  made  with  Higgins.  But  we  were  stopped 
by  the  plaintiff.  \Ve  find  no  fault  with  that.  But  it  is  curious,  if  McMur 
ray  was  animated  by  some  other  motive  than  that  which  wre  showed,  that, 
out  of  the  hundreds  and  almost  thousands  of  friends  whom  McMurray  had 
in  this  city,  some  witness  could  not  have  been  grubbed  up  out  of  the  earth 
to  testify  to  it  in  the  interests  of  the  plaintiff  in  this  case. 

"The  next  queston  is,  Did  he  promise  to  give  her  one  of  the  houses  and 
lots  in  the  event  of  her  husband  being  killed  in  the  war?  I  shall  not  detail 
the  testimony  of  Mrs.  McMurray  upon  this  point,  for  it  is  not  necessary  ; 
for  every  fact  in  evidence  but  sustains  and  confirms  it,  and  there  is  nothing 
improbable  or  unnatural  in  the  fact  to  which  she  swears.  This  property 
was  sold  to  McMurray  when  prices  were  inflated.  He  had  paid  Higgins 
#1500,  or  $1600  upon  the  lots,  and  had  expended  some  £3500  on  improve 
ments.  Now,  Van  H.  Higgins  could  afford  to  do  this.  He  could  afford  to 
give  that  woman  one  of  the  houses  and  lots  in  the  event  of  her  hus 
band's  death,  because  he  would  have  had  $1600  in  money  and  the  improve 
ments  on  the  other  two  lots.  In  addition  to  that,  he  had  productive  property 
instead  of  unproductive.  What  improbability  is  there,  then,  about  the  story 
which  this  woman  tells  ?  Is  it  so  unnatural  an  affair  as  to  be  improbable  ? 
Does  our  every  day  experience  run  in  such  a  line  as  that  it  affords 
us  no  cases  where  a  creditor  can  give,  in  a  case  of  this  kind,  a  portion  of 
the  property  to  the  widow  of  his  debtor,  for  which  he  has  been  paid,  and 
he  to  derive  the  benefits  of  the  improvements  which  they  have  placed  upon 
the  other  portions  of  the  property,  because  the  strict  letter  of  his  contract 
gave  him  a  right  to  something  more  ?  Has  it  come  to  this,  that  our  experi 
ence  furnishes  no  such  examples  as  that?  I  trust  not.  This  house  was 
turned  around  before  he  left.  Mr.  McMurray  tells  Higgins  so.  He  separates 
it  and  sets  it  apart  from  the  others  by  fences.  That  marks  the  character 
which  he  affixed  to  that  particular  portion.  It  shows  that  *he  understood 


132  LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

what  his  wife  understood,  and  that  they  all  understood  that  that  part  of  it 
was  distinct  from  the  rest,  and  to  belong  at  all  events  to  McMurray's  wife 
if  he  died. 

"  They  offered  to  prove  in  this  case  that  McMurray  did  make  such  an 
agreement  with  Van  H.  Higgins  ;  that  the  widow  told  Chase  that  her  hus 
band  informed  her  that  Van  H.  Higgins  offered  to  give  her  this  house  and 
lot.  And  this  proof  comes  from  them,  that  this  promise  had  been  made  to 
McMurray,  and  that  the  woman  so  understood  it.  But  let  us  see  what  this 
amounts  to.  Why  is  it  that  they  all  the  while  offer  to  prove  these  offers 
of  Van  H.  Higgins  to  do  something  equivalent  to  this  promise,  and  yet 
deny  that  any  such  promise  existed  ?  Why  do  they  undertake  to  deny  the 
promise,  and  at  the  same  time  attempt  to  prove  a  performance  of  the 
agreement?  Every  offer  of  that  kind  is  an  absolute  admission  of  this 
agreement.  He  offers  to  show  that  he  offered  to  give  this  woman  this  lot 
and  a  life-lease  of  another  lot.  Does  it  not  show  that  she  had  a  right  to 
that  lot?  And  they  have  carried  their  offers  all  the  way  through;  and 
counsel  tell  you,  and  have  argued  to  the  court,  that  Van  H.  Higgins  pro 
posed  to  give  an  equivalent!  An  equivalent  for  what?  Why,  for  the  house 
and  lot  he  had  promised  this  woman.  If  a  man  comes  into  court  and  says 
fairly  to  the  jury,  '  True  it  is  that  I  agreed  to  give  this  woman  this  house 
and  lot,  but,  when  the  time  came,  I  could  not  do  it  ;  but  I  offered  her 
another  just  as  good,  I  will  do  the  best  I  can  for  her,'  by  the  offer  he 
makes  he  affirms  the  existence  of  the  original  agreement.  Do  you  believe 
that  their  case  is  made  of  excuses  and  apologies  for  not  being  charitable  ? 
No,  not  at  all.  They  offer  in  evidence  Higgins'  financial  condition.  \Vhat 
for  ?  To  show  that  he  was  not  able  to  fulfill  his  agreement ;  to  show  that 
he  could  not  execute  his  agreement.  Every  offer  of  this  kind  admits  'this 
promise.  They  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  contract  was  assigned  to 
Mr.  Keenan  of  New  York.  Why  ?  For  the  purpose  of  showing  that  he 
could  not  deed  his  house  to  that  woman  because  he  held  the  assignment. 
It  is  another  »excuse  ;  and  so  it  is  excuse  after  excuse  all  the  way  through, 
from  the  time  the  case  commenced  till  the  hour  it  closed,  why  he  did  not 
carry  out  that  agreement.  Now  the  question  in  this  case  for  you  to  pass 
upon  is  not  whether  he  did  the  best  he  could,  but  whether  he  made  this 
agreement.  But  when  he  says  he  did  the  best  he  could, — that  he  offered 
'equivalents,' — he  admits  the  agreement,  and  it  settles  the  question  in  issue 
for  all  time  to  come." 

Mr.  Storrs  then  reviewed  the  foreclosure  proceedings,  to  sub 
stantiate  the  charge  that  that  suit  had  been  'hastened'  to  a  decree. 
On  that  point  he  said : 

'•You  must  remember  that  this  was  a  suit  in  chancery.  I  hope  that  none 
of  you  have  ever  been  so  unfortunate  as  to  be  complainants  or  defendants 
in  a  chancery  suit,  but  you  may  all  know  how  tedious  and  long  they  are. 

The  celebrated  case  of  Jarndyce  v.  Jarndyce,  which  has  been  reported 
by  Dickens  in  one  of  his  novels,  is  an  illustration  of  the  slow  and  weari 
some  length  which  characterizes  them.  Why,  in  the  old  country,  and  in 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE.  133 

the  older  portions  of  this  country,  if  a  man  gets  involved  in  a  chancery  suit, 
he  gives  up  his  life  to  it  and  passes  it  down  to  his  children  for  generation 
after  generation,  and  it  keeps  growing  bigger  and  bigger  all  the  time.  It 
is  like  the  widow's  cruise  of  oil,  which  was  never  exhausted.  It  is  like  the 
miraculous  loaves  and  fishes,  of  which,  after  feeding  multitudes,  there  was 
enough  left  to  feed  multitudes  more.  The  most  self-sustaining,  self-supply 
ing,  self-supporting,  self-procreating  institution  in  this  world,  is  a  chancery 
suit.  Generally  they  last  for  years  upon  years,  but  the  plaintiff  in  this 
suit  tried  a  chancery  suit  in  about  the  quickest  time,  I  think,  that  has 
ever  been  witnessed  in  the  annals  of  chancery  practice.  It  was  a  Suit 
for  the  foreclosure  of  a  contract  for  the  purchase  of  land.  It  was 
commenced  on  the  23d  of  October,  and  the  service  was  made  in 
November,  just  as  quick  as  they  could  get  the  officers  of  the  court  to 
do  it.  They  found  that  they  had  not  defendants  enough.  Two  of  them 
were  infants  ;  one  of  them  was  born  after  the  suit  was  commenced,  and 
they  make  him  a  defendant  and  amend  the  bill,  and  serve  process  by 
leaving  at  the  house.  Both  die  out  of  the  case  before  its  close.  Keenan 
was  absent,  aud  they  have  to  make  publication  for  him,  according  to  the 
requirements  of  the  statute.  That  is  a  delay  occasioned  by  the  statute. 
The  moment  the  time  is  up,  an  order  for  a  default  is  made  against 
him,  and  then  they  go  right  on,  and  on  the  I2th  of  December,  1863,  a 
decree  is  entered  in  this  case.  The  parties  have  changed  during  the 
progress  of  the  cause.  Two  defendants  die  out  of  the  cause,  and  one  is 
born  in.  A  large  amount  of  testimony  is  taken.  Did  not  the  plaintiff 
in  this  suit  hasten  that  suit  to  a  decree  in  his  own  court  ?  And,  at  the 
very  earliest  opportunity,  the  land  was  advertised  to  be  sold,  and  it 
was  sold  on  the  day  it  was  advertised  to  be.  There  were  none  of  the 
usual  adjournments  of  sale,  no  postponement.  It  was  all  bid  in  by  Van 
H.  Higgins,  with  ten  days  time  to  the  widow  to  redeem — ten  days  in 
which  to  pay  for  this  house  and  lot;  ten  days'  time  to  pay  for  that 
for  which  this  slaughtered  hero  was  to  have  eight  or  nine  years.  Is  not 
the  case  complete?  Do  not  the  facts  cover  the  whole  ground  of  con 
troversy  in  this  case?" 

Mr.  Storrs  next  addressed  himself  to  the  plaintiff's  witnesses, 
whom  he  scored  unmercifully,  one  of  them  in  particular,  a  Mr. 
Rourke,  who  had  been  attorney  for  the  widow  in  some  matters, 
but  now  appeared  as  a  witness  for  the  other  side. 

The  methods  of  the  defence  were  next  discussed. 

"  I  come  now  to  another  branch  of  this  case,  and  that  is,  the  discussion 
of  Van  H.  Higgins  personally.  It  cannot  be  objected  that  we  indulge  in 
personal  observations  of  this  kind.  A  libel  suit  is  a  personal  suit.  He 
sets  up  his  character,  and  says,  '  Here  it  is, — what  there  is  of  it ;  how 
much  is  it  worth?'  If  the  plantiff  can  separate  his  character  from  him 
self,  I  will  talk  about  his  character  and  not  about  him ;  but  inasmuch 
as  he  has  brought  them  both  into  court,  it  devolves  upon  you  and  me 


134  LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

and  all  of  us  to  see  what  that  character  is.  The  manner  of  defending  him 
has  been  a  most  curious  one  ;  they  have  defended  him  by  offers.  His 
humanity  has  been  talked  of.  He  has  been  charged  with  oppression  of 
a  weak  and  defenceless  woman.  They  offer  to  prove  that  he  was  a 
humane  gentleman,  because  he  said  he  was ;  and,  because  they  cannot 
violate  every  rule  of  evidence  in  the  world,  they  come  whining  into 
court  and  complain  that  their  case  has  been  cut  off  in  the  middle. 
Why,  it  has  been  one  of  the  most  funereal  entertainments  that  I  have 
ever  witnessed.  It  reminded  me  of  that  description  in  the  olden  days 
of  the  world,  when  the  daughters  of  Babylon  sat  down  and  wept.  They 
first  call  a  witness  to  prove  a  fact ;  he  swears  against  them  ;  and  then 
they  make  another  offer  to  prove  it,  which  is  ruled  out,  and  the 
mourners  go  about  the  streets  bewailing  their  misfortunes.  And  now  they 
tell  us  they  will  get  the  verdict  of  future  generations.  Gentlemen,  I  shall  be 
satisfied  with  the  verdict  of  this  generation,  with  the  verdict  of  this  jury. 
I  am  living  now  ;  I  do  not  expect  to  live  in  future  generations.  Storey 
is  living  now ;  he  does  not  expect  to  live  in  future  generations,  nor 
does  this  poor  woman.  I  will  make  the  exchange  which  the  gentlemen 
wish  and  propose.  I  am  willing  that  in  future  generations  they  shall  try 
for  a  verdict  ;  I  want  one  now. 

"They  find  a  good  deal  of  fault  with  the  rules  of  evidence,  and  they  think 
that  they  pick  out  of  this  justification  one  or  two  immaterial  facts,  utterly 
without  bearing  on  the  question  at  issue  ;  and  they  say  that,  because  these 
have  not  been  literally  established,  therefore  they  are  entitled  to  a  verdict 
against  us.  There  was  a  case  tried  in  New  York,  in  Orleans  county, 
which  seems  to  me  to  be  somew.hat  of  an  illustration  of  their  position.  A 
gentleman  of  a  smoky  and  measly  kind  of  character  went  to  Noah  Davis. 
The  client  had  been  charged  with  stealing  hams,  and  Davis  commenced  a 
slander  suit  for  him.  After  it  had  been  commenced,  Davis  found  out  what 
sort  of  a  man  he  was,  and  did  not  want  to  try  it.  When  the  trial  came 
on  he  went  to  Davis'  office  with  a  large  number  of  witnesses.  Davis  asked 
what  they  were  for.  He  said,  'They  are  to  prove  my  character.'  'I  do 
not  want  them;'  said  Davis;  'I  am  going  to  admit  in  the  opening  that 
you  stole  shoulders  ;  when  they  charge  you  with  stealing  hams,  I  am  after 
them.'  And  so  it  is  in  this  case.  They  think  that,  because  she  said  that 
her  child  died  on  the  day  this  case  was  set  for  hearing,  and  was  actually 
dead,  they  are  entitled  to  a  verdict  at  your  hands.  This  is  a  question,  not 
of  statutes,  not  about  the  ordinances  of  the  city  of  Chicago  ;  it  is  a  ques 
tion  of  ordinary  humanity  ;  it  is  a  question  as  to  the  estimate  in  which  you, 
as  men,  hold  transactions  of  this  kind.  The  question  is,  whether  Van  H. 
Higgins  has  treated  this  woman  justly  or  unjustly,  not  by  the  statute  of 
frauds  ;  not  by  ordinances  of  the  city  of  Chicago  ;  not  by  any  statute  at 
law ;  but  by  the  great  higher  law  that  resides  in  the  consciences  of  men, 
that  is  older  than  constitutions,  and  will  live  when  all  constitutions  have 
failed  ;  that  was  born  when  the  earth  was  created  in  its  infant  sleep,  and 
will  live  until  the  latest  syllable  of  recorded  time  ;  a  law  which  no  man 
can  mistake,  and  which  the  Saviour  of  the  world,  more  than  eighteen  him- 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE.  135 

dred  years  ago,  died  to  vindicate, — the  law  that  we  should  'love  one 
another'  and  be  just  to  one  another.  Has  Van  H.  Higgins  treated  this 
woman  humanely,  or  has  he  oppressed  her? 

"And  now,  who  is  the  woman?  When  she  was  upon  the  stand  and  told 
you  she  was  about  thirty-two  years  of  age,  were  you  not  astonished  at  the 
statement  ?  When  you  saw  the  woman  herself, — that  haggard  face,  the  deep 
lines  that  sorrow  and  trouble  had  plowed  in  it, — did  you  not  see  in  her  an 
object  that  the  heart  of  a  man  might  well  pity,  and  for  which  it  might  well 
bleed  ?  Has  that  poor  woman,  more  than  4,000  miles  away  from  kindred 
and  home,  her  husband  martyred  and  in  his  grave,  her  little  children  in 
their  long  homes, — has ,  that  poor  woman,  friendless,  weak,  defenceless, 
houseless  and  alone,  been  treated  as  she  ought  to  be?  It  is  a  question  of 
the  great  humanities  which  shall  live  for  ever  ;  it  is  a  question  which  appeals 
to  the  human  heart,  which  beats  for  ever,  when  it  is  right,  against  oppres 
sion  and  inhumanity  and  injustice. 

"  Let  us  open  again  the  sickening  records  of  this  tale.  It  is  the  saddest  tale 
that  was  ever  written.  Her  husband  died.  A  short  time  after  his  death,  this 
man,  who  was  to  be  the  brother  and  protector  of  this  woman,  called  upon 
her  in  the  agony  of  her  grief  and  demanded  the  possession  of  the  property 
which  belonged  to  her  ;  and  she  implored  him  by  everything  that  is  most 
sacred,  by  her  husband  in  his  grave,  by  her  child  dying  in  her  arms,  by 
every  consideration  which  would  naturally  touch  the  heart  of  a  man  and 
melt  it  into  pity,  if  it  were  not  of  stone,  to  be  kind  to  her.  He  was  not. 
He  filed  his  bill  in  his  own  court  on  the  22d  of  October,  1861.  The  sods 
had  not  sunken  upon  her  husband's  grave,  the  headstones  were  not  raised 
above  the  graves  of  her  children,  her  heart  was  yet  in  the  midnight  black 
ness  of  its  desolation,  when  this  'brother'  and  this  'protector,'  instead  of 
being  the  minister  of  pity,  instead  of  sending  kindly  words  of  sympathy, 
sends  to  her  the  sheriff,  with  'the  people  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  greeting!' 
This  was  on  the  22d  of  October,  1861.  I  care  not  if  he  never  made  her 
a  promise  ;  I  care  not  if  he  was  under  no  obligations  to  her  at  all.  In  that 
widow's  suffering,  and  in  the  sight  of  that  widow's  grief,  that  was  the 
basest  deed — the  cruelest  of  deeds. 

'  I  would  rather  be  a  dog,  and  bay  the  moon, 
Than  such  a  Roman.' 

"This  poor,  lone,  friendless  woman,  in  the  depth  of  her  desolation,  and 
her  home,  her  husband,  and -her  children  gone,  is  met  by  her  'brother* 
and  her  'protector'  sending  the  sheriff  with  a  process  of  law  into  her  house. 

"And  that  is  the  way  this  tragedy  begins! 

"  And  then,  gentlemen,  after  she  has  demanded  her  rights  of  Higgins,  and 
he  has  refused  to  give  them,  what  next?  Just  as  she  is  about  to  become  a 
mother  again,  he  prepares  a  petition  addressed  to  the  citizens  of  Chicago, 
soliciting  their  charity  in  his  behalf!  He  sends  this  woman,  who  was  con 
fined  within  a  week,  up  and  down  the  alleys  and  through  the  by-ways  of 
this  great  city, — she  whom  he  had  promised  to  protect  and  defend — a  men 
dicant  and  a  beggar!  And  they  claim  some  consideration  in  this  case 


I  36  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

J  v 

because  he  thus  sent  this  woman  soliciting  alms  about  the  city,  begging  for 
money  to  give  to  him.  She  was  to  go  to  the  charitably  inclined  people  of 
this  city,  to  go  about  telling  her  sorrows,  re-opening  her  wounds,  exhibiting 
her  griefs  and  making  them  public,  in  the  broad,  clear  day,  that  Van  H. 
Higgins  might  have  #800!  I  shall  be  cautious,  and  you  should  be,  gentle 
men,  hereafter,  how  you  give  alms.  If  a  one-legged,  one-armed  man  comes 
to  your  house  to  beg  a  meal  of  victuals,  ask  him  if  he  has  a  land  contract 
with  Van  H.  Higgins.  You  do  not  know  but  that  what  you  give  will  be 
carried  to  his  house.  And  when  you  see  a  blind  man  on  the  cars,  distrib 
uting  his  verses,  ask  him  if  he  has  been  foreclosed  ;  ask  him  for  whom  he 
is  collecting — whether  it  is  for  his  little  boy  or  for  scyne  decorous  and  respect 
able  gentleman  who  takes  interest  at  10  per  cent.  !  "  (Sensation  in  the  court 
room.) 

Mr:  Storrs  then  read  the  document  in  question,  making  com 
ments  upon  its  expressions  as  he  went  along. 

"  Now,  gentlemen,  here  is  the  appeal  in  which  all  the  claims  are  set 
forth,  and  here  is  the  appeal  specific  setting  forth  the  fact  that  she  wants 
this  money  to  pay  a  claim  upon  her  homestead,  and  she  'will  ever  pray.' 
Accordingly  with  documents  of  this  kind,  beginning  and  ending  with  a  bill 
in  chancery,  he  starts  this  woman  about  the  city,  soliciting  alms  for  him. 
After  this  petition  had  been  circulated,  the  women  was  taken  sick.  She 
raised  $50  from  Mr.  Scripps,  and  used  it  to  defray  the  expenses  of  her  con 
finement  :  and  shortly  after  that  Higgins  makes  his  advent  again.  This  was 
at  the  time  her  child  was  dying  in  her  arms,  and  she  prays  and  implores 
him  for  mercy.  She  gets  it  not.  He  goes  in  a  few  days  after,  and  again 
demands  the  property.  She  again  argues  and  pleads  for  mercy,  and  he  again 
refuses  it.  He  goes  away  and  leaves  her  in  her  sorrow,  and  then,  as  a  climax, 
files  his  bill.  And  that  bill  is  a  curious  document.  It  sets  forth  that  all  that 
had  been  paid  upon  the  contract  was  $880,  when,  as  you  know,  McMurray  had 
paid  $1520.  Judge  Gray  says  that  he  called  upon  Higgins  to  know  how  much 
had  been  paid,  and  could  not  get  the  facts.  Higgins  knew  how  much  had  been 
paid.  On  the  iyth  of  June,  before  this  statement  was  made,  he  knew  that  #1520 
had  been  paid.  But  after  this  statement  had  been  made,  and  these  receipts 
given,  he  conceals  the  truth,  and  starts  out  with  that  false  statement  in  his  bill. 
What  next  does  he  do?  He  asks  the  court  for  a  forfeiture  of  these  payments, 
and  demands  that  in  the  general  statement  of  these  affairs,  this  poor  woman 
shall  not  have  credit  for  them.  Now,  gentlemen,  it  was  in  a  court  of  equity, 
which  abhors  these  forfeitures,  and  it  will  never  grant  them  if  it  can  be  avoided. 
Judge  Story  has  said,  '  Law  as  a  science,  would  be  unworthy  of  the  name,  if  it 
did  not  to  some  extent,  furnish  the  means  of  preventing  the  results  of  rashness 
and  blind  confidence  on  one  side,  and  avarice  and  cunning  on  the  other.' 
He  not  only  belies  the  payments,  but  he  demands  their  forfeiture, — as  hard  and 
cruel  a  thing  as  can  be  asked  of  any  court.  But  what  more  ?  Does  he 
relent  at  all?  He  asks  that  this  foreclosure  be  a  strict  one,  and  it  is,  so 
far  as  these  two  lots  are  concerned,  a  strict  one. 

Why  did  he  file  a  bill  at  all?     They  say,  because  he  was  in  debt.     Now, 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE.  137 

because  a  man  is  in  debt  is  a  very  poor  reason  why  he  should  not  keep 
his  agreement.  If  Higgins  owed  a  million  dollars,  it  was  no  reason  why 
he  should  violate  his  solemn  promises  to  this  woman.  He  should  be  just 
and  true,  and  keep  his  faith  with  her.  He  was  in  debt  to  the  extent  of  a 
quarter  of  a  million  dollars,  but  his  creditors  did  not  do  anything  of  that 
kind  with  him.  And  in  their  spirit  of  forbearance  he  should  have  treated 
her.  I  have  from  the  old  Book  a  case  in  point.  Higgins'  creditors  did 
not  foreclose  upon  him ;  he  did  foreclose  upon  her.  And  now,  I  want  to 
show  you  how,  in  the  early  history  of  the  world,  these  acts  were  treated. 
The  case  to  which  I  call  your  attention  is  reported  in  the  1 8th  chapter  of 
the  gospel  according  to  St.  Matthew.  His  own  witness,  and  his  agent,  who 
ke.pt  his  accounts,  Mr.  Wright,  tells  us,  'I  thought  he  was  a  bankrupt. 
None  of  his  creditors  came  upon  him,  nor  did  I  hear  about  any  of  them 
foreclosing.'  " 

Mr.  VAN  ARMAN  :     "You  should  read  your  law  to  the  court." 

Mr.  STORKS:  "This  is  the  higher  law,  and  properly  goes  to  the  jury. 
It  is  the  language  of  our  Saviour  in  answer  to  the  apostle  Peter,  and 
reads  thus: 

"  '  Therefore  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  likened  unto  a  certain  king,  which 
would  take  account  of  his  servants.  And  when  he  had  begun  to  reckon,  one  was 
brought  unto  him,  which  owed  him  ten  thousand  talents.  But  forasmuch 
as  he  had  not  to  pay,  his  lord  commanded  him  to  be  sold,  and  his  wife 
and  children,  and  all  that  he  had,  and  payment  to  be  made.  The  servant 
therefore  fell  down,  and  worshiped  him,  saying,  Lord,  have  patience  with 
me,  and  I  will  pay  thee  all.  Then  the  lord  of  that  servant  was  moved 
with  compassion,  and  loosed  him,  and  forgave  him  the  debt.  But  the  same 
servant  went  out,  and  found  one  of  his  fellow-servants  which  owed  him  an 
hundred  pence  ;  and  he  laid  hands  on  him,  and  took  him  by  the  throat, 
saying,  Pay  me  that  thou  owest.  And  his  fellow-servant  fell  down  at  his 
feet,  and  besought  him,  saying,  Have  patience  with  me,  and  I  will  pay  thee 
all.  And  he  would  not ;  but  went  and  cast  him  into  prison,  till  he  should 
pay  the  debt.  So  when  his  fellow-servants  saw  what  was  done,  they  were 
very  sorry,  and  came  and  told  unto  their  lord  all  that  was  done.  Then  his 
lord,  after  that  he  had  called  him,  said  unto  him,  O  thcu  wicked  servant, 
I  forgave  thee  all  that  debt,  because  thou  desiredst  me.  Shouldst  not  thou 
also  have  had  compassion  upon  thy  fellow-servant,  even  as  I  had  pity  on 
thee?  And  his  lord  was  wroth,  and  delivered  him  to  the  tormentors  till 
he  should  pay  all  that  was  due  unto  him.' 

"  Now,  .that  was  just  exactly  such  a  case  as  this.  There  the  lord  of  that 
kingdom,  whose  servant  owed  him  ten  thousand  talents,  cancels  his  debt, 
and  lets  him  go  ;  and  then  there  is  the  debtor,  not  grateful  as  he  ought  to 
be  for  the  kindness  bestowed  upon  him,  who  goes  out  in  the  streets,  and, 
seeing  a  man  who  owed  him  a  miserable  hundred  pence,  takes  his  debtor 
by  the  throat  and  casts  him  into  prison.  When  mercy  had  been  bestowed 
upon  him  he  threw  his  debtor  into  jail,  as  the  plaintiff  in  this  case  has 
throw  this  poor  woman  in  the  street.  And  the  conduct  of  that  unworthy 
servant  at  that  time  rings  now  through  all  the  aisles  of  history,  and  its 


138  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

teaching  is  as  strong,  its  lessons  as  cogent,  as  they  were  eighteen  hundred 
years  ago,  when  the  story  was  first  told  ;  and  that  servant  met  with  the 
same  condemnation  from  the  Great  Judge  and  Searcher  of  all  Hearts,  that 
the  plaintiff  in  this  case,  who  showed  no  mercy  to  this  poor,  friendless, 
widowed  woman,  will  find  from  the  Judge  and  Searcher  of  all  Hearts 
to-day,  and  from  men  who  have  hearts  to  be  moved  and  pity  to  be  excited 
by  a  story  of  oppression,  outrage,  and  wrong." 

Mr.  Storrs  was  interrupted  here  by  a  hearty  outburst  of 
applause,  which  had  to  be  checked  by  the  court.  He  then  pro 
ceeded  to  say : 

"There  is  another  curious  spectacle  about  this  case  which  impresses  me 
very  strongly.  It  is  the  curious  connection  of  the  plaintiff  in  the  case  with 
the  attorneys  of  this  woman.  Rourke  and  Chase  are  here  as  witnesses  for 
this  plaintiff,  and  they  were  the  attorneys  of  Mrs.  McMurray.  How  does 
Higgins  know  what  that  woman  had  ever  told  Rourke,  unless  Rourke  told 
him  ?  And  what  right  had  Rourke  to  tell  the  opposing  party  the  facts 
which  his  own  client  had  communicated  to  him  ?  Why,  that  fact  alone, 
piled  on  the  top  of  this  pyramid  of  wrongs,  is  enough  to  blacken  it  for 
ever.  He  is  not  only  determined  that  the  promise  made  to  this  woman 
shall  be  broken,  but  he  is  also  determined  that  whomsoever  she  gets  to 
act  for  her,  and  protect  her  rights,  shall  betray  her  interests  and  abuse  the 
trust  she  has  reposed  in  them.  (Sensation.) 

"And  now  he  claims  credit  for  Mrs.  McDonald's  charity.  As  the  final 
act  in  this  affair,  Mrs.  McDonald  permitted  this  property  to  be  sold,  and 
this  woman  thus  got  $220.  Van  H.  Higgins  claims  credit  for  that.  It  was 
not  his  property  ;  he  had  no  right  in  it ;  he  had  no  control  over  it.  It  is 
like  the  old  definition  of  charity, — if  A  sees  B  in  distress,  he  is  very  glad 
to  have  C  relieve  him.  He  is  about  as  much  entitled  to  the  credit  as  I 
would  be  if  I  gave  my  neighbor's  coat  to  the  Patagonians,  and  his  boots  to 
the  Hindoos.  It  is  very  well  in  this  world,  but  in  the  other  world  it  will 
be  very  different.  Van  H.  Higgins  will  find  that  the  $220,  on  the  eternal 
records  of  human  life,  are  not  placed  to  his  credit,  but  to  the  credit  of 
Eva  McDonald,  to  whom  it  belongs.  Nor  will  he  find  that  his  magnificent 
offers  have  been  placed  to  his  credit ;  he  will  find,  where  justice  is  searched 
and  probed  to  the  bottom,  that  they  measure  men  by  what  they  do,  and 
not  by  what  they  say  ;  that  they  judge  of  the  tree  by  its  fruit :  and  that,  when 
he  is  setting  himself  up  as  a  minister  of  charity,  he  had  better  stop  in 
Jericho  until  his  beard  is  grown.  The  miserable  gift  of  two  dollars  is  all 
the  charity  of  this  man,  against  all  this  sickening  story  of  wrong.  All  this 
gulf,  all  this  black  page  of  oppression  and  wrong  perpetrated  upon  this 
widowed,  childless  woman,  is  illustrated  by  no  bright  spot,  relieved  by  no 
kindly  act,  sustained  by  no  single  emotion  which  would  dignify  the  heart 
of  man  or  entitle  him  to  any  sympathy  at.  all,  save  the  single,  faint,  feeble 
ray  of  light  which  gleams  with  fitful  radiance  from  the  two  dollars  which 
he  gave  to  this  woman  through  the  Union  Defence  Committee.  Give  him 
credit  for  these  two  dollars.  I  am  willing  to  admit  there  was  no  discount 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE.  139 

on  it  ;  it  was  in  the  days  before  gold  went  out  of  circulation  ;  whether  it 
was  Illinois  currency  or  not,  I  know  not.  Give  him  credit  for  it.  He 
promised  to  give  her  more,  but  it  is  all  she  ever  got  except  wrong  and 
cruelty  and  oppression. 

"  They  tell  us  he  had  a  right  to  close  this  contract ;  to  take  this  property  by 
foreclosure.  That  is  not  the  question  we  are  trying.  The  question  we  are 
trying  here  is  whether  he  did  a  good  and  kind  act  towards  this  poor 
woman,  or  whether  he  was  unjust,  cruel,  and  oppressive  towards  her.  A 
similar  case  once  happened  in  the  city  of  Venice.  It  was  the  case  of 
Shylock  z/.  Antonio.  Shylock  dealt  in  money.  He  lent  Antonio  money  on 
a  bond,  the  penalty  being  that,  if  he  did  not  pay  it  at  a  certain  time  and 
place,  Shylock  should  cut  a  pound  of  flesh  from  any  place  he  chose, 
nearest  his  debtor's  heart.  The  day  came;  Antonio  failed  to  connect;  his 
ships  had  gone  down  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea  ;  banks  had  broken ;  real 
estate  had  depreciated ;  and  he  could  not  pay  his  debt.  The  case  is 
brought  into  court ;  the  parties  are  all  present ;  the  duke  speaks  to  this 
plaintiff  Shylock,  and  says,  '  Your  claim  is  cruel ;  it  will  be  very  brutal  for 
you  to  enforce  it;  can't  you  have  some  mercy  on  this  man?'  But  that 
old  plaintiff  tells  him,  '  No,  I  will  have  my  pound  of  flesh  ;  I  will  have  my 
bond.'  And  then,  when  his  pity  is  again  appealed  to,  he  turns  to  the 
papers  as  they  do  in  this  case,  and  says.  -Is  it  not  nominated  in  the 
bond?  I'll  have  my  bond.'  So  that  case  went  on  to  trial,  as  this  case 
went  on  to  trial.  Shylock  insisted  upon  the  letter  of  his  bond.  There  was, 
however,  a  little  trip  in  the  pleadings.  Shylock  did  not  get  the  forfeiture. 
They  had  a  judge  who,  while  sticking  to  the  law,  stuck  to  the  letter  of  it, 
and  suggested  that  he  could  take  a  pound  of  flesh,  but  if  he  took  one  drop 
of  blood,  his  life  should  become  forfeit  to  the  state.  •  Shylock  concluded 
that  he  would  'withdraw  a  juror'  in  that  case,  and  left  the  court-room, 
which  he  had  entered  in  confidence  of  getting  his  bond.  Now  it  would  be 
a  great  deal  better  for  the  plaintiff  in  this  case  to  do  the  same.  The  judge 
would  say  to  him,  'You  can  have  your  pound  of  flesh,  but  if  you  take 
one  drop  of  this  poor  woman's  blood,  if  you  violate  the  sense  of  right 
and  justice  that  is  not  in  the  bond,  you  will  forfeit  your  reputation,  and 
everything  you  have,  to  the  public  in  which  you  live.'  That  would  have 
been  the  judgment  that  would  have  been  passed  upon  this  case  by  that 
judge.  And,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  that  is  the  judgment  that  will  be 
passed  upon  this  case  by  you. 

"  But  they  say  they  are  going  to  take  these  things  down  the  aisles  of 
history.  They  are  going  down  to  future  generations  with  them.  I  say,  let 
them  go.  This  plaintiff  has  got  a  bigger  load  to  toddle  down  the  highway 
of  history  with  than  ever  man  had  before.  He  will  stagger  under  the 
accumulating  weight,  and  it  will  grow  greater  and  greater  as  the  long  years 
stretch  out  before  him.  It  will  stick  to  him  in  time  to  come  like  the  fabled 
shirt  of  Nessus,  and  will  burn,  and  burn,  in  memory  of  the  wrong  that  he 
has  perpetrated  upon  this  woman.  And  if  he  is  a  man  with  the  ordinary 
feelings  of  our  nature,  when  he  goes  to  his  bed  at  night  do  you  think  he 
has  no  troubled  dreams?  Do  not  you  believe  that,  grouped  around  his  bed 


I4O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

in  those  uneasy  slumbers  which  an  unquiet  conscience  makes,  there  are  the 
departed  spirits  of  M* Murray  and  his  dead  children?  Do  not  you  believe 
that  their  fingers  are  pointed  in  reproach  at  him,  and  he  cannot  but  believe 
that  each  pore  of  his  body  is  a  trumpet  which  is  clamoring  his  ill-doings 
to  the  world  ? 

"They  say  they  are  going  to  the  Supreme  Court.  We  will  follow  them 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  if  he  desires  in  a  lawbook,  either  in  calf  or 
sheepskin,  to  make  a  memorial  of  this  record,  he  is  quite  at  liberty  to  do 
it ;  and  this  tale  of  wrong  will  grow  all  the  larger  the  more  it  is  looked  at. 

"  We  have  talked  of  him  as  a  man :  we  have  talked  of  him  as  a  judge, 
bringing  this  case  in  his  own  court.  Do  you  believe  this  woman  could 
approach  the  other  associate  judges  of  that  court  with  the  same  con 
fidence  that  Van  H.  Higgins  could,  who  sat  upon  the  bench  with  them  day 
by  day  ?  Why,  there  is  an  impropriety  in  it  which  shocks  every  mind  ;  and 
that  noble  lawyer  and  distinguished  judge,  John  M.  Wilson,  tells  you  that 
he  was  at  once  struck  with  the  impropriety  of  that  case  being  brought  in 
that  court  ;  he  felt  a  delicacy  about  trying  it.  I  tell  you  that  the  honor  of 
our  judges  is  a  very  sensitive  thing.  Once  let  the  breath  of  suspicion  fasten 
upon  it,  once  let  it  be  open  to  reproach,  and  the  whole  fabric  of  our 
jurisprudence  tumbles  into  ruins.  It  hangs  by  as  delicate  a  thread  as  the 
snow  avalanches  in  the  Alps.  The  snow  hangs  in  great  overhanging  masses 
over  dangerous  passes,  and  the  merest  concussion  of  the  human  voice  will 
release  them  from  their  hold  upon  the  rocks,  and  send  them,  the  messengers 
of  death  and  desolation,  to  all  that  is  beneath.  Sensitive  as  that  is,  the 
structure  of  our  entire  jurisprudence  is  equally  so.  It  must  be  spotless  and 
pure  ;  there  must  be  no  breath  of  suspicion  leveled  against  it  or  fastened 
upon  it.  I  have  looked  upon  this  plaintiff  as  a  judge,  as  a  man,  and  as  a 
citizen,  and  I  believe,  and  I  think  you  believe,  that  his  treatment  of  this 
woman  has  been  unjust,  oppressive,  and  cruel,  and  that  the  man  who  is  unjust, 
oppressive,  inhuman,  and  cruel,  is  not  fit  to  sit  upon  the  bench  ;  that  he  is 
a  disgrace  to  it  ;  that  he  sullies  and  pollutes  the  judicial  ermine  which  he 
wears." 

A  renewed  outburst  of  applause  again  prevented  Mr.  Storrs 
from  proceeding  for  several  minutes.  When  the  court  had 
succeeded  in  restoring  order,  Mr.  Storrs  said : 

"This  is  indeed  a  serious  record  to  make  up  against  any  man.  The  plain 
tiff  has  made  it  for  himself.  He  demands  your  verdict  upon  this  wearisome 
detail  of  heartlessness  and  oppression.  Grieved  as  we  may  be  that  a  fellow 
citizen  should  thus  stain  the  honor  of  the  high  office  which  he  held,  or  that 
in  this  great  city,  honored  as  it  has  been  by  its  magnificent  and  far  extend 
ing  charities,  any  man  could  be  found  who  would  oppress  the  weak  in 
their  helplessness,  and  turn  the  widow  and  the  orphaned  children  of  the 
dead  soldier  beggared  and  starving  into  the  streets,  we  cannot  refrain  from 
the  solemn  duty  which  has  been  imposed  upon  us,  of  affixing  the  seal  of 
condemnation  to  such  offences  against  our  consciences  as  have  been  proven 
in  this  case.  You  must  say  whether  the  unjust  judge,  the  avaricious  man, 


A    CELEBRATED    LIBEL    CASE.  14! 

shall  be  sustained  or  not.  Your  verdict  to-day  may  be,  as  I  trust  it  will, 
so  distinctly  pronounced  that  it  shall  be  like  letters  of  flaming  fire,  painted 
against  the  sky,  that  all  the  world  may  read  it ;  and  when  avarice,  with  its 
greedy  hand,  would  seize  upon  the  widow's  mite  or  press  the  unfortunate 
debtor  to  the  earth,  or  when  the  judge  forgets  the  dignity  of  his  high  office, 
they  may  look  upon  the  record  and  take  warning  from  it." 

The  parable  of  the  ewe  lamb,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was 
always  an  especial  favorite  of  Mr.  Storrs.  He  closed  his  argu 
ment  by  quoting  it  in  full,  as  exactly  applicable  to  this  case,  and 
concluded  by  saying : 

"You  are  not,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  the  prophets  of  the  Lord,  but  it  is 
an  old  saying  that  'the  voice  of  the  people  is  the  voice  of  God.'  You 
speak  for  the  people  ;  you  represent  the  people.  Take  this  simple  story — 
the  most  beautiful  thing  in  literature — and  apply  its  teachings  here.  This 
plantiff,  as  did  the  Israelitish  King,  spared  to  take  of  his  own  substance  to 
supply  the  wants  of  those  who  made  demands  upon  him,  but  he  took  this 
poor  woman's  home,  endeared  to  her  by  a  thousand  associations,  hallowed 
by  a  thousand  sacred  memories,  and  satisfied  his  creditors  with  that ! 
And  even  as  the  finger  of  the  stern  old  prophet  pointed  to  his  royal 
listener  as  guilty  of  the  very  crimes  which  he  had  but  just  denounced,  so 
will  the  verdict  of  this  jury,  reciting  the  story  of  the  wrongs  which  this 
widowed  woman  has  suffered,  declare  to  this  plaintiff,  'Thou  art  the  man.'" 

The  Times,  in  its  report  of  the  trial,  said: — "Mr.  Storrs  con 
cluded  his  argument  at  I2^£  o'clock.  His  remarks,  extending 
through  a  period  of  two  hours,  had  been  listened  to  attentively 
and  with  most  marked  interest  by  the  entire  assemblage,  among 
whom  were  many  of  the  most  prominent  practitioners  of  the 
Chicago  bar.  It  is  only  a  merited  and  truthful  tribute  to  Mr. 
Storrs  to  say  that  he  delivered  a  most  eloquent,  powerful,  and 
convincing  argument." 

The  plantift's  counsel  became  demoralized,  and  did  not  dare 
to  take  the  verdict  of  the  jury  after  Mr.  Storrs'  speech.  The 
suit  was  withdrawn. 


CHAPTER   X. 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY. 

MR.  STORKS  AT    OTTAWA,  ILLINOIS,   1 866 — JOHNSON'S    DOCTRINE  THAT    THE 

REBELS    FORFEITED    NO    POLITICAL    RIGHTS AN    EXHAUSTIVE   REPLY 

JOHNSON'S  RECORD  REVIEWED. 

WHEN  Andrew  Johnson  succeeded  to  the  Presidency  on 
the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  immediately  inaugurated  a 
policy  in  dealing  with  the  rebellious  States  which  soon  brought 
him  into  collision  with  Congress.  He  proposed  to  restore  them 
at  once  to  all  the  powers  they  possessed  before  the  rebellion, 
the  effect  of  which  would  have  been  to  place  the  colored  freed- 
men  once  more  at  the  mercy  of  their  former  masters.  The 
Southern  people  refused  to  live  on  terms  of  political  equality 
with  the  colored  people,  and  acts  of  violence  perpetrated  by  them 
upon  the  freedmen  were  daily  reported.  In  the  Northern  States 
the  feeling  called  forth  by  these  outrages  was  intense,  and 
Johnson's  Southern  policy  was  therefore  highly  exasperating  to  a 
majority  of  the  Northern  people.  They  regarded  the  rights  of 
the  freedmen  as  paramount  to  all  questions  as  to  the  relations  of 
the  States  to  the  Federal  government,  and  required  that  guaran 
tees  for  the  preservation  of  those  rights  should  be  secured  before 
the  seceding  States  should  be  re-admitted  to  the  Union.  In  this 
they  were  faithfully  represented  by  the  majority  in  both  Houses 
of  Congress.  When,  therefore,  Johnson  vetoed  such  measures  as 
the  Freedman's  Bureau  bill  and  the  Civil  Rights  bill,  a  breach 
between  him  and  Congress  was  inevitable ;  and  when  Johnson 
undertook  to  remove  Secretary  Stanton  in  open  violation  of  the 
Tenure  of  Office  bill,. his  impeachment  was  resolved  upon,  with 
a  result  which  is  now  matter  of  history. 
142 


JOHNSONS    RECONSTRUCTION    POLICY.  143 

While  this  conflict  between  the  Executive  and  the  Nation  was 
at  its  height,  Mr.  Storrs  reviewed  the  questions  at  issue  m  in  a 
powerful  and  closely  reasoned  speech  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  in  Sep 
tember  1866,  which  the  Chicago  Tribune  published  in  full.  It 
occupied  six  columns  and  a  half  of  the  old  "blanket"  sheet,  or 
nearly  two  pages  of  the  present  edition  of  that  paper.  The 
Tribune  paid  it  the  compliment  of  special  editorial  notice,  charac 
terizing  the  speech  as  "  a  complete,  conclusive,  and  overwhelming 
reply  to  the  harangues  of  Doolittle,  Dickey,  Hoffman,  Johnson, 
and  all  other  Copperhead  speakers,  on  the  question  of  reconstruc 
tion  and  the  status  of  the  rebels  and  rebel  States.  It  is  Websterian 
in  logical  reasoning,  in  purity  ©f  diction,  and  in  force  and  clear 
ness  of  statement.''  So  highly  was  the  speech  regarded  that  the 
Tribune  afterwards  reprinted  that  portion  of  it  which, — to  use  its 
own  language, — "demolishes  the  Johnson-Doolittle  doctrine  that  the 
conquered  rebels  have  forfeited  no  political  rights,  and  that  States 
cannot  commit  treason ;  that  the  rebels  have  a  constitutional  right 
to  seats  in  Congress  without  conditions  precedent ;  and  that  the 
rebel  States  were  never  out  of  the  Union,  never  committed  treason, 
and  have  a  continuing,  abiding,  inalienable,  indefeasible  right  to 
an  equal  voice  in  the  government,  regardless  of  the  rebellion  and 
their  attempt  to  destroy  the  Union.  "  All  these  assumptions,"  said 
the  Tribune,  "are  completely  demolished,  and  the  actual  status  of 
the  rebels  and  rebel  States  so  clearly  presented,  that  a  wayfaring 
man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err  therein." 

How  amply  the  Tribune's  eulogium  was  justified  will  be  seen 
from  a  perusal  of  the  speech,  which  is  here  given  in  full. 

"FELLOW  CITIZENS:  The  political  issues  involved  in  the  pending  elec 
tions  are  but  a  continuation  of  those  that  have  been  before  us  for  the 
past  five  years.  During  all  that  period  of  time  the  Republican  party  has 
urged  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  war  against  a  rebellion  in  arms.  The 
political  issues  •vvere  those  which  naturally  grew  out  of  the  war.  They 
involved  questions  of  policy  as  to  the  manner  in  which  it  should  be  conducted 
and  the  purpose  for  which  it  should  be  waged.  The  continued  and  triumphant 
supremacy  of  the  Republican  party  was  evidence  of  the  resolute  will  of  the  peo 
ple  to  suppress  rebellion,  to  crush  out  treason,  to  punish  traitors,  and  so  thor 
oughly  to  preserve  our  national  integrity  as  to  remove  all  the  causes  which 
had  given  rise  to  the  war.  We  were  at  war  with  the  rebellion  in  its 
every  part.  At  war  as  well  with  the  ideas  to  carry  out  which  rebel 
lion  was  inaugurated,  as  with  the  armies  which  were  marshaled  for  ,ihe 
support  of  those  ideas.  For  the  armies  of  the  rebellion  were  but  the 


t 
144  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

physical  expression  of  the  political  principles,  to  sustain  which  these 
armies  were  organized.  Every  battle  fought  by  Southern  armies,  every 
shot  fired  by  Southern  traitors,  was  in  behalf  of  the  right  of  secession, 
the  political  power  of  slavery,  and  the  Calhoun  doctrine  of  State  sover 
eignty.  In  contending  with  Southern  armies  we  contended  with  these 
political  principles.  When  their  armies  were  defeated  the  principles  for 
which  those  armies  fought  were  defeated  also.  When  their  armies  surrendered 
to  ours,  they  surrendered  not  only  the  guns  with  which  they  fought, 
but  the  principles  for  which  they  fought.  For  if  after  fighting  traitors  in 
the  field  and  vanquishing  them,  we  fail  to  vanquish  also  the  treason 
for  which  they  fought,  the  war  has  been  a  failure  infinitely  more  igno 
minious  and  disgraceful  than  it  would  have  been  had  the  Democratic 
platform  of  1864  been  true  when  it  was  written.  The  question  now  is,  as 
it  then  was,  Is  the  war  a  failure? 

"  If  after  the  sacrifice  of  three  hundred  thousand  lives,  and  an  expendi 
ture  of  almost  countless  millions  of  money  in  conquering  the  military 
power  of  the  rebellion,  the  only  result  has  been  to  restore  at  once  sub 
jugated  rebels  to  a  place  in  our  national  councils,  to  a  voice  in  national 
legislation  without  adequate  guarantees  that  the  political  heresies  which  gave 
life  to  treason,  and  inspired  its  exertion,  shall  not  flame  out  anew  into  the 
horrors  of  civil  war  ;  then  is  the  war  a  failure  indeed,  then  treason  meets 
with  no  punishment,  and  patriotism  has  no  rewards.  For  refine  and  reason 
upon  it  as  we  may,  the  question  of  the  hour  is,  shall  the  fruits  of  Union 
victories  be  gathered  and  secured  ? 

"  Whether  this  can  be  done  by  an  immediate  restoration  of  yet  disloyal 
States  and  communities  to  a  share  in  national  councils,  with  the  full 
privilege  accorded  to  them  there  to  urge  by  legislation  what  they  have 
failed  to  achieve  by  war,  is  the  practical  shape  which  this  question  now 
assumes.  If  unrepenant  and  still  disloyal  rebel  constituencies  are  to  be 
privileged  in  an  attempt  to  repudiate  by  legislation  the  payment  of  our 
national  debt,  or  to  assume  the  payment  of  the  rebel  debt,  or  to  deny 
the  freedman  any  of  the  privileges  of  a  citizen,  or  to  acquire  an  increase 
of  political  strength  as  one  of  the  results  of  the  rebellion  which  has  been 
crushed,  or  to  attempt  to  establish  the  dangerous  doctrine  of  State  sover 
eignty,  then  clearly  enough  the  war  has  been  profitless  in  results,  and 
the  fruits  of  Union  victures  have  wasted  and  withered  as  they  lie  strewn 
over  a  hundred  battle-plains. 

"  The  military  power  of  the  rebellion  having  been  crushed  it  would  seem 
naturally  enough  to  follow  that  all  those  who  had  engaged  in  the  rebel 
lion,  should,  so  far  at  least  as  political  privileges  were  concerned,  fall  with 
the  cause  which  they  had  espoused. 

"The  constitution  of  every  State  which  attempted  to  secede  from  the 
Union  was,  so  far  as  its  relation  with  the  National  Government  was  con 
cerned,  abrogated  by  the  act  of  secession. 

"  The  Constitution  of  all  these  States,  so  far  as  the  same  had  relation 
to  the  Confederate  Government,  fell  as  the  consequence  of  the  defeat  of 
that  so-called  Government. 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  145 

Thus,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  each  and  every  one  of  those  seceding 
States  was  absolutely  without  a  Constitution.  The  old  one  was  annulled 
by  their  own  act.  The  new  one,  which  placed  them  in  relation  with 
the  Confederacy,  was  overthrown  by  the  military  power  of  the  nation. 
Not  only  were  they  without  Constitutions  as  States  but  there  was  no 
power  then  existing  within  the  territorial  limits  of  either  of  those  States 
by  which  a  new  Constitution  could  be  created.  The  people  of  those 
States  had,  by  their  treason,  forfeited  all  political  rights  and  privileges. 
Hence,  there  was  no  organic  law,  nor  any  resident  power  to  create  it. 
How  a  State  can  be  said  to  be  in  the  Union,  which  has  neither  a  Con 
stitution  nor  a  people  empowered  to  create  one,  nor  representation  in 
Congress,  nor  even  the  power  to  convene  a  Legislature  within  its  own 
territorial  limits,  is  one  of  those  curious  political  problems  which  I  will 
leave  to  the  supporters  of  Andrew  Johnson  to  solve. 

This  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when,  by  the  assassination  of  Abraham 
Lincoln,  Andrew  Johnson  became  President  of  the  United  States.  How 
ready  the  South  was  at  that  time  to  submit  to  any  terms  which  might  have 
been  proposed  to  them.  How  confidently  they  anticipated  their  own 
exclusion  from  all  share  in  the  control  of  the  nation  which  they  had  by  the 
greatest  crime  in  history  sought  to  overthrow.  How  ready  to  concede  that 
every  privilege  which  they  enjoyed  was  through  the  clemency  of  the  nation 
and  not  possessed  as  a  right.  How  easy  it  would  have  been  at  that 
time  to  have  restored,  upon  a  basis  broad  and  permanent,  every 
State  to  its  proper  relation  with  the  Union  of  all  the  States,  we  all 
well  remember. 

At  once  Andrew  Johnson  began  the  work  of  reconstruction.  He  appointed 
what  he  called  Provisional  Governors  of  these  various  States,  whom  he 
authorized  to  call  Conventions  for  the  purpose,  among  others,  of  forming 
Constitutions  for  each  of  the  rebellious  States.  By  this  act  he  substantially 
declared  as  his  then  opinion  that  neither  of  those  States  had  either  Con 
stitution  or  political  head.  He  then  proceeded  to  declare  what  classes  of 
persons  might  be  entitled  to  vote  at  the  election  of  delegates  to  attend 
those  conventions,  thus  asserting  that  there  was  inherent  in  the  people  of 
those  States  no  political  privileges,  that  they  had  lost  and  forfeited  them  by 
their  treason,  and  that  the  right  of  the  elective  franchise  lost  and  forfeited 
by  their  treason,  could  only  be  conferred  upon  them  by,  himself,  which  he 
proposed  to  do,  and  did  do  by  pardons,  amnesties  and  proclamations. 

And  here  let  me  pause  to  notice  the  point  where  Andrew  Johnson 
first  invaded  the  Constitution,  in  behalf  of  treason  and  against  loyalty. 
The  millions  of  freedmen  who  had  alone  been  loyal,  who  had  furnished 
of  their  number  for  the  service  of  the  nation  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men,  were  not  permitted  to  participate  in  the  election  of  delegates  to  a 
Convention  called  to  re-create  a  State  Government  under  which  they 
and  theirs  were  to  live.  This  right  was  denied  upon  the  assumption 
that  the  Government  had  no  power  to  extend  the  elective  franchise.  It 
was  said  that  it  was  in  the  power  of  the  Government  to  deny  the  right, 


146  LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

but  that  it  could  not  confer  it.  How  contemptible  a  quibble  this  was 
and  is,  is  obvious  when  we  remember  that  no  single  rebel  participated 
in  those  elections,  who  was  not  compelled  first  to  obtain  the  right  from 
Andrew  Johnson.  Every  rebel  in  the  South  had  lost  the  right  to  vote, 
which  he  had  before  possessed,  by  his  treason,  and  when  the  work  of 
reconstruction  began  he  was  as  completely  without  the  right  as  the  negro 
had  ever  been.  Andrew  Johnson  deprived  no  rebel  of  his  right  to  vote. 
That  right  was  forfeited  by  the  act  of  the  rebel  himself.  But  Andrew 
Johnson  did  confer  the  right  upon  the  rebel  who  had  lost  it  by  his  treason, 
and  refused  to  confer  it  upon  the  negro  who  had  fairly  won  it  by  his  loyalty. 

And  thus  it  was  that  in  the  work  of  reconstruction  the  source  and 
fountain  of  all  power  was  Andrew  Johnson.  He  found  these  States 
without  Governors,  and  he  appointed  Governors.  He  found  them  without 
a  constituency  entitled  to  vote,  and  he  straightway  created  a  constituency, 
He  found  them  without  political  power,  and  he  clothed  them  with  it,  and 
so  it  was  that  the  strange  spectacle  was  presented  of  rebels  again  exer 
cising  political  power.  The  result  of  the  elections  for  delegates  was  such 
as  might  well  have  been  expected.  The  Conventions  were  as  much 
rebel  Conventions  as  those  which  the  fortunes  of  war  had  just  dissolved. 
With  the  advice  and  under  the  direction  of  Andrew  Johnson,  Constitu 
tions  were  framed  and  declared  to  be  the  law  of  the  land.  These 
Constitutions  were  as  much  the  work  of  the  President,  as  were  the 
Governors  themselves  the  creatures  of  his  authority.  He  dictates  to 
Governor  Perry  the  necessity  of  repudiating  the  rebel  debt.  He  instructs 
all  his  newly  created  Governors  that  the  Constitutional  Amendment 
abolishing  slavery  must  be  adopted,  and  he  urges  Governor  Starkey  to 
extend  the  elective  franchise  to  people  of  color. 

The  Constitutions  thus  having  been  framed  in  accordance  with  the 
dictations  of  the  President,  by  a  Convention  elected  by  a  constituency  which 
he  called  into  being,  at  elections  called  by  Governors  whom  he  had 
appointed,  the  work  of  reconstruction  under  this  one-man  power  proceeded 
to  the  organization  of  State  Governments.  Let  it  be  remembered,  however, 
in  this  connection,  that  the  Constitutions  thus  made  were  not  submitted  to 
the  action  of  the  people  of  the  States  for  whom  they  were  made,  save  in 
the  single  instance  of  the  State  of  Tennessee.  The  several  States  being 
thus  re-created,  the  constituency  whom  Andrew  Johnson  called  into  being, 
proceeded  to  the  election  of  State  officers.  Members  of  Congress  were  also 
elected  by  Andrew  Johnson's  voters.  And  United  States  Senators  were  also 
elected  by  Legislatures  whom  Andrew  Johnson's  voters  had  elected  ;  all 
this  was  done  while  Congress  was  not  in  session.  The  creator  of  States  did 
not  deem  it  advisable  in  the  work  of  reconstruction  to  call  to  his  assistance 
nor  to  solicit  the  counsels  of  the  representatives  of  the  people,  but  upon  the 
assembling  of  Congress  that  body  was  advised  in  a  wholesale  manner  of  the 
work  which  the  President  had  performed,  and  was  asked  at  once  and 
without  question  or  examination  to  adopt  it,  and  to  admit  to  seats  in 
National  councils  the  representatives  of  a  people  who  but  a  few  months 
before  were  defying  National  authority,  and  seeking  by  force  of  arms  to 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  147 

overthrow  it.  This  Congress  has  thus  far  refused  to  do.  Any  attempt 
to  obtain  a  clear  idea  of  what  Andrew  Johnson  calls  'my  policy'  from 
anything  that  he  says,  will  prove  utterly  futile.  But  comparing  his  acts 
with  his  declarations  it  will  be  seen  that  they  are  utterly  irreconcilable. 

"In  his  first  message  to  Congress  he  says,  in  the  course  of  his  argument 
against  the  continuance  of  military  rule  over  the  seceded  States,  that  such 
policy  would  have  'implied  that  the  States  whose  inhabitants  may  have 
taken  part  in  the  rebellion  had  by  the  act  of  those  inhabitants  ceased  to 
exist.  But  the  true  theory  is  that  all  pretended  acts  of  secession  were 
from  the  beginning  null  and  void.  The  States  cannot  commit  treason 
nor  screen  the  individual  citizens  who  may  have  commited  treason  any 
more  than  they  can  make  valid  treaties  or  engage  in  lawful  commerce 
with  any  foreign  power.  The  States  attempting  to  secede,  placed  them 
selves  in  a  condition  where  their  vitality  was  impaired  but  not  extinguish 
ed — their  functions  suspended  but  not  destroyed.' 

"This  is  but  the  statement  in  a  somewhat  roundabout  way  of  the  propo 
sition  which  all  the  aiders  and  abettors  of  treason,  and  all  the  wearied  and 
tired-out  Republicans  have  incessantly  asserted,  'That  no  State  has  a  right 
to  secede  from  the  Union,  and  therefore  no  State  has  seceded  ;  and  that 
therefore,  all  the  States  have  all  the  time  been  and  now  are  in  the  Union, 
and  that  whoever  asserts  the  contrary,  is  a  disunionist.'  That  all  pre 
tended  acts  of  secession  were  null  and  void,  is  to  a  certain  extent  true,  and 
to  a  certain  extent  not  true.  The  proposition  is,  in  this  particular,  much 
like  the  experience  of  the  young  physician  who,  in  commencing  practice, 
adopted  as  his  •  policy,'  the  building  up  of  medical  knowledge  by  actual 
observations  of  the  results  of  particular  medicines  administered  in  particu 
lar  cases.  The  first  case  he  was  called  upon  to  treat  was  a  fever.  He 
administered  Peruvian  bark,  and  the  patient  recovered.  He  at  once  wrote 
in  his  note  book,  '  Mem. — Peruvian  bark  cures  fever.'  His  next  case  was 
also  one  of  fever ;  he  administered  the  same  medicine  and  the  patient 
died;  so  he  at  once  wrote  under  his  original  note,  'Sometimes.'  Peruv 
ian  bark  cures  fever — sometimes. 

"  In  saying  that  all  acts  of  secession  are  null  and  void,  we  simply  say 
that  no  State  has  a  constitutional  right  to  pass  an  ordinance  of  secession. 
That  the  State  in  rebellion  did  pass  ordinances  of  secession,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  is  indisputable.  That  those  ordinances  were,  so  far  as  they  affected 
the  rightful  authority  of  the  General  Government  over  the  States  or  the 
people  of  those  States,  null  and  void,  is  entirely  correct.  But  that  they 
were  null  and  void  in  the  sense  that  the  act  of  passing  them  in  no  way 
affected  or  changed  the  political  rights  or  privileges  of  those  States  or 
the  people  within  the  Government  from  which  they  attempted  to  secede, 
is  not  true  ;  and  to  claim  that  it  is,  is  to  insist  that  the  commission  of 
a  crime  works  no  change  in  the  rights  and  privileges  of  the  criminal. 
A  forged  deed  is,  so  far  as  it  affects  the  rights  of  the  party  whose  name 
is  forged,  absolutely  null  and  void,  but  it  would  not  be  regarded  as  a 
very  good  defence  to  be  made  by  the  forger  that  the  forged  deed  was 
null  and  void,  and  that  therefore  he  had  not  forged  a  deed.  He  would 


148  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

find  that,  although  he  had  not  succeeded  in  affecting  the  rights  of  the 
owner  of  the  property  which  he  had  attempted  to  convey,  he  had  by 
the  commission  of  the  crime  very  seriously  impaired  and  affected  his  own  rights. 
While,  therefore,  the  ordinance  of  secession  passed  by  the  State  of 
South  Carolina  in  no  way  affected  or  impaired  the  authority  of  the  Gen 
eral  Government,  it  did  very  seriously  impair  and  affect  the  rights  of  the 
State  of  South  Carolina  within  that  Government. 

"The  President  also  declares  that  'the  States  cannot  commit  treason,  nor 
screen  the  individual  citizens  who  may  have  committed  treason.'  The 
answer  to  this  is  that  these  States  which  are  now  asking  re-admission,  did 
commit  treason,  and  for  over  four  years  they  did  screen  individual  citizens 
who  had  committed  treason.  A  French  savan  who  had  explained  and 
demonstrated  to  a  practical  Englishman  a  very  ingenious,  scientific  theory, 
upon  being  told  that  the  theory  was  a  fine  one  but  the  facts  were  all 
the  other  way,  answered  'so  much  the  worse  for  the  facts,  poor  things.' 
It  was  proved  by  arguments  of  the  most  indubitable  character,  argu 
ments  quite  unanswerable,  that  Richmond  could  not  be  taken ;  but  in 
spite  of  all  rules  of  logic,  Richmond  was  taken,  and  the  mass  of  people, 
troubling  themselves  but  little  with  the  refined  subtleties  of  Copperhead 
Johnsonian  Mosaic  logic,  believe  to  this  day  that  Richmond  was  in  fact 
captured  and  quite  cheerfully  'accept  the  situation.' 

"Governor  Yates  prorogued  a  disloyal  Legislature  the  members  of  which 
packed  their  satchels  and  went  home.  It  was  contended,  however,  that  as 
the  Constitution  pointed  out  the  manner  in  which  the  General  Assembly 
should  be  adjourned,  inasmuch  as  that  manner  had  not  been  pursued,  the 
Legislature  had  not  been  adjourned  but  continued  all  the  time  in  session. 
The  Supreme  Court  thought  otherwise,  and  held  that  although  the  legal 
forms  had  not  been  complied  with,  the  members  having  gone  home,  there 
was  an  adjournment  in  fact.  I  am  unable  to  perceive  why  a  State  cannot, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  commit  treason.  All  acts  done  by  the  State  Govern 
ment  are  acts  done  by  the  State,  because  in  no  other  way  can  the  State 
act.  The  various  ordinances  of  secession  were  passed  by  the  State  Legisla 
tures,  and  approved  by  their  officers,  and  were  therefore  the  acts  of  the 
States.  Annies  were  raised  to  wage  war  against  the  United  States  by  the 
legislative  action  of  State  Governments.  This  was  the  act  of  the  State,  and 
inasmuch  as  the  act  was  treason,  it  was  treason  committed  by  tJic  States. 
That  these  States  had  no  right  to  pass  ordinances  of  secession,  nor  to  wage 
war  against  the  Government,  we  were  quite  well  aware  before  being  advised 
upon  that  point  by  Andrew  Johnson.  The  fact  that  they  did  do  these  things, 
no  swinging  around  the  circle  will  remove.  But  that  '  the  States '  were  in 
insurrection  against  the  Government  is  affirmatively  declared  by  the  address 
adopted  by  the  Johnson  Philadelphia  Convention.  It  is  there  said,  '  The  with 
drawal  of  their  members  from  Congress  by  the  States  which  resisted  the 
Government,  was  among  their  acts  of  insurrection  ;  was  one  of  the  means 
and  agencies  by  which  they  sought  to  impair  the  authority  and  defeat  the 
action  of  the  Government' 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  149 

"If  language  has  not  altogether  lost  its  force  and  words  their  significance, 
it  is,  by  the  portion  of  the  address  which  I  have  read,  declared,  ist.  That 
the  States  withdrew  their  members  from  Congress.  2d.  That  these  States 
resisted  the  Government.  3d.  That  these  States  were  guilty  of  acts  of  insur 
rection  against  the  Government,  among  which  the  withdrawal  of  their 
members  was  one.  4th.  That  these  States  sought  by  various  means  and 
agencies  to  impair  the  authority  and  defeat  the  action  of  the  Government. 
It  is  quite  certain  that  resistance  to  the  Government,  acts  of  insurrection 
against  it,  and  attempts  to  impair  its  authority  and  defeat  its  action,  amount 
to  treason.  All  these  acts,  it  is  declared  by  the  Philadelphia  address,  the 
seceding  States  have  committed — that  is,  they  have  committed  treason. 
Andrew  Johnson  declares  in  his  message  that  a  State  cannot  commit  trea 
son,  while  the  Siamese  address,  promulgated  by  his  satraps,  and  the 
reading  of  which  suffused  his  eyes  with  tears,  declares  that  they  have  com 
mitted  treason.  But  further,  we  are  told  that  the  States  attempting  to 
secede  placed  themselves  in  a  condition  where  their  '  vitality  was  impaired, 
but  not  extinguished  ;  their  functions  suspended,  but  not  destroyed.'  The 
State  Governments  which  passed  ordinances  of  secession  not  only  impaired 
their  vitality  by  those  acts  while  within  the  Union,  but  they  lost  it  altogether. 
When  the  Legislature  of  South  Carolina  declared  that  State  out  of  the 
Union,  that  body  ceased  to  have  any  vitality  within  the  Union.  It  was  not 
a  mere  suspension  of  their  legislative  functions  within  the  Union,  but  it  was 
an  absolute  destruction  of  those  functions.  As  I  have  already  observed, 
the  State  Government  is  the  State.  What  it  does,  the  State  does.  And  if 
it  be  true,  that  in  adopting  an  ordinance  of  secession,  the  State  Govern 
ment  of  South  Carolina  merely  suspended  its  functions  within  the  Union,  it 
would  seem  to  follow  that  immediately  that  the  ordinance  proved  practically 
a  failure,  from  lack  of  power  to  carry  it  out,  its  suspended  functions  were 
at  once  restored,  and  nothing  but  their  defeat  in  battle  was  necessary  to 
place  them  upon  a  platform  of  entire  equality  of  political  privileges  with 
the  States  from  which  they  attempted  to  secede. 

"But  Andrew  Johnson's  acts  were  entirely  inconsistent  with  his  hazy 
and  impracticable  theories.  In  his  work  of  reconstruction  he  proceeded 
upon  the  principle  of  destruction,  and  not  upon  the  theory  of  suspension 
of  political  vitality  and  functions.  He  appointed  Governors.  By  that  act 
he  said  there  are  no  Governors.  He  gave  to  the  people  the  right  to 
vote.  By  that  act  he  declared  that  they  were  without  political  power — 
not  that  their  political  power  was  merely  suspended,  but  that  it  was 
destroyed.  He  did  not  merely  set  in  operation  the  old  Governor,  the  old 
State  Legislatures,  under  the  old  Constitutions,  deriving  their  authority 
from  their  old  constituencies,  and  all  acting  under  their  old  laws,  which 
would  have  been  the  case  had  the  rebellion  produced  simply  a  suspen 
sion  of  their  political  vitality,  but  he  ignored  these  altogether — did  not 
restore  an  old  Government,  but  created  a  new  one. 

"  It  was  a  work  of  re-creation  and  not  a  work  of  restoration.  So  long 
then  as  Andrew  Johnson  by  his  acts  declare  that  there  were  in  all  the 
seceded  States  no  Governors,  no  State  officers,  no  Constitutions,  no  State 


I5O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Legislatures,  no  representation  in  Congress,  no  State  laws,  and  no  people 
possessing  political  privileges,  I  must  be  excused  for  believing  that  the 
political  vitality  of  those  States  within  the  Union  was  extinguished  and 
their  political  functions  within  the  Union  were  destroyed. 

"  But  if  it  were  true  that  by  the  rebellion  the  political  functions  of 
the  rebellious  States  were  merely  suspended,  it  becomes  important  to 
inquire  how  and  in  what  way  they  could  be  rightfully  resumed.  It  is  a 
favorite  expression  of  '  my  policy '  men  that  when  the  war  ceased,  war 
measures  ceased,  and  that,  immediately  upon  the  surrender  of  the  South 
ern  armies,  everything,  by  some  curious  political  mechanism,  sprung  back 
to  the  precise  position  it  occupied  before  the  rebellion  began.  And  this 
is  really  what  '  my  policy '  amounts  to.  No  States,  say  they,  have  ever 
been  out  of  the  Union.  They  tried  to  go  out,  and  failed  ;  and  in  con 
sequence  of  their  failure  their  rights  when  in  the  Union  are  unimpaired. 
This  rs  the  new  Gospel  according  to  the  new  Moses.  This  is  the  Con 
stitution  as  it  is  in  Andrew.  Accordingly  the  Constitution  is  made  to 
read  thus  : 

'"Whenever  any  State  Government,  or  combination  of  State  Govern 
ments,  declare  their  relations  with  the  Union  of  these  States  at  an  end, 
and  seek  to  make  that  declaration  good  by  war,  the*y  shall,  so  long  as 
they  succeed  in  war,  be  deprived  of  all  political  rights  and  privileges, 
and  shall  only  be  entitled  to  the  full  enjoyment  of  political  rights  and 
privileges  within  the  Union  which  they  have  attempted  to  destroy,  upon 
the  defeat  and  surrender  of  their  armies. 

"Treason  against  the  Government  of  the  Union  shall  work  the  destruc 
tion  of  all  the  political  privileges  of  traitors,  so  long  as  it  shall  be  suc 
cessful,  and  these  rights  and  privileges  can  only  be  achieved  by  traitors 
in  the  event  and  in  consequence  of  their  defeat.' 

"  And  so  it  happens  that  when  McClellan  was  driven  back  from 
Richmond  the  Southern  States  lost  their  rights,  and  when  Lee  surren 
dered  to  Grant  at  Appomatox  Court-House  they  gained  them.  Rebel 
lion  loses  by  success,  and  wins  by  failure.  So,  if  they  had  finally 
defeated  us,  they  would  have  had  no  Constitutional  privileges,  but  when 
we  defeat  them  they  recover  them  all.  Their  rights  are  suspended  dur 
ing  the  progress  of  the  war,  to  be  lost  if  they  win  and  to  be  gained  if 
they  lose. 

"  But  the  doctrine  of  the  Johnson  party  goes  even  further  than  this. 
By  the  third  resolution  of  their  platform  adopted  at  Philadelphia,  it  is 
declared  that  'representation  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  and  in 
the  Electoral  College,  is  a  right  recognized  in  the  Constitution  as  abid 
ing  in  every  State fundamental  in  its  nature and  neither 

Congress  nor  the  General  Government  has  any  authority  or  power  to 
deny  this  right  to  any,  or  withhold  its  enjoyment  under  the  Constitution, 
from  the  people  thereof.' 

"The  address  adopted  by  the  same  Convention  puts  the  proposition 
still  more  pointedly.  For,  in  speaking  of  the  insurrectionary  acts  of  the 
States,  it  is  there  declared  that  'neither  the  right  of  representation,  nor 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  151 

the  duty  to  be  represented,  was  in  the  least  impaired  by  the  fact  of 
insurrection.'  And  again,  the  address  says:  'But  it  is  alleged,  in 
justification  of  the  usurpation  which  we  condemn,  that  the  condition  of 
the  Southern  States  and  people  is  not  such  as  renders  safe  their  re-ad 
mission  to  a  share  in  the  Government  of  the  country  ;  that  they  are  still 
disloyal  in  sentiment  and  purpose,  and  that  neither  the  honor,  the  credit, 
nor  the  interest  of  the  nation  would  be  safe  were  they  admitted  to  the 
councils  of  the  nation.  We  reply  to  this,  First,  That  we  have  no  right 
for  such  reasons  to  deny  to  any  portion  of  the  States  or  people  any 
right  conferred  upon  them  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.' 

"  This  is  the  authoritative  exposition  of  the  principles  of  that  party, 
whatever  its  name  may  be,  which  opposes  itself  to  the  Republican  party, 
which  denounces  Congress,  which  has  for  its  present  head  Andrew 
Johnson,  and  for  its  subalterns  and  lieutenants  the  Postmasters  and 
Internal  Revenue  Officers  throughout  the  country.  Is  it  possible  that  we 
fully  appreciate  how  monstrous  the  ideas  buried  in  these  smooth  and 
oily  phrases  are,  how  utterly  destructive  and  suicidal  they  would  be  if 
carried  into  effect ;  how  complete  would  be  the  triumph  of  treason  should 
they  be  adopted  ?  Even  Andrew  Johnson  himself  had  not  the  hardihood, 
upon  the  opening  of  Congress,  to  take  any  such  ground.  He  admitted 
that  by  the  rebellion  the  political  vitality  of  rebel  State  Governments 
had  been  impaired  and  their  functions  suspended ;  but  the  doctrine 
enunciated  in  the  resolutions  and  address  which  I  have  read  is  a  plunge 
far  in  advance.  It  out-Herods  Herod.  For  here  it  is  declared  that 
representation  is  a  right  abiding  in  every  State ;  that  neither  Congress 
nor  the  general  Government  has  the  power  to  deny  the  right  to  any  State 
or  to  withdraw  it  from  the  people  thereof ;  that  it  is  a  right  not  in  the 
least  impaired  by-  the  fact  of  treason,  and  that  States  and  people  that 
are  still  disloyal  in  sentiment  and  purpose,  and  whom  it  would  be  unsafe 
to  the  honor,  the  credit,  and  interest  of  the  nation  to  adjnit  to  its 
councils,  are  nevertheless  entitled  to  be  admitted  to  representation  in 
Congress,  and  to  a  share  in  the  control  of  our  national  destiny. 

"  The  Congress  of  the  United  States  which  refuses  to  adopt  heresies, 
so  monstrous  and  so  criminal  ;  which  refuses  to  surrender  back  to  traitors, 
whose  hands  are  yet  red  with  the  blood  of  your  sons  and  kindred,  the 
victories  which  they  have  achieved  ;  which  refuses  to  blot  out  the  sub 
lime  record  of  four  years  heroic  endurance,  suffering  and  achievement, 
by  an  ignominious  confession  of  all  that  the  blood  and  valor  of  your 
sons  have  won  ;  is  denounced  by  a  gathering  of  pardoned  rebels,  unpar- 
doned  Copperheads,  and  apostate  Republicans,  as  guilty  of  usurpation  ; 
and  the  great  loyal  people  who  have  carried  the  nation  safely  through 
the  flaming  perils  of  a  gigantic  rebellion,  are  insultingly  denounced  by  a 
brawling  recreant,  a  conceited  demagogue,  as  traitors  to  the  Constitution, 
to  preserve  which  they  sacrificd  three  hundred  thousand  of  their  sons, 
and  to  vindicate  which  still  further,  if  need  be,  will  sacrifice  three  hun 
dred  thousand  more. 

"  My  fellow-citizens  :     If  you   believe   that  during  all  the  time  the  rebel- 


152  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

lion  was  in  progress,  the  States  engaged  in  it  seeking  to  destroy  the 
nation  by  the  sword,  had  also  an  abiding  right  to  representation  in  Con 
gress,  so  that  they  might  there  also  compass  its  destruction  by  legisla 
tion,  you  should  vote  for  those  canditates  who  approve  '  my  policy,'  for 
that  is  my  policy. 

"  If  you  believe  that  at  no  time  during  the  war  Congress  had  the 
authority  to  withhold  from  the  people  of  South  Carolina  the  right  of 
representation  in  our  National  Congress,  you  must  vote  for  Dickey,  for  he 
stands  upon  that  platform. 

"  If  you  believe  that  the  rights  of  a  State,  or  of  the  people  thereof,  are  in 
no  way  impaired  by  treason,  you  cannot  consistently  vote  for  Logan. 

"  If  you  believe  that  States  and  people  disloyal  in  sentiment  and  purpose, 
and  with  whom  neither  the  honor,  the  credit  nor  interest  of  the  nation 
would  be  safe,  are  entitled  at  once  to  re-admission  into  the  councils  of  the 
nation,  and  to  equal  privileges  with  loyal  States  and  people  therein,  you 
are  a  member  in  good  standing  of  the  Johnson  party,  entitled  to  a  Federal 
appointment,  qualified  for  a  seat  in  a  Conservative  Convention,  and  to 
walk  arm-in-arm  with  Governor  Orr,  Andrew  Johnson,  Fort  Pillow  Forrest 
or  Henry  J.  Raymond.  For  such  is  the  faith  of  the  new  party  as  it  is 
written.  Let  all  those  who  believe  in  it  subscribe  to  it. 

"It  is  also  important  to  observe,  with  reference  to  the  declaration  of 
principles  and  the  address  adopted  by  the  Johnson  party  at  Philadelphia, 
that  there  is  running  through  them  both  a  clear  and  unmistakable  recog 
nition  of  the  old  Calhoun  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty,  which  is  at  the 
bottom  of  all  our  difficulties.  The  argument  in  support  of  this  theory 
was  that  the  Constitution  was  made  by  the  States ;  ,that  the  Union  was 
a  compact  between  States,  from  which  the  States  might  at  any  time 
they  saw  fit  withdraw.  The  answer  was  that  the  Constitution  was  not 
made  by  the  States,  but  by  the  people,  and  that  its  declared  purpose 
was  to  secure  between  the  people  a  more  perfect  union. 

"By  the  second  of  these  resolutions  it  is  declared  that  the  war  has 
preserved  the  Union  with  the  equal  rights,  dignity  and  authority  of  the 
States  perfect  and  unimpaired  ;  by  the  third,  that  representation  in  Con 
gress  is  a  right  abiding  in  every  State;  and  by  the  sixth,  that  all  the 
States  of  the  Union  have  an  equal  and  indefeasible  right  in  proposing 
amendments  to  the  Constitution.  This  declaration  of  principles  was 
intended  to  harmonize  with  the  arguments  of  Messrs.  Johnson,  Stephens 
and  Raymond.  They  insist,  a  portion  of  the  time  at  least,  that  the 
treason  of  the  last  five  years  has  been  committed  by  the  people  of  the 
States,  and  not  by  the  States;  and  that  although  the  people  of  those 
States  may  have  lost  their  rights,  the  rights  of  the  States  remain  unim 
paired.  Hence  it  is  that  they  sometimes  insist  that  they  are  simply  ask 
ing  the  admission  of  loyal  representatives  to  Congress,  although  as  I  have 
already  shown,  their  declaration  of  principles  asserts  the  existence  of  an 
absolute  right  of  representation  entirely  irrespective  of  the  loyalty  or  disloy- 
aky  of  the  representatives  of  their  constituents. 

"  But,   my   fellow-citizens,    this   right  of  representation  does  not,  and  can- 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  153 

not  be  made  to  rest  upon  the  political  standing  of  the  representative. 
The  question  is,  not  whether  he,  or  some  other  person,  should  represent 
the  particular  constituency  from  which  he  comes,  but  whether  that 
constituency  has  any  right  to  be  represented  by  anybody.  Members  of 
Congress  do  not  represent  the  State  from  which  they  come,  but  the 
people.  The  Constitution  provides  that  'the  House  of  Representatives 
shall  be  composed  of  members  chosen  every  second  year  by  the  people 
of  the  several  States.'  Now,  if  the  people  of  the  seceding  States  have, 
as  Andrew  Johnson  is  compelled  to  admit  that  they  have,  been  guilty 
of  treason,  and  have  thereby  forfeited  all  political  rights  and  privileges, 
they  have  no  right  to  elect  representatives  at  all.  The  question  is  then, 
not  whether  the  particular  representative  is  loyal  or  disloyal,  but  whether  the 
people  who  elected  him  are,  or  are  not  loyal  citizens.  Not  whether  the 
particular  man  was  elected  by  the  votes  of  the  people  of  that  particular 
district,  but  whether  the  people  of  that  district  had  any  right  to  elect 
anybody.  If  they  were  disloyal  they  had  not ;  that  fact  being  once 
ascertained,  the  question  as  to  whom  a  people  not  entitled  to  elect  any 
body,  elected,  ceases  to  be  of  any  importance.  For  a  loyal  representa 
tive  of  a  disloyal  people  would  be  a  farce.  He  would  not  be  a  repre 
sentative. 

"A  people,  or  a  State  engaging  in  a  rebellion,  certainly  lose  some 
thing  if  their  rebellion  is  overthrown.  It  cannot  be  that  at  once,  upon 
defeat,  they  who  have  waged  war  against  the  Union  are  entitled  to 
equality  of  rights  and  privileges  with  those  who  have  fought  in  its 
defence.  This  was  Andrew  Johnson's  opinion  in  May,  1865.  By  his 
proclamation  appointing  Holden  Provisional  Governor  of  the  State  of 
North  Carolina,  he  declares  that  for  the  purpose  of  'enabling  the  loyal 
people  of  said  State  to  organize  a  State  Government,'  he  appoints 
Holden  Provisional  Governor,  'whose  duty  it  shall  be  at  the  earliest 
practicable  period  to  prescribe  such  rules  and  regulations  as  may  be  neces 
sary  and  proper  for  convening  a  convention,  composed  of  delegates  to  be 
chosen  by  that  portion  of  the  people  of  said  State  who  are  loyal  to  the 
United  States,  and  no  others.' 

"  A  State  Government  not  then  being  in  existence,  he  set  the  machin 
ery  in  motion  by  which  one  was  to  be  organized.  But  it  was  to  be 
organized  for  loyal  people  and  by  loyal  people. 

"The  test   of  the   right   to   political   privileges  was   therefore   loyalty. 

"Those  rights  were  lost  by  disloyalty.  And  they  could  only  be  regained 
by  loyalty.  Andrew  Johnson  did  not  deprive  traitors  of  their  rights. 
They  lost  them  by  disloyalty.  Andrew  Johnson  did  not  make  them  dis 
loyal,  nor  could  they  be  made  so  by  his  declaration.  It  was  their  acts 
which  made  them  so.  Neither  did  Andrew  Johnson  make  traitors  loyal. 
He  could  not  do  so  by  proclamation  nor  by  pardons.  What  they  have 
lost  by  treason,  then  can  regain  only  by  loyalty.  If  the  people  of  the  seceded 
States  are  not  yet  loyal,  they  have  not  yet  regained  their  political  rights  ; 
and  whether  they  are  or  are  not  loyal  in  sentiment  and  purpose,  is  a 
matter  of  fact  about  which  Andrew  Johnson  knows  no  more  than  any 


154  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

other  man,  nor  as  much  as  many  men,  and  which  cannot  be  determined 
by  his  saying,  as  to  the  fact,  yea,  or  nay. 

"The  new  Moses  seems  to  be  laboring  under  the  impression  that  the 
exercise  of  political  privileges  and  the  enjoyment  of  political  rights  rests 
solely  and  altogether  upon  his  decision.  He  says  that  the  people  of  the 
seceded  States  are  all  loyal,  and  that  they  have  organized  State  Govern 
ments,  and  elected  members  of  Congress  who  are  at  once  entitled  to 
admission.  I,  for  one,  desire  better  evidence  of  a  man's  loyalty  than 
Andrew  Johnson's  endorsement  of  it.  The  President  cannot  change  facts 
by  assertions.  He  cannot  make  a  treasonable  people  loyal  by  declaring 
that  they  are  loyal,  any  more  than  he  can  swing  around  the  circle,  and  by 
hammering  at  the  other  end  make  the  great  loyal  North  disloyal  by  drunken 
and  mendacious  charges  that  they  are  traitors. 

"The  fact  of  the  disloyalty  of  the  Southern' States  and  people  was  estab 
lished  by  numberless  acts  of  treason  committed  by  both  against  the  Govern 
ment.  We  ask  that  they  furnish  us  the  same  kind  of  proof  of  their  loyalty 
that  they  have  given  us  of  their  disloyalty.  It  must  be  proved  by  their 
acts.  There  must  be  not  only  repentance  for  their  crimes,  but  they  must 
•do  works  meet  for  repentance.'  Repentance  is  not  done  by  proxy,  either 
in  Divine  or  human  government.  An  offender  against  the  laws  either  of 
God  or  man  is  not  permitted  to  furnish  a  substitute  to  do  the  repenting  for 
him.  That  each  offender  has  to  do  for  himself.  The  people  of  this  coun 
try  are  not  satisfied  to  have  the  work  of  repentance  for  millions  of  traitors 
done  by  one  man,  and  that  man  Andy  Johnson.  He  has  quite  enough 
sins  of  his  own  to  repent  for,  .without  undertaking  to  repent  for  the  sins 
of  others. 

"  When  the  several  so-called  States,  which  were  created  by  Andrew 
Johnson,  claimed  admission  into  our  national  councils,  the  questions  of  the 
loyalty  of  their  people,  and  the  legitimacy  of  their  pretended  State  organiz 
ations,  were  all  to  be  passed  upon  as  matters  of  fact.  After  investigations 
extending  over  the  entire  rebellious  territory,  the  gathering  of  facts  from 
every  conceivable  quarter  and  from  all  sources,  the  overwhelming  weight  of 
testimony  clearly  demonstrated  that  the  pretended  State  organizations  were 
the  work  of  rebels,  from  which  the  truly  loyal  men  of  the  South  had  been 
in  a  great  measure  excluded  ;  that  their  people  were  still  thoroughly  disloyal 
in  sentiment  and  purpose  ;  that  the  assumption  of  the  payment  of  the  Con 
federate  debt,  the  repudiation,  if  possible,  of  the  national  debt,  the  practical 
re-enslavement  of  the  Freedmen,  would  be  certain  to  follow  from  the  action 
of  the  States,  so  soon  as  they  secured  their  coveted  position  in  Congress. 
So  believing,  Congress  has  resolutely  refused  to  accede  to  the  demands  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  and  has,  thus  far,  kept  treason  out  of  our  National  Con 
gress. 

"The  authority  of  Congress  over  this  whole  subject  has  been  repeatedly 
asserted  by  its  defamers,  and  can  hardly  admit  of  discussion.  Secretary 
Seward,  in  his  great  speech  delivered  at  Auburn  in  1864,  declares  that  after 
the  war  shall  have  ceased,  '  all  the  moral,  economical,  and  political  ques 
tions,  as  well  questions  affecting  slavery  as  otJiers,  which  shall  then  be 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  155 

existing  between  individuals  and  States  and  the  Federal  Government,  whether 
they  arose  before  the  civil  war  began,  or  whether  they  grew  out  of  it.  -will, 
by  force  of  the  Constitution  pass  over  to  the  arbitrament  of  courts  of  law, 
and  to  the  councils  of  legislation.'  And  in  reply  to  Governor  Marvin,  of 
Florida,  September,  1865,  he  states,  speaking  for  himself  and  for  the  Presi 
dent,  '  It  must,  however,  be  distinctly  understood,  that  the  restoration  to 
which  your  proclamation  refers,  will  be  subject  to  decision  of  Ccngress.' 
The  Constitution  provides  that  '  Each  house  shall  be  judge  of  the  election 
returns,  and  qualifications  of  its  own  members.'  In  judging  of  the  elections 
is  involved  the  right  of  inquiring  into  and  ascertaining  whether  the  electors 
possessed  the  right.  For  if  the  facts  show  that  the  applying  member  was 
elected  by  men  who  possessed  no  political  rights  or  privileges,  then,  of  course 
the  judgment  would  be  that  there  had  been  no  election.  And  because  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  have  thus  far  exercised  the  authority,  which 
the  Constitution  has  given  it,  and  it  alone,  because  it  has  refused  to  restore 
to  full  share  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  unrepentant,  and  yet  defiant 
traitors,  because  it  insists  that  when  rebel  States  and  people  are  restored  to 
the  Union,  they  shall  come  back  upon  terms  of  equality  with  loyal  States 
and  people,  and  not  with  an  increased  political  power,  as  the  result  of  their 
crimes  ;  because  it  does  these  things,  it  is  denounced  as  an  assumed  Con 
gress,  as  a  traitorous  body,  as  usurpers. 

"  Refusing  to  adopt  the  hasty  and  inconsiderate  action  of  the  President ; 
appreciating  the  seriousness  of  the  task  before  them,  and  the  absolute  nec 
essity  of  securing  by  sufficient  guarantees  the  fruits  of  our  victories  ;  acting 
upon  the  assumption  that  the  loyal  people  of  the  country  would  be  satisfied 
with  no  settlement  of  these  questions  by  legislation  which  was  not  as  thor 
ough  and  complete  an  overthrow  of  treasonable  principles  in  politics  as  the 
defeat  of  their  armies  had  been  in  battle,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
after  months  of  investigation  and  discussion,  agreed  upon  a  policy,  and 
presented  it  to  the  people. 

"The  policy  of  Andrew  Johnson  and  his  supporters  is  the  immediate 
restoration  of  Southern  States  to  power  irrespective  of  their  present  loyalty 
or  disloyalty,  without  guarantees  for  the  future,  and  without  punishment  for 
the  past. 

"  The  policy  of  Congress  is  to  restore  Southern  people  and  States  to  their 
original  relations  with  the  Union  upon  their  adopting  the  Constitutional 
Amendment  agreed  upon  by  Congress. 

"  Nothing  more,  nothing  less,  is  required  of  the  South  than  this. 

"This  Amendment  is:  I.  That  all  persons  born  or  naturalized  in  the 
United  States,  and  subject  to  its  jurisdiction,  are  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  and  of  the  States  wherein  they  reside  ;  that  no  State  shall  make  any 
law  abridging  those  privileges,  nor  deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty  or 
property,  without  due  process  of  law,  nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its 
jurisdiction  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws.  2.  That  Representatives  shall 
be  apportioned  among  the  several  States  according  to  their  respective 
numbers ;  but  when  the  right  to  vote  is  denied  to  any  of  the  male  inhabi 
tants  of  such  State,  being  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  citizens  of  the 


156  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

United  States,  or  in  any  way  abridged,  except  for  participation  in  rebellion  or 
other  crime,  the  basis  of  representation  shall  be  reduced  in  the  proportion 
which  the  number  of  such  male  citizens  shall  bear  to  the  whole  number. 
3.  That  no  person  shall  be  a  Senator  or  Representative  in  Congress,  elector 
of  President  and  Vice-President,  or  hold  any  office  civil  or  military,  under 
the  United  States,  or  under  any  State,  who  having  previously  taken  an 
oath  as  a  member  of  Congress,  or  as  an  officer  of  the  United  States,  or  as 
a  member  of  any  State  Legislature,  or  as  an  executive  or  judicial  officer  of 
any  State,  to  support  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  shall  have 
engaged  in  insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the  same,  or  given  aid  or  com 
fort  to  the  enemies  thereof.  But  Congress  may,  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of 
each  House,  remove  such  disability.  4.  Places  the  validity  of  the  public 
debt  of  the  United  States  beyond  question,  and  deprives  the  United  States 
or  any  State  of  the  right  to  assume  the  payment  of  the  Confederate  debt. 

"That  there  is  nothing  in  either  of  these  sections  unjust  to  the  South  or 
prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  whole  country,  is  obvious.  That  the  negro 
is  now  a  freeman  no  one  has  the  effrontery  to  deny.  Being  a  freeman,  and 
born  in  this  country,  it  would  be  difficult  to  tell  what  he  is,  if  he  is  not  a 
citizen.  By  his  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Union,  through  the  long  years 
of  the  rebellion,  he  broke  the  chains  which  had  held  him  a  slave,  and  fairly 
achieved  for  himself  the  right  to  the  name  of  a  man  and  the  privileges  of 
a  citizen.  The  question  of  citizenship  which  the  South  is  now  ready  to 
admit  should  be  placed  beyond  all  contingencies  in  the  future.  The  admis 
sion  which  they  are  ready  to  make  to-day,  as  the  price  of  their  restoration 
to  power,  we  desire  that  they  may  be  compelled  to  respect,  even*  after  the 
price  for  which  it  was  made  has  been  paid.  The  section  confers  no  right 
of  suffrage,  either  directly  or  by  implication.  It  simply  declares  the  equality 
of  all  American  citizens  before  the  law  ;  that  the  black  citizen  will  be  pro 
tected  in  his  rights  of  person  and  property,  as  well  as  the  white;  that  the 
rebel  planter  shall  not  be  permitted  to  swindle  the  loyal  and  laboring  negro 
out  of  his  wages. 

"The  negro  being  then  a  citizen  is  entitled  to  the  rights  of  a  citizen.  It 
would  be  wrong  to  permit  those  rights  to  be  taken  away  from  him,  unjust 
to  deprive  him,  without  due  process  of  law,  of  life,  liberty,  or  property,  or 
to  deny  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws.  It  being  wrong  and  unjust  to 
deprive  the  negro  of  his  rights,  it  is  both  right  and  just  to  prevent  any 
State  from  committing  such  wrong  and  injustice.  It  is  right  for  us  to  pre 
vent  the  South  from  doing  what  it  would  be  wrong  for  them  to  do. 

"  But  the  great  clamor  against  Congress  is  based  more  particularly  upon 
the  second  section  of  the  article.  The  objection  to  this  section  goes  very 
far  to  prove  that  the  South  do  not  intend  in  good  faith  to  accept  the  results 
of  the  war.  If  they  were  at  once  admitted,  as  they  claim  that  they  should 
be,  the  inequality  of  power  between  them  and  the  North,  and  in  their 
favor,  would  be  most  glaring.  Thus,  under  the  present  apportionment, 
South  Carolina,  with  a  vote  of  35,000,  has  four  representatives  in  Congress, 
while  the  free  State  of  California,  with  a  vote  of  nearly  109,000,  has  only 
three.  And  not  only  would  there  be  this  glaring  inequality  as  an  existing 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  157 

fact,  but  South  Carolina  would  gain  one  additional  member  of  Congress  as 
the  result  of  the  war,  would  secure  not  only  a  present  inequality  of  repre 
sentation  in  her  favor,  but  a  prospective  increase  of  political  power  in  the 
councils  of  a  nation  which  through  four  years  of  war  she  had  sought  to 
overthrow.  Thus  is  one  rebel  soldier  in  South  Carolina  made  equal  in 
political  power  to  four  Union  soldiers  in  California  to-day.  And  in  1870 
would  be  made  equal  to  five.  And  the  loyal  States,  with  nearly  three  times 
as  large  a  vote,  have  only  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  representatives,  against 
eighty-five  allowed  the  Southern  States  to-day,  and  which  would  be  increased 
by  eleven,  as  a  consequence  of  the  rebellion.  And  this  is  punishing  treason ! 
The  negro  is  free,  not  by  the  generous  concession  of  the  South,  but  liberated 
by  force  of  arms ;  free  because  his  master,  who  waged  war  against  his 
Government  that  he  might  rivet  the  chains  still  tighter,  was  conquered — 
subjugated  if  you  will.  The  relation  of  master  and  slave  having  fallen,  it 
is  but  proper  that  all  political  power  which  the  master  derived  from  that 
relation  should  cease  also.  Just  so  long  as  white  men  only  are  permitted 
to  vote,  none  but  white  men  are  represented.  My  idea  is,  that  in  such  case 
the  fair  rule  is,  that  the  number  of  representatives  shall  be  governed  by  the 
number  of  people  represented.  If  there  are  in  a  State  100,000  male  citizens 
over  twenty-one  years  of  age,  only  25,000  of  whom  vote,  it  is  certain  that 
75,000  of  the  whole  number  go  unrepresented.  The  interests  and  wishes  of 
those  75,000  may  be  entirely  adverse  to  the  25,000- who  vote,  and  I  am 
utterly  opposed  to  any  scheme  under  which  such  a  state  of  things  should 
continue  to  exist  when  the  necessity  for  it  has  passed  away.  The  Republi 
can  platform  of  1864,  declares  of  slavery,  that  'justice  and  the  national  safety 
demand  its  titter  and  complete  extirpation  from  the  soil  of  the  Republic.' 
But  it  is  proposed  by  the  author  of  that  resolution  and  by  the  party  in 
whose  employ  he  now  is,  and  whose  addresses,  manifestoes  and  declarations 
he  writes,  that  the  main  structure  of  the  institution  may  be  destroyed,  but 
that  its  scaffolding  and  supports  shall  still  be  left  to  offend  the  eye  and 
disfigure  the  landscape.  The  work  of  extirpation  is  not  completed  until 
every  statute  which  recognized  it,  every  benefit  to  the  master  which  grew 
out  of  it,  every  constitutional  provision  which  secured  and  guarded  it,  every 
political  power  or  privilege  which  resulted  from  it,  is  rooted  out  with  slavery 
itself.  For  all  these  were  but  parts  of  the  system,  the  limbs,  the  heart  of 
slavery,  and  they  are  all  foredoomed  to  'extirpation  from  the  soil  of  the 
Republic.'  This  great  crime  which,  like  a  poisonous  plant,  grew,  upon  the 
soil  of  the  Republic,  carefully  watched  and  tended  by  zealous  friends,  grew 
with  ominous  rapidity,  until  its  far-reaching  branches,  lengthening  day  by 
day,  threw  their  shadows  all  over  the  land  ;  its  roots  struck  deep  and  wide 
spread  into  earth  ;  from  these  the  parent  trunk  sent  forth  its  supports,  and 
the  odors  of  its  blossomings  lulled  to  sleep  the  patriotic  vigilance  of  a  nation, 
and  numbed  its  conscience.  The  war  waged  against  this  gigantic  crime  by 
the  Republican  party,  is  not  ended  until  the  poisonous  thing  is  utterly  and 
completely  extirpated.  So  long  as  a  root,  or  limb,  or  fibre  remains,  our 
work  is  incomplete. 

"Slavery  is  not  extirpated  so  long  as  an  atom  of  the  political  power  which 


158  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

resulted  from  it  is  suffered  to  remain.  To  still  leave  in  the  hands  of  the 
master  the  political  power  which  he  wielded  as  the  owner  of  slaves,  after 
the  slaves  themselves  are  free,  is  not  the  extirpation  of  slavery  as  I  under 
stand  it.  One  of  the  supports  of  slavery  was  the  power  which  the  Consti 
tution  enabled  the  master  to  wield  by  counting  the  slave  in  the  apportion 
ment  of  representation.  This  was  a  part  of  the  system  which  should  be 
destroyed  altogether. 

"I  am  disposed  also,  in  this  connection,  to  look  the  facts  squarely  in  the 
face.  I  find  that  in  the  one  State  of  South  Carolina  there  were,  in  the  year 
1860,  in  round  numbers,  700,000  people.  I  find  that  of  that  number, 
290,000  were  four  years  engaged  in  attempting  the  destruction  of  this 
nation,  and  were  its  bitter  and  deadly  enemies.  I  find  that  of  this 
number,  410,000  sought  to  save  this  nation,  and  were  its  constant 
and  unswerving  friends.  I  observe  that  when  Andrew  Johnson 
discourses  of  the  rights  of  the  people  of  South  Carolina,  he  simply 
means  the  290,000  enemies,  and  does  not  mean  its  410,000  friends. 
He  charges  that  we  are  violating,  by  refusing  those  290,000  people 
representation  in  Congress,  the  fundamental  principle  that  there  should 
be  no  taxation  without  representation,  and  that  we  are  endeavoring  to 
force  negro  suffrage  upon  the  poor,  taxed,  unrepresented  people  of  South 
Carolina.  The  constitutional  amendment  places  it  within  the  power  of 
South  Carolina  to  increase  its  representation  in  Congress  by  extending 
the.  right  of  suffrage  to  all  its  citizens.  It  leaves  the  question  of  negro  suf 
frage  with  the  States  to  determine  for  themselves.  But  I  insist  that  a 
rebel  white  man  shall  not  be  permitted  to  represent  or  misrepresent  the 
loyal  and  patriotic  black  man,  without  giving  the  latter  an  opportunity  of 
making  his  own  choice  by  whom  and  how  he  shall  be  represented.  It  is 
asking  quite  enough  to  let  rebels  represent  rebels,  limiting  the  number  of 
rebel  Representatives  to  the  number  of  rebels  represented,  without  demand 
ing  that  the  number  of  rebel  Representatives  shall  be  increased  by  adding 
to  their  traitorous  constituencies  three-fifths  of  the  whole  number  of  a  loyal 
population  who  are  not  allowed  to  have  a  voice  or  vote  in  the  matter. 

"Isn't  it  about  time  for  us,  in  talking  about  the  rights  of  the  people  of 
South  Carolina,  to  give  some  heed  to  the  rights  of  those  who  are  and 
always  have  been  loyal,  and  particularly  so  where  they  are  largely  in  the 
majority  in  point  of  numbers?  Are  these  410,000  loyal  people  of  South 
Carolina  represented  anywhere?  No.  Are  they  taxed?  Yes.  Has  any 
body  heard  Moses  entering  any  complains  about  that?  Assuredly  not. 
But  it  would  be  sad  indeed,  if  we  should  force  upon  210,000  rebels,  malig 
nant  and  unrepentant  rebels  living  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina,  the 
necessity  of  permitting  410,000  loyal  people  who  are  citizens  of  the  same 
State  to  a  share  in  the  management  of  its  affairs. 

"The  constitutional  amendment  nevertheless  does  not  do  this.  I  only 
regret  that  it  does  not. 

"The  objection  made  to  the  third  section  of  the  constitutional  amend 
ment  is  that  it  disqualifies  all  the  intelligent  men  of  the  South  from  taking 
part  in  public  affairs,  and  that  their  services  are  now  and  will  hereafter  be 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  159 

very  much  needed.  If  these  intelligent  Southern  gentlemen  had  been  a 
little  more  intelligent  they  would  not  have  enlisted  in  the  rebellion.  They 
were  traitors  not  because  they  had  too  much  intelligence,  but  because  they 
didn't  have  enough.  I  would  prefer  more  loyalty,  and  less  of  that  kind  of 
intelligence  which  leads  a  man  into  the  commission  of  treason. 

"  I  have  since  the  close  of  the  war  heard  of  only  one  man  possessing  that 
peculiar  kind  of  Southern  intelligence,  who  thought  he  had  lost  anything 
by  not  going  with  the  rebellion,  and  that  man  was  Andrew  Johnson.  I 
must  be  pardoned  for  saying  that  Andy's  colored  man  Hiram,  who  sat  on 
the  sofa  with  him  at  the  Inauguration  ball,  and  who  had  the  good  sense  to 
keep  out  of  the  rebellion,  and  to  be  glad  that  he  did  so,  possesses  a  kind 
of  intelligence  that  suits  me  better  than  his  master's,  and  that  to  my  mind 
will  be  infinitely  more  beneficial  now  and  hereafter. 

"That  the  National  debt  should  be  paid,  and  that  the  rebel  debt  should 
not  be,  is,  I  will  assume,  entirely  just  and  right.  If  it  is  right  that  the 
South  should  bear  with  us  their  portion  of  the  National  debt,  and  should  not 
be  permitted  to  attempt  the  payment  of  the  rebel  debt  it  is  quite  right  that 
they  should  be  compelled  to  do  what  is  right  and  prevented  from  doing 
what  is  wrong. 

"But  in  this  connection,  Andrew  Johnson  loudly  complains,  and  the 
declaration  of  his  principles  echoes  the  complaint  that  the  seceded  States 
are  not  permitted  to  take  part  in  proposing  these  amendments.  The  sixth 
section  of  this  declaration  of  principles  asserts  that  in  proposing  amend 
ments  to  the  Constitution  and  in  ratifying  the  same  '  all  the  States  of  the 
Union  have  an  equal  and  undefeasible  right  to  a  voice  and  a  vote  therein.' 

"Now,  if  this  is  sound  doctrine,  curious  results  would  follow.  I  suppose 
that  so  accomplished  a  gentleman  as  the  author  of  this  'declaration  of  prin 
ciples'  fully  appreciates  and  understands  the  words  which  he  employs.  'All 
the  States  of  the  Union  (he  says)  have  an  equal  and  indefeasible  right  to  a 
voice  and  vote'  in  proposing  amendments  to  the  Constitution.  According  to 
Mr.  Raymond's  theory  Virginia  has  never  at  any  time  ceased  being  a  State 
of  the  Union.  This  right  to  a  voice  and  vote  in  proposing  amendments  to 
the  Constitution  is,  he  says,  indefeasible,  that  is  to  say,  this  right  cannot 
be  defeated',  it  has  always  existed,  existed  as  well  during  the  progress  of  the 
rebellion  as  before  its  commencement.  So  that  at  any  time  during  the  war, 
while  the  capital  of  the  country  was  threatened  by  troops  raised  by  the 
State  of  Virginia,  which  had  withdrawn  its  representatives  from  Congress, 
and  allied  itself  to  an  independent  and  a  hostile  Government,  that  State 
had  still  the  right  to  propose  amendments  to  a  Constitution  whose  authority 
it  denied  and  resisted,  and  to  obey  which  when  amended  it  would  refuse. 

"The  indefeasible  right  to  propose  the  terms  of  a  contract,  to  which  the 
proposer  refuses  to  be  a  party,  the  obligation  of  which  he  denies,  and  to 
abide  by  and  obey  which  he  absolutely  refuses,  is  a  startling  political  dis 
covery,  which  becomes  still  more  remarkable,  when  added  to  the  right  to 
propose  the  terms,  an  indefeasible  right  also  exists  under  all  these  circum 
stances  to  decide  whether  they  shall  be  adopted. 

"If  this  right  is  indefeasible,  it   exists  at   all  times   and    under  all  circum- 


I6O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

stances.  If,  therefore,  an  amendment,  in  proposing  which  Virginia  and  the 
other  seceded  States  have  been  deprived  of  a  voice  and  vote,  has  been 
proposed  and1  adopted,  their  right  has  been  violated,  and  they  would  not  be 
bound  by  any  such  amendment. 

"These  are  the  legitimate  results  of  this  doctrine.  If  it  is  sound,  there 
never  was  a  government  so  utterly  helpless,  so  completely  at  the  mercy  of 
its  enemies,  as  our  own. 

"  And  this  proposition,  as  well  as  all  the  others  of  that  party,  is  backed 
by  the  cry.  'The  States  have  not  been  out  of  the  Union.'  A  State  cannot 
secede,  in  the  same  sense  that  a  man  cannot  steal.  It  cannot  legally,  t 
although  it  may  in  fact  secede,  and  a  man  cannot  legally,  but  the  records 
of  our  courts  show  that  many  men  do  in  fact  steal.  And  so  a  State  like 
Virginia  is  in  the  Union,  in  the  same  sense  that  the  convicted  thief  is  in 
Illinois.  He  is  in  Illinois,  but  he  is  also  in  the  penitentiary.  While  there 
he  has  his  rights,  but  they  are  the  rights  of  a  thief  and  not  of  a  law-abiding 
citizen,  and  so  Virginia,  a  rebel  State,  has  its  rights,  but  they  are  the  rights 
of  a  rebel  State,  and  not  of  a  loyal  one.  The  thief  must  serve  his  time  out 
'  before  he  can  be  restored  to  his  proper  practical  relations '  with  the  people 
whose  laws  he  has  offended,  and  so  must  Virginia.  The  thief  so  long  as  he 
sees  no  chance  for  a  pardon,  or  for  an  escape,  '  accepts  the  situation '  for 
the  most  excellent  of  reasons,  he  can't  help  it.  Virginia  accepts  the  situa 
tion  for  the  same  reason.  But  because  the  thief  gave  up  the  stolen  pro 
perty,  when  the  officers  of  the  law  by  force  took  it  away  from  him,  he  does 
not  thereby  escape  punishment  for  the  crime,  although,  in  the  language  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  the  larceny  was  utterly  'null  and  void,'  any  more  than 
Virginia  does  when  she  surrenders  the  forts  and  arms  that  she  has  stolen, 
because  she  was  compelled  by  force  to  do  so.  Nor  when  the  thief  is 
brought  to  trial  is  he  permitted  to  have  a  voice  or  a  vote  in  proposing  what 
his  punishment  shall  be,  nor  in  'ratifying  the  same.'  Nor  will  Virginia, 
while  she  is  on  trial  at  the  bar  of  the  country,  be  permitted  to  say  upon 
what  condition  her  guilt  shall  be  washed  away,  and  what  securities  shall  be 
demanded  for  the  future. 

"If  however,  when  Andrew  Johnson  was  occupying  the  bench,  a  thief 
should  be  brought  to  trial  before  him,  he  would  insist  that  it  was  a  clear 
case  of  taxation  without  representation  ;  that  the  criminal  was  taxed  to  pay 
the  expenses  of  the  jury  while  he  was  not  represented  upon  it,  and  that 
therefore  twelve  thieves  should  at  once  sit  with  the  twelve  honest  men  in 
proposing  measures  of  punishment  and  security,  and  thus  taxation  and 
representation  would  go  hand  in  hand ;  there  would  be  harmony  and  fra 
ternal  feeling ;  thirty-six  stars  on  the  flag,  a  copy  of  the  Constitution  at 
every  railroad  crossing,  and  a  magic  circle  in  every  family. 

"The  constitutional  right  to  amend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
in  the  manner  pointed  out  by  the  Constitution,  I  will  take  it  for  granted, 
exists,  and  that  the  nation  can  secure  peace  for  the  future  in  no  other 
way  is  obvious.  The  object  of  Congress  has  been  and  the  will  of  the  peo- 
ble  is  that  all  questions  growing  out  of  the  rebellion  shall  be  settled 
permanently  and  forever.  While  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  Southern 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  161 

people  are  to  be  at  once  brought  back  to  a  genuine  affection  for  the  Union 
of  these  States,  a  love  for  the  Government  or  a  pride  in  its  institutions; 
while  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  recollection  of  the  disastrous  defeac 
which  they  have  suffered,  will  rankle  in  their  hearts  for  some  time  to 
come,  yet  it  is  possible  to  place  it  beyond  their  power,  by  legislation  or 
otherwise,  ever  again  seriously  to  imperil  the  security  of  our  institutions. 
There  is  one  way  by  which  this  result  can  be  achived,  and  but  one  way, 
viz:  that  adopted  by  Congress,  the  Amendment  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States. 

"  Nor  do  the  requirements  which  Congress  makes  of  the  rebellious  States 
as  a  people,  as  the  conditions  upon  which  they  shall  be  admitted  to  the 
position  in  the  nation  which  they  voluntarily  abandoned,  spring  from  any 
feelings  of  passion  or  hatred  against  either  those  States  or  their  people. 
They  are  merely  wise,  prudent  and  essentially  necessary  precautions  for  the 
future  peace  and  well  being  of  the  nation,  theirs  as  well  as 
ours.  Fraternal  feeling,  about  which  our  sobbing  President  has  so  much  to 
say,  is  a  good  thing.  It  would  be  well  if  North  and  South  were  harmon 
iously  united,  but  it  is  asking  rather  too  much  of  human  credulity  that  we 
should  believe  that  a  people  who  for  over  four  years  have  waged  a 
most  causeless  and  malignant  war  against  the  nation,  a  war  persisted  in 
to  the  last  moment,  characterized  by  a  hatred  absolutely  ferocious,  and 
before  and  during  which  every  proposition  looking  to  peac^  on  the  basis  of 
a  restored  Union,  was  defiantly  spurned  and  spit  upon,  have  suddenly,  and  the 
moment  their  armies  were  beaten,  become  devoted  friends  to  the  Union, 
into  whose  hands  its  honor  and  its  interests  might  safely  be  placed.  Wolves 
do  not  thus  suddenly  become  lambs,  and  the  prudent  shepherd  would  cer 
tainly,  before  permitting  the  captured  wolf  to  pasture  with  his  flocks,  require 
something  more  satisfactory  than  the  assurance  of  the  brute,  that  he 
acknowledged  his  defeat,  cheerfully  accepted  the  situation,  and  had  lost  all 
his  former  taste  for  mutton.  He  would  insist  that  his  claws  be  cut,  his 
teeth  be  extracted,  his  mouth  muzzled,  and  his  ability  to  commit  mischief 
thoroughly  destroyed,  although  his  disposition  to  do  it  might  not  be. 

"Now,  I  ask  in  all  candor,  what  evidences  have  the  Southern  people 
given  us  of  their  loyalty,  of  their  love  of  the  nation,  or  pride  in  its  strength 
and  greatness?  They  have  laid  down  their  arms,  we  are  told.  True,  but 
why  did  they  ?  The  answer  is  obvious,  not  because  they  desired  to,  but 
because  they  were  compelled  to.  Not  that  they  hated  the  Union,  and  loved 
the  Confederacy  less,  but  because  they  hated  death  and  loved  life  more. 

"They  acknowledge  their  defeat.  True  again.  But  the  surrender  of 
their  armies  and  their  cities  proved  that  fact  sufficiently  to  render  it  quite 
unnecessary  that  it  should  be  corroborated  by  their  admission,  and  yet  their 
historian  Pollard  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  there  is  still  in  the  Southern 
heart  the  'deathless,  dangerous  secret  that  they  are  the  better  men,'  and 
that  under  different  circumstances  the  cause  which  they  now  have  lost,  they 
may  yet  be  able  to  win.  '  They  yield  ready  obedience  to  the  Federal 
laws.'  Assume  that  this  is  true  ;  it  proves  nothing,  except  that  the  nation 
II 


1 62  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

is  stronger" than  they.  But  the  overwhelming  weight  of  testimony  is  that 
they  do  not  yield  that  ready  and  cheerful  obedience  to  the  laws  of  the 
Union  which  we  have  a  right  to  demand.  The  fact  is  clearly  established 
that  it  is  possible  to  execute  the  provisions  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau  and 
the  Civil  Rights  bill  only  with  the  assistance  of  the  army,  and  it  is  the 
almost  unanimous  opinion  of  army  officers,  including  General  Grant,  that  it 
is  as  yet  entirely  unsafe  to  withdraw  the  military  from  the  Southern  States. 

"Not  only  is  there  this  difficulty  of  enforcing  such  laws  as  happens  to 
be  distasteful  to  rebels,  but  their  local  courts  do  not  afford  to  the  Union 
men  in  their  localities  fair  and  impartial  trials.  The  answer  of  General 
Sheridan  to  the  President's  inquiry  whether  the  courts  of  New  Orleans  were 
not  quite  competent  to  administer  justice  there,  indicates  the  general  condition 
of  the  judiciary  South.  The  answer  was  a  most  decided  and  unqualified 
negative. 

"  The  vast  volume  of  testimony  taken  by  the  Reconstruction  Committee 
establishes  beyond  question  the  fact  that  the  Southern  people  are  still  dis 
loyal  in  sentiment  and  purpose ;  that  they  still  entertain  a  deadly  hatred 
towards  the  Government,  and  cherish  and  act  upon  the  belief  that  they 
may  yet,  by  some  fortuitous  political  combinations,  regain  all  the  power  for 
which  they  have  waged  four  years  of  unrelenting  war. 

"  That  they  are  still  true  to  the  idea  of  secession  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  their  officers'  are  selected,  whenever  they  have  the  selection  of  them, 
from  men  notoriously  identified  with  the  secession  movement,  and,  in  most 
instances,  from  those  who  have  fought  in  its  armies ;  and  that  nowhere  in 
the  rebellious  States  would  a  Union  man,  one  who  had  been  known  as  such 
during  the  war,  stand  the  slightest  chance  for  an  election  to  any  office, 
against  a  secessionist. 

"Not  only  are  these  things  well  known,  but  the  fact  that  the  unprece 
dented  magnanimity  with  which  they  have  been  treated,  so  far  from  devel 
oping  Union  sentiment,  has  had  directly  the  opposite  effect,  is  as  clearly 
established  as  any  fact  well  can  be. 

"But  we  are  assured  that  sufficient  evidences  of  their  loyalty  are  to  be 
found  in  the  facts  that  they  have  abolished  their  ordinances  of  secession, 
ratified  the  Constitutional  Amendment  abolishing  slavery,  and  repudiated 
the  Confederate  debt.  You  do  not  need  again  to  be  told  that  none  of  these 
acts  were  voluntary,  but  that  they  were  dictated  by  Andrew  Johnson ;  that 
all  these  acts  were  adopted  by  them  because  they  felt  that  they  were  com 
pelled  to  do  so;  because,  indeed,  Andrew  Johnson  and  Wm.  H.  Seward 
assured  them  that  they  must  do  so.  It  is  well  and  wise  for  us  to  pause 
and  to  inquire,  what  do  these  evidences  of  loyalty,  clearly  the  resort  of  pres 
sure,  amount  to?  What  are  they  worth?  How  long  would  they  continue 
in  existence  after  the  pressure  is  removed?  Once  admit  these  rebel  States 
to  Congress  without  further  guarantees  than  we  now  possess  for  their  good 
behavior,  and  all  the  evidences  of  loyalty  gotten  up  to  order  which  their 
last  Legislatures  created,  would  be  undone  at  the  next. 

"Already    Southern   Judges   are    deciding  that   the   work   of  the    Constitu- 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  163 

tional  Conventions  organized  and  called  into  being  by  Andrew  Johnson,  is 
utterly  illegal  and  invalid.  What  the  Legislature  of  a  State  does  to-day,  it 
may  undo  to-morrow,  and  as  matters  now  stand,  every  right  which  the 
freedman  is  now  entitled  to  enjoy,  either  by  virtue  of  provisions  made  in 
their  new  State  Constitutions,  or  by  the  acts  of  the  Legislatures  organized 
under  them,  may  be  taken  from  him  by  the  decision  of  the  courts  that  the 
Conventions,  by  which  the  Constitutions  were  made,  were  illegal  and 
unauthorized,  and  that  the  Constitutions  had  never  been  submitted  to  the 
decision  of  the  people ;  or  by  their  repeal  by  future  legislation. 

"  Slavery,  we  are  told,  is  abolished,  and  the  negro  is  free.  But  until  the 
seed  is  so  thoroughly  destroyed  that  it  may  never  again  grow  into  life  and 
be  re-established,  until  the  negro  is  not  only  free,  but  the  enjoyment  of 
that  freedom  is  secured  to  him  against  all  invasion  in  the  future,  slavery 
is  not  abolished,  nor  is  the  negro  free,  in  the  full  measure  which  the 
nation  requires. 

"  Like  the  fabled  monster  Briareus,  slavery  has  an  hundred  arms,  and 
like  Proteus,  may  assume  almost  innumerable  forms.  With  every  hand  it 
works  mischief,  and  in  every  form  that  it  assumes  it  is  dangerous.  Every 
law  which  deprives  the  negro  of  the  enjoyment  of  any  of  the  rights  of  a 
citizen,  or  interferes  with  him  in  the  enjoyment  of  any  one  of  those  rights, 
is  the  handiwork  of  slavery,  is  one  of  the  forms  which  it  assumes. 

"Until  the  negro  is  free,  not  only  in  the  ownership  of  himself,  -but  free 
to  work  for  whom  he  pleases,  free  to  have  a  voice  in  the  making  of 
his  own  contracts,  free  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  proceeds  of  his  own 
labor,  free  to  invoke  all  the  agencies  of  the  law  for  the  redress  of  his 
wrongs  or  the  defence  or  enforcement  of  his  rights,  free  to  educate  himself 
and  his  children,  free  to  think  as  he  pleases  and  to  speak  what  he  thinks, 
free  as  you  and  I  are  free,  and  certain  that  no  power  shall  deprive  him 
of  it,  the  magnificent  promise,  made  in  our  platform  in  1864,  that  slavery 
should  be  extirpated  from  the  soil  of  the  Republic,  remains  unfulfilled. 

"If  we  fall  short  in  either  of  these  things,  and  while  we  have  relieved  the 
slave  from  one  form  of  .bondage,  suffer  his  old  master  to  reduce  him  to 
another,  we  are  false  to  our  high  pledges.  The  slave  and  all  the  world 
may  then  well  say  of  us — 

'And  be  these  juggling  fiends  no  more  believ'd 
That  palter  with  us  in  a  double  sense ; 
That  keep  the  word  of  promise  to  our  ear 
And  break  it  to  our  hope.' 

"Slavery  is  not  yet  abolished.  The  negro  is  not  yet  free.  For,  if 
to-day  we  adopt  the  policy  of  Andrew  Johnson,  to-morrow  every  rebellious 
State  has  it  within  its  power  to  annul  all  its  previous  action,  and  by  such 
hampering  legislation  as  their  ingenuity  would  readily  devise,  reduce  the 
negro  to  a  condition  of  slavery  in  fact,  whatever  it  might  be  in  name. 

"The  same  power  which  by  legislation  they  might  unless  prohibited, 
exercise  over  the  subject  of  slavery,  they  might  also  exercise  as  to  the 


164  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

assumption  of  the  rebel  debt  and  the  repudiation  of  the  national  debt.  That 
the  rebel  debt  has  been  repudiated,  and  slavery  has  been  declared  abol 
ished,  in  Mr.  Raymond's  declaration  of  principles,  is  not  .such  a  guaran 
tee  as  the  people  demand.  No  platform,  no  set  of  resolutions,  was  ever 
suffered  to  long  remain  an  obstruction  in  the  path  which  led  to  the 
interests  of  slavery.  The  violated  pledges  of  half  a  century  warn  us  to 
put  but  little  faith  in  promises  in  the  future.  '  Confidence  is  a  plant  of 
slow  growth,'  and  it  does  not  flourish  well  in  a  soil  in  which  slumber 
to-day  three  hundred  thousand  of  our  bravest  and  our  best,  slaughtered 
to  save  the  nation  from  the  perfidy  of  those  whose  fresh  promises  it  is 
now  demanded  we  should  unquestioningly  accept. 

"  I  fail  to  see  why  it  is  that  if  the  rebellious  States  really  and  in 
good  faith  intend  to  accept  the  result  of  the  war,  and  abide  by  the 
decision  it  has  rendered  ;  if  they  in  good  faith  intend  that  slavery  shall 
be  abolished ;  that  the  rights  of  the  freedman  as  a  citizen  shall  be 
guaranteed  and  secured  to  him ;  that  their  political  power  shall  not  be 
greater  than  that  of  the  loyal  States ;  that  the  rebel  debt  shall  be  fore- 
ever  repudiated,  and  that  our  National  debt  shall  ever  be  held  inviolate, 
they  should  hesitate  for  one  moment  in  exhibiting  their  faith  by  their 
works,  in  making  such  record  of  it  that  they  may  never  be  able,  and 
so  never  be  tempted  to  violate  it,  by  incorporating  the  record  in  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States. 

"In  no  other  way  can  the  nation  protect  itself;  in  no  other  way  can  it 
make  powerless  for  mischief  in  the  future  those  who  would  have  compassed 
its  destruction. 

"Honor  and  justice  alike  demand  that  thus  much  should  be  done,  and 
it  will  be  done. 

"The  President  of  the  United  States  has,  by  the  course  which  he  has 
pursued,  so  thoroughly  identified  himself  with  the  interests  of  that  treason 
which  we  have  defeated  in  the  field,  and  which  it  is  our  duty  to  render 
powerless  everywhere,  that  any  discussion  of  these  great  questions  would  be 
incomplete,  which  did  not  include  an  examination  of  Andrew  Johnson's 
record. 

"  To  the  examination  of  this  record,  he  swaggeringly  invites  the  people, 
and  of  it,  challenges  criticism.  It  would  very  much  abbreviate  our  labors, 
if  when  being  invited  to  an  examination  of  'my  record'  in  conjunction 
with  'my  policy,'  the  humble  Accident  would  designate  'which  record  \i& 
alludes  to.  For  leaving  out  of  view  his  record  as  a  cunning  artificer  of 
men's  garments,  garments  which  we  are  bound  to  presume,  and  I  am 
willing  to  admit,  were  'fearfully  and  wonderfully  made,'  and  also  his 
record  as  Alderman  of  Greenfield,  where  he  first  exhibited  his  love  of 
freedom,  by  insisting  upon  the  right  of  selling  liquor  without  the  tyranni 
cal  imposition  of  a  license  tax,  he  has  three  distinct  political  records. 

I.  When,  as  a  pro-slavery  Democrat,  he  denounced  and  opposed  Douglas 
and  supported  James  Buchanan. 

"2.  A  paroxysm  of  loyalty  and  sense,  lasting  four  years,  during  which  time 
he  was  Military  Governor  of  Tennessee,  insisted  that  treason  was  a  crime 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  165 

and  should  be  made  odious;  that  traitors  should  take  back  seats,  and  that 
loyal  men  only,  be  they  black  or  white,  should  participate  in  the  work  of 
reconstruction,  and 

"3.  The  return  to  his  first  love — manifested  by  a  besotted  and  disgrace 
ful  harangue  upon  the  occasion  of  his  inauguration  as  Vice  President ;  his 
stolid  silence  on  the  occasion  of  Lincoln's  assassination ;  his  precipitate  haste 
in  the  work  of  reconstruction ;  his  wild  and  incoherent  sreech  on  the  22d 
of  February ;  his  violation  of  all  his  past  pledges  and  promises ;  his  insulting 
defiance  of  Congress ;  his  organization  of  a  new  party  for  the  avowed  pur 
pose  of  destroying  the  one  by  which  he  was  elected  ;  his  encouraging  the 
murder  of  Union  men  at  New  Orleans,  and  his  final  swinging  around  the 
circle,  hammering  and  getting  hammered  at  this  end  of  the  line;  the  recep 
tion  of  the  news  from  Maine,  and  threats  to  break  up  the  next  Congress. 

"  I  shall  confine  whatever  I  have  to  say  of  Andrew  Johnson's  record  to 
an  examination  of  the  last  one,  that  being  the  one  in  which  we  are  more 
immediately  interested,  and  this  can  only  be  fully  appreciated  by  possessing 
something  of  an  understanding  of  the  character  of  the  man  who  made  it. 

"  The  record  and  its  author  are  in  perfect  harmony.  The  man  is  no  baser 
than  the  record,  nor  is  the  record  baser  than  the  man.  The  balance  of 
villainy  between  the  two  is  perfectly  maintained.  They  sink,  each,  to  the 
same  depth  of  baseness  ;  they  rise,  each,  to  the  same  bad  eminence  of 
scoundrelism,  and  taken  together  they  are  paragons  of  infamy.  When  we 
know  the  man,,  we  cease  to  wonder  at  his  record,  and  after  we  have  fully 
appreciated  the  record,  we  are  not  surprised  at  its  maker.  Arm  in  arm, 
like  the  touching  entree  of  a  small  man  from  Massachusetts  with  a  big  one 
from  South  Carolina  into  the  Convention  at  Philadelphia,  have  Andrew 
Johnson  and  his  record  exhibited  themselves  to  the  country. 

"  It  will  be  well  for  us  to  note  primarily  the  surface  peculiarities.  A 
moment's  inspection  discloses  an  intense  egotism  and  an  unbounded  vanity. 
'  I,  my,  me,  us,  our,  we,'  protrude  with  an  offensive  prominence,  like  warts, 
from  the  body  of  the  record,  and  break  out  like  a  rash  all  over  the  speeches 
of  the  man.  At  one  time  he  claims  to  be  the  Moses  of  the  African ;  at 
another  the  Tribune  of  the  people  ;  at  another  the  possessor  of  intellectual 
qualities  like  those  of  Andrew  Jackson  ;  at  another  a  personal  resemblance 
to  Stephen  A'.  Douglas  ;  and  at  another  that  he  is  the  representative  of  the 
people  and  the  savior  of  his  country.  The  imperfections  of  his  temper  are 
as  striking  as  his  egotism.  Irascible,  self-willed,  impatient  of  contradiction, 
he  counts  every  difference  of  opinion  as  an  insult  personal  to  himself,  which 
he  resents  in  the  slang  of  a  fish-woman,  or  in  the  brutal  threats  of  a  slave- 
driver.  Thus  he  advises  Governor  Sharkey,  of  Mississippi,  to  extend  the 
right  of  suffrage  to  colored  people  of  that  State,  not  as  an  act  of  justice  to 
them,  but  in  order  to  spite  and  foil  the  radicals,  whom  in  the  next 
breath  he  denounces  as  disunionists,  for  asking  precisely  the  same  thing, 
but  with  a  higher  and  better  motive.  In  a  public  speech,  and  on  a 
public  -occasion  he  denounces  one  of  his  opponents  by  name  as  a  dead 
duck,  and  others,  by  name,  as  traitors.  He  threatens  to  hang  indi 
viduals  whose  offence  is  that  they  have  opposed  his  measures,  and  to 


1 66  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

'  kick  out '  a  Congress  which  he  'could  not  bully  nor  bring  to  his  sup 
port.  He  denounces  an  intelligent  and  enlightened  free  press,  because 
of  its  discussion  of  public  measures,  as  a  subsidized,  a  hireling  and  a 
mercenary  press.  Upon  being  informed  that  certain  Union  men  at  New 
Orleans  had  denounced  him,  he  wreaks  his  vengence  upon  them  at  once 
by  directing  the  military  power  of  the  Government  to  assist  in  the  sup 
pression  of  a  Convention  to  which  they  were  delegates,  and  which  is 
done  by  a  massacre  unparalleled  in  its  atrocity ;  he  seizes  the  occasion 
of  a  journey  to  participate  in  a  solemn  ceremonial,  to  insultingly  denounce 
the  great  party  of  the  Union  as  traitors,  to  vauntingly  boast  of  his 
absence  of  dignity,  and  to  engage  in  blackguard  retorts  with  the  crowd 
whom  he  was  addressing.  Enraged  at  a  remark,  that  the  assassination 
of  Lincoln  was  unfortunate,  he  shamelessly  retorts  that  the  murder  of 
Lincoln  was  God's  justice.  And  upon  an  allusion  to  Judas,  foaming  with 
venom,  he  likens  himself  to  the  Saviour  of  mankind,  and  threatens  to 
veto  every  measure  that  Congress  sends  to  him.  Upon  any  exhibition 
of  the  disapproval  of  his  listeners,  his  fury  becomes  uncontrollable,  and 
he  impudently  boasts  that  no  power  on  earth,  nor  this  side  of  hell, 
shall  drive  him  from  his  position,  and  threatens  internecine  war. 

".But  he  is  as  false  and  as  treacherous  as  he  is  egotistical  and  ill-tem 
pered.  He  promised  to  be  the  Moses  of  the  negro.  He  has,  in  fulfilment 
of  that  promise,  sought  to  deliver  him  into  the  hands  of  his  old  master. 
He  said  that  treason  should  be  made  odious.  He  has  succeeded  in  making 
it  so  only  by  the  influence  of  his  example.  He  promised  that  traitors 
should  be  made  to  take  back  seats,  and  in  fulfilment  of  that  promise, 
Monroe  is  Mayor  of  New  Orleans,  while  Dostie  is  in  his  grave,  Voor- 
hees  is  Lieutenant  Governor  of  Louisiana,  while  the  body  of  the  mur 
dered  Horton  is  not  yet  cold.  Orr  is  Governor  of  South  Carolina,  while 
419,000  loyal  people  in  that  State  are  deprived  of  political  privileges. 
He  declared  that  treason  was  a  crime  and  should  be  punished,  while 
hardly  a  loyal  man  fills  an  office  in  the  South,  and  the  punishment  of 
rebels  is  by  taking  them  into  his  confidence.  He  declared  that  they  should 
be  impoverished,  and  fulfils  the  promise  by  placing  it  within  the  power  of 
unrepentant  rebels  to  persecute  Union  men  and  drive  them  from  their 
midst.  He  declared  that  treason  was  a  crime,  and  should  be  so  treated, 
and  proves  the  sincerity  of  his  professions  by  aiding  with  his  sympathy,  and 
with  his  power  as  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  Army,  the  traitors  and  con 
victed  murderers  of  New  Orleans,  in  the  cold-blooded  slaughter  of  faithful 
and  long  tried  Union  men,  while  in  convention  peaceably  assembled.  He 
declared  that  in  the  work  of  reconstruction  none  but  loyal  men  should 
participate,  while  in  the  reorganization  of  these  State  Governments  loyal 
men  have  no  share,  and  in  the  administration  of  their  affairs  are  permitted 
to  take  no  part.  Elevated  to  power  by  the  Republican  party,  he  spurns 
the  counsels  of  its  leaders,  and  defiantly  seeks  to  defeat  the  measures 
adopted  by  the  representatives  of  that  party  and  of  the  people.  Not  satis 
fied  with  this,  he  seeks  its  overthrow  by  the  organization  of  a  new  party 
in  the  country,  which  derives  all  its  strength  from  rebels  at  the  South  and 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  167 

Copperheads  at  the  North,  and  which  he  assays  to  build  up  by  the  distri 
bution  of  official  patronage,  by  removing  from  office,  without  cause,  tried 
and  trusted  Union  men,  and  putting  in  their  places  pliant  tools  of  his  own, 
or  those  who  have  always  been  bitterly  hostile  to  the  party  by  whom  he 
was  elected  and  to  the  principles  which  it  has  always  espoused. 

"He  has  deserted  all  his  old  friends,  who  were  the  friends  of  the  Union 
and  the  country,  for  new  ones  who  have  always  been  the  enemies  of 
both. 

"  Defiant  rebels  of  the  South,  who  during  the  war  perpetuated  unparal 
leled  atrocities  in  the  starvation  and  slaughter  of  helpless  Union  soldiers, 
prisoners  of  war,  are  by  him  recognized  and  declared  to  be  the  only 
Union  men  of  the  South,  while  those  who  have  been,  through  the  long 
four  years  of  the  rebellion,  hunted  and  scourged  for  their  loyalty  to 
their  country  and  its  institutions,  are  denounced  as  traitors  and  threatened 
with  the  halter.  The  hero  of  the  barbarities  of  Fort  Pillow,  and  his 
associates,  to  whose  names  still  cling  the  ghostly  horrors  of  Anderson- 
ville  and  Libby,  are  now  the  friends  of  Andrew  Johnson  and  his  policy, 
while  Hamilton  and  Durant,  and  Speed,  and  their  associates  who  were 
faithful  when  all  others  were  faithless,  are  denounced  as  sneaks  and  disorgan- 
izers.  He  professes  to  be  the  friend  of  the  people,  yet  the  loyal  people  of 
the  South,  black  and  white,  know  him  to  be  their  betrayer.  He  boasts  of 
his  humble  origin  and  claims  to  be  the  especial  champion  of  the  poor  against 
the  rich,  and  proves  it  by  obsequiously  prostrating  himself  before  the 
moneyed  aristocracy  of  New  York  City,  and,  at  a  twenty-five  thousand  dol 
lar  banquet  pledging  to  them  his  support. 

"He  is  as  malicious  as  he  is  faithless. 

"  The  malice  in  his  heart  is  shown  when  he  calls  for  the  hanging  of 
those  in  whom  the  people  trust ;  when  he  declares  that  Congress  is  an 
assumed  Congress,  and  intimates  his  intention  of  putting  it  out  by  force  ; 
when  he  speaks  of  the  freedmen  as  the  assumed  freedmen,  indicating 
clearly  that  he  is  prepared  to  contest  their  right  to  their  freedom  ;  that  in 
his  opinion  it  does  not  exist  either  in  law  or  fact ;  that  it  is  merely  assumed. 

"  But  his  egotism,  his  vanity,  his  temper,  his  faithlessness,  his  malice, 
are  all  overwhelmed  by  the  commission  of  a  greater  crime.  I  mean  the 
massacre  at  New  Orleans. 

"On  the  2yth  day  of  July,  Andrew  Johnson  was  advised  by  Voorhees,  the 
rebel  Lieutenant-Governor  of  the  State  of  Louisiana,  that  the  old  Constitu 
tional  Convention  was  about  to  meet  in  New  Orleans.  To  this  dispatch  no 
attention  was  paid.  It  was  followed  by  one  on  the  28th  of  the  same  month 
in  which  the  President  is  told  'You  are  bitterly  denounced;'  the  names  of 
the  speakers,  including  Field,  Dostie  and  Hawkins,  are  given,  and  he  is 
advised  that  it  is  contemplated  to  have  the  '  members  of  the  Convention 
arrested  under  process  from  the  criminal  court  in  that  district,'  and  the  sig 
nificant  inquiry  is  made  :  '  Is  the  military  to  interfere  with  the  process  of 
the  court  ? '  For  a  proper  understanding  of  the  facts  it  is  well  here  to  state 
that  previously  to  the  sending  of  this  last  despatch,  General  Baird,  who, 
in  the  absence  of  Major-General  Sheridan  from  New  Orleans,  had  command 


1 68  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

of  the  military  there,  had  been  consulted  with,  both  by  the  rebel  Mayor 
and  the  rebel  Lieutenant-Governor,  by  both  of  whom  he  had  been  advised 
of  the  intention  to  suppress  the  Convention  by  the  police,  and  between 
whom  it  was  agreed  that  no  such  action  should  be  taken.  General  Baird, 
conceiving  that  there  was  no  danger  of  any  disturbance  unless  it  was  brought 
about  by  the  rebel  city  authorities  themselves,  plainly  told  the  traitor  Mayor 
and  Lieutenant-Governor  that  he  should  not  permit  them  to  break  up  the 
Convention,  by  arresting  the  delegates,  without  instructions  from  the  Presi 
dent  to  that  effect,  and  so  telegraphed  the  Secretary  of  War.  So  that  at 
the  time  Voorhees  sent  his  dispatch  to  Johnson,  he  had  agreed  that  no 
attempt  should  be  made  to  interfere  with  the  proceedings  of  the  Convention — 
had  been  distinctly  advised  that  the  military  would  not  permit  it  to  be  done, 
particularly  in  the  absence  of  instructions  to  the  contrary,  and  knew,  too, 
that  General  Baird  had  so  advised  Mr.  Stanton.  The  dispatch  of  General 
Baird  remained  unanswered.  The  first  dispatch  of  Voorhees  to  the  Presi 
dent  had  remained  unanswered,  but  the  second  one  stirred  the  blood  of 
the  apostate,  and,  learning  from  an  ingrained  and  out-and-out  rebel,  that 
a  few  of  the  Union  men  at  New  Orleans  had  denounced  him,  he  rushes 
with  brutal  and  criminal  haste  to  the  assistance  of  the  rebels  of  New 
Orleans,  and  not  only  entirely  overrules  the  action  of  a  loyal  officer,  who 
had  said  to  treason,  'you  shall  not  interfere  with  loyalty,'  but  does  more 
than  he  is  asked  to  do,  and  in  a  dispatch  to  Voorhees  tells  him  that  '  the 
military  will  be  expected  to  sustain  and  not  to  obstruct  or  interfere  with 
the  proceedings  of  the  court.' 

"  Let  us  pause  long  enough  to  realize  the  savage  infamy  of  this  order. 
The  rebel  civil  authorities  outnumbering  ten,  nay,  an  hundred  to  one-,  the 
delegates  to  that  Convention,  composed  of  a  traitor  mayor,  a  traitor  judge, 
and  a  traitor  police,  upon  which  convicted  murderers  had  been  placed, 
desired  nothing  in  the  way  of  suppressing  the  Convention  of  loyal  men,  but 
to  be  let  alone.  They  feared,  and  justly  feared,  the  interference  of  the 
military  against  them.  All  they  asked  was  that  it  should  remain  neutral  ; 
they  had  not  reached  that  hardihood  of  impudence  to  expect  that  it  would 
assist  them.  Observe  that  all  that  Voorhees  asks  of  his  master,  is  to  know 
whether  the  military  is  to  interfere  with  the  process  of  the  court?  But  the 
answer  which  he  receives  shows  that  Andy  Johnson,  in  the  interests  of 
treason,  is  prepared  to  go  farther  than  traitors  care  to  ask.  The  military 
are  directed,  not  only  to  interfere,  but  to  sustain  these  rebel  authorities  in 
their  work.  Thus  the  soldiers  of  the  Union,  to  whom  Mayor  Monroe  had, 
but  a  few  months  before,  surrendered  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  were  directed 
not  only  to  stand  idly  by  and  see  this  same  defiant  rebel,  still  by  the  grace 
of  Andrew  Johnson,  Mayor  of  that  city,  aided  by  the  same  treasonable 
gang  who  had  bitterly  fought  them  through  the  entire  war,  in  cold  blood, 
causelessly  murder  the  only  men  in  that  whole  rebel  State  who  had  prayed 
for  the  coming  of  these  Union  soldiers,  and  who  cheered  them  when  they 
came ;  but  they  were  commanded  by  this  recreant  President  to  aid,  assist 
and  sustain  them  in  their  murderous  work. 

"The  long-tried,  suffering,  faithful   friends  of  the  Union,  and   of  the   sol- 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  169 

dier  and  the  soldier's  cause,  were  not  even  afforded  protection  by  those 
soldiers  from  rebel  violence  and  outrage,  but  the  soldier  was  told  he  must 
assist  his  old  and  his  present  enemies  in  the  slaughter  of  his  old  and  present 
friends.  Feeling  thus  assured  of  the  active  sympathy 'of  the  President,  the 
plan  of  suppressing  the  Convention  by  the  arrest  of  its  members,  which 
Monroe  and  Voorhees  had  both  agreed  with  General  Baird  should  be  drop 
ped,  was  revived,  and  after  deceiving  the  latter  as  to  the  time  when  the 
Convention  was  to  meet,  so  that  the  military,  in  whom  notwithstanding  the 
order  of  the  President  these  arch-traitors  had  but  little  confidence,  should 
not  be  present,  they  proceeded  at  once  to  put  it  into  execution.  The  man 
ner  in  which  that  Convention  was  suppressed,  with  all  its  sickening  details 
of  murder  and  outrage  has  passed  into  history  and  will  take  its  place  along 
side  the  horrors  of  the  Fort  Pillow  massacre.  While  the  slaughter  of  unof 
fending  Union  men  was  going  on,  Andrew  Johnson  telegraphs  to  the  Attor 
ney-General  at  New  Orleans  to  call  on  General  Sheridan  or  the  officer  in 
command  for  a  sufficient  force  to  sustain  the  civil  authority.  The  civil 
authorities  were  sustained,  but,  thank  God,  it  was  not  through  any  assistance 
rendered  them  by  the  soldiers  of  the  Union.  Long  before  the  military  could 
reach  the  scene  of  the  massacre,  the  work  was  finished.  The  civil  authori 
ties  needed  no  assistance.  Spurred  on,  encouraged,  directed  and  sustained  in 
their  bloody  work  by  Andrew  Johnson,  their  work  ceased  when  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Convention  and  their  friends  lay  weltering  in  their  blood. 

"  Dostie,  and  Field,  and  Hawkins,  had  paid  the  penalty  of  denouncing 
the  recreant  President  with  their  lives.  The  friends  of  Andrew  Johnson, 
gathering  in  hundreds  around  the  building  where  the  Convention  was 
peaceably  in  session,  opened,  as  we  are  told  by  General  Sheridan,  an 
indiscriminate  fire  on  the  building  through  the  windows.  The  bearer  of  a 
white  flag  from  the  Convention  was  shot  to  death  while  carrying  this 
signal  of  peace  to  the  infuriated  supporters  of  'my  policy.'  White  flags 
were  then  displayed  from  the  windows ;  the  firing  ceased,  but  only  to 
enable  the  '  civil  authorities  to  make  their  deadly  work  the  more  certain. 
The  police  at  once  rushed  into  the  building,  and  without  a  word  of  warning 
fired  indiscriminately  upon  the  audience.  Retiring  for  fresh  supplies  of 
ammunition,  they  returned  to  their  hellish  work,  and  as  the  members  of 
the  Convention  and  their  friends  succeeded  in  making  their  escape,  the 
policemen,'  says  General  Sheridan,  'who  formed  a  circle  nearest  the  build 
ing,  fired  upon  them,  and  they  were  again  fired  upon  by  the  citizens  that 
formed  the  outer  circle.  Many  of  these  were  wounded  and  taken  prisoners, 
and  those  not  wounded  were  fired  upon  by  their  captors  and  citizens.  The 
wounded  were  stabbed  while  lying  on  the  ground,  and  their  heads  beaten 
with  brickbats.  In  the  yard  of  the  building,  whither  some  of  the  colored 
men  had  escaped  and  partially  secreted  themselves,  they  were  fired  upon 
and  killed  or  wounded  by  policemen.  Some  men  were  killed  and  wounded 
several  squares  from  the  scene.  Members  of  the  Convention  were  wounded 
by  the  policemen  while  in  their  hands  as  prisoners;  some  of  them  mortally.' 

"This  my  fellow  citizens,  is  the  simple  story  of  this  great  crime.  It  is 
the  blackest  page  in  our  history.  The  men  thus  savagely  murdered,  it 


I/O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A    STORKS. 

behooves  us  to  remember,  were  our  friends,  and  the  friends  of  our  common 
country.  It  was  because  they  were  our  friends,  and  our  country's  friends 
that  they  were  murdered. 

"If  the  people  of  this  country  suffer  this  atrocious  crime  to  go  unpunish 
ed,  they  do  not  deserve  to  have  a  country. 

"  If  the  nation  tamely  submits  to  see  its  truest  and  its  best  friends  slaugh 
tered  in  cold  blood  by  its  most  deadly  and  malignant  enemies ;  if  it  does 
not  visit  the  full  measure  of  its  wrath  upon  the  instigators  and  perpetrators 
of  this  crime,  it  does  not  deserve  to  exist  as  a  nation. 

"I  have  said  that  the  egotism,  the  vanity,  the  malignity,  the  faithlessness 
of  Andrew  Johnson  were  all  overshadowed  by  a  crime  greater  than  them 
all.  For  of  all  the  guilty  ones  engaged  in  that  work  of  massacre,  Andrew 
Johnson  was  the  guiltiest  of  them  all.  For  before  he  had  sanctioned  it,  the 
rebel  Mayor  and  Lieutenant-Governor  had  abandoned  their  idea  of  suppress 
ing  that  Convention. 

"  Andrew  Johnson  it  was  that  advised  it,  that  directed  it  to  be  done,  that 
directed  the  military  to  assist  in  the  work.  If  there  had  been  no  effort  of 
that  kind  made,  no  blood  would  have  been  shed.  It  was  by  his  order  thai 
it  was  made.  He  could  have  prevented  the  commission  of  the  brutal  sav 
ageries  of  the  police  force  in  New  Orleans,  as  General  Baird  had  proposed 
to  do,  and  would  have  done,  had  he  not  been  otherwise  directed  by  the 
President. 

"Every  shot  fired,  every  blow  struck  at  the  loyal  victims  of  that  day, 
was  done  because  Andrew  Johnson  sanctioned  and  directed  it,  and  it  would 
not  have  been  done  without.  He  says  to  the  Mayor  of  New  Orleans  and 
to  every  red-handed  murderer  whom  that  Mayor  had  placed  on  his  police 
force,  '  Go  on  with  your  work.  You  need  fear  no  interference  from  the  mili 
tary.  They  will  not  obstruct,  they  shall  assist  you.'  And  thus  encouraged, 
thus  directed,  they  did  go  on  with  their  work.  The  guilt  of  Andrew  John 
son  is  not  the  guilt  of  an  accessory  ;  it  is  the  guilt  of  a  principal,  under 
whose  direction,  and  at  whose  instigation  these  murders  were  committed. 
It  was  for  the  advancement  of  his  policy  that  the  streets  of  New  Orleans 
that  day  ran  red  with  the  blood  of  murdered  Union  men.  And  the  savage 
tools  who  that  day  executed  his  will  are  the  men  into  whose  hands  he  has 
confided  the  interests  of  Louisiana,  and  under  whose  control  he  demands 
that  that  State  shall  at  once  take  its  place  within  the  Union,  and  share  in 
the  control  of  its  destinies. 

"  But  the  guilt  of  this  great  criminal  is  only  yet  half  told.  On  the  first 
day  of  August  General  Sheridan,  who  had  but  just  returned  to  New  Orleans, 
telegraphed  to  General  Grant  his  version  of  the  affair  in  which  he  declared 
that  the  Convention  was  suppressed  in  a  manner  so  unnecessary  and  atro 
cious  as  to  compel  him  to  say  that  it  was  murder;  that  about  forty  whites 
and  blacks  were  thus  killed,  and  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  wounded. 

"The  next  step  in  this  career  of  crime  was  to  destroy  the  evidences  of 
its  existence,  and  accordingly  Andrew  Johnson  mutilates  this  dispatch,  sup 
presses  all  that  portion  to  which  I  have  referred,  and  publishes  the  remaind 
er.  But  the  proofs  begin  to  thicken,  and  as  the  facts  develop  themselves 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  171 

more  fully  to  General  Sheridan,  the  magnitude  of  the  crime  increases,  and 
on  the  3d  day  of  August  he  again  telegraphs  to  General  Grant:  'The  more 
information  I  obtain  of  the  affair  in  this  city,  the  more  revolting  it^becomes. 
It  was  not  a  riot.  It  was  an  absolute  massacre  by  the  police,  which  was 
not  exceeded  in  its  murderous  cruelty  by  that  of  Fort  Pillow.  It  was  a 
murder,  which  the  Mayor  and  police  of  the  city  perpetrated  without  a  shad 
ow  of  necessity.  Furthermore,  I  believe  it  was  premeditated  and  prearranged.' 
It  was  impossible  to  garble  this  despatch.  Its  every  sentence  was  the  sure 
conviction  of  Andrew  Johnson.  But  one  course  remained,  and  that  was  its 
suppression  altogether,  and  in  the  meantime  that  General  Sheridan  should 
be  unmistakably  advised  of  the  kind  of  information  that  he  was  expected 
to  furnish.  Andrew  Johnson  felt  that  for  the  murders  at  New  Orleans  he 
was  on  trial  before  the  country.  He  knew  how  important  a  witness  General 
Sheridan  was.  The  despatches  of  the  first  and  third  of  August  showed  him 
very  clearly  what  the  testimony  of  General  Sheridan  would  be.  He  knew, 
too,  full  well,  that  if  it  went  before  the  people,  a  great  jury  whom  Presi 
dents  can  neither  bully  nor  bribe,  conviction  was  inevitable,  And  so  like 
many  a  criminal  before  him  he  endeavored  to  suborn,  tamper  with,  and 
coerce  the  witness.  Withholding  from  the  public  the  despatch  of  August 
3d,  he,  on  the  4th  day  of  August,  for  the  first  time,  telegraphs  General 
Sheridan,  and  he  begins  a  series  of  leading  questions,  showing  clearly  by 
the  manner  in  which  they  were  framed,  how  he  desired  them  to  be  answered 
and  demonstrating  clearly  enough  that  the  purpose  for  which  these  questions 
were  put,  was  not  for  eliciting  the  truth,  but  to  a  favor  certain  hypothesis, 
regardless  of  the  truth,  to  make  evidence,  and  not  to  ascertain  facts,  with  a 
statement  of  his  case.  He  says  : 

'"We  have  been  apprised  here  that  prior  to  the  assembling  of  the  illegal 
and  unauthorized  Convention  elected  in  1864,  inflammatory,  insurrectionary 
speeches  were  made  to  a  mob  composed  of  white  and  colored  persons, 
urging  on  them  to  arm  and  equip  themselves  for  protecting  and  sustaining 
the  Convention  in  its  illegal  and  unauthorized  proceedings,  calculated  to 
upturn  and  supersede  the  State  Government  of  Louisiana,  which  had  been 
recognized  by  the  Government  of  the  United  States.' 

"  It  would  seem  from  reading  this  pronunciamento  that  Andrew  Johnson, 
at  Washington,  proposed  to  inform  General  Sheridan  at  New  Orleans,  of 
what  had  transpired  -at  the  latter  place.  He  at  the  outset  declares  that  the 
Convention  was  illegal  and  unauthorized.  It  is  well  to  inquire  where  this 
humble  individual  got  his  authority  for  such  a  declaration.  It  did  not  and 
does  not  rest  in  him  to  determine  either  of  those  questions.  Dostie  had  as 
much  power  to  decide  that  the  Convention  was  legal  and  authorized  as 
Johnson  had  to  decide  to  the  contrary,  and  neither  "had  any  authority  in  the 
premises.  General  Sheridan  was  neither  lawyer  nor  judge.  He  was  a 
soldier,  and  had  taken  a  soldier's  view  of  that  question,  that  he  had  no 
business  to  interfere  with  that  Convention  until  it  had  committed  some  overt 
act.  Having  thus  assumed  the  functions  of  a  judge,  Johnson  proceeds  to 
advise  Sheridan  of  what  he  had  been  apprised.  But  mark  you,  he  nowhere 
asks  whether  that  information  was  correct.  '  We  have  been  apprised  here,' 


1/2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

/ 

he  says,  'that  prior  to  the  assembling  of  the  Convention  inflammatory, 
insurrectionary  speeches  were  made  to  a  mod,  urging  on  them  to  arm  and 
equip  themselves,'  etc.  His  informant  was  Voorhees,  and  the  information 
was,  as  the  country  has  since  learned,  false,  and  as  Andrew  Johnson  might 
then  have  well  known.  After  thus  laying  down  his  platform  he  proceeds  to 
interrogate  General  Sheridan,  in  this  wise  :  '  Further,'  he  says,  'did  the  mob 
assemble,  and  was  it  raised  for 'the  purpose  of  assisting  the  Convention  in 
its  usurpation?' 

"He  might  as  well  have  said,  'General  Sheridan.  I  command  you  to  say 
that  the  friends  of  the  Convention  were  a  mob,  and  that  the  Convention 
itself  contemplated  usurpation.'  He  then  inquires  whether  'any  arms  have 
been  taken  from  persons  supposed  to  be  connected  with  this  mob,  and  have 
various  individuals  been  shot  and  killed  by  this  mob  without  good  cause.' 
The  mob  to  which  he  refers  was  the  Convention  and  its  friends ;  the  indi 
viduals  were  the  police  and  city  authorities,  whom  General  Sheridan  had 
already  denounced  as  murderers.  Observe  that  through  all  this  despatch 
there  is  an  amazing  obliviousness  of  the  murder  of  helpless  and  unoffending 
Union  men,  the  evidence  of  which  lay  spread  out  before  him.  With  a 
cruelty  inconceivable,  he  has  no  word  of  inquiry  for  them.  Forty  of  them, 
he  has  been  informed,  have  been  killed,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty 
wounded ;  yet  he  desires  to  hear  nothing  on  that  head.  His  anxiety 
was  simply  to  protect  the  murderers  whom  his  own  hands  had  armed, 
to  hide  the  murders  which  his  own  orders  had  instigated.  He  asks  also 
whether  steps  had  been  taken  by  the  civil  authorities,  whom  General 
Sheridan  the  day  before  had  stigmatized  as  murderers,  to  arrest  and  try 
all  those  engaged  in  this  riot,  which  General  Sheridan  had  already 
advised  him  was  not  a  riot  but  a  massacre.  In  other  words,  he 
desires  to  know  whether  the  murderers  had  succeeded  in  arresting  all  the 
Union  men  whom  they  had  not  succeeded  in  murdering,  and  then  to 
close  the  door  against  any  possibility  of  escape,  in  order  that  where 
rebel  knives  and  bullets  had  not  been  effectual,  all  the  loyal  men  of 
New  Orleans  who  had  escaped  that  kind  of  death,  might  be  handed 
over  to  the  not  less  brutal  treatment  of  a  rebel  judge  and  a  rebel  jury, 
he  inquires  whether  ample  justice  cannot  be  meted  out  by  the  city 
authorities  to  all  offenders  against  the  law.  In  other  words,  whether  the 
civil  authorities,  who,  by  premeditation  and  prearrangement,  had  cause 
lessly  murdered  forty  Union  men,  would  not  mete  out  ample  justice. 
To  these  questions,  infamous  beyond  precedent,  their  author,  the  chief 
among  these  malefactors,  desires  an  early  answer. 

"The  answer  came,  but  it  was  not  such  an  one  as  Andrew  Johnson  had 
dictated.  He  had  in  General  Sheridan,  the  hero  of  the  Five  Forks,  no 
suppliant  tool,  no  fawning  cur  to  deal  with.  He  had  a  soldier  who  had 
fought  for  the  Union,  and  who  loved  it,  who  had  fought  against  treason, 
and  who  hated  it.  To  this  despatch  General  Sheridan,  on  the  6th  day 
of  August,  telegraphs  an  answer.  I  have  already,  in  describing  the  pro 
ceedings  after  the  meeting  of  the  Convention,  used  the  language  employed 
by  General  Sheridan  in  his  answer. 


JOHNSON'S  RECONSTRUCTION  POLICY.  173 

"  It  also  appears  that  the  delegates  numbered  twenty-six  ;  and  of  the 
friends  of  the  Convention,  there  were  on  the  outside  of  the  building 
eighteen  or  twenty  colored  men,  women  and  children ;  on  the  inside, 
perhaps  fifty  more,  and  that  not  one  in  ten  was  armed.  The  eighteen 
or  twenty  colored  men,  women  and  children  made  the  fearful  mob  which 
loomed  in  such  vast  proportions  before  the  frenzied  imagination  of 
Andrew  Johnson.  The  real  cause,  General  Sheridan  says,  of  the  massacre, 
'  was  the  bitter  antagonistic  feeling  which  has  been  growing  in  the  com 
munity  since  the  advent  of  the  present  Mayor,  who  in  the  organization 
of  the  police  force,  selected  many  desperate  men,  and  some  of  them 
known  murderers.'  This  Mayor  was  Monroe.  He  owes  his  place  to 
Andrew  Johnson,  and  it  is  Andrew  Johnson's  policy  that  keeps  him  in 
it.  He  was  Mayor  of  New  Orleans  when  that  city  surrendered  to 
Butler.  He  is  Mayor  of  New  Orleans  now.  The  murderers  whom  he 
placed  upon  the  police  force  were  and  are  the  friends  of  Andrew  John 
son,  supporters  of  his  policy,  and  the  bloody  work  which  they  did  was 
done  by  his  direction. 

"The  General  also  informs  the  President  that  it  is  useless  to  attempt  to  dis 
guise  the  hostility  that  exists  there  towards  Northern  men  ;  that  if  the  matter  is 
permitted  to  pass  over  without  a  thorough  and  determined  prosecution  of  those 
engaged  in  it,  frequent  scenes  of  the  same  kind  may  be  expected  there  and 
in  other  places ;  that  no  steps  had  been  taken  by  the  city  authorities  to 
arrest  the  citizens  engaged  in  the  massacre,  or  the  policemen  who  perpetra 
ted  such  cruelities ;  that  the  members  of  the  Convention  had  been  indicted 
by  the  Grand  Jury,  and  many  of  them  arrested  and  held  to  bail,  and  that 
Judge  Abel  was  one  of  the  most  dangerous  men  in  New  Orleans  to  the 
peace  and  quiet  of  the  city. 

"  As  I  have  already  said,  this  answer  was  sent  the  6th  of  August.  Days 
and  weeks  passed  away,  and  the  country  was  kept  in  ignorance  of  this 
despatch,  as  well  as  the  one  of  the  3d  of  the  same  month.  Both  despatches 
were  damningly  conclusive  of  Andrew  Johnson's  guilt,  and  Andrew  Johnson 
knew  it.  He  suppressed  them  both.  But  the  hero  of  the  Five  Forks 
refused  to  be  placed  in  a  false  position  before  the  country,  and  threats  of 
his  resignation  brought  forth  the  publication  of  these  despatches  on  the 
24th  day  of  August.  And  it  is  thus  that  '  my  policy '  is  vindicated,  a 
policy  which  thus  far  has  been  fruitful  of  nothing  but  murder  and  out 
rage  ;  a  hostility  towards  Northern  men ;  a  denial  of  justice  to  them  by 
the  courts.  These  are  the  evidences  of  that  loyalty  which  Andrew 
Johnson  and  his  followers  claim  is  sufficiently  manifest  to  entitle  the 
people  of  the  State  of  Louisiana  to  immediate  representation  in  Congress. 

"On  the  6th  of  August,  Johnson  is  advised  that  unless  those  engaged  in 
the  massacre  at  New  Orleans  are  subjected  to  a  thorough  and  determined 
prosecution,  frequent  scenes  of  the  same  kind  may  be  expected  there  and 
elsewhere. 

"  But  we  have  yet  to  hear  that  a  single  one  of  the  guilty  participants  in 
that  massacre  ,has  been  arrested.  By  thus  passing  unheeded  the  advice 
of  Sheridan,  he  invites  the  consequences  which  Sheridan  says  will  follow. 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

He  invites  the  repetition  of  those  acts,  the  murder  of  Union  men  at  New 
Orleans  and  elsewhere.  Sheridan  recommended  the  removal  of  that  'bad 
man,'  Mayor  Monroe,  but  Monroe  still  continues  to  be  Mayor  of  New 
Orleans. 

"  Six  weeks  ago  Andrew  Johnson  was  informed  that  no  steps  had  been 
taken  to  arrest  the  citizens  engaged  in  the  massacre,  or  the  policeman 
who  perpetrated  such  cruelities,  and  we  have  to  learn  that  a  step  in  that 
direction  has  yet  been  taken. 

"  And  so  the  record  stands  that  Andrew  Johnson,  knowing  their  guilt, 
shields  and  protects  these  murderers  at  New  Orleans.  But  the  members  of 
the  Convention  have  been  indicted  by  a  rebel  jury,  arrested  by  rebel 
officers,  and  held  to  bail  by  rebel  courts.  Guilty  of  no  offence,  and  advised 
of  their  innocence,  Andrew  Johnson  suffers  this  added  outrage  to  go 
unpunished,  and  in  order  that  the  law  may  be  trampled  upon  and  over 
ridden,  and  justice  denied  them,  suffers  Abel  to  continue  a  Judge  after  being 
told  that  he  is  a  dangerous  man  to  the  peace  and  quiet  of  New  Orleans. 

"  The  man  guilty  of  all  these  crimes  is  to-day  President  of  the  United 
States.  This  is  his  policy.  With  the  blood  of  the  slaughtered  Union  men 
of  New  Orleans  upon  his  hands,  he  makes  the  tour  of  the  loyal  North, 
insults  its  sentiment,  defies  its  representatives,  and  threatens  more  violence 
in  the  future. 

"  He  knows  the  people  but  poorly.  They  are  as  resolutely  resolved  to 
save  this  Union  to-day  as  they  ever  have  been.  That  purpose,  rest  assured- 
will  be  achieved,  and  whoever  stands  in  the  way  of  its  accomplishment  will 
be  crushed  finer  than  powder." 


CHAPTER  XL 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1868. 

MR.  STORKS  ELECTRIFIES  THE  PEOPLE  OF  MAINE- -A  TRIUMPHAL  PROGRESS — 
HIS  EFFORTS  IN  HIS  OWN  STATE — THE  DEMOCRATIC  PARTY  UNCHANGED 
AND  UNREFORMED— THE  RECONSTRUCTION  MEASURES — THE  FOURTEENTH 

AMENDMENT — "DEAD  ISSUES" — WHAT  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  HAS 
ACHIEVED— PENDLETON'S  REPUDIATION  PLAN — THE  RECORD  OF  HORATIO 
SEYMOUR. 

FOUR  days  after  the  close  of  the  impeachment  proceedings 
and  acquittal  of  Andrew  Johnson  in  the  United  States  Senate, 
the  Republican  party  held  their  fourth  National  Convention  at 
Chicago,  May  2Oth,  1868,  and  adopted  a  platform  declaring  that  the 
Southern  States  had  forfeited  their  position  in  the  Union  by  seces 
sion,  and  could  only  be  re-admitted  on  terms  satisfactory  to  Congress. 
They  nominated  General  Grant  for  President,  and  Mr.  Colfax  of 
Indiana  for  Vice-President.  The  Democrats  met  at  New  York  in 
July,  and  nominated  Horatio  Seymour  and  Frank  P.  Blair.  Their 
platform  demanded  that  the  Southern  States  should  immediately 
and  unconditionally  be  given  representation  in  Congress,  and  that 
the  regulation  of  suffrage  should  be  left  to  the  States.  The  cam 
paign  was  one  of  the  most  exciting  in  the  history  of  the 
country,  and  the  people  affirmed  the  right  of  Congress  to  lay 
down  rules  for  the  re-admission  of  the  rebellious  States,  by  an 
overwhelming  and  decisive  majority. 

Mr.  Storrs  took  an  active  part  in  the  campaign,  and  stumped 
the  State  of  Maine  on  behalf  of  the  Republican  candidates  during 
his  summer  vacation,  besides  making  several  speeches  to  large 
gatherings  in  the  State  of  his  adoption  on  his  return  home.  His 
Maine  audiences  were  enthusiastically  delighted  with  him.  His 

175 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

humorous  illustrations  and  strong  power  of  invective  were  some 
thing  quite  new  to  them.  The  account  of  how  he  was  discovered 
by  the  State  Committee  is  interesting.  The  Boston  Journal,  of 
August  24th,  said  of  him:  "  This  able  and  eloquent  young  Western 
orator  is  doing  good  yeoman  service  in  Maine.  He  is  completely 
electrifying  the  people,  and  is  accomplishing  much  good.  Mr. 
Storrs  is  not  extensively  known  in  New  England.  He  was  visit 
ing  the  sea-coast  of  Maine  for  rest  and  recreation ;  but  letters 
from  the  West  to  prominent  Republicans  there  spoke  of  him  in 
such  glowing  terms  that  he  was  sought  out,  and  on  the  5th 
instant,  at  the  Lancaster  Hall  (Grant  and  Colfax  headquarters) 
dedication,  he  spoke  with  Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell  of  Groton. 
It  was  the  best  stump  speech  listened  to  for  years,  and  at  once 
the  Republican  State  Committee  secured  him,  and  he  has  been 
speaking  nightly  ever  since.  He  spoke  again  at  Portland  on  the 
1 9th  and  the  City  Hall  was  a  complete  jam  and  the  greatest 
enthusiasm  prevailed.  Mr.  Storrs  is  a  young  lawyer,  for  years  a 
resident  at  the  West,  and  has  a  large  and  valuable  first-class 
practice,  standing  among  the  leading  members  of  the  profession. 
He  possesses  a  full  and  melodious  voice  of  rare  power,  and  a 
highly  educated  mind,  of  keen  thought  and  research,  and  his 
arguments  are  rapid  and  strong.  Notwithstanding  the  solidity  of 
his  forensic  qualities,  his  wit,  sarcasm,  and  invective  are  unequal 
led,  making  the  rare  requisites  of  a  first-rate  stump  speaker.  The 
'  Down  Easters '  have  been  revelling  in  the  glorious  benefits  of 
his  services,  and  we  learn  he  will  be  in  Boston  in  the  course  of 
ten  days.  We  hope  a  grand  Republican  mass  meeting  will  be 
held  at  Faneuil  Hall,  and  Mr.  Storrs  be  invited  to  address  the 
people  here." 

The  Portland  Daily  Press,  August  nth,  reports  one  of  Mr. 
Storrs'  first  meetings  in  a  brief  despatch  from  Augusta,  which 
says, — "  Hon.  E.  A.  Storrs,  of  Chicago,  addressed  an  immense 
assembly  of  the  people  at  this  place  this  evening.  Hundreds  were 
unable  to  gain  entrance  at  the  hall.  Large  delegations  came  up 
from  Hallowell  and  Gardiner  to  hear  this  eloquent  orator  of  the 
West,  who,  as  he  entered  the  hall,  was  received  with  a  perfect 
storm  of  applause." 

The  Portland  correspondent  of  the  Boston  Journal  thus  reports 
Mr.  Storrs'  speech  at  that  city  on  the  iQth  of  August: 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  1 77 

"The  Republicans  of  this  city  held,  this  evening,  at  -  the  City  Hall,  the 
largest  and  most  successful  rally  for  years.  The  hall  was  crowded  and 
overflowing.  Long  before  the  meeting  commenced,  the  galleries  were  filled 
with  ladies.  Gen.  Mattocks  made  a  most  pertinent  speech  upon  assuming 
the  chair.  Hon.  E.  A.  Storrs  of  Illinois  was  then  introduced,  and  was 
received  with  a  perfect  storm  of  applause.  His  speech  was  one  of  the 
grandest  efforts  ever  listened  to  in  Maine.  In  ability,  keen  argument,  lofty 
sentiment,  and  persuasive  eloqence,  it  has  not  been  equaled.  It  cannot  be 
reported  with  justice.  Cheers,  loud  and  strong,  were  given  at  the  close  of 
the  address  for  Mr.  Storrs,  for  Grant  and  Colfax,  and  the  good  cause." 

The  Portland  Daily  Press  gave  the  following  report  of  the 
meeting : 

"  We  made  a  mistake  when  we  urged  that  Mr.  Storrs  should  be  kept 
in  this  State,  whether  he  was  willing  or  not.  The  fact  is,  Portland  is 
especially  proud  of  the  City  Hall,  and  regards  its  capacity  as  absolutely 
illimitable.  Mr.  Storrs  has  dispelled  that  little  illusion  and  brought  us  to 
grief.  Perhaps  three  quarters  of  the  people  that  wanted  to  hear  him 
last  night  got  a  chance  to  sit,  or  stand,  or  roost.  It  was  a  magnificent 
example  of  close  packing.  Not  an  inch  to  spare  anywhere.  The  ladies 
regarded  the  proposition  that  they  should  occupy  the  galleries  as  decidedly 
cool.  It  couldn't  be  done.  They  invaded  the  floor  and  the  stage — a  wel 
come  incursion  they  made,  too.  They  were  out  in  greater  numbers  than 
ever  seen  before  in  this  city  at  a  political  meeting.  Hundreds  of  our  citi 
zens  went  away,  being  unable  to  obtain  an  entrance  to  the  hall. 

"  N.  A.  Foster,  Esq.,  chairman  of  the  city  committee,  called  Gen.  C.  P. 
Mattocks  to  the  chair.  General  Mattocks  then  introduced  Mr.  H.  C.  Lovell, 
who  led  off  in  singing  "Grant  goes  marching  on,"  in  which  the  whole 
assembly  joined,  with  inspiriting  effect.  The  grand  old  "John  Brown" 
song,  whose  prophetic  notes  were  sung  through  all  the  southern  land  by 
Union  soldiers,  never  sounded  more  impressive  and  appropriate.  Then 
General  Mattocks  made  a  very  brief  introductory  speech,  which  was  quite 
a  model  for  that  sort  of  an  effort. 

"Then  came  Storrs.  It  needed  not  the  applause  and  the  cheering  notes 
of  the  band  to  tell  him  he  was  welcome.  Every  face  present  beamed  with 
welcome  and  with  delighted  anticipation. 

"  Mr.  Storrs  said  that  we  had  supposed  that  the  war  had  accomplished  at 
least  two  things, — the  liberation  of  the  Southern  negroes,  and  of  the 
Northern  Democrats.  The  slavery  of  the  latter  was  quite  as  oppressive 
as  that  of  the  negro ;  politically  they  had  been  under  the  whip  of  the  slave 
driver  for  twenty-five  years.  But  they  seemed  to  like  it.  Let  them  con 
tinue  it  if  it  suited  them.  In  time  of  war,  the  Republican  party  was  a  war 
party.  In  time  of  peace,  we  are  a  peace  party.  We  are  in  favor  of  peace 
now.  The  Democratic  party  during  the  war  were  in  favor  of  peace.  Now 
that  we  have  conquered  a  peace,  they  are  in  favor  of  war. 

"The  only  issue  distinctly  presented  by  the  Democratic  platform  is  found 


I78 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 


in  the  declaration  that  the  reconstruction  laws  of  Congress  are  unconstitutional, 
revolutionary,  and  void.  It  is  their  declared  purpose,  in  the  event  they  suc 
ceed,  to  disperse  the  State  governments  organized  under  those  laws.  This, 
during  the  next  four  years,  could  only  be  accomplished  by  force.  The  employ 
ment  of  force  for  that  purpose  is  war.  The  rebellion  did  not  operate  to 
deprive  the  government  of  its  rightful  power  over  the  seceding  States  and 
their  people.  It  did,  however,  impair  and  very  seriously  affect  the  rights 
of  those  States  and  the  people  thereof,  within  the  Union  which  they  sought 
to  destroy.  The  larceny  of  an  overcoat  does  not  affect  the  title  of  the 
rightful  owner;  it  does,  however,  very  seriously  affect  the  rights  of  the 
thief  after  he  is  caught.  At  the  close  of  the  war,  the  Southern  States  were 
without  organic  law,  or  any  power  to  make  any.  Their  existence  as  Con 
federate  States  had  been  destroyed  by  our  act.  Their  existence  as  States 
within  the  Union  had  been  destroyed  by  tneir  own  act.  Mr.  Lincoln 
declared  that  the  State  Government  of  those  States  had  been  subverted, 
and  that  the  people  had  forfeited  their  political  privileges.  Upon  this  theory 
Johnson  acted.  He  appointed  'State  Governors ;  he  fixed  suffrage  qualifica 
tions.  Our  work  was  not  the  restoration  of  the  old  government ;  it  was  the 
constitution  of  new  ones.  Johnson,  however,  in  his  message  contended 
that  the  State  governments  had  been  merely  suspended.  That  theory 
implies  that  at  the  close  of  the  war,  the  rebel  people  and  governments 
were  at  once  remitted  to  all  their  old  rights  and  privileges  within  the  Union  ; 
so  that  nothing  remained  to  restore  to  the  rebels  all  their  suspended  privi 
leges.  In  other  words,  just  as  often  as  we  beat  them  during  the  war  they 
gained  their  former  privileges ;  and  just  as  often  as  they  defeated  us  they 
lost  their  political  power  and  rights  in  the  Union.  Accordingly  a  Confeder 
ate  victory  in  the  field  was  the  loss  of  Confederate  rights  within  the  Union, 
and  a  Confederate  defeat,  finally,  was  the  restoration  of  all  their  suspended 
political  privileges. 

"  Congress  having  the  power  to  wage  war,  had,  as  a  necessary  consequence, 
the  right  to  wage  it  according  to  the  laws  and  usages  of  war.  A  civil  war 
is  governed  by  the  same  rules  as  control  different  nationalities  in  war  with 
each  other.  The  relations  subsisting  between  the  rebels  and  the  govern 
ment  at  the  close  of  the  war  were  those  of  conqueror  and  conquered.  -We 
conquered  the  Confederate  armies,  the  Southern  people,  and  the  Confederate 
State  governments.  Our  victory  was  their  political  annihilation.  Our  rights 
were  the  rights  of  the  conqueror.  We  compelled  the  surrender,  not  only 
of  their  armies,  but  of  the  political  ideas  for  which  they  fought. 

"In  the  process  of  reconstruction,  the  question  was,  What  share  in  the 
reconstruction  of  the  government  shall  be  entrusted  to  those  who  have 
sought  its  destruction?  The  Republican  party  has  decided  this  question. 
Their  policy  has  taken  its  final  shape  in  the  fourteenth  amendment.  Under 
their  policy  eight  States  have  been  brought  back  into  the  Union.  And 
again  we  are  confronted  with  the  question,  Should  this  policy  be  reversed, 
and  the  demand  of  the  Democratic  party  for  immediate  and  unconditional 
restoration  be  complied  with?  The  reversal  of  that  policy  is  the  overthrow 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  1/9 

of  all  that  we  have  achieved  by  the  war.  That  accomplished,  we  need  not 
talk  about  taxation.  The  result  would  not  merely  be  a  burden  upon  the 
nation ;  it  would  be  the  ruin  of  the  nation.  To  such  a  policy,  Horatio 
Seymour  stands  committed. 

The  Democratic  platform,  the  national  debt,  and  Horatio  Seymour's 
record,  were  then  reviewed  in  turn  and  in  a  manner  that  attracted  and  held 
the  closest  attention  of  the  audience  and  elicited  the  heartiest  applause. 
His  comments  upon  the  platform  adopted  at  the  New  York  Convention 
were  severe  but  just.  The  leaders  of  the  rebellion  framed  that  platform, 
and  went  into  the  Convention  demanding  the  immediate  restoration  of  the 
seceded  States  and  amnesty  for  all  past  offenses,  and  the  platform  framed 
by  those  who  had  planned  and  led  on  the  rebellion  was  adopted  as  the 
platform  of  the  Democratic  party.  His  remarks  in  relation  to  the  national 
debt,  and  the  justice  of  meeting  our  obligations,  not  by  promises  in  green 
backs,  but  by  a  just  payment  of  them,  met  with  a  hearty  response  from 
every  one  present.  Horatio  Seymour's  record  was  presented  in  a  true  and 
just  manner.  The  orator  traced  his  tortuous  course  from  1861  to  1868, 
especially  when  he  was  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  and  quoted 
from  his  addresses  to  prove  that  at  heart  he  was  in  favor  of  the  secession 
of  the  Southern  States.  In  alluding  to  the  speech  Governor  Seymour  made 
to  the  mob  of  New  York,  whom  he  styled  "my  friends,"  Mr.  Storrs  said, 
— referring  to  the  work  of  Governor  Seymour's  "friends"  in  the  murder  of 
Colonel  O'Brien  and  the  burning  of  an  orphan  asylum, — "Don't  you  wish 
General  Chamberlain  had  been  there  with  four  Maine  regiments,  and  Gen 
eral  Logan  with  four  Illinois  regiments?  These  proceedings  would  have 
been  quickly  stopped,  and  the  number  of  Democratic  voters  somewhat  less 
ened."  Mr  Storrs  closed  his  address  by  taking  up  the  parable  of  the 
prodigal  son,  and  comparing  the  conduct  of  the  south  and  their  present 
demands  with  those  made  by  him  of  scripture  history. 

"Mr.  Storrs  spoke  two  hours,  his  remarks  being  frequently  interrupted  by 
the  enthusiastic  applause  of  his  hearers,  enchaining  the  closest  attention  of 
the  largest  audience  ever  convened  in  the  hall." 

Editorially,  the  same  paper  said : — "  The  speaker's  review  of 
Mr.  Seymour's  status  during  the  war  and  now,  was  the  most 
powerful  analysis  of  human  character  that  we  ever  heard  in  a 
like  effort.  His  picture  of  the  July  day  of  1863,  before  the  for 
mer  had  heard  of  the  '  promised  victories,'  was  from  a  master 
hand.  Indeed,  it  was,  throughout  the  two  hours,  an  entertain 
ment  that  is  not  offered  to  any  people  very  often,  and  the  pro 
longed  interest  of  the  occasion  has  seldom  been  witnessed  in  this 
community.  The  audience  was  moved  to  tumultous  enthusiasm 
by  the  closing  portions  of  the  address,  and  it  may  justly  be  set 
down  as  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  significant  political 
meetings  of  many  years." 


ISO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

He  was  next  heard  from  at  Waldoborough,  which  seems  to  have 
been  one  of  the  Maine  Democratic  strongholds.  The  reporter  of 
the  Portland  Press  gives  the  following  account  of  his  appearance 
there : 

"  Hon.  E.  A.  Storrs  of  Chicago  was  next  introduced.  He  said  it  was 
a  pleasure  to  him  to  bring  greetings  of  good  cheer  from  the  people  of 
Illinois  to  those  of  Maine.  He  did  bring  good  cheer.  From  the  first 
word  he  spoke  to  his  eloquent  and  pathetic  peroration  the  excitement 
and  enthusiasm  of  the  audience  were  almost  unprecedented.  The  famous 
declaration  of  a  despairing  reporter,  who  said  in  reference  to  an  elo 
quent  orator  that  'it  was  impossible  to  report  the  aurora  borealis,'  would 
apply  to  Mr.  Storrs.  In  reference  to  him  and  the  speech  he  delivered  last 
night,  we  can  only  say  this:  Let  the  Republicans  in  any  doubtful  part  of 
the  State — if  there  is  such  a  place — compel  him,  by  violence  if  necessary,  to 
address  them.  Let  him  expose  the  meanness  of  the  Democratic  opposition 
to  negro  suffrage,  with  the  keen  and  polished  satire  and  exuberant  wit  in 
which  he  is  singularly  felicitous  ;  let  him  play  Horatio  Seymour,  as  he  did 
last  night,  leaving  him  exposed  to  the  world  in  all  the  hideousness  of 
his  treason-stained  character  ;  let  him  make  the  comparison  between  Sey 
mour,  'the  patent  leather  hero  of  New  York,'  prating  of  the  Constitution 
while  civil  war  threatened  the  life  of  the  nation,  to  the  man  who  in  the 
midst  of  a  storm  at  sea  besought  his  fellow  passengers  to  save  his  mar 
riage  certificate  while  he  left  his  wife  to  sink  gurgling  into  the  water ; 
let  him  not  forget  to  travesty  the  Democratic  story  of  '  the  prodigal  son.' 
If  these  measures  are  taken  with  Mr.  Storrs,  we  will  insure  a  large 
Republican  majority  even  in  Waldoborough." 

Another  meeting  at  Bath,  in  the  same  State,  on  the  25th  of 
August,  is  thus  reported  in  a  special  despatch  to  the  Boston 
Journal : 

"A  large  mass  meeting  was  held  on  the  Park  this  evening,  which  was 
presided  over  by  Hon.  Henry  Tollman,  a  faithful  adherent  of  the  Democra 
tic  party  for  the  past  forty  years,  but  who  now  repudiates  the  nominations 
of  Seymour  and  Blair,  and  will  support  Grant  and  Colfax.  The  gathering 
was  held  for  two  hours  by  one  of  the  most  eloquent  arguments  ever  listened 
to  by  a  Maine  audience,  from  the  great  orator  from  the  Western  prairies, 
Hon.  E.  A.  Storrs.  The  speaker  was  received  with  immense  cheering 
and  was  often  interrupted  by  most  enthusiastic  applause,  and  the  meeting 
closed  with  rousing  cheers  for  the  speaker,  Governor  Chamberlain,  and 
Grant  and  Colfax.  Not  less  than  three  thousand  people  were  present." 

The  Boston  Daily  Advertiser,  in  its  editorial  summary,  noticed 
Mr.  Storrs'  campaign  efforts  as  follows : 

"There  is  no  mistake  about  their  being  wide  awake  in  Maine. 
The  Republicans  will  carry  the  State  by  a  large  majority ;  but 
they  are  determined  to  increase  on  their  vote  of  last  year,  and 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  l8l 

the  unusual  animation  of  the  Democrats  has  had  a  very  good 
effect  in  stimulating  our  friends  to  extra  exertions.  Among  the 
numerous  excellent  speakers  now  in  the  State  is  Mr.  Stprrs,  a 
lawyer  from  Chicago,  who  is  doing  excellent  service.  He  is  a 
capital  stump  speaker,  with  a  pleasing  eloquence  and  abundance 
of  wit  and  humor,  He  spoke  in  Brunswick  on  Monday  evening 
(August  24th)  to  the  largest  political  gathering  ever  assembled 
on  the  Mall,  and  in  Bath  last  evening.  It  is  matter  of  regret 
that  his  time  is  limited,  but  we  are  glad  to  learn  that  he  is  to 
speak  in  Boston  on  his  return  home." 

His  next  speech  in  Maine  was  at  Bridgton,  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  State.  An  immense  gathering  of  Republicans  from 
the  surrounding  country,  numbering  from  four  to  six  thousand, 
was  held  in  a  grove  in  the  afternoon,  and  in  the  evening  Mr. 
Storrs  addressed  a  meeting  at  the  Town  Hall.  The  Portland 
Press  said  that  the  hall  "  was  crowded  to  its  utmost  capacity, 
while  hundreds  remained  outside.  Hon.  E.  A.  Storrs,  of  Illinois, 
made  one  of  his  telling  speeches,  occupying  almost  one  hour  and 
a  half.  This  gentleman  has  done  good  service  for  the  Republican 
cause  in  this  State,  and  his  closing  speech  at  Bridgton  was  well 
calculated  to  arouse  the  enthusiasm  of  every  Republican  present. 
It  was  the  greatest  demonstration  ever  got  up  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  State." 

Returning  to  Portland,  Mr.  Storrs  made  his  farewell  speech  at 
a  large  and  enthusiastic  rally,  of  which  the  Portland  correspondent 
of  the  Boston  Daily  Advertiser  gave  a  graphic  description  : 

"  Last  Friday  evening,  the  little  Republican  army,  to  the 
number  of  400,  marched  through  the  streets  with  their  torches 
and  transparencies,  and  really  made  a  fine  display.  Several  flags 
were  raised,  and  the  <  wide  awakes '  participated.  Many  of  the 
houses  along  the  line  of  march  were  illuminated,  and  other  dem 
onstrations  were  made  to  show  the  interest  and  appreciation  of 
those  who  were  honored  by  the  visit  of  the  torchers.  The 
houses  on  Munjoy  Hill  especially  attracted  the  attention  of  every 
one,  flags  being  flung  out,  in  many  of  them  every  window  being 
illuminated,  with  here  and  there  quite  a  display  of  fireworks. 
When  the  procession  reached  the  Falmouth  Hotel,  on  its  return 
from  Munjoy,  Hon.  E.  A.  Storrs  of  Chicago  was  called  out,  and 
made  a  short  speech.  The  Republicans  have  had  no  one  here, 


1 82  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

this  year  at  least,  who  has  been  so  favorably  received  as  Mr. 
Storrs.  His  arguments  and  his  peculiar  manner  of  putting  his 
points  seem  to  captivate  his  audiences,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted 
that  he  cannot  be  prevailed  upon  to  remain  in  this  State  and 
'stump'  till  November." 

The  Portland  Press,  in  its  report  of  the  demonstration,  said : 

"  Upon  arriving  in  front  of  the  Falmouth  Hotel,  Hon.  E.  A. 
Storrs  of  Chicago,  who  is  a  guest  there,  was  called  out.  Of 
course  he  was  ready.  The  more  speeches  he  makes,  the  fresher 
and  more  entertaining  he  grows.  He  spoke  in  most  encouraging 
terms  of  the  prospect  in  this  State,  and  assured  his  hearers  that 
Illinois  would  answer  Maine's  20,000  with  a  majority  of  40,000. 
He  described  in  humorous  language  the  solemn  procession  of 
Copperheads  and  conservatives  that  will  on  the  third  of  Novem 
ber  wend  its  weary  way  up  Salt  River.  The  effect  of  Mr.  Storrs' 
remarks  was,  as  usual,  electric,  and  all  his  hearers  most  earnestly 
hoped  that  he  had  not  made  his  farewell  speech  to  the  citizens 
of  Portland." 

A  parting  tribute  was  paid  him  by  the  Boston  Journal,  Sep 
tember  7th  : 

"  Hon.  E.  A.  Storrs,  the  eloquent  young  Western  orator,  who 
has  been  doing  such  excellent  service  in  the  campaign  in  Maine, 
reached  this  city  yesterday  on  his  way  home,  and  will  remain 
until  Monday.  He  bears  with  him  to  his  Western  home  the 
thanks  of  the  thousands  of  Republicans  in  Maine  who  have 
listened  to  his  eloquent  words,  and  have  been  stimulated  by  them 
to  more  earnest  effort  in  behalf  of  the  good  cause.  From  what 
he  has  seen  on  his  tour  in  Maine,  Mr.  Storrs  is  confident  that 
Maine  will  'roll  on  the  ball'  which  Vermont  started  last  Tuesday." 

From  these  notices  of  the  first  campaign  in  which  Mr.  Storrs 
was  prominently  engaged,  it  would  seem  that  he  had  thus  early 
encountered  a  difficulty  which  always  troubled  him  down  to  the 
last  ten  years  of  his  life, — the  want  of  adequate  reporting.  The 
Maine  papers  found  that  he  "  could  not  be  reported  with  justice," 
and  one  of  them  likened  the  attempt  to  "  reporting  the  aurora 
borealis."  Even  in  Chicago,  at  that  day,  short-hand  reporting 
was  in  its  infancy,  and  most  of  the  verbatim  reports  of  speeches 
by  public  men  were  printed  from  their  own  manuscript,  or  not 
at  all.  Mr.  Storrs  was  quick  to  observe  and  prompt  to  accom- 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  1 83 

modate  himself  to  the  exigencies  of  the  crude  newspaper  staffs 
of  that  period ;  he  wrote  out  his  speeches  with  his  own  hand  or 
by  the  aid  of  a  clerk,  and  the  newspapers  were  exceedingly  glad 
to  publish  them.  During  his  trip  in  Maine,  which  was  meant 
for  a  holiday  but  was  turned  into  a  season  of  very  hard  cam 
paign  work,  he  had  no  opportunity  to  furnish  the  press  with  a 
copy  of  any  of  his  speeches.  The  impression  he  made  by  his 
personal  address  is  sufficiently  conveyed  by  the  quotations  made 
above  from  the  Maine  and  Boston  papers ;  to  those  of  Chicago 
we  must  turn  for  a  textual  report  of  his  argument. 

In  the  fall  of  1868,  after  his  return  home  from  the  East,  he 
addressed  a  large  meeting  at  St.  Charles,  Illinois,  on  the  issues 
of  the  campaign.  The  Chicago  Tribune  published  his  speech  in 
full.  It  is  here  reprinted  from  its  columns. 

"In  1860  the  Democratic  party  forfeited  public  confidence  and  was  driven 
from  power.  In  1864,  it  demanded  that  it  should  receive  from  the  people 
the  confidence  it  had  forfeited  four  years  before,  and  asked  to  be  restored 
to  power.  The  nation  answered  this  demand,  and  with  overwhelming  major 
ities  declared  that  it  was  not  entitled  to  public  confidence,  and  that  the 
reasons  which  had  induced  the  people  to  drive  it  from  power  in 
1860  had  been  intensified  and  multiplied.  Two  years  later,  in  1866,  they 
again  went  before  the  people,  their  claims  were  re-examined,  and,  with 
increased  emphasis,  rejected.  To-day,  the  same  party  again  appeals  to  the 
country  and  again  asks  that  the  interests  of  the  nation  be  entrusted  to  its 
keeping.  It  is  our  business  to  inquire  :  First,  whether  the  three  verdicts  given 
against  the  Democratic  party  were  righteous  verdicts  ;  and  second,  if  they 
were,  what  they  have  done  since  then  to  restore  confidence  in  them.  That 
the  verdict  rendered  against  the  Democratic  party  in  1860  was  a  righteous 
one,  I  will  not  attempt  to  prove  to  you  here.  That  party  sought  to  fasten 
the  institution  of  slavery  upon  free  territories.  It  sought  to  protect  it  there 
by  all  the  powers  of  the  General  Government.  It  appealed  to  the  people 
for  aid  in  this  wicked  purpose,  and  the  people  righteously  refused  it.  Nor 
need  I  spend  much  time  in  demonstrating  that  the  verdict  of  1864  was  warranted 
by  all  the  facts  in  the  case.  It  then  declared  the  war  an  experiment,  and  the 
experiment  a  failure;  demanded  that  hostilities  should  cease,  which  would  have 
resulted  in  the  immediate  recognition  of  the  independence  of  the  Southern  Con 
federacy  by  every  foreign  power.  The  righteousness  of  the  popular  verdict  ren 
dered  in  1866  was  equally  clear  to  us.  The  rebellion  having  been  crushed  by 
force  of  arms,  the  Democratic  party  insisted  that  neither  rebel  state  nor 
rebel  citizen  had  lost  anything  by  his  crime  ;  that  he  should  be  permitted  to 
dictate  the  terms  of  his  re-admission  to  the  Union  which  he  had  sought  to 
destroy,  and  should  be  made  the  custodian  of  the  interests  of  a  nation 
which  he  had  wickedly  sought  to  overthrow. 

"  Assuredly,   then,    the    Democratic    party    cannot   successfully   ask    us    to 


184  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

restore  them  to  power,  on  the  ground  that  our  former  judgments  against 
it  have  been  erroneous,  nor  can  it  ask  us  to  reverse  the  decisions  delivered 
by  the  people  in  1860,  1864  and  1866.  Their  claim  for  support  must  rest, 
not  upon  the  ground  that  they  were  innocent  of  the  crimes  of  which  the 
people  convicted  them  at  those  great  public  trials,  but  that,  confessing  their 
guilt,  they  have  atoned  for  it  by  public  services  since  rendered,  of  a  char 
acter  sufficiently  important  to  entitle  them  to  a  full  and  complete  pardon 
from  the  people  against  whom  they  had  offended.  And  hence  it  is  that 
the  demand  made  by  the  Democratic  party  to-day  for  power  cannot  be 
entertained,  .unless  it  has  either  an  entirely  new  set  of  leaders,  or  different 
views  upon  the  questions  which  have  divided  the  country  for  the  past 
eight  years,  from  those  which  it  has  held  for  the  past  eight  years,  or  unless 
all  those  questions  have  passed  out  of  political  controversy,  and  have  been 
replaced  by  entirely  new  issues. 

<(  That  the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party  are  the  same  they  have  been 
for  the  past  eight  years,  every  one  knows.  Seymour  and  Vallandigham, 
Pendleton  and  Belmont,  Henry  Clay  Dean  and  Brick  Pomeroy  were 
leaders  in  the  Democratic  party  in  1864  and  they  are  leaders  in  the  same 
party  in  1868.  Wade  Hampton  and  Toombs,  Fort  Pillow  Forrest  and 
Beauregard  were  leaders  in  the  Democratic  party  in  1860;  their  operations 
North  were  suspended  by  four  years  of  war,  at  the  close  of  which  they 
promptly  fill  their  old  positions  as  leaders  in  the  Democratic  party  of  the 
nation. 

"  Not  only  has  there  been  no  change  of  leaders,  but  there  has  been  no 
abandonment  of  the  position  which  the  party  has  held  on  political  issues. 
They  denounced  coercion  as  unconstitutional.  We  have  yet  to  learn  that 
their  opinions  have  met  with  any  change  on  that  point.  They  opposed 
every  measure  adopted  by  the  administration  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war. 
They  denounced  the  first  call  for  troops  as  unauthorized.  They  denounced 
the  proclamation  of  emancipation  as  unconstitutional.  They  opposed  the 
means  adopted  by  Congress  for  raising  money,  as  unconstitutional.  They 
claimed  that  the  conscription  law  was  revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and 
void,  and  sought  to  prevent  its  execution  by  force.  They  declared  the  war 
a  failure.  We  have  yet  to  learn  that  they  do  not  hold  these  opinions  still. 
These  were  questions  which  we  discussed  up  to  the  close  of  the  war.  With 
reference  to  them,  the  position  of  the  Democratic  party  is  unchanged,  and 
our  verdict  must  be  the  same  that  it  has  always  been. 

"It  is  true  that  they  have  assumed  a  somewhat  different  form,  but  in 
substance  there  has  been  no  change.  They  are  the  same  to-day  as  when 
the  rebellion  began  and  closed.  In  his  last  message  to  Congress,  James 
Buchanan,  the  last  Democratic  president,  declared  that  the  government  had 
no  authority  to  coerce  a  State.  The  limit  of  national  authority,  he  said,  was 
to  assist  the  judges  and  the  marshals,  and  they  having  all  resigned  in  the 
seceding  States,  there  was  nobody  to  assist  and  consequently  nothing  could 
be  done.  James  Buchanan  died  a  Democrat.  The  Attorney-General,  Jere 
miah  S.  Black,  wrote  a  long  opinion  holding  the  same  doctrine.  Horatio 
Seymour  declared  that  an  attempt  at  coercion  was  no  less  revolutionary 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  185 

than  secession.  This,  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  was  the  position  of  what 
then  remained  of  the  Democratic  party  as  a  political  organization.  But  the 
people  believed  that  the  government  could  coerce  a  State,  and  the  attempt 
was  made.  Three  years  afterwards,  and  in  1864,  the  Democratic  party 
declared  the  attempt  a  failure.  In  other  words  they  said:  'We  told  in  1861 
you  could  not  coerce  a  State.  You  have  tried  and  you  have  failed.  Your 
failure  proves  that  you  cannot  coerce  those  States.'  Up  to  that  time  cer 
tainly  the  issues  were  the  same.  But  the  surrender  of  Lee  having  demon 
strated  that  a  rebellious  State  and  its  people  could  be  coerced  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  because  they  had  been  and  were  coerced,  the  same  question  again 
arose  when  the  nation  proposed  to  reconstruct  and  rehabilitate  those  States. 
Having  defeated  the  rebellion  in  arms,  overturned  their  entire  political  sys 
tem,  and  conquered  the  people  of  the  rebellious  States,  we  insisted  in  1866, 
that  they  must  recognize  the  validity  of  the  national  debt  contracted  to  sup 
press  the  rebellion,  that  the  freedmen  should  be  entitled  to  citizenship,  and 
that  slavery,  to  perpetuate  which  the  rebellion  was  inaugurated,  must  be 
abolished.  We  insisted  in  1866  that  upon  the  recognition  of  these  ideas, 
and  their  incorporation  into  the  organic  law,  depended  a  return  to  them  of 
the  full  enjoyment  of  political  privileges  within  the  Union.  Our  right  to 
make  these  demands  was  denied.  The  Democratic  party  claimed  that  those 
rebellious  States,  immediately  at  the  close  of  the  war,  occupied  a  position 
of  entire  equality  with  the  loyal  States,  and  that  the  government  had  no 
right  to  coerce  them  into  a  delivery  into  the  hands  of  the  nation  of  the  results 
and  fruits  of  the  victories  which  the  nation  had  achieved  over  them.  In  other 
words,  that  party  declared  to  the  government,  'you  have  no  rightful  power  to 
coerce  a  State  ;  you  can  make  the  attempt ;  you  may  overcome  the  armies 
which  rebellious  States  call  into  the  field ;  but  your  success  and  their  defeat 
give  no  rightful  superiority  of  position  over  them.  You  have  no  right  to 
affix  terms  of  their  re-admission,  because  you  have  no  right  to  coerce  them.' 
Under  such  a  doctrine  victory  to  the  nation  brought  no  results. 

The  people,  however,  decided,  in  1866,  that  they  had  the  right  to  dictate 
terms  to  a  conquered  rebellion,  and  demanded  that  their  representatives  in 
Congress  should  exercise  that  right.  Refusing  to  accept  the  constitutional 
amendments  proffered  by  Congress,  that  body  undertook  by  a  series  of 
measures  called  the  reconstruction  acts,  to  enforce  substantially  those  terms 
upon  the  South,  in  other  words,  to  coerce  them  into  yielding  up  to  the 
nation  the  fruits  of  the  victories  which  it  had  achieved.  As  a  result  of 
these  measures,  what  has  been  known  as  the  Fourteenth  Constitutional 
Amendment  has  been  adopted,  which  declares:  i.  The  citizenship  of  the 
negro,  and  protects  it  from  invasion  by  any  State  legislation.  2.  Denies 
representation  for  those  citizens  who  are  deprived  by  State  legislation  of 
the  right  of  suffrage.  3.  Deprives  certain  classes  of  rebels  of  the  right  of 
holding  certain  offices,  conferring,  however,  upon  Congress  the  right  to 
remove  the  disability.  4.  Establishes  the  validity  of  the  public  debt  and 
repudiates  the  rebel  debt,  and  finally,  confers  upon  Congress  the  power 
to  enforce  those  provisions  by  appropriate  legislation.  Under  these  meas 
ures,  eight  of  the  seceding  States  have  been  re-admitted,  they  having  paid 


1 86  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  price  of  their  admission  by  the  ratification  of  this  amendment  to  the 
Constitution.  This,  indeed,  looked  like  coercion.  It  was  as  complete  a 
coercion  of  rebel  political  ideas  and  principles  as  the  overthrow  of  Lee's 
army,  and  its  forced  surrender  was  a  coercion  of  the  military  power  of  the 
Southern  States. 

"True  to  the  old  instincts — preferring  that  the  old  issues  should  still  be 
kept  alive  and  the  old  questions  still  be  agitated — the  Democratic  party 
met  in  National  Convention  at  the  City  of  New  York,  on  the  4th  day  of 
July,  1868,  and  solemnly  declared  that  the  reconstruction  measures  of 
Congress  were  usurpations — revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and  void.  If 
that  declaration  be  true,  and  such  be  the  opinion  of  the  people,  as  a  mat- 
fcr  of  course  the  fourteenth  amendment  falls  with  those  measures  of  which 
it  is  the  offspring.  The  State  governments  organized  under  it  also  fall, 
and  it  will  indeed  be  true  that  the  General  Government  has  no  power  to 
coerce  a  State  in  rebellion  against  its  authority.  It  may  conquer  by  mere 
force,  its  armies,  but  all  such  measures  as  it  may  see  fit  to  adopt  to  secure 
the  results  of  its  victories  will  be  '  usurpations — revolutionary,  unconstitutional 
and  void.'  Whether  this  nation  has  a  right  to  coerce  a  State  in  rebellion 
against  its  authority  into  obedience  to  its  authority,  and  whether  to  render 
that  coercion  effectual  it  may  demand  guarantees  for  future  peace,  is  the 
distinct  question  put  to  the  people  by  the  Democratic  party  in  its  platform. 
It  is  the  same  question  which  we  have  thrice  settled  at  the  ballot  box 
within  the  last  eight  years.  The  position  of  the  Democratic  party  on  that 
question  is  unchanged.  And  so  I  confidently  believe  the  position  of  the 
people  on  that  question  is  unchanged  and  unchangeable.  This  fourth 
decision  at  the  ballot-box  will,  I  believe,  be  final. 

"The  Democratic  platform  not  only  denounces  the  reconstruction  meas 
ures  in  the  general  language  which  I  have  quoted,  but 'it  takes  direct  issue 
with  almost  every  provision  of  the  fourteenth  amendment.  It  denies  to  the 
freedmen  one  of  the  highest  attributes  of  citizenship,  the  right  of  suffrage, 
and  demands  that  the  exercise  of  that  right  shall  be  regulated  by  the  citi 
zens  of  rebellious  States,  who  were  the  nation's  enemies,  against  the  freed 
men,  who  were  the  nation  s  friends.  It  demands  that  the  national  debt 
created  to  crush  the  rebellion  shall  be  paid  in  an  irredeemable  promise, 
thus  destroying  its  validity  declared  in  the  fourteenth  amendment,  and  add 
ing  to  the  crime  of  repudiation  all  the  calamities  of  a  worthless  currency, 
or  the  imposition  of  onerous  and  unendurable  taxation.  It  demands  the 
taxation  of  the  Government  bonds,  none  of  which  being  held  in  the  rebel 
lious  States,  would  devolve  additional  burdens  upon  the  loyal  people  of  the 
country.  It  demands  the  immediate  restoration  of  all  the  States,  of  course 
without  condition.  Such  a  declaration  of  principles  opens  every  question 
which  the  war  settled.  It  renders  our  victories  valueless  ;  for  if  the  seced 
ing  States  are  to  return  to  the  Union  in  precisely  the  same  position  they 
left  it — which  would  be  the  case  were  the  reconstruction  measures  of  Con 
gress  declared  by  the  voice  of  the  people  revolutionary,  unconstitutional 
and  void — the  war  is  a  failure.  Five  hundred  thousand  lives  have  been 
sacrificed,  and  three  thousand  millions  of  dollars  expended  in  vain. 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868. 

"And  yet  with  such  a  platform  of  principles,  and  with  candidates  upon 
it  who  propose  to  carry  it  out  by  force,  we  are  constantly  told  that  all  dis 
cussion  of  the  war  and  its  results  is  the  discussion  of  a  dead  issue.  They 
entreat  us  to  'let  bygones  be  bygones,'  and  to  'let  the  dead  past  bury  its 
dead.'  With  a  platform  that  would  upset  all  that  the  war  has  accom 
plished,  we  are  asked  to  say  nothing  about  the  war.  With  a  platform  which 
thrusts  into  our  very  faces  every  issue  that  the  war  settled,  and  demands 
that  even  by  violence  those  issues  must  be  resettled,  and  in  another  way, 
which  demands  that  we  shall  repudiate  every  vote  we  have  given  for  the 
last  eight  years,  we  are  asked  to  forget  the  past.  Wade  Hampton,  with  the 
smoke  of  burning  loyal  homes  still  clinging  to  his  garments,  whose  hands 
are  red  with  the  blood  of  our  brothers  and  our  sons,  and  Forrest,  fresh  from 
the  atrocities  of  Fort  Pillow,  demanded  that  the  States  which  they  carried 
into  and  aided  in  rebellion,  shall  suffer  nothing  for  their  great  crime,  and 
beseechingly  entreat  us  to  let  bygones  be  bygones.  If  a  forcible  attempt  is 
made  to  despoil  you  of  your  property  and  destroy  your  homes,  you  can 
hardly  regard  such  an  attempt  as  a  bygone,  until  it  is  adequately  protected 
against  all  future  attacks  of  the  same  character.  But  it  would  be  quite  in 
keeping  with  this  Democratic  platform  for  the  robber  and  the  incendiary 
yet  hovering  around  your  home,  kept  at  a  respectful  distance  by  barricades 
which  you  had  erected,  and  watchmen  whom  you  had  placed  about  it  for 
its  protection,  to  denounce  those  barricades  and  watchmen  as  revolutionary, 
unconstitutional  and  void  ;  and  whenever  you  referred  to  the  old  robberies 
and  burnings,  to  entreat  you  to  let  bygones  be  bygones.  I  apprehend  that, 
coming  from  the  old  robber  and  the  old  incendiary,  you  would  regard  a 
proposition  to  remove  your  watchmen  and  barricades,  as  a  renewal  of  an 
attempt  to  despoil  your  property  and  burn  your  home,  and  as,  substantially,  the 
same  old  question.  Such  a  barricade,  guarding  for  the  future  the  results 
of  our  victories,  protecting  us  against  rebellion  in  the  future,  is  the  four 
teenth  constitutional  amendment.  It  is  demanded  by  those  who  sought  to 
destroy  the  nation,  that  that  barrier  be  removed.  It  is  the  same  old  ques 
tion.  I  make  the  same  old  answer — No. 

"The  Democratic  party  having  done  nothing  to  win  back  your  confidence, 
has  the  Republican  party  been  guilty  of  any  acts  which  would  justify  the 
withdrawal  of  public  confidence  from  it?  Mr.  Pendleton,  in  his  speech  at 
Springfield,  arraigns  the  Republican  party  before  the  people,  and  proposes 
that  it  be  tried  and  convicted  on  its  history.  By  its  history  we  are  quite 
willing  that  it  should  be  tried.  By  that  test  let  it  stand  or  fall.  If  within 
the  comparatively  short  period  of  its  existence,  it  has  achieved  nothing  for  the 
cause  of  humanity  and  the  interests  of  good  government ;  if  under  its  sway 
freedom  "has  made  no  progress,  and  the  nation  itself  no  advancement,  it 
deserves  to  forfeit  public  confidence ;  it  deserves  removal  from  power. 

"In  detailing  the  history  of  the  Republican  party,  Mr.  Pendleton  in  his 
speech  at  Springfield,  said:  'The  Republican  party,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  not  of  long  duration.  It  was  founded  in  1856,  upon  the  ruins  of  the  old 
Whig  party.  But  all  wrho  were  sectional,  all  who  were  fanatical,  all  who 
hated  the  Constitution,  all  who  hated  the  Union,  all  who  were  dissatisfied, 


1 88  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

went  into  the  Republican  organization,  and  they  carried  with  them  many 
dissatisfied  Democrats.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  the  infancy  of  this  party 
was  marked  by  the  bloody  troubles  in  Kansas,  and  by  the  invasion  of 
Virginia  by  John  Brown  of  Ossaw atomic.  I  need  not  tell  you  that  its 
advent  to  power  in  1860  was  marked  by  the  destruction  of  the  harmony 
which  up  to  that  time  had  existed  among  the  people ;  that  it  was  marked 
by  an  attempt  at  dissolution  of  the  ties  which  bound  our  States  together ; 
that  it  was  marked  by  the  sorrows  and  miseries  of  the  greatest  civil  war  of 
which  history  has  given  us  any  record.  But  these  parties, — the  Republican 
party  and  Democratic  party — to-day  stand  where  they  stood  in  the  begin 
ning,  carrying  out  to  their  logical  conclusions  the  principles  upon  which  they 
were  founded.' 

"  It  is  not  of  decisive  consequence  in  determining  the  merits  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  from  its  history  to  know  how  its  infancy  was  marked,  nor  by  what 
events  its  advent  was  marked.  It  is  true  that  its  infancy  was  marked  by  the 
bloody  troubles  in  Kansas,  but  it  is  equally  true  that  those  bloody  marks 
upon  the  infancy  of  the  Republican  party,  and  upon  the  history  of  the  nation, 
were  all  made  by  Democratic  hands,  and  all  bear  the  impress  of  Democratic 
fingers.  The  question  is  not  so  much  what  were  the  marks,  but  who  made 
the  marks  ?  The  bloody  troubles  in  Kansas  were  the  outgrowth  of  a  wicked 
attempt  of  the  Democratic  party  and  a  Democratic  administration  to  force 
upon  that  territory,  against  the  will  of  its  people,  by  violence  and  fraud  and 
bloodshed,  the  blighting  curse  of  slavery.  It  is  equally  true  that  during 
the  infancy  of  the  Republican  party,  John  Brown  with  thirteen  men,  invaded 
Virginia.  For  an  attempt  to  liberate  the  slave  he  was  tried  and  hung. 
That  the  Republican  party  was  responsible  for  John  Brown's  raid  Mr.  Pen- 
dleton  dare  not  assert.  The  men  who  hung  John  Brown  were  Democrats. 
The  body  of  the  old  hero  was  hardly  cold  in  its  grave  before  his  execu 
tioners  had  kindled  the  flames  of  civil  war,  had  been  guilty  of  the  vilest 
treason  against  the  nation  and  are  now  demanding  the  overthrow  of  those 
laws  enacted  to  prevent  another  rebellion.  The  memory  of  John  Brown's 
executioners  will  be  handed  to  infamy.  But  though  'John  Brown's  body 
lies  mouldering  in  the  grave,  his  soul  goes  marching  on.' 

"  The  advent  of  the  Republican  party  to  power  was,  Mr.  Pendleton 
informs  us,  marked  '  by  the  destruction  of  the  harmony  which  up  to  that 
time,  had  existed  among  the  people.'  It  was  a  curious  kind  of  harmony 
which  existed  during  the  administration  of  Pierce  and  Buchanan.  '  Order,' 
it  was  once  said,  '  reigns  in  Warsaw.'  The  Poles  had  all-been  slaughtered. 
It  was  the  order  which  despotism  brings  about,  by  the  destruction  of  those  who 
chafe  under  it.  It  was  the  quiet  of  death.  The  Poles  all  massacred,  order 
reigned  in  Warsaw.  The  voice  of  freedom  having  been  hushed,  and  her 
slightest  utterance  choked,  harmony  prevailed,  for  the  slave-driver  had  every 
thing  his  own  way.  We  are  also  told  that  the  advent  of  the  Republican 
party  was  marked  '  by  an  attempt  at  dissolution  of  the  ties  which  bound 
our  States  together.'  That  is  true,  but  the  truth  of  the  statement  is  the 
everlasting  disgrace  of  the  Democratic  party.  The  attempt  at  dissolution 
was  made  by  the  Democratic  party,  for  no  other  reason  than  that 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  189 

Abraham  Lincoln  was  elected  President  of  the  United  States.  It  was  an 
attempt  of  measureless  wickedness  and  causelessness,  which  Mr.  Pendleton 
did  not  attempt  to  prevent,  but  rather  urged  on  by  saying  to  those  actively 
engaged  in  it,  '  I  would  mark  their  departure  with  tokens  of  affection,  I 
would  bid  them  adieu  so  tenderly  that  their  hearts  would  be  touched  by  the 
recollection  of  it.'  For  the  wickedness  of  this  attempt  and  for  the  attempt 
itself,  Mr.  Pendleton  and  the  Democratic  party  are  alone  responsible.  They 
made  no  effort  to  prevent  the  attempt  being  made ;  they  put  forth  no  exer 
tion  to  prevent  it  succeeding.  The  infamy  of  this  attempt  rests  alone  upon 
the  shoulders  of  the  Democratic  party.  The  humiliations  and  disasters  of 
its  defeat  should  be  born  by  them  alone,  and  the  glory  of  its  overthrow 
belongs  alone  to  the  great  loyal  people,  who  proved  themselves  as  able  to 
meet  and  overcome  the  Democratic  party  in  the  field,  as  at  the  ballot-Jpox. 
Mr.  Pendleton  also  graciously  assures  the  liberty-loving  men  of  this  country, 
that  their  advent  to  power  was  '  marked  by  the  sorrows  and  miseries 
of  the  greatest  civil  war  of  which  history  has  given  us  any  record.'  This 
is  true  again,  and  it  is  also  true  that  for  that  war,  and  all  the  sorrows 
and  miseries  which  it  entailed,  the  Democratic  party  is  alone  responsible. 
These  sorrows  and  miseries  are  indeed  marked  deeply  upon  the  history  of 
the  country,  and  their  guilty  authors  will  not  soon  be  forgotten.  The 
responsibility  for  that  gigantic  crime,  and  the  griefs  resulting  from  it,  as  a 
part  of  the  burdens  which  the  Democratic  party  must  carry  down  with  it 
through  all  history,  is  engraved  upon  the  heart  of  every  mother  whose  boy 
died  in  the  great  cause  ;  it  is  witnessed  by  the  tear  of  every  widowed  wife 
whose  husband  fell  from  Southern  bullets,  or  perished  ultimately  in  a 
Southern  prison-pen.  There  is  not  a  desolate  home  in  all  the  land,  nor  a 
deserted  fireside,  made  so  by  this  wicked  rebellion,  that  does  not  bear 
eloquent  testimony  that  all  those  marks  of  desolating  grief  were  made  by 
Democratic  hands.  And  all  the  countless  graves  of  the  slain  heroes  of  the 
republic  are  marks  of  misery  and  suffering  made  by  Democratic  rebels, 
not  only  on  the  peaceful  advent  of  a  great  party  to  power,  but  upon  the 
pages  of  our  country's  and  the  world's  history.  All  these  '  marks '  which 
Mr.  Pendleton  flourishingly  parcels,  were  made  by  the  Democratic  party. 
When  the  burglar  can  safely  denounce  the  merchant,  because  his  advent  to 
a  prosperous  business  was  marked  by  a  robbery  of  his  substance  ;  when  the 
incendiary  can  denounce  his  victim  because  his  advent  to  his  new  home 
was  marked  by  its  conflagration,  then  let  the  Democratic  party,  North  and 
South,  denounce  the  Republicans  because  their  advent  to  power  was  marked 
by  the  miseries  of  a  war  which  Democrats  began  by  an  attempt  at  dissolu 
tion,  in  which  they  alone  engaged.  We  gladly  accept  Mr.  Pendleton's 
challenge,  and  will  test  the  claims  of  the  Republicans  by  what  the  Repub 
lican  party  has  achieved. 

"It  entered  the  field  in  1856,  a  protest  of  the  best  thought,  the  highest 
culture  and  the  soundest  heart  of  the  country,  against  the  aggressions  of 
the  slave  power.  On  behalf  of  the  dignity  of  free  labor,  free  speech  and 
free  thought,  it  appealed  to  the  highest  motives,  and  its  appeal  was  nobly 
answered. 


I9O  LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"  Its  first  great  achievement,  resulting  from  the  election  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  was  the  rescue  of  our  vast  Western  Territories  from  the  grasp  of  sla 
very,  and  from  its  blighting  effects  upon  the  interests  and  dignity  of  labor, 
and  the  dedication  of  those  territories,  now  prosperous  States,  to  free  labor 
and  to  free  men.  Against  this  great  achievement,  up  to  this  time  the  grand 
est  event  in  American  history,  the  Democratic  party  rebelled.  Having 
saved  the  territories  to  freedom,  the  Republican  party  entered  on  the  second 
f  stage  of  its  career,  and  its  second  achievement,  wrought  out  with  more  than 
one-half  the  Democratic  party  of  the  nation  in  open  arms  against  it,  and 
the  other  half  in  covert  opposition,  was  the  salvation  of  this  nation,  for  all 
peoples  and  to  all  ages,  as  the  sacred  custodian  of  the  priceless  treasure  of 
free  government.  Its  great  career  was  not  ended.  Having  crushed  the 
rebellion,  it  determined  to  rid  the  country  of  the  evil  out  of  which  rebellion 
grew,  and  the  nation  of  the  foulest  stain,  resting  upon  its  fair  fame.  It 
entered  at  once  upon  the  third  stage  of  its  career,  and  for  its  third  achieve 
ment  in  the  interests  of  humanity,  for  the  cause  of  good  government  and  in 
behalf  of  the  downtrodden  and  the  oppressed,  declared  that  '  neither  slavery 
nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment  for  crime,  whereof  the 
party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist  within  the  United  States, 
or  any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction.'  And  yet  its  work  is  not  finished. 
It  is  now  closing  the  fourth  period  of  its  history,  and  preparing  finally,  to 
consummate  its  fourth  achievement. 

"The  salvation  of  the  nation,  wrought  out  through  the  perils  of  the  might 
iest  rebellion  which  history  records,  involved  the  building  of  great  fleets,  the 
raising  and  equipping  of  gigantic  armies.  For  these  purposes  a  great 
national  debt  was  incurred.  And  that  debt  the  Republican  party  proposes 
to  pay. 

"  It  entered  upon  the  great  contest  with  four  millions  of  slaves  in  the 
rebellious  States,  who,  during  the  entire  period  of  the  war,  were  our  friends, 
and  hundreds  and  thousands  of  whom  fought  for  us.  It  found  those  slaves 
at  the  close  of  the  war  free  men.  It  proposes  to  make  them  citizens,  and 
protect  them  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  their  rights  as  citizens.  Having 
crushed  the  rebellion,  it  proposes  to  protect  the  nation  against  its  recurrence, 
and  to  withhold  from  those  who  sought  the  destruction  of  the  national  life 
any  share  in  the  control  of  our  national  destinies  until  they  have  furnished 
us  the  surest  evidences  that  the  national  interests  can  be  safely  entrusted  to 
their  hands. 

Thus  having  carried  the  nation  safely  through  the  perils  of  the  rebellion, 
it  proposes  to  gather  together  the  fruits  of  all  its  triumphs,  and  imbed  them 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  secure  for  all  the  future  in  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  wherein  are  secured  national 
honor,  the  freedom  of  the  slave,  and  national  security  for  the  future,  as  a 
fitting  consummation  of  the  great  work  of  the  Republican  party,  for  the 
people  and  for  the  world.  The  same  opposition  which  it  has  encountered 
at  every  period  of  its  progress  it  now  encounters.  The  Democratic  party, 
which  opposed  it  in  its  efforts  to  give  the  territories  to  freedom,  which 
rebelled  w^hen  the  effort  proved  a  success,  which  opposed  it  in  its  great 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  IQI 

effort  to  preserve  the  national  integrity,  which  opposed  it  when  it  gave  free 
dom,  opposes  it  now,  when  it  seeks  to  embody  all  these  results  in  the 
organic  law,  and  threatens  to  tear  down  the  sanctuary  in  which  they  are 
enshrined,  and  denounces  the  great  measure  by  which  these  results  have  all 
been  gathered  together  as  usurpations  revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and 
void. 

"These  are  the  great  events  in  the  history  of  the  Republican  party.  Con 
sidering  the  mighty  consequence  of  what  it  has  accomplished,  it  would 
seem  that  it  has  crowded  a  thousand  years  of  history  into  eight  short 
years  of  time.  It  found  our  territories  in  the  clutch  of  slavery  ; 
it  broke  its  hold  and  dedicated  them  to  freedom.  It  found  the  nation 
beset  by  spies  and  encompassed  by  treason,  trembling  upon  the 
very  brink  of  ruin  ;  it  rescued  it  from  danger.  It  saved  the  only 
free  government  on  earth.  It  found  four  millions  of  human  beings  slaves  ; 
it  gave  them  freedom.  It  has  lifted  four  millions  of  chattels  out  of  the  night 
and  barbarism  of  slavery  into  the  clear  pure  air  of  American  citizenship. 
It  has  for  the  first  time  made  American  citizenship  a  living  reality — 
has  made  citizenship  broader  than  the  mere  boundaries  of  a  State ;  has 
made  it  in  its  privileges  co-extensive  with  the  whole  nation.  It  has  vindica 
ted  the  national  faith,  and  if  the  people  permit,  will  secure  to  all  the  future 
domestic  prosperity  and  tranquility,  honor  and  respect  abroad.  It  has  vin 
dicated  the  capacity  of  men  for  self  government,  and  a  united  Italy  and  a 
united  Germany  follow  closely  upon  and  result  from  the  example  of  a 
united  nationality  in  this  great  Republic.  All  these  mighty  results,  the  most 
cheering  for  our  hopes  of  humanity,  has  the  Republican  party  accomplished 
in  eight  short  years?  Test  it  by  its  history.  Judge  it  by  what  has  been 
done,  and  when  you  have  found  that  all  the  parties  of  which  history  gives 
us  any  record  can  produce  nothing  to  compare  with  these  results,  you  will 
decide  as  you  have  decided,  that  whatever  mistakes  of  detail  it  may  have 
committed,  it  is  still  entitled  to  the  largest  measure  of  our  confidence  ;  that 
we  are  prepared  to  say  to  it,  '  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant.' 

"  Besides  the  general  charges  which  Mr.  Pendleton  makes  against  the 
Republican  party,  and  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  he  makes  several 
specific  allegations  against  it,  the  most  important  of  which  seems  to  relate 
to  the  constitutional  amendments.  Mr.  Pendleton  professes  an  almost  idola 
trous  admiration  of  the  Constitution,  insists  that  our  fathers  who  made  it 
were  wise  men,  and  he  said  in  his  speech  at  Springfield,  speaking  of  the 
Constitution :  '  I  charge  upon  you  who  are  Democrats  ....  do  not  seek  to 
amend  it,  do  not  seek  to  change  it.'  We  yield  ^nothing  to  Mr.  Pendleton 
in  admiration  of  the  Constitution.  We  appreciate  as  fully  as  he  does  the 
wisdom  of  our  fathers  who  made  it.  But  we  admire  it  not  alone  for  its 
•checks  and  balances'  of  which  he  has  so  much  to  say.  \Ve  do  not 
regard  it  as  a  mere  political  'teeter.'  We  admire  it  among  other  reasons 
because  it  was  made  by  the  people  of  the  United  States  '  in  order  to  form  a 
more  perfect  union,  establish  justice,  insure  domestic  tranquility,  provide 
for  the  common  defense,  promote  the  general  welfare,  and  secure  the 
blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity.'  We  admire  it  for  the 


192  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

ample  shield  of  protection  which  it  throws  about  the  citizen  in  time  of 
peace.  We  admire  it  for  the  tremendous  armory  of  power  which  it  furnishes 
the  nation  in  time  of  war.  We  think  its  framers  were  wise  men,  and  they 
exhibited  their  wisdom  by  embodying  in  the  Constitution  provisions  for  its 
amendment. 

"This  nervous  anxiety  about  amendments  to  the  Constitution  is  a  new  thing 
with  the  Democratic  party.  When,  in  1860,  Mr.  Chittenden,  for  the  purpose 
of  coaxing  the  South  back  into  the  Union  which  they  had  determined  to 
destroy,  proposed  amendments  to  the  Constitution  dedicating  vast  tracts  of 
free  territory  to  slavery,  and  pledging  it  the  protection  of  the  nation,  even 
against  the  will  of  the  people  of  those  Territories,  no  Democrat  opposed 
such  an  amendment.  They  not  only  did  not  oppose  it,  but  Mr.  Pendleton 
among  the  number,  gave  it  most  hearty  and  cordial  support.  Again,  when 
that  distinguished  Democrat,  Mr.  Vallandigham,  proposed  such  an  amend 
ment  of  the  Constitution  as  worjced  a  radical  change  in  the  very  structure 
of  our  government,  by  having  two  Presidents,  one  from  the  North  and  one 
from  the  South,  Democratic  objectors  were  silent.  Again,  when  Horatio 
Seymour  proposed  a  very  essential  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  which 
was  nothing  less  than  the  substitution  of  the  Montgomery  Confederate  Con 
stitution  in  the  place  of  our  own,  Democrats  did  not  seem  to  be  particularly 
alarmed,  nor  were  they  entreatingly  besought  to  take  the  Constitution  home 
with  them  and  place  it  on  the  family  altar  next  the  Bible,  where  they 
might  watch  it  in  the  intervals  of  their  slumbers,  and  dream  of  it  when 
sleep  oppressed  their  eyelids. 

"This  new-born  anxiety  in  the  Democratic  mind  about  amending  the 
Constitution  springs  from  the  fact  that  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  amend 
ments  are  in  the  interests  of  freedom,  while  the  others  proposed  were  addi 
tional  guarantees  for  slavery.  Accordingly,  Mr.  Pendleton  particularizes  his 
objections  to  the  amendments.  He  says  in  his  speech  delivered  at  Bangor, 
Maine,  on  the  igth  of  August,  in  the  course  of  his  enumeration  of  the 
offenses  of  the  Radicals :  '  Twice  since  the  close  of  the  war  they  have 
used  all  the  power  which  the  possession  of  the  government,  both  State  and 
Federal,  has  given  them,  to  amend  the  Constitution,  and  in  each  case  the 
amendment  has  been  in  derogation  of  the  substantial,  important,  recognized 
rights  of  the  States.  By  the  first  of  these  amendments  the  power  of  the 
State  over  slavery  within  its  limits  was  abolished.  By  the  second,  citizen 
ship  is  dependent  upon  the  will  not  of  the  State,  but  of  Congress,  and  the 
exclusion  of  negroes  from  suffrage  is  punished  by  loss  of  representation.' 
Who  will  tell  us,  in  the  face  of  such  an  avowal  as  this,  that  we  are  dis 
cussing  dead  issues?  The  great  leader  of  the  Democratic  party  still  clings 
to  slavery,  objects  to  its  abolishment,  and  denounces  the  Republican  party, 
because,  by  an  amendment  of  the  Constitution,  it  has  destroyed  slavery. 
Being  opposed  to  the  abolition  of  slavery,  believing  with  his  party,  that 
those  measures  by  which  its  abolition  was  effaced  are  revolutionary,  uncon 
stitutional  and  void,  Mr.  Pendleton  would,  of  course,  if  he  had  his  way, 
restore  it.  This  amendment,  as  well  as  the  fourteenth,  he  pronounces  a 
'  derogation  of  the  substantial,  important,  recognized  rights  of  the  states.' 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  193 

This  is  simply  declaring  those  amendments  void.  The  freedom  of  the  slave 
stands  or  falls  with  the  amendment.  Mr.  Pendleton  insists  that  they  shall 
fall  together ;  that  the  thirteenth  amendment  shall  fall  because  it  gave 
freedom  to  the  slave.  He  would  also  deprive  the  freedman  of  his  newly 
acquired  citizenship,  would  maintain  the  old  basis  of  representation,  would, 
in  short,  undo  all  that  has  been  done  and  bring  us  back  to  the  halcyon 
days  of  harmony  under  Pierce  and  Buchanan. 

"Mr.  Pendleton  in  his  speech  at  Portland,  delivered  on  the  23rd  day  of 
August,  emphasizes  his  attack  upon  the  Republican  party,  and  reiterates  it 
by  declaring,  as  one  of  the  crimes  of  which  the  Republican  party  has  been 
guilty  against  the  South,  that  'it  has  destroyed  their  labor  system;  it  has 
converted  three  million  of  industrious  negroes  into  very  bad  politicians.'  The 
labor  system  to  which  Mr.  Pendleton  alludes,  is  the  institution  of  slavery. 
One  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  system  was  that  it  was  all  work  and  no  pay. 
Mr.  Pendleton  complains  that  this  system  has  been  abolished,  hopes  for  its 
return,  and,  to  bring  his  hopes  to  fruition,  demands  that  the  Republican 
shall  be  driven  from  power.  He  might  as  w  ell  attempt  to  set  time  back,  to 
roll '  the  tides  back  upon  the  sea  as  they  flow  upon  the  land.  But  the 
exhibition  of  such  an  intense  Bourbonism  as  this  may  well  make  us  despair 
of  ever  having  any  new  issues  with  the  Democratic  party.  Mr.  Pendleton 
is  kind  enough  to  furnish  us  the  reason  why  he  should  not  give  political 
power  to  the  negro.  In  his  speech  at  Portland,  he  said,  in  speaking  of  the 
negro  :  '  I  would  not  admit  him  to  political  power  because  I  believe  he  is 
of  a  different  race  from  ourselves.  I  am  in  favor  of  maintaining  this  a 
white  man's  government.'  A  discussion  of  such  a  topic  as  the  origin  of  our 
species,  the  diversity  of  races,  and  whether  the  Almighty  made  of  one  flesh 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  perplexes  political  controversy.  After  a  long 
disputation  and  controversy  on  the  question,  '  In  what  consists  personal 
identity,'  or  more  specifically,  '  What  was  it  that  made  Peter  Peter  and  not 
John  and  John  John  and  not  Peter ; '  the  schoolmen  at  last  reached  the 
very  satisfactory  conclusion,  'That  John's  identity  consisted  in  his  Johnity 
and  Peter's  identity  consisted  in  his  Petricity  or  Peterness.'  Results  equally 
satisfactory  may  be  anticipated  in  attempting  to  determine  the  measure  of 
the  political  rights  of  a  citizen  by  the  race  to  which  he  belongs.  The  vexed 
question  of  races  is  one  which  would  not  be  satisfactorily  solved  at  the 
ballot-box,  and  no  competent  political  tribunal  at  present  exists  which  may 
decide  to  what  race  the  applicant  for  suffrage  belongs.  Without  going  very 
deeply  into  that  subject,  the  Republican  party  contents  itself  that  all 
human  beings  are  entitled  to  human  rights,  and  that  all  the  citizens  of 
the  republic  should  stand  on  a  footing  of  political  equality.  The  ques 
tions  of  intellectual  and  social  equality  it  leaves  to  be  determined  by  what 
each  man  may  do  for  himself,  believing  that  every  man  should  have 
the  largest  liberty  in  doing  for  himself  in  the  way  of  social  or  intellectual 
development  all  that  he  can  do.  But  it  seems  that  our  Democratic 
friends  propose  to  determine  a  citizen's  right  to  vote  by  physiological, 
anatomical,  ethnological  and  purely  scientific  tests.  For  this  purpose  we 
may  expect  the  endowment  of  a  university,  headed  by  Mr.  Pendleton, 
13 


194  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

assisted  by  those  able  savants,  Messrs.  Morrissey,  Rynders,  Dean  and 
Pomeroy,  and  before  whom  the  negro's  right  of  suffrage  shall  be  subjected 
to  the  just,  but,  nevertheless,  stern  and  relentless  tests  of  science.  Before 
such  an  able  body  of  professors,  I  think  I  see  as  students,  the  earnest  searchers 
after  truth  from  the  Sixth  Ward  in  the  City  of  New  York,  numerously  appear 
ing,  armed  with  a  copy  of  Cuvier's  'Animal  Kingdom'  under  one  arm, 
the  '  Vestiges  of  Creation '  under  the  other,  and  in  their  pocket  a  copy  of 
the  Democratic  platform.  Upon  comparing  the  astragalus  of  a  negro  with 
the  astragalus  of  a  white  man,  it  may  be  found  that  they  differ.  From 
this  important  fact  will  be  deduced  the  conclusion  that  they  are  of  dif 
ferent  race  and  denial  of  political  rights  to  the  negro  would  follow  as  a 
natural  consequence,  not  from  prejudice  against  the  negro,  but  out  of 
glory  to  science.  What  the  result  might  be,  if  it  were  found  that  the 
same  difference  in  the  astragalus  existed  between  different  white  men, 
I  cannot  undertake  to  say  ;  and  the  results  which  might  flow  from  the 
adoption  of  the  theory  of  the  growth  of  human  beings  from  oysters  up  to 
monkeys  and  through  successive  stages  of  development  until  creation  flowered 
and  blossomed  out  into  the  perfect  Democrat,  are  fearful  to  contemplate. 
"Ages  of  slavery  are  not  likely  to  develop  great  intellectual  activity,  and, 
to  a  certain  extent  at  least,  may  the  negro's  want  of  intelligence  be  ascribed 
to  the  condition  of  bondage  in  which  he  has  been  kept.  A  slave  no  longer, 
the  problem  is,  how  he  may  be  made  sufficiently  intelligent  to  discharge  all 
the- duties  and  exercise  all  the  privileges  of  a  citizen  wisely  and  well.  It  is 
very  clear  that  to  limit  his  opportunities  for  self-improvement  would  not 
result  in  a  satisfactory  solution  of  this  problem.  Mr.  Pendleton  seems  to 
belong  to  that  class  of  politicians  who  are  in  the  habit  of  laying  it  down  as 
a  self-evident  proposition,  that  no  people  ought  to  be  free  till  they  are  fit 
to  use  their  freedom.  '  If  men  are  to  wait  for  liberty  until  they  become 
wise  and  good  in  slavery,  they  may  indeed  wait  for  ever.'  It  may  be  that 
there  are  evils  resulting  from  the  newly  acquired  freedom  of  the  slave.  But 
as  Macaulay  has  well  said,  '  There  is  only  one  cure  for  the  evils  which  newly- 
acquired  freedom  produces — and  that  cure  is  freedom !  When  a  prisoner 
leaves  his  cell  he  cannot  bear  the  light  of  day;  he  is  unable  to  discriminate 
colors  or  recognize  faces.  .  But  the  remedy  is  not  to  remand  him  into  his 
dungeon,  but  to  accustom  him  to  the  rays  of  the  sun.  The  blaze  of  truth 
and  liberty  may  at  first  dazzle  and  bewilder  nations  which  have  become 
half  blind  in  the  house  of  bondage.  But  let  them  gaze  on  and  they  will 
soon  be  able  to  bear  it. 

"Mr.  Pendleton  demands  that  this  shall  be  a  white  man's  government. 
Whether  he  intends  to  exclude  from  the  privileges  of  this  free  government 
all  men  who  are  not  white,  he  does  not  clearly  set  forth.  If  this  demand 
means  anything  however,  it  must  mean  that  none  but  white  men  shall  be 
permitted  to  be  citizens.  For  if  negroes,  under  any  circumstances,  are  per 
mitted  to  become  citizens,  this  certainly  would  not  be  exclusively  a  white 
man's  government.  The  result  of  this  doctrine  clearly  would  be  to  deprive 
the  freedman  of  his  newly-acquired  citizenship,  and  that  such  is  the  pur 
pose  of  the  Democratic  party,  appears  not  only  from  their  platform  denoun- 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  1 95 

cing  the  legislation  by  which  that  citizenship  is  declared  and  secured  as 
unconstitutional,  revolutionary  and  void,  but  from  the.  exposition  of  that 
platform  by  the  leading  members  of  the  party,  Mr.  Pendleton  among  the 
number. 

"It  is  insisted,  however,  that  the  questions  of  citizenship  and  suffrage 
should  be  left  exclusively  to  the  States.  Under  ordinary  circumstances  this 
would  be  so.  But  for  the  nation  to  have  submitted  the  absolute  dominion 
over  our  friends  in  the  seceding  and  conquered  states  to  our  enemies  in 
those  States,  would  have  been  an  act  of  injustice  so  outrageous  and  so 
gross  as  justly  to  have  called  down  upon  us  the  reproaches  of  every  nation 
on  the  face  of  the  globe.  In  the  process  of  reconstruction  the  injustice  of 
submitting  to  the  rebel  the  decision  of  the  extent  of  the  rights  of  the 
freedman  is  too  obvious  to  admit  of  comment.  When  the  Democratic 
party  insists  that  the  people  of  the  rebellious  States  shall  decide  who  shall 
be  citizens  and  who  shall  be  voters  in  those  States,  they  do  not  mean  what 
they  say,  for  by  the  people  they  mean,  not  the  negro,  who  has  achieved 
his  citizenship  by  his  loyalty,  but  the  rebel,  who  has  forfeited  his  privileges 
by  his  treason.  And  hence  in  the  decision  of  this  question  the  freedman, 
who  is  especially  interested,  shall  have  nothing  to  say,  while  the  rebel  shall 
have  everything  to  say.  If  the  citizenship  of  the  negro  in  the  rebellious 
States,  is  to  be  recognized  as  a  matter  of  fact,  it  would  seem  clear  that 
the  enjoyment  of  the  privileges  of  civilization  should  be  secured  and  guar 
anteed  him.  If  to  protect  him  in  the  full  and  complete  enjoyment  of 
those  rights  the  ballot  is  necessary,  I  for  one  would  confer  it  upon  him.  I 
would  make  the  gift  no  idle  one.  I  would  have  it  real  and  substantial.  I 
believe  that  in  the  States  covered  by  the  reconstruction  measures  the 
ballot  is  absolutely  necessary  to  protect  the  negro  in  his  newly  acquired 
rights,  and,  believing  that,  I  would  give  him  the  ballot,  feeling  well 
assured  that  he  who  had  sufficient  intelligence  to  throw  the  weight  of  his 
influence  in  favor  of  the  nation  in  its  struggle  for  its  existence,  and  suffi 
cient  courage  and  patriotism  to  peril  his  life  in  the  nation's  defense,  would 
be  quite  as  likely  to  use  the  ballot  wisely  and  well  as  he  who  waged  for 
four  years  a  rebellious  war  against  the  nation. 

"  The  denial  of  the  right  of  Congress  to  legislate  upon  these  questions 
proceeds  upon  the  assumption  that  the  seceding  states  and  the  people 
thereof  lost  nothing  by  their  rebellion.  Mr.  Pendleton  in  his  speech  at 
Bangor  declares,  with  reference  to  the  seceding  States,  that  their  State 
governments  '  were  in  full  vigor  and  operation  before  and  during  and  after 
the  war.'  With  reference  to  the  vigor  of  those  State  governments  before  the 
war,  no  question  is  made.  But  that  they  were  in  full  vigor  as  State  govern 
ments  within  the  Union  during  the  war  we  deny.  We  recognized  their  vigor 
as  State  governments  during  the  war.  They  vigorously  raised  troops  and 
vigorously  carried  on  war  against  the  nation.  They  did  these  things  as 
State  governments  outside  the  Union,  and  as  members  of  the  Southern  Con 
federacy,  and  it  seems  somewhat  curious  that  such  exhibitions  of  vigor  which 
we  finally  succeeded  in  pulling  down  should  be  adduced  as  reasons  why  we 
have  no  control  over  them  now.  Had  there  been  during  the  war  less 


196  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

vigor  of  this  kind  there  would  have  been  less  cause  of  complaint  on  our 
part.  Had  there  been  more  vigor  the  nation  would  have  been  destroyed. 
Had  there  been  no  vigor,  such  as  was  exhibited  by  the  Confederate  State 
Governments,  there  would  have  been  no  war.  That  those  State  Govern- 
me'nts  had  during  the  war  no  vigor  within  the  Union  which  they  were  seek 
ing  to  destroy,  is  a  fact  which  cannot  be  upset  by  any  amount  of  plausible 
theory.  If  during  that  time  they  were  as  a  matter  of  fact  State  govern 
ments  within  the  Southern  Confederacy,  they  were  not  within  the 
Union.  They  could  not  be  within  both  the  Confederacy  and  the  Union  at 
the  same  time.  The  task  of  showing  that 'during  the  rebellion,  the  South 
ern  States  were  not,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  members  of  the  Southern  Con 
federacy  may  safely  b?  left  to  Democratic  orators  and  statesmen.  If  they 
could  have  been  argued  out  of  the  Confederacy  and  into  the  Union, 
that  remedy  would  certainly  have  been  employed  during  the  war.  If  it 
could  have  been  made  efficacious,  its  cheapness  compared  with  the  vast 
armies  which  we  were,  as  we  supposed,  obliged  to  employ  to  effect 
that  object  would  certainly  have  been  a  great  recommendation  in  its 
favor. 

"  Nearly  two  hundred  years  ago  the  British  nation  was  called  upon 
to  face  very  much  such  a  theory  as  the  one  now  insisted  upon  by  Mr. 
Pendleton  and  the  Democratic  party.  King  James  II.  was  a  model 
conservative.  His  character  bears  many  striking  resemblances  to  that  of 
Andrew  Johnson.  It  is  said  of  him  by  an  eminent  historian,  'The 
obstinate  and  imperious  nature  of  the  King  gave  great  advantages  to 
those  who  advised  him  to  be  firm  to  yield  nothing,  and  to  make  him 
self  feared.  One  State  maxim  had  taken  possession  of  his  small  under 
standing  and  was  not  to  be  dislodged  by  reason.  His  mode  of  arguing, 
if  it  is  to  be  so  called,  was  one  not  uncommon  among  dull  and  stub 
born  persons  who  are  accustomed  to  be  surrounded  by  their  inferiors. 
He  asserted  a  proposition ;  and  as  often  as  wiser  people  ventured  respect 
fully  to  show  that  it  was  erroneous,  he  asserted  it  again  in  exactly  the 
same  words,  and  conceived  that  by  doing  so  he  at  once  disposed  of  all 
objections.'  By  various  acts  of  parliament,  penalties  had  been  imposed 
and  tests  applied  against  particular  individuals,  depriving  them  of  office, 
and  James  proposed  to  exercise  the  dispensing  power  so  as  substantially 
to  annul  those  acts  of  Parliament.  This  he  called  'my  policy.'  Finding 
Parliament  refractory,  he  determined  to  call  together  a  new  Parliament, 
and  in  doing  so  employed  precisely  the  same  agencies  to  secure  a  Par 
liament  favorable  to  his  purposes,  as  were  resorted  to  by  Andrew  Johnson- 
in  1866.  Returning  officers  were  appointed,  directed  to  avail  themselves 
of  the  slightest  pretence  to  declare  the  King's  friends  duly  elected. 
Every  placeman,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest,  was  made  to  under 
stand  that  if  he  wished  to  retain  his  office,  he  must  support  the  throne 
by  his  vote  and  interest.  A  proclamation  appeared  in  the  Gazette, 
announcing  that  the  King  had  determined  to  revive  the  commissions  of 
peace  and  of  lieutenancy  and  to  retain  in  public  employment  only  such 
gentlemen  as  should  be  disposed  to  support  his  policy.  The  Com- 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868. 

missioners  of  Custom  and  Excise  were  ordered  to  attend  his  Majesty  at 
the  Treasury.  There  he  demanded  from  them  a  promi.e  to  support  his 
policy,  and  directed  them  to  require  a  similar  promise  from  all  their 
subordinates.  One  Custom  house  officer  notified  his  submission  to  the 
Royal  will  by  saying  that  he  had  fourteen  reasons  for  obeying  his 
Majesty's  commands,— a  wife  and  thirteen  young  children.  But  with  all 
these  precautions,  James  failed,  as  Andrew  failed.  The  new  Parliament 
were  more  stubborn  and  refractory  than  the  old  had  been,  and  finally 
James  fled  the  country,  took  his  son  with  him  and  went  to  France.  And 
there  the  question  arose  whether  the  States  were  out  of  the  Union.  At  once 
there  arose  in  Great  Britain  a  party  who  insisted  upon  the  theory  that  there 
could  be  no  vacancy  in  the  throne  ;  that  James  not  being  dead,  the  throne 
was  not  vacant,  and  that,  accordingly  writs  must  run  in  his  name.  Acts 
of  Parliament  must  be  still  called  from  the  years  of  his  reign,  but  that  the 
administration  must  nevertheless  be  confided  to  a  regent.  Macaulay  says  that 
•it  seems  incredible  that  any  man  should  really  have  been  imposed  upon 
by  such  nonsense.  And  yet  it  had  great  weight  with  the  whole  Tory  party. 
The  difficulty  was  solved  by  the  British  people,  very  much  as  the  loyal 
people  of  the  country  have  answered  the  Democratic  theory.  '  We  recog 
nize,'  said  the  British  people  '  the  general  correctness  of  the  theory,  as  a 
legal  proposition,  that  the  throne  can  not  be  vacant.  But  whatever  the 
theory  may  be,  we  look  at  the  throne,  and  see  that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  no 
one  occupies  it.  It  is  vacant.'  They  accordingly  declared  the  fact  as  they 
saw  it — that  the  throne  was  vacant — and,  being  vacant,  they  proceeded  to 
fill  it.  And  they  did  fill  it  in  a  way  which  secured  constitutional  liberty  to 
the  British  nation  down  to  this'  day.  And  so  the  people  of  this  country 
recognize  the  fact  that  for  four  years  the  rebellious  States  were  out  of  the 
Union ;  that  they  did  establish  and  sought  to  perpetuate  an  independent 
government ;  that  their  places  in  the  Union  were  vacant ;  that  their  seats 
in  Congress  were  vacant.  That  they  had  no  right  thus  to  rebel  we  well 
knew ;  that  the  right  to  exercise  national  authority  over  them  was  never 
destroyed  we  also  well  knew.  That  their  secession  did  not  impair  the 
rights  of  the  nation  over  them  we  perfectly  well  understood ;  but  that  it 
did  impair  their  rights  within  the  nation  we  believed  was  equally  clear. 
Their  argument  is  based  upon  their  own  wrong,  and  they  claim  that 
they  lost  no  political  rights  by  rebellion  because  they  had  no  right  to 
rebel. 

"The  position  of  the  Confederate  States  during  the  v/ar  was  defined  to 
the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  country  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
his  amnesty  proclamation,  December  8,  1863.  He  there  declares  that  by 
the  rebellion  the  loyal  state  governments  of  several  States  'have  for  along 
time  been  subverted ;'  that  the  national  authority  has  been  suspended ;  that 
we  are  to  reconstruct  and  re-establish  loyal  state  governments,  and  that  the 
concessions  demanded  by  him  were  in  return  for  pardon  and  restoration 
of  forfeited  rights.  The  work  of  reconstructipn  has  been  based  upon  this 
theory  and  upon  the  facts.  As  a  consequence  of  the  rebellion,  the  nation 
al  authority  over  the  rebellious  States  was  superseded,  to  be  assumed 


198  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

when  it  achieved  the  power  to  do  so,  the  State  governments  of  those 
States  were  subverted,  overthrown  to  be  re-established  when  we  had  the 
physical  power  to  do  so.  Remembering  in  the  language  of  Mr.  Lincoln 
that  an,  '  attempt  to  guarantee  and  protect  a  revived  State  government, 
constructed  in  whole  or  in  preponderating  part  from  the  very  element  against 
whose  hostility  and  violence  it  is  to  be  protected,  is  simply  absurd.  There 
must  be  a  test  by  which  to  separate  the  opposing  elements  so  as  to  build 
only  from  the  sound ;  the  political  rights  of  the  people  of  those  States  had 
been  forfeited,'  to  be  restored  only  upon  such  terms  as  the  nation  might 
see  fit  to  impose. 

"Such  being  the  condition  of  the  seceded  States  and  people  during  the 
war,  how  was  any  change  affected  in  their  condition  by  the  defeat  of  their 
armies  ?  Our  rights  over  them  when  their  armies  surrendered  were  certainly  as 
great  as  when  they  kept  the  field  against  us.  Our  power  over  them  was  greater. 
Clearly  the  Southern  Confederacy  could  achieve  no  rights  which  they  had 
not  during  the  war,  merely  because  their  armies  had  been  defeated  by  ours, 
and  they  were  unable  further  to  prosecute  the  war.  The  defeat  of  a  rebel 
lion  cannot  enlarge  its  rights.  During  the  war  we  had,  as  against  the 
South,  the  rights,  to  say  the  least,  which  any  nation  would  have  in  waging 
war,  or  which  we  would  have  had  in  waging  war  against  any  other  nation. 
We  had  the  rights  of  war  because  we  were  at  war,  and  when  the  war 
closed,  we  victorious  and  the  Southern  Confederacy  conquered,  we  had  the 
rights  which  our  position  gave  to  us,  namely,  the  rights  of  a  conqueror, 
and  they  had  the  rights  which  their  position  gave  them,  namely,  the  rights 
of  a  conquered  people.  To  what  extent  we  should  exercise  those  rights 
was  another  question.  But  to  say  that  at  the  close  of  a  long  war  the 
rights  of  the  conqueror  and  the  conquered  are  equal  is  an  absurdity  and 
an  impossibility.  If  it  required  four  years  of  war,  five  hundred  thousand 
lives  and  the  expenditure  of  three  thousand  millions  of  money  to  conquer 
the  seceding  States  down  to  a  condition  of  equality  with  us,  they  must 
certainly  have  been  our  superiors  when  the  war  began.  It  must  be 
remembered  too,  that  we  conquered  not  only  the  armies  of  the  rebellion, 
but  the  entire  structure  of  government,  State  and  national,  which  rebellion 
organized  and  to  maintain  which  its  armies  fought.  And  when  the  Confed 
erate  flag  went  down  in  final  defeat  at  Appomattox  Court-House,  the 
Southern  Confederacy  and  every  State  government  organized  under  it,  went 
down  with  it.  The  results  of  these  victories  are  gathered  in  the  fourteenth 
constitutional  amendment.  We  intend  they  shall  remain  there. 

"It  is  not  strange  that  the  Democratic  party,  having  opposed  every 
measure  resorted  to  by  the  administration  for  the  prosecution  of  the  war, 
and  denounced  the  Republican  party  as  guilty  of  gross  usurpation  of 
power  in  the  means  which  it  employed  to  crush  out  rebellion,  should  look 
with  exceeding  disfavor  upon  the  debt  which  the  nation  was  compelled  to 
contract  in  order  to  furnish  for  its  defense  men  and  munitions  of  war. 
The  staple  charge  made  against  the  Republican  party  by  Democratic 
orators  is  that  it  has  left  a  legacy  of  $2,700,000,000,  of  debt  to  the  people.  It 
is  hardly  worth  while  in  discussing  the  question  as  to  where  the  responsi- 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  1 99 

bility  of  this  great  debt  properly  belongs.  If  the  Democratic  party  and 
the  South  are  responsible  for  the  war,  then  are  they  responsible  for  the 
debt,  and  that  they  are  so  responsible,  the  people  of  this  country  have 
repeatedly  decided  and  still  firmly  believe.  The  debt  was  created  in  order 
to  crush  rebellion,  and  now  that  the  active  leaders  and  fomentors  of  that 
rebellion  of  the  South  with  their  sympathizers  at  the  North,  should  charge 
upon  the  people  whose  government  they  undertook  to  destroy  the  responsi 
bility  of  the  debt  is  an  exhibition  of  impudence  to  which  history  furnishes 
no  parallel.  They  may  feel  thankful  that  they  are  not  compelled  alone 
to  bear  its  burdens.  But  assume  that  this  debt  is  to  be  charged  up  against 
the  Republican  party,  how  then  would  the  account  stand?  In  the  National 
ledger  we  might  find  the  party  charged  with  twenty-seven  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  loaned  to  it. by  the  people,  but  we  would  find  it  credited  if  the 
accounts  were  correctly  kept,  with  a  nation  saved.  In  whose  favor  the 
balance  would  be  could  be  quite  easily  determined  ;  for  to  this  nation,  the 
only  sanctuary  of  free  government  on  earth,  no  value  can  be  set.  Its  value 
is  incalculable. 

"We  propose  to  pay  our  national  debt  in  money.  Of  that  debt  £356, 
000,000  are  in  promises  of  the  government  long  since  past  due,  and  which 
as  yet  the  government  has  been  unable  to  pay.  This  debt  is  owing  to  the 
people,  for  a  loan  which  at  an  early  stage  of  the  war  the  government  forced 
the  people  to  make  to  it.  Every  holder  of  a  greenback  is  a  government 
creditor,  and  has  a  right  to  demand  payment  before,  the  holder  of  any 
bond  shall  be  paid,  because  the  greenback  is  due  and  the  bond  is  not.  It 
is  our  policy,  and  it  is  wise  policy,  to  pay  this  past  due  indebtedness  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment.  We  all  desire  a  resumption  of  specie  payments 
as  early  as  possible,  and  that,  it  would  seem,  is  the  duty  which  first 
presses  upon  us.  The  stability  of  business,  every  interest  indeed,  demands 
an  early  resumption  of  specie  payments,  or,  in  other  words,  the  payment 
of  the  ^356,000,000  of  its  indebtedness  represented  by  greenbacks.  So  far 
as  I  have  been  able  to  learn  from  reading  its  speeches,  the  Democratic 
party  also  professes  to  desire  that  specie  payments  may  be  soon  resumed. 
But  the  general  method  which  it  recommends  for  the  treatment  of  the 
national  debt  would  not  only  indefinitely  postpone  specie  payments,  but 
would  render  it  impossible.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  if  an  individual  was^ 
desirous  of  extricating  himself  from  his  indebtedness  he  would  first  direct 
his  attention  to  the  payment  of  that  which  was  first  due,  and  attend  to  the 
balance  of  his  indebtedness  in  the  order  of  its  maturity.  If  such  a  man 
were  owing  $5,000  of  indebtedness  past  due,  and  which  he  was  still  unable 
to  pay,  and  125,000  of  indebtedness  to  mature  at  some  future  period,  and 
bearing  interest,  he  would  not  be  considered  a  very  wise  financier  if  he 
were  to  insist  that  his  paper  should  all  be  made  due  at  once  in  order  to 
save  interest.  In  other  words,  a  man's  ability  to  pay  his  debts,  is  not 
advanced  by  doubling  the  amount  of  his  present  liabilities.  In  addition  to 
the  greenback  debt,  the  government  owes  $160,000,000  of  indebtedness, 
represented  by  what  are  known  as  the  5-20  bonds,  bearing  interest  at  six 
per  cent,  and  due  in  about  twenty  years.  This  debt  the  Democratic  party 


2OO  LIFE   OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

proposes  shall  be  paid  in  greenbacks  and  that  it  shall  be  immediately  paid. 
This  would  of  course  involve  the  necessity  of  the  issuance  of  that  amount 
of  greenbacks  in  addition  to  the  amount  already  in  circulation.  If  we  are 
yet  unable  to  resume  specie  payments,  it  is  not  very  dificult  to  see  that 
by  making  our  demand  debt  five  times  larger  than  it  now  is,  what  is  now 
difficult  would  become  impossible,  and  we  could  expect  nothing  but  an  eter 
nity  of  irredeemable  and  depreciated  paper  currency.  And  thus  the  immed 
iate  results  of  the  adoption  of  the  Democratic  policy  would  be  to  eternally 
dishonor  the  payment  of  the  indebtedness  owing  by  the  government  to  the 
people.  The  proposition  to  pay  the  5-20  bonds  in  greenbacks  amounts  to 
nothing,  unless  we  understand  when  payment  is  to  be  made  in  that  way. 
If  we  await  the  maturity  of  these  bonds,  and  greenbacks  have,  in  the  mean 
time,  so  appreciated  that  they  are  at  par  with  gold,  the  question  as  to 
whether  payment  shall  be  made  in  gold  or  greenbacks  has  not  the  slightest 
consequence,  and  any  human  being  accountable  to  his  Maker  for  the  proper 
use  of  his  time  could  find  no  justification  in  spending  any  portion  of  it  in 
the  discussion  of  such  a  question.  If  it  is  intended,  however,  that  the 
debts  shall  be  paid  in  greenbacks  now,  inflation  is  a  necessity,  for  the  green 
backs  can  be  had  in  no  other  way.  That  such  is  the  intention  of  the 
Democratic  party,  is  clearly  shown  by  the  reasons  which  they  urge  in  sup 
port  of  that  scheme.  They  allege  that  the  people  are  burdened  with  taxation, 
and  that  this  taxation  results  from  the  necessity  of  paying  the  interest  upon  the 
public  debt,  and  that  by  the  payment  of  the  principal  this  burden  will  be 
removed.  If  they  mean  what  they  say,  when  they  assert  that  their  pur 
pose  is  at  once  to  relieve  the  people  from  the  burdens  of  taxation,  then  they 
can  mean  nothing  else  than  that  they  intend  to  accomplish  that  end  by  an 
immediate  payment,  as  they  call  it,  of  the  National  debt  in  greenbacks.  Mr. 
Pendleton  generally,  has  the  credit  of  organizing  this  scheme,  and  he  clearly 
fixes  the  time  when  he  proposes  that  payment  shall  be  made.  In  his  speech 
at  Centralia  he  said,  'I  would  inflate  if  we  were  driven  to  it, 'just  as  much 
as  is  necessary  to  pay  these  5-20  bonds  in  greenbacks.  And  I  say  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  government,  in  one  way  or  another,  either  out  of  its  sav 
ings,  out  of  the  destruction  of  the  National  Bank  system,  or  out  of  inflation, 
to  pay  these  bonds  just  as  soon  as,  under  the  law,  the  government  can 
pay  them  to  save  the  interest.'  He  distinctly  says  that  he  would  pay 
these  bonds  'just  as  soon  as,  under  the  law,  the  government  can  pay 
them  to  save  the  interest.'  The  government  has  the  right  under  the 
'•law  to  pay  one-third  of  those  bonds  now,  and  accordingly  Mr.  Pendleton 
means  that  they  shall  be  paid  now.  It  is  only  by  inflation  to  the  amount 
of  these  bonds  that  they  can  now  be  paid,  and  hence  inflation  would  be 
a  necessity*  But  Mr.  Pendleton  suggests  two  or  three  methods,  one  of  which 
is  payment  out  of  the  government  savings.  But  the  Democratic  party 
proposes  to  raise  no  more  money  than  is  absolutely  necessary  to  pay  the 
ordinary  expenses  of  government,  and  under  that  theory  it  would  have  no 
savings.  These  savings  whatever  they  might  be,  can  be  produced  only  by 
taxes,  and  the  Democratic  party  proposes  very  materially  to  reduce  them. 


THE   CAMPAIGN   OF    1 868.  2OI 

It  charges  that  the  present  revenues  of  the  government  are  largely  in 
excess  of  its  needs,  and  proposes  to  reduce  them.  In  short  the  plan  of 
paying  the  national  debt  out  of  our  surplus  revenues  involves  the  neces 
sity  of  increasing  taxation.  It  is  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party  to 
diminish  it. 

"Another  scheme  suggested  by  Mr.  Pendleton,  is  the  payment  of  the 
national  debt  out  of  the  destruction  of  the  National  Bank  system.  When 
we  consider  the  taxes  imposed  upon  the  shares  of  those  banks  and  the  fed 
eral  taxes  which  they  pay,  but  about  $3,000,000  per  year  would  be  saved 
by  this  operation,  and  whether  that  would  compensate  for  the  panics 
created  by  sudden  contraction  and  calling  in  of  loans,  \vhich  the  destruction 
of  those  banks  would  involve,  is  a  question  about  which  there  may  well 
be  grave  doubts.  It  is  not,  however,  a  party  issue,  and  it  is  enough  to 
say  that  the  payment  of  $3,000,000  per  year  of  the  national  debt  would 
be  a  very  slow  way  of  extinguishing  it,  and  would  hardly  be  a  payment 
now,  which  Mr.  Pendleton  demands.  Thus  these  two  schemes  are  evidently 
impracticable,  and  so  Mr.  Pendleton  evidently  considers  them,  for  he  frankly 
says  that  he  would  inflate  if  we  were  driven  to  it,  just  as  much  as  is  nec 
essary  to  pay  those  5-20  bonds  in  greenbacks. 

"We  have  already  seen  that  his  plan  involves  the  practical  repudiation 
of  the  .greenbacks,  and  accordingly  the  practical  repudiation  of  the  bonds. 
For  the  proposition  simply  amounts  to  this — a  pretended  payment  by  the 
government  of  one  debt,  by  the  creation  of  another  debt,  which  by  the  very 
act  of  its  creation  is  made  worthless.  By  such  an  inflation,  the  government 
renders  its  own  promises  worthless,  compels  its  creditor  to  take  that  promise 
which  it  has  of  its  own  act  made  valueless,  and  calls  that  payment.  I  need 
not  dwell  upon  the  ingenuity  of  this  proceeding,  nor  the  effect  which  it  must 
have  upon  the  future  credit  of  the  country.  I  need  not  repeat  here  that 
when  those  bonds  were  issued,  the  government  through  its  agents,  repre 
sented  that  they  were  to  be  paid  in  coin,  and  that  when  the  law  authoriz 
ing  the  issuance  of  those  bonds  was  under  discussion,  every  one  who  had  any 
thing  to  say  upon  the  subject,  insisted  that  the  fact  that  they  were  to  be 
paid  in  coin  was  one  of  the  great  reasons  recommending  them  to  popular 
favor:  that  the  provision  requiring  the  payment  of  the  interest  in  coin  was 
placed  in  the  law  to  guard  against  any  possibility  of  misconstruction  which 
might  arise  from  the  fact  that  interest  would  mature  before  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments,  a  contingency  which  no  one  contemplated  with  refer 
ence  to  the  principal,  and,  therefore,  no  such  provision  was  deemed  neces 
sary  as  to  it. 

"  Nor  need  I  enlarge  upon  the  calamities  which  would  inevitably  follow 
such  a  vast  inflation.  The  whole  body  of  our  currency  would  be  rendered 
comparatively  worthless,  gold  would  be  drawn  from  the  country  by  such  a 
vast  body  of  irredeemable  currency,  and  values  not  only  unsettled  but  sub 
stantially  destroyed. 

"This  would  work  not  merely  a  burden  upon  the  interests  of  labor,  but 
would  be  the  destruction  of  those  interests— the  paralyzation  of  trade,  the 
overthrow  of  commerce,  industry  palsied,  enterprise  deadened,— these  would 


2O2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

be  among  the  first  fruits  of  the  inflation  policy,  and  which  would  grow 
worse  as  the  years  rolled  on. 

"Added  to  this  would  be  the  utter  loss  of  national  honor,  the  complete 
destruction  of  national  credit.  Thus  situated  without  the  ability  to  borrow  a 
dollar  in  money,  for  any  purpose,  either  to  enable  us  to  punish  our 
enemies  or  defend  ourselves  against  foreign  or  domestic  foes,  the  Demo 
cratic  programme  of  overthrowing  the  state  governments  organized  under 
the  reconstruction  measures  of  Congress,  which  they  denounce  as  revolu 
tionary,  unconstitutional  and  void,  could  be  easily  and  would  be  readily 
carried  into  -execution. 

"The  scheme  of  taking  government  bonds  is  equally  wicked,  equally 
impracticable,  and  a  part  of  the  same-  general  scheme  of  running  the 
national  credit. 

"That  the  State  cannot  tax  those  bonds  every  one  knows.  That  Congress 
cannot  confer  the  power  upon  the  States  to  tax  them  is  authoritively  settled. 
All  this  Mr.  Pendleton  has  been  forced  to  admit,  and  yet  he  thinks  that  in 
some  way  or  other,  which  he  does  not  attempt  to  point  out,  some  man  with 
a  '  clear  head  and  an  honest  purpose'  may  be  able  to  devise  some  scheme 
by  which  the  law  with  reference  to  the  taxation  of  the  national  securities 
may  be  evaded. 

"To  retain  from  the  foreign  bond-holder  a  portion  of  his  interest  is  not 
taxation.  That  is  repudiation.  The  Republican  party  proposes  such  a  pol 
icy  as  will  result  in  improving  the  national  credit,  thereby  enabling  it  to 
borrow  money  at  lower  rates  than  it  is  obliged  to  pay.  This  done,  the  road 
out  of  our  difficulties  is  easy  and  honorable.  Our  ability  to  pay  our  national 
debt  is  settled.  'Our  willingness  now  alone  remains  to  be  decided.  That 
question  decided,  as  it  will  be  by  the  election  of  Grant  and  Colfax,  in  the 
affirmative,  our  credit  is  safe,  and  the  adjustment  of  our  national  debt 
easy. 

"  In  the  presence  of  such  an  attack  upon  the  national  life  and  honor, 
preserved  at  so  vast  a  cost,  who  is  there  that  does  not  say,  in  the  language 
of  our  great  captain,  'Let  us  have  peace', — the  peace  that  comes  from  good 
government,  the  peace  that  comes  from  equality  of  political  privileges,  the 
peace  that  follows  a  vindication  of  national  honor,  and  the  assertion  of  the 
national  credit  ;  the  peace  which  will  come  when  rebellion,  in  all  its  shapes, 
is  conquered  and  all  its  heresies  extirpated  ;  the  peace  which  a  careful 
preservation  of  the  fruits  of  our  great  victories  will  insure  ;  the  peace  which 
will  come  when  we  are  secured  against  future  attacks  upon  the  national 
life.  A  peace  thus  secured  is  full  of  glory  for  the  future.  Such  a  peace  is 
solid  and  enduring,  and  its  green  and  sunny  slopes  stretch  out  in  infinite 
distances  before  us.  For  such  a  peace,  all  generations  of  time  will  thank 
us.  The  widowed  wife  of  the  soldier  will  thank  us  for  it  :  the  bereaved 
mother  whose  boy  died  that  he  might  have  such  a  peace,  will  thank  us 
for  it,  and  ringing  through  the  very  arches  of  Heaven,  will  come  the  thanks 
of  the  spirits  of  the  slain  heroes  of  the  Republic,  that  we  have  secured  the 
peace  for  which  they  died." 


THE   CAMPAIGN   OF    1 868  2O3 

In  October  Governor  Seymour  visited  Chicago,  and  addressed 
a  meeting  in  the  old  Court-House  square,  which  was  in  a  few 
days  afterwards  reviewed  by  Mr.  Storrs  at  Library  Hall  as 
follows : 

"About  six  years  ago,  I  was  riding  through  Greenwood  cemetery,  and  1 
observed  a  venerable  looking  person  apparently  examining  a  monument 
not  yet  entirely  constructed.  Being  somewhat  curious  in  the  matter,  I 
asked  a  person  in  charge  of  the  grounds  who  that  old  man  was  that  was 
bossing  the  tombstone.  He  told  me  that  it  was  the  owner  of  the  tomb 
stone,  and  that  he  was  fixing  it  up  for  his  own  accommodation.  It 
appeared  to  me  to  be  a  melancholy  kind  of  amusement ;  but  I  was  satisfied 
last  Saturday  night  that  that  venerable  old  gentleman  was  not  the  only 
man  engaged  in  the  same  kind  of  business.  [Laughter.]  For  I  saw, 
standing  on  the  steps  of  the  north  door  of  the  Court-House,  surrounded  by 
his  friends,  some  of  whom  he  had  brought  with  him  from  the  city  of  New 
York,  a  gentleman  observing  the  preparations  for  his  own  funeral,  and 
with  a  melancholy  kind  of  jocularity  engaging  in  them.  Horatio  Seymour 
has  been  here.  Horatio  Seymour  has  gone.  'Why  should  we  mourn, 
departed  friends  ?'  [Laughter.] 

"There  are  a  few  peculiarities  about  his  speech,  general  in  their  charac 
ter,  to  one  or  two  of  which  I  desire  to  call  your  attention.  In  the  first 
place,  he  objects  to  the  manner  in  which  the  Republican  party  has,  up  to 
this  time,  conducted  the  canvass.  I  am  not  surprised  that  it  is  not  satis-1 
factory  to  him.  Early  in  the  canvass,  the  Democratic  State  Central 
Committee  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  Democratic  State  Central  Committee 
of  New  York,  and  the  Democratic  National  Executive  Committee,  and  the 
great  statesman  himself,  declared  that  in  this  fight  they  were  going  to  assume 
the  aggressive.  In  all  little  arrangements  of  that  kind,  however,  where 
there  are  two  parties  to  a  fight,  it  becomes  important  sometimes  to  consult 
the  other  party.  It  was  a  thing  which  they  neglected  to  do,  and  not 
having  consulted  the  Republican  party,  the  slate  was  broken  early  in  the 
campaign  ;  and  just  now,  instead  of  standing  upon  the  aggressive,  we  find 
Horatio  Seymour  and  his  friends  busily  engaged  in  crawling  out  from  the 
fragments  of  their  own  already  exploded  machinery. 

"  He  says,  too,  that  Grant  and  Colfax  are  in  full  retreat.  He  has 
brought  them  in  captives.  It  is  a  good  deal  such  a  capture  as  was  accom 
plished  by  the  hunter  on  the  plains  when  he  was  sent  out  at  night  to  shoot 
a  buffalo  for  his  friends.  He  hit  the  buffalo,  and  just  barely  hit  him,  and 
maddened  him.  The  old  beast  started  for  the  hunter,  who  was  on  horse 
back,  and  went  vigorously  for  him.  The  dust  flew  in  large  quantities,  and 
the  hunter  made  for  the  camp  immediately.  They  arrived  in  sight  of  it, 
and  he,  in  order  to  keep  up  his  reputation  for  courage,  took  off  his  hat  and 
valiantly  swung  it,  and,  hardly  able  to  keep  away  from  the  enraged  buffalo, 
shouted,  '  Here  we  come !  You  sent  me  after  a  buffalo,  and  I  will  bring  it 
to  you  alive  ! '  [Laughter.] 

"  There    is   another   peculiarity    about   this   speech.     I  recollect  that  when 


2O4  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  great  statesman  was  nominated,  he  declined  three  or  four  times  before 
they  could  possibly  get  him  to  stand  as  a  candidate  ;  and  now  that  the 
New  York  World  and  other  leading  Democratic  papers  think  that  he  had 
better  quit,  he  seems  as  resolutely  disposed  not  to  quit  as  he  was  resolutely 
disposed  not  to  run.  In  that  particular  he  is  a  good  deal  like  Sam  Casey's 
calf.  Sam  said  he  had  to  pull  his  ears  off  to  get  him  to  suck,  and  then  to 
pull  his  tail  off  to  get  him  to  quit.  [Laughter.] 

"There  is  another  peculiarity  about  this  speech  to  which  I  also  wish  to 
direct  your  attention.  He  has  not  said  a  word  about  his  own  platform,  and 
he  thereby  admits  that  it  is  indefensible.  He  has  not  said  a  word  against 
our  platform,  and  thereby  he  admits  that  it  is  unassailable.  He  stands  in 
the  position  -of  the  ox  just  half  jumped  over  the  fence,  utterly  worthless 
either  for  aggressive  or  defensive  purposes.  [Laughter.]  He  can  neither 
hook  in  front  nor  kick  behind. 

"There  is  another  lutle  peculiarity  about  this  speech.  He  desires  to  be 
elected  President  of  the  United  States  because  he  is  in  favor  of  widening 
the  Erie  canal.  He  says  he  is,  and  that  is  one  of  the  reasons  which  he 
adduced  to  that  vast  assemblage  of  people  why  he  ought  to  be  elected 
President  of  the  United  States.  There  is  another  reason  which  he  is  kind 
enough  to  furnish.  Without  saying  a  single  syllable  in  defence  of  his  own 
platform,  or  a  single  word  in  opposition  to  ours,  he  says  that  he  ought  to 
be  elected  President  of  the  United  States,  because  as  President  he  would  be 
absolutely  helpless  and  couldn't  do  anything,  and  could  not  carry  out  the 
principles  of  his  own,  or  of  anybody's  party.  [Applause  and  laughter.]  Another 
reason  why  he  ought  to  be  President  of  the  United  States  is  that  there  has 
been  a  tax  on  cotton  repealed.  Another  reason  is  that  he  desires  to  see 
cheap  transportation  from  the  West  to  the  East.  Another  reason  is  that 
they  have  not  got  as  much  paper  currency  in  Illinois  as  they  have  got  in 
Massachusetts.  No\v,  that  last  thing  is  the  only  proposition  that  I  have 
discovered  in  his  speech  about  which  there  could  be  any  argument  or  any 
action  taken,  and  the  only  action  that  could  be  taken,  so  far  as  I  can  see, 
would  be  this, — that  Horatio  Seymour,  if  he  had  the  power  in  his  hands, 
would  have  Congress  declare  that  the  citizens  of  Illinois  have  just  as  much 
money  as  the  citizens  of  Massachusetts,  however  the  fact  might  be. 
[Laughter.]  I  think  a  solemn  series  of  resolutions  upon  that  subject  would 
not  very  seriously  alter  the  exact  condition  of  affairs. 

"  When  we  come  to  look  at  the  speech  seriously,  it  does  seem  to  me  the 
most  remarkable  one  ever  uttered  by  any  man  on  the  eve  of  a  Presidential 
contest,  and  one  in  which  he  is  a  candidate  for  the  highest  office  in  the  gift 
of  the  people.  Not  one  single  issue  presented  to  the  people,  on  which  they 
are  called  upon  to  act  in  the  pending  election,  did  Horatio  Seymour  see 
fit  to  discuss.  Not  one  single  proposition  did  he  argue  on  that  night, 
upon  which  legislative  action  could  be  taken.  He  found  fault  with 
Mr.  Colfax  because  he  had  discussed  the  past  history  of  the  Republican 
party,  and  then,  himself,  immediately  proceeded  to  say  that  all  the  troubles 
under  which  the  country  was  at  present  laboring  resulted  from  the  fact 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  2O5 

that  we  had  not,  immediately  at  the  close  of  the  war,  treated  our 
Southern  brethren  with  sufficient  magnanimity.  He  possesses  that  balmy 
and  juicy  kind  of  magnanimity  which  would  first  kick  a  robber  out  of 
your  house,  and  then,  in  a  second  afterwards,  elevate  him  to  the  head 
of  your  table,  in  order  that  there  might  be  thirty-six  stars  on  the  flag 
and  a  magic  circle  in  every  family,  and  a  certified  copy  of  the  Consti 
tution  at  every  railroad  crossing. 

"My  fellow  citizens,  it  is  too  late  to  discuss  the  issues  of  this  campaign 
now.  The  people  of  the  United  States  have  settled  those  issues.  The  peo 
ple  of  this  country  have  decided  that  the  great  party  which  eight  years  ago 
rescued  the  Territories  from  the  grasp  of  slavery,  and  dedicated  them  to 
freedom, — that  great  party  which  carried  the  nation  safely  through  the  per 
ils  and  triumphs  of  a  four  years'  war, — that  great  party  which  elevated  four 
millions  of  chattelhood  into  the  clear,  pure  air  of  -American  citizenship, — 
that  great  party  which  proposes  to  save  the  honor  and  integrity  of  the  nation, 
as  it  has  saved  its  existence, — shall  succeed  in  this  election  as  it  has  suc 
ceeded  in  the  past,  and  that  its  success  shall  bring  peace,  final,  conclusive, 
and  permanent,  to  the  country.  It  is  that  cause  in  which  we  are  engaged, 
and  we  have  nothing  to  do  now,  in  view  of  the  magnificent  result  of  the 
October  elections,  but  for  our  great  Captain, — the  great  Captain  of  the  age, 
— to  order  the  whole  line  to  advance.  They  are  advancing.  They  are 
keeping  step  to  the  music  of  the  Union,  and  the  glory  of  their  triumphs  is 
already  reddening  the  whole  sky,  and  lighting  up  the  whole  heavens  with 
the  intensity  of  its  brilliancy  and  its  glory.  There  is  no  doubt  about  our 
success  at  this  election,  and  in  any  future  elections,  so  long  as  the  great 
party  to  which  we  belong  is  true  to  the  great  principles  which  it  has  advo 
cated  in  the  past,  and  which  it  advocates  to-day.  [Applause.]" 

The  review  of  Mr.  Seymour's  record,  which  so  pleased  the 
staunch  Republicans  of  Maine,  was  repeated  by  Mr.  Storrs  in 
Chicago  in  a  speech  of  which  the*  Tribune  gives  the  following 
report : 

"Horatio  Seymour  is  the  nominee,  by  the  Democratic  party,  for  the  office 
of  President  of  the  United  States.  He  is  a  fit  candidate  for  such  a  plat 
form.  We  all  know  him.  We  knew  him  during  the  war  as  the  most  bit 
ter,  the  most  dangerous  enemy  the  people  had. 

"Immediately  upon  the  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  before  his  inaugura 
tion,  several  Southern  States  already  having  seceded,  forts  having  been 
plundered  and  national  property  stolen,  Horatio  Seymour,  speaking  for  the 
Democratic  party,  in  the  City  of  Albany,  denied  the  right  of  the  government 
to  coerce  those  States  in  the  obedience  to  the  laws,  and  declared  the  coer 
cion  was  no  less  revolutionary  than  secession.  Had  this  theory  been  adopted, 
secession  would  have  been  an  accomplished  success,  and  the  dissolution  of 
the  Union,  upon  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  an  accomplished  fact. 
The  people  thought  differently,  and  rallying  with  an  enthusiasm  and  unan 
imity  unparalleled  to  the  support  of  the  national  authority,  and  the  national 
integrity,  responded  at  once  to  the  call  made  upon  them  by  Mr.  Lincoln 


2O6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

for  75,000  troops.  This  call  received  from  Horatio  Seymour  no  support, 
and,  in  the  midst  of  the  great  excitement  of  that  time,  he  abandoned  his 
own  State,  fled  from  the  quiet  retiracy  of  his  native  city,  in  order  to 
escape  the  falling  fragments  of  his  own  exploded  machinery,  [applause 
and  laughter]  and  for  the  first  months  of  the  great  rebellion  hid  him 
self  among  the  forests  and  trout  brooks  of  the  State  of  Wisconsin,  where 
the  din  of  the  approaching  conflict  might  not  disturb  his  quiet  or  ruffle 
his  composure.  From  the  quiet  loop-holes  of  his  safe  retreat,  he  coldly 
watched  the  early  efforts  of  a  great  people  to  save  themselves.  No  word 
of  encouragement  came  from  him.  But  he  watched  and  "waited  and 
balanced  and  teetered  until  he  discovered,  in  the  defeat  of  our  army  at 
Bull  Run,  a  Democratic  victory;  suddenly  thereafter,  by  some  subterran 
ean  route,  lie  hied  himself  home,  and  addressing  the  Democracy  at 
Albany,  declared  that  if  the  war  w^as  waged  for  the  purpose  of  crush 
ing  the  institution  of  slavery,  the  South  had  a  right  to  secede. 

"  During  the  time  which  intervened  between  the  disaster  at  Bull  Run  and 
his  election  as  Governor  of  the  State  of  New  York,  Horatio  Seymour  made 
no  sign.  Hundreds  and  thousands  of  the  loyal  citizens  of  that  State  being 
in  the  army,  a  Democratic  majority  was  thereby  secured,  and  Horatio 
Seymour  was  elected. 

"  His  first  public  address  was  the  one  delivered  by  him  at  the  Academy 
of  Music  on  the  4th  day  of  July,  1863.  You  recollect  and  I  recollect — we 
all  recollect — what  a  day  that  was  !  Lee  was  in  Pennsylvania.  Day  by 
day,  and  hour  by  hour,  he  had  been  driving  the  army  of  the  Union  before 
him.  That  day  was  the  gloomiest  of  our  history.  The  history  of  the  world 
has  never  recorded  such  a  day.  We  all  trembled  that  day,  fearing  that 
our  free  institutions  and  the  nation  itself  were  to  sink  beneath  the  blows  of 
rebel  adversary.  On  such  a  day,  when  the  hearts  of  good  men  all  over  the 
land  sank  within  them;  when  the  nation  seemed  to  be  upon  the  very  brink 
of  a  precipice  from  which  there  was  no  power  to  relieve  it,  this  man,  the 
executive  head  of  the  greatest  State  in  the  nation,  addressed  the  people  in 
words  carrying  no  comfort,  furnishing  no  sympathy,  holding  forth  no  hope. 
He  opened  a  dreary  speech  of  two  hours  in  length  by  tauntingly  inquiring, 
where  are  the  victories  you  promised  us  ? 

"Even  before  the  speech  was  ended,  across  prairie  and  over  mountain, 
over  river  and  plain,  came  the  answer.  The  lightning  flashed  it  even  as 
upon  the  battle-field  the  intelligence  had  been  carried  by  the  roar  and 
thunder  of  the  conflict :  Here  Horatio  Seymour,  are  the  victories  that  we 
promised  you ;  here  are  forty  thousand  prisoners  captured  at  Vicksburg ; 
here  is  Vicksburg  itself;  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  to  the  Gulf; 
and  the  Confederacy  rent  in  twain.  And,  from  the  red  field  of  Gettysburg 
came  the  answer:  Here  are  your  promised  victories — here  is  Lee's  army 
defeated  and  a  nation  saved.  But  still  no  word  of  encouragement  had  he 
for  the  great  loyal  people  who  were  looking  to  him  for  comfort  that  day. 
There  was  no  word  of  denunciation  for  a  rebellion  utterly  causeless  and 
infinitely  wicked.  He  said  to  them,  in  the  Jeremiah  style,  'Four  years  ago 
we  warned  you  against  sectional  differences,  but  our  warning  was  unheeded. 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  2O/ 

"Who  are  'we?'  Lee,  Vallandigham,  Rynders,  John  Morissey,  Henry 
Clay  Dean,  Brick  Pomeroy  and  Seymour— are  we.  Who  are  '  you  '  whom 
he  thus  addressed?  You  are  the  loyal  people  of  the  country.  'We  warned 
you  of  the  dangers  of  sectional  strife,  but  you  did  not  heed  our  warning. 
We  warned  you  not  to  underrate  the  power  of  the  adversary.'  And  yet 
every  effort  we  made  to  raise  men  or  money  to  overcome  the  adversary 
encountered  the  violent  opposition  of  the  Democratic  party,  Horatio  Sey 
mour  among  the  number.  '  Now,'  he  said,  '  we  come  to  you  with  another 
warning.  WTe  stand  to-day,  amid  new  made  graves,  in  a  land  filled  with 
mourning  upon  a  soil  saturated  with  the  blood  of  the  fiercest  conflict  of 
which  history  gives  an  account.' 

"Is  that  the  way  that  gallant  Dick  Oglesby  would  have  talked?  Is  that 
the  way  Yates  would  have  talked  ?  He  might  have  said  to  those  people  that 
we  stand  to-day  amid  new-made  graves,  but  they  were  the  graves  of  the 
slaughtered  heroes  of  the  Republic.  He  might  have  said  that  we  stood 
in  a  land  filled  with  mourning  ;  he  would  have  added  that  it  was  mourning 
for  those  who  had  died  in  defense  of  the  Republic.  True  we  stood 
upon  a  soil  saturated  with  blood ;  but  he  should  have  said  that  that 
blood  was  shed  in  the  conflict  waged  that  the  nation  might  live.  The 
enemy  was  thundering  at  our  very  gates.  He  might  have  said  to  those 
people,  in  the  language  of  old  Demosthenes,  '  Let  us  take  up  arms  against 
Philip — let  us  march  against  him.'  The  graves  of  which  he  spoke  were 
the  graves  of  our  own  sons,  whose  lives  had  been  freely  offered  in  the 
holiest  cause  which  ever  lifted  up  the  human  heart  or  nerved  the  human 
arm  to  action.  A  patriotic  governor  would  have  said,  '  by  the  God  that  reigns 
above  us ;  by  the  spirits  of  the  slain  calling  to  us  from  heaven  ;  by  all  we 
are  and  hope  to  be,  see  to  it  that  their  memories  shall  be  vindicated,  and 
that  the  hearts  of  the  mourners  shall  be  comforted.'  True  it  is  the  soil  is 
saturated  with  blood,  but  he  would  say  it  is  the  blood  of  the  best  born  of 
the  nation  shed  to  save  the  nation.  See  to  it  that  the  blood  thus  shed, 
shall  be  like  the  fabled  dragon  teeth  which  being  sown  up  and  down  the 
earth,  sprung  up  armed  men  ;  that  it  shall  blossom  into  a  glorious  fruitage, 
the  penetrating  perfume  of  which  shall  float  all  around  the  globe  and 
intoxicate  every  other  nation  with  the  hope  of  liberty.  No  such  word  came 
from  Horatio  Seymour  that  day,  but  thus  would  a  patriot  governor  have 
spoken. 

"  Finally  this  great  executive  officer  proposed  a  remedy  for  all  the 
evils  which  afflicted  the  people  and  which  he  had  elaborately  portrayed. 
At  the  close  of  that  speech,  while  Lee  was  yet  in  Pennsylvania,  and  as 
he  supposed,  thundering  at  the  very  gates  of  the  Capital,  threatening, 
at  one  and  the  same  time,  Harrisburg,  Philadelphia,  New  York  and 
Washington,  this  great  Democratic  statesman  recommends  a  method  by 
which  he  may  be  driven  away,  his  army  vanquished,  by  which  Bragg 
and  Pemberton  may  be  driven  out  of  Vicksburg  ;  by  which  the  nation 
in  that  awful  emergency  might  be  saved.  '  If  you  would,'  he  said. 
'  save  your  country  and  your  liberties,  begin  right.'  \Ve  would  suppose 
that  a  good  place  to  begin,  the  problem  being  the  expulsion  of  Lee's 


2O8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

army  from  Pennsylvania,  would  be  in  the  field,  for,  at  the  time,  it  was 
from  Lee's  army  that  our  country  and  its  liberties  were  to  be  saved. 
Does  he  recommend  us  to  begin  at  the  recruiting  station?  No.  On  the 
field?  No.  Yet  those  were  the  places  where,  to  ordinary  minds,  it 
would  seem  eminently  proper  to  begin.  Yet  this  governor  recommends 
no  such  place.  He  says  '  begin  at  the  hearthstones  ;  begin,'  he  says,  '  in 
your  family  circle.'  This  was  a  purely  domestic  recipe.  It  had  no  taint 
or  smell  of  war  about  it.  It  was  purely  culinary.  I  suppose,  acting 
under  such  advice,  every  Democratic  bachelor  at  once  procured  a  portable 
hearthstone  in  order  that  he  might  have  a  place  to  begin  at  when  he  desired 
to  save  the  Union.  I  think  I  see  the  patriotic  Democrats,  who  were  listen 
ing  to  their  model  governor,  charmed  with  the  easy  method  which  he 
recommended  for  the  salvation  of  the  country  and  its  liberties,  hieing  them 
selves  to  their  respective  homes,  in  order  to  put  into  immediate  operation 
the  prescription  which  the  big  medicine  man  of  their  party  had  just  fur 
nished  them.  They  reached  home,  and  they  say  ;  '  my  dear  wife  ;  my  much 
loved  of  daughters ;  my  highly  respected  mother-in-law,  I  am  about  to 
save  the  country  and  its  liberties.  I  desire,  because  the  governor  has 
instructed  us  so,  to  begin  in  my  family.  Please  make  a  ring.'  And  stand 
ing  himself  loftily,  and  with  the  intense  consciousness  of  an  exalted  patriot 
ism,  within  that  Democratic  circle,  in  the  sweet  privacy  and  sacred  retiracy 
of  his  domestic  life,  he  says  'we  will  now  proceed  to  save  the  Union,  to 
drive  Lee  from  Pennsylvania,  to  secure  the  capture  of  Vicksburg,  and  the 
downfall  of  the  Southern  Confederacy  after  the  most  approved  Constitutional 
Seymour  fashion.  'Therefore,'  he  says,  'my  dear  wife,  my  much  loved 
daughter,  my  highly  respected  mother-in-law,  to  follow  this  prescription  liter 
ally,  we  must  in  the  language  of  our  governor,  declare  that  our  privileges 
shall  be  sacred,  and  having  once  proclaimed  our  own  rights,  take  care  that 
we  do  not  invade  those  of  our  neighbors.  Therefore,  be  it  resolved,  I.  That 
nobody  ought  to  impose  upon  us.  2nd.  That  we  will  impose  upon  nobody 
else.  The  scheme  then  is  completed.  Under  the  violence  of  this  powerful 
incantation  coming  from  the  great  head  magician  of  the  party,  no  sooner 
does  Lee's  army  hear  of  the  attack,  which  is  thus  made  upon  them  at  the 
hearthstones  and  in  Democratic  family  circles,  than,  palsied  with  fear 
and  frantic  with  fright,  they  drop  their  muskets  and  flee  at  once. 
Under  the  weird  and  mysterious  and  magical  operation  of  Horatio  Sey- 
mours's  remedy,  Pennsylvania  is  safe,  Vicksburg  is  surrendered  ;  the  Con 
federacy  falls  to  pieces  ;  the  flag  of  the  Union  streams  from  every  Southern 
fort  and  citadel,  the  rebellion  is  crushed.  Glory  to  science.  The  nation  is 
triumphant,  and  Horatio  Seymour  is  its  savior.  It  is  impossible  to  treat 
such  a  proposition  as  Horatio  Seymour  that  day  made,  with  seriousness.  In 
the  presence  of  such  a  calamity  as  he  supposed  then  threatened  the 
national  life,  concluding  a  long  and  malignant  speech  with  a  mere  recom 
mendation  for  household  and  family  circle  exertions,  was  as  absurd  as  it 
was  wicked ;  was  as  wicked  as  it  was  utterly  unstatesmanlike  ;  was  as 
unstatesmanlike  as  it  was  cold,  bloodless  and  unavailing. 

"But  let  us  follow  him  still  further.     After  recommending  this  method  of 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868. 

saving  our  country,  our  armies  having  been  depleted  at  Vicksburg  and  at 
Gettysburg,  and  the  rebellion  having  been  put  fairly  upon  ^ts  downfall 
career,  it  became  necessary,  to  secure  the  full  benefits  of  these  great 
triumphs,  to  fill  our  depleted  armies,  and  this  could  only  be  accomplished 
by  drafting  men  in  to  the  service  of  the  government.  For  that-  purpose 
Congress  passed  what  is  called  the  Conscription  law,  which  at  once  Horatio 
Seymour  and  his  Democratic  sympathizers  denounced  as  revolutionary, 
unconstitutional  and  void.  Many  of  those  to  whom  this  language  was 
employed  believed  it.  They  thought  that  if  the  law  were  void  they 
could  not  be  compelled  to  obey  it ;  that  it  was  wrong  to  enforce  it. 
Accordingly  in  the  City  of  New  York,  they  resisted  the  enforcement  of 
this  law,  destroying  the  offices  where  the  drafts  were  to  take  place,  and 
presently  extended  their  acts  of  violence  and  bloodshed  all  over  the  city, 
directing  them  particularly  against  those  who  were  supposed  to  sympathize 
with  the  war  and  against  the  negro,  who,  they  thought,  was  in  some  way 
or  other,  accountable  for  it.  And  so  they  burned  orphan  asylums,  and 
murdered  innocent  men,  women  and  children. 

"Finally  the  governor  was  called  upon  to  quiet  this  mob,  which  his  own 
denunciations  of  the  unconstitutionality  of  the  law  had  called  into  being. 
He  was  fished  up  from  the  sands  of  New  Jersey,  brought  to  New  York, 
carried  tenderly  to  the  City  Hall,  gently  placed  upon  the  steps,  and  there 
he  addressed  the  men  engaged  in  this  bloody  riot,  to  whose  garments  still 
clung  the  smoke  of  burning  asylums,  and  whose  hands  were  yet  red  with 
the  blood  of  their  murdered  victims,  as  his  friends !  I  care  not  so  much, 
nor  do  I  deem  it  so  important,  that  he  addressed  these  ruffians  as  his 
friends.  That  was  bad  enough,  but  what  followed  was  infinitely  worse. 
He  was  the  executive  head  of  that  great  State.  It  was  his  duty  to  see  that 
the  laws  were  enforced,  that  offenders  against  the  law  were  brought  to 
punishment,  and  that  further  offenses  against  the  law  should  cease.  He 
knew  that  crowd  whom  he  was  addressing  had  been  guilty  of  every  crime 
denounced  by  any  law,  human  or  divine.  Observe  that  he  does  not 
denounce  them  for  the  crimes  which  they  had  already  committed ;  he  finds 
no  fault  with  them  for  their  violation  of  the  law,  nor  does  he  ask  them  to 
cease  violating  it  in  the  future;  he  didn't  tell  them  that  they  must  stop 
violating  the  law ;  but  he  tells  them  that  the  law  shall  stop.  '  I  have,'  he 
says,  'sent  my  Adjutant  General  to  Washington,  to  confer  with  the  authori 
ties  there,  and  to  have  this  draft  suspended  and  dropped.'  This  man  who 
thus  faltered,  and  parleyed  with,  and  cringed  to,  a  gang  of  incendiaries  and 
plunderers,  proposes  to  assume  the  executive  power  of  the  nation  and  see 
that  its  laws  are  faithfully  executed. 

"This  speech  produced  its  legitimate  effect.  He  asked  the  mob  to  await 
the  return  of  his  Adjutant  General,  assured  that  they  need  entertain  no 
more  fears  xvith  reference  to  the  draft.  The  crowd  left  the  august  presence 
of  the  Governor.  It  was  too  much  to  ask  that  these  constitutional,  law- 
abiding,  order-loving,  God-fearing  friends  of  Horatio  Seymour  should 
remain  unemployed  while  they  were  waiting  for  the  return  of  the  afore 
said  adjutant,  for  we  know  that  '  Satan  finds  some  mischief  still  for  idle 


2IO  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

hands  to  do.'  Accordingly,  in  order  to  occupy  themselves  busily,  they 
surrounded  a  negro,  and  him  they  captured,  him  they  courageously  hung  to 
a  lamp-post  and  him  they  burned  to  death.  Brave  friends  of  Horatio 
Seymour!  Patriotic  followers  of  the  truth  as  it  was  in  their  Governor!  Fif 
teen  or  twenty  thousand  of  them  violently  overcame  one  unarmed  negro, 
hung  him  and  burned  him  to  death  !  The  negro  finally  burned  up,  these 
constitution-loving  citizens,  who  were  all  opposed  to  war  and  in  favor -of 
peace,  who  had  been  for  two  years  largely  engaged  in  the  olive-branch 
business,  many  of  whom  made  night  hideous  by  their  shouts  at  the  Demo 
cratic  Convention  in  1864,  in  this  city,  surrounded  some  negro  women  and 
children,  and  bravely  captured  and  killed  them.  This  done,  they  burned 
other  asylums  and  hospitals.  That  ended,  they  finally  chased  a  Union  sol 
dier,  Colonel  O'  Brien — who  would  have  been  a  member  of  the  Irish  Repub 
lican  Club  if  he  were  living  to-day — they  chased  him,  fifteen  or  twenty  thous 
and  of  them,  finally  overtook  him  in  front  of  his  own  house,  and  there  beat 
him  to  death  under  circumstances  of  shocking  barbarity.  Oh,  how  we  all 
wished  in  those  days  that  Logan,  at  the  head  of  four  regiments  of  Illinois 
troops,  might  have  had  the  handling  of  that  mob.  They  would  have  made 
the  fur  fly  from  Horatio  Seymour's  friends  and  largely  have  reduced  the 
Democratic  vote.  The  Adjutant  General  did  not  come.  Veteran  regiments 
from  the  army  of  the  Potomac  did  come.  They  finally  succeeded  in  crush 
ing  Horatio  Seymour's  rebellion  in  the  City  of  New  York,  and  returning 
again  to  the  army  of-  the  Potomac,  under  the  leadership  of  Grant,  finally 
succeeded,  about  two  years  afterwards,  in  crushing  its  twin  rebellion — the 
Rebellion  of  Jeff  Davis. 

"About  two  weeks  after  this  achievement  of  Horatio  Seymour's  friends, 
he  addressed  an  impudent  letter  to  Mr.  Lincoln,  demanding  that  the  draft 
should  be  suspended  until  the  constitutionality  of  the  law  should  be  tested 
by  the  courts.  There  was  this  peculiarity  about  Abraham  Lincoln's  corres 
pondence,  that  during  all  the  war,  whenever  some  gentleman  like  Seymour, 
by  letter,  demanded  something  with  reference  to  the  policy  of  the  adminis 
tration,  and  Abraham  Lincoln  answered  it,  that  his  answer  closed  the 
correspondence.  To  this  brutal  riot  Horatio  Seymour,  in  that  letter  appealed, 
using  it  as  a  threat  to  intimidate  the  President  into  concession  to  his 
demand.  He  said  to  him  at  the  close  of  the  letter,  'You  can  scan  the 
immediate  future  as  well  as  I.  The  temper  of  the  people  to-day  you  can 
readily  learn.'  The  temper  to  which  he  referred  was  that  which,  his  'friends' 
had  just  been  exhibiting,  and  •  to  quiet  which  regiments  of  veterans  were 
necessarily  withdrawn  from  the  front  and  sent  to  the  city  of  New  York. 
Just  how  practical  a  proposition  this  was  of  Horatio  Seymour's  is  pretty 
clearly  seen  when  we  consider  how  long  a  time  would  have  been  consumed 
in  trying  his  law  suit.  A  suit  to  test  the  question  would  probably  have  been 
commenced  before  Judge  McCunn,  a  good  Democrat  ;  who  had  already 
decided  the  law  to  be  unconstitutional.  From  him  sometime  in  September, 
1864,  the  case  would  have  been  transferred  to  the  United  States  Court.  An 
argument  would  be  had  there  before  Judge  Betts,  sometime  in  December, 
1863.  A  reargument  before  Judge  Nelson,  as  the  Circuit  Judge,  sometime 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 868.  211 

during  the  following  year.  An  appeal  from  the  opinion  of  Judge  Nelson, 
whatever  that  decision  might  have  been,  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  at  Washington  sitting  in  December,  1864.  and  if  everything 
moved  fortunately,  and  the  case  was  reached  upon  the  docket,  a  decision 
sometime  in  the  Spring  of  1865,  at  which  time  no  accessions  having  been 
made  to  our  army,  it  having  been  suffered  to  dwindle  away,  the  rebels  not 
feeling  inclined  to  wait  until  our  law  suit  should  be  decided,  "Wade  Hamp 
ton,  Fort  Pillow  Forest,  General  Lee,  and  other  good  Southern  Democrats 
would  have  been  in  Washington  anticipating  the  decision.  As  I  have 
said,  Mr.  Lincoln  answered  this  letter  that  the  demand  was  utterly  impract 
icable,  and  that  a  compliance  with  it  would  be  utterly  destructive  of  the 
national  cause,  as  he  knew  and  everybody  knew.  Mr.  Lincoln  with  that 
great  good  sense  and  exalted  patriotism  which  characterized  every  step  of 
his  official  career,  thus  answered  Horatio  Seymour : 

"  '  I  do  not  object  to  abide  a  decision  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
or  of  the  Judges  thereof,  on  the  constitutionality  of  the  draft  law.  In  fact, 
I  should  be  willing  to  facilitate  the  obtaining  of  it.  But  I  cannot  consent 
to  lose  the  time  while  it  is  being  obtained.  We  are  contending  with  an 
enemy  who,  as  I  understand,  drives  every  able-bodied  man  he  can  reach 
into  his  ranks  very  much  as  a  butcher  drives  bullocks  into  a  slaughter  pen. 
No  time  is  wasted,  no  argument  is  used.  This  produces  an  army  which 
will  soon  turn  upon  our  own  victorious  soldiers  already  in  the  field,  if  they 
shall  not  be  sustained  by  recruits  as  they  should  be.  It  produces  an  army 
with  a  rapidity  not  to  be  matched  on  our  side,  if  we  first  wait  time  to 
re-experiment  with  the  volunteer  system  already  deemed  by  Congress,  and 
palpably  in  fact,  so  far  exhausted  as  to  be  inadequate,  and  then  more  time 
to  obtain  a  court  decision  as  to  whether  a  law  is  constitutional  which 
requires  a  part  of  those  not  now  engaged  in  the  service,  to  go  to  the  aid 
of  those  already  kin  it ;  and  still  more  time  to  determine  with  certainty  that 
we  get  those  who  are  to  go  in  the  precisely  legal  proportion  to  those  who 
are  not  to  go.  My  purpose  is  to  be  in  my  action  just  and  constitutional, 
and  yet  practical  in  performing  the  important  duty  with  which  I  am  charged, 
of  maintaining  the  unity  and  free  principles  of  our  common  country.'  So 
Father  Abraham  was  entirely  willing  that  Governor  Seymour  should  have  a 
law  suit  too,  if  he  wanted  it,  and  was  entirely  willing  to  facilitate  the  trial 
or  the  decision,  but  he  was  not  willing  that  the  draft  should  stop.  He 
preferred  that  the  law  suit  and  the  war  should  run  along  in  parallel  lines. 
And  as  it  turned  out,  the  war  ended  before  Horatio  Seymour's  law  suit- 
could  possibly  have  reached  a  determination. 

"  As  thoroughly  as  I  dislike  the  record  which  Horatio  Seymour  has  made, 
as  malignant  and  as  dangerous  as  I  deem  it  to  be,  as  great  as  I  conceive 
the  punishment  for  those  offences  ought  to  be,  yet  I  could  ask  that  no 
severer  punishment  be  visited  upon  him  than  that  the  spirit  of  those  two 
letters,  taking  visible  shape,  should  march  down  the  aisles  of  history  together. 
How,  as  we  stood  upon  some  elevated  table  land,  where  we  could  watch 
their  progress,  would,  as  the  distance  lengthened  out,  the  spirit  of  Horatio 
Seymour's  letter  warp,  and  dwindle,  and  halt,  and  wither,  while  that  of  our 


212  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

grand  old  patriotic  President,  growing  greater  and  greater  as  the  years 
receded,  swelling  into  loftier  and  grander  proportions  as  the  mist  of  preju 
dice  and  passion  cleared  away  from  it,  disclosing  in  its  outlines  the  perfect 
symmetry  of  patriotic,  high-hearted  faith  in  the  great  cause  for  which  he 
died,  would  challenge  the  admiration  of  all  the  ages,  reaching  at  last  the 
highest  summits  of  historic  renown.  We  would  all  find  that  as  we  gazed 
upon  it  we  stood  in  the  presence  of  a  great  character.  Before  it  we  would, 
with  uncovered  head  reverently  bow.  We  would  hail  and  salute  it.  Thus 
would  the  muse  of  history,  making  up  the  records  of  human. achievements, 
address  it :  '  Stand  up,  Abraham  Lincoln,  among  the  greatest  and  the  noblest 
and  the  best  of  this  world's  history.'  And,  looking  about,  discovering  the 
halting  spirit  of  Horatio  Seymour  had,  in  some  mysterious  way,  corkscrewed 
itself  into  that  glorious  company  where  it  did  not  belong,  it  would  address 
him,  saying :  '  Stand  down,  Horatio  Seymour,  among  the  falterers  and 
sneaks  and  cowards  and  doubters,  and  those  who  sought  to  obstruct  the 
march  of  a  great  nation,  as  it  was  resolutely  treading  the  road  which  led  to 
the  clear  atmospheres  of  freedom.' 

"  This  shall  be  our  verdict :  '  Following  in  the  pathway  where  Abraham 
Lincoln  has  gone  before,  we  are  resolved  that  the  standard  which  he  held 
shall  be  lowered  never  an  inch.  That  the  great  cause  for  which  he  gave  his 
life  shall  suffer  no  dishonor,  and  that  the  spirit  of  American  institutions 
shall  ere  long  sit  enthroned  upon  the  highest  summits  of  earthly  renown  and 
heroic  achievements,  robed  in  the  radiant  garments  of  a  universal  freedom, 
and  with  its  bright  star  glittering  full  and  broad  and  clear  upon  its  forehead.'  " 


CHAPTER  XII, 


AN  ESTABLISHED  REPUTATION. 

A  FAMOUS  INSURANCE  CASE — ITS  HISTORY — A  NEW  WAY  TO  LOOK  AT  COR 
PORATIONS  AND  INDIVIDUALS— A  MASTERLY  ARGUMENT— CAPTURING  THE 
COURT  BUT  NOT  THE  JURY — STANDING  AS  AN  INSURANCE  LAWYER. 

ABOUT  this  time,  Mr.  Storrs  achieved  newspaper  attention  all 
over  the  land  by  the  learned  ability*  with  which  he  con 
ducted  the  trial  of  an  issue  very  different  in  kind  from  any  in 
which  he  had  previously  been  interested.  It  was  a  case  which 
a  prominent  insurance  organ,  the  Chronicle,  predicted  wras 
"destined  to  become  famous  in  the  annals  of  insurance."  The 
material  facts  entitled  to  a  permanent  record  were  as  follows : 
Weide  Brothers  were  wholesale  grocers  in  St.  Paul,  Minnesota, 
on  and  previous  to  February  22,  1867.  The  morning  of  that 
day,  both  store  and  goods  went  up  in  smoke  and  the  lightnings 
lost  no  time  in  announcing  "  a  total  loss "  to  various  insurance 
companies.  The  insurance  carried  was  $54,000  on  the  stock,  and 
the  assured  set  up  a  loss  of  $70,600.  Immediately  after  the  loss, 
J.  J.  Berne,  then  of  the  Phoenix  and  S.  French,  of  the  City  Fire 
Insurance  Company,  began  an  investigation  as  to  the  magnitude 
and  good  faith  of  the  claim.  The  assured  offered  the  adjusters 
all  the  data  attainable ;  but,  as  was  said  at  the  time,  that  which 
was  offered  "  proved  quite  as  effective  in  disproving  the  whole 
claim,  as  in  making  it  satisfactory  or  plausible."  It  was  found 
from  memoranda,  on  fly-leaf  of  rescued  ledger,  that  the  stock  on 
hand,  in  February,  1865,  was  $47,000  and  over.  By  getting 
results  of  the  inventories,  bill  of  purchases  since,  of  sales,  etc., 
an  approximation  could  be  reached  as  to  the  goods  on  hand  at 
the  time  of  the  disaster ;  but  most  of  the  books  of  the  concern 

213 


214  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

were  missing,  and  the  ledger,  one  journal,  and  miscellaneous 
pieces  of  accounts,  were  sadly  inadequate  to  satisfy  the  investiga 
tor.  Very  often,  merchandise  debts  had  become  credits,  and 
profit  and  loss  were  so  commingled  as  to  be  undistinguishable. 
Adjuster  Berne  grew  dazed  as  he  proceeded.  Investigations  pro 
duced  other  facts.  The  trade  of  the  firm  was  claimed  to  be  about 
$150,000  per  annum,  and  they  set  forth  a  stock  in  store  in  Febru 
ary,  when  uniformly  low,  of  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  year's  sales. 
This  seemed  improbable,  and  the  adjusters  inquired  among  firms 
in  the  same  business  at  St.  Paul :  "  What  relation  does  your 
stock,  in  February  or  March,  bear  to  your  yearly  sales?"  The 
answer  came :  "  Usually  about  one-sixth  or  one-seventh  of  our 
sales."  One  firm,  whose  sales  were  four  times  as  large  as  the 
Weides',  reported  that  in  February,  1867,  it  had  only  about  the 
same  amount  of  goods  on  hand  as  were  claimed  to  have  been  lost. 
Others  in  the  same  trade,  familiar  with  Weides'  stock,  estimated 
it  as  below  $30,009  in  value  immediately  preceeding  the  fire. 
However,  there  was  another  and  most  damaging  discovery.  In 
February,  1865,  the  city  assessments  were  finally  corrected  and 
made  ready  for  collection.  The  Weides  complained  of  the  esti 
mate  put  upon  their  stock,  and,  by  exhibition  of  inventories,  mer 
chandise  account,  and  other  statements,  induced  the  tax  commis 
sioners  to  reduce  it  to  $25,000.  But  the  ledger  fly-leaf  had 
"  stock,"  same  date,  $47,000!  Here  was  a  discrepancy  of  $22,000, 
which  seemed  to  be  worth  correcting,  and  so  it  was  "  adjusted  " 
accordingly.  Other  errors  were  found,  until  the  $70,000  claim 
was  reduced  to  an  apparent  loss  of  $29,261.30  only.  The 
adjusters  then  offered  a  settlement  on  the  basis  obtained  ;  it  was 
accepted,  and  the  policies  of  the  two  named  companies  were 
paid  at  a  fraction  less  than  54  per  cent,  of  the  original  claim. 

Policies  yet  remained  unsettled  to  the  amount  of  $46,000. 
Representatives  of  the  Home  Company  of  New  York,  of  the 
Hartford,  and  others,  visiting  the  claimants  the  week  after  this 
settlement,  could  not  obtain  any  demand  from  the  Weide's  less 
than  that  based  on  a  loss  of  more  than  $70,000.  In  reply  to  an 
inquiry,  the  Weides  swore  that  the  Phoenix  and  City  Fire  Com 
panies  had  settled  on  that  basis,  and  they  were  unwilling  to  accept 
a  less  sum  from  the  other  companies  interested.  Accordingly, 
suits  occurred,  and,  on  trial,  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  ruled 


AN    ESTABLISHED    REPUTATION.  21$ 

out  all  testimony  as  to  stocks  of  other  merchants  in  same  place 
and  trade,  and,  in  effect,  the  admissions  of  assured  as  to  magni 
tude  of  loss  in  settlements  with  other  companies ;  and,  under 
instructions,  the  jury  found  a  verdict  for  the  plaintiffs  for  the 
whole  sum  claimed.  An  appeal  was  taken,  and  the  case  was  sent 
back  for  a  new  trial, — the  rejected  testimony  being  deemed  per 
tinent,  important  and  admissible.  The  second  trial  came  on 
before  the  excellent  Judge  Dillon  and  a  jury  on  the  24th  day  of 
June,  1868,  and  continued  three  days. 

Daniel  Webster  once  said,  "  the  greater  the  danger  of  losing 
a  cause,  the  greater  the  desire  for  a  noted  lawyer,"  and  to 
Brougham  is  attributed  the  mot,  "  Bad  cause,  then  a  good 
lawyer ;  vice  versa — reverse  vice."  Mr.  Storrs  had  a  wonderful 
number  of  re-trials  and  of  once-heard  causes,  inaugurated  by  other 
talent,  to  bring  to  a  conclusion.  He  conducted  the  insurance 
defense  in  the  second  trial.  During  it,  much  new  testimony  went 
to  the  jury,  and  the  city  of  St.  Paul  was  in  a  convulsion  until 
the  case  ended.  Indeed,  a  journal  of  the  time,  wrote : 

"  \Ve  have  high  authority  for  saying  that  the  case  was  tried  in  the  slums 
and  saloons  of  the  city,  and  particularly  in  a  certain  newspaper  office  there, 
quite  as  earnestly  as  in  the  court  room.  The  paper  in  question  came  out, 
during  the  trial,  with  a  flaming  editorial,  admitting  that  the  Weides  had 
settled  part  of  their  claim  at  54  cents  on  the  dollar;  but  averring  that  this 
settlement  was  brought  about  by  intimations  that  the  '  Phcenix'  and  '  City 
Fire'  were  in  a  failing  condition,  and  that  assured  thought  it  better  to 
accept  part,  than  to  incur  the  hazard  of  losing  all  by  delay. 

"The  animus  of  such  a  falsehood  was  manifest  enough,  and  the  attention 
of  the  court  being  called  thereto,  it  was  denounced  as  infamous,  and  the 
parties  were  warned  that  any  farther  attempts  in  that  direction  would  be 
promptly  met  and  rewarded.  The  modest  editor  lending  himself  to  this 
dirty  endeavor,  did  not  dare  even  to  notice  the  Judge's  scathing  rebuke  in  any 
succeeding  issues  of  his  paper." 

All  the  testimony  of  the  original  trial  was  repeated,  and 
depositions  of  the  Phoenix  and  City  Fire  agents  as  to  previous 
settlement,  were  admitted  ;  as  was,  also,  the  testimony  of  all  the 
leading  grocerymen  of  St.  Paul  as  to  stocks  usually  on  hand  in 
February — until,  the  "  mountain  of  fact "  became  so  monstrously 
threatening  that  the  plaintiffs,  in  desperation,  openly  threatened 
violence  on  those  who  had  been  called  to  tell  "  nothing  but  the 
truth  "  and  told  it.  In  addition,  and  what  was  noted  as  a  curious 
fact  in  the  light  of  the  verdict,  J.  Weide,  being  called  upon  to 


2l6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

rebut  some  of  the  unwelcome  testimony,  was  asked  to  reconcile 
the  discrepancy  between  the  $47,000  entry  on  the  "fly-leaf"  and 
the  $25,000  assessment  the  same  year,  when  he  very  naively 
admitted  that  one  of  the  statements  must  be  false,  and  that  "  the 
untruth  was  imposed  on  the  assessor,  for  the  purpose  of  avoiding 
a  petty,  but  proper  city  tax "  while  the  other  entry,  by  which 
he  hoped  to  win  $22,000,  was  "the  exact  truth!" 

The  evidence  was  searchingly  reviewed,  in  able  arguments  by 
counsel  for  both  sides.  The  discussion  by  Mr.  Storrs  was  clear 
as  crystal,  powerful,  and  it  would  have  been  unanswerable,  or 
rather  impossible  to  resist,  by  any  other  than  a  body  of  men 
prejudiced  beyond  reason  and  duty.  That  part  of  the  argument 
which  embodied  permanent  sound  sense  upon  the  questions  under 
laying  all  insurance  contracts  and  insurance  cases,  and  which, 
in  its  style  of  logic,  must  interest  all  classes  of  thinkers,  was  as 
follows : 

"We  have  repeatedly  been  reminded,  during  the  progress  of  this  trial,  that 
the  defendants  are  wealthy  and  powerful  corporations;  that  the  plaintiffs 
are  private  citizens  of  St.  Paul,  and  the  inference  seems  to  be  pressed  upon 
us,  that  for  these  reasons,  in  one  way  or  another,  not  very  clearly  explained, 
the  plaintiffs  are  entitled  to  something  more  than  the  law  and  the  evidence 
in  the  case  would  give  them. 

"  Very  much  has  already  been  said,  and  much  more  doubtless  will  be  said, 
concerning  the  dangerous  powers  which  corporations  exercise,  and  the  con 
clusion  seems  to  be  that  they  are  entirely  unnecessary,  and  that  some 
method  should  be  devised  by  which  they  would  be  wiped  out  of  existence. 

"  It  has  probably  occurred  to  you,  that  whether,  on  the  whole,  corporations 
are  beneficial  or  injurious,  necessary  or  unnecessary,  is  rather  more  a  polit 
ical  than  a  legal  question,  which  you,  as  jurors,  can,  under  the  issues  in  this 
case,  hardly  be  expected  to  decide. 

"  I  shall  not  undertake  to  defend  corporations  in  all  that  they  have  done 
in  the  past,  noi  in  all  that  they  may  do  hereafter.  Yet  I  cannot  shut  my 
eyes  to  the  fact  that,  in  an  age  like  the  one  in  which  we  live,  in  which 
commerce  is  king,  for  the  successful  prosecution  of  those  vast  enterprises  in 
the  way  of  material  and  physical  development,  of  which  we  are  so  justly 
proud,  aggregations  of  capital  are  indispensable.  The  construction  of  those 
great  lines  of  railroad,  by  means  of  which  nations  are  benefited  and  devel 
oped,  requires  the  outlay  of  immense  sums  of  money,  for  which  individual 
enterprise  would  be  entirely  inadequate.  We  are  living  under  a  new  order 
of  things,  and  if  we  are  wise,  we  will  adapt  ourselves  to  the  situation. 

"  Millions  of  value  are  invested  in  every  variety  of  business,  and  it  is  very 
clear  that  the  owners  cannot  be  secured  against  loss  or  destruction  by  fire 
or  the  elements  by  any  other  means,  than  by  aggregated  capital,  in  the 


AN   ESTABLISHED    REPUTATION.  2 1/ 

shape  of  what  are  called  insurance  companies.  No  man  would  feel  like 
assuming  the  hazards  of  a  large  wholesale  business  here  or  elsewhere,  with 
tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  invested  in  merchandise,  if  he 
were  himself  compelled  to  assume  the  hazards  of  its  destruction  by  fire. 
Without  insurance,  you  would  find  it  difficult  to  get  your  grains  to  market. 
No  one  shipper  would  assume  the  hazards  of  losing  fifty  thousand  bushels 
of  wheat.  To  him,  such  a  loss  would  be  destruction  ;  but  where  the  risk  is 
divided  among  a  large  number  of  insurance  companies,  the  loss  is  divided, 
and  can  be  borne  with  comparative  ease. 

"  In  our  great  grain  elevators,  there  are  at  times  stored  millions  of  bushels 
of  grain,  amounting  in  value  to  millions  of  dollars.  The  warehouseman 
could  not,  if  he  would,  secure  the  owners  of  that  property  against  its  loss 
by  fire.  But  the  aggregated  capital,  represented  in  insurance  companies, 
can  do  it,  and  does  do  it,  for  a  very  trifling  percentage. 

"  And  thus  the  necessity  of  insurance  companies  for  safe  and  successful 
prosecution  of  business,  is  obvious. 

"  You  cannot  overthrow  them  nor  dispense  with  them,  unless  you  mean  to 
destroy  all  business  enterprise  of  whatsoever  kind.  This,  I  presume,  we 
are  not  yet  prepared  to  do.  But  if,  upon  a  fair  survey  of  the  situation,  we 
are  satisfied  that  these  corporations  should  be  destroyed,  the  way  is  open  to 
accomplish  that  end.  We  need  no  legislation  to  do  this.  A  general  disre 
gard  by  courts  and  juries  of  the  rights  of  the  companies  under  their  con 
tracts  will  very  shortly  accomplish  such  a  result.  You  need  but  to 
encourage  the  prosecution  of  fraudulent  claims,  the  violation  by  the  assured 
of  the  conditions  of  the  policy,  and  there  is  no  insurance  company  on  earth 
but  would  be  compelled  very  soon  to  succumb.  And  suppose  that, 
pursuing  that  course,  'we,  the  people'  do  succeed  in  overthrowing  what 
are  sometimes  called  these  gigantic  corporations? 

"\Vould  it  not  be  well  for  us  to  inquire  whom  we  have  benefited,  and 
whom  we  have  injured  ?  You  may  say,  that  the  corporation  is  injured.  But 
counsel  will  loudly  tell  you  that  corporations  have  no  souls.  Therefore,  a 
corporation  can't  feel  bad.  The  men  and  the  women,  whose  money  was 
invested  in  it,  may  be  all  injured,  and  many  may  be  ruined.  But  we  have  no 
grievances  against  them,  and  what  do  we  gain,  or  what  does  the  public 
gain,  by  injuring  or  ruining  them  ? 

"All  those  business  interests  with  which  insurance  is  so  intimately  inter 
woven,  must  lose  heavily.  Not  a  single  department  of  business  could  be 
named,  that  would  not  suffer  from  such  a  course.  No  one  is  benefited.  No 
interest,  public  or  private,  would  be  in  the  slightest  degree  advanced.  And  it  is 
very  certain  that  neither  public  or  private  morals  would  be  promoted  by 
the  overthrow  of  insurance  corporations,  and  particularly  so  when  fraud, 
false  swearing,  and  the  violation  of  contracts  were  the  means  by  which  such 
overthrow  was  effected. 

"  Let  us  not  deceive  ourselves.  So  long  as  a  corporation  performs  all 
its  legal  duties,  and  faithfully  discharges  all  its  legal  obligations,  we  must, 
if  we  intend  to  administer  the  law  at  all,  exact  from  all  those  who  have 


218  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

made  contracts  with  them  the  same  measure  of  good  faith.  In  theory,  this 
principle  would  probably  be  universally  recognized,  but,  in  practice,  we  all 
know  how  often  it  is  violated. 

"  From  the  very  nature  of  the  business,  the  contract  of  insurance  is 
a  peculiar  one.  It  is  not  like  an  agreement  to  give  a  thousand  dollars  in 
money  for  a  thousand  bushels  of  wheat,  or  for  a  thousand  days  of  labor ; 
but  these  plaintiffs  ask,  from  each  of  the  defendants,  that,  upon  the  consid 
eration  of  $30.50  to  each  of  them  paid,  we*  each  now  pay  them  #5,000. 
And  this,  upon  the  happening  of  a  certain  event,  and  on  certain  conditions 
we  have  agreed  to  do.  In  the  case  of  an  ordinary  contract  for  the  purchase 
of  merchandise,  or  other  property,  we  would  require  that  the  property  which 
we  were  to  receive  should  be  of  a  certain  quantity  and  quality,  and  would 
make  such  conditions  a  part  of  the  contract ;  and  no  one,  I  suppose, 
would  call  us  very  hard-hearted  should  we  insist  upon  the  strict  per 
formance  of  those  conditions,  before  being  called  upon  for  pay 
ment.  With  how  much  greater  force,  then,  should  an  insurance  company, 
which,  in  the  event  of  its  liability  to  pay  at  all,  is  required  to  pay  out  a 
very  large  sum  of  money  for  a  very  small  sum  received,  demand  a  strict 
compliance  with  every  condition  of  the  contract.  So  far  as  the  risks  are 
concerned,  they  are  all  against  the  insurer.  In  this  case,  had  there  been 
no  fire,  the  plaintiffs  would  have  lost  only  about  #350.  But,  in  the  event 
of  a  fire,  the  companies  may  be  compelled  to  pay  $54,000. 

"'These  contracts  were  not  agreements  to  pay  $54,000  should  the  plain 
tiffs'  stock  be  destroyed  by  fire.  The  companies  agreed  to  pay,  under  cer 
tain  conditions,  the  value  of  the  stock  destroyed,  not  to  exceed  the  sum 
named  in  the  policies;  and  so,  if  the  insurance  were  for  $100,000,  but  the 
actual  loss  was  only  $50,  that  would  be  all  that  the  companies  could  be 
called  upon  to  pay,  because  that  was  all  they  had  agreed  to  pay. 

"  Hence,  it  is  very  clear  that,  as  the  value  of  the  property  injured  or 
destroyed  is  the  measure  of  liability,  the  facilities  for  ascertaining  precisely 
what  that  value  is  would  enter  very  largely  into  the  risk.  If  the  actual 
amount  of  the  loss  could  be  with  certainty  ascertained,  and  all  means  for 
a  false  or  fraudulent  over  valuation  cut  off,  the  risk  would  be  but  compara 
tively  small.  But  when  there  are  no  means  furnished  for  determining  the 
actual  value  of  the  property,  insurance  companies  would  be  placed  com 
pletely  at  the  mercy  of  any  unscrupulous  man,  and  the  risks  so  largely 
enchanced  that  it  would  be  next  to  impossible  to  prosecute  the  business  of 
insurance  at  all.  The  amount  of  the  premium  is  regulated  by  the  extent 
of  the  risk.  If  the  risk  is  great,  so  is  the  premium,  or  at  least  it  ought  to 
be.  Counsel  will  undoubtedly  have  very  much  to  say  concerning  the 
numerous  conditions  in  policies  of  insurance,  and  you  will  be  told  that  all 
those  conditions  are  traps  for  the  unwary.  But  the  companies  would  be 
quite  willing  to  dispense  with  every  condition  contained  in  the  policy,  pro 
vided  they  were  paid  for  the  additional  risks  which  they  would  thereby 
assume. 

"These  companies  would  be  willing  to  insure  the  'Weides*  to-day  in  the 
sum  of  $50,000,  on  any  stock  of  goods  which  they  might  have,  agreeing 


AN    ESTABLISHED    REPUTATION.  2IQ 

Absolutely  to  pay  them  that  amount  in  the  event  of  the  loss  of  their  goods 
by  fire,  and  waive  every  condition  of  the  policy,  provided  the  Weides  would 
pay  the  premium  we  asked.  In  such  a  case,  the  premium  would  probably 
be  £50,000,  together  with  a  liberal  charge  for  writing  the  policies.  The 
risk  would  then  be  even,  and  the  trade  a  fair  one. 

"Where  so  much  depends  upon  the  facilities  for  ascertaining  the  actual 
value  of  the  property  destroyed,  it  is  but  natural  that  insurance  companies 
should  seek  to  protect  themselves  as  far  as  possible  against  fraud  or  mistake, 
and  should  require  from  the  assured  every  facility  to  enable  them  to  inves 
tigate  that  question  thoroughly  and  satisfactorily. 

"To  that  end,  various  conditions  are  annexed  to  the  policy,  and  made  a 
part  of  it.  The  word  defines  itself.  The  company  agrees  to  pay  upon  cer 
tain  conditions.  If  the  conditions  are  not  complied  with  or  performed,  there 
is  no  agreement  to  pay. 

"  To  these  conditions  the  assured  becomes  a  party.  Whether  they  are 
reasonable  or  unreasonable,  just  or  unjust,  necessary  or  unnecessary,  they 
are  binding  upon  the  parties,  for  the  plain  reason  that  they  have  agreed  to 
be  bound  by  them." 

The  arguments  ended,  Judge  Dillon  impartially  charged  the 
jury.  A  verdict  allowed  the  claim  in  full,  and  interest  for  about 
four  years !  The  court  was  righteously  incensed  at  the  outrageous 
result  after  such  evidence  as  had  been  heard,  and,  turning  to  the 
jury  and  to  the  assembled  attendants  upon  the  trial,  said : 

"  In  this  case  the  jury  Jias  discharged  its  duty,  and  no  doubt  conscien 
tiously,  but  the  court  has  also  a  duty  equally  important.  Courts  are  not 
organized  to  record  verdicts  which  are  unsupported  by  the  evidence,  and 
it  is  their  duty  to  set  all  such  verdicts  aside,  and  it  must  be  understood  that 
here  are  two  ordeals  to  pass  in  this  court.  The  jury  have  negatived  the  charge 
of  fraud,  and  with  that  finding  we  shall  not  interfere :  but  if  ever  a  fact 
was  proved  and  demonstrated  in  a  court  of  justice,  it  was  shown  in  this 
case  that  the  plaintiffs'  loss  did  not  exceed  $30,000. 

"With  the  views  which  we  entertain  of  the  evidence  in  this  case,  we 
could  not  record  this  verdict  without  abdicating  our  functions  as  a  court. 
This  we  are  not  prepared  to  do.  We  shall  grant  a  new  trial  in  this  case, 
giving  the  plaintiffs,  however,  permission  to  remit  the  verdicts  to  the  basis 
of  a  total  loss  of  $30,000. 

"Judge  Miller  has  repeatedly  expressed  his  regrets  that  he  did  not  set 
aside  the  verdict  in  the  Underwriter's  case — the  last  one  tried.  The  defence 
in  this  case  is  stronger  even  than  the  one  made  in  that,  additional  evidence 
upon  part  of  the  defence  having  been  introduced  in  this  trial." 

The  terms  indicated  by  Judge  Dillon  were  accepted  by  the 
plaintiffs  instanter,  and  so  ended  the  Weide  cases. 

The  thoroughness,  however,  with  which  Mr  Storrs  had  gone 
over  the  entire  range  of  this  Weide  fraud,  and  the  remarkable 


22O  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

expertness  with  which  he  had  handled  abstract  and  technical 
business  points  received  acknowledgment  from  journals  through 
out  the  country,  as  the  evidenees  of  mental  and  analytical  powers 
of  an  uncommon  order.  The  Spectator  said  of  the  case  in  a  long 
review :  "  We  candidly  think,  that  his  (Mr.  Storrs')  argument  will 
secure  for  itself  a  lasting  place  among  the  causes  celebre  of 
insurance  and  for  its  author  the  highest  rank  among  those  mem 
bers  of  his  profession  to  whom  the  companies  are  unfortunately 
compelled  to  look  for  aid  against  the  raids  of  fraudulent  claimants 
and  the  ignorant  prejudice  of  jurymen:  .  .  .  The  remainder  of 
the  argument  is  devoted  to  a  masterly  analysis  of  the  peculiar 
features  of  this  fraud,  in  the  course  of  which  Mr.  Storrs  evinces 
as  much  familiarity  with  figures,  and  their  intricacies  and  manip 
ulations,  as  though  he  had  spent  his  life  at  the  accountant's  desk 
.  .  .  We  regret  that  we  have  not  space  to  reprint  the  argument 
entire;  for  it  is  a  remarkable  vindication  of  the  rights  of  under 
writers,  and,  as  such,  should  be  studied  by  the  members  of  the 
profession."  The  Insurance  Times,  in  a  similar  review,  said:  "The 
trial  was  conducted  by  Mr.  Storrs  with  consummate  ability,  which 
marks  him  as  one  of  the  ablest  insurance  lawyers  in  the  West. 
To  him,  the  underwriters  throughout  the  country  owe  a  lasting 
obligation." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


POETICAL  ORATORY  AND  COLD  REASONING. 

WHAT  A  SOLDIERS'  MONUMENT  PROCLAIMS — AN  INSPIRATION — AN  ADDRESS 
OF  BEAUTY — SANCTITY  OF  CONTRACTS — FRANCHISE  PROPERTY  NOT  TO  BE 
TAKEN  WITHOUT  PROCESS  OF  LAW — THE  STATE  OF  ILLINOIS  AND  THE 
ILLINOIS  CENTRAL — A  DISCUSSION  BEFORE  GOVERNOR  PALMER.  » 

A  SIMPLE,  yet  beautiful,  oration  was  delivered  by  Mr. 
Storrs,  in  April,  1869,  at  Rock  Island,  Illinois,  on  the 
occasion  of  the  dedication  of  a  monument  to  the  Union  soldiers 
who  had  fallen  in  the  war — one  of  the  many  erected  everywhere 
throughout  the  loyal  States.  The  orator  of  the  day  was  intro 
duced,  as  the  unveiling  of  the  shaft  of  marble  was  completed 
and  the  national  salute  of  thirty-seven  guns  ceased,  and  spoke  as 
follows : 

"It  is  done.  Beautiful  in  its  design,  elegant  in  its  proportions,  sublime  in 
its  teachings  as  the  sun  in  its  glory  of  noontide  or  the  stars  in  the  solemn 
pomp  and  majesty  of  midnight,  the  soldiers'  monument  stands  completed. 
In  the  presence  of  this  vast  concourse  of  people ;  in  the  shadow  of  this 
eloquent  patriotic  teacher,  which  your  munificence  has  reared  and  which 
you  have  just  dedicated  to  the  people  of  this  county  on  this  auspicious 
April  day,  the  fourth  anniversary  of  the  surrender  of  Lee's  army  at  Appo- 
mattox  Court  House  ;  impressed  with  reverential  feeling  for  the  memory  of 
those  departed  heroes  in  whose  honor  this  monument  was  erected,  I  gaze 
upon  it,  I  hail  and  salute  it.  The  significance  of  this  ceremonial  does 
not  come  altogether  nor  chiefly  from  the  fact  that  we  commemorate  the 
patriotic  virtues  of  those  whose  names  are  inscribed  on  the  base  of  this 
monument ;  nor  is  it  for  that  alone  that  the  monument  is  dedicated.  As 
noble  as  were  their  lives,  as  glorious  as  were  their  deaths  ;  the  great  cause 
for  which  they  sacrificed  their  lives  and  willingly  met  death,  is  nobler  and 
more  glorious  still,  for  a  great  cause  ennobles  him  who  espouses  it.  The 
commonest  farmer  boy  who  braved  the  perils  of  battle  and  willingly  met 

221 


222  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

death  that  this  nation  might  live,  penetrated  by  the  influences  and  spirit  of 
the  nation  for  which  he  died,  has  changed  and,  I  might  almost  say,  lifted 
himself  above  all  that  he  or  we  would  ever  have  dreamed  of  the  capacities 
of  his  nature.  For  it  is  wonderful  how,  when  once  inspired  by  the  feeling 
of  genuine  patriotic  devotion,  the  ordinary  nature  becomes  transformed  into 
something  infinitely  nobler  and  higher,  and  is  lifted  to  a  higher  plane  than 
we  could  ever  have  conceived  he  could  possibly  obtain.  Inspired  by  such 
emotions — possessed  by  them,  indeed — the  farmer  boy,  who  before  had  but 
a  dim  conception  of  what  his  country  really  was,  the  moment  that  he  saw 
it  in  danger  willingly  cast  behind  him  friends,  home,  all  lesser  ambitions, 
and  gave  his  life  that  his  country  might  know  no  dishonor.  He  then  saw 
his  country,  an  unseen  mistress  before,  differently  than  he  had  ever  before 
perceived  it.  He  saw  that  his  country  was  not  merely  its  physical  extent ; 
was  not  alone  its  prairies,  its  mountains,  its  rivers  and  its  valleys ;  was  not 
merely  its  physical  successes  and  achievements,  however  noble  they  might 
be  ;  it  was  rather  the  grand  idea  upon  which  his  nation  was  builded.  He 
saw  that  that  nation  was  the  incarnation  of  a  spirit  of  self-government ;  that 
it  was  the  sacred  repository  of  human  equality  and  freedom.  He  saw,  too, 
that  if  that  nation  died  after  having  gone  thus  far  in  realizing  the  success 
of  the  magnificent  experiment  of  self-government  on  this  continent,  the 
ideas  themselves  died  out  from  among  the  nations,  and  the  clock  of  human 
advancement  was  set  back  for  centuries  of  time.  To  these  ideas,  thus  vital 
to  the  interests  of  humanity  everywhere  and  for  all  ages  to  come,  as  well 
to  their  heroic  defenders  from  Rock  Island  county,  who  died  that  they 
might  be  maintained,  do  we  dedicate  this  monument.  It  is  to  these  ideas, 
thus  rescued  from  the  profanation  of  rebel  hands,  that  our  nation  owes  all 
the  glory  of  its  past  and  all  the  hope  of  its  future.  To  these  ideas  do  we 
not  only  dedicate  the  monument  but  ourselves.  The  capacity  of  man  for 
self-government  as  a  political  principle  found  its  first  distinct,  emphatic, 
practical  enunciation  on  this  continent.  Upon  it  the  structure  of  our  gov 
ernment  is  rested.  Upon  a  faithful  adherence  to  it  depends  the  perman 
ency  of  that  structure.  It  is  this  principle  which  crystallized,  within  the 
limit  of  this  republic,  about  itself  all  peoples  and  all  tongues.  It  has 
brought  to  these  fruitful  fields  earnest  men  and  earnest  women  from  every 
quarter  of  the  globe,  who,  with  high  purpose  and  strong  hands,  have, 
within  one  generation  of  time,  carved  out  a  magnificent  empire,  the  glorious 
future  of  which  no  imagination  dare  essay  to  portray.  It  has  brought  us 
here  from  the  fields  of  Lexington  and  Concord,  where  the  first  shot  of  the 
farmer-soldier  was  fired  in  the  revolution — a  shot  that  was  heard  all  round 
the  globe.  We  are  here  from  the  shadows  of  the  old  South  Church,  bap 
tized  as  it  has  been  in  the  waters  of  a  religious  faith.  We  are  here  from 
the  old  Empire  State,  with  its  collossal  commerce  so  extended  that  its  sails 
whiten  every  sea  and  its  fibres  are  interlaced  with  the 'fate  of  kingdoms. 
We  are  here  from  the  home,  for  generations,  of  the  poet,  the  philosopher 
and  the  scholar.  From  the  fields  of  Germany,  with  whose  sons  patriotic 
devotion  is  an  instinct,  and  the  promise  of  united  Germany  follows  closely 


POETICAL    ORATORY    AND    COLD    REASONING.  223 

upon  the  successful  achievement  here  of  a  united  republic.  Coming  hither 
no  question  is  asked  from  whence  we  come  nor  how  much  of  wealth  we 
bring.  The  question  is:  What  can  you  do?  and  How  well  can  you  do  it? 
The  injunction  then  is — Do  if,  and  the  best  you  can.  And  thus  with  this 
unrestricted  freedom  of  self-development  a  great  nation  has  been  made, 
because  the  men  and  women  of  that  nation  have  made  themselves  great. 
That  this  freedom  of  self-development  and  improvement  should  continue  in 
the  future  as  it  had  obtained  in  the  past,  our  soldiers  maintained  it  in  the 
field — they  dedicated  their  lives  to  it.  To  that  for  which  they  dedicated 
their  lives  we  dedicate  this  monument  and  ourselves.  Our  duties  are  not 
ended,  our  responsibilities  are  not  discharged.  The  debt  we  owe  the  patri 
otic  dead  is  not  paid  merely  when  this  imposing  ceremonial  shall  have 
passed  away.  The  rebellion  which  our  armies  crushed  was  the  outgro.wth 
of  political  heresies,  directly  at  war  with  the  principles  upon  which  our 
nation  rested.  This  war  had  raged  long  before  it  flamed  out  into  actual 
battle.  It  raged  for  years  in  the  forum,  upon  the  stump,  through  the  press 
and  in  legislative  halls.  Meeting  with  no  final  success  in  either  of  these 
fields  of  warfare,  the  enemies  of  the  nation  transferred  it  to  the  field. 

"  The  wager  of  battle  is  the  final  test.  Its  results  admit  of  no  revisions. 
From  it  there  is  no  appeal.  They  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  by  the 
sword.  And  when  the  rebellion,  four  years  ago  to-day,  sunk  into  the  eternal 
night  of  utter  defeat,  not  only  were  its  armies  beaten  but  the  political  her 
esies  that  those  armies  fought  to  maintain  were  beaten  as  well. 

"  The  rebellion  was  a  protest  against  the  equality  of  manhood.  War,  in 
its  stern  results,  has  silenced  that  protest.  The  rebellion  asserted  the  right- 
fulness  of  slavery  and  its  continued  existence  as  a  political  power.  The 
victory  of  Grant  at  Appomattox  silenced  that  assertion.  The  rebellion  denied 
the  universal  dignity  of  labor  ;  the  downfall  of  its  armies,  the  overthrow  of 
its  military  power,  met  that  denial  with  the  triumph  of  an  affirmative. 

"  It  is  the  duty  of  us  who  are  living,  to  see  to  it  that  there  be  no  step 
taken  backwards  ;  that  the  standard  which  our  conquering  legion  held  and 
carried  unscathed  through  the  tremendous  perils  of  the  wickedest  rebellion 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen  be  lowered  never  an  inch.  True  to  this  extent 
to  ourselves,  we  will  thus  most  highly  honor  the  departed  dead,  whose  loss 
we  this  day  mourn.  That  we  shall  thus  be  true,  this  beautiful  monument, 
and  the  statue  of  the  Union  soldier  looking  solemnly  upon  us  will  ever 
adjure  us.  Thus  true  to  our  duty,  the  mother  whose  boy  died  in  this  great 
cause  and  whose  name  is  inscribed  upon  this  marble,  may  ever  look  upon 
it  and  take  comfort  from  it.  The  widow,  whose  husband  died  that  the 
nation  might  live,  may  point  her  orphan  boy  to  his  father's  name,  and  he 
will  draw  fresh  supplies  of  patriotic  inspiration  from  it.  Old  age  and  lisping 
childhood  may  visit  it,  and  be  inspired  by  its  solemn  teaching.  And  there, 
in  the  eternal  marble,  shall  those  names  remain,  growing  brighter  and 
brighter  as  the  years  recede.  The  future  historian  shall  say  of  them,  they 
fought  bravely,  they  fell  gloriously.  They  found  four  millions  of  human 
beings  slaves — they  made  them  freemen.  They  lifted  four  millions  of 


224  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A-    STORRS. 

human  beings  from  the  barbarism  of  human  chattelhood  into  the  clear,  pure 
air  of  American  citizenship. 

"  And  when  the  great  nation  for  which  they  died  shall  finally  have  achieved 
its  full  mission,  and  there  shall  be  no  spot  upon  the  face  of  the  globe 
where  the  equality  of  man  is  not  recognized,  the  names  of  these  men 
inscribed  upon  the  brightest  rolls  of  this  world's  history  shall  challenge  the 
admiration  of  all  the  ages.  That  this  may  be  so,  we  devoutly  pray.  That 
it  shall  be  so,  we  pledge  ourselves. 

"  One  word  more.  The  credit  of  erecting  this  monument  is  not  due  alone 
to  the  men  of  Rock  Island.  As  during  the  entire  period  of  the  war,  the 
kindly  charities  and  gentle  ministrations  of  woman  were  everywhere  found, 
so  in  this  undertaking  has  she  contributed  her  part. 

"  What  the  women  of  America  accomplished  during  the  war  has  passed 
into  history — it  has  challenged  the  admiration  of  the  world.  From  their 
achievements  I  may  well  say,  that  '  all  that  the  poet  has  ever  sung,  or  the 
historian  written  in  favor  of  women,  might  well  be  applied  to  the  women 
of  America.'  God  bless  the  women  of  America." 

In  marked  contrast,  but  to  the  lover  of  cold  reason  even  more 
beautiful  than  the  poetic  sentiment  of  this  oration,  was  a  discus 
sion  of  the  sanctity  of  the  law  of  contract  which  Mr.  Storrs  pre 
sented  to  John  M.  Palmer  as  Governor  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 
Early  in  1869,  a  bill  to  limit  railroad  fare  within  the  boundaries 
of  the  State  to  three  cents  per  mile  was  offered  to  Governor 
Palmer  for  his  approval.  In  behalf  of  all  the  railroads,  though 
nominally,  as  being  the  strongest  opponent  in  fact,  in  behalf  of 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  company,  Mr.  Storrs  successfully 
opposed  the  would-be  enactment,  on  the  ground  chiefly  that  the 
State  has  no  sovereign  power  to  impair  or  alter  its  own  contracts. 
The  charter  of  the  railroad  provided  that  the  directors  of  the 
company  should  have  the  power,  and  hence  the  right,  to  establish 
rates  of  toll  for  person  and  property,  and  that  they  might  levy 
and  collect  the  same  for  the  use  of  the  company,  upon  the  pay 
ment  of  a  per  centum  upon  its  gross  earnings  into  the  treasury 
of  the  State.  The  charter,  Mr.  Storrs,  assumed  to  be  a  binding 
contract ;  the  contract  granted  a  franchise  which  was  fundamentally 
property  and,  no  legislature  can  deprive  a  man  of  his  property 
without  due  process  of  law.  The  legislature  not  being  able  to 
assume  judicial  functions,  as  "  police  regulations  "  or  otherwise,  the 
bill  could  not  stand.  Those  admiring  clear-cut  reasoning  can 
afford  to  stop  to  enjoy  the  following  argument,  given  in  full,  where 
many  others  will  pass  it  unread : 

Mr.  Storrs  argued : 


POETICAL  ORATORY  AND  COLD  REASONING.          22 5 

"  I  shall  assume  in  this  discussion  : 

"  i.  That  the  charters  of  the  various  railroad  corporations  in  this  State  are 
contracts,  binding  upon  each  party  thereto,  precisely  to  the  same  extent  as 
the  various  provisions  of  a  contract  would  be  binding  upon  individual 
parties. 

"2.  That  the  grant  of  any  power  to  a  railroad  corporation  by  its  charter, 
essential  for  the  proper  management  of  its  business,  becomes  a  right  thus 
vested  in  such  corporation,  by  force  of  the  contract,  which  cannot  be  impaired 
by  the  State  from  whence  the  power  is  derived. 

"3.  That  powers  thus  granted  are  attended  with  the  necessary  implication 
that  they  shall  be  reasonably  exercised,  but  that  such  question  cannot  be 
determined  by  either  party  to  the  contract." 

"  The  Act  under  discussion  is  general  in  its  operation,  and  includes  all  the 
railroads  now  in  existence  in  the  State,  over  thirty  miles  in  length. 

"The  intent  of  the  bill  clearly  is  to  establish  uniform  rates  of  fares,  by 
bringing  all  the  railroads  in  the  State  within  its  operation. 

"  If  by  this  bill,  the  rights  which  the  State  has  granted  to  any  one  company 
are  at  all  impaired  or  changed,  the  bill  must  fall,  for  as  to  such  road  it 
would  clearly  be  unconstitutional,  and  the  bill,  if  void  in  part,  the  intent 
not  being  severable,  would  be  void  in  toto. 

POWER  TO  FIX  TOLLS  GRANTED  BY  CHARTER. 

"  By  the  Act  incorporating  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  it  is  pro 
vided  that  'The  board  of  directors  shall  have  power  to  establish  such  rates 
of  toll  for  the  conveyance  of  persons  and  property  upon  the  same,  as  they 
shall  from  time  to  time  by  their  by-laws  direct  and  determine,  and  to  levy 
and  collect  the  same  for  the  use  of  said  company.' 

"  I  am  of  opinion,  that  were  this  power  to  affix  tolls  not  expressly  granted, 
it  would  exist  by  necessary  implication  ;  but  I  refer  to  this  as  the  language 
employed  in  it  is  so  clear  that  there  can  be  no  possibility  of  misunderstand 
ing  it.  It  is  a  grant  of  power  to  the  company, 

1.  To  affix  rates  of  toll  for  freight  and  passengers. 

2.  To  determine  for  itself  what  those  rates  shall  be. 

3.  To  levy  and  collect  the  same. 

"  Thus  the  State  has  granted  to  the  Illinois  Central  Company  a  power  dis 
tinct,  definite  and  valuable  in  its  character,  and  without  the  right  to  exer 
cise  which  the  franchise  is  utterly  valueless.  Without  the  power  to  levy  and 
collect  tolls,  for  freight  and  passengers,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  a  railroad 
could  be  managed  at  all,  unless  it  were  purely  from  motives  of  benevolence. 
The  State  has  agreed  with  this  company  that  they  may  affix  rates  of  toll. 
Has  the  State  violated,  or  is  this  bill  an  attempt  to  violate,  that  contract? 

"  The  answer,  it  seems  to  us,  is  clear.  By  this  bill,  the  state  declares  to 
the  road,  'you  shall  no  longer  affix  tolls  for  passengers  and  freight,  as  we 
have  agreed  that  you  may,  but  ive  will  hereafter  affix  those  rates.'  The 
right  thus  conferred  by  the  charter  is  a  grant  of  power,  the  exercise  of 
which  is  essential  to  the  proper  prosecution  of  its  business.  This  grant  of 
power  is,  by  the  bill  under  discussion,  revoked.  The  grant  is  withdrawn, 


226  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

and  the  power  which  the  State  has  said  to  the  company  it  may  exercise,  it 
withdraws,  and  proposes  to  exercise  itself.  It  seems  idle  to  us  to  argue 
whether  this  attempt  by  the  legislature  impairs  the  obligation  of  the  con 
tract.  It  not  only  impairs,  but  it  destroys  that  contract.  It  is  not  merely 
a  failure  to  give  to  the  company  what  the  State  has  already  agreed  that  it 
may  have,  but  it  is  wresting  from  the  company  a  power  conferred  upon  it, 
and  exercising  that  power  itself. 

V  The  contract  by  the  State  is,  that  the  directors  of  the  company  may 
affix  such  rates  of  toil  as  they  '  may  direct  and  determine.'  But  by  this 
law  the  legislature  declares  to  the  company  that  it  can  only  affix  such  rates 
as  the  legislature  'may  direct  and  determine.' 

"That  this  is  an  essential  alteration  of  the  charter  is  clear  beyond  dispute. 
That  it  changes  the  rights  of  the  parties  to  that  contract  cannot  admit  of 
doubt ;  and  that  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  the  legislature,  of  its  own  will, 
to  lessen  the  obligations  of  the  State,  to  enlarge  its  rights,  or  to  extend  the 
obligations  of  the  company  under  the  contract,  is  too  well  settled  to  admit 
of  discussion. 

"  It  would  seem  clear  that  if  it  was  within  the  power  of  the  State  to 
interfere  with  the  right  to  affix  tolls,  it  might  also  as  well  interfere  with  the 
granted  rights  to  levy  and  collect  them.  If  it  could  say  that  the  company 
could  levy  and  collect  one  cent  per  mile  for  passengers,  it  might  as  well 
declare  that  it  could  levy  and  collect  no  passenger  fares  whatever.  Not 
only  does  the  bill  now  under  discussion  offend  in  the  particular  that  it  pre 
vents  the  company  from  exercising  its  ceded  right  to  direct  and  determine 
what  the  tolls  shall  be,  but  it  also  prevents  the  company  from  levying  and 
collecting  tolls  beyond  a  certain  amount.  The  concession  of  this  right  to 
the  legislature  involves  an  admission  of  power  by  them  to  destroy  the  entire 
revenues  of  the  corporation,  by  preventing  them  from  levying  or  collecting 
them. 

"  Upon  the  theory  of*  this  bill,  the  rates  of  toll  for  freight  and  passengers 
on  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad,  might  be  reduced  so  that  the  gross 
receipts  might  be  insufficient  to  pay  the  actual  expenses  of  the  road,  and 
yet  the  company  would  be  obliged  to  pay  its  per  centum  upon  its  gross 
earnings  into  the  treasury  of  the  State. 

"  The  charter  of  the  Central  road  provides  that  the  directors  of  the  com 
pany  shall  have  the  power,  and  hence  the  right,  to  establish  rates  of  toll 
for  persons  and  property,  and  that  they  may  levy  and  collect  the  same  for 
the  use  of  the  company.  The  right  upon  the  part  of  the  directors  to 
establish  and  collect  toll,  is  a  clear,  unmistakable  right,  by  the  express 
provision  of  the  charter.  This  law  has  taken  away  that  right  from  the 
directors  and  given  it  to  the  legislature,  thus  superseding  the  directors, 
by  the  appointment  of  the  legislature  as  the  competent  authority  to 
establish  and  collect  tolls. 

"  This  is  the  exercise  of  a  special  function  on  the  part  of  the  legisla 
ture  which  is  expressly  prohibited  by  the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  and 
in  violation  of  the  fundamental  theory  of  American  politics,  that  the  gov 
ernment  is  in  distinct,  independent,  co-ordinate  departments.  It  is  an 
invasion  of  the  department  of  the  judiciary." 


POETICAL    ORATORY    AND    COLD    REASONING.  22  / 

THE   REASONABLENESS   OF    RATES   A    JUDICIAL    QUESTION. 

"  It  is  contended,  however,  that  the  grant  of  power  to  the  corporation  to 
determine  and  affix  tariffs  for  freight  and  passengers  and  to  collect  the 
same,  is  accompanied  with  the  implied  reservation,  that  the  power  must  be 
reasonably  exercised.  That  the  tolls  thus  affixed  must  be  reasonable. 

"This  might  be  conceded,  but,  as  we  think,  the  establishment  of  that 
doctrine  does  not  advance  the  argument.  The  question  then  at  once  arises, 
By  whom  shall  the  reasonableness  of  the  tolls  imposed  be  determined  ? 
Our  answer  is,  By  the  courts,  and  by  the  courts  alone. 

"If  the  construction  which  is  sought  to  be  put  upon  a  contract  varies 
the  contract,  changes  any  of  its  terms,  or  alters  the  obligation  of  the  parties 
to  it,  such  construction  would  be  as  obnoxious  to  the  Constitution  as  would 
a  direct  attempt  to  avoid  or  change  it. 

"The  act  in  question  does  not  in  this  particular  merely  construe  the  con 
tract,  but  it  determines  the  liabilities  and  duties  of  the  parties  under  it. 
It  attempts  to  decide  whether  a  certain  line  of  action  under  the  charter 
is  consistent  with  it,  and  justified  by  it.  It  attempts  to  decide  what,  under 
the  contract,  the  parties  to  it  may  not  do.  The  decision*  of  such  questions 
cannot  be  assumed  by  the  legislative  department  of  the  government. 

"  This  act  declares  substantially — 

"I.  The  grant  of  power  to  affix  rates  contained  in  the  charter  must 
be  understood  to  be  exercised  within  reasonable  limits;  and, 

"  2.  The  charge  of  over  three  cents  per  mile  is  unreasonable,  and  there 
fore  a  violation  of  the  contract. 

"  No  one,  I  apprehend,  will  deny  for  a  moment  that  the  right  to  affix 
tolls  for  passengers  and  freight  is  expressly  conferred  by  its  charter  upon 
the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  and  either  expressly  or  by  implica 
tions  upon  all  other  companies,  nor  will  any  one  claim  that  there  is  any 
limitation  upon  the  exercise  of  that  right  other  than  that  it  must  be  within 
reasonable  limits,  and  to  say  that  without  trial,  evidence,  or  any  oppor 
tunity  of  being  heard  upon  the  subject,  the  legislature  may  decide  that  the 
company  has  exceeded  those  limits,  seems  to  us  like  a  violation  of  every 
principle  of  constitutional  law  and  natural  justice. 

"Upon  this  point,  authority  is  abundant.  Thus  in  Newland  v.  Marsh,  19 
111.  383,  the  court  say,  'The  legislative  department  assuming  and  being 
allowed  to  judge  of  the  character  and  extent  of  its  own  powers,  would  soon 
become  the  ex  parte  arbiter  of  private  rights,  and  the  frequent  dispenser 
of  justice  between  citizen  and  citizen,  unrestrained  according  to  its  own 
notion  of  right.  .  .  .  The  legislative  power  extends  only  to  the  making 
of  laws,  and  in  its  exercise  is  limited  and  restrained  by  the  paramount 
authority  of  the  federal  and  state  constitutions.  It  cannot  directly  reach 
the  property  or  vested  rights  of  the  citizen  by  providing  for  their  forfeiture, 
or  transfer  to  another,  without  trial  and  judgment  in  the  courts  ;  for  to  do 
so  would  be  the  exercise  of  a  power  which  belongs  to  another  branch  of 
the  government,  and  is  forbidden  to  the  legislative.'  In  Sedgwick  on 
Statutory  and  Constitutional  Law,  pages  146,  147,  the  rule  is  thus  stated: 
'It  is,  then,  as  a  general  rule,  equally  true  of  England  and  of  the  United 


228  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

States,  that  while  the  law-making  power  is  exclusively  confined  to  one 
branch  of  the  government,  that  department  neither  construes  nor  enforces 
its  own  acts.  The  enactment  of  laws  belongs  to  the  legislature,  their  con 
struction  and  application  to  the  judiciary,  the  enforcement  to  the  execu 
tive.'  In  Lane  v.  Dorman,  3  Scammon,  this  language  is  held:  'By  the 
first  section  of  the  first  article  of  the  State  constitution,  the  powers  of  the 
government  of  the  State  are  divided  into  three  distinct  departments,  and 
each  of  these  confined  to  a  separate  body  of  magistracy,  viz,  those  which 
are  executive  to  another,  and  those  which  are  judicial  to  another. 

"By  the  second  section  of  the  article,  no  person  or  collection  of  persons 
being  one  of  those  departments,  shall  exercise  any  power  properly  belonging 
to  either  of  the  others,  except  as  is  therein  expressly  directed  or  permitted. 
The  exercise  of  judicial  powers  by  the  General  Assembly  is  not  one  of  the 
exceptions,  nor  is  it  one  of  the  permissions  contained  or  referred  to  in  the 
proviso  to  this  second  section;  consequently  the  exercise  of  such  powers  by 
it  is  positively  forbidden  and  expressly  inhibited,  and  has  been  delegated 
solely  to  the  judicial  department.  The  inquiry  thus  becomes  important, 
has  the  legislature,  by  the  passage  of  this  law,  violated  this  provision  of 
the  Constitution  ? 

"  It  will  be  seen,  from  the  synopsis  of  the  act  made,  that  evidence  must  be 
presumed  to  have  been  received  and  facts  ascertained  by  the  legislature,  before 
its  decision,  f>r  it  has  without  such  evidence  arbitrarily  assumed  the  facts 
to  exist ;  and  on  such  Ascertainment  or  assumption,  a  decision  is  made  in 
the  nature  of  a  decree.  For  the  act  directs  a  sale  of  lands,  and  orders  the 
appropriation  of  its  proceeds  to  the  persons  on  whose  application,  and  for 
whose  benefit,  the  act  was  adopted,  and  adjudges  the  costs  to  be  paid  out 
of  the  estate.  If  this  is  not  the  exercise  of  a  power  of  inquiring  into,  and  a 
determination  of  facts  between  debtor  and  creditor,  and  that,  too,  ex  parte 
and  summary  in  its  character,  we  are  at  a  loss  to  understand  the  meaning 
of  terms  ;  nay,  that  it  is  adjudging  and  directing  the  application  of  one  per 
son's  property  to  another,  on  a  claim  of  indebtedness,  without  notice  to  or 
hearing  of  the  parties  whose  estate  is  divested  by  the  act. 

"  That  the  exercise  of  such  powers  is,  in  its  nature,  clearly  judicial  we 
think  too  apparent  to  need  argument  to  illustrate  its  truth. 

"  It  is  so  self-evident  from  the  facts  Disclosed  that  it  proves  itself,  and  it 
is  not  less  certain  that  the  exercise  thereof  is  in  direct  conflict  with  the 
articles  of  the  Constitution  cited. 

"  It  can  hardly  be  presumed  that  in  this  case  evidence  was  introduced 
before  the  legislature  as  to  the  reasonableness  of  the  tolls  for  freight  and 
passengers  now  imposed  by  the  railroad  corporations  of  this  State.  The 
question  is  vital,  and  in  its  decision  the  companies  are  quite  as  much  inter 
ested  as  the  public.  No  decision  can  be  rendered  against  it,  on  such  a 
point,  unless  the  company  has  failed  cither  in  the  performance  of  the  duties 
which  the  charter  has  imposed  upon  it,  or  has  exceeded  the  powers  which 
the  legislature  conferred. 

"Whether  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company  has  failed  in  the  per 
formance  of  any  of  its  duties  or  exceeded  its  powers,  must,  so  far  as  the  pre- 


POETICAL  ORATORY  AND  COLD  REASONING.          22Q 

sent  question  is  concerned,  rest  entirely  upon  the  fact  whether  its  charges 
are  grossly  unreasonable.  It  attempts,  we  will  say,  to  charge  four  cents  per 
mile  for  passengers,  and  the  State,  or  rather  the  legislature,  asserts  that  it 
possesses  no  power  to  charge  that  sum,  and  that  it  has  no  right  to  charge 
over  three  cents  per  mile.  It  is  quite  competent  for  the  State  to  raise 
that  question,  but  it  is  not  competent  for  it  to  decide  the  question.  To 
concede  that  such  a  question,  involving  the  right  of  one  party  to  the  con 
tract,  could  be  determined  by  the  other  without  evidence,  is  too  flagrantly 
unjust  to  admit  of  discussion,  and  the  hearing"  of  evidence  in  such  a  case 
is  equally  clearly  beyond  its  powers. 

"  The  tribunal  to  which  the  decision  of  these  questions  is  confided  is  the 
courts.  By  no  other  department  of  the  goverment  can  the  hearing  and 
decision  of  questions  of  conflicting  right  between  parties  be  had. 

"The  assumption  of  such  a  power  by  the  legislature,  even  in  the  adjudi 
cation  and  decision  of  rights  between  third  parties,  would  be  unendurable, 
but  when  the  State  affects  to  exercise  that  power  in  the  case  of  a  contract 
to  which  it  is  a  party,  the  case  is  infinitely  worse,  and  would  be  permitted 
under  no  system  of  government  now  known  among  civilized  men. 

"  If  it  be  conceded  that  it  is  beyond  the  power  of  the  legislature  to  decide 
whether  fares  are  reasonable  or  unreasonable,  the  conclusion  then  inevitably 
follows  that  the  law  is  unconstitutional,  because,  that  by  the  act  under  dis 
cussion  the  legislature  does  attempt  to  decide  what  rates  of  toll  are  reason 
able  or  unreasonable  is  clear  beyond  question.  This,  as  we  have  seen,  is 
an  assumption  of  judicial  power,  which,  by  sec.  2,  art.  2,  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  is  expressly  prohibited.  That  section  provides,  that  '  no  person  or  col 
lection  of  persons,  being  one  of  these  departments,  shall  exercise  any 
power  properly  belonging  to  either  of  the  others,  except  as  hereinafter 
expressly  directed  or  permitted  ;  and  all  acts  in  contravention  of  this  sec 
tion  shall  be  void' 

"The  mere  fact,  therefore  that  the  bill  under  discussion  does  assume  to 
decide  that  the  companies  have  no  power  to  fix  rates  of  passenger  tolls, 
beyond  a  certain  price,  and  does  attempt  to  decide  what  rates  are  reason 
able,  brings  the  bill  directly  within  the  operation  of  the  section  of  the  Con 
stitution  I  have  quoted,  and  it  is  and  must  be  declared  void. 

WHAT   ARE   POLICE   REGULATIONS. 

"  It  cannot,  we  think,  be  successfully  contended  that  this  bill  amounts 
merely  to  a  police  regulation,  which  the  State  might,  by  virtue  of  its  sover 
eign  authority,  rightfully  make. 

"The  right  to  affix  tolls  is  a  grant  of  power  secured  to  the  railroad  com 
panies  by  their  charters.  It  is  a  franchise  most  valuable  in  its  character. 

"This  right  the  company  possesses  by  virtue  of  the  agreement  made  with 
the  State.  In  the  case  of  The  Regent  of  the  University  of  Maryland  v. 
Williams,  9  Gill  £  Johnson,  403,  it  was  held  that  a  power  conveyed  by  the 
charter  to  pass  ordinances  and  make  regulations  for  the  discipline  and 
government  of  the  University,  was  a  franchise  which  could  not  be  taken 
away  by  the  act  of  the  legislature.  In  The  Bank  of  the  Republic  v. 


23O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

County  of  Hamilton,  21  111.  59,  the  distinction  is  drawn  between  powers 
secured  to  the  corporation  by  contract,  and  those  which  are  mere  endow 
ments  of  their  existence.  '  The  former,'  the  court  says,  '  are  their  prop 
erty,  of  which  they  cannot  be  deprived  without  just  compensation.' 

"No  power  certainly  could  be  more  explicitly  conveyed,  than  the  grant 
to  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  to  fix  such  rates  of  toll  for  tariff 
of  passengers  as  the  directors  may  determine.  It  is  the  contract  of  the 
State  with  the  company,  about  which  there  can  be  no  room  for  construc 
tion,  for  the  language  is  unmistakable  in  its  meaning. 

"The  regulation  requiring  the  ringing  of  bells,  the  erection  of  warning 
posts,  etc.,  are  purely  police  regulations,  which,  as  the  sovereign  power, 
the  State  has  a  right  to  make,  for  securing  public  and  individual  safety. 

"In  such  case,  however,  the  power  is  thus  exercised  by  the  State,  not  as 
a  party  to  the  contract,  but  as  a  sovereign  power  acting  for  the  safety  of 
all  its  citizens.  The  general  rule  is  well  stated  in  Cooley  s  Constitutional 
Limitations,  p.  279. 

"'Those  charters  of  incorporation,  however,  which  are  granted  not  as  a 
part  of  the  machinery  of  government,  but  for  the  private  benefit  or  purposes 
of  the  corporators,  are  held  to  be  contracts  between  the  legislature  and  the 
corporators,  based  for  their  consideration  on  the  liabilities  and  duties  which 
the  corporators  assume  by  accepting  them  ;  and  the  grant  of  the  franchise 
can  no  more  be  resumed  by  the  legislature,  or  its  benefit  diminished  or 
impaired,  without  the  assent  of  the  grantees,  than  any  other  grant  of  prop 
erty,  or  valuable  thing,  unless  the  right  to  do  so  is  reserved  in  the  charter 
itself.'  See,  also,  cases  cited. 

"And  so  again,  in  the  same  book,  page  362,  the  author  says:  'But  a 
vested  right  of  action  is  property  in  the  same  sense  in  which  tangible  things 
are  property,  and  is  equally  protected  against  arbitrary  interference.  Where 
it  springs  from  contract  or  from  the  principles  of  the  common  law,  it  is  not 
competent  for  the  legislature  to  take  it  away.  Nor  can  a  party,  by  his 
misconduct,  forfeit  such  a  right,  unless  steps  be  taken  to  have  the  forfeit 
ure  declared  in  due  judical  proceedings.* 

PUBLIC    SAFETY. 

"An  attempt  by  the  legislature  to  interfere  with  an  expressly  ceded 
power  to  affix  tolls  and  to  levy  and  collect  them  can  be  justified  on  no 
ground  of  public  safety.  If  those  rates  are  reasonable,  public  safety  would 
not  demand  that  they  be  interfered  with.  The  general  right  to  impose  tolls 
cannot  be  impaired  because  it  is  specially  granted.  Such  power  is  exer 
cised  in  entire  harmony  with  public  safety  so  long  as  the  tolls  are  reason 
able.  When  they  cease  to  be  reasonable  is  a  question  which  courts  must 
decide,  and  merely  calling  an  attempt  to  decide  that  question  the  enforce 
ment  of  police  regulations,  makes  the  act  none  the  less  an  assumption  of 
judicial  power,  and  none  the  less  an  impairing  of  the  obligation  of  the 
contract.  The  case  may  thus  be  stated  :  If  the  tariffs  of  charges  for  freight 
and  passengers  are  reasonable,  then  no  consideration  of  public  safety  can 
justify  an  interference  with  them. 


POETICAL  ORATORY  AND  COLD  REASONING.  23! 

"  If  they  are  unreasonable,  the  remedy  is  with  the  courts.  Whether  they 
are  or  are  not  reasonable,  is  a  question  which  must  be  decided  upon  evi 
dence,  and  after  hearing  both  parties,  as  well  the  party  to  the  contract,  who, 
it  is  deemed,  has  violated  it  by  charging  unreasonable  rates,  as  the  party 
who  alleges  that  such  violation  has  been  made. 

"In  short,  the  rates  of  fares  are  in  no  way  connected  with  considerations 
of  public  safety.  The  subjects  are  distinct  and  utterly  dissimilar,  because 
neither  public  safety  nor  private  safety  is  at  all  involved  in  the  amount  of 
fare  which  the  passengers  may  be  compelled  to  pay. 

RAILROADS  HAVE  NOT  BEEN  REPRESENTED. 

"  It  can  hardly  be  said  that  the  railroad  corporations  have  had  a  hearing 
before  the  legislature,  nor  can  it  be  said  that  they  have  been  represented. 
It  is  sometimes  charged,  indeed,  that  a  particular  railroad  has  its  represen 
tative  in  either  the  Senate  or  the  House,  but  the  people  are  represented  in 
the  legislature,  and  railroads,  as  such,  are  not  and  cannot  be. 

"  Even  were  it,  in  a  theoretical  sense,  true  that,  in  a  certain  vicarious  way, 
the  railroad  companies  were  represented  in  the  State  legislature,  still  that 
would  not  answer  the  objection  that,  in  the  decision  of  the  question  as  to 
the  reasonableness  of  charges,  no  hearing  has  been  had  and  no  evidence 
taken.  There  has  been  no  trial,  and,  in  the  State  Legislature,  there  could  be 
none.  Certainly  if  the  legislature,  the  other  party  to  the  contract,  was  to  sit 
as  a  court  on  the  decision  of  this  question,  the  railroads  would  have  good 
reason  to  complain,  or  if  they  supposed  that  a  court  thus  constituted  was  at 
all  prejudiced  in  the  case,  ought  certainly  to  be  entitled  to  a  change  of 
venue. 

PUBLIC   CONVENIENCE. 

"Nor  are  considerations  of  public  convenience  of  any  force  in  justify 
ing  this  bill.  In  any  case  where  it  is  admitted  that  considerations  of 
public  convenience  are  sufficiently  strong,  and  its  demand  sufficiently  exi 
gent  to  require  the  interposition  of  legislative  power,  such  power  can  only  be 
exercised  to  secure  the  convenience  of  the  whole  public,  as  an  exercise  of 
the  right  of  eminent  domain,  and  upon  just  compensation  paid. 

"  Private  convenience  can  justify  no  legislative  interference  with  private 
rights ;  nor  would  the  fact  that  it  was  inconvenient  for  a  certain  passenger, 
or  a  number  of  passengers,  to  pay  more  than  one  cent  per  mile  for  riding 
on  a  railroad  train,  justify  the  legislature  in  declaring  that  the  railroad  com 
pany  must  suit  itself  to  the  pecuniary  convenience  of  such  passengers,  and 
carry  them  for  one  cent  per  mile,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  a  police  regu 
lation,  or  on  any  other  ground. 

THE   ACT    IS    ILLIBERAL. 

"By  section  6  of  article  10  of  the  Constitution,  it  is  provided  that  'the 
General  Assembly  shall  encourage  internal  improvements  by  passing  liberal 
general  laws  of  incorporation  for  that  purpose.'  By  the  passage  of  this  law, 
the  legislatures  have  given  construction  to  the  charter  of  the  Illinois  Cen 
tral  Railroad  Company,  as  they  have  given  construction  to  the  charter  of 


232  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

all  other  roads ;  and  the  construction  thus  given  by  the  assertion  of  the 
right  to  interfere  with  and  control  the  exercise  of  the  right  to  establish 
tolls,  is  most  illiberal,  and  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Constitution,  as 
above  quoted. 

"The  law,  ;n  its  operation,  will  prevent  the  investment  of  capital  in  internal 
improvements,  by  being  illiberal  towards  corporate  rights,  and  by  becoming 
a  part  of  all  acts  of  incorporation,  will  tend  to  subvert  the  great  purpose  of 
the  Constitution  in  its  provision  for  such  a  system  of  liberal  legislation  as 
will  tend  to  foster  and  promote  public  improvements. 

"It  is  also  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  requirements  of  the  law  are 
exceedingly  stringent,  in  demanding  from  the  companies  the  exercise  of  the 
utmost  of  human  care,  sagacity  and  foresight,  and  the  use  of  all  modern 
appliances  to  secure  the  safety  of  the  passenger.  These  results  can  only 
be  secured  from  the  revenues  of  the  corporation,  derived  from  its  imposition 
of  tolls  for  freights  and  passengers.  It  can  hardly  be  expected  that  such 
an  obligation  can  be  performed  in  its  full  measure,  if  the  legislature  deprives 
the  companies  of  the  means  by  which  safety  is  to  be  secured.  The  effect 
of  continuous  interference  by  the  legislature  with  the  fixing  of  rates  for 
passengers  and  freight,  can  be  no  less  than  seriously  to  impair  the  revenue 
of  these  corporations,  and  their  ability  to  discharge  the  duties  which  the  law 
has  imposed  upon  them. 

LEGISLATIVE   POWER   OVER    NATURAL   PERSONS. 

"  It  is  claimed,  as  we  understand,  that  inasmuch  as  it  is  assumed  that 
the  legislature  has  the  power  to  affix  the  rates  of  charges  imposed  by  a 
common  carrier,  where  such  carrier  is  a  natural  person,  it  must  possess  the 
same  and  equal  power  over  a  corporation,  which  is  a  being  of  legislative 
creation. 

"Without  stopping  here  to  discuss  the  question  whether  it  is  within  the 
power  of  the  legislature  to  say  to  a  man  engaged  as  a  common  carrier,  by 
his  own  private  methods  of  conveyance,  that  he  shall  only  charge  certain 
rates  for  his  services,  it  is  clear  that  there  is  and  can  be  no  similarity 
between  the  cases.  The  question  in  this  connection  is,  whether  one  party  to 
a  contract  even  though  one  of  those  parties  be  the  State,  can  impair  its 
obligation  or  affect  its  terms.  If  the  State  had  entered  into  a  contract  with 
a  private  individual  by  which,  upon  payment  .of  a  certain  consideration  by 
such  individual,  it  had  agreed  that  he  might  affix  such  charges  as  he  might 
see  fit  and  determine,  the  same  question,  it  might  with  some  propriety  be 
said,  would  be  presented  as  is  involved  in  the  discussion  of  this  bill.  The 
distinction  between  the  case  put  by  the  advocates  of  the  bill,  and  the  one 
presented  by  the  bill  itself,  is  the  very  obvious  one  of  the  difference  which 
always  exists,  and  always  must  exist,  between  the  obligations  of  parties  to 
each  other,  where  those  obligations  are  defined  and  fixed  by  contract,  and 
where  they  are  simply  the  general  obligations  subsisting  between  them  as 
citizens. 

"The  question  presented  by  this  bill  is,  whether  it  impairs  the  obligations 
of  a  contract,  and  it  is  not  what  the  power  of  the  State  may  be  in  the 


POETICAL  ORATORY  AND  COLD  REASONING.          233 

exercise  of  its  merely  political  functions  over  its  citizens.  The  State  has  no 
sovereign  power  to  impair  or  alter  its  own  contracts,  or  the  contracts  of 
any  one  else.  If  the  contract  of  the  State  is  with  an  individual,  it  cannot 
impair  it.  If  with  a  corporation,  it  cannot  impair  that. 

"I  deem  it  unnecessary  to  discuss  the  metaphysical  powers  of  govern 
ments  generally.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that  in  this  country  legislative  power 
is  limited  by  the  fundamental  law.  The  legislature  of  the  State  can  pass 
no  law  impairing  the  obligation  of  a  contract,  and  that  a  charter  granted  to 
a  corporation  is  a  contract,  is  fundamental. 

"The  legislature  can  deprive  no  freeman  of  his  property,  without  due 
process  of  law,  and  that  a  franchise  granted  by  a  charter  is  property,  is 
fundamental. 

"The  legislature  cannot  assume  judicial  functions,  and  any  act  of  that 
character  is  utterly  void.  The  ^question  presented  by  this  bill  is,  Does  the 
act  fall  within  any  of  the  above  stated  limitations  of  legislative  power?  and 
any  time  expended  in  discussing  what  the  legislature  might  do  with  a  cor 
poration,  or  an  individual,  to  whom  it  was  bound  by  no  contract,  is,  we 
suggest,  wide  of  the  mark,  and  a  waste  of  time.  It  will  be  sufficient  to 
decide  what  a  legislature  may  do  in  regulating  the  business  affairs  of  its 
citizens  when  that  question  arises.  The  question  now  is,  What  may  the 
legislature  do  with  reference  to  the  rights  of  parties  or  corporations  which  it 
has  secured  to  them  by  contract? 

"If  the  charters  of  the  railroad  companies  are  contracts,  if  the  right  to 
fix  tolls  is  a  franchise,  the  bill  is  unconstitutional,  because  it  seeks  to 
deprive  the  companies  of  those  rights.  The  same  would  be  true  of  any 
private  individual  similarly  situated. 

THE   BILL   RELEASES   THE   ILLINOIS   CENTRAL   FROM   THE   PAYMENT   OF    ITS 

PERCENTAGE. 

"The  effect  which  this  bill  may  have  upon  the  payment,  by  the  Illinois 
Central  Railroad  Company,  of  the  percentage  upon  its  gross  or  total 
proceeds,  receipts  or  income,  derived  from  said  road  and  branches,  cannot 
be  safely  overlooked. 

"Sec.  8  contains  a  grant  of  power  to  the  company,  as  has  been  seen. 

"The  i8th  section  provides  that  'in  consideration  of  the  grants,  privileges 
and  franchises  hereby  conferred,'  the  said  company  shall  make  the  pay 
ments. 

"  It  would  seem  clear  that  these  considerations  are  dependent  upon  each 
other.  That  a  failure  by  the  company  to  make  the  payments  stipulated, 
would  result  in  a  forfeiture  of  its  charter  upon  quo  warranfo,  and  with 
equal  force,  that  a  withdrawal  by  the  State  of  the  franchises,  which  it  had 
conferred,  constituting  the  consideration  upon  which  the  company  had 
agreed  to  pay  its  percentage,  would  operate  to  relieve  it  from  making  such 
payment,  is  undeniable. 

"The  amount  of  that  percentage  being  about  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars  per  year,  any  act  which  would  release  the  company  from  its  pay 
ment  is  sufficiently  serious  to  the  tax-payers  in  the  State  to  justify  with- 


234  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

holding  assent  to  any  bill,  the  result  of  which  may  be  to  withdraw  that 
large  sum  from  the  revenue  of  the  State. 

"  The  benefits  of  this  bill  are,  in  a  great  measure  derived  by  non-residents 
who  make  up  a  great  share  of  the  passenger  traffic  of  our  railroads.  The 
burdens  imposed  by  the  loss  of  this  large  sum,  fall  in  increased  taxation 
directly  upon  our  own  people. 

"It  is  easy  enough  to  say  that  this  bill  has  no  such  effect,  but  I  submit 
that  the  enjoyment  of  the  franchises  conveyed  by  the  charter,  is  a  condition 
precedent  to  the  payment  of  the  percentage  by  the  company,  for  it  is 
expressly  declared  that  the  agreement  of  the  company  to  pay  the  per-centum 
is  '  in  consideration  of  the  grants,  privileges  and  franchises  herein  con 
ferred.' 

" Finally,  This  legislation  is  crude,  and  does  not  reach  the  grievances  of 
which  complaint  is  made.  The  effect  of  this  bill  upon  the  future  commer 
cial  interests  of  the  State  is  sufficiently  serious  to  require  the  most  careful 
and  deliberate  investigation  before  action  shall  be  had.  No  argument  can 
add  to  the  mere  statement  of  the  supreme  importance  to  the  interests 
of  the  State  of  this  question.  The  extreme  sensitiveness  of  capital 
to  legislative  interference,  its  generally  conceded  readiness  to  submit  its 
interests  to  the  decision  of  the  courts,  must  induce,  it  seeems  to  us, 
a  reluctance  to  invest  in  future  railroad  enteprises  in  the  State,  and 
necessarily  divert  the  current  of  trade  from  our  own  to  other  States. 

"That  the  people  have  suffered  grievances  at  the  hands  of  railroad  cor 
porations  may  be  true,  but  so  long  as  courts  are  open,  and  our  judiciary 
possesses  the  entire  confidence  of  the  people,  it  is  believed  that  those 
grievances  may  be  redressed  by  resort  to  judicial  tribunals,  where  facts 
may  be  certainly  and  definitely  ascertained,  and  rights  adjusted  upon  the 
basis  of  the  facts  thus  determined." 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


THE    FREE    TRADE    QUESTION,    1 870. 

MR.  STORRS'  LUCID  EXPOSITION  OF  ECONOMIC  QUESTIONS — THE  HIGH  TARIFF 
A  WAR  MEASURE — A  NEEDLESS  SURPLUS  IN  THE  TREASURY — A  GENERAL 
DEMAND  FOR  A  REDUCTION  OF  TAXATION — THE  "PROTECTION  OF  AMERI 
CAN  INDUSTRY  " — THE  FARMERS  NEED  TO  BE  PROTECTED  AGAINST  PROTEC 
TION —  "THE  GREATEST  GOOD  OF  THE  GREATEST  NUMBER,"  A  FUNDAMEN 
TAL  PRINCIPLE  OF  AMERICAN  POLITICS — PROTECTION  AND  SLAVERY — ONE 
KIND  OF  INDUSTRY  COMPELLED  TO  PAY  TRIBUTE  TO  ANOTHER — PROTECTION 
DIMINISHES  REVENUE — A  SYSTEM  OF  LEGALIZED  PLUNDER  OF  THE  CON 
SUMER—DIVERSIFYING  LABOR  BY  LEGISLATION— "  THE  PAUPER  LABOR  OF 
EUROPE." 

OF  all  the  fields  of  human  inquiry,  perhaps  there  is  none  so 
arid  and  uninviting  as  political  economy,  which  Carlyle,  not 
without  reason,  called  the  "  dismal  science."  In  1870,  addressing 
a  convention  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  which  was  largely  made  up 
of  agricultural  representatives,  Mr.  Storrs  showed  that  by  his 
power  of  lucid  exposition  and  happy  illustration  he  could  make 
even  an  economic  question  interesting.  The  people  generally  were 
crying  out  for  a  reduction  'of  the  heavy  burdens  of  taxation 
imposed  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on  the  war,  and  to  which 
they  had  patriotically  consented  as  a  necessary  war  measure. 
These  taxes  were  raised  by  means  of  the  most  oppressive  pro 
hibitive  tariff  on  foreign  goods,  and  a  correspondingly  high  tax 
on  goods  of  domestic  manufacture ;  and  now  that  the  war  was 
ended,  and  the  government  had  an  enormous  surplus  of  one  hun 
dred  millions  of  dollars  in  the  Treasury,  men  of  all  political  parties 
naturally  thought  the  time  had  come  for  a  substantial  measure  of 
relief. 

Mr.  Storrs'  address  is  a  masterly  exposition  of  the  tariff,  and  of 

235 


236  LIFE   OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  protectionist  fallacies  which  were  then  everywhere  being 
brought  forward  in  favor  of  its  continuance.  In  later  years,  he 
saw  reason  to  modify  his  opinions,  under  circumstances  which  will 
be  narrated  in  the  proper  place.  His  free  trade  manifesto  in  1870 
was  as  follows : 

"  The  grave  political  questions  arising  during  the  progress  of  the  rebellion, 
and  the  questions  resulting  from  the  war,  as  affecting  the  restoration  of  the 
seceding  States,  are  so  far  settled  at  least  as  to  justify  the  direction  of  public 
attention  to,  and  the  discussion  of,  questions  of  a  financial  character,  which 
are,  whether  we  would  have  it  so  or  not,  pressing  for  decision. 

"  It  may  quite  safely  be  said  that  no  attempt  at  all  serious  in  its  character 
will  be  made  by  any  political  party  to  re-open  the  questions  settled  by  the 
war.  The  right  of  secession  from  the  Union  was  conclusively  denied  at 
Appomattox  Court  House.  The  freedom  of  the  slave  is  an  accomplished 
fact.  The  repudiation  of  the  national  debt  has  received  its  quietus  at  the 
hands  of  the  people  and  in  Congress  ;  and  although  there  are  wide  differ 
ences  of  opinion  still  existing  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  debt  shall  be 
paid,  it  is  quite  safe  to  say  that  all  parties  are  agreed  that  it  shall  be  paid. 

"  During  the  prosecution  of  the  war  it  was  deemed  necessary,  in  order  to 
enable  the  government  to  meet  the  gigantic  expenses  which  its  prosecution 
entailed,  to  impose  upon  every  conceivable  product  of  human  use,  wear,  or 
consumption  heavier  tariffs  than  had  ever  before  been  known  in  our  history. 
Taxes  were  also  levied  upon  nearly  everything  that  we  ate,  or  drank,  or 
wore,  upon  the  product  of  our  industry,  upon  the  articles  which  we  manu 
factured,  and  upon  the  incomes  which  are  derived  from  the  prosecution  of 
our  business,  whatever  that  business  might  be.  But  little  complaint  was 
made  against  these  tariffs  and  taxes  while  the  war  was  pending.  They  were 
regarded  by  the  great  mass  of  the  people  as  war  measures,  and  to  cease 
when  the  war  itself  ceased.  Moreover,  as  every  form  of  industry  and  almost 
every  character  of  business  was  stimulated  to  a  feverish  activity  by  the  vast 
requirements  of  the  government,  aided  in  no  small  degree  by  a  paper  cur 
rency,  these  taxes,  onerous  as  they  were,  were  easily  paid,  and  hence,  dur 
ing  that  period  of  time,  public  complaints  were  not  frequent.  But  the  war 
finally  ended.  The  vast  demands  of  the  government  upon  the  industry  of 
the  country  ceased.  Nearly  a  million  of  men  who  had  been  engaged  in 
the  armies,  relieved  from  those  duties,  returned  quietly  but  suddenly  to  their 
ordinary  pursuits.  As  the  currency  was  contracted  and  appreciated  in  value, 
prices  began  to  "shrink,  and  under  such  a  change  of  circumstances  the  bur 
dens  of  taxation  began  at  once  to  be  felt,  and  the  desire  in  some  measure 
to  be  relieved  from  those  burdens  came  to  be  almost  universally  expressed, 
and  the  necessity  for  some  such  relief  is  urgent  and  undeniable. 

"  I  have  said  that  the  imposition  ©f  the  heavy  tariff  during  the  war,  and 
the  general  scheme  of  taxation  then  adopted,  were  generally  regarded  as 
war  measures,  to  be  dispensed  with  when  the  war  itself  should  cease.  The 
war  ceased  four  years  ago  ;  but  the  tariffs  have  not  ceased,  nor  have  they 


A    SPEECH    ON    FREE    TRADE,     1 8/0. 

even  been  lessened.     Nay,  they  have  been  increased  since  the  close  of  the 
war. 

"The  requirements  of  the  government  are  certainly  not  as  great  as  they 
were  five  years  ago.  Its  expenses  have  been,  during  the  short  period  of 
time  that  General  Grant  has  been  President,  reduced  many  millions.  A  vast 
amount  of  the  national  debt  has  already  been  paid,  and  in  the  midst  of 
general  business  depression  the  over-burdened  public  are  curiously  enough 
confronted  by  a  surplus  which  will,  during  the  year  1869-70,  reach  at  least 
one  hundred  millions,  and  probably  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions  of 
dollars.  A  surplus  so  gigantic  demonstrates,  better  than  any  argument  could 
possibly  do,  that  taxation  is  unnecessarily  high.  The  fact  that  the  govern 
ment  will  have,  during  the  current  year,  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred 
and  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars  beyond  its  actual  wants  and  necessities  is  of 
the  greatest  significance  when  placed  by  the  side  of  the  other  universally 
conceded  fact  that  taxes  and  tariffs  are  seriously  burdening  the  industry  and 
the  prosperity  of  the  people. 

"A  demand  to  reduce  the  tariff  to  something  like  its  former  proportions 
cannot  be  met  by  the  answer  that  the  necessities  of  the  government,  in  the 
payment  of  the  principal  or  interest  of  the  public  debt,  require  that  the 
present  rate  of  tariffs  shall  be  maintained,  for  the  government  is  certain  to 
have,  during  the  current  year,  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  million  dollars 
more  than  it  will  require  for  the  payment  of  all  its  expenses,  including  the 
maturing  interest  upon  its  debt.  However  desirable  the  speedy  payment 
of  the  national  debt  may  be  regarded,  there  are  probably  but  very  few 
men  who  would  deem  it  wise  or  prudent  to  attempt  its  entire  payment 
within  a  period  of  ten  or  fifteen  years,  nor  would  the  people  readily 
consent  that  from  one  hundred  million  dollars  to  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  million  dollars  over  and  above  the  interest  upon  the  debt,  and  the  ordinary 
expenses  of  the  government,  should  be  yearly  raised  by  taxation  and  tariffs, 
even  were  that  sum  to  be  religiously  appropriated  toward  such  payment. 

That  the  people  are  under  a  serious  and  oppressive  burden  of  taxation 
is  a  fact  so  conspicuous  that  it  cannot  be  denied.  How  shall  that  burden 
be  lightened?  is  a  question  now  being  asked  in  language  so  emphatic  that 
some  satisfactory  answer  must  be  made  to  it.  The  present  administration 
has  achieved  much  by  the  steady  reduction  of  the  national  expenses  and 
by  increased  efficiency  in  the  collection  of  the  revenue,  but  still  there 
stands,  in  a  time  of  profound  peace,  an  enormous  tariff,  the  effect  of  which 
is  felt  in  every  department  of  business,  and  the  maintenance  of  which 
enhances  the  cost  of  living  of  every  man  in  the  land.  Why  should  that 
tariff  be  continued  ?  The  fact  of  the  surplus  to  which  I  have  referred 
demonstrates  that  it  is  not  necessary  for  the  support  of  the  government,  and 
so  those  who  are  interested  in  maintaining  it  are  compelled  to  place  their 
demands  upon  what  they  call  the  "protection  of  American  industry." 

"As  briefly  as  may  be,  I  purpose  this  evening  to  discuss  a  few  general 
principles  affecting  the  theory  of  protection.  It  will  be  quite  impossible  to 
enter  very  largely,  if  indeed  at  all/  into  detail.  And  first  I  will  inquire 


238  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

precisely  what  is  meant  by  protecting  American  industry?  Against  what, 
or  against  whom,  is  American  industry  to  be  protected  ?  Who  attacks,  or 
proposes  to  attack,  American  industry?  How  is  the  attack  made?  Is 
American  industry  so  feeble  that  it  cannot,  without  assistance  from  the 
government,  protect  itself? 

"These  are  all  vital  questions.  If  no  one  is  attacking  American  industry, 
it  needs  no  protection.  If  it  is  able  to  defend  itself,  it  should  call  for  no 
protection.  The  forms  of  American  industry  are  wonderfully  diversified. 
The  great  body  of  the  farmers  of  the  country  constitute  a  large  element  of 
what  may  be  called  American  industry,  and  I  know  of  no  attack  upon  them 
so  serious  in  its  character  as  that  made  by  the  tariff;  and  if  the  farmers 
need  protection  against  anything,  it  is  against  protection.  There  are 
thousands  of  printers  in  the  country ;  who  attacks  or  proposes  to  attack 
them?  No  one,  except  it  be  the  tariff,  which  enhances  the  cost  of  the 
material  with  which  their  industry  is  carried  on,  of  the  clothes  which  they 
wear,  of  the  coal  which  they  burn,  of  the  lumber  with  which  their  homes 
are  built,  of  the  salt  which  they  consume,  and  of  the  books  which  they 
read.  There  are  thousands  of  ship-builders  in  the  country ;  who  attacks 
them  and  their  interests,  and  from  what  enemy  do  they  need  to  be  pro 
tected?  The  deserted  ship  yards  of  the  East  answer  this  question — they 
need  to  be  protected  against  protection,  and  that  is  all  the  protection  they 
need.  The  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  carpenters  and  joiners, 
boot  and  shoemakers,  blacksmiths,  and  the  daily  toilers  with  their  hands, 
upon  the  land  or  upon  the  sea,  are  threatened  with  no  attack  against 
which,  for  their  own  protection,  the  intervention  of  the  government  is  ne 
cessary. 

"The  fundamental  principle  of  American  politics  is  'the  greatest  good 
to  the  greatest  number.'  As  a  member  of  the  Republican  party,  I  at  the 
organization  of  that  party  believed  that  the  institution  of  slavery  was  a 
special  interest.  I  was  willing  to  say  of  it,  'if  it  can  stand  up  and  sustain 
itself  against  the  sharp  and  eager  competition  of  free  labor,  let  it  stand. 
If  it  cannot,  let  it  fall.  I  am  opposed  to  protecting  it,  for  the  protection  of 
that  interest  is  a  war  upon  all  other  interests.'  I  deny  that  the  imposition 
of  heavy  tariffs  upon  particular  articles  of  manufacture  is  protection.  It  is 
a  burden  instead  of  a  protection  ;  a  burden  upon  all  those  who  use  or  con 
sume  such  articles;  a  bounty  to  the  persons  manufacturing  them,  that  bounty 
being  paid  by  the  consumer ;  and  if  the  consumers  are  more  numerous  than 
the  manufactures,  the  fundamental  idea  of  our  politics  is  at  once  violated, 
government  then  being  administered,  not  for  the  greatest  good  of  the  greatest 
number,  but  for  the  greatest  good  to  the  least  number,  and  the  least  good  to 
the  greater  number.  Moreover,  it  is  not  the  policy  of  our  government  to  con 
fer  special  privileges  upon  any  special  classes  of  men.  Our  theory  is  that 
of  individual  development,  of  leaving  each  man  the  architect  of  his  own 
fortunes.  All  that  our  government,  or  indeed  any  government,  should  do  is 
to  see  to  it  that  in  the  race  each  man  starts,  before  the  law,  even  with  his 
neighbor.  In  such  a  race,  to  place  extra  weights  upon  the  swift-footed  and 
the  strong-lunged  man  is  not,  in  fact,  protection  to  the  weak-kneed  and  the 


A  SPEECH  ON  FREE  TRADE,  iS/O.  239 

narrow-chested  man.  He  runs  no  faster,  nor  \vill  his  legs  or  lungs  hold  out 
any  longer,  by  reason  of  the  weights  which  are  put  upon  his  competitor.  He 
may  under  such  circumstances,  win  in  the  race;  but  the  purpose  of  govern 
ment  is  that  the  swiftest,  and  not  that  the  slowest  man  shall  win.  Who 
would  dream  of  calling  such  a  policy  'the  protection  of  American  speed, 
wind,  and  bottom?'  In  such  a  race  I  would  prefer  to  see  the  iron  manu 
facturer  and  the  farmer  start  even;  but,  if  the  farmer  is  to  be  loaded  down 
with  heavy  weights  of  taxation,  and  not  only  that,  shall  be  compelled  to  stop 
and  lift  his  competitor  over  all  the  rough  places  which  he  may  encounter  on 
the  route,  I  should  call  it  a  very  unfair  race,  and  would  never  think,  were  it 
not  suggested  by  the  iron  manufacturer  himself,  that  I  had  all  the  time  been 
protecting  American  industry.  Reason  and  refine  upon  it  as  we  may,  pro 
tection  to  any  manufacturing  interest  means  simply  such  legislation  as  enables 
the  manufacturer  to  sell  his  manufactured  article  for  a  higher  price  than  he 
otherwise  could  obtain,  and  which  compels  the  consumer  to  pay  for  such 
article  a  higher  price  than  he  would  otherwise  be  compelled  to  pay.  If  it 
does  not  mean  this,  it  means  nothing.  If  the  tariff  which  is  imposed  for  the 
purpose  of  protection  does  not  enable  the  manufacturer  to  sell  his  wares  at 
a  higher  price  than  they  would  command  without  the  tariff,  of  what  use  is 
the  tariff  to  him?  For  the  only  way  in  which  he  can  be  benefited  is  by  the 
enhanced  price.  This  enhanced  price  the  consumer  is  obliged  to  pay,  not  to 
the  government,  but  to  the  manufacturer ;  and  thus  one  kind  of  industry  is 
compelled  to  pay  tribute  to  another.  A  special  class  is  privileged  and 
enriched  at  the  expense  and  to  the  impoverishment  of  another  class.  The 
home  manufacturer  is  completely  protected  only  when  he  succeeds  in  shut 
ting  out  and  excluding  from  competition  with  him  the  wares  of  the  foreign 
manufacturer.  When  that  is  accomplished,  revenue  ceases;  and  in  precisely 
the  same  proportion  that  a  tariff  operates  as  a  protection  to  the  home  man 
ufacturer,  does  it  operate  to  reduce  the  revenues  of  the  government. 

"  Not  only  does  the  so-called  protection  system  offend  in  the  particulars 
which  I  have  named,  but  it  is  also  a  direct  violation  of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen 
to  sell  where  he  pleases,  and  to  buy  where  he  can  buy  cheapest.  Every  man 
should  be  permitted  to  sell  his  labor  where  he  can  get  the  highest  price  for 
it.  The  question  is  not,  after  all,  how  many  dollars  does  the  laboring  man 
receive  for  a  day's  work,  but  how  much  of  what  he  must  consume  will  his 
day's  labor  purchase?  If  a  day's  labor  at  $3  per  day  will  purchase  for 
the  laboring  man  his  hat,  or  his  boots,  or  the  blanket  which  he  needs,  he 
is  receiving  better  pay  than  when  he  gets  $5  per  day,  but  his  boots,  or  his 
hat,  or  his  blanket  costs  him  $10.  The  laborer  should  be  permitted  to  take 
his  labor  or  its  products  to  the  market,  where,  in  exchange  for  those  com 
modities  which  he  needs,  he  can  get  the  most  of  such  commodities.  But  to 
compel  the  farmer  to  exchange  one  day's  labor  for  one  yard  of  cloth  man 
ufactured  in  New  England,  when  he  might  exchange  the  same  amount  of 
labor  for  two  yards  of  cloth  manufactured  in  Old  England,  is  merely  a  sys 
tem  of  legalized  plunder  of  the  farmer,  instead  of  protection  to  American 
industry. 

"  I  apprehend  that,  should  the  government  levy  a  direct  tax  upon  all  the 


24O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

property  01  the  country,  to  be  paid  over  directly  to  the  iron  manufacturers, 
so  that  they  might  be  enabled  to  hold  their  own  against  the  competition  of 
the  foreign  manufacturers,  but  few  would  be  found  who  would  justify  such 
an  exercise  of  the  power  of  taxation.  If  there  is  any  difference  between  such 
a  plan  and  a  tariff  for  protection,  the  difference  is  against  the  tariff.  When 
reduced  to  its  exact  practical  operations,  the  protection  of  American  indus 
try,  so  called,  is  simply  the  forcible  taking  from  the  consumer  of  a  portion 
of  his  earnings,  and  handing  it  over  to  the  manufacturer.  The  proposition 
to  the  consumer  is  simply  this  :  We,  the  government,  will  take  from  you  10 
or  15  or  20  per  cent,  of  your  earnings,  and  give  it  to  the  manufacturer,  and, 
he  will  spend  it  so  much  more  judiciously  than  you  would,  that  ultimately, 
and  in  the  process  of  time,  it  will,  in  some  curious  and  circuitous  manner, 
which  we  haven't  the  time  to  explain  now,  rebound  more  greatly  to  your 
advantage  than  it  would  had  you  spent  it  yourself  and  for  yourself. 

"We  are  all  now  in  favor  of  free  speech,  free  thought,  free  soil,  free 
labor ;  what  is  there  about  trade  that  it  should  not  be  free  ?  If  I  am  per 
mitted  to  attend  church  where  I  please,  to  think  upon  all  political  and 
religious  subjects  as  I  please,  why  should  I  not  be  permitted  to  buy  and 
sell  where  I  please?  Why  should  I  be  compelled  to  make  my  exchange 
of  coin  for  woolen  and  cotton  goods  in  New  England,  my  exchange  of  my 
wheat  for  iron  goods  in  Pennsylvania,  my  pork  and  beef  for  salt  at 
Syracuse  or  Saginaw?  Am  I,  thus  compulsorily  driven  to  a  particular 
market,  a  free  man?  So  far  as  my  corn  and  wheat  and  pork  and  beef  are 
concerned,  I  have  to  come  in  competition  with  the  world.  The  prices  which 
I  secure  for  them  are  fixed  by  the  markets  of  the  world.  I  am  compelled 
to  sell,  giving  to  the  purchaser  all  the  benefits  of  the  largest  competition, 
but  am  compelled  to  purchase  in  a  restricted  market.  This,  we  are  assured, 
protects  American  industry. 

"The  evils  resulting  from  the  protective  system  being  so  direct  and 
immediate,  so  plain  and  so  easily  understood,  we  are  naturally  led  to  inquire. 
What  compensation  does  the  system  furnish  for  the  many  evils  which  flow 
from  it?  It  will  hardly  do  to  answer  this  inquiry  by  saying  that  the  system 
fosters  and  encourages  American  industry,  for  if  the  entire  agricultural 
interests  are  compelled  to  pay  tribute  to  the  manufacturing,  certainly  the 
former  are  not  thereby  fostered  and  encouraged  in  following  agricultural 
pursuits.  The  ship-builder  is  not  fostered  and  encouraged  in  building  ships 
so  long  as,  through  the  operation  of  a  tariff,  he  is  compelled  to  pay  so  high 
a  price  for  almost  every  article  which  enters  into  the  construction  of  a  ship 
that  it  costs  him  nearly  twice  as  much  to  build  a  ship  here  as  it  costs  the 
Englishman  to  build  one  in  his  own  ports.  So  long  as  that  difference  exists 
in  the  cost  of  ship-building,  those  who  desire  ships  will  have  them  built 
where  they  can  be  built  the  cheapest,  and  the  industry  of  our  home  ship 
builder,  so  far  from  being  fostered  and  encouraged,  is  destroyed,  and  he  is 
driven  from  that  employment. 

"But  we  are  assured  that  by  the  protection  of  home  industry  we  furnish 
a  home  market  for  our  own  products.  It  requires  some  argument,  and 
pretty  close  attention,  to  the  statement  of  the  argument,  to  clearly  perceive 


A    SPEECH    ON    FREE    TRADE,     I  8/ O.  24! 

how  the  farmer,  in  being  compelled  by  a  protective  tariff  to  pay  for  his 
reapers  and  threshers,  his  hoes  and  his  spades,  his  wagons  and  his  harness, 
his  clothing  and  his  salt,  anywhere  from  15  to  20  per  cent,  more  than  he 
otherwise  would  be  compelled,  receives  an  adequate  compensation  from  the 
fact  that  the  persons  to  whom  these  prices  are  paid  reside  at  Pittsburg  and 
Lowell,  instead  of  at  Sheffield  and  Manchester.  It  is  quite  true  that  the 
man  who  employs  his  entire  time  in  manufacturing  iron  will  not  be  able  to 
till  the  soil,  but  this  is  quite  as  true  of  the  artizan  in  England  as  in  Penn 
sylvania.  In  order  to  enhance  the  price  of  grain,  the  general  demand  for 
it  must  be  increased.  Our  grain  market  responds  as  readily  to  the  State 
of  the  English  harvests  as  to  the  condition  of  our  own.  If  to-day  one  half 
the  laborers  in  the  fields  in  England  should  be  withdrawn  from  that  form 
of  industry,  that  vacancy  not  being  supplied,  and  at  once  transferred  to  the 
mill  and  the  workshop,  the  effect  would  as  readily  be  felt  here  as  should 
the  same  transfer  be  made  from  our  own  fields.  Unless  the  system  of  pro 
tection  decreases  the  number  of  grain  producers,  I  fail  to  see  how  it  is  to 
affect  the  prices  of  grain  advantageously.  It  is  not,  I  believe,  claimed  that 
protection  actually"  increases  the  population.  The  system  creates  no  addi 
tional  mouths,  and  unless  it  be  demonstrated  that  the  worker  in  an  iron 
mill  or  in  a  cotton  factory  eats  more, — is  from  the  nature  of  his  pursuits  a 
hungrier  man  than  other  kinds  of  laborers, — I  fail  to  see  how,  by  the  pro 
tective  system,  the  grain  market  is  improved. 

"We  are  also  assured  that  the  protective  system  keeps  gold  at  home; 
that,  inasmuch  as  it  is  not  expended  for  foreign  manufactures,  it  is  retained 
in  the  country,  and  we  are  thereby  made  the  richer  for  such  retention. 
Even  if  that  result  were  certain  to  follow  from  the  protective  system,  it, 
would  by  no  means  furnish  a  substantial  argument  in  its  favor.  If  my  gold 
will  buy  me  more  of  what  I  need  by  expending  it  abroad  than  at  home 
the  actual  wealth  of  the  country  is  lessened  by  compelling  me  to  spend  it 
at  home.  If  I  receive  for  my  labor  five  dollars  per  day,  in  gold,  and  with 
that  gold  can  buy  one  blanket  in  New  England  and  two  blankets  in  Old 
England,  I  am  a  loser,  and  the  country  is  a  loser,  in  compelling  me  to  buy  my 
blankets  in  New  England.  I  am  worth,  under  such  a  system,  just  one  blanket 
less  than  I  would  be  without  it.  The  gold  which  I  receive  represents  my 
day's  labor,  and  the  more  of  what  I  need  to  consume  I  am  enabled  to  get 
with  my  day's  labor,  the  better  I  am  off. 

"Another  point  strenuously  urged  by  the  advocates  of  protection  is  that  it 
diversifies  American  industry.  I  do  not  believe  that  industry  can  be  diver 
sified  by  legislation.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  natural  tendencies  of  man 
kind,  particularly  in  this  country,  set  so  strongly  towards  the  tilling  of  the 
soil,  and  rural  lives,  that  an  act  of  Congress  is  necessary  to  check  them. 
The  necessities  and  wants  of  men  are  all  the  provocatives  needed  to  diver 
sify  labor.  This  has  been  shown  to  be  so  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  ; 
it  will  probably  continue  so  to  the  end.  Our  first  parents  were,  in  their  first 
and  happiest  condition,  engaged  in  purely  rural  pursuits  and  pleasures.  After 
their  expulsion  from  Paradise,  Adam  was  compelled  to  manufacture  either  a 
hoe  or  a  spade,  before  he  could  dig  the  soil.  Eve  also  manufactured  an 
16 


242  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

apron.  Tubal  Cain  was  a  blacksmith.  Abel  was  a  wool  grower.  Noah 
was  at  one  time  a  ship-builder,  a-nd  after  the  flood  manufactured  wines  from 
grapes  grown  in  his  own  vineyard,  and,  as  we  are  informed,  was  on  one 
occasion  at  least  a  very  liberal  consumer  of  his  own  products.  We  do  not 
all  raise  wheat  and  corn,  although  we  all  consume  bread.  But  the  farmer 
needs  something  besides  bread.  He  needs  clothing,  and  the  manufacturer 
supplies  it  to  him.  His  horses  must  be  shod, — the  blacksmith  does  it  for 
him.  His  grain  must  reach  a  market, — the  carrier  takes  it  to  the  market 
for  him.  He  must  have  a  house  to  shelter  himself, — the  mechanic  builds  it 
for  him.  His  children  must  be  taught, — the  schoolmaster  teaches  them  for 
him.  He  must  have  books  and  papers  to  read, — the  printer  and  the  pub 
lisher  furnish  them.  The  manufacturer  of  clothes,  the  blacksmith,  the 
carrier,  the  mechanic,  the  teacher,  the  printer,  and  the  publisher,  by  the 
various  articles  which  they  furnish  the  farmer,  supply  themselves  with  bread. 
The  very  structure  of  civilized  society  is  rested  upon  this  variety  of  wants 
and  necessities,  and  the  consequent  variety  and  diversity  of  employments  by 
which  they  may  be  supplied. 

"  But  I  insist  that  the  natural  result  of  the  protective  policy  is  not  to 
diversify  labor,  but  to  commit  it  to  some  particular  channels.  For  if,  through 
the  intervention  of  the  government,  the  manufactures  of  iron  goods  and  wool 
en  goods  receive  particular  benefits  and  advantages  at  the  expense  of  other 
forms  of  industry,  the  industry  which  is  pursued  without  these  adventitious 
aids  will  certainly  desire  to  change  its  form  and  adopt  the  kind  thus  specially 
favored.  When  the  farmer  and  the  printer,  the  ship-builder  and  the  car 
penter,  find  that  the  government  leaves  them  to  take  care  of  themselves, 
and  compels  them  to  pay  tribute  to  the  iron  manufacturer  and  the  cotton  or 
woolen  manufacturer,  they  will  abandon  their  former  pursuits  and  seek  the 
more  favored  one,  just  as  certainly  as  the  night  succeeds  the  day.  The 
attempt  to  diversify  labor  by  legislation  is  like  an  attempt  to  diversify  the 
character  of  our  garments  by  a  statute.  We  will  probably  wear  light  goods 
when  the  heats  of  summer  are  upon  us,  and  heavier  and  thicker  ones  when 
the  frosts  of  winter  are  about  us.  We  diversify  our  wearing  apparel  to  meet 
the  diversities  of  climate ;  we  will  just  as  naturally  diversify  our  labor  to 
meet  the  diversities  of  our  wants,  necessities,  and  tastes. 

"  Another  favorite  argument  of  the  protectionists  is  that  it  is  unjust  to  sub 
mit  our  industry  to  competition  with  what  they  call  the  pauper  labor  of  Europe. 
This  argument,  if  it  may  be  called  an  argument,  answers  itself.  The  price 
of  the  manufactured  article  naturally  depends  in  a  great  measure  on  the  price 
of  labor. employed  in  its  manufacture.  The  price  of  that  labor  depends  neces 
sarily  upon  the  relation  between  the  supply  of  such  labor  and  the  demand 
for  it.  If,  by  a  protective  tariff,  the  production  of  cotton  goods  is  largely 
and  unnaturally  increased,  the  demand  for  that  kind  of  labor  will  also  'be 
increased  ;  the  supply  will  meet  that  demand  ;  industry  will  be  deviated 
from  other  channels,  and  the  very  fact  that  a  feverish  and  unnatural  demand 
for  that  kind  of  labor  is  created,  tends  inevitably  to  the  lessening  of  the 
wages  of  the  operative.  An  artificial  stimulus  given  to  the  manufacturing 
interests  in  this  country  brings  to  our  shores  what  is  called  the  pauper  labor  of 


A    SPEECH    ON    FREE   TRADE,   iS/O.  243 

Europe.  With  that  labor  our  own  industry  must  be  brought  into  competition, 
and  there  is  no  method  more  positively  certain  of  bringing  the  prices  of 
labor  down  to  mere  factory  rates  than  by  making  the  country  one  vast  fac 
tory.  The  jingling  phrase,  'American  prices  for  American  labor,'  means 
nothing,  unless  it  be  a  fact  that  American  prices  are  better  and  larger  than 
any  other  prices.  If  English  prices  for  labor  are  higher  than  American 
prices,  then  I  am  in  favor  of  English  prices  for  American  labor.  The  fact 
is  that  when  we  take  into  account  the  difference  between  our  currency  and 
gold,  and  the  price  of  living  between  this  country  and  the  Old  World,  the 
prices  paid  to  the  skilled  artizan  in  England,  in  France,  and  in  Belgium,  are 
greater  than  are  paid  in  this  country. 

"  Legislation  cannot  regulate  prices  any  more  than  it  can  change  the  rota 
tion  of  the  seasons.  A  policy  which  looks  to  a  rapid  and  artificial  increase 
in  the  number  of  laborers  in  any  branch  of  industry  can  have  but  one  con 
sequence,  and  that  is  a  reduction  in  the  rewards  of  each  laborer.  Unless 
all  natural  laws  have  ceased  to  operate,  such  must  be  the  result.  The  old 
manufacturers  of  the  Damascus  blade  needed  no  protection.  The  superior 
quality  of  the  steel,  and  the  superior  skill  of  the  artisans  engaged  in 
the  manufacture,  furnished  all  the  protection  that  was  needed.  Demosthenes 
needed  no  -protection  against  the  competition  of  foreign  orators  ;  nor  did 
Pericles  or  Phidias  seek  a  discriminating  tariff  to  aid  them  in  their  appeals 
to  Athenian  taste  and  culture  against  the  competition  of  the  foreign  sculptor  or 
painter.  Socrates  and  Plato,  for  success  with  their  countrymen,  needed  no 
tariff  upon  philosophy  to  give  them  precedence  over  all  competitors,  but 
the  vigor  of  their  understandings  and  the  marvellous  skill  with  which  they 
gave  expression  to  their  ideas  adequately  protected  them  against  any  and  all 
competition.  Great  skill  and  great  genius  protect  themselves.  They  carry 
always  with  them  a  shield  which  renders  them  absolutely  secure  against  all 
attacks,  save  those  made  by  greater  skill  and  greater  genius  ;  and  before  such 
attacks  they  ought  to  be  subdued ;  they  will  be  overcome,  and  all  the  legis 
lative  art  and  legerdemain  on  earth  cannot  long  postpone  such  result. 

"We  are  also  assured  that  the  country  is  new  and  young,  and  that  we 
must  have  a  protective  tariff  for  the  benefit  of  our  infant  manufacturers. 
When,  I  ask,  will  the  country  be  old?  When  .will  our  manufactures  pass 
the  adolescent  period,  and  reach  the  quality  of  manhood?  If  to-day  there 
were  carved  out  of  the  British  Isles  another  empire,  the  empire  thus  newly 
created,  as  a  distinct  national  existence,  would  be  new,  but  in  every  other 
sense  it  would  be  as  old  as  the  original  empire  from  which  it  was  taken. 
Nations  are  not  new  or  old  dating  merely  from  the  commencement  of  their 
national  existence,  but  from  the  experience  with  which  the  history  of  the 
world  has  supplied  them.  This  young  republic  of  ours,  almost  the  newest 
born  among  the  nations,  is  vastly  older  than  the  old  Assyrians,  who  flour 
ished  hundreds  of  years  and  then  fell,  thousands  of  years  ago.  It  is  older 
in  the  experiences  of  the  world  than  the  Egyptians,  whose  unriddled 
sphinxes  lie  half  buried  in  the  desert  sands,  and  whose  mighty  pyra 
mids,  records  of  which  are  lost  in  the  early  morning  of  this  world's 
history,  in  the  midst  of  utter  barrenness,  rear  their  collossal  forms  against 


244  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  sky.  All  that  past  art,  or  science,  or  skill,  or  thought,  or  study,  has 
taught,  is  ours.  Reckoning  the  age  of  a  people  by  its  possessions,  we  are 
the  oldest  people  in  the  world.  There  is  no  infancy  in  our  national  life.  It 
is  the  bone  and  gristle  of  manhood.  That  our  territorial  extent  is  great, 
and  as  yet  undeveloped,  is  true,  but  a  protective  tariff  will  neither  lessen  its 
territorial  extent  nor  assist  in  the  rescue  from  the  native  wildness  of  the 
prairie  or  the  forest  the  portions  which  the  industry  of  man  has  not  yet 
touched.  In  the  sense  in  which  it  is  said  that  our  country  is  new,  it  will 
remain  so  just  as  long  as  it  has  not  the  same  amount  of  population  to  the 
square  mile  as  England  and  France  and  Belgium.  A  protective  tariff  will 
not  hasten  that  increase  of  population;  nor  would  the  immediate  doubling 
of  the  laboring  interests  materially  benefit  those  who  are  already  here. 

"But  what  about  our  infant  manufacturers?  If  I  were  plundered  of  my 
possessions,  it  would  be  but  a  sorry  consolation  to  be  told  that  an  infant 
had  done  it.  Certainly  I  should  not  approve  a  policy  which  looked  to  the 
increase  of  the  strength  and  plundering  capacity  of  the  infant.  I  should  be 
apt  to  say,  he  may  be  an  infant  in  years,  but  he  is  a  giant  in  strength. 
Hercules,  when  he  strangled  the  serpents  and  vanquished  the  Nemean  lion, 
was  an  infant,  but  among  serpents  and  lions  an  exceedingly  dangerous  and 
uncomfortable  infant ;  and  had  it  been  left  to  the  vote  of  the  serpents  and 
the  lions,  I  doubt  not  there  would  have  been  a  unanimous  expression  of 
opinion  against  their  being  compelled  to  contribute  to  the  increase  of  his 
strength  on  the  ground  of  his  infancy.  In  all  those  essentials  which  ordi 
narily  characterize  infancy,  have  our  manufacturing  interests  any  of  the 
marks  of  infancy  about  them?  If  their  present  pecuniary  strength  and  power 
is  infancy,  God  deliver  us  from  their  youth  and  their  manhood!  Abun 
dantly  able  to  go  alone,  I  insist  that  they  now  shall  go  alone,  and  that  neither 
the  government  shall  of  itself  help  them,  nor  compel  me  to  help  them. 

"But  the  laborer  himself  is  not  assisted  by  a  protective  tariff.  The  pro 
prietor  derives  all  the  benefits  from  it,  and  the  profits  all  go  to  him.  Not 
only  that,  but  protection  is  the  ultimate  ruin  of  our  manufactures.  It  stimu 
lates  an  unnatural  and  artificial  production  ;  it  withdraws  capital  and  labor 
from  pursuits  in  which  they  are  naturally  employed,  and,  under  a  delusive 
prospect  of  larger  profits,  inveigles  them  into  the  protected  manufacture  or 
pursuit.  Thus  an  extortionate  tariff  upon  iron  will  greatly  stimulate  its  pro 
duction  until  the  market  is  glutted,  and  ruin  follows.  Cotton  mills  are  even 
now  closed.  The  tariff  on  wool  led  thousands  into  wool-growing  who  would 
not  otherwise  have  engaged  in  it,  and  the  wool-grower  now  knows  that,  so 
far  from  conferring  any  substantial  benefits  upon  him,  the  protective  tariff 
is  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 

"It  ruins  the  inventive  genius  of  the  people,  by  rendering  its  exercise 
unnecessary.  In  the  affairs  of  this  world,  skill  must  meet  skill.  Natural 
obstacles  in  the  way  of  competition  must  be  overcome  by  greater  ingenuity 
in  mechanical  appliances.  The  manufacturer  of  pig  iron  can  slumber  and 
run  his  mills  upon  the  old  plans,  and  by  the  old  methods  of  machinery. 
The  bounties  which  the  government  compels  the  public  to  pay  him  render 
it  unnecessary  for  htm  to  do  more  than  to  suffer  things  to  run  as  they  are. 


A  SPEECH  ON  FREE  TRADE,  l8/O.  245 

When  necessity  drove  the  inventive  genius  of  the  people  in  that  direction, 
the  sewing  machine  was  one  of  its  results,  and  with  those  machines  we  now 
supply  the  world.  Our  vast  fields  presented,  for  the  reaping  of  our  grains, 
the  preparation  of  the  soil,  planting  of  the  seeds,  and  the  harvesting  of  the 
ripened  crops,  new  problems  ;  and,  turned  by  necessity  in  those  directions, 
the  genius  of  the  people  brought  forth  the  patent  drill,  the  reaper,  the 
thresher,  the  cultivator,  and  the  harvester.  Without  a  navy  when  the 
rebellion  began,  and  with  three  thousand  miles  of  sea  coast  to  blockade,  the 
necessities  of  the  situation  turned  in  that  direction  the  inventive  genius  of 
the  people,  and  one  bright  morning  at  Hampton  Roads  the  sudden  offspring 
of  that  ingenuity,  the  Monitor,  revolutionized  the  naval  architecture  of  the 
world,  and  rendered  the  old  wooden  walls  as  useless  and  as  worthless  as 
mere  fabrics  of  pasteboard. 

"Let  us  not  distrust  ourselves.  The  shoemakers  of  Lynn  need  no  protec 
tion.  The  wonderful  skill  of  their  machinery  places  foreign  competition  out 
of  the  question.  Open  the  door  to  competition.  Let  it  be  known  that  in 
any  branch  of  industry  there  is  a  necessity  that  American  ingenuity  should 
exhibit  itself,  and  it  will  certainly  do  so.  In  its  presence,  all  natural  diffi 
culties  and  obstacles  will  be  overcome,  and  it  will  assuredly  triumph. 

"Protection  destroys  our  carrying  trade,  and  thereby  drives  our  vessels 
from  the  seas.  I  have  already  shown  that,  as  a  regular  pursuit,  ship-building 
in  this  country  has  substantially  ceased.  The  tariffs  upon  the  materials 
which  enter  into  the  construction  of  a  ship  are  so  enormous,  and  the  cost 
is  thereby  so  greatly  enhanced,  that  competition  with  the  foreign  ship-builders 
is  simply  impossible.  But  the  trouble  does  not  cease  here.  Before  the  tariff, 
a  large  and  profitable  trade  was  carried  on  with  South  American  ports, 
where  our  calico  and  sheetings,  and  other  products  of  our  labor,  were 
exchanged  for  their  wools.  This  trade  gave  employment  to  the  ship-builder 
and  ship  owner,  and  to  the  sailor.  It  opened  a  market  for  our  own  pro 
ducts,  and  gave  thereby  employment  to  our  own  labor.  Our  own  wares 
were  sold  at  profitable  prices.  We  were  supplied  with  cheap  and  fine  wools. 
Every  one  was  benefited.  But  the  protective  tariff  laid  its  hand  upon  wool, 
and  all  these  interests  perished  as  if  they  had  been  blighted  with  a  mildew. 
On  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean,  the  Almighty  has  seen  fit  to  confer 
warmer  suns  and  more  genial  heats  than  shine  upon  the  salt  marshes  of 
Syracuse  or  Saginaw.  Congress  has  sought  to  correct  this  order  of  Provi 
dence,  and  to  protect  the  Onondaga  and  the  Saginaw  salt,  manufactured  by 
mechanical  heats  and  appliances,  against  that  perfected  by  the  cheaper 
agencies  of  solar  heat.  We  bring  in  our  vessels  no  more  salt  from  the 
shores  and  the  Islands  of  the  Mediterranean.  We  get  poorer  salt,  and  at 
a  higher  price,  than  formerly ;  but  be  assured,  Providence  will  win. 

"Even  though  their  culture  be  protected  by  an  Act  of  Congress,  oranges 
will  not  grow  so  luxuriantly  in  Vermont  as  in  Portugal.  The  sun  still  shines 
as  warm  in  Southern  Europe,  and  as  coyly  and  as  coldly  in  New  York  and 
Michigan,  as  before  Congress  undertook  to  decree  that  it  should  be  other 
wise ;  and  the  benefits  and  blessings  of  God's  sunshine  we  must  have,  come 
from  whatever  source  they  may. 


.y 

246  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"  We  have  an  enormous  tariff  on  coal.  As  well  might  you  attempt  to 
impose  a  tax  upon  one  of  the  elemental  forces  of  nature  as  upon  coal.  It 
is  the  power  which  moves  all  our  machinery,  and  the  use  of  which  enters 
directly  or  indirectly  into  every  article  of  human  wants,  necessities,  comforts, 
or  luxuries.  Yet  we  are  obliged  to  pay  tribute  for  the  use  of  that  power 
which  drives  our  machinery,  and  which  heats  our  houses.  As  well  might 
you  tax  the  sunshine.  The  tariff  on  iron  not  only  enhances  the  price  of 
every  article  into  which  it  enters  and  which  we  are  obliged  to  use/  but  it 
swallows  up  the  hard  labor  of  the  farmer  in  the  cost  of  transportation  of  his 
products  to  a  market.  The  cost  of  railroad  construction  is  thereby  enhanced, 
and  an  advance  in  rates  of  transportation  follows  as  a  necessity.  In  its 
practical  operations,  our  present  tariff  is  simply  a  nuisance.  Of  about 
4000  articles  subject  to  the  tariff,  twenty  furnish  half  the  revenue,  and  the 
balance  are  purely  mischievous. 

' '  A  gentleman  of  the  name  of  Spaulding  prepares  glue  and  sells  it  for  a 
good  price  under  the  name  of  '  Spaulding' s  Prepared  Glue.'  His  is  Ameri 
can  industry,  and  hence  is  protected.  Last  year  the  government  received 
by  way  of  revenue  from  the  tariff  on  glue  the  magnificent  sum  of  seventeen  dol 
lars.  Our  hens  are  protected  ;  and  in  1868  the  government  received  $6.90 
from  .duties  on  ostrich  eggs  ;  and  yet  I  believe  that,  even  thus  protected  the 
native  hen  will  never  succeed — so  far  at  least  as  the  size  of  the  egg  is  con 
cerned — in  competition  with  the  ostrich.  Sauer  Kraut  is  protected,  and  the 
protection  yielded  a  revenue  to  the  government  of  six  dollars.  Apple  sauce 
is  also  protected,  and  in  1868  yielded  a  revenue  to  the  government  of 
three  hundred  dollars.  We  are  also  protected  against  Spainish  flies  and 
Brazilian  bugs.  Our  native  flies  and  bugs  are  in  their  infancy,  and  must  be 
protected. 

"Finally,  what  is  a  tariff?  It  is  a  tax.  It  is  nothing  less  than,  and 
nothing  but,  a  tax.  It  is  a  tax  which  we  do  not  pay  to  the  government 
but  to  the  manufacturer  for  his  private  enrichment ;  for  where  protection 
begins  revenue  ceases.  The  consumer  is  impoverished,  the  government  is 
not  aided.  Shall  this  system  be  continued?  The  question  wejnust  answer. 
We  may  dodge  it  and  evade  it  for  a  time ;  but  the  millions  of  men  who  pro 
tected  the  nation  in  the  hour  of  its  sore  peril  and  with  their  lives  demand  that 
this  question  be  answered.  I  am,  for  myself,  prepared  to  answer  it.  My 
answer  is :  Our  soil  is  free,  our  men  are  free,  our  thought  is  free,  our  speech 
is  free,  our  trade  shall  be  free." 


CHAPTER  XV. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1872. 

THE  "LIBERAL  REPUBLICANS"  AND  THE  CINCINNATI  CONVENTION — STATE 
CONVENTION  OF  ILLINOIS — MR.  STORRS,  AT  SPRINGFIELD,  REVIEWS  THE 
SITUATION— CIVIL  SERVICE  REFORM— REVENUE  REFORM — THE  TARIFF — 
THE  NATIONAL  DEBT — RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS — THE  PHILADEL 
PHIA  CONVENTION — SPEECH  AT  OTTAWA,  ILLINOIS — THE  CRADLE  OF  THE 
REPUBLICAN  PARTY — GRANT'S  RECORD — TRENCHANT  REVIEW  OF  THE 
RECORD  OF  HORACE  GREELEY— THE  ONE  TERM  PRINCIPLE — SPEECH  AT 
FREEPORT,  ILLINOIS — COMPARISON  OF  THE'  "  LIBERAL "  AND  REPUBLICAN 
PLATFORMS — GREELEY  AND  LINCOLN — SPEECH  AS  DIXON,  ILLINOIS — THE 
CONGREGATION  DISMISS  THE  CHOIR — GREELEY'S  FAMOUS  PLAN  FOR  THE 
RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS — THE  KU-KLUX  AND  ENFORCEMENT  BILLS 
—  SPEECH  AT  INDIANAPOLIS — SCRIPTURE  ILLUSTRATIONS — THE  CONVERSION 
OF  SAUL — PARABLE  OF  THE  UNJUST  STEWARD — SPEECHES  AT  READING,  PA., 
AND  OTHER  EASTERN  CITIES. 

T  T  7HOEVER,"  says  Senator  Howe,  in  his  article  in  the 
Y  V  North  American  Review  for  June  1878,  "shall  look 
back  out  "of  the  next  generation  and  shall  count  up  the  number 
of  renegade  Republicans  who  congregated  at  Cincinnati  in  1872 
as  candidates  for  President, — all  shouting  for  reform;  all  vocifera 
ting  against  Republican  rascality;  each  led  by  a  little  faction  of 
soreheads,  desperate  and  reckless,  ready  to  stake  their  last  politi 
cal  hope  on  the  success  of  their  favorite;  not  one  thinking  to  be 
elected  by  the  party  represented  at  Cincinnati,  but  each  expecting 
to  be  backed  by  the  party  which  subsequently  assembled  at 
Baltimore, — will  not  fail  to  estimate  that  stupendous  sham  at  its 
true  value." 

One  meritorious  quality  the  bitterest  enemies  of  Mr.  Storrs 
never  could  deny  him,  nor  refuse  to  acknowledge  to  its  full 

247 


248  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

extent, — he  always  had,  in  political  and  in  professional  life,  "the 
courage  of  his  opinions."  He  always  said  the  thing  he  meant, 
and  took  care  that  there  should  be  no  doubt  as  to  where  he 
stood,  whether  before  a  political  audience  or  a  judicial  forum. 
From  his  earliest  years,  he  had  been  a  believer  in  the  political 
doctrines  which  took  ultimate  shape  in  the  organization  of  the 
Republican  party;  and  from  that  creed  he  never  swerved  to  the 
latest  day  of  his  life.  Long  before  the  word  "Stalwart"  was 
imported  into  political  discussion,  he  was  one  ;  the  very  incarna 
tion  of  political  consistency,  and  the  opponent  of  any  course 
looking  to  mere  temporary  expediency.  His  watchword  was 
"  Principle."  Concessions  to  the  disorderly  element  at  the  South, 
known  as  the  "  Ku-Klux,"  were  abhorrent  to  him.  Thoroughly 
learned  in  ,the  history  of  English  constitutional  law,  he  knew 
that  peace  and  order  could  only  be  preserved  in  the  Southern 
States  by  means  of  the  reconstruction  measures  of  General 
Grant's  administration ;  and  that  any  truckling  to  the  ruffians 
who  drove  negroes  from  the  polls,  and  shot  down  white  men 
suspected  of  sympathy  with  the  negro  in  respect  to  his  civil 
rights,  was  mere  cowardice,  and  sure  to  end  in  defeating  the 
action  of  Congress  on  behalf  of  that  Oppressed  race.  When, 
therefore,  a  number  of  disaffected  Republicans,  headed  by  Carl 
Schurz  and  others,  organized  an  opposition  to  General  Grant's 
re-election  because  of  his  Southern  policy,  and  on  other  grounds, 
Mr.  Storrs  came  to  the  front,  and  although  the  disastrous  fire  of 
1871  had  inflicted  damage  on  him  compared  with  which  the 
larger  losses  of  merchants  were  to  them  but  small,  he  laid  aside 
all  thought  of  professional  emolument,  and  threw  himself  heart 
and  soul  into  the  cause  for  the  success  of  which  all  patriotic 
citizens  of  the  United  States  then  were  hoping  with  bated 
breath. 

The  disaffected  Republicans  were  joined  by  some  who  had 
left  the  ranks  when  Andrew  Johnson  was  impeached,  who  had 
since  then  affiliated  with  the  Democrats,  and  who  now  hoped  to 
return  to  place  and  power  by  the  help  of  the  Democrats,  with 
whom  they  expected  to  form  a  coalition.  They  held  a  conven 
tion  at  Cincinnati  on  the  first  day  of  May,  1872,  and  nominated 
for  President,  Horace  Greeley,  editor  of  the  New  York  Tribune ; 
and  for  Vice  President,  B.  Gratz  Brown,  editor  of  a  paper  published 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF     1 8/2.  249 

in  a  country  town  in  the  State  of  Missouri.  The  loyal  Republi. 
cans  were  in  favor  of  honoring  General  Grant  with  a  second  term. 
The  Republican  Convention  of  the  State  of  Illinois  met  at 
Springfield  towards  the  end  of  May.  "  Never  in  the  history  of 
the  Republican  party,"  says  the  report  of  a  Chicago  paper  "  has 
there  been  such  a  spontaneous  assembling  of  the  people  at  a 
State  convention.  The  Cincinnati  movement  has  only  had  the 
effect  to  spur  up  the  Republicans  of  the  State  to  a  sense  of 
their  duty  to  party  and  principle,  and  the  people  are  here  by 
thousands  to  show  their  fidelity  to  the  party  of  liberty,  civiliza 
tion,  and  progress."  A  mass  meeting  was  held  in  the  hall  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  the  night  before  the  opening  of 
the  Convention,  and  Mr.  Storrs,  who  was  there  as  a  delegate, 
struck  the  key  note  of  the  campaign  in  a  vigorous  address.  The 
first  sentences  that  he  uttered  evoked  an  enthusiasm  which  was 
sustained  to  the  end.  He  began  by  saying : 

"  It  is  quite  evident  from  what  I  see  before  me  here  to-night,  that  the 
Republicans  of  the  State  of  Illinois  have  but  little  thought  of  abandoning 
their  party  colors,  or  of  deserting  that  glorious  political  organization  which 
for  fifteen  years  of  our  past  history  has  represented  the  purest  patriotism, 
the  best  thought  and  the  highest  impulses  of  the  country.  Coming  together 
from  every  portion  of  the  State  to  take  counsel  with  each  other,  we  have 
found,  I  have  been  delighted  to  note,  that  in  our  ranks  there  is  no  faltering, 
and  that  no  appeals  to  merely  personal  prejudices,  no  platforms  which  have 
their  foundation  on  mere  personal  grievances,  can  swerve  the  old  party  of 
the  Union  a  hair's  breadth  from  its  course. 

"A  year  ago  the  Democratic  party,  tired  and  heart-sick  at  over  ten  years 
of  continuous  defeats,  took  what  they  called  "a  new  departure."  How 
dismal  a  failure  they  made  of  it  I  will  not  distress  them  nor  weary  you  by 
repeating.  We  have  had  for  several  years  in  our  own  party  many  very 
excellent  gentlemen  who,  wearied  with  success,  and  finding  that  the  Demo 
cratic  "new  departure"  was  a  failure,  have  undertaken  to  get  up  one  of 
their  own,  and  ask  the  Republican  party  to  join  with  them.  The  experi 
ment  which  the  Democracy  tried  was  an  entirely  safe  one,  for  however  it 
might  result,  it  was  impossible  that  their  condition  should  be  any  worse 
than  it  was.  They  could  lose  nothing  by  failure,  and  therefore  it  was 
entirely  safe  to  try.  But  we  are  very  differently  situated.  It  is  very 
doubtful  whether  our  condition  could  be  improved  by  the  success  of  such 
an  experiment,  while  it  is  entirely  certain  that  it  would  be  seriously  dam 
aged  by  a  failure.  As  a  matter  of  common  prudence,  I  object  to  any 
Republican  new  departure.  We  started  right  'at  the  outset.  We  have  been 
going  right  ever  since.  We  have  reached  the  haven  of  success  and  victory 
at  the  end  of  each  trip.  A  new  departure  would  probably  land  us  in 


25O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

another  port,  and  whoever  leaves  our  craft,  to  adopt  the  Democratic  style 
of  navigation,  will  wind  up  by  becoming  one  of  them,  for  new  departure 
will  land  him  where  theirs  landed  them,  on  the  bleak  and  desolate  shores  of 
political  defeat  and  disappointment. 

"I  fail  to  see  any  good  reason  why  I  should  leave  the  Republican  party. 
I  fail  to  see  why  the  party  itself  should  be  dissolved.  If  for  nothing  more 
than  what  it  has  done,  we  should  be  loth  to  desert  it,  and  least  of  all  should 
we  leave  it  until  we  can  find  some  organization  which  will  suit  us  better." 

He  then  appealed  to  the  past  record  of  the  Republican  party, 
and  contended  that  the  interests  of  the  country  would  be  safest 
in  their  hands. 

"While  I  do  not  believe  that  a  political  party  can  always  safely  trust 
itself  to  its  past  achievements,  yet  it  is  true  nevertheless  that  we  may  fairly 
assume  what  course  it  will  pursue  in  the  future  from  what  its  course  and 
policy  have  been  in  the  past.  It  is  precisely  in  this  way  that  we  have,  for 
years  gone,  judged  the  Democratic  party,  and  however  splendid  their  pro 
mises  may  have  been,  we  have  because  their  history  has  been  against  them, 
utterly  lacked  faith  either  in  their  ability  or  willingness  to  perform  them. 

"From  the  earliest  period  in  its  history  down  to  the  present  day,  the 
Republican  party  has  been  the  only  party  of  genuine  progress  and  reform 
which  the  country  has  known.  It  has  also  made  this  character  by  fidelity 
to  its  promises. 

"It  agreed  at  the  outset  to  protect  our  territories  from  the  encroachments 
of  slavery.  It  performed  its  agreement,  and  rescuing  them  from  the  grasp 
of  the  slave  power,  dedicated  them  to  free  labor  forever. 

'•It  agreed  to  preserve  the  Union  itself  and,  how  nobly  that  promise  was 
kept  the  world  now  knows  by  heart. 

"It  promised,  as  the  result  of  its  victories  against  rebellion,  freedom  to  the 
slave — and  in  performance  of  that  promise,  it  at  one  blow  struck  the  shackles 
from  four  millions  of  slaves,  and  lifted  them  from  the  degradation  of  human 
chattel  hood  into  the  dignity  of  American  citizenship. 

"It  agreed  to  protect  the  negro  in  all  the  rights  of  a  free  man,  and  in 
performance  of  that  promise  made  him  a  citizen  and  a  voter. 

"  It  agreed  in  1868  to  preserve  the  national  credit,  and  to-day  hundreds 
of  millions  of  our  debt  have  been  paid  in  the  faithful  performance  of  that 
promise. 

"It  agreed  to  remove,  as  rapidly  as  the  public  safety  would  permit,  all 
disabilities  which  were  imposed  upon  the  people  of  the  seceding  States,  and 
gradually  they  have  been  removed,  and  before  this  administration  shall 
have  closed  they  will  have  ceased  to  exist  altogether. 

"It  has  done  all  that  it  has  agreed  to  do,  and  all  that  the  people  required 
that  it  should  do. 

"For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this  country  a  political  party  has 
crystalized  all  its  political  ideas  into  laws.  Its  platforms  are  now  on  the 
statue-book,  or  imbedded  in  the  Constitution.  The  Republican  platform  of 
to-day  becomes  the  law  of  the  land  to-morrow.  It  deals  in  no  abstractions, 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  25! 

but  its  theories  one  hour  are  parts  in  our  history  the  next.  And  because  it 
has  thus  rapidly  reduced  its  theory  to  practice,  because  it  has  performed  all 
that  it  has  promised,  because  its  engagements  are  all  fulfilled,  we  are 
assured  that  its  work  is  done,  its  mission  ended. 

"But  complaint  is  made  that  it  has  no  new  policy  to  propose;  that  the 
country  requires,  now  that  the  war  has  ended,  a  line  of  policy  looking 
solely  to  the  conditions  of  peace,  and  that  the  Republican  party  has  failed 
to  furnish  it.  On  this  basis  a  new  party  has  been  organized,  called  the 
Liberal  Republicans.  Why  they  are  thus  called,  I  shall  presently  under 
take  to  show:  We  are  all  invited  to  abandon  the  old  organization,  to  throw 
General  Grant  overboard  ;  but  before  accepting  such  invitation,  I  desire  to 
know  what  new  line  of  policy  this  new  party  proposes ;  what  measures  it 
favors  which  are  not  already  adopted  by  the  Republican  party." 

He  proceeded  to  review  the  issues  upon  which  the  Cincinnati 
party  based  their  platform.  In  his  -last  message,  President  Grant 
had  recommended  the  removal  of  the  disabilities  imposed  by  the 
fourteenth  amendment,  and  Congress  had  taken  action  on  the 
subject,  so  that  "general  amnesty"  was  likely  soon  to  be  made  a 
dead  issue. 

On  the  question  of  civil  service  reform,  about  which  a  great 
clamor  was  made  at  Cincinnati,  Mr.  Storrs  again  referred  to  the 
message  of  President  Grant,  advising  a  reform  of  the  civil  service, 
and  announcing  that  he  had  appointed  a  commission  to  devise 
rules  and  regulations  for  the  purpose.  "Their  labors,"  said  Gen 
eral  Grant,  "are  not  yet  complete;  but  it  is  believed  that  they 
will  succeed  in  devising  a  plan  that  can  be  adopted,  to  the  great 
relief  of  the  Executive,  the  heads  of  departments,  and  members 
of  Congress,  and  which  -will  redound  to  the  true  interest  of  the 
public  service.  At  all  events  the  experiment  shall  have  a  fair 
trial." 

"He  appointed  on  that  commission  Joseph  Medill,  one  of  the  editors  of 
the  Chicago  Tribune,  when  the  Chicago  Tribune  was  a  Republican  paper — 
a  true  and  able  man  ;  Geo.  W.  Curtis,  one  of  the  most  cultivated  and  trust 
worthy  men  in  the  country ;  ex-Senator  Cattell,  of  New  Jersey,  and  a  South 
ern  gentleman  of  equal  prominence.  His  desire  to  give  this  civil  service 
reform  a  fair  trial  was  demonstrated  by  the  character  of  the  men  whom  he 
appointed,  each  and  every  one  of  whom  was  know  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
experiment.  Rules  were  established  by  those  Commissioners.  The  President 
has  acted  in  hearty  accord  with  them,  and  Congress  has  appropriated  £25, 
ooo — all  that  was  asked  by  the  Commissioners — for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
their  schemes  into  operation." 

What  more  did  the  new  party  want? 

"Is    it    Revenue    Reform?     They   have  just   nominated   for   President  the 


252  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

most  bigoted,  insane  and  absurd  protectionist  in  the  country,  and  have 
openly  and  conspicuously  abandoned  that  question  as  an  issue  in  national 
politics  by  remitting  it  to  the  people  of  the  Congressional  districts.  Is  it  a 
reduction  of  the  tariff  which  they  desire?  We  need  organize  no  new  party 
on  that  basis,  for  Congress  is  now  reducing  the  tariff  at  least  fifty  millions 
of  dollars.  Is  it  the  payment  of  the  national  debt?  The  Republican  party 
is  paying  it  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars  per  year.  Do 
they  wish  it  paid  more  rapidly?  They  dare  not  say  so.  Is  it  the  resump 
tion  of  specie  payments?  We  are  all  in  favor  of  that,  and  only  differ  in  the 
manner  in  which  specie  payments  shall  be  resumed.  Greeley  says,  '  the 
way  to  resume  is  to  resume."  Is  that  the  policy  of  the  Liberal  party.  They 
have  no  plan.  They  dare  not  name  one.  Are  they  for  the  continuance  of  the 
national  banks  or  against  them?  They  have  not  answered;  they  dare  not 
answer.  Is  it  for  the  further  reduction  of  the  army  and  navy?  They  have 
not  said.  Our  army  is  not  now  a  decent  police  force.  Our  navy  is  notori 
ously  inadequate  to  the  wants  of  the  government.  Do  they  propose  to 
reduce  them  still  further?  They  dare  not  say  so,  and  the  people  demand 
an  increase  rather  than  a  diminuation  of  our  naval  strength.  Is  the  new 
party  founded  upon  the  ground  of  opposition  to  land  grants  to  railroad 
companies?  On  this  question  they  occupy  the  same  ground  that  we  do,  and 
Greeley  has  always  been  the  advocate  of  these  grants.  Is  it  for  the  reduc 
tion  of  taxes?  The  Republican  party  is  fast  reducing  them  by  seventy-five 
million  dollars,  having  previously  immensely  reduced  them.  Is  it  for  settling 
our  foreign  quarrels  by  peaceful  arbitration?  That  is  precisely  what,  for  the 
first  time  in  the  history  of  our  politics,  we  are  doing.  The  Alabama  claims 
we  propose  to  settle  by  arbitration.  We  shall  thus  settle  them.  Before  the 
election  has  arrived  they  will  be  a  'dead  issue."1 

The  proceedings  of  the  Cincinnati  Convention  were  subjected 
to  a  scathing  criticism. 

"The  shame  of  that  convention  was  in  this;  they  were  harmonious  on 
questions  of  principle  on  which  their  differences  were  irreconcilable,  and  they 
were  irreconcilable  on  mere  questions  of  personal  preferment  which  involved 
no  principles  whatever. 

"They  were  agreed  where  agreement  was  shameful.  They  differed  where 
differences  were  contemptible.  Thus,  Greeley  and  Horace  White  agreed  on 
the  tariff — where  it  was  impossible  that  they  should  honestly  agree.  They 
differed  as  to  candidates,  where,  if  their  party  has  been  organized  on  prin 
ciple,  a  disagreement  would  have  been  equally  shameful.  They  surrendered 
principles  to  which  they  should  have  unfalteringly  adhered,  irrespective  of  men 
or  personal  prejudices.  They  clung  to  personal  prejudices,  which  they  should 
have  at  once  surrendered  if  their  party  had  been  one  of  principle.  Thejr 
harmony  was  disgraceful,  because  it  was  the  price  of  the  surrender  of  prin 
ciple.  Their  differences  were  contemptible,  because  they  were  quarrels 
merely  about  men.  It  is  the  first  instance  in  the  history  of  our  politics, 
where  a  new  party  signalizes  its  entry  into  public  life  by  the  open  and 
undisguised  sale  and  abandonment  of  the  idea  which  called  it  into  being. 

"  But  this  convention  met.     It  fairly  organized  on  Sunday.     If  it  had  car- 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  253 

ried  no  other  baggage  than  its  principles  it  would  have  been  the  most  har 
monious  convention  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  P^or  on  that  first  day  of 
conference,  protectionists  avowed  their  willingness  to  go  for  free  trade  and, 
revenue  reformers  avowed  their  willingness  to  go  for  protection — all  in  the 
interests  of  reform.  When  Horace  Greeley  and  David  A.  Wells  met  harmo 
niously  on  the  question  of  the  tariff,  we  might  well  expect  that  the  lion  and 
the  lamb  were  prepared  to  lie  down  together. 

"  Republicans  who  had  not  voted  our  ticket  since  1864,  Republicans  like 
Swett  and  Norton,  who  had  'swung  around  the  circle'  with  Johnson,  and 
who  had  voted  the  Democratic  ticket  ever  since,  were  there  to  '  reform'  the 
Republican  party. 

"At  the  outset  the  foundation  stone  of  the  party  was  rudely  torn  away. 
The  doctrine  of  revenue  reform  was  incontinently  abandoned.  General 
platitudes  as  to  civil  service  reform  were  substituted  in  place  of  any  well 
defined  plan.  Adams  and  Trumbull  and  Davis  went  to  pieces,  and  under 
the  influence  of  the  most  wicked,  corrupt  and  unscrupulous  combination 
known  in  our  politics,  every  idea  of  reform  upon  which  this  new  party  was 
organized  was  shamelessly  abandoned,  and  at  the  bidding  of  Frank  Blair 
and  the  vilest  carpet-baggers  of  the  South,  united  with  the  dirty  adherents 
of  the  Tammany  Ring  of  New  York  City — Hank  Smith  and  Waldo  Hutchins,  • 
of  New  York — the  weak  tool  of  them  all,  Horace  Greeley,  was  nominated 
for  President.  The  spirit  of  that  convention  was  against  protection.  Yet 
Horace  Greeley  is  the  incarnation  of  all  the  errors  that  there  are  in  that 
system,  and  he  is  their  candidate. 

'  'The  convention  declared  against  the  course  of  Congress  in  its  legislation 
against  the  South.  Yet  Horace  Greeley  always  has  been,  and  is  to-day,  the 
steady  advocate  of  Ku-Klux  legislation.  The  platform  and  their  candidate  are 
irreconcilable.  One  nullifies  the  other,  and  this  convention,  while  seeking  to 
organize  a  new  party,  barters  its  principles  at  the  outset,  claims  the  support  of 
Republicans  for  the  only  man  in  their  party  who  has  ever  openly  advocated 
the  right  of  secession,  and  slanders  the  memory  of  one  dear  to  the  heart 
of  every  true  Republican,  Abraham  Lincoln. 

"This  convention  met  for  the  purpose  of  inaugurating  a  reform  in  the 
revenue.  The  idea  of  its  promoters  was  that  a  tariff  for  protection,  was  a 
fraud  upon  the  interests  of  the  people.  I  give  them  credit  for  desiring  pre 
cisely  what  they  said  they  desired.  I  do  not  charge.  It  is  not  necessary  that  I 
should  claim  that  at  the  outset  they  were  actuated  by  merely  personal  motives. 
I  take  their  own  professions,  and  I  find  what  the  truth  of  history  bears  me 
out  in  saying,  that  a  more  shameless  abandonment  of  principle  than  was 
exhibited  at  the  Cincinnati  Convention  was  never  seen  in  the  political  history 
of  this  country.  They  have  abandoned  the  fundamental  idea  upon  which 
their  political  structure  was  rested.  Seeking  to  disrupt  the  Republican  party 
on  the  tariff  question,  they  have  quietly  and  contentedly  left  the  question 
where  the  Republican  party  has  always  been  willing  to  submit  it,  to  the 
will  of  the  majority  in  each  Congressional  district. 

"But  the   result   of  that   convention   demonstrates   better   than    any  words* 
that  I   can    possibly  employ,  that   the    convention   itself  was  a  fraud,  that    it 


254  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A-    STORKS. 

was  based  upon  no  principle,  that  it  was  not  a  union  of  men  thinking 
alike  upon  political  questons,  but  a  coalition  of  men  who  had  nothing  in 
common  except  personal  grievances  and  disappointments. 

"Many  men  of  our  own  party  lent  the  strength  of  their  names  to  the  call 
for 'that  convention,  on  the  supposition  that  a  reform  of  the  revenue  was 
honestly  intended.  In  this  State,  hundreds  of  men  thought  that  a  protective 
tariff  was  unjust,  and  therefore  joined  the  so-called  reformers.  These  were 
men  of  principle.  Toward  them  I  have  no  words  of  fault-finding  to  apply. 
But  when  in  pursuit  of  principle  they  find  their  doctrine  shamelessly  bar 
tered  away,  and  political  tricksters,  demagogues  and  dead-beats  like  Frank 
Blair  and  Gratz  Brown  trading  on  their  convictions,  and  nominating  as  a 
candidate  for  the  Presidency  the  man  who  of  all  others  belies  their  opinions 
upon  this  question,  it  is  time  for  them  to  inquire  whether  it  is  not  safer  to 
come  back  to  the  old  party,  which  never  professes  what  it  does  not  believe, 
which  always  performs  what  it  promises,  and  which  plays  no  tricks  upon 
its  followers. 

"The  Cincinnati  Convention  claims  to  be  in  favor  of  civil  service  reform. 
But  how  it  will  reform  the  civil  service  it  does  not  vouchsafe  to  tell  us. 
Will  it  elect  postmasters  by  the  people?  This  is  Senator  Trumbull's  doctrine. 
*  But  a  more  Quixotic  and  absurd  scheme  was  never  broached  in  our  politics. 
To  what  extent  will  they  apply  the  doctrine  of  competitive  examination? 
The  sages  of  the  party  do  not  care  to  tell  us,  and  the  Chicago  Tribune 
openly  avows  that,  in  the  event  of  the  election  of  Greeley,  all  those  who  dif 
fer  with  him  in  political  opinion  will  at  once  be  removed  from  office.  Their 
platform  is  clamorous — eloquent  over  the  sufferings  of  the  South.  But  what 
remedy  do  they  propose  to  apply?  The  fifteenth  constitutional  amendment 
confers  the  right  of  suffrage  upon  the  liberated  slave.  Do  they  seek  to 
remove  that?  No  political  disabilities,  so  far  as  voting  is  concerned,  are 
visited  upon  the  rebellious  whites.  Do  they  seek  to  change  that  condition  of 
things?  The  present  Congress  will  remove  all  disabilities,  so  far  as  the  hold 
ing  of  office  is  concerned.  They  cannot  hasten  that ;  and,  once  done,  that 
is  a  dead  issue.  Do  they  object  to  what  is  called  the  Ku-Klux  legislation? 
I  need  not  pause  to  argue  its  justice  or  its  injustice;  their  candidate  for 
President  has  favored  it  from  the  beginning;  and  no  one  has  complained 
that  the  extraordinary  powers  with  which  Congress  has  clothed  him  have 
been  exercised  by  General  Grant  otherwise  than  wisely  and  well. 

"Bitterly  opposed  to  a  protective  tariff,  the  Liberal  Republicans,  so  self- 
styled,  have  selected  as  their  standard-bearer  and  their  leader  the  most 
prominent  and  conspicuous  opponent  of  their  doctrine  in  the  whole  country. 
Opposed,  or  professing  to  be,  with  equal  bitterness  to  the  legislation  of 
Congress  with  regard  to  the  Ku-Klux,  they  have  nominated  the  principal 
leader  of  the  movement  in  favor  of  that  legislation. 

"  Despite  his  two  thousand  followers  from  the  State  of  Illinois,  Davis  had 
no  show  in  the  convention.  Trumbull  faded  out  of  sight  after  the  third  bal 
lot.  Adams,  with  all  his  respectability,  went  to  pieces  before  the  persuasive 
arguments  of  'Hank  Smith,'  and  through  the  most  barefaced  and  shameless 
trick  ever  seen  in  a  political  convention — a  trick  so  dirty  that  it  would  have 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  255 

utterly  ruined  any  nominee  of  any  party  accountable  to  anybody — the 
Reformers  bound  their  necks  to  Tammany.  Tweed  triumphed  and  Greeley 
was  nominated  for  President  of  the  United  States. 

"It  was  impossible  to  tell  who  was  the  most  disappointed  at  this  result. 
Such  a  unanimity  of  mourning  was  never  before  seen.  Davis  and  Trum- 
bull  and  Adams  and  their  adherents  had  quarreled  for  a  week,  but  when 
the  convention  closed  'a  fellow  feeling  made  them  wondrous  kind.'  In  a 
common  brotherhood  of  woe  they  forgot  their  warfare  in  their  common 
griefs.  Never  before  was  lightning  so  impartial.  No  one  was  skipped. 
Swett  and  White  and  Schurz  and  Adams  were  all  hit  at  the  same  time  and 
about  in  the  same  place,  and  the  bolt  was  destructive  to  them  all.  What 
ever  differences  there  might  have  been  in  life,  death,  the  great  leveler, 
made  them  all  equal,  and  they  have  made  a  happy  community  of  political 
defuncts  ever  since,  and  thus  the  Reform  movement  which  promised  so 
much,  and  vaunted  itself  so  loudly,  went  to  pieces.  An  attempt  to  organize 
a  great  national  party  on  the  basis  of  mutual  antipathies  and  hatreds,  on  a 
platform  of  common  grievances  and  disappointments,  met,  as  it  deserved  to 
meet,  a  disgraceful  and  wretched  failure.  Their  professions  of  principle,  as 
the  result  sho\ved,  were  a  sham.  They  were  agreed  in  nothing  except  hatred 
and  jealousy  of  the  administration,  which  found  its  expression  in  the  miser 
able  phrase,  'any  body  to  beat  Grant;'  and  as  old  as  this  common  plat 
form  was,  it  might  have  met  with  some  show  of  success  had  they  not  hated 
each  other  worse  than  either  hated  the  President." 

The  concluding  part  of  the  speech  was  devoted  to  a  review 
of  Horace  Greeley's  unpatriotic  course  during  the  war,  and  an 
appeal  to  those  good  Republicans  who  had  been  seduced  away 
by  delusive  promises  about  revenue  reform  to  return  to  the 
ranks.  As  Mr.  Storrs  in  subsequent  speeches  put  this  part  of 
his  argument  in  terser  form,  it  is  here  omitted. 

"  The  Republican  mansion,"  he  closed  by  saying,  "  is  spacious 
enough  to  accommodate  every  Democrat  who  would  like  to  join 
it.  Thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  them  are  with  us  now 
and  have  been  for  years.  We  expect  that  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  more  will  take  shelter  under  our  roof.  The  build 
ing  is  strong  enough  and  big  enough  to  accommodate  them  all. 
The  rains  no  longer  beat  into  it;  the  winds  no  longer  whistle 
through  it;  the  storm  no  longer  rocks  it,  for  we  have  removed 
from  it  the  decaying  timbers  of  human  chattelhood.  and 
replaced  them  with  the  everlasting  granite  of  universal  freedom." 

The  first  campaign  speech  that  Mr.  Storrs  made  after  the 
National  Convention  was  delivered  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  in  the  last 
week  of  June.  He  spoke  from  the  bench  of  the  Circuit  Court, 
and  humorously  alluded  'to  his  occupying  there  for  the  first  time 
something  like  a  judicial  position.  He  said : 


256  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"  I  have  always  spoken  here  as  an  advocate.  I  have  addressed  the  great 
constituency  of  big-hearted,  broad-browed  Republicans  of  La  Salle  county  as 
an  advocate  ;  as  the  advocate  of  a  great  party,  which  it  is  pretty  well  dem 
onstrated  is  as  strong  to-day  as  it  has  ever  been;  a  party  whose  fires  are 
burning  as  brightly,  whose  spirit  is  just  as  high,  and  whose  purpose  is  just 
as  resolute,  as  when  in  1854  it  first  grappled  with  the  aggressions  of  the 
slave  power,  and  when,  in  1860,  it  triumphed  upon  the  election  of  Abraham 
Lincoln  to  the  Presidency. 

"I  see  nothing  in  the  contest  now  impending  which  is  particularly  new. 
It  seems  to  me  that  although  some  of  the  details  may  be  changed,  yet  at 
the  same  time  we  are  waging  the  same  fight,  and  against  the  same  old 
enemy.  [Cheers.  J  I  have  been  pleased  to  meet  with  so  many  of  the 
Republicans  of  La  Salle  county,  as  I  have  seen  to-day  in  their  county  con 
vention  assembled.  I  come  here,  telling  you,  as  far  as  the  spirit  of  the 
party  is  concerned,  precisely  what  you  already  know  ;  that  whoever  con 
cludes  in  his  own  mind  that  the  mission  of  the  Republican  party  is  ended, 
that  its  work  is  done,  or  that  its  labor  is  in  any  degree  finished,  is  entirely 
and  altogether  in  a  mistake.  It  has  a  future  before  it,  I  think,  just  as  proud 
and  noble  as  the  past  of  its  career  and  history.  It  is  a  party  which,  if 
there  was  nothing  more  to  be  said  about  it  than  what  it  has  done  in  the 
interests  of  good  government  and  of  this  people,  I  should  feel  very  loth  to 
desert ;  and  least  of  all  can  I  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  worth  while 
for  me  to  abandon  the  Republican  party  because  I  find  here  and  there  a 
few  men, — men  with  grievances,  men  'with  a  mission,'  men  who  call 
themselves  self-appointed  leaders  of  this  great  movement, — least  of  all,  I  say, 
can  I  find  it  in  my  heart  to  abandon  this  great  political  organization,  the 
grandest,  in  my  judgment,  that  the  history  of  this  world  has  ever  recorded. 

"  Mr.  Sumner,  in  a  recent  speech  which  he  made  in  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  declares  substantially  that  he  was  the  father  of  this  great 
party,  that  the  credit  of  its  paternity  belongs  to  him,  and  that  its  cradle  was 
in  the  city  of  Boston.  I  have  this  to  say  with  regard  to  our  party  that  is 
peculiar  to  it,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  that  term,  the  Republican  party  never 
had  a  leader  ;  it  has  not  got  a  leader  to-day  ;  it  will  never  have  a  leader. 
The  Republican  party  was  made  up  from  the  start  of  independent  men, 
thinking  each  man  for  himself  and  on  his  individual  hook  ;  and  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  party  never  followed  one  single  step  after  the  leadership  of 
any  man,  where  that  man,  essaying  to  be  its  leader,  did  not  go  in  the  di 
rection  which  the  Republican  party  desired  to  go.  It  has  never  had  a  series 
of  platforms  written  for  it  and  dictated  to  it  by  a  convention  ;  the  platforms 
of  the  Republican  party  have  always  been  written  in  the  hearts  of  the  rank 
and  file  long  before  they  had  been  inscribed  upon  the  records  of  the  conven 
tion.  The  rank  and  file  have  given  law  to  conventions,  and  they  have 
never  received  the  law  from  conventions.  Republicans  can  go  to  sleep  at 
night  perfectly  well  assured  of  what  their  principles  will  be  the  next  night, 
although-  a  convention  should  in  the  meantime  assemble.  But  how  has  it 
been, — how  is  it  to-day — with  the  Democratic  party  of  the  country?  The 
Democrat  goes  to  bed  to-night  in  favor  of  revenue  reform  ;  and  he  retires 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  257 

to  bed  to-morrow  night  in  favor  of  a  high  protective  tariff.  [Laughter.]  He 
does  it  because  he  has  found  in  the  meantime  a  Convention  has  assembled, 
which  tell  him  what  he  must  believe,  and  what  he  must  not  believe.  Mr. 
Sumner  talks  about  the  leaders  of  this  great  party.  -I  say  this  to  Mr.  Sum- 
ner  upon  that  point,  that  if  he  has  any  doubt  about  it,  I  would  like  to  have 
him  and  any  other  ambitious  man  look  up  and  down  that  great  track  of 
light  which  the  pathway  of  the  Republican  party  makes  all  across  this  con 
tinent,  and  he  will  see  all  along  the  line  of  its  march  that  its  course  is 
strewn  with  the  carcasses  of  its  self-appointed  leaders.  We  have  thrown 
them  overboard,  one  after  another,  and  one  after  another,  regretting,  per 
haps,  the  necessity  of  our  doing  so,  but  at  the  same  time,  that  fact,  that  we 
have  disposed  of  a  leader,  never  has  for  a  single  instant  impeded  the  pro 
gress  of  that  great  political  organization.  I  recollect,  in  1866,  when  I  had 
the  honor  of  addressing  the  Republicans  of  La  Salle  county  in  this  place, 
that  we  had  thrown  overboard  a  whole  cargo  of  leaders,  a  President  and 
Cabinet ;  and  it  operated  upon  the  party  like  a  tonic,  and  we  were  stronger 
and  clearer-headed  for  the  exercise.  I  tell  Mr.  Sumner, — and  as  speaking 
for  the  rank  and  file  we  may  all  tell  him,  and  all  others  similarly  disposed, — 
that  the  will  of  that  great  party  is  infinitely  stronger  than  all  the  influence 
that  all  its  leaders  ever  exercised.  It  is  a  vain  thing,  and  a  weak  and  idle 
thing  for  them  to  attempt  to  resist  it.  Mr.  Sumner  claims  its  paternity.  It 
was  an  old  doctrine  of  the  heathen  that  the  father  should  have  the  right 
under  the  law  to  kill  his  children  ;  perhaps  it  is  on  this  basis  that  Mr.  Sum 
ner  claims  the  fathership  of  the  Republican  party.  My  fellow  citizens,  no 
man  was  the  father  of  the  Republican  party.  No  set  of  men  were  the 
fathers  of  the  Republican  party.  The  Republican  party,  like  Topsy,  'bore 
itself.'  It  was  the  result  of  circumstances.  All  the  leaders  in  the  country 
could  not  have  hurried  its  birth  one  single  instant.  All  the  politicians  on 
the  top  of  God's  green  earth  could  not  have  retarded  it  one  single  moment. 
Slavery  had  made  aggressions  on  our  territory  ;  the  Democratic  party  were 
in  favor  of  it,  and  the  old  Whigs  did  not  oppose  it ;  therefore  the  people, 
finding  in  the  existing  parties  no  expression  of  their  sentiments,  organized  a  party 
for  themselves.  You  might  as  well  say  that  when  the  earth  has  been  parched 
and  dry  foe  weeks,  and  we  see  great  black  clouds  moving  up  in  the  west, 
coming  speedier  and  speedier  towards  the  zenith,  suppose  that  Mr.  Charles 
Sumner  should  stand  ofT,  just  as  the  cloud  reaches  us,  and  say,  '  I  order 
it  to  rain  ; '  and  afterwards  it  does  rain  ;  and  ten  years  after,  when  we  are 
felicitating  ourselves  on  the  refreshing  effects  of  that  shower,  Charles  Sum 
ner  says,  '  I  was  the  author  of  that  rain ;  I  was  the  father  of  that  shower ! 
I  told  you,  didn't  I  say,  Let  it  rain,  and  didn't  it  rain?'  'Oh,'  we  say 
back  to  Mr.  Sumner,-  'the  cloud  was  rising,  and  your  little  hand  could  not 
stop  it ;  it  was  charged  with  moisture  ;  the  earth  was  dry  ;  and  God  Al 
mighty,  that  made  great  natural  laws,  made  it  rain,  and  you  are  altogether 
an  insignificant  trifle  in  his  hands.'  Mr.  Sumner  bring  on  that  tremendous 
storm  that  in  1854  swept  over  this  whole  country  like  a  whirlwind!  Why, 
he  would  have  been  borne  on  the  wings  of  that  wind  as  easily  as  ever  a 
feather  was  floated  on  the  breeze.  If  he  or  anybody  else  had  undertaken 
17 


258  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

to  stop  it,  they  had  better  have  been  in  a  boat  of  stone,  with  sails  of  lead, 
and  oars  of  iron,  the  wrath  of  God  for  a  gale,  and  hell  the  nearest  port!* 

"He  the  father  of  the  Republican  party!  He  has  given  his  dates,  and 
says  the  iQth  of  September,  1854;  he  christened  it,  at  Boston.  He  quotes 
his  words,  where  he  used  the  word  '  Republican'  as  applying  to  this  great 
organization,  and  claims  that  that  was  the  first  instance  where  it  was  used. 

"  If  any  place  was  the  cradle  of  the  Republican  party,  that  place  was 
Ottawa,  Illinois.  If  any  man  was  the  father  of  the  Republican  party,  that 
man  was  E.  S.  Leland,  for,  sixty  days  before  Charles  Sumner  made 
his  speech  in  Boston,  Judge  E.  S.  Leland  made  a  speech  from  these  very 
steps,  and  introduced  a  series  of  resolutions  in  which  he  proclaimed  the  will 
of  the  people  of  Illinois,  and  named  that  great  organization  the  Republican 
party  of  America.  If  the  honor  is  anywhere,  that  is  where  it  belongs. 
[Loud  applause.]  If  we  are  to  have  history  of  this  business,  let  history 
tell  the  truth.  I  do  not  know  whether  Judge  Leland  was  ahead  of  every 
body  else  or  not.  He  was  two  months  ahead  of  Charles  Sumner  ;  and  in 
the  meantime  the  party  had  grown  so  strong  and  so  powerful  that  the  uses 
and  purposes  of  Charles  Sumner,  even  as  wet  nurse,  might  with  entire  safety 
have  been  dispensed  with." 

He  then  answered  the  " liberal"  objections  to  the  administra 
tion  of  affairs  by  the  Republican  party,  as  he  had  done  in  his 
Springfield  speech,  and  proceeded  to  dispose  of  Mr.  Sumner's 
objections  to  General  Grant. 

"What  is  it  they  want?  What  is  it  the  Republican  party  of  this  country 
will  not  give  that  the  people  demand,  and  that  this  'Liberal  party'  will 
give?  Is  it  revenue  reform?  They  swapped  that  off  the  first  day  of  their 
convention.  [Laughter.]  Meeting  there  in  Cincinnati,  the  first  day  of  May, 
never  before  was  such  a  convention  seen.  Men  of  honest  purpose,  high 
integrity  and  strong  zeal  in  the  public  interest,  I  admit  were  there.  But  if 
there  was  one  single  principle  upon  which  that  Liberal  Republican  party 

*In  1880,  when  Mr.  Storrs  was  stumping  New  York  State  for  Garfield  and 
Arthur,  he  again  made  use  of  this  metaphor,  as  he  was  in  the  habit  of  using 
over  again  an  image  or  an  illustration  that  had  once  impressed  his  mind  as 
being  particularly  happy  or  appropriate.  A  New  York  reporter  remembered 
hearing  the  Rev.  Dr.  Talmage  use  the  same  metaphor  in  a  sermon  preached 
by  him  in  1878  at  his  Tabernacle,  and,  exulting  in  his  half  knowledge, 
charged  Mr.  Storrs  with  plagiarism  from  Talmage.  A  spirited  newspaper 
controversy  ensued.  One  correspondent  of  a  Chicago  paper  asseverated  that 
in  conversation  with  a  veteran  Chicago  journalist,  the  latter  quoted  to  him 
this  very  sentence,  and  said  he  remembered  hearing  Mr.  Storrs  utter  it  dur 
ing  the  campaign  of  1868.  At  all  events,  here  it  is,  clearly  eneugh,  in  his 
speech  as  far  back  as  1872.  The  point  is  of  trifling  importance,  but  much 
was  made  of  it  in  the  New  York  papers  at  the  time.  If  there  was  any  pla 
giarism,  it  was  not  Storrs  that  borrowed  from  Talmage,  but  Talmage  that 
appropriated  from  Storrs.  Nobody  who  ever  heard  Mr.  Storrs  speak  would 
dream  of  accusing  him  seriously  of  want  of  originality.  While  the  contro 
versy  was  waging,  Mr.  Storrs  quietly  laughed  over  it,  and  only  said, — "A 
man  may  surely  plagiarize  from  himself." 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  259 

was  founded,  it  was  that  of  revenue  reform.  Men  went  there  with  an 
assorted  lot  of  protection  theories,  and  other  men  went  there  with  an 
assorted  lot  of  free  trade  theories,  and  how  they  swapped  and  dickered  and 
exchanged  them  the  world  knows,  and  their  platform  exhibits.  They 
agreed  where  their  differences  of  opinion  were  irreconcilable  ;  they  disagreed 
about  men  where  they  ought  not  to  have  disagreed  at  all,  and  they  agreed 
on  principles  where  they  thought  it  was  disgraceful  to  be  harmonious ;  and 
thus  that  Convention,  swapping  off  its  foundation  plank  at  the  outset,  closed 
in  the  most  inscrutably  curious  way,  and  nominated  Horace  Greeley  for 
President  of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  And  then  the  great  leader  of  the  move 
ment,  we  are  told  by  Mr.  Samuel  Bowles,  Mr.  Carl  Schurz,  'overcome,' he 
said,  'and  discouraged,1  retired  to  the  house  of  Judge  Stallo,  and  there,  as 
Mr.  Bowles  says,  overwhelmed  with  grief,  disheartened  and  bowed  down 
in  spirit,  no  one  able  to  speak  to  him  because  the  weight  of  his  mighty 
grief  was  altogether  too  great,  turned  to  the  piano,  put  his  master  fingers 
on  the  keys  of  the  instrument,  and  poured  out  his  feelings  in  one  of  Auber's 
melancholy  pieces  of  music ;  and  the  eyes  of  the  whole  company  were 
bathed  in  tears.  Was  ever  anything  so  pathetic?  'Rock  me  to  sleep, 
mother!'  [Laughter  and  cheers.] 

"Great  objections  are  made  to  General  Grant,  but  I  prefer  going  to  the 
people, — to  the  rank  and  file,  and  judging  General  Grant  precisely  accord 
ing  to  his  results,  and  what  he  has  achieved.  Men  come  to  me  with  pallid 
faces  and  with  trembling  nerves  and  say,  'Great  God,  this  country  is  all 
going  to  pieces!'  Says  I,  'What's  th&  matter?'  'Why,  Grant  has  been 
four  weeks  at  Long  Branch ! '  Perhaps  he  has ;  I  am  disposed  to  be 
candid ;  he  has  been  there ;  but,  my  fellow-citizens,  let  us  treat  Grant  as  we 
treat  everybody  else,  not  better,  and  no  worse.  Give  him  credit  for  what 
he  has  done,  and  charge  him  for  his  defaults.  Keep  the  books  as  you 
please,  either  in  double  or  single  entry,  and  how  will  it  figure  up?  Charge 
him  with  four  weeks  at  Long  Branch,  but  give  him  credit  for  four  weeks 
at  Vicksburg.  Charge  him  with  three  days  behind  a  trotting  horse  at 
Central  Park,  but  give  him  credit  for  a  week  at  Chattanooga.  Charge  him 
with  a  week  at  Chicago,  but  give  credit  for  a  week  at  Fort  Donelson. 
Charge  him  with  a  trip  into  Pennsylvania,  but  give  him  credit  for  Appom- 
mattox.  Go  and  charge  it  all  up;  there  is  enough  of  patriotic  achievement 
still  left  to  the  credit  of  General  Grant  to  stop  the  mouths  of  all  the  liberal 
parties  that  the  sun  will  ever  shine  upon.  [Loud  applause.] 

"Mr.  Sumner,  in  his  essay  in  the  Senate,  says  that  a  military  man  never  has 
made  a  successful  civilian.  He  cites  history  to  prove  it;  and  if  Charles  is 
great  in  anything,  he  is  great  in  his  history.  He  cites  the  cases  of  Freder 
ick  the  Great,  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington.  His 
proposition  is  that  a  great  military  chieftan  must  of  necessity  and  for  that  reason 
be  a  failure  in  civil  life;  and  he  cites  these  three  cases.  In  the  first  place, 
suppose  I  admit  his  instances  are  in  point,  his  logic  is  bad.  The  instances 
are  not  sufficiently  numerous  ;  you  cannot  prove  a  general  rule  by  three 
instances.  I  put  against  him  William  the  Silent,  Oliver  Cromwell,  and 
George  Washington;  and  Charles  Sumner' s  illustrations  are  all  gone  to  pieces. 


26O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

My  illustrations  are  as  many  as  his,  and  prove  just  as  much  as  his  do.  But 
they  are  not  in  point.  Frederick  the  Great  was  the  greatest  civil  leader  the 
Prussian  nation  ever  had ;  it  is  to  him  their  system  of  education  is  due. 
What  was  the  matter  with  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  ?  A  great  military 
chieftain,  it  is  true  ;  a  wonderful  success  in  that  capacity,  and  a  failure  as  a 
civilian ;  Why  ?  Did  he  fail  as  a  civilian  because  he  was  a  great  military 
man?  no;  he  failed  as  a  civilian  because  he  could  not  stop  in  one  party 
thirty  days  at  a  time ;  because  he  was  more  like  a  '  Liberal  Republican '  than 
any  man  that  lived  in  the  British  Empire  ;  because  in  the  morning  he 
attended  a  convention  to  keep  in  the  reigning  dynasty,  and  the  same  evening 
he  attended  another  convention  to  bring  over  the  pretender.  Marlborough 
was  great  as  a  military  man  because  he  was  like  Grant ;  he  was  a  fizzle  and 
a  dead  failure  as  a  civilian  because  he  was  like  Schurz  ;  he  was  a  failure  as 
a  civilian  because  nobody  could  trust  him  and  nobody  would  trust  him.  The 
propositition  amounts  to  this,  that  a  great  military  man  and  a  brave  man  is 
a  poor  President,  and  therefore  the  converse  of  the  proposition  must  be  true 
— that  a  poor  General  and  a  coward  must  be  a  good  President.  Therefore 
I  suppose  they  have  nominated  Horace  Greeley.  If  that  is  so,  he  fills  the 
whole  bill,  and  has  all  the  accomplishments.  [Laughter  and  cheers.] 

"It  is  insisted  that  Grant  can't  make  a  speech.  I  think  he  can;  for  I 
think  the  speeches  that  are  going  to  be  remembered  in  the  history  of  this 
world  are  not  the  mere  words  which  we  utter  in  halls  like  this,  not  the 
mere  essays  which  we  write,  but  after  all  they  are  the  deeds  which  men 
do.  The  world,  three  thousand  years  ago,  had  forgotten  all  that  the  old 
Egyptian  had  ever  written  about  architecture,  and  all  that  the  old  Egyp 
tian  had  ever  said ;  but  there,  on  those  desert  plains  of  Egypt,  stand  those 
mighty  pyramids,  witnesses  for  all  time  to  come  of  what  the  old  Egyptians 
accomplished.  We  have  all  forgotten  what  John  Brown  said ;  who  remem 
bers  what  John  Brown  wrote?  Who  will  ever  forget  what  John  Brown  did? 
And  while  John  Brown's  body  lies  mouldering  in  the  ground,  ain't  his 
soul  a-marching  on?  You  may  take,  if  you  please,  or  let  Mr.  Sumner  and 
Mr.  Schurz  select  for  themselves,  the  greatest  speeches  that  either  of  them 
has  ever  made,  write  them  in  letters  of  living  flame  right  against  the  whole 
sky,  and  put  by  the  side  of  them  the  single  word  '  Appomattox '  and  behold, 
how  in  that  magnificent  presence  the  flames  of  Charles  Sumner' s  speech  will 
pale  their  ineffectual  fires.  The  world  will  never  forget  what  U.  S.  Grant 
has  done  ;  the  world  will  soon  cease  to  remember  what  Charles  Sumner  has 
said.  I  would  detract  nothing  from  the  merits  of  that  accomplished  states 
man ;  I  concede  his  magnificent  endowments;  I  concede  his  wonderful, 
acquirements ;  but  this  great  party  of  ours,  which  has,  as  I  believe,  the  cus 
tody  of  the  interests  of  good  government  for  all  the  years  to  come  in  its 
hands,  is  infinitely  better,  and  holier,  and  greater,  and  more  valuable  than 
any  man ;  and  much  as  I  revere  the  name  of  Charles  Sumner,  I  would  see 
him  sink  out  of  sight  into  utter  forgetfulness,  into  the  deepest  oblivion, 
rather  than  I  would  see  one  single  star  on  the  banner  of  this  great  party 
pale  its  fires.  For,  think  what  it  has  done.  In  twelve  short  years  of  time 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  26 1 

it  has  eclipsed  a  thousand  years  of  the  most  magnificent  history  that  this 
world  has  ever  seen.  It  has  taken  four  millions  of  chattels,  and  lifted  them 
from  the  night  and  barbarisms  of  slavery  into  the  clear,  pure  atmosphere  of 
American  citizenship.  It  has  taken  a  chattel  and  made  him  a  Senator.  It 
has  taken  personal  property,  and  made  it  members  of  Congress.  It  is  the 
great,  progressive  party  of  mankind.  I  cannot  sometimes  but  sympathize 
with  that  conservative  spirit  that  looks  lovingly  and  affectionately  back  upon 
the  past;  but  while  I  sympathize  with  it  I  cannot  go  with  it.  I  know  the 
picture  that  it  has  presented  of  the  good  old  times  when  the  slaveholder 
ruled  is  a. pretty  one;  the  slaveholder  sitting  like  a  patriarch,  as  they  used 
to  tell  us,  with  his  broad-brim  out  on  his  piazza,  and  his  little  chattels,  male 
and  female,  dancing  on  the  green  before  him.  It  is  a  pretty  picture  ;  but 
this  is  the  one  which  the  Republican  party  draws — no  longer  chattels,  male 
or  female ;  nothing,  thank  God,  on  this  continent  but  free  men  and  free 
women ;  by  the  mighty  exertions  of  this  great  party,  the  architects  of  their 
own  fortunes.  [Cheers.]  You  see  no  longer  the  negro  child,  boy  and  girl, 
dancing  upon  the  green ;  you  see  them  in  the  school-house,  at  the  workshop, 
at  the  bench,  on  the  farm,  each,  thank  God,  his  own  master,  each  carving 
out  his  own  fortune  for  the  future.  There  may  be  less  poetry  in  it,  but 
how  much  more  magnificent  it  is  in  the  story  it  tells  for  our  common 
humanity !  How  much  more  magnificent  it  is  in  the  exalted  and  lofty 
patriotism  which  it  typifies! 

"Grant  cannot  speak;  he  is  no  orator,  as  Brutus  was;  and  he  has 
appointed  his  relatives  to  office.  I  suppose  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
appoint  somebody's  relatives.  I  do  not  care  who  he  makes  Collector  of 
Customs,  nor  who  he  appoints  assessor;  it  is  somebody's  relative;  and  by 
and  by,  when  the  history  of  this  great  captain  comes  to  be  written,  let  us 
think  what  history  will  say.  I  suppose  that  history  will  tell  us  nothing  about 
how  he  started  from  Galena  to  fight  at  Fort  Donelson,  about  how  he  took 
these  great  western  armies  swinging  round  from  Cairo  to  the  sea:  and  now 
that  great,  silent  soldier  saved  the  nation  the  priceless  treasure  of  free  gov 
ernment  for  all  ages  to  come.  Perhaps  the  historian  will  say  nothing  about 
that.  He  will  omit  Appomattox,  he  will  omit  Spottsylvania  ;  he  will  omit  the 
bloody  record  of  the  days  in  the  wilderness  in  what  he  has  to  say;  but  he 
will  tell  you  how  this  man  found  his  old  father  a  postmaster  when  he  was 
elected,  and  kept  him  there;  he  will  tell  he  was  at  Long  Branch  four  weeks; 
he  will  tell  you  somebody  complained  that  he  received  a  gift.  Stop  and 
think  how  mean,  how  trivial  how  utterly  and  altogether  unworthy  in  the 
record  which  history  shall  make  up,  when  the  mists  of  passion  and  preju 
dice  shall  have  cleared  away,  will  all  these  things  seem  to  be!  They  are 
just  as  small,  and  just  as  trivial,  and  just  as  mean,  and  just  as  ungrateful, 
and  just  as  dirty  to-day  my  fellow  citizens,  as  they  will  be  a  hundred  years 
hence  ;  but  in  the  light  of  history,  how  small,  will  be  more  clearly  appar 
ent,  perhaps,  than  to-day.  But  when  the  record  of  his  name  comes  to  be 
written,  when  the  great  journey  of  that  silent  soldier  is  completed,  he  will 
march  down  the  aisles  of  time  hand  in  hand  with  our  great  martyred 
President,  Abraham  Lincoln;  and,  standing  on  the  highest  summit  of  earthly 


262  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

eminence  and  heroic  achievement,  the  whole  world  will  hail  and  salute  him." 
[Cheers.] 

Mr.  Greeley's  record  was  reviewed  as  follows : 

•'Opposed  to  him  is  Horace  Greeley.  Now,  we  all  know  Horace  Greeley. 
We  all  know  what  he  has  been  in  politics,  and  we  all  know  what  he  is  in 
politics  to-day.  I  have  no  terms  of  opprobrim  to  apply  to  him ;  no  denun- 
ciating  ephithets  to  use  against  him.  I  appeal,  hurriedly  and  briefly,  to 
his  record,  and  let  his  record  speak;  and  his  record  is  all  the  more  damag 
ing,  and  his  unfitness  for  the  great  place  for  which  he  is  nominated  all  the 
more  conspicuous,  when  I  concede,  as  for  the  purpose  of  the  argument  I 
will  do,  that  he  is  honest. 

"In  1858,  he  signalized  himself  in  this  State  by  interfering  in  our  Senatorial 
election,  and  attempting  to  dictate  to  the  Republicans  of  the  State  of  Illi 
nois  that  they  should  throw  Abraham  Lincoln  overboard  and  return  Stephen 
A.  Douglas  to  the  United  States  Senate.  In  1860,  he  made  his  advent  in 
Chicago  as  a  delegation  to  the  National  Convention  from  the  State  of 
Oregon.  He  came  there,  not  for  the  purpose  of  fulfilling  any  great  mission, 
but  he  came  there  to  gratify  a  spite  which  he  entertained  against  William 
H.  Seward,  for  whom  his  whole  State  was  unanimous,  and  voted  48^ 
times  for  Edward  Bates  as  President  of  the  United  States.  We  all  know 
how,  through  those  days  which  preceded  the  war,  how  vigorously,  bravely, 
and  courageously  he  talked,  how  he  denounced  the  accursed  slave-power; 
how  he  urged  all  young  men  to  war  to  the  knife  against  it  if  need  be ;  but 
when  the  final  hour  of  need  came,  when,  having  urged  it  on  the  stump,  in 
Congress,  and  at  the  polls,  then,  when  the  supreme  moment  of  trial  came, 
and  the  question  was  submitted  to  the  last  court  to  which  these  questions 
are  ever  taken — the  arbitrament  of  war,  when  our  ranks  were  being  filled 
up,  and  we  looked  around  for  the  great  leader  whose  clarion  voice  had  for 
ten  years  shouted  us  on,  where  did  we  find  him?  Was  Horace  Greeley 
there?  we  saw  him  with  tail  down  and  ears  pinned  back,  cutting  for  the 
brush,  [laughter] — and  the  first  thing  that  Horace  Greeley  recommended 
when  the  hour  of  trouble  finally  reached  us  was  that  'our  Southern  sisters 
should  be  permitted  to  depart  in  peace.'  I  shall  not  stop  here  to  read 
extracts;  I  shall  not  stop  to  discuss  whether  the  advice  was  wise  or  unwise; 
but  suppose  that  we  had  taken  Horace  Greeley's  advice.  Suppose  that  in 
1860  his  advice  had  been  followed  and  Bates  had  been  nominated  for 
President  instead  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  suppose  his  advice  had  been  taken 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  when  the  clouds  began  for  the  first  time  to  roll 
threatingly  up  in  the  sky;  if  we  had  taken  Horace  Greeley's  advice  at  that 
moment  we  would  have  been  to-day  a  disgraced,  broken,  shamed  and 
humilated  nation.  [Applause.] 

"I  will  follow  him  a  little  further.  There  was  different  stuff,  thank  God, 
in  this  people  than  in  Horace  Greeley.  They  resolved  that  what  they  had 
said  on  the  stump,  and  what  they  had  declared  at  the  polls,  should  be  car 
ried  out,  and  that  this  nation,  which  was  worth  talking  for,  was  worth  fight 
ing  for.  They  fought  for  it,  and  they  saved  it.  Finding  that  his  advice  was 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    18/2.  263 

not  taken,  you  all  remember  how  he  wrote  his  most  intemperate  'On  to 
Richmond'  call,  and  finally,  after  our  arms  had  been  defeated  at  Bull  Run, 
he  penned  at  the  top  of  an  article,  'Just  This  Once,'  and  begged  pardon  of 
the  people,  whom  he  was  afraid  he  had  betrayed,  and  promised  never  to  do 
so  any  more.  By  and  by  he  got  courageous  again,  and  before  the  proper 
moment  had  arrived,  he  insisted  in  an  impudent  letter  to  Abraham  Lincoln 
that  the  slaves  must  be  all  at  once  emancipated.  You  remember  how 
Lincoln  answered  that  letter.  Down  in  the  mouth  again,  he  insisted  that  if 
Lee  watered  his  horses  in  the  river  Delaware,  we  should  cry  quits,  and  give 
up  the  contest;  surrender  our  national  integrity,  and  recognize  the  indepen 
dence  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  We  didn't  do  it.  Lee  did  water  his 
horses  in  the  waters  of  the  Delaware,  and  the  silent  soldier  who  makes  no 
speeches  answered  that  piece  of  southern  bravado  on  the  4th  of  July,  1863, 
by  sending  us  the  intelligence  that  he  had  taken  the  stronghold  of  Vicksburg, 
captured  30,000  rebel  prisoners  of  war,  and  opened  the  Mississippi  from  St. 
Paul  to  the  Gulf.  [Cheers.]  On  that  same  day,  on  the  blood-stained  field 
of  Gettysburg,  Lee  who  had  watered  his  horses  in  the  river  Delaware,  was 
driven  back  defeated  and  discomfited,  the  back  bone  of  the  rebellion  was 
broken,  and  a  check  put  upon  its  career  from  which  it  never  recovered. 

"That  is  not  all.  A  call  was  made  for  troops,  and  of  course  Greeley 
flunked  again.  In  1864,  he  inaugurated  peace  negotiations  with  whom? 
With  Colorado  Jewett,  probably  the  champion  free-lunch  eater  of  the 
American  continent;  a  man  known  all  over  the  country  as  a  chronic  dead- 
beat.  [Laughter.]  He  was  the  negotiator  with  whom  Horace  Greeley  opened 
negotiations  for  the  purpose  of  securing  peace ;  and  after  letters  had  passed 
between  him  and  Jewett,  he  writes  to  the  President  calling  his  attention  to 
the  fact,  and  using  this  expression : — '  Mr.  President,  I  venture  to  remind 
you  that  our  broken,  bleeding,  dying,  and  almost  bankrupt  country  cries  for 
peace.'  Lincoln  at  once  upon  the  reception  of  that  letter,  wrote  him  back 
that  if  there  was  anybody  anxious  to  treat  for  peace  on  the  basis  of  a 
restored  L^nion  and  the  abandonment  of  slavery,  to  send  him  or  bring 
him  to  him,  and  he  was  ready  to  treat  upon  that  basis.  You  remember  the 
course  which  the  negotiations  took.  It  turned  out  that  the  commissioners 
were  not  authorized.  Finally  Greeley  wrote  a  letter  to  the  President  stating 
that  these  men  in  Canada  were  not  authorized  to  treat,  but  they  thought 
they  might  get  somebody  who  would  be,  and,  accordingly,  the  President 
wrote  that  famous  '  To  whom  it  may  concern '  paper,  stating  precisely  the 
same  terms  embraced  in  the  first  letter  he  addressed  to  Greeley.  Greeley 
withheld  from  the  rebel  commissioners  that  the  President  had  in  the  first 
instance  made  that  the  only  basis  on  which  negotiations  could  be  conducted ; 
and  when  Clay  and  Holcombe  made  a  complaint  that  the  President  had 
seduced  them  into  the  belief  that  the  negotiations  might  be  made  freely  and 
without  terms,  Greeley  joined  with  them  and  said  the  negotiations  had  been 
brought  to  an  end  because  the  President  had  abandoned  the  basis  on  which 
they  had  been  inaugurated.  Now,  I  do  not  care  so  much,  that  in  the  course 
of  these  negotiations  he  recommended  that  £400,000,000  be  paid  for  the 
slaves ;  I  do  not  care  so  much  that  he  blundered  in  opening  them  with 


264  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Colorado  Jewett ;  I  do  not  care  so  much  that  he  misled  the  rebel  commis 
sioners  themselves ;  but  I  do  care,  as  it  behooves  every  Illinoisan  who  holds 
the  good  name  and  memory  of  Abraham  Lincoln  dear  in  his  heart, — I  do 
care  that  on  that  occasion  Horace  Greeley  joined  with  the  rebel  commis 
sioners  and  placed  Abraham  Lincoln  in  a  false  position  before  the  country. 
Abraham  Lincoln  had  made  no  change  of  base ;  the  first  letter  he  sent 
announced  the  only  basis  on  which  these  negotiations  could  be  conducted  ; 
he  asked  Greeley  to  show  that  first  letter  to  the  commissioners  in  order  that 
there  might  be  no  mistake  about  it,  and  you  remember  how  we  were  all 
dumbfounded  when  a  portion  of  that  correspondence  was  published,  how  we 
saw  no  escape  for  the  President,  and  how  it  seemed  to  us  and  to  the  whole 
country  that  Lincoln  had  been  trifling  with  these  commissioners,  had  aban 
doned  the  position,  and  had  misled  and  betrayed  them  ;  and  when,  in  order 
to  set  himself  right  before  the  world,  Abraham  Lincoln  asked  Horace  Greeley 
for  the  privilege  of  publishing  the  whole  correspondence,  merely  omitting  the 
phrase,  'our  bleeding,  bankrupt  and  dying  country/  because  he  said  it 
might  discourage  and  dishearten  the  people  at  the  north, — when  he  asked 
that  his  good  name  might  be  vindicated  before  thirty-seven  millions  of  people, 
Horace  Greeley  refused.  Horace  Greeley  joined  in  the  cry  against  him,  and 
by  that  refusal  placed  Lincoln  in  a  false  position  before  this  country  for  two 
years  ;  and  not  until  the  danger  had  passed,  not  until  the  storms  of  war  had 
rolled  away,  was  the  correspondence  published,  and  the  name  and  good 
fame  of  our  martyred  President  vindicated. 

"That  is  not  all,  my  fellow  citizens.  I  do  not  charge  him  with  complicity 
with  Tammany,  but  I  do  say  this,  that  that  State  Central  Committee  in  the 
City  of  New  York,  which  Horace  Greeley  represents,  has  been  a  Tammany 
committee  from  the  beginning;  that  the  reason  why,  for  years  and  years,  we 
could  not  do  anything  in  the  City  and  State  of  New  York  was  that  Tweed 
owned,  managed,  and  ran  these  committees.  Now,  what  is  the  cause  of 
this  breaking  out  between  Greeley  and  the  President  1  It  is  this ;  at  the  last 
organization  of  the  Republican  State  Committee  at  New  York,  it  was  repre 
sented  to  the  President  by  leading  men  of  both  parties  in  the  State  that 
unless  this  committee  was  reorganized,  it  would  be  utterly  impossible  to  make 
any  head  against  Tammany,  which  had  corrupted  the  whole  country, 
plundered  that  great  city,  and  depreciated  and  almost  ruined  her  credit ;  and 
hence  the  weight  and  moral  effect  of  the  administration  was  given  for  that 
purpose,  and  the  Tammany  men  on  the  committee  were  thrown  overboard 
— Ben  Field  and  the  rest.  Greeley  denounced  the  President  because 
Tammany  was  overwhelmingly  beaten  ;  it  was  for  that — because  this  sterling 
President,  who  never  made  a  promise  that  he  did  not  keep,  and  never 
deserted  a  friend  in  the  hour  of  trial  and  trouble,  because  \J.  S.  Grant,  the 
great  captian  of  our  age,  and  our  leader,  then  stood  between  this  despoiled 
and  plundered  community  and  their  robbers, — that  this  outcry  is  raised  in 
the  City  of  New  York,  and  Greeley  is  to-day  running  on  what  they  call 
a  Liberal  Reform  ticket.  Now,  who  are  his  surrounders  and  friends? 
Waldo  Hutchins,  Hank  Smith,  Fithian,  Ben  Field, — men  notorious  all  over 
the  continent,  as  the  tools,  the  dupes,  and  the  lick-spittles  of  Tammany  for 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    18/2.  265 

years  past.  I  need  do  nothing  more  than  appeal  to  the  Chicago  Tribune 
on  the  morning  after  his  nomination.  The  Tribune  substantially  said  'he 
must  rid  himself  of  all  the  dead-beats  and  plunderers  that  surrounded  him.' 

"They  tell  us  the  war  is  finished;  perhaps  it  is.  I  ask  every  sincere 
Republican  in  this  house  to-night  what  he  believes  would  be  the  result, 
provided  we  had  at  the  next  assembling  of  Congress  a  Democratic  majority 
in  either  or  both  branches  of  our  national  Congress.  They  need  not  under 
take  to  repeal  the  fifteenth  amendent,  or  the  fourteenth,  but  you  and  I 
know  that  there  is  such  a  thing  as  unfriendly  legislation.  You  know  as 

well  as  I there  is  not  a  man  in  this  house  that  does  not  know  it — that  with 

a  Democratic  majority  in  either  branch  of  our  national  Congress,  you  might 
pile  up  facts  mountains  high,  showing  that  the  new  freeman  had  been 
outraged,  insulted,  and  abused,  and  they  would  not  see  the  facts.  The 
time  has  not  come  when  it  is  safe  to  withdraw  from  the  hands  of  this  great 
party  the  power  with  which,  for  years,  you  have  entrusted  it.  It  is  a  ques 
tion  which  we  must  regulate  and  decide  as  we  do  all  other  questions ;  we 
must  determine  what  men  will  do  in  the  future  by  what  they  have  done  in 
the  past. 

"If  there  should  come  to  the  cashier  of  the  bank  in  this  city  two  appli 
cants  for  the  office  of  teller,  both  of  them  with  their  platforms  precisely  alike, 
embodying  the  ten  commandments,  Christ's  sermon  on  the  Mount,  and 
everything  that  is  good  in  morals  and  business,  still  the  cashier,  I  take  it, 
would  not  decide  upon  these  applications  merely  on  the  platforms  which 
these  men  made ;  he  would  enquire  into  their  history ;  and  if  he  found  that 
one  fellow  had  robbed  his  employer's  till,  that  his  credit  was  bad  and  his 
morals  weak,  and  the  other  had  never  been  suspected  of  any  offence,  he 
would  select  the  man  whose  record  had  been  good  in  the  past,  notwith 
standing  the  old  thief  might  say  he  had  taken  a  'new  departure,'  and 
promised  never  to  do  so  any  more.  [Laughter  and  cheers.]  '  I  am  glad  to 
hear  you  have  taken  a  new  departure ;  I  hope  your  platform  is  all  right ;  I 
think  your  platform  is;  but  my  dear  sir,  I  must  let  you  depart  first  with 
somebody  else's  money  than  my  own.'  [Laughter.]  Everybody  who  asks 
us  for  political  position,  for  power,  for  trust,  can  see  that  reputation  is  not  a 
dead  issue.  The  reputation  of  any  party  which  solicits  power  is  always  in 
issue,  and  it  always  will  be  in  issue.  [Cheers.] 

'•Now,  what  issues  do  they  present  to  us?  Simply  two.  In  this  liberal 
platform  which  they  all  seem  so  anxious  to  put  up,  they  clamor  for  the  one- 
term  principle.  I  am  opposed  to  it,  and  so  are  you.  One  term  is  too  long 
for  a  bad  President,  and  two  terms  are  not  more  than  enough  for  a  good 
one.  We  needed  no  amendment  of  the  Constitution  to  get  rid  of  James 
Buchanan  and  to  get  rid  of  Andrew  Johnson.  We  did  not  need  any 
amendment  of  the  Constitution  to  shut  off  Martin  Van  Buren,  James  K. 
Polk,  and  the  rest  of  them;  and  the  fact  that  we  elected  Abraham  Lincoln 
because  the  interests  of  the  nation  demanded  it  is  an  eternally  convincing 
proof  of  the  futility  of  such  a  plea  as  that  the  whole  of  the  people  shall  be 
tied  hand  and  foot  by  a  clause  of  that  kind  in  our  organic  law.  I  believe 
thirty-seven  millions  of  people  are  quite  competent  to  determine  whether 


266  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

they  want  a  man  for  President  the  second  time  or  not.  They  have  always 
been  able  to  do  it  and  all  the  precedents  of  our  history  have  justified  their 
conduct  whenever  they  have,  as  they  have  done  in  many  instances,  quietly 
thrown  him  overboard. 

"But  they  tell  us  they  are  also  in  favor  of  local  self-government.  Now, 
what  does  local  self-government  mean?  Governor  Palmer  has  had  a  break 
ing  out  of  local  self-government  ever  since  he  has  been  Governor  of  Illinois. 
The  local  self-government,  or  state  sovereignty,  is  the  queerest  disease 
that  has  ever  afflicted  any  man  in  this  world;  infinitely  worse  than  inflam 
matory  rheumatism ;  it  is  absolutely  ineradicable ;  all  the  waters  of  the  deep 
sea  could  not  wash  it  out.  In  his  first  message,  the  Governor  talks  of  state 
sovereignty;  so  he  went  down  to  Cincinnati,  with  his  little  budget  of  the 
military  occupation  of  the  city  of  Chicago.  And  their  platform  talks  of  local 
self-government.  Why,  it  is  the  old  exploded  theory  of  state  sovereignty,  and 
nothing  else  under  heaven.  Read  the  Democratic  speeches  that  are  made 
at  their  meetings,  endorsing  Greeley  and  favoring  his  nomination  by  the 
convention,  and  election.  It  is  the  same  talk  we  heard  exactly,  all  through 
the  war,  of  tyranny  and  oppression,  and  the  iron  heel  of  the  tyrant.  My 
fellow  citizens,  go  home  to-night  and  ask  yourselves,  in  the  presence  of 
your  own  conscience,  and  in  the  presence  of  God,  whether  you  feel  you 
have  been  tyrannized  over.  Ask  yourselves  whether  this  magnificent  specta 
cle  which  is  now  presented  is  the  result  of  tyranny — that  of  a  great  people, 
led  as  they  have  been  by  the  steady  hand  of  this  great  captain,  encounter 
ing  a  mighty  volume  .of  debt,  and  reducing  that  debt  hundreds  of  millions 
of  dollars,  and  at  the  same  time  reducing  the  burden  of  their  taxation  in 
equal  proportions.  Think,  too,  how  our  greenbacks  are  appreciating;  think 
how  our  bonds  are  appreciating  in  the  markets  of  the  world ;  think  how  our 
credit  has  advanced  ;  think  how  prosperity  prevails  throughout  all  our  bor 
ders;  and  then,  look  at  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  thank  God 
that  he  is  no  genius,  that  he  is  simply  a  plain,  honest,  capable,  faithful 
man,  true  to  the  interests  of  the  great  people  by  whom  he  was  placed  in 
his  position. 

"He  declared  to  you  at  the  outset.  'I  shall  have  no  policy  opposed  to  the 
will  of  the  people.'  How  did  he  illustrate  it?  He  thought,  early  in  his 
administration,  that  the  interests  of  this  country  demanded  the  acquisition 
of  the  Island  of  San  Domingo.  I  thought  it  did  not ;  the  most  of  you 
thought  it  did  not;  I  have  seen  occasion  to  change  my  opinion  upon  that 
subject ;  but  finding  that  the  will  of  the  people  was  against  it,  General 
Grant  sends  his  manly  and  noble  message  to  Congress,  and  says,  'I 
thought  that  the  interests  of  our  trade,  our  commerce,  and  our  nation 
demanded  the  acquisition  of  that  island ;  I  thought  not  only  for  commercial 
purposes,  and  in  view  of  future  complications  with  foreign  powers,  we 
ought  to  have  it,  but  in  and  of  itself  we  ought  to  have  it,  I  thought  so 
then,  and  I  think  so  still.  I  sent  my  commissioners,  among  the  best  men 
in  the  country  there,  and  they  have  reported  as  I  thought.  You,  my  fel 
low  citizens,  do  not  want  it ;  I  only  want  it  for  you ;  if  you  do  not  want  it, 
do  not  have  it ;  I  have  no  policy  opposed  to  the  will  of  the  people." 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  26/ 

[Cheers.]  I  tell  you,  in  the  years  that  are  to  come,  standing  up  against  all 
the  glittering  rhetoric  of  mere  senatorial  orators,  that  simple  state  paper, 
magnificent  in  its  self-denying  patriotism,  will  stand  out  like  a  great 
gigantic  pyramid,  challenging  the  admiration  and  gratitude  of  mankind. 
"  Yet,  after  having  done  what  he  has  done,  and  accomplished  what  he  has 
accomplished,  it  is  insisted  that  he  must  be  thrown  overboard,  and  Horace 
Greeley  substituted  in  his  place.  It  is  claimed  that  he  has  violated  his  faith 
with  the  people  in  the  injudicious  appointments  he  has  made.  I  am  here 
making  no  apologies ;  I  am  not  here  as  a  partisan  either ;  but  I  believe  that 
there  is,  deep  down  in  the  popular  heart  of  the  people,  a  sense  of  fair  play 
and  of  common  decent  treatment,  that  will  vindicate,  and  protect,  and  defend 
him ;  that  same  great  nation  that  has  rallied  around  our  martyred  President  as 
with  cords  of  steel,  will  rally  around  their  living  captain  as  with  flames  and 
circlets  of  fire,  and  protect,  and  justify,  and  care  for,  and  defend  him. 
[Cheers.]  I  ask  you  now  to  remember,  whenever  there  has  been,  in  the 
history  of  the  politics  of  this  country,  charges  so  malignant  and  so  base,  and 
epithets  so  vituperative  as  have  been  employed  against  Ulysses  S.  Grant,  you 
would  stop  and  ask  yourselves,  'What  has  this  man  done?  Has  he  broken 
open  a  bank  ?  Has  he  stricken  down  his  neighbor  in  the  dead  hour  of  the 
night?  Has  he  robbed  anybody?  Of  what  offense  is  he  guilty?  What  crime 
has  he  committed?'  Run  through  trie  whole  catalogue  of  crimes,  and  still 
the  denunciations  that  have  been  poured  upon  him  have  been  all  too  severe  ; 
and  we  answer  and  say :  '  He  has  done  nothing  except  to  save  this 
nation.'  We  will  save  it  again,  and  save  it,  my  fellow  citizens,  through 
him.  The  contest  upon  which  we  are  just  entering  will  be  one  of  the  most 
animated  which  has  ever  occurred  in  the  political  history  of  this  country  ; 
the  same  old  party  stands  up  as  strong,  powerful  and  bold  as  it  ever  did  ; 
its  banner  is  lifted  just  as  high ;  it  keeps  step  to-day,  as  it  always  has 
kept  step  to  the  glorious  music  of  the  nation  ;  it  knows  no  faltering,  it 
knows  no  shrinking  of  the  spirit,  no  trembling  of  the  nerve ;  and  as  we 
come  into  line,  now  at  the  opening  of  this  campaign,  here  together  in 
this  great  and  magnificent  county  of  La  Salle,  let  the  old  fires  burn,  all  up 
and  down  the  land,  and  let  the  word  go  all  up  and  down  the  line,  let  the  old 
spirit  rise  up  in  every  heart,  and  let  the  old  order  be  given  from  the  begin 
ning  to  the  end  of  the  continent,  '  Forward  ! '  and  victory  is  assuredly  ours. 
[Loud  applause.]" 

Mr.  Storrs  spoke  the  following  week  at  Freeport,  going  over 
the  same  ground  as  at  Ottawa,  and  in  pretty  much  the  same 
form.  He  commenced  by  referring  to  a  Republican  meeting  he 
had  addressed  there  in  1861,  and  another  in  1864,  when  Abraham 
Lincoln  was  a  candidate  for  a  second  term.  He  then  gave  a 
running  history  of  the  Republican  party,  from  its  organization, 
showing  that  the  party  had  religiously  performed  every  promise 
which  it  had  ever  made,  and  kept  its  faith  with  the  people.  He 
"went  on  to  say: 


268  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"The  platform  of  the  so-called  'Liberals'  calls  for  nothing  which  the  people 
demand  and  which  the  Republican  party  is  not  abundantly  able  to  carry 
out.  The  Liberals  demand  the  payment  of  the  national  debt ;  but  the 
Republican  party  is  paying  it  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars 
per  year.  They  demand  the  reduction  of  taxation,  but  the  Republican  party 
has  already  reduced  taxation  over  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  They 
demand  the  resumption  of  specie  payments,  but  the  policy  of  the  Republican 
party  has  so  far  strengthened  the  national  credit,  that  we  are  hastening 
toward  specie  resumption  as  rapidly  .as  the  business  interests  of  the  nation 
will  justify.  The  Liberals  do  not  care  to  tell  us  how  they  intend  to 
resume,  or  when.  That  is  the  only  point  upon  which  there  is  any  difference 
between  anybody,  and  on  that  point  the  Liberals  are  silent  and  do  not 
dare  to  speak.  They  demand  the  equality  of  all  our  citizens  before  the 
law,  but  to  the  Republican  party  alone  is  the  nation  and  the  world  indebted 
for  the  fact  that  political  inequalities  have  ceased  to  exist  in  this  country. 
They  demand  a  reform  of  the  civil  service,  but  fail  to  tell  us  what  reform 
they  wish,  or  how  it  shall  be  effected.  Mr.  Trumbull  proposed  that  post 
masters  be  elected  by  the  people ;  but  they  have  already  scouted  the 
idea  as  utterly  impracticable.  The  present  administration  is  the  first  and 
only  one  which  has  ever  undertaken,  in  good  faith,  to  effect  practical 
reforms  in  our  civil  service.  At  the  outset  the  Liberals  were  loud  in  their 
demand  for  a  reform  in  the  revenues ;  that  they  have  skulkingly  aban 
doned,  and  have  surrendered  their  free  trade  theories  to  the  most  absurd 
protectionist  on  the  continent.  They  demand  a  restoration  of  order  at  the 
South ;  but  the  encouragement  of  the  Ku-Klux  is  a  poor  way  to  restore 
order.  The  Republican  party  has  restored  order  by  compelling  the  Ku-Klux 
to  behave  themselves ;  and  so  long  as  they  can  be  kept  quiet  order  will 
prevail  in  the  South,  her  industries  be  developed,  and  her  prosperity  be 
assured.  But  the  Liberals  also  demand  the  one-term  principle,  and 
clamor  for  the  right  of  what  they  call  'local  self-government.'  Do  they 
establish  the  one-term  principle  by  electing  Greeley,  or  do  they  purpose 
to  remit  that  to  the  people  of  each  congressional  district?  Will  they 
secure  the  one-term  principle  by  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  or 
by  an  act  of  Congress  or  by  Horace  Greeley 's  promise  that  he  won't 
run  again?  The  people  are  quite  competent  to  determine  whether  they 
want  a  President  for  more  than  four  years.  When  they  don't  want  him 
for  a  second  time  they  have  a  very  plain  way  of  giving  him  notice  of 
the  fact.  We  didn't  have  to  amend  the  Constitution  to  beat  Andrew 
Johnson ;  nor  did  we  have  to  amend  the  Constitution  to  dispose  of  James 
Buchanan.  They  wanted  Abraham  Lincoln  a  second  time.  Greeley  and 
Trumbull  and  Chase  and  several  other  very  high-toned  gentlemen  thought 
that  one  term  was  enough  ;  but  as  is  usual  in  such  cases  the  people 
were  quite  competent  to  determine  that  question  for  themselves,  and  had 
their  own  way.  We  propose  to  let  them  have  their  own  way  about  these 
matters  in  the  future.  We  think  that  one  term  would  be  tdb  much  for 
Horace  Greeley,  and  two  terms  is  all  we  ask  for  Grant.  As  to  this 
point  of  local  self-government,  it  is  a  mere  sugar-coated  method  of 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  269 

administering  the  old  'State  Rights'  dose.  Great  clamor  is  made  over 
what  is  called  '  centralization,'  and  one  would  think  that  there  was  a 
great  deal  in  it.  The  Liberals  don't  tell  us  what  they  mean  by  it. 
We  are  familiar  with  the  talk,  however.  We  became  familiar  with  it 
during  the  war.  That  eminent  '  Liberal,'  Beriah  Magoffin,  of  Kentucky, 
denounced  the  first  call  for  troops  as  'centralization.' 

Those  distinguished  'Liberals/  Fernando  Wood  and  Henry  Clay  Dean, 
denounced  the  Emancipation  Proclamation  and  the  conscription  laws  as 
'centralization.'  The  fact  is  centralization  was  the  death  of  secession. 
As  between  the  two,  1  am  in  favor  of  enough  centralization  to  crush  out 
treason  at  home,  to  assert  our  dignity,  and  to  punish  our  enemies  abroad. 
The  Republican  party  has,  for  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  country 
made  American  citizenship  a  fact.  For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  this 
country,  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  start  from  the  Penobscot  and  read  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  in  every  town  and  county  in  every  State 
to  the  Rio  Grande,  and  none  to  molest  or  make  him  afraid.  All  this 
clamor  about  '  centralization '  is  meaningless,  unless  it  be  shown  that  the 
general  government  has  in  some  way  or  other  transcended  its  powers  and 
invaded  the  reserved  rights  of  the  States.  Talk  is  cheap.  But  until  the 
Liberals  point  us  to  some  legislation,  or  to  some  act  for  which  the  Republican 
party  is  responsible,  of  the  character  I  have  indicated,  we  need  bother 
ourselves  very  little  about  'centralization.'  The  Republican  party  believes 
that  this  Government  is  a  Union  of  the  People,  and  not  a  compact  of 
States.  It  believes  that  these  States  are  not  like  a  lot  of  marbles  in  a 
bag  which  touch  but  do  not  adhere,  but  though  'distinct  like  the  bil 
lows,  are  one  like  the  sea.'  For  half  a  century  or  more  we  argued  this 
question  on  the  stump,  in  Congress,  and  in  the  courts.  We  won  in  all 
of  those  places.  Not  satisfied  with  the  decision,  the  same  men  who  now 
howl  about  'centralization,'  submitted  the  question  to  that  tribunal  of  last 
resort,  from  which  no  appeal  can  be  taken,  the  arbitrament  of  war. 
They  were  again  beaten.  It  cost  us  three  thousand  millions  of  money, 
five  hundred  thousand  lives,  and  over  four  years  of  war  to  win  on  that 
trial.  I  am  opposed  to  a  re-trial.  Enough  of  money  and  enough  of 
lives  have  already  been  wasted  on  4he  settlement  of  that  question;  and 
no  such  thin  disguise  as  'local  self-government'  will  ever  seduce  us  into 
the  re-opening  of  that  subject. 

"A  great  deal  of  sentiment  is  expressed  by  these  'Liberal'  gentlemen  over 
what  they  call  the  distresses  of  the  South,  and  much  noisy  vituperation 
visited  upon  the  carpet-bagger.  If  under  the  new  condition  of  things  at  the 
South  bad  men  are  elected  to  office,  it  is  probably  because  the  voters  have 
made  injudicious  selections.  The  government  can't  help  that,  unless  it  gets 
up  a  new  lot  of  voters,  or  prevents  those  from  voting  who  now  have  that 
right.  The  negro  votes  because  the  fifteenth  constitutional  amendment 
tells  him  that  he  may ;  if  he  don't  vote  intelligently,  it  is  because  those 
'  Liberals'  who  denounce  centralization  at  the  South,  have  kept  him  for  gen 
erations  in  ignorance.  Intelligent  voting,  like  intelligent  workmanship,  comes 
by  practice,  and  unless  the  Liberals  favor  the  repeal  of  the  fifteenth 


2/O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

amendment,  they  should  quietly  accept  all  the  consequences  that  result  from 
it.  We  think  that  the  temporary  evils  of  unenlightened  voting  are  much 
less  serious  than  the  permanent  damage  which  would  result  in  making  the 
negro  a  citizen,  and  then  witholding  from  him  the  only  weapon  by  which  his 
rights  of  citizenship  could  be  protected." 

On  the  1 8th  of  July,  Mr.  Storrs  went  to  Dixon,  and  there 
delivered  a  stirring  address,  which  was  fully  reported  in  the 
Chicago  papers,  one  of  which  said:  "Mr.  Storrs  is  a  general 
favorite  in  that  section  of  the  country,  and,  though  the  afternoon 
was  unusually  wet,  yet,  as  the  shades  of  evening  came  on  a  very- 
large  crowd  had  mustered.  As  Mr.  Storrs  entered  the  court 
room  he  was  greeted  with  a  perfect  storm  of  applause.  By  this 
time  the  room  was  densely  packed.  The  court-house  square  held 
fully  a  thousand  who  could  not  gain  admittance,  and  quite  an 
equal  number  had  gone  home."  He  began  as  follows: 

"Speaking  in  Dixon  seems  to  me  almost  like  speaking  in  my  old  home. 
Ever  since  the  war  began  I  have  known  the  men  and  women  of  this  mag 
nificent  county.  I  have  been  witty  them  when  we  have  taken  counsel  of 
our  hopes,  but  you  know  that  we  never  took  counsels  of  our  fears.  I  have 
been  with  them  in  the  darkest  days  of  the  rebellion.  I  have  been  with 
them  when  defeat  and  disaster  spread  like  a  pall  over  the  whole  country. 
I  have  been  with  them  in  the  glorious  exultation  of  victory.  I  have  been 
with  them  when  we  have  settled  grave  political  problems,  upon  the  deter 
mination  of  which  the  existence  of  the  life  of  the  country  depended.  I 
have  been  with  the  old  Republican  party  of  Lee  county  in  its  days  of 
strength,  and  power,  and  usefulness ;  and  I  have  occasion  to  thank  God, 
from  the  bottom  of  my  heart,  that  the  evidences  which  I  see  before  me 
to-night,  demonstrate  as  clearly  as  any  physical  evidence  can  demonstrate, 
that  that  great  party  is  as  strong  and  powerful,  and  resolute  in  its  pur 
pose  and  will  to-day,  as  during  any  portion  of  its  glorious  career  and 
existence. 

"The  mission  of  the  Republican  party  is  not  ended!  Its  days  of  use 
fulness  are  not  past!  And  when  I  am  required  to  quit  that  party,  I 
desire  to  have  very  substantial  reasons,  from  very  responsible  sources, 
to  assure  me  that  I  shall  make  something  by  the  exchange,  before  I 
can  withdraw  my  support  from  it.  For  nothing  more  than  what  this 
great  party  has  done  in  the  past,  we  should  love  it,  stick  to  it,  abide 
by  it,  and  live  with  it  forever.  It  is  perhaps  the  first  political  organi 
zation  which  this  country  has  ever  known,  that  can  look  back  upon 
rts  entire  history  and  as  it  turns  over  page  after  page,  say,  'Thank 
God,  there  is  not  a  word  written  in  that  history  that  we  desire  to  for 
get  ;  we  are  not  ashamed  of  the  past,  and  therefore,  are  not  solicitous 
that  the  past  shall  be  forgotten.  We  are  not  ashamed  of  the  issues 
which  we  have  put  through,  and  therefore,  are  not  solicitous  that  they 
should  be  called  dead  issues.  This  party  is  ashamed  of  nothing  that  it 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  27! 

has    done    in    the    past,    and    therefore,    does    not    go  beseechingly   around 
the  country   asking  that  what  it    has  done   shall  be  buried  in  oblivion." 

He  then  recalled  the  history  of  the  Republican  party  in  glow 
ing  words  and  repudiated  the  idea  that  Charles  Sumner  or  any 
other  man  had  called  that  party  into  being.  Then  he  compared 
the  Republican  and  "Liberal"  platforms,  contending,  as  he  had  here 
tofore  done,  that  there  was  nothing  the  "Liberals"  wanted  that  the 
Republicans  were  not  able  to  give,  and  arguing  against  their 
notion  of  a  one-term  principle  in  the  same  way  as  he  had  done 
in  previous  speeches. 

"Now,  as  to  self-government,  what  do  they  mean  by  that?  They  gener 
alize  by  calling  it  centralization.  What  do  they  mean  by  that?  If  it  is 
something  very  bad,  I  am  opposed  to  it.  If  it  is  something  very  good,  I 
am  in  favor  of  it.  If  it  is  part  way  between  the  two,  I  do  not  care  much 
about  it.  I  wish  they  would  tell  me,  when  they  use  these  words  of 
fearful  import  and  thundering  sound — what  they  mean?  If  they  mean 
that  they  are  opposed  to  the  general  government  transcending  its  powers 
and  interfering  with  the  vested  rights  of  the  states — so  am  I — so  are  all. 
But  while  I  am  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  the  states,  I  am,  at  the  same 
time,  in  favor  of  the  rights  of  the  nation.  We  have  spent  $3,000,000,000 
of  money,  sacrificed  hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives,  and  had  four  years 
of  war,  in  order  to  save  this  nation  from  destruction.  I  am,  therefore, 
in  favor  of  a  centralized  government,  so  strong  that  there  shall  be  some 
meaning  in  the  words,  'American  citizen.'  I  am  in  favor  of  its  being  so 
strong  that  in  the  remotest  corners  of  the  globe,  whenever  the  meanest 
American  citizens  are  molested,  trampled  upon,  or  oppressed,  that  this 
great  government  will  put  out  its  strong  arm  to  defend  the  citizen  and 
punish  the  oppressor.  [Cheers.]  And  not  only  that,  but  that  it  will  do 
the  same  with  all  its  citizens  at  home.  I  am  in  favor  of  a  government 
which,  when  the  organic  law  has  declared  that  negroes  shall  be  voters 
— that  they  shall  be  clothed  with  that  right — and  that  Congress  shall,  by 
appropriate  legislation,  protect  and  defend  them.  I  am  in  favor  of  a 
central  power  strong  enough  to  see  to  it  that  the  right  so  conferred 
shall  be  protected,  and  the  negro  justified  in  its  exercise ;  and  whenever 
that  right  is  assailed,  as  it  was  by  the  Ku-Klux,  I  hold  that  it  is  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  see  that  it  is  defended.  But,  they  say  that  we 
must  have  peace,  order,  good-will,  amnesty,  and  the  shaking  of  hands 
across  the  bloody  chasm.  I  am  in  favor  of  quiet.  I  am  in  favor  of 
peace.  I  desire  to  see  order  reign  through  all  the  borders  of  this  country, 
and  over  the  whole  earth ;  but  if  you  would  restore  order,  you  must 
suppress  disorder ;  if  you  would  have  peace,  you  must  punish  the  men  who 
are  violating  the  peace. 

"Who  made  the  disorder  at  the  South?  Did  the  negro  make  it?  No. 
Did  the  carpet-bagger  make  it?  No.  History  has  written  it.  Men 
masked,  with  blackened  faces,  by  murder,  robbery,  pillage  and  outrage  of 


2/2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

every  kind,  inflicted  upon  these  new-made  citizens,  made  a  very  bedlam  of 
that  country.  Would  you  restore  it  by  putting  the  Ku-Klux  in  power? 
No! — put  him  down  and  make  him  behave  himself.  When  that  legis 
lation  was  passed,  and  the  government  clothed  with  these  powers,  order 
came.  Why?  Although  their  dispositions  had  not  been  changed,  although 
the  Ku-Klux  were  the  same  in  heart  as  they  had  been  before,  yet  because 
they  knew  there  was  a  silent  soldier  in  the  presidential  chair,  and  that 
the  time  had  come  when  there  must  be  no  nonsense,  therefore  they 
behaved  themselves.  [Cheers.]  It  is  because  this  administration  has  done 
that,  that  it  is  vilified,  abused,  and  traduced  in  the  way  it  is.  I  have 
desired  to  see  the  time  come  when  you  and  I  and  all  cf  us  could  travel 
wherever  we  pleased,  could  say  what  we  desired  to  say,  or  think  what 
we  desired  to  think,  and  that  there  should  be  no  one  to  molest  us 
or  make  us  afraid.  That  time  is  coming,  but,  gentleman,  that  time  will 
not  come  until,  in  the  prosecution  of  his  business,  every  man  can  do  it 
without  reference  to  the  place  of  his  nativity." 

He  reiterated  his  former  argument  as  to  the  difference  between 
platforms  and  practice,  and  illustrated  the  political  situation  with 
an  apologue  which  his  audience  appreciated  and  heartily  enjoyed : 

"This  is  also  well  illustrated  by  the  fable  of  the  wolves  and  the  fanner. 
A  farmer  had  been  for  years  engaged  in  the  sheep-raising  business. 
When  he  started,  he  bought  a  magnificent  shepherd  dog  to  watch  his 
flock,  and  he  put  it  in  office.  There  was  a  party  of  wolves  in  his 
immediate  neighborhood,  and  as  the  time  rolled  on  there  never  was  any 
cordiality  of  feeling  between  the  wolves  and  that  dog.  The  wolf  party 
gradually  got  smaller  and  smaller,  because  the  dog  would  make  raids  on  it, 
and  by  and  bye  they  dwindled  down  to  a  very  small  number.  There  were, 
however,  a  good  many  curs  in  the  neighborhood,  and  they  determined  they 
would  join  this  wolf  party,  and  call  it  A  GREAT  LIBERAL  MOVEMENT.  [Laugh 
ter.]  They  held  a  convention  and  resolved  that  peace  and  amity  should  be 
restored  between  themselves,  and  they  concluded  that  there  was  nothing 
whatever  in  their  way  but  that  dog,  and  if  they  could  get  him  out  of  the 
way  they  would  shake  hands  across  this  bloody  chasm.  They  passed  a 
series  of  resolutions  in  which  they  declared  that  these  losses  that- had  been 
caused  by  their  former  depredations  were  atrocious,  but  that  they  were 
dead  issues.  They  said  they  |  had  renounced  all  the  habits  of  their 
previous  lives,  and  that  they  would,  for  the  future,  be  the  safest 
defenders  of  these  flocks.  The  boss  wolf  went  to  the  farmer,  'Now,' 
he  says,  '  all  the  trouble  is  attributable  to  this  dog.  To  begin  w^ith, 
he  is  a  dog  you  don't  want  around  your  premises  at  all.  He  is 
unfit  for  this  purpose.  Another  thing,  he  cannot  bark ;  there  is  not  a 
stub-tailed  cur  in  the  country  but  what  can  'out-bark  him.'  [Laughter 
and  applause.]  Another  thing  he  says,  'five  of  that  dog's  pups  are  in 
position  here — holding  office.  [Laughter.]  He  is  guilty  of  nepotism  in 
its  very  worst  shape.'  [Renewed  laughter  and  cheers.]  Gentlemen,  that 
was  a  pretty  rough  case  on  the  dog. 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    18/2.  273 

"The  farmer  says,  'These  things  may  be  so ;  I  know  that  dog  can 
not  bark  much;  but,'  says  he,  'he  bites  like  the  very  devil,  as  you 
know.  [Cheers.]  I  did  not  want  him  for  a  house-dog,  so  that,  as  to 
his  merits  or  demerits  on  that  point  I  have  nothing  to  say.  As  to 
these  pups,  the  clear  truth  about  that  is  that  they  take  after  their 
father,  and  I  have  never  lost  a  sheep  out  of  my  flocks;  my  flocks 
have  prospered.  I  do  not  known  about  your  logic,  you  may  confuse 
me  as  to  that,  but  the  good  straight  way  for  me  is  to  judge  the  future 
by  the  past,  and  I  do  not  think  that  I  shall  be  guilty  of  the  atrocious 
nonsense  and  fearful  ingratitude  of  removing  that  glorious  old  shepherd 
dog  that  has  grown  up  with  these  flocks  and  with  me,  and  has  never 
been  anything  except  entirely  and  forever  faithful.'  [Loud  cheers.]" 

Contrasting  the  records  of  Grant  and  Greeley  in  the  days  of 
the  nation's  peril,  he  concluded  as  follows : 

"Let  us  be  generous;  let  us  be  just;  let  us  give  the  credit  where 
the  credit  is  due.  Let  it  never  be  said  of  us,  in  the  years  that  are  to 
come,  that  the  great  nation  that  has  been  saved  by  the  quiet  and  silent  sol 
dier,  turned  their  backs  upon  him  because  he  was  slandered  by  the 
very  men  whom  he  had  defeated  in  the  field  of  battle. 

"I  believe  that  the  great  people  of  this  country  love  Grant  as  much 
as  they  ever  did — trust  him  as  implicitly  as  they  ever  did.  During 
the  years  this  faithful  man  has  held  the  helm  of  State  in  his  hand, 
how  magnificently  the  old  ship  of  state  has  passed  through  the  storms 
we  know,  because  we  have  been  passengers  aboard  of  her.  Let  us  not 
leave  the  ship.  Let  us  not  desert  Grant — the  old  captain,  one  more  trip  and 
the  thing  will  be  done  ;  order  will  be  restored,  our  finances  prosperous, 
and  we  will  come  up  to  those  grand  sunny  slopes  that  spread  themselves* 
out  in  the  great  distance  on  the  other  side ;  and  on  this  great  continent, 
if  we  are  true  to  ourselves,  we  will  erect  the  most  magnificent  structure 
the  world  has  ever  known — sacred  to  the  cause  of  human  liberty — its 
dome  as  broad  as  the  arching  skies,  its  base  as  extended  as  the  conti 
nent  on  which  it  is  byilt.  Here,  in  its  mansions,  there  will  always  be 
space,  for  all  time,  for  the  true  and  loyal  and  good  men  from  all  corners 
of  the  earth  to  meet  and  celebrate  the  triumph  of  free  government 
among  men." 

In  the  meantime,  the  Democrats  had  met  at  Baltimore,  and  in 
the  hope  of  returning  to  power  by  the  coalition  method,  had 
not  only  adopted  the  platform  of  the  Cincinnati  Convention,  but 
had  swallowed  their  candidates  as  well.  The  tactics  of  the  Bal 
timore  Convention  were  doomed  to  failure,  and  the  accession  of 
strength  they  hoped  to  gain  from  the  renegade  Republicans  was 
more  than  offset  by  the  opposition  of  stiff-necked  Democrats  who 
refused  to  accept  Greeley  and  Brown  as  their  leaders.  The 
irreconcilable  Bourbons  called  a  convention  of  their  own,  which 
IS 


2/4  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

met  at  Louisville,  Kentucky,  in  September,  and  nominated  Charles 
O'Conor  of  New  York  and  George  W.  Julian  of  Indiana. 
Both  these  gentlemen  declined,  but  their  supporters  nevertheless 
kept  on  voting  for  them,  and  thus  nullified  the  "Liberal"  Repub 
lican  vote.  The  nominees  of  the  Philadelphia  Convention,  Grant 
and  Wilson,  were  elected. 

The  action  of  the  Baltimore  Convention  gave  Mr.  Storrs  a 
splendid  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  his  powers  of  invective 
and  sarcasm,  of  which  he  was  prompt  to  avail  himself.  His  next 
campaign  speech  was  delivered  at  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  on  the 
1 2th  of  August.  To  a  large  mass  meeting  there  he  delivered  a 
powerful  address,  reviewing  the  political  situation.  The  points  to 
which  he  directed  attention  were  always  the  same,  but  he  had 
now  a  fresh  argument  to  bring  to  bear  in  regard  to  the  position 
of  the  Cincinnati  party.  They  were  now  embraced  in  the  ranks 
of  those  who  had  fought  to  destroy  the  Union;  and  Mr.  Storrs 
brought  the  fact  prominently  forward,  and  prefigured  the  fate  of 
the  renegades  when  the  enemy  had  no  further  use  for  them.  He 
said : 

"The  campaign  upon  which  we  are  just  entering  is,  in  many  respects, 
the  most  important,  and  in  all  respects  the  most  extraordinary,  when  \\e 
consider  the  manner  in  which  it  has  thus  far  been  conducted,  that  the 
country  has  ever  seen. 

"A  great  political  organization  which,  in  the  short  period  of  eighteen 
years  existence,  has  accomplished  more  for  the  interest  of  freedom  and 
good  government  than  any  party  the  world  has  heretofore  known,  hav 
ing  after  successive  triumphs  over  its  old  and  persistent  enemy  so  far 
demoralized  it  that  it  is  rendered  powerless  for  mischief  in  the  future,  is 
now,  and  for  that  reason,  urged  to  voluntarily  surrender  to  the  enemy 
which  it  has  since  1860  never  met  but  to  defeat. 

"It  has  finally  been  demonstrated  that  our  old,  long-time  adversary 
cannot  defeat  us.  It  is  equally  clear  that  there  exists  in  this  country  no 
power  sufficiently  strong  to  overcome  the  Republican  party  itself,  and  we 
are  now  met  with  the  curious  proposition  that,  because  the  Democratic 
party  is  not  able  to  beat  us,  we  should  for  the  purposes  of  reconciliation 
turn  in  and  defeat  ourselves. 

"The  man  who  commits  suicide  for  the  accommodation  of  his  business 
rival  possesses  a  much  more  conciliatory  spirit  than  the  majority  of 
mankind  can  truthfully  lay  claim  to. 

"Had  Grant,  after  thoroughly  penning  Lee  up  at  Appomattox,  received 
an  invitation  from  Lee  to  surrender,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  about 
an  harmonious  state  of  feeling  between  the  two  armies,  no  serious  fault 
probably  would  have  been  found  with  Grant  had  he  declined  the  invita- 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  275 

tion  and  insisted,  as  he  did  insist,  that  the  vanquished  army  should  do 
the  surrendering,  and  if  harmony  was  what  they  were  after  they  must 
be  content  to  secure  it  in  that  way. 

"No  man  would  be  more  delighted  to  see  the  most  brotherly  and 
loving  state  of  feeling  established  between  the  Republican  and  Demo 
cratic  parties  than  myself,  but  they  having  been  thoroughly  defeated, 
it  is,  I  think,  no  more  than  fair  for  us  to  insist  that,  if  there  is  any 
surrendering  to  be  done,  they  should  do  it.  Had  they  been  left  to 
pursue  their  own  course  that  is  precisely  what  they  would  have  done ; 
but  it  so  happened  that  just  on  the  eve  of  stacking  their  arms  and 
settling  upon  the  terms  of  capitulation,  a  squad  of  disappointed  cap 
tains  and  brigadiers  from  our  own  ranks  joined  them,  and  thus  encour 
aged  the  brigadiers  insist  that  the  rank  and  file  whom  they  have 
deserted  shall  follow  them  into  the  camp  of  the  enemy,  and  trail  their 
colors  before  the  foe,  \vhose  surrender  they  could  easily  have  com 
pelled.  It  is  not  strange  that  the  enemy  thus  recruited  should  immedi 
ately  resume  their  arms,  tear  up  their  articles  of  capitulation,  and  be 
loud  in  their  demands  for  shaking  hands  across  the  bloody  chasm.  The 
wonder  is  not  that  the  army  that  is  whipped  should  rejoice  at  the 
avenue  of  escape  that  is  thus  opened  to  them,  but  that  the  rank  and 
file  who,  after  weary  marches  and  bloody  battles,  stand  just  upon  the 
threshold  of  final  and  decisive  victory,  should  suddenly  lose  all  spirit 
and  surrender  to  an  adversary  no  longer  disposed  nor  able  to  encounter 
them.  ... 

"There  is  no  distinctive  Liberal  party.  It  was  swallowed  at  Baltimore. 
Jonah  did  not  swallow  the  whale,  but  the  whale  swallowed  Jonah ;  and 
the  whale  did  not  consult  Jonah  as  to  the  time,  or  place,  or  manner 
of  swallowing  him,  nor  of  vomiting  him  forth.  Do  you  suppose  that 
this  Democratic  whale  will  consult  the  convenience  of  John  M.  Palmer 
and  Lyman  Trumbull  as  to  the  proper  time  of  casting  them  out  of  its 
stomach,  where  they  are  now  quietly  housed? 

"When  the  Democracy  think  the  time  has  come,  out  of  its  stomach 
will  Palmer  and  Trumbull  be  cast,  upon  the  bleak  and  desolate  shores 
of  political  defeat  and  disappointment." 

He  showed  that  when  the  Republican  State  Convention  of 
Illinois  met  in  September  1871,  that  convention  passed  resolutions 
endorsing  "with  pride  and  admiration"  the  "eminently  wise,  patri 
otic,  honest,  and  economical  administration  of  President  Grant," 
and  that  Lyman  Trumbull  then  made  an  enthusiastic  speech  in 
favor  of  the  resolutions.  "  I  am  told,"  he  said,  "that  Trumbull 
either  wrote  or  inspired  these  resolutions.  What  has  happened 
since  ?  One  of  two  conclusions  is  inevitable  ;  Trumbull  and 
Palmer  were  dishonest  and  undertook  to  mislead  the  people  then, 
or  they  are  dishonest  and  undertake  to  mislead  and  deceive  the 
people  now.  "  The  point,  he  said,  was  not  material,  except  as  it 
affected  these  leaders  of  the  new  party. 


2/6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"How  are  we  privates,  who  are  compelled  to  browse  around  in  the  val 
leys  of  political  thought,  to  know  what  to  do,  when  our  great  instructors 
who  have  been  upon  the  mountain  tops  and  occasionally  send  a  solid 
boulder  of  wisdom  crashing  and  tearing  down  the  mountain  sides  for  us 
to  hammer  away  at,  cut  such  extraordinary  capers?  Hardly  knowing  what 
to  do  last  September,  we  reverently  listened  for  instructions,  and  on  the 
2Oth  day  thereof,  from  the  loftiest  peaks,  we  heard  Trumbull  and  Palmer 
shouting  to  us — '  We  refer  with  pride  and  admiration  to  the  wise,  patriotic, 
honest  and  economical  administration  of  General  Grant,  and  we  confidently 
recommend  it  to  the  attention  of  the  whole  country.'  [Cheers.]  In  our 
feeble  way  we  caught  up  the  law  as  it  was  thus  delivered  to  us,  and 
supposed  that  we  were  singing  the  right  song,  and  in  the  right  key  as 
we  responded.  'We  refer  with  pride  and  admiration  to  the  eminently 
wise,  patriotic,  honest,  and  economical  administration  of  General  Grant.' 
Judge  of  our  surprise,  when,  on  the  1st  day  of  May,  suddenly  from 
those  lofty  summits,  and  with  hardly  a  word  of  warning,  we  heard 
Trumbull  and  Palmer  in  full  chorus  shout  forth — '  The  administration  now  in 
power  has  rendered  itself  guilty  of  wanton  disregard  of  the  laws  of  the  land, 
and  of  usurping  powers  not  granted  by  the  Constitution.'  We  are  all 
expected  to  join  in  the  responses.  The  music  is  different,  the  words  are 
different.  They  must  be  sung  to  a  different  key.  Something  is  the  mat 
ter  with  the  leaders  of  our  choir.  Our  voices  are  not  trained  to  this 
new  style  of  music.  It  is  pitched  too  low  for  us.  We  cannot  suddenly 
leave  the  'Star  Spangled  Banner'  for  'Dixie.'  The  words  don't  suit  us. 
The  result  is  that  the  congregation  feel  that  this  duet  won't  do  for  them, 
and  they  sing  their  good  old  pieces,  in  the  good  old  words,  to  the  good, 
familiar  old  music,  and  in  the  good  old  way. 

"  The  result  is  the  congregation  is  just  as  large  and  musical  as  ever. 
But  our  choir  must  seek  employment  from  some  other  denomination." 

On  the  civil  service  reform  question,  he  said: 

"All  those  Republican  orators  who  call  themselves  'Liberal'  are  most 
eloquent  in  their  denunciation  of  our  civil  service,  and  insist  that  in 
order  to  effect  any  reforms  therein  the  defeat  of  our  ticket  is  an  imper 
ative  necessity.  Judge  Trumbull  suggests  no  remedy,  unless  indeed  it  be 
that  the  Executive  shall  have  sole  and  exclusive  control  of  appointments, 
and  that  neither  Senators  nor  Representatives  shall  be  consulted  with 
regard  to  the  honesty,  capacity  or  fidelity  of  the  applicant.  I  doubt 
whether  a  very  substantial  reform  would  be  worked  in  this  way.  It 
seems  to  me  that  in  appointing  men  to  office  without  consultation  with  the* 
Senators  and  Representatives  from  the  State  or  district  in  which  the 
appointee  lives,  the  President  would  be  more  likely  to  be  deceived  as 
to  the  capacity  and  fitness  of  the  man  than  he  now  is.  The  evils  which 
Judge  Trumbull  thus  indicated  were  not  discovered  by  him.  Nearly  two 
years  ago  they  were  pointed  out  much  more  clearly  by  President  Grant 
than  the  Senator  has  succeeded  in  doing,  and,  to  the  credit  of  the  pres 
ent  administration  be  it  said,  that  so  far  as  Executive  action  is  concerned, 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2. 

Grant  is  the  first  President  who  called  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the 
subject,  pointed  out  the  evils  of  the  system,  and  asked  that  they  be 
remedied.  In  his  annual  message,  December  5th,  1870,  he  said: 

"Always  favoring  practical  reforms,  I  respectfully  call  your  attention  to 
one  abuse  of  long  standing,  which  I  would  like  to  see  remedied  by  this 
Congress.  It  is  a  reform  in  the  civil  service  of  the  country.  I  would 
have  it  go  beyond  the  mere  fixing  of  the  tenure  of  office  of  clerks  and 
employes,  who  do  not  require  'the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate'  to 
make  their  appointments  complete,  I  would  have  it  govern,  not  the  tenure 
but  the  manner  of  making  all  appointments.  There  is  no  duty  which  so 
much  embarasses  the  Executive  and  heads  of  departments  as  that  of  appoint 
ments;  nor  any  such  arduous  and  thankless  labor  imposed  on  Senators 
and  Representatives  as  that  of  finding  places  of  constituents.  The  present 
system  does  not  secure  the  best  men — and  often  not  fit  men — for  public 
places.  The  elevation  and  purification  of  the  civil  service  of  the  Govern 
ment  will  be  hailed  with  approval  by  the  whole  people  of  the  United 
States." 

He  reminded  his  hearers  that,  following  out  this  policy,  Presi 
dent  Grant  had  appointed  a  commission  of  which  Joseph  Medill 
and  George  William  Curtis  were  members,  and  that  Congress 
had  made  an  appropriation  to  cover  their  expenses.  That  com 
mission  had  adopted  rules,  which  went  into  effect  on  the  first 
day  of  January,  1872.  The  Quixotic  proposals  of  the  "Liberals" 
on  the  same  subject  were  then  contrasted  with  the  practical 
measures  adopted  by  President  Grant. 

' '  The  means  proposed  by  the  great  Liberal  reform  party  are  most 
extraordinary  in  their  total  want  of  adaptation  to  the  ends  sought.  They 
say  'to  this  end,'  that  is,  to  take  the  appointments  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
Representatives  and  Senators,  to  prevent  the  bestowal  of  patronage  as  a 
reward  for  partisan  service  already  rendered,  and  to  enable  the  President 
to  determine  the  honesty,  capacity  and  fidelity  of  the  applicant  'it  is 
imperatively  required  that  no  President  shall  be  a  candidate  for  re 
election!' 

"Was  there  ever  anything  more  utterly  trivial  and  absurd.  Judge 
Trumbull  says  that  one  of  the  prominent  evils  of  the  system  is  that 
offices  are  given  as  reward  for  services  already  rendered. 

"How  in  the  name  of  sense  will  the  one-term  principle  remedy  that? 
The  mere  fact  that  Greeley  is  pledged  not  to  run  a  second  time,  will 
not  prevent  him  from  paying  off  in  offices  the  fellows  who  were  instru 
mental  in  electing  him  the  first  time.  How,  in  that  way,  will  appoint 
ments  be  taken  from  Senators  and  Representatives?  Greeley  couldn't 
carry  through  a  measure  without  the  aid  of  these  very  Senators  and 
Representatives.  If  he  took  it  into  his  head  to  count  them  out  in  the 
matter  of  appointments,  he  would  array  them  in  hostility  to  him.  And 
the  fact  that  he  had  solemnly  promised  never  to  run  again,  would 


2/8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

make    no    earthly   difference,     and    would    rather    intensify   than    cure    the 
evil. 

"  But  as  I  have  said,  one  great  difficulty  is  in  ascertaining  the  facts 
as  to  the  honesty,  capacity  and  fidelity  of  the  applicant.  Among  the 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  applicants  for  office  it  is  impossible 
that  the  President  should  possess  personal  knowledge  of  those  facts. 
When  Mr.  Robinson  asks  to  be  appointed  Postmaster  at  a  Cross  Road 
in  Texas,  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the  President  has  not  the  honor 
of  a  personal  acquaintance  with  Robinson — has  never  heard  of  him  before 
and  knows  nothing  about  his  capacity  or  fitness.  How  is  he  to  find  out? 
He  must  not  consult  with  the  Congressman.  But  the  way  in  which  he 
is  to  find  out  whether  Robinson  is  honest,  is  by  not  being  a  candidate 
for  re-election! 

"  I  suppose  that  the  man  who  agrees  that  he  will  not  be  a  candidate 
for  re-election  is  thereby  and  for  that  reason  gifted  with  some  supernatural 
insight  into  the  honesty,  capacity  and  fidelity  of  men  whom  he  has 
never  before  seen,  of  whom  he  has  never  before  heard,  of  whose  exis 
tence  he  had  before  been  profoundly  ignorant.  Great,  indeed,  are  the 
Liberal  Reformers,  and  Greeley  is  their  prophet.  Our  practical  President 
who  is  not  a  man  of  genius — and  that  is  most  fortunate — but  who,  when 
he  opens  his  mouth  never  puts  his  foot  in  it  [laughter]  by  creating  the 
Advisory  Board,  has  succeeded  in  devising  a  plan  by  which  the  inter 
ference  of  Senators  and  Representatives  may  be  prevented,  and  by  a  sys 
tem  of  examination,  the  honesty,  capacity,  and  fidelity  of  the  applicants, 
to  a  certain  extent,  at  least,  ascertained.  But  even  were  the  sole  diffi 
culty  with  our  system  the  distribution  of  patronage,  with  a  view  to  a 
re-election,  are  we  quite  sure  that  the  one-term  principle  would  be  an 
improvement?  A  President,  desiring  re-election  would — if  he  possessed  any 
sense  at  all — know  that  his  chances  of  success  depended  on  his  popu 
larity  with  the  people.  He  would  know  that  the  popularity  of  his 
administration  would,  in  a  great  measure  depend  upon  the  character  and 
fitness  for  their  places  of  those  who  hold  offices  by  virtue  of  his 
appointment.  Regarded  from  no  higher  stand-point  than  the  promotion 
of  his  own  personal  ends,  it  would  be  clearly  to  the  interest  of  the 
incumbent  to  appoint  honest  and  capable  men  to  office.  Nothing  will 
ruin  the  credit,  either  of  an  administration,  or  a  member  of  Congress, 
more  effectually  than  bad  appointments,  nothing  will  give  them  greater 
strength  than  good  ones.  This  inducement  the  candidate  for  one  term 
does  not  have.  He  can  simply  discharge  his  political  obligations  without 
any  reference  to  his  future  chances,  because  he  has  pledged  himself  in 
advance  to  surrender  and  forego  them." 

He  next  addressed  himself  to  Greeley's  famous  plan  for  the 
resumption  of  specie  payments. 

"The  Liberal  Republicans  are  quite  as  vague  and  uncertain  with 
reference  to  the  resumption  of  specie  payment  as  they  are  in  regard  to 
reforming  the  civil  service.  They  say :  '  A  speedy  return  to  specie  pay- 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  279 

merit  is  demanded  alike  by  the  highest  considerations  of  commercial 
morality  and  honest  government.'  Precisely.  But  what  do  they  mean  by 
speedy?  Do  they  mean  within  a  month,  or  within  a  year,  or  within 
five  years? 

"  Do  they  mean  that  we  ought  to  resume  specie  payments  as  soon  as, 
under  the  natural  growth  of  the  country,  we  can  conveniently  do  so,  or 
that  resumption  should  be  forced  by  legislation.  Are  they  in  favor  of  the 
National  Banks,  or  are  they  opposed  to  them  ?  We  are  all  agreed  that 
specie  payment  ought  to  be  resumed,  but  how  is  the  question.  The  sage 
of  Chappaqua,  who  is  never  at  a  loss  for  a  plan,  has  solved  the  whole 
question  and  relieved  us  from  all  difficulty.  With  £400,000,000  of  green 
backs  in  circulation  and  less  than  $100,000,000  of  coin  in  the  Treasury, 
he  says  that  '  the  way  to  resume  is  to  resume."  Certainly  nothing  is 
easier.  Resume  at  once.  Commence  paying  out  coin  one  hundred  cents 
on  the  dollar  until  it  is  all  gone  and  then — having  about  $300,000,000 
left  that  we  have  not  coin  to  meet — we  will  find  that  the  way  to  stop 
is  to  stop.  But  where  is  the  money  to  come  from  to  resume  with? 
Judge  Trumbull  says  our  reserve  is  already  too  large,  but  it  falls  very 
far  short  of  being  large  enough  to  justify  us  in  resuming.  How  shall 
we  get  the  balance?  By  taxation?  There  is  no  other  way  to  get  it, 
and  we  think  our  taxes  are  already  quite  large  enough. 

"We  must  either  have  more  coin  or  less  currency.  Shall  we  contract? 
Let  the  business  interests  of  the  country  answer  that  question.  The  fact 
is  we  will  never  resume  specie  payments  through  the  immediate  action  of 
any  legislation  whatever.  No  more  serious  injury  could  be  inflicted  upon 
trade  and  business  interests  than  an  attempt  to  regulate  and  direct  them 
by  legislation.  Experiments  of  that  kind  always  result  disastrously.  But 
what  might  we  expect  should  Horace  Greeley  be  elected  President? 
Filled  with  the  conceit  that  the  way  to  resume,  is  to  resume  he  would  in 
furtherance  of  his  ideas  recommend  to  Congress  legislation  to  hurry  and 
force  resumption.  I  am  assured  however,  that  Congress  would  pay  no 
heed  to  his  advice.  They  probably  would  not,  but  the  effect  of  such  a 
message  upon  business  would  be  instantaneously  felt  at  home  and  abroad. 
Every  National  bank  would  at  once  contract  its  loans,  and  a  sudden 
contraction  of  loans  means  general  pecuniary  distress,  panics  and  wide 
spread  disasters.  I  am  asked,  do  I  know  that  Greeley  will  do  anything 
of  th«  kind?  No,  I  do  not  I  don't  know;  no  one  knows  what  he  will 
do." 

On  the  amnesty  question,  he  cited  the  generous  and  noble 
words  of  the  President's  last  message  to  Congress,  and  then 
said: 

"If  the  gentlemen  who  are  not  embraced  within  the  terms  of  the 
present  Amnesty  Bill  desire  pardon,  why  do  they  not  then  ask  for  it? 
It  can  be  had  for  the  asking.  I  do  not  think  that  it  would  be  sub 
jecting  Jefferson  Davis  or  Raphael  Semmes  to  any  very  cruel  humiliation 
to  insist  that  they  should  show  the  genuineness  of  their  repentance  by 
being  compelled  to  ask  for  pardon.  I  submit  that  question  to  you. 


28O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

."We  are  entreated  to  forgive  and  forget.  We  are  willing  to  forgive; 
but  there  are  many  things  which  we  ought  never  to  forget.  The  father 
will  never  forget  the  son  who  died  in  the  great  cause.  The  widow  will 
never  forget  the  husband  who  perished  that  the  nation  might  live.  The 
orphans  will  never  forget  the  father  who  willingly  met  death  that  they 
might  enjoy  the  priceless  treasures  of  free  government.  We  cannot  for 
get  the  heroic  dead  of  this  great  rebellion,  nor  can  we  forget  the  cause 
for  which  they  fought  and  died.  We  may  forget,  but  the  world  will 
never  forget,  those  most  glorious  events  in  our  and  the  world's  history, 
when  a  great  nation,  through  four  years  of  war  periled  blood  and  treasure 
for  a  principle — and  that  idea — the  capacity  of  man  for  self-government." 

In  reply  to  the  ''Liberal"  argument  tl/at  the  Constitution  had 
been  violated  by  the  Ku-Klux  and  Enforcement  bills,  he  said: 

"Loud  demands  are  made  for  the  restoration  of  order  and  for  the 
return  of  peace  at  the  South.  We  are  all  in  favor  of  that,  but  we 
differ  widely  from  the  Liberals  as  to  the  manner  in  which  order  shall 
be  restored  and  peace  secured.  We  would  restore  order  by  suppressing 
disorder.  We  would  secure  peace  by  punishing  those  who  disturb  it. 

"When  a  mob  is  raging  in  the  streets  it  is  possible  that  order  might 
be  restored  by  surrendering  to  the  mob  but  a  better  way  by  far  is  to 
disperse  the  mob  and  punish  its  ring-leaders.  For  the  disorders  which 
have  prevailed  at  the  South  the  negro  is  not  responsible,  nor  is  the 
carpet-bagger.  The  Ku-Klux  alone  are  guilty  of  all  the  disorders  which 
have  occurred  there.  What  shall  we  do  to  restore  order?  Surrender  to 
the  Ku-Klux  or  force  them  to  behave  themselves?  The  administration 
has  adopted  the  latter  course.  It  has  interfered,  and  by  legislation  pro 
vided  for  the  protection  of  the  negro  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  newly 
acquired  right,  provided  for  the  employment  of  sufficient  force  to  put 
down  and  punish  all  those  who  would  by  force  interfere  with  it,  provided 
for  the  trial  of  those  guilty  of  violating  that  article  in  the  courts  when 
a  fair  trial  could  be  had.  And  this  is  the  Ku-Klux  Bill. 

"I  am  not  here  defending  or  excusing  it.  I  insist  that  had  Congress 
failed  to  provide  some  means  by  which  this  constitutional  right  could 
have  been  protected  it  would  have  been  false  to  its  duty,  false  to  the 
Constitution  which  imposed  that  duty  upon  it.  The  Ku-Klux  investigation 
demonstrated  that  there  was  in  the  whole  South  an  organization  of  at  least 
Itfive  hundred  thousand  armed  men,  whose  avowed  purpose  it  was  to 
drive  the  negro  from  the  polls,  and  to  put  down  what  they  called  '  Rad 
ical  misrule.'  To  accomplish  this  purpose  every  conceivable  form  of 
outrage,  violence  and  cruelty  was  resorted  to.  Congress  was  called  upon 
to  act,  and  it  did  act.  On  the  2oth  day  of  April,  1871,  the  bill  passed 
the  Senate.  Not  a  single  Republican  in  the  Senate  voted  against  it. 

''Trumbull,    Schurz   and  Sumner  did  not  vote. 

"Upon  the  motion  of  Mr.  Trumbull  to  strike  from  the  bill  the  habeas 
corpus  section,  Mr.  Sumner  voted  in  the  negative. 

"Upon  the   final   passage   of  the     force     bill     in     the   Senate,     Trumbull, 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  28 1 

Schurz  and  Sumner  did  not  vote — not  a  single  Republican  voted  against 
it  in  the  Senate,  and  but  two  in  the  House. 

"It  is  idle  to  deny  the  existence  of  the  facts  upon  which  this  legisla 
tion  is  based.  It  is  idle  to  deny  its  necessity  or  appropriateness. 
After  the  law  had  gone  into  operation  hundreds  of  men  were  arrested 
under  it.  Over  500  were  arrested  in  the  State  of  South  Carolina.  Many 
of  them  were  put  upon  trial,  and  Reverdy  Johnson  and  Henry  Stanberry 
were  employed  to  defend  them.  So  clearly  was  their  guilt  established,  so 
atrocious  was  the  character  of  their  guilt,  that  their  own  counsel,  Reverdy 
Johnson,  in  addressing  the  jury,  said :  '  I  have  listened  with  unmixed 
horror  to  some  of  the  testimony  which  has  been  brought  before  you. 
The  outrages  proved  are  shocking  to  humanity ;  they  admit  of  neither 
excuse  nor  justification :  they  violate  every  obligation  law  and  nature 
impose  upon  man ;  they  show  that  the  parties  engaged  were  brutes, 
insensible  to  the  obligations  of  humanity  and  religion.'  The  prisoners  who 
were  tried  were  convicted.  Large  numbers  of  them  plead  guilty  without 
trial.  Thus  admonished  the  outrages  ceased.  For  the  Ku-Klux  knew  the 
President.  They  knew  that  he  would  enforce  the  laws,  and  so  they 
again  accepted  the  situation.  Order  is  restored — not  by  basely  surrender 
ing  the  rights  of  the  freedmen,  not  by  a  disgraceful  capitulation  to  an 
organized,  disguised,  oath-bound  gang  of  assassians,  robbers  and  cut 
throats,  but  by  putting  them  down.  For  this  Trumbull  is  arraigning  the 
party  which  he  has  just  deserted,  and  mournfully  urging  that,  in  the 
suppression  of  these  shameless  violators  of  every  law,  human  and  divine, 
the  Constitution  has  been  violated.  But  the  gross  inconsistencies  of  this 
new  movement  meet  us  at  every  turn. 

"Of  course  we  must  expect,  in  the  event  of  Mr.  Greeley's  election, 
that  all  this  legislation  will  be  at  once  repealed.  Where  then  will  the 
freedmen  be  left?  Oh!  wre  are  told  by  the  Democracy,  we  are  in  favor 
of  the  amendment.  But  the  amendment  is  self-enforcing.  The  Constitu 
tion  provides  for  a  Judical  Department,  consisting  of  one  Supreme  Court 
and  such  inferior  Courts  as  the  Congress  may  from  time  to  time  ordain 
and  establish.  The  inferior  courts  are  created  by  an  act  of  Congress. 
Suppose  that  you  repeal  the  legislation,  what  becomes  of  your  courts? 

"You  have  not  touched  the  Constitution — you  are  earnestly  in  favor  of 
that,  but  still  opposed  to  all  legislative  action  which  gives  it  effect.  So 
with  the  fifteenth  amendment.  The  right  to  vote  is  conferred,  and  Con 
gress  is  authorized  to  enforce  it  by  appropriate  legislation.  The  Democ 
racy  are  in  favor  of  the  amendment,  but  opposed  to  all  laws  which  may 
be  necessary  to  make  it  operative.  Repeal  this  legislation  and  what 
becomes  of  the  negro?  He  is  at  once  handed  over  to  the  tender  mercies 
of  the  Ku-Klux,  driven  from  the  polls,  and  no  power  can  be  found  to 
prevent  it." 

The  earnestness  and  impressiveness  of  this  '  argument  were 
never  surpassed  in  any  subsequent  speech  made  by  Mr.  Storrs 
during  this  campaign.  It  duly  impressed  not  only  all  his  hearers 


282  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

at  Jacksonville,  but  all  who  afterwards  read  the  report  in  the 
Chicago  papers;  and  no  doubt  had  a  good  effect  in  keeping  in 
the  ranks  many  waverers.  He  closed  by  saying: 

"  I  do  not  propose,  my  fellow-citizens,  to  detain  you  for  the  purpose 
of  refuting  the  slanders  \vhich  have  been  heaped  i.:  on  General  Grant. 
Senators  Trumbull  and  Schurz  will  have  faded  out  of  human  recollections 
and  traditions ;  their  slanders  all  forgotten  ;  their  little  griefs  no  more ;  and 
yet  the  fame  of  our  wise,  honest,  faithful,  patriotic  and  modest  President 
will  be  one  of  the  brightest  pages  in  our  history. 

"Whatever  we  may  do,  however  ungrateful  we  may  be,  rest  assured 
the  world  will  not  forget  nor  fail  to  honor  U.  S.  Grant. 

"Should  we  fail  to  defend  him  the  shame  is  ours,  not  his.  The  base 
charges  against  him  will  shrivel  into  insignificance ;  the  authors  live  only 
to  be  scorned,  but  the  achievements  which  our  slandered  President  has 
wrought  in  peace  and  war  will  grow  brighter  as  the  years  roll  on. 

"The  grand  old  party  of  the  Union  will  not  desert  him,  nor  the  cause 
which  has  made  it  so  great.  It  is  rising  now  like  a  strong  man  from 
his  sleep,  strengthened  and  refreshed.  It  never  met  an  enemy  but  to 
defeat  it.  Under  its  old  flag,  led  by  its  old  chieftain,  keeping  step  to 
the  same  old  music,  it  confronts  to-day  its  old  foe;  it  will  scatter  it 
like  chaff  before  the  wind.  [Immense  applause  and  loud  cheering.]" 

At  Indianapolis,  on  the  28th  of  August,  Mr.  Storrs  delivered 
an  address  which  the  Journal  of  that  city  characterized  as  "one 
of  the  best  efforts  of  the  campaign."  The  night  was  stormy, 
and  the  driving  rain  on  the  roof  of  the  wigwam  created  an 
uproar  that  interfered  considerably  with  the  pleasure  of  those 
who  desire  to  catch  every  word,  but  the  opposition  of  the  ele 
ments  only  served  to  pack  the  auditors  more  closely  in  the 
vicinity  of  the  stage..  "The  speaker,"  said  the  Journal,  "is  one 
of  the  most  gifted  orators  in  the  country,  and  we  can  only 
regret  the  unfavorable  character  of  the  surroundings  last  night, 
and  hope  that  he  can  be  induced  to  visit  us  again  before  the 
close  of  the  campaign."  The  report  given  by  that  paper  is 
inadequate,  but  it  is  the  best  extant.  Mr.  Storrs  began  by  pay 
ing  his  respects  to  Mr.  Hendricks,  as  follows : 

"The  most  extraordinary  feature  of  the  present  campaign  is  the  indus 
trious  effort  made  by  our  adversaries  to  rule  out  all  history  and  all  past 
experience  as  guides  for  the  future. 

"Mr.  Hendricks  insists  that  we  must  keep  our  eyes  fixed  steadily  on 
the  future,  and  that  under  no  circumstances  must  we  seek  to  gather  any 
instruction  from  the  past.  We  must  forget  all  that  we  ever  knew,  and 
unlearn  all  that  we  ever  learned.  If  we  were  situated  precisely  as  Mr. 
Hendricks  is,  we  might  think  with  him.  If  upon  looking  back  upon  the 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    18/2.  283 

past  history  of  our  party  we  found  what  he  finds  when  he  reviews  the 
record  of  the  Democracy — a  record  stained  all  over  with  political  crimes 
and  offences  of  the  most  serious  and  damning  character,  we  would 
undoubtedly  feel  as  he  feels,  great  anxiety  to  bury  it  out  of  sight  and 
to  detatch  himself  from  it. 

"That  man  never  lived  who  after  spending  at  least  half  of  his  life-time 
in  the  violation  of  law,  and  in  the  commission  of  crime  did  not,  when 
he  desired  the  confidence  of  his  fellows,  resent  with  great  zeal  any  allu 
sion  to  his  past  career,  and  seek  to  bury  them  out  of  sight  as  dead 
issues.  But  dead  as  such  issues  are  it  is  wonderful  how  they  stick  to  a 
man,  and  how  they  will  continually  rise  up  in  judgment  against  him. 
The  course  usually  pursued  by  such  unfortunates  is  a  new  departure  in 
its  largest  sense.  They  cut  their  hair,  change  their  clothes,  leave  their 
country,  adopt  another  name,  and  travel  under  an  assortment  of  aliases. 
All  these  things  the  Democratic  party  is  now  doing.  The  trouble  is  that 
the  disguise  which  they  have  assumed  is  too  thin.  We  all  see  through 
it.  We  see  under  this  gauzy  covering  of  reform  the  old  State  sover 
eignty,  repudiation,  negro-hating  Democrat.  They  claim  that  they  are 
really  and  in  fact  converted. 

"We  suspect  the  genuineness  of  the  conversion.  It  is  too  sudden.  The 
conversion  of  Saul  of  Tarsus  is  hardly  in  point,  for  although  Saul,  like 
the  modern  Democracy,  went  forth  breathing  threatenings  and  slaughter; 
on  his  trip  to  Damascas  he  saw  a  light,  I  am  convinced  entirely  differ 
ent  from  the  one  which  the  Democracy  beheld  at  Baltimore.  The  light 
which  Saul  saw  was  from  heaven.  That  which  the  Democracy  beheld 
was  from  Cincinnati.  By  it  they  were  enabled  to  see  the  Treasury 
Department  and  all  the  other  departments  of  the  government,  a  spectacle 
which  had  not  gladdened  their  eyes  for  years.  Saul  didn't  ask  the  dis 
ciples  to  join  him,  but  he  joined  them.  Saul  did  not  propose  that  the 
famous  liberal  Christian,  Judas,  should  join  him  and  the  high  priest  for  a 
great  reform  movement.  Saul  not  only  changed  his  views  but  he  changed 
his  name,  and  thenceforth  was  no  longer  known  as  Saul  of  Tarsus,  but 
as  Paul,  the  Apostle. 

"'Our  party  has  always  been  a  great  political  missionary  organization. 
We  have  to-day  within  our  ranks  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  converted  Democrats.  We  expect  to  have  hundreds  of  thousands  more. 
With  us  they  feel  that  glorious  freedom,  which  the  truth  alone  can  give, 
that  'joy  which  passeth  all  understanding.'  ' 

Mr.  Storrs  was  quite  in  a  biblical  vein,  and  his  speech 
throughout  was  pointed  with  scriptural  illustrations. 

"The  overthrow  of  the  rebellion  liberated  four  millions  of  negroes,  but 
it  liberated  even  a  larger  number  of  Democrats.  The  colored  man  had 
sense  enough  to  seize  his  liberty.  But  many  Democrats  seem  to  be  afraid 
to  take  out  their  manumission  papers.  Don't  be  alarmed  my  Democratic 
friends.  Freedom  won't  hurt  you.  Avail  yourself  of  it,  and  the  longer 
you  enjoy  it  the  better  you  will  like  it. 


284  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

"We  think  it  most  ungenerous,  that  after  having  liberated  the  Demo 
crat  from  the  thralldom  which  bound  him  for  years,  after  having  saved 
for  him  the  country  which  his  party  sought  to  destroy,  after  having  freely 
forgiven  the  manifold  sins  of  omission  and  commission  of  which  he  has 
been  guilty,  he  should  seek  to  deprive  the  negro  of  even  the  slightest 
benefits  of  his  newly  acquired  freedom,  and  should  exact  from  him  the 
full  measure  of  the  little  debt  he  owes  even  unto  the  uttermost  farthing. 

"It  is  an  old  story,  but  in  point  here,  that  of  the  king  who  took  an 
account  of  his  servants,  one  of  whom  owed  him  ten  thousand  talents ; 
having  nothing  with  which  to  discharge  this  heavy  debt  the  servant 
begged  for  patience  and  promised  to  pay  all.  Moved  with  compassion 
the  king  pardoned  him  and  forgave  .the  debt.  . 

"  How  much  like  a  modern  Democrat  that  old  servant  behaved.  Going 
into  the  streets  rejoicing  in  his  freedom,  he  meets  a  fellow  servant  who 
owed  him  an  hundred  pence,  and  he  laid  hands  on  him  and  took  him 
by  the  throat  saying,  '  pay  me  that  tho.u  owest.'  This  fellow -servant 
begged  for  mercy,  promised  to  pay  all,  but  the  big  debtor  cast  his 
fellow  servant  into  prison  until  he  should  pay  the  debt,  and  .then  we  are 
told  his  Lord  was  wroth,  and  delivered  this  unjust  servant  over  to  the  tor 
mentors  until  he  should  pay  all  that  was  due. 

"  Let  these  Democrats  take  heed  from  this  story.  Nothing  torments 
the  average  Democrat  like  an  exclusion  from  office.  He  must  deal  fairly 
with  his  fellow  servants,  or  the  torments  of  disappointed  hopes  which  he 
has  suffered  the  last  twelve  years,  he  will  be  compelled  to  endure  forever. 

"If  the  Democracy  have  in  fact  been  converted,  we  would  be  glad  to 
know  precisely  when  the  conversion  took  place.  They  now  claim  to 
be  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  the  fifteenth  constitutional  amendment.  The 
Democrats  of  this  State  had  not  been  converted  when,  in  your  State 
Senate,  they  withdrew  and  rescinded  all  action  on  the  part  of  this  State 
purporting  to  assent  to  and  ratify  that  amendment,  and  when  they  sol 
emnly  'protested  and  declared  that  the  so  called  fifteenth  amendment  is 
not  this  day,  nor  ever  has  been  in  law,  a  part  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States.'  The  Democratic  party  had  not  been  converted  on 
the  1 3th  day  of  March,  1871,  for  on  that  day,  upon  a  resolution  declar 
ing  the  validity  of  the  thirteenth,  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amendments, 
seventy-six  Democrats  voted  in  the  negative,  and  four  only  voted  in  the 
affirmative.  They  were  not  converted  on  the  5th  day  of  February,  1872, 
for  upon  that  day,  upon  a  resolution  declaring  that  public  policy  demanded 
of  all  parties  and  citizens  an  acquiesence  in  the  validity  of  thirteenth, 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  amendments,  fifty-eight  Democrats,  including 
Mr.  Voorhees,  voted  in  the  negative,  and  only  eight  Democrats  voted  in 
the  affirmative. 

"I  am  constrained  to  believe  that  the  Democratic  party  is  not  yet 
converted.  But  if  it  really  is,  why  should  it  not  be  quite  willing  to 
give  a  proof  similar  to  those  furnished  by  Saul  of  Tarsus?  First,  let  it 
cease  breathing  threatenings  and  slaughter  against  Republicans  and  the 
Republican  party,  and  show  that  they  were  in  fact  good  Republicans  by 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  285 

joining  our  party,  preaching  our  doctrine  and  voting  our  ticket.  Second, 
like  Saul  of  Tarsus,  let  them  mark  the  period  of  their  conversion  by 
changing  their  name.  Their  willingness  to  'shake  hands  across  the  bloody 
chasm'  with  some  of  our  Judascs  won't  answer  the  purpose.  The  nearer 
they  get  the  further  they  are  from  us.  Finally — before  joining  Judas 
even  they  demand  pay  for  their  repentance.  They  show  their  wisdom  by 
refusing  to  give  credit.  And  all  this  we  think  shows  that  Judas  will  be 
fooled.  Over  such  a  result,  however,  we  should  have  no  tears  to  shed. 

"There  are  to-day  but  two  parties  in  this  country.  The  Liberal  reform 
party  went  to  pieces  at  its  birth.  The  only  principles  which  its  promoters 
claimed  gave  it  a  distinctive  character  were,  revenue  reform,  and  civil 
service  reform.  Both  these  were  shamelessly  surrendered  in  their  platform. 
To  secure  free  trade  they  nominated  the  most  extreme  protectionist  in 
the  country.  To  reform  the  civil  service  they  nominated  a  candidate  who 
proposes  to  remove  all  present  incumbents,  fill  up  the  offices  with  .Demo 
crats,  and  to  enable  them  to  wield  the  power  thus  acquired  for  their 
own  purposes,  pledges  himself  in  advance  that  he  will  not  be  a  candidate 
for  re-election. 

"They  ask  us,  how  are  you  going  to  get  along  without  Trumbull,  Fen- 
ten,  Palmer  and  Julian?  Did  not  we  get  along  with  them  and  how 
much  easier  it  will  be  to  get  along  without  them.  [Great  laughter  and 
cheers.] 

"Well,  Trumbull  is  gone,  Fenton  is  gone,  and  I  understand  that  Julian 
is  gone.  Banks  is  gone  and  Palmer  is  gone,  '  Why  should  we  mourn 
departed  friends?'  All  I  have  to  say  is,  good-bye  Trumbull,  good-bye 
Julian,  good-bye  Fenton,  good-bye  Schurz,  take  your  baggage  with  you, 
you  can  put  it  all  up  in  a  red  bandana  handkerchief  with  a  pin  lock  to 
fasten  it ;  if  there  is  any  difficulty  about  securing  future  quarters  we  can 
furnish  you  a  man  who  can  pilot  you  directly  into  the  ranks  of  the 
enemy  where  you  belong.  [Laughter  and  cheers.]" 

He  repudiated  the  idea  that  the  renegades  who  had  gone  over 
to  the  Democracy  ever  were  in  any  sense  "  leaders"  of  the  Repub 
lican  party.  Then  he  showed  the  incongruity  of  the  Democratic 
platform  and  candidates,  and  contrasted  both  with  the  plain,  honest, 
consistent  declarations  and  performances  of  the  Republican  party 
and  President  Grant. 

"  Horace  Greeley  is  the  most  intensely  high-tariff  man  in  the  country, 
and  always  has  been.  Brown  is  a  free-trader  from  principle,  and  never 
has  been  anything  else.  Greeley  is  in  favor  of  Ku-Klux  legislation.  Brown 
is  thoroughly  and  bitterly  opposed  to  it.  Greeley  is  a  temperance  man, 
to  the  extreme  of  total  abstinence;  he  eschews  all  meats,  and  is  a 
•graham-bread  man  on  principle.  Brown  is  a  man  who,  according  to  his 
own  confession,  occasionally  relapses  into  total  abstinence,  who  favors 
soft-shell  crab,  and  butters  his  water-melon.  [Great  laughter.]  Now,  my 
Democratic  friend,  which  of  these  two  worthies  are  you  going  for.  You 
cannot  go  for  them  both,  for  they  are  as  diverse  and  opposite  as  the 


286  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

poles.  Then  the  candidates  do  not  agree  with  their  platform,  either 
taken  together  or  separately.  They  do  not  agree  with  the  platform  any 
better  than  they  agree  with  each  other.  Sumner  says  he  will  go  for 
Greeley  because  the  Democracy  have  been  converted.  Semmes  says  he 
will  go  for  Greeley  because  Greeley  has  been  converted.  Sumner  says 
he  is  going  for  Greeley  because  Greeley  favors  the  negro  race,  while 
Semmes  says  he  is  going  for  him  because  he  advocates  the  right  of 
secession.  Trumbull  goes  for  Greeley  because  Brown  is  in  favor  of  free 
trade,  and  the  protectionist  goes  for  Greeley  because  Greeley  is  in  favor 
of  protection.  Now  this  party  designs  to  swindle  somebody,  and  if  God 
should  see  fit  to  visit  Horace  Greeley  upon  us,  somebody  is  as  certain 
to  be  swindled  as  that  two  and  two  make  four.  It  is  either  the  Repub 
lican  who  votes  for  Greeley  on  the  strength  of  his  Republicanism,  or  it 
is  the  Democrat  who  votes  for  him  on  the  strength  of  his  Democracy; 
whichever  way  you  take  it,  one  way  or  the  other,  you  must  have  it, 
there  can  be  no  middle  ground." 

He  showed  that  the  new  doctrine  of  local  self  government  was 
nothing  else  than  the  old  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty  and  the 
right  of  secession  in  disguise. 

"We  fought  through  five  years  of  war  to  put  down  that  accursed 
political  heresy,  and  now  that  we  have  succeeded  we  mean  that  it  shall 
stay  down,  and  we  intend  to  trample  out  the  last  vestige  of  its  existence. 
That  is  Republican  doctrine. 

"But  you  tell  us  we  have  been  cruel  in  not  extending  amnesty  to 
our  Southern  brethren.  Well,  they  all  have  the  right  to  vote,  and  the 
disabilities  existing  against  them  are  simply  such  as  are  created  by  the 
fourteenth  constitutional  amendment.  Now,  my  Liberal  Republican  friend, 
if  you  are  opposed  to  the  existence  of  those  disabilities,  you  are  opposed 
to  the  fourteenth  amendment,  by  which  they  were  created,  and  it  you 
are  opposed  to  that  amendment  let  me  ask  you  to  stand  out  like  a 
man  and  say  so.  If  you  want  to  reargue  that  question,  if  you  want  to 
open  up  either  the  fourteenth  or  fifteenth  amendments  we  are  prepared 
to  reargue  both  of  them.  But  what  is  the  truth  about  these  disabilities  ? 
What  do  they  amount  to?  Just  this;  about  one  hundred  [and  forty 
Southern  gentlemen  are  deprived  of  the  glorious  privilege  of  holding 
office.  Now,  there  are  thousands  of  Democrats  at  the  North  who  have 
been  ever  since  1860  laboring  under  political  disabilities  of  exactly  that 
character.  [Laughter.]  Since  that  time  how  many  a  Democrat  has  been 
prevented  from  holding  office  ?  The  disability  was  created  in  a  different 
way  to  be  sure,  it  was  imposed  upon  them  by  the  voice  of  the  people 
in  that  case,  and  in  this  it  was  imposed  by  the  Constitution. 

"But  would  it  not  be  fair  and  decent  to  say  the  least,  that  these 
Southern  gentlemen,  Davis  and  Toombs,  and  Wigfall  and  Semmes,  should 
ask  for  pardon  before  they  get  it?  The  great  God  of  infinite  wisdom, 
while  his  capacity  for  pardoning  is  infinite,  never  pardons  the  sinner 
until  he  prays  for  pardon.  You  know  it  is  said,  'Knock,  and  it  shall 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  28/ 

be  opened  unto  you.'  'Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive.'  And  whenever  on 
bended  knee,  with  a  broken  spirit  and  a  contrite  heart,  with  his  hand  upon 
his  mouth  and  his  mouth  in  the  dust,  the  sinner  humbly  confesses  his 
sin  and  begs  for  pardon,  then,  and  not  until  then,  does  he  get  it.  Are 
we  asking  too  much  when  we  ask  that  Davis,  and  Semmes,  and  Toombs 
shall  ask  to  have  these  disabilities  removed?  If  you  think  it  is  unkind 
to  make  that  requirment,  take  a  pardon  with  you  and  go  down  South, 
and  on  bended  knee  supplicate  Jeff.  Davis  graciously  to  be  pleased  to 
accept  a  pardon  from  your  hand.  You  may  do  it  if  you  wish — the 
Republican  party  never  will.  [Applause.]  " 

He  dwelt  at  length  upon  the  inconsistencies  to  be  found  in  Mr. 
Greely's  record,  and  his  bad  faith  toward  Mr.  Lincoln,  and 
showed  forcibly  the  dangerous  policy  of  committing  the  affairs 
of  the  government  into  the  hands  of  a  man  so  vacillating  and 
perfidious  as  he. 

In  September  Mr.  Storrs  was  stumping  the  State  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  on  the  i/th  delivered  a  stirring  address  at  Reading, 
in  the  Library  hall.  The  Reading  Times  and  Dispatch  says : — 
"  The  audience  was  composed  of  our  most  intelligent  business 
men  and  mechanics  who  listened  to  the  speaker  with  close 
attention  for  two  hours,  frequently  interrupting  him  with  loud 
demonstrations  of  applause.  The  meeting  was  enthusiastic,  and 
the  address  a  most  able  one.  At  its  conclusion  the  speaker 
received  many  hearty  congratulations.  During  his  stay  in  this 
city  Mr.  Storrs  has  been  called  upon  by  many  Republicans.  He 
leaves  to-day  for  Pittsburg." 

At  the  outset,  he  urged  the  Republicans'  to  do  their  utmost 
to  elect  the  Pennsylvania  State  ticket.  He  said: 

"The  interest  felt  by  Republicans  throughout  the  entire  country,  in  the 
result  of  the  October  election  in  this  State,  arises  not  so  much  from  any 
knowledge  of  the  individual  character  of  the  candidates  as  from  the  con 
trolling  effect  which  this  election  will  or  may  have  upon  the  general 
result  throughout  the  whole  country.  We  feel  that  the  Republicans  of 
Pennsylvania  have  no  right  to  defeat  the  Republican  party  in  the  nation, 
nor  even  to  imperil  its  success  upon  any  merely  personal  considerations. 
We  do  not  believe  that  they  will  do  so.  In  the  times  past  the  Republi 
cans  of  the  old  Keystone  have,  with  a  patriotism  and  unselfishness  which 
has  secured  for  them  the  gratitude  of  the  whole  country,  cheerfully  set 
aside  all  personal  considerations,  and  regarded,  not  their  individual  wishes 
and  feelings  merely,  but  the  best  interests  of  the  nation.  This  much — 
no  more,  and  no  less — will  be  expected  from  them  in  the  pending  State 
election.  It  is  not  for  me  to  say  what,  in  this  State,  would  be  the  effect 
upon  the  Presidential  ticket  of  the  defeat  of  General  Hartranft.  But 


288  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

this  I  do  know,  that  in  every  other  State  in  the.  Union,  such  a  result 
would  be  most  dispiriting  and  disheartening,  it  might  be  disastrous. 
Pennsylvania  holds  the  key  to  the  position  and  the  Republican  party  will 
hold  you  to  the  strictest  accountability.  Your  State  election  can  in  no 
proper  sense  be  said  to  be  local.  Where  the  key  of  the  position  falls, 
the  position  itself  falls  with  it.  A  man  may  have  a  disease  of  the  heart. 
In  one  sense  it  would  be  local.  But  when  the  heart  stops  beating,  the 
man  stops  breathing,  and  the  whole  man  dies.  We  would  hardly  think 
of  attempting  to  comfort  his  mourning  family  by  assuring  them  that  the 
disease  was  merely  a  local  one. 

"  So  far  as  I  have  had  opportunities  to  observe,  the  old  saying  that 
'the  blood  of  the  Martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church,'  holds  good  here 
in  Pennsylvania,  as  elsewhere.  The  attacks  made  against  the  candidates 
upon  your  State  ticket,  seem  to  have  one  effect  at  least,  to  create  for 
them  an  active,  enejgetic  enthusiasm  which  might  not  have  otherwise 
been  inspired,  and  to  demonstrate  the  more  clearly,  the  more  thorough 
has  been  the  discussion,  their  eminent  fitness  for  the  positions  for  which 
they  have  been  respectively  nominated. 

"To  the  Republicans  of  Pennsylvania  may  the  defence  of  your  nomi 
nees  be  safely  entrusted.  It  is  quite  clear  that  they  are  entirely  compe 
tent  to  perform  that  work.  I  invite  your  attention  therefore  to  the 
broader  questions  involved  in  our  national  politics.  The  most  extraordi 
nary  feature  of  the  present  canvass  is  the  attempt  made  by  our 
adversaries  to  rule  out  as  an  element  of  human  calculation  for  the 
future  all  past  history  and  experience.  Men  certainly  never  do  that  in 
their  dealings  with  each  other.  In  judging  whether  a  man's  future  course 
will  be  straightforward  and  upright  we  are  apt  to  give  him  the  benefit 
of  the  fact,  if  it  exists,  that  his  past  course  has  always  been  such,  and 
however  valiantly  a  party  whose  history  is  a  record  of  crimes  might 
declaim  against  any  allusion  to  the  fact  as  a  discussion  of  dead  issues, 
we  would  certainly  in  deciding  his  future  course,  be  greatly  influenced 
by  those  dead  issues.  Our  opponents  ask  us  to  believe,  and  to  act 
upon  that  belief,  that  a  political  party,  whose  course  has  always  been 
honest,  faithful,  and  patriotic  will  for  the  next  particular  four  years 
reverse  its  history,  and  pursue  a  dishonest,  unfaithful  and  unpatriotic 
policy,  and  that  a  party  which  for  the  last  twenty  years  has  never  been 
on  the  right  side  of  any  question,  will  for  the  next  four  years  be  on 
the  right  side  of  all  questions. 

"  Mr.  Storrs  then  rapidly  sketched  the  history  of  the  Republican  partyj 
claiming  that  for  what  it  had  actually  achieved  it  was  entitled  to  the  gratitude 
of  good  men  everywhere  ;  that  if  it  had  done  nothing,  and  omitted  to 
do  nothing,  which  would  justify  the  people  in  withdrawing  from  it  their 
confidence,  and  that  the  mission  of  such  a  party  would  never  be  ended, 
so  long  as  there  remained  one  forward  step  to  be  taken  in  the  pathway 
of  human  progress. 

"The  demise  of  the  Republican  party  is  most  loudly  insisted  on  by  a 
number  of  recusant  Republican  brigadiers  and  captains  who  call  themselves 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/2.  289 

the  Liberal  Reform  party.  The  originators  of  the  Liberal  movement  very 
well  understood  that  the  success  of  their  enterprise  would  be  seriously 
imperiled  if  the  people,  for  a  single  moment,  thought  that  the  Democracy 
were  to  share  in  their  counsels.  Accordingly  the  Democratic  party  was 
notified  to  keep  its  hands  off.  Spurned  and  condemned  at  the  outset,  no 
sooner  were  the  nominations  made  than  these  same  despised  Democrats 
were  besought  to  give  their  support  to  a  ticket  in  the  nomination  of 
which  they  were  permitted  to  take  no  part.  The  most  wonderful  feature 
of  the  whole  affair  is  the  readiness  with  which  the  Democracy  licked  the 
hands  which  smote  them,  and  took  to  their  embraces  their  most  bitter 
and  malignant  enemy. 

'"Was   ever  woman  in   such   fashion  wooed, 
Was   ever  woman  in   such  manner  won?' 

"The  parties  to  tnis  extraordinary  coalition,  conscious  of  the  fact  that 
an  explanation  is  required,  furnish  explanations  which  are  as  irreconcilable 
as  their  past  history  has  been. 

"  Mr.  Sumner  alleges  that  the  Democratic  party  has  been  converted  to 
Republicanism,  and  insists,  with  much  rhetorical  amplification,  that  he  has 
not,  and  that  the  Liberals  who  are  now  acting  with  him  have  not  changed 
their  politics  in  the  slightest.  On  the  other  han^  the  Democrats  engaged 
in  this  movement  roundly  asserted  that  they  have  not  been  converted, 
but  that  Greeley  and  Sumner  have  been,  and  have  come  over  to  them. 

"The  question  is  rendered  still  more  embarrassing  by  Mr.  Greeley  him 
self,  who,  with  his  accustomed  mal-adroitness,  places  both  parties  in 
the  wrong — unties  the  Gordian  knot  by  cutting  it — asserts  that  neither  party 
has  been  converted,  but  assures  the  committee  from  the  Democratic 
Convention,  that  he  is  just  as  much  a  Republican  as  he  ever  was,  and 
they  just  as  much  Democrats  as  they  ever  were.  If  that  be  true,  and 
who  can  doubt  the  honesty  or  the  wisdom  of  'honest  old  Horace  ?'  two 
parties  having  diametrically  opposite  views  upon  every  question  of  public 
policy,  have  united  each  party  to  the  coalition  maintaining  its  opinions. 
If  that  be  true,  it  is  the  most  shameless  and  impudent  bargain  recorded 
in  political  history.  If  that  be  true,  the  motives  of  the  parties  to  it 
must  be  dishonest  and  their  purposes  corrupt,  no  principle  lies  at  the 
bottom  of  it,  for  neither  party  has  changed  its  principles  or  acknowledged 
its  errors.  The  Democratic  party  has  always  been  the  steady  and  per 
sistent  enemy  of  every  movement  looking  to  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
negro,  or  his  elevation  to  the  rights  of  citizenship  and  the  enjoyment 
of  suffrage.  This  policy  has  been  Democratic;  it  has  been  believed  in 
and  pursued  by  Democrats  alone,  and  Mr.  Greeley  says  that  they  are 
none  the  less  Democrats  than  they  have  ever  been. 

"Should     it     be     perfectly     apparent    that     the     negro     would     in     the 

absence  of  any  legislation    to   enforce   it,    be   deprived  of  all  the  privileges 

secured  to   him   by    the    fourteenth   and    fifteenth   amendments,    Democrats 

would   deny    him    such    legislation.     Such    would   be    the    policy    of    their 

19 


LIFE   OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

party.  Democrats  still,  as  Mr.  Greeley  assures  them  that  they  are,  he 
nevertheles's  accepts  a  nomination  at  their  hands  and  solicits  their  support. 
Consistently  with  'their  policy  the  Democratic  party  would  if  it  possessed 
the  power  at  once  repeal  all  the  so-called  Ku-Klux  legislation.  If  Mr. 
Greeley  were  President  it  would  be  his  duty  to  recommend  to  Congress 
such  measures  as  in  his  judgment  the  public  interests  demanded.  If  in 
the  absence  of  any  legislation  upon  the  subject,  the  negro  was  driven 
from  the  polls  and  by  force  deprived  of  the  rights  conferred  upon  him 
by  the  Constitution,  it  would  clearly  be  Mr.  Greeley 's  duty  as  President 
— being  just  as  much  a  Republican  as  ever— ^to  recommend  to  Congress 
such  legislation  as  would  enforce  the  right.  He  therefore  as  a  Republican 
would  recommend  what  Congressmen  as  Democrats  would  reject.  He 
would  urge  the  adoption  of  Republican  measures  by  a  Democratic  Con 
gress,  knowing  at  the  same  time,  as  he  tells  them,  that  they  are  none 
the  less  Democrats  than  they  have  ever  been.  As  a  Republican,  Mr. 
Greeley  has  denounced  Democrats  as  traitors  and  demagogues,  has 
declared  that  their  party  is  made  up  of  the  lewd  and  ruffianly  elements 
of  society,  and  being  just  as  much  a  Republican  as  ever,  it  is  to  be 
presumed  that  he  entertains  the  same  opinions  still.  The  Democrats  as 
such  have  denounced  Greeley  as  a  secessionist — as  a  half  crazy  and 
impracticable  theorist  and  visionary,  and  being  none  the  less  Democrats 
than  they  have  ever  been,  we  are  bound  to  presume  that  they  are  still 
of  the  same  opinion.  It  is  possible  that  in  these  particulars  Greeley  and 
the  Democracy  were  both  right,  and  that  the  harmony  which  now  pre 
vails  between  them,  results  from  the  fact  that  both  parties  are  aware 
that  each  thoroughly  understands  the  other." 

He  proceeded  to  review  the  record  of  the  Democratic  party, 
its  opposition  to  the  constitutional  amendments,  and  its  proposal 
to  repudiate  the  national  debt,  and  pointed  out  the  inconsisten 
cies  of  the  coalition  on  the  questions  of  revenue  reform  and  civil 
service  reform.  The  veto  power  was  vested  in  the  President  by 
the  express  letter  of  the  Constitution;  yet  Horace  Greeley  had 
agreed  to  abdicate  this  function  in  respect  to  the  tariff,  at  the 
bidding  of  the  Cincinnati  reformers. 

"Thus  we  are  to  secure  a  purer  administration  and  a  more  faithful 
execution  of  the  laws,  by  a  deliberate  agreement  to  neglect  the  perform 
ance  of  a  constitutional  duty,  by  the  surrender  of  a  constitutional 
right,  by  basely  deserting  all  convictions  of  public  interests,  by  a  clear 
violation  of  an  official  oath.  A  political  convention  which  will  be  per 
mitted  to  demand  of  its  candidate  the  surrender  of  a  portion  of  his 
official  powers  as  the  price  of  his  nomination  and  election,  may  with 
equal  propriety  demand  the  surrender  of  them  all,  and  thus  practically 
abolish  the  office  of  President  altogether. 

"The  price  which  Horace  Greeley  has  agreed  to  pay  for  his  nomina 
tion  and  election,  is  one  which  no  Convention  at  any  previous  period  in 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1872.  29 1 

our  history  has  had  the  impudence  to  demand  from  its  candidate.  The 
price  which  Esau  received  for  his  birthright  was  a  liberal  one  in  com 
parison,  for  Esau  received  his  mess  of  pottage  Jacob  had  to  give.  To 
no  such  depths  has  a  Presidential  candidate  ever  sunk  before,  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  on  this  '  bad  eminence '  Horace  will  stand  alone — the 
solitary  instance  of  a  public  man  bartering  the  convictions  of  a  life-time, 
for  the  empty  honor  of  a  Presidential  nomination — selling  his  birthright,  for 
the  mere  promise  of  a  mess  of  pottage. 

"Equally  inconsistent  is  the  position  of  the  Liberals  as  to  the  reform 
of  the  civil  service.  In  their  platform  they  say  that  the  offices  of  the 
government  should  cease  to  be  a  matter  of  favoritism  and  patronage, 
but  Mr.  Greeley  agrees  to  make  them  purely  matters  of  favoritism  and 
patronage  by  appointing  only  those  who  favor  his  election.  The  platform 
also  declares  that  'honesty,  capacity  and  fidelity  constitute  the  only  valid 
claims  to  public  employment/  yet  Mr.  Greeley  agrees  substantially  to 
make  a  clean  sweep  of  all  those  now  in  office,  irrespective  of  their 
capacity,  fidelity  or  fitness,  and  on  the  ground  alone  that  they  opposed 
his  election.  The  greatest  %vil  in  our  present  system  flows  from  the 
doctrine  of  rotation  in  office,  but  Mr.  Greeley  proposes  to  intensify  this 
evil  by  rotating  all  the  subordinates,  but  also  agrees  to  rotate  himself 
and  meekly  submits  to  the  demands  of  the  convention  placing  him  in 
nomination,  that  he  shall  not  be  a  candidate  for  re-election. 

"The  Liberals  are  also  eloquent  in  their  demands  for  reconciliation. 
They  insist  upon  a  shaking  of  hands,  but  the  election  of  Mr.  Greeley 
will  reconcile  the  rebellious  elements  of  the  South  only.  No  thought 
seems  to  be  entertained  of  reconciling  the  millions  of  patriotic,  loyal 
men,  North  and  South.  The  denunciation  of  the  Ku-Klux  bill  by  a 
party  which  has  for  its  standard  bearer  the  most  earnest  and  zealous 
advocate  of  that  measure  is  in  perfect  keeping  with  the  entire  course  of 
policy  which  they  have  pursued.  If  the  Ku-Klux  laws  remain  upon  the 
statute  book  Greeley,  as  President,  would  be  compelled  to  execute 
them.  He  could  do  no  less.  And  any  party  openly  taking  a  position 
of  hostility  to  legislation  for  the  enforcement  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
amendments  would  be  at  once  buried  beneath  an  avalanche  of  popular  indig 
nation,  for  that  cause  would  practically  render  those  amendments  nuga 
tory. 

"Moreover,  this  new  party  returns  clearly  to  the  old  and  exploded 
heresy  of  State  sovereignty.  Its  platform  declares  that  'local  self-govern 
ment,  with  impartial  sufferage,  will  guard  the  rights  of  all  citizens  more 
securely  than  any  centralized  power.'  The  consequent  of  the  doctrine  of 
State  sovereignty  was  the  right  of  secession  and  the  denial  of  any  right 
of  coercion  in  the  federal  government.  It  is  clear  that  if  local  self-gov 
ernment  attempts  to  secede  nothing  but  the  'centralized  power'  of  the 
Union  can  prevent  it.  But  this  centralized  power  is  repudiated,  and 
under  any  and  all  circumstances  local  self-government  must  have  its  way. 
This  is  'reforming'  us  back  to  the  dismal  years  immediately  preceding 
the  war.  The  question  which  we  supposed  we  had  settled  at  the  expense 


292  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

of  500,000  lives  and  3,000,000,000  of  money  and  four  years  of  war,  is 
again  presented  to  us.  Our  views  upon  it  are  the  same  that  they  have 
ever  been  and  we  hope  by  this  blow  to  crush  it  out  forever." 

Mr.  Storrs  then  proceeded  to  the  discussion  of  Mr.  Greeley's 
record,  showing  that  he  was  not  to-day  and  had  never  been  on 
the  great  fundamental  question  in  our  politics,  the  right  of  seces 
sion,  a  Republican,  that  he  denied  the  right  to  coerce,  that  as 
Commander-in-Chief,  if  true  to  his  principles,  an  attempt  to  secede 
must  inevitably  succeed,  that  his  course  throughout  the  war  was 
factional,  variable  and  damaging  to  the  Union  cause,  and  finally 
demonstrated  that  in  the  Peace  Conference  at  Niagara  Falls,  he 
wilfully  and  deliberately  placed  Abraham  Lincoln  in  a  false  posi 
tion  before  the  country,  and  refused  to  relieve  him  from  it,  thus 
placing  himself  beyond  the  pale  of  Republicanism,  Republican 
sympathy  and  Republican  support. 

"The  policy  of  the  present  Administration  as  to  the  resumption  of 
specie  payments  was  then  discussed,  and  contrasted  with  the  absurd  prop 
osition  of  Greeley  that  the  way  to  resume  was  to  resume.  The  fact  that 
since  1868  gold  had  fallen  from  an  average  of  139^  to  114,  was  cited 
as  evidence  of  the  wisdom  of  Republican  policy  as  tested  by  results, 
that  policy  being  to  resume  as  rapidly  as  the  business  interests  of  the 
country  would  permit,  through  the  operation  of  such  natural  causes  as 
the  development  and  growth  of  the  country,  the  solitary  fact  that  at  its 
present  rate,  the  immigration  to  this  country  from  Northern  Europe  alone 
would  add  to  the  wealth  of  the  country  within  ten  years  four  thousand 
eight  hunded  millions  of  dollars,  being  cited  as  evidence  of  what  such 
development  would  accomplish. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


PROFESSIONAL  PROSPERITY. 

HIS  PROFESSIONAL  WORK  FROM  THE  FIRE  OF  l8;i  TO  1875— PROMINENCE 
IN  GREAT  CASES — 'JHELL  AS  A  MILITARY  NECESSITY" — THE  CONGRESSIONAL 
ELECTION  OF  1874 — CONSOLIDATION  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT. 

T  NEVER  knew  that  I  was  an  orthodox  Christian  before. 
I  believe  now  that  a  literal  hell  is  a  military  necessity," 
wrote  Mr.  Storrs  to  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Allerton,  February  13,  18/4, 
in  a  letter  commenting  upon  the  result  of  a  trial,  brought  upon 
a  lease  of  certain  property  known  as  the  East  Liberty  cattle 
yards,  at  East  Liberty,  in  the  State  of  Pennsylvania.  The 
suit  was  one  involving  several  hundred  thousand  dollars.  In 
April,  1864,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Company,  as  lessor,  exe 
cuted  a  lease  which  was  signed  by  Joseph  R.  McPherson  and 
Samuel  W.  Allerton  as  lessees,  but  which,  while  so  signed,  was 
done  by  them  as  copartners  of  Archibald  M.  Allerton  and  John 
B.  Sherman.  The  East  Liberty  Yards  were  generally  known  as 
the  Pittsburgh  stock  yards ;  they  had  been  built  originally  by 
Joseph  McPherson,  a  Chicago  capitalist,  but  under  his  manage 
ment  proved  a  failure,  and  had  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  Penn 
sylvania  Company.  In  1864,  McPherson  solicited  Samuel  \V. 
Allerton  and  John  B.  Sherman,  of  Chicago,  and  Archibald  M. 
Allerton,  of  New  York,  to  re-organize  and  develop  the  enter 
prise.  The  Pennsylvania  road  obliged  these  lessees,  who  event 
ually  entered  into  a  contract,  to'  covenant  that  they  would  individ 
ually  and  collectively,  during  the  life  of  the  lease,  do  everything 
to  enlarge  its  cattle  traffic.  McPherson  and  S.  W  Allerton  only 

293 


294  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

signed  the  articles  of  leasing,  the  other  Allerton  and  Sherman, 
though  equally  interested,  not  signing  from  business  policy — fear 
of  being  injured  in  certain  railroad  interests  and^Sherman  especially 
(who,  with  Samuel  W.  Allerton,  was  just  then  endeavoring  to 
start  what  are  now  known  the  world  over  as  the  Chicago  Union 
Stock  yards),  not  desiring  to  have  it  appear  that  his  energies 
were  to  be  divided.  The  new  co-partnership  did  not  succeed,  at 
first,  much  better  than  that  of  McPherson  had  originally ;  A.  M. 
Allerton  and  Sherman  soon  bargained  to  sell  their  interests  to 
Samuel  W.  Allerton,  on  a  basis  of  profit  of  $11,000  to  the  date 
of  the  sale.  The  Pittsburgh  cattle  yards,  almost  immediately  upon 
the  completion  of  the  terms  of  sale,  began  to  make  money  rapidly, 
and,  at  the  end  of  three  or  four  years,  chagrined  and  envious 
because  of  the  money-gathering  character  of  that  which  they  had 
sold  out  at  so  low  a  basis,  Archibald  M.  Allerton  and  John  B. 
Sherman  began  a  proceeding  in  the  New  York  courts  against 
Samuel  W.  Allerton  and  Joseph  R.  McPherson,  demanding  an 
accounting  and  setting  up  fraudulent  sale,  claiming  that  at  the 
time  it  was  represented  that  the  profit  from  the  Pittsburgh  yards 
amounted  to  only  $11,000,  the  actual  gain  had  been  at  least  $30,- 
ooo,  while,  as  subsequently  demonstrated,  the  yards  had  an 
annual  profit  quality  exceeding  $100,000.  Although  the  distin 
guished  talent  of  Judge  S.  W.  Fullerton,  of  New  York,  was 
retained  by  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Allerton  and  his  associates,  the  New 
York  courts  had  decided  adversely  to  them,  and  their  attorney 
counseled  a  settlement,  when  Mr.  Allerton  bethought  him  that 
there  was  a  brilliant-minded  young  Western  lawyer  and  January 
25,  1875,  while  in  Chicago,  consulted  Mr.  Storrs.  The  result  of 
that  consultation  was  a  wonderful  coup  d1  ctat.  The  New  York 
case,  with  the  aid  of  a  masterly  bill  of  review  prepared  by  Mr. 
Storrs — so  masterly  as  to  bring  out  of  the  lips  of  Judge  Fullerton 
the  exclamation  "that  is  the  argument  of  a  great  intellect !  "-—was 
dragged  along ;  and,  all  at  once,  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  Com 
pany  retained  Mr.  Storrs  in  a  proceeding  instituted  in  the  United 
States  District  Court  for  the  Northern  District  of  Illinois  against 
John  B.  Sherman,  Archibald  *M.  Allerton  and  Samuel  W.  Aller 
ton,  demanding  half  a  million  dollars  as  breach  of  covenant  on 
the  part  of  these  three  defendants  in  not  employing  all  their 
efforts,  individually  and  collectively,  to  enlarge  the  cattle  traffic 


PROFESSIONAL    PROSPERITY.  2Q5 

of  the  railroad  corporation,  as  had  been  covenanted  in  the  articles 
of  leasing  April,  1864.  The  litigation  which  followed  the  institu 
tion  of  this  proceeding  consumed  many  weeks  and  months  of 
time.  A  plea  was  filed  by  the  defendants  averring  that  they  had 
performed  in  good  faith  all  the  covenants  and  conditions  of  the 
lease  on  their  part  to  be  performed.  This  plea  admitted  the  exe 
cution  of  the  lease  and  relieved  Mr.  Storrs'  client  from  the  neces 
sity  of  introducing  it  in  evidence.  On  the  part  of  the  plaintiff 
alone  sixty-seven  witnesses  were  examined.  Nearly  all  the  promi 
nent  cattle-dealers  and  shippers  at  New  York,  Buffalo,  Pittsburgh, 
Philadelphia,  Chicago,  and  other  points  were  hauled  into  the  con 
troversy.  It  was  indisputably  shown  that  Archibald  M.  Allerton 
and  John  B.  Sherman  had,  almost  from  the  signing  of  the  cove 
nant,  been  constantly  directing  shipments  of  cattle  by  rival  lines 
contra  to  the  welfare  of  the  Pennsylvania  and  contra  to  their 
express  obligation  It  was,  also,  indisputably  shown  that  Samuel 
W.  Allerton  had  adhered  to  his  compact.  Illustrating  the  nature 
of  the  evidence  and  how  vast  the  sum  of  the  damages  might 
develop  into,  it  was  proved,  for  instance,  that  Alexander,  the  then 
great  cattle  king  of  Illinois,  by  the  personal  solicitation  of  Archi 
bald  M.  Allerton  and  John  B.  Sherman  had  transferred  the  bulk 
of  his  shipments  from  the  Pennsylvania  Railroa'd  to  the  New  York 
Central  and  other  connections.  So  irrefutable  became  the  mass 
of  evidence  introduced  by  the  plaintiff  that,  affrighted  by  visions 
of  ruinous  damages,  Archibald  M.  Allerton  and  John  B.  Sherman 
fell  into  the  graves  prepared  for  them.  Under  the  evidence  there 
was  no  escape  for  them.  Hundreds  and  thousands  of  pages  of 
testimony,  already  filed  in  the  court,  overwhelmingly  demonstrated 
that,  for  a  period  of  at  least  six  years,  they  had  not  only  failed 
to  perform  the  covenant  which  they  had  admitted  that  they  had 
made,  but  had  violated  it  grossly  and  shamelessly.  The  case  was 
set  for  a  hearing,  counsel  for  both  parties  being  present  at  the 
time,  and  the  counsel  for  the  defendants  agreeing.  Suddenly 
notice  was  served  upon  Mr.  Storrs  as  counsel  for  the  Pennsylva 
nia  road  that  the  defendants,  John  B.  Sherman  and  Archibald  M. 
Allerton  had  retained  new  legal  aid  and  that  a  motion  was  to  be 
made  to  file  an  additional  plea  of  non  cst  factuni — namely,  that 
they  had  never  signed  the  lease  and  were  not  interested  parties. 
That  plea  was  called  up,  argued  and  allowed  to  stand  by  Judge 


296  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Blodgett  the  very  day  that  the  case  was  called  for  trial  and  a 
jury  empannelled.  Thus  the  entire  issues  in  the  case  were  sud 
denly  re-cast.  Thus  the  necessity  of  making  proof  of  the  fact  of 
leasing  relations — the  necessity  for  which  the  plantiffs'  counsel 
had  no  right  to  anticipate — was  suddenly  devolved  upon  them. 
Thus,  singularly,  after  nine  months  of  assiduous  labor  under  a 
state  of  pleading  which  admitted  the  execution  of  the  lease  did 
these  two  defendants  become  suddenly  aware  of  the  fact  that  they 
had  spent  months  of  time  and  thousands  of  dollars  in  money 
in  endeavoring  to  demonstrate  that  they  had  faithfully  per 
formed.  Mr.  Storrs  smiled  grimly,  as  he  said  "An  oath  in  New 
York  binds  in  Heaven  and  in  the  West.  These  men,  claiming  a 
partnership,  were  demanding  money  through  the  machinery  of  the 
New  York  Courts,  heaping  oath  upon  oath  that  they  were  interested 
through  these  articles  of  leasing.  In  this  very  cause  they  had,  dur 
ing  weary  months,  sworn  long  and  loudly  that  they  had  lived  up 
to  each  covenant.  In  a  flash  they  turned  completely  around  and 
denied  everything."  The  trial  proceeded ;  it  seemed  conclusive 
against  John  B.  Sherman  and  Archibald  M.  Allerton,  when  to  the 
consternation  of  Mr.  Storrs,  Judge  Blodgett,  after  listening  to  a 
mass  of  testimony  and  hearing  the  most  extended  and  exhaustive 
arguments,  excluded  the  lease  from  the  jury  and  decided,  sub 
stantially,  that  in  no  way  was  it  possible  to  hold  the  defendants 
John  B.  Sherman  and  Archibald  M.  Allerton,  and  for  the  simple 
reason  that  their  names  did  not  appear  in  it  as  parties  to  it.  For 
some  reason,  Mr.  Storrs  while  confident  in  the  final  result  of  this 
great  litigation,  which  was  being  sustained  for  a  reason  known 
perhaps  only  by  himself  and  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Allerton,  anticipated 
Judge  Blodgett's  ruling. 

'"In  my  judgment,'  he  wrpte  in  February  1874,  during  the  progress 
of  the  hearing,  '  every  exertion  that  a  lawyer  not  gifted  with  supernatural 
•powers  could  make  has  been  made  to  win  my  case.  There  is  not  a  law 
yer  in  this  city  whose  opinion  is  good  for  anything  who  is  not  in  my 
favor,  and  yet  you  will  be  astonished  to  hear  that  I  apprehend  defeat. 
.  .  .  The  case  is  a  genuine  one,  as  you  know.  Our  claim  is  substan 
tial,  and  the  defense  is  as  conspicuously  unfair  and  fraudulent  as  was 
ever  witnessed  in  a  court  of  justice.  But  since  it  has  been  tolerated  thus 
far,  I  am  apprehensive  that,  upon  grounds  which  I  cannot  control,  it 
will  be  tolerated  through  to  the  end.  It  is  a  gratification  to  me  to  say 
that  my  clients  are  satisfied.  I  can  do  nothing  more  and  nothing  less 
than  my  duty.  That  discharged,  I  am  satisfied,  and  the  demerit  of  an 
unjust  decision  must  rest  upon  the  Court  which  makes  it. 


PROFESSIONAL    PROSPERITY.  297 

"Possibly  I  am  dyspeptic  to-day.  No  intelligent  lawyer  capable  of 
trying  a  case  would  have  a  moment's  doubt  on  a  point  of  this  charac 
ter;  and  the  question  derives  its  dignity,  not  from  the  seriousness  of  the 
question  itself,  but  from  the  large  amount  involved,  and  the  manifest  dis 
position  of  the  Court  to  assist  conspicuous  and  demonstrated  perjurers  in 
the  evasion  of  a  contract  as  plain  as  ever  was  written." 

He  at  once  presented  to  the  Hon.  Judge  Drummond,  presiding 
judge  of  the  District,  an  elaborate  argument — characterized,  like 
all  his  written  legal  papers,  by  that  clearness  of  analyzation, 
coupled  with  singular  beauty  of  language,  which  would  render 
even  dry  law  palatable  to  the  most  ordinary  reader — demanding 
a  new  trial.  The  result  he  told  himself  in  a  letter  to  a  friend, 
dated  February  13,  1874: 

"The  Court  this  morning  decided  the  motion  for  a  new  trial  in  the 
famous  Pennsylvania  railroad  case,  in  my  favor.  I  know  it  will  give  you 
almost  as  much  pleasure  to  receive  this  intelligence  as  it  does  me  to 
communicate  it.  Blodgett  delivered  the  opinion,  but  while  the  hands  were 
the  hands  of  Esau,  the  voice  was  the  voice  of  Jacob.  It  was  Drum- 
mond's  opinion,  and  while  it  was  very  brief,  it  was  the  complete  demor 
alization  of  all  the  absurd  quibbles  which  stood  in  our  way  on  the 
original  trial.  This  places  us  in  shape  for  a  verdict  against  these 
demonstrated  perjurers,  as  near  a  certainty  as  anything  we  reach  on 
earth. 

"They  staked  everything  on  the  quibble  ;  the  quibble  has  failed  ;  and 
if  the  Plutonian  regions  have  any  occasion  for  the  services  of  these 
people,  they  are  so  completely  at  liberty  that  they  can  engage  in  the 
service." 

It  was  only  a  short  time  ^ater  that  all  proceedings  both  East  and 
West  were  satisfied  and  dismissed  from  the  Courts.  The  shrewd 
and  brilliant  move  of  the  Western  lawyer  and  capitalist,  consti 
tuting  one  of  the  greatest  counter-proceedings  known  in  the 
history  of  jurisprudence,  resulted  in  complete  success.  Messrs. 
Archibald  M.  Allerton  and  John  B.  Sherman  \vere  content  to 
leave  Mr.  Samuel  W.  Allerton  alone  with  his  money-getting 
Pittsburgh  yards;  in  what  way  a  settlement  was  made  with  the 
Pennsylvania  road,  the  late  powerful  president,  now  deceased, 
alone  possessed  the  right  to  divulge,  and  the  terms  may  rest 
with  him. 

"  Not  only  as  a  stalwart  Republican,  but  as  a  warm  personal 
friend  of  Judge  Sidney  Smith,  the  Republican  candidate,  during 
this  year  of  1874,  Mr  Storrs  took  a  part,  which  he  very  seldom 
did  in  "off  years"  in  the  contest  for  election  to  Congress  for  the 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

First  Congressional  District  of  Illinois.  Opposed  to  Judge  Smith 
was  the  Hon.  B.  G.  Caulfield,  Democrat.  In  a  lengthy  address 
before  a  mass  meeting,  held  Saturday  evening,  October  24th,  he 
showed  that  the  new  Liberals  were  merely  "  the  Democratic 
party  in  disguise,"  and  he  answered  some  of  the  arguments  of 
Mr.  Caulfield  about  the  centralization  of  the  government  and  the 
rule  of  the  carpet-baggers,  concluding  with  a  powerful  review  of 
the  records  of  the  two  candidates.  As  his  review  on  centraliza 
tion,  and  most  of  the  other  topics  advanced,  are  substantially 
embodied  elsewhere  they  need  not  be  repeated;  but  his  inimit 
able  disposal  of  the  questions  of  carpet-baggers,  negro  suffrage, 
the  one-term  question,  and  his  eloquent  allusion  to  the  political 
party  of  his  faith,  merit  quotation,  as  follows: 

"  Mr.  Caulfield  complains  also  of  the  general  cruelty  of  the  nation.  He 
complains  of  the  carpet-baggers  and  the  enormous  debts  inflicted  upon 
the  Southern  people  and  the  Southern  States.  Let  us  stop  and  think  of 
this  one  moment.  In  the  first  place,  what  are  you  going  to  do  about 
carpet-baggers?  What  are  they?  They  are  your  acquaintances  and 
friends,  and  mine.  I  know  of  no  law  to  prevent  a  citizen  of  Illinois 
going  to  the  State  of  Louisiana  and  taking  up  his  residence  there.  There 
was  no  law  which  prevented  Mr.  Caulfield  from  coming  from  Kentucky 
and  taking  up  his  residence  here.  With  what  kind  of  a  countenance 
can  a  resident  of  Chicago  talk  about  carpet-baggers?  I  venture  to  say 
there  are  not  ten  men  in  this  audience  that  are  not  in  this  sense 
carpet-baggers,  and  a  large  majority  I  have  no  doubt  came  without  their 
carpet-bags  and  purchased  them  after  their  arrival.  [Laughter.]  They 
came  here  with  nothing  but  the  lessons  of  thrift,  energy,  and  strong 
purpose  that  they  had  learned  in  their  ola  homes.  They  came  to  these 
great  plains  and  prairies  which  held  out  their  broad  and  generous  arms, 
and,  thank  God,  they  entwined  the  new-comers  in  their  embrace ;  and 
here,  in  these  fields  the  carpet-bagger  has  worked  out  the  most  colossal 
and  resplendent  result  in  history.  He  has  built  up  an  empire  in  a 
quarter  of  a  century,  the  wonder  and  admiration  of  the  world.  He  has 
built  on  the  shore  of  this  great  lake,  this  wonderful  city;  and  when  but 
a  few  years  ago  the  flames  swept  over  it,  you  could  see,  even  before 
the  burning  embers  had  died  out,  the  spirit  of  the  carpet-bagger  rising 
from  the  ruins  unconquered  and  unconquerable.  [Cheers.]  These  are  the 
results  which  the  carpet-bagger  has  produced  here.  If  the  tree  which  the 
carpet-bagger  has  planted  produces  such  good  fruit,  for  God's  sake  let  us 
plant  it  all  over  the  continent.  They  need  it  especially  in  the  South.  Why 
do  the  negroes  vote?  Because  the  constitutional  amendment  gave  them  the 
right.  There  are,  of  course,  inevitable  evils  that  flow  from  ignorant  suffrages. 
Everybody  understood  at  the  outset  that  this  was  the  question  which,  as  a 
patriotic  people,  we  were  called  upon  to  encounter  and  settle.  Here  are 


PROFESSIONAL    PROSPERITY.  299 

four  millions  of  citizens,  just  made  such.  They  are  ignorant,  they  are 
unlettered;  shall  they  vote  or  shall  they  not?  On  the  one  hand  there  beset 
us  the  dangers  resulting  from  ignorant  voters,  and  on  the  other  were  the 
infinitely  greater  dangers,  infinitely  more  alarming  perils,  resulting  from 
depriving  that  number  of  citizens  of  their  right  of  suffrage.  But  more  than 
all  this,  if  an  educational  test  is  to  be  applied  let  us  apply  it  all  round ; 
let  us  make  it  universal.  I  can  see  some  reason  why  the  poor  black 
of  the  South,  held  down  for  generations  by  the  system  of  slavery  to 
which  he  was  subjected,  should  be  unable  to  read  or  write.  If  you  are 
to  apply  the  test  make  it  universal,  and  I  won't  stop  to  estimate  how 
largely  the  Democratic  vote  will  be  decreased  thereby.  [Applause.] 

"But  if  you  pass  this  legislation  at  the  South,  and  if  they  try  to 
charge  it  upon  the  Republican  party,  remember,  my  fellow-citizens,  that 
this  vote  came  from  that  amendment  to  the  Constitution.  You  can't  rid 
yourselves  of  it,  unless  you  rid  yourselves  of  that.  And  this  fact  has 
been  proved  to  a  demonstration,  that  however  easily  the  black  man 
in  the  South  may  be  beguiled  and  deceived  on  the  great  political  and 
financial  cjuestions  concerned,  when  the  great  questions  of  national  inter 
est  comes  up  he  is  true.  I  would  rather  have  in  the  perils  through 
which  *-e  are  compelled  to  pass,  a  poor  black,  ignorant  and  unlettered 
though  he  be,  on  questions  of  political  economy,  than  the  most  learned 
man,  even  if  he  could  cipher  through  reams  of  statistics,  and  preach 
about  the  splendid  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty  to  justify  secession. 

"Mr.  Caulfield  is  in  favor  of  a  one-term  Presidency.  That  is  the 
only  definite  statement  of  principle  he  has  made.  How  is  it  to  be  secured? 
Not  by  an  act  of  Congress.  Will  he  accomplish  it  by  an  amendment 
to  the  Constitution  ?  The  people  of  this  country  have  reached  that  con 
dition  where  they  may  be  trusted  to  determine  the  question  for  themselves. 
The  people  have  never  found  serious  difficulty  in  getting  rid  of  a  President 
they  did  not  like.  Take  the  case  of  James  Buchanan.  The  people  called 
upon  him,  knocked  at  the  door,  and  demanded  he  should  'get  down  and 
out,'  and  he  got.  [Laughter.]  How  was  it  with  Andrew  Johnson?  He 
desired  a  re-election,  and  those  millions  of  people,  quite  competent  at  that 
time  to  regulate  their  own  concerns,  marched  in  a  body  to  the  White 
House,  took  him  by  the  ear,  and  gently  led  him  home  to  his  tailor's 
bench  in  Tennessee.  [Laughter.]  If  the  people  of  this  country  have 
decided  to  elect  a  President  for  the  second  term,  they  have  never  made 
a  mistake.  We  elected  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  Monroe,  Jackson, 
and  where,  in  the  name  of  God,  would  we  have  been  in  1864  if  there  had 
been  a  constitutional  prohibition  against  the  re-election  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  ' 
[Cheers.]  The  absolute  existence  of  the  nation  depended  upon  it.  I  have  a 
higher  faith,  a  more  thorough  belief  in  the  intelligence  of  this  people  than 
Mr.  Caulfield.  I  would  leave  the  one  or  two  term  question  to  the  people. 

"  I  would  not  fetter  them  in  the  slightest  degree  by  a  constitutional  prohib 
ition.  I  would  leave  this  question  of  a  third  term  to  the  people,  and  I 
believe  I  could  safely  leave  it  there  ;  and  by  leaving  it  there  we  will  never 
see  a  president  hold  the  office  three  terms  in  succession.  [Loud  cheers.] 


3OO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"I  have  said  this  election  demands  no  special  oratory.  It  demands 
calm  thought  and  reflection  and  a  careful  survey  of  the  whole  field.  I 
cannot  talk  Republicanism  on  any  platform  but  that  I  feel  the  old  fires 
still  burning  in  my  bosom.  I  remember  what  a  glorious  party  it  has 
been,  and  what  a  magnificent  party  it  is  to-day.  It  is  a  splendid  party 
and  will  send  Sidney  Smith  to  Congress.  He  will  go  there  carrying  its 
record,  and  he  is  part  of  it.  The  Republican  party,  which  was  started 
in  a  few  resolute  hearts,  in  a  quarter  of  a  century  has  dedicated  leagues 
of  territory  to  freedom;  has  elevated  and  dignified  labor  all  over  the 
world;  has  carried  through  on  its  broad  shoulders  the  most  gigantic  war 
the  world  has  ever  seen— so  gigantic  that  the  very  globe  rocked  and 
trembled  beneath  the  tread  of  its  armies  and  bound  up  3,000  miles  of 
seaboard  with  its  blockading  fleets.  That  party  carried  through  the 
thunder  and  storm  of  battle  this  great  nation,  the  custodian  of  the  priceless 
treasure  of  freedom  among  men;  that  party,  after  the  nation  was  saved,  lifted 
from  the  weight  and  degradation  of  slavery  4,000,000  of  human  beings  and 
made  them  citizens.  That  party  performed  a  greater  miracle  than  the  trans 
formation  of  water  into  wine,  for  it  turned  a  piece  of  private  property  into 
a  United  States  Senator.  Sidney  Smith  will  be  sent  to  Congress  with  this 
record  behind  him,  to  represent  this  great  city,  one  of  the  youngeet  born 
of  this  great  Republic." 

A  question  raised  at  the  time  and  variously  discussed,  was 
that  of  a  consolidation  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  with  a  revision  of  the  rules  of  practice.  Scarcely  a  State 
in  the  Union  but  has  suffered  from  delays  from  a  Court  over 
loaded  with  business  so  great  as  to  amount  to  a  substantial 
denial  of  justice.  At  the  Spring  term  (1874)  of  the  Supreme 
Court,  held  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  for  instance,  there  were  over  six 
hundred  cases  upon  the  docket,  and  at  least  a  third  of  these 
cases  ought  never  to  have  been  taken  there,  and  even  for  the 
cases  properly  taken  up,  the  records  were  twice  as  voluminous 
as  necessity  required.  The  reports  of  the  decisions  were  two  or 
three  years  behind;  the  decisions  themselves  were  long  deferred 
and  postponed — so  long  in  some  instances  that  the  case  itself 
was  nearly  or  quite  forgotten  by  court,  counsel,  and  litigants; 
the  applications  for  rehearing  were  multiplying  at  an  alarming 
rate,  and  their  consideration  involved  a  large  portion  of  the  time 
of  the  court;  the  tribunal  was  peripatetic  in  its  character,  hold 
ing  its  sessions  in  three  different  parts  of  the  State,  and  the 
records  being  carried  about  from  one  city  to  another,  for  the 
convenience  of  judges  to  whom  the  decisions  of  particular  cases 
were  assigned ;  when  cases  were  orally  argued  the  decision  was 
so  long  deferred  that  the  argument  faded  almost  from  the  recol- 


PROFESSIONAL    PROSPERITY.  3OI 

lection  of  the  court ;  a  great  number  of  causes  were  then,  as  now, 
carried  to  that  court  for  the  dishonest  purpose  of  delay  merely, 
and,  as  the  practice  now  stands,  there  is  no  way  of  preventing 
it.  [Both  then  and  now  in  Illinois,  the  judgment  appealed  from 
draws  six  per  cent,  interest,  and  an  appeal,  which  postpones  the 
day  of  payment  from  one  to  two  years,  is  a  money  making  oper 
ation,  a  most  efficient  method  of  securing  an  extension,  and  is 
in  the  nature  of  a  forced  loan  at  six  per  cent,  interest.]  Such  were 
some  of  the  evils  which  the  bench,  the  bar,  and  the  public  were 
compelled  to  endure,  and  the  question  arose,  what  is  the  real 
source  of  these  troubles;  what  remedies,  if  any,  can  be  found? 
In  an  open  letter,  appearing  in  December,  1874,  Judge  W.  K. 
McAllister  attributed  very  much  of  the  difficulty  to  the  fact  that 
there  were  large  numbers  of  men  practicing  law'  "whom  the 
Almighty  never  intended  for  lawyers."  As  was  said  at  the  time, 
this  allegation  was  doubtlessly  true;  but,  as  was  also  said  at  the 
time,  there  is  no  way  of  getting  rid  of  those  falling  within  his 
description  who  were  already  engaged  in  the  practice  and  no 
way  of  preventing  future  accessions  of  such  men  to  the  ranks  of 
the  profession,  save  by  a  much  more  rigorous  examination  of 
applicants  and  a  much  closer  scrutiny  of  capabilities  than'  fellow- 
beings  could  exercise,  for  even  incompetent  men  will  somehow 
succeed  in  passing  limited  examinations,  and  men  quite  unfitted 
to  practice  law,  or  any  other  profession,  continue  to  be  born 
despite  election  laws,  the  Supreme  Court,  or  the  General  Assem 
bly  of  any  State.  Being  thus,  as  often  before  and  since,  a  grave 
public  question,  Mr.  Storrs  became  actively  interested,  and,  at 
the  request  of  the  Chicago  Tribune,  he  wrote  four  editorials,  the 
gist  of  the  remedy  he  advocated  being  that  the  courts  require  a 
simplified,  condensed  presentation  of  records.  Friday  morning, 
December  4,  1874,  under  the  heading  of  "The  Supreme  Court," 
he  editorially  wrote — the  question  is  yet  alive — in  the  Tribune'. 

"If  there  should  be  anywhere  an  incredulous  legislator  who  is  of  opinion 
that  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  are  overpaid  for  their  services;  who 
thinks  their  position,  on  the  whole,  is  an  easy  one  ;  and  wonders  why  they 
suffer  business  to  get  so  far  behind,  let  him  visit  the  office  of  the  Clerk  of 
that  Court  at  Ottawa  during  its  session,  inspect  the  records  which  they  are 
required  to  examine,  note  the  volumes  of  printed  abstracts  which  they  are 
compelled  to  wade  through,  to  say  nothing  of  the  reams  of  printed  and 
written  briefs  and  arguments,  and  we  are  confident  that  the  aforesaid  legis 
lator  will  leave  the  cramped  and  inconvenient  office  of  the  Clerk  of  the 


3O2  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

Court  a  wiser,  if  not  a  sadder,  and  probably  a  madder,  man  than  when  he 
entered.  If  he  asks  the  Judges  whether  it  is  necessary  that  those  records 
should  be  so  immensely  voluminous,  they  will  with  one  accord  tell  him  no. 
If  he  inquires  whether  the  abstracts  should  be  of  such  infinite  length,  they 
will  answer  him  no.  Should  he  inquire  whether  it  was  necessary  that  they 
should  diligently  read  through  all  this  vast  amount  of  matter,  they  will  an 
swer  yes.  They  will  tell  him  that  it  is  quite  impossible  to  guess  from  the 
appearance  of  the  outside  of  the  record  what  it  contains,  and  that  they  are 
frequently  compelled  to  read  hundreds  of  dreary  pages  to  find,  at  the  end, 
that  there  is  not  a  single  legal  question  presented  by  the  record." 

After  a  minute  illustration,  by  reference  to  cases  then  pending 
in  Court  of  the  absurd  and  wrongful  incorporating  of  an  entire 
record  in  a  bill  of  exceptions,  he  laid  down  the  rule,  that: 

"The  bill  of  exceptions  should  in  no  case  present  more  of  the  evidence  than 
is  absolutely  necessary  to  render  the  ruling  of  the  Court  to  which  an  exception 
is  taken  intelligible.  And  the  practice  of  sending  up  to  the  Supreme  Court 
all  the  evidence,  without  reference  to  the  fact  as  to  whether  any  questions 
of  law  are  raised  upon  it  or  not,  is  an  abuse  so  serious  in  its  character  that 
it  will  swamp  the  Court  if  not  soon  corrected.  Where  the  evidence  is  con 
flicting  as  to  a  certain  fact,  it  is  quite  enough  to  say,  if  anything  whatever 
need  be  said  in  the  bill  of  exceptions  concerning  it,  that  the  plaintiff  intro 
duced  evidence  tending  to  show  a  certain  state  of  facts,  and  that  the  defend 
ant  introduced  evidence  tending  to'  show  the  opposite  state  of  facts.  Where 
the  evidence  in  the  Court  below  is  conflicting,  the  Supreme  Court  will 
not  attempt  to  reconcile  it,  nor  will  they  disturb  a  judgment  where  the 
evidence  in  the  cause  is  conflicting.  These  are  questions  peculiarly 
within  the  province  of  the  jury,  and  the  purpose  of  an  appeal  is  not  to 
transfer  the  trial  of  questions  of  fact  from  a  jury  of  twelve  men,  who  see 
and  hear  all  the  witnesses  and  have  every  opportunity  of  determining  from 
their  appearance  upon  the  stand  what  witnesses  are  entitled  to  belief,  to  a 
jury  of  seven  gentlemen  who  neither  see  nor  hear  the  witnesses,  and  have 
no  means  to  aid  them  in  determining  which  tell  the  truth.  The  trouble 
rests  with  the  practice  as  to  bills  of  exceptions.  The  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  will  not  tolerate  nuisances  and  impositions  of  this  character. 
A  few  years  since  a  case  was  taken  to  that  Court  from  this  circuit,  and  the 
bill  of  exceptions  had  been  prepared  something  after  the  fashion  prevailing 
in  the  Supreme  Court  of  this  State.  The  Judges  at  Washington  denounced 
the  practice  in  the  most  unmistakable  terms,  and  gave  very  emphatic  notice 
that  thereafter  cases  brought  to  that  Court  with  such  bills  of  exceptions 
would  be  dismissed  at  sight.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  admonition  had 
the  desired  effect.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  in  the  great  majority  of  cases  bills 
of  exceptions  in  cases  taken  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  this  State  are  ten 
times  longer  than  they  need  to  be.  Reduced  to  their  proper  proportions, 
the  perusal  of  the  records  by  the  Court  would  not  consume  one-fourth  the 
time  that  it  now  does,  and  the  real  points  in  the  case  would  be  much  more 
clearly  apprehended  and  understood  than  they  now  are." 


PROFESSIONAL    PROSPERITY.  303 

Again,  on  December  u,  upon  this  same  question  in  an  editor 
ial  on  "Centralizing  the  Supreme  Court,"  he  wrote: 

"After  all,  this  is  a  question  in  which  the  general  public  are  more  deeply 
interested  than  the  lawyers.  At  the  final  end,  the  client  has  to  foot  the 
bills  and  bear  all  the  burdens  of  these  frightful  delays.  The  Bar  undoubt 
edly  understand  how  serious  these  difficulties  are  more  clearly  than  the 
public  generally ;  and  it  is  to  be  said  in  their  favor  that  the  suggestions  of 
reform  which  they  have  from  time  to  time  made,  have  in  view  the  interests 
of  the  litigants  rather  than  their  own.  There  are  many  minor  reforms  which 
ought  to  be  made,  and  which  the  Court  itself  could  bring  about  by  rules. 

"  Every  appellant  or  plaintiff  in  error  should  be  required  to  preface  his 
points  or  argument  by  a  brief  statement  of  the  facts  in  the  case  with  refer 
ences  to  the  page  of  the  record  where  the  facts  would  be  found.  The 
length  of  this  statement  should  be  limited.  This  practice  prevails  in  New 
York,  and  also  in  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  and  its  adoption  here 
would  dispense  with  that  tedious  nuisance  called  an  abstract  of  the  record. 

"  Reduced  to  its  proper  proportions,  the  entire  record  should  be  printed, 
paged,  and  foliod,  so  that  each  member  of  the  Court  would  have  a  copy. 

"There  is  no  more  favorable  time  for  inaugurating  these  reforms  than  the 
present.  The  present  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  is  a  very  able  Bench, 
and  compares  with  any  appellate  tribunal  in  the  Union.  Our  reports  are 
steadily  gaining  reputation  abroad,  and  with  the  changes  in  the  workings 
of  our  judicial  system  which  we  have  recommended  would  be  made  still 
more  valuable." 

These  editorials  provoked  notice,  personal  and  public ;  however, 
little  support  was  advanced  by  the  general  press,  and  for  yet 
existing  causes  the  series  might  well  be  reproduced  in  these 
later  days.  As  Judge  McAllister  wrote  to  Mr.  Storrs,  Decem 
ber  9th,  1874,  "the  articles  in  the  Tribune  are  excellent  argu 
ments  in  favor  of  reform.  You  deserve  gratitude  for  what  you 
have  done  and  are  doing  to  call  public  attention  to  the  matter. 
.  .  A  public-spirited  man  will  always  be  appreciated  both  in  and 
out  of  his  profession." 


CHAPTER  XVIL 

A  DECORATION  DAY  ADDRESS. 

1875. 

THE  HONORED  UNION  DEAD— WHAT  THEY  FOUGHT  AND  DIED  FOR— TRIBUTE 
TO  CHARLES  SUMNER. 

DOWN  to  the  close  of  his  life,  Mr.  Storrs  was  annually 
besieged  with  invitations  from  all  over  the  Western  States 
to  deliver  Fourth  of  July  and  Decoration  day  orations,  to  address 
Grand  Army  reunions,  temperance  societies,  and  charitable  insti 
tutions  of  various  kinds,  and  to  lecture  to  college  societies  or 
deliver  the  oration  of  the  day  at  college  commencements.  For  a 
long  course  of  years,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  accepting  one  or 
other  of  these  invitations  for  the  Fourth.  In  1875,  he  delivered 
the  address  on  Decoration  day  at  Norwood  Park,  in  the  vicinity 
of  Chicago.  It  was  just  after  the  death  of  Charles  Sumner;  and 
as,  during  the  heat  of  the  campaign  of  1872  he  had  said  some 
things  in  regard  to  Mr.  Sumner's  "leadership"  in  the  Republican 
party  which  might  have  been  misconstrued  into  a  disparagement 
of  the  celebrated  abolitionist,  he  took  this  occasion  to  pay  a 
beautiful  tribute  to  the  great  man  who  had  passed  away.  As  a 
specimen  of  Mr.  Storrs'  oratory  on  patriotic  occasions,  this 
Norwood  Park  address  is  one  of  his  finest,  and  it  is  therefore 
here  given  in  full. 

"  Upon  our  hillsides  and  in  our  valleys  are  scattered  the  graves  of  more 
than  two  hundred  thousand  heroes,  who  bravely  fought  and  nobly  died, 
that  our  nation  might  live.  To-day,  wherever  these  graves  may  be  found, 
have  flowers  been  scattered  upon  them.  The  grass  grows  green  upon  them, 
the  soft  breath  of  the  coming  summer  gently  ^breathes  its  blessings  over 

304 


A    DECORATION    DAY  ADDRESS.  305 

them.  The  clear,  blue  summer  sky  hangs  tenderly  above  them,  and  as 
the  summer  comes  to  deck  these  graves  with  its  beauties  it  meets  a 
welcome  from  thousands  of  hearts,  and  is  aided  in  its  work  of  beauty  by 
thousands  of  hands  decorating  those  graves,  which,  under  the  touch  of  the 
advancing  season,  will  ere  long  gleam  with  blossoms  all  their  own. 

"  The  beautiful  custom  which  has  to-day  been  observed  would  lose  much 
of  its  significance,  and  would  soon  pass  away,  were  it  confined  merely  to 
an  expression  of  our  personal  affection  for  those  whose  graves  we  decorated. 
The  custom  would  soon,  and  ought  soon  to  pass  away,  were  any  portion 
of  its  purpose  the  rekindling  of  those  passions  to  which  the  war  gave  rise, 
or  to  the  perpetuation  of  those  hatreds  and  animosities  which  it  naturally 
excited. 

"  Because  we  decorate  with  floral  offerings  the  graves  of  the  Union  dead, 
we  would  not  desecrate  the  graves  of  those  who  died  in  the  Confederate 
cause.  Nay,  more — our  affection  for  the  Union  soldier  and  his  memory 
cto^s  not  devolve  upon  us  the  necessity  of  hating  the  slain  Confederate.  On 
many  a  battle  field  they  lie  side  by  side,  their  battles  all  fought,  their 
enmities  all  washed  away  in  their  blood.  Now  that  they  who  fought  bravely 
against  each  other  are  at  peace,  it  is  no  part  of  our  purpose  to  renew  their 
warfare. 

"  I  do  not  overlook,  and  would  not  if  I  could,  the  special  debt  of  affection 
and  gratitude  which  we  owe  to  those,  our  fathers,  husbands,  brothers,  and 
sons,  who  fought  and  died  that  the  Union  might  be  in  perfect  integrity 
preserved ;  those  who  inspired  by  as  high  and  holy  a  courage  as  ever 
lifted  up  the  human  heart  or  nerved  the  human  arm  to  action,  willingly 
met  death  for  a  principle — the  right  of  self-government :  but  our  affection 
for  them  will  be  all  the  deeper  and  purer,  unmixed  with  any  feelings  of 
bitterness  or  resentment.  In  the  language  of  our  great  President,  "With 
malice  toward  none,  with  charity  to  all,"  we  stood  to-day  around  the 
graves  of  the  Union  soldiers,  and,  as  typical  of  our  undying  love  for  them 
and  the  purity  of  that  love,  robed  their  graves  with  the  fresh  flowers  of 
the  early  summer.  As  the  season  marches  on,  day  by  day  developing 
some  new  beauty,  the  flowers  will  bloom  afresh  until  their  penetrating  per 
fume  shall  float  all  around  the  globe,  and  i-ntoxicate  every  other  nation 
with  the  hope  of  liberty. 

"  But  I  have  said  that  our  duty  remains  unperformed,  when  confined 
merely  to  expressions  of  personal  love  and  affection,  The  great  cause  for 
which  they  died  is  honored  and  our  fealty  to  it  renewed  in  every  annual 
observance  of  this  character.  Our  demonstrations  of  affection  for  the  dead 
soldier  would  be  but  a  hollow  mockery,  an  unmeaning  observance — nay, 
worse  than  that — a  sham,  were  we  to  forget  the  cause  in  which  he  per 
ished,  or  barter  away  the  principles  for  which  he  died. 

"  He  asserted,  and  backed  his  assertion  with  his  life,  the  indivisibility  of 
the  Union — declared  it  to  be  perpetual.  He  fought  not  that  one  State 
might  triumph  over  another,  nor  that  many  States  might  triumph  over  one, 
but  for  a  patriotism  bounded  by  no  State  lines,  broad  enough  to  compre- 


306  LIFE   OF   EMERY    A'   STORKS. 

hend  and  embrace  the  entire  Union.  He  fought,  in  short,  for  a  National 
existence  not  for  one  State,  but  for  the  United  States  of  America.  The 
heresy  of  so-called  "State  rights,"  and  by  this  I  mean  the  pretense  that 
any  one  State  might,  when  it  saw  fit,  secede  from  the  Union,  and  that 
there  was  no  rightful  power  to  prevent  it,  the  Confederate  soldier  asserted 
and  the  Union  soldier  denied.  They  fought  the  question  out.  In  that 
cause  the  Union  triumphed  ;  in  its  vindication  the  Union  soldier  died.  We 
must  ever  regard  it  as  settled  ;  to  suffer  it  to  be  re-opened  would  be  an 
insult  to  the  dead  whom  we  have  to-day  honored. 

"  The  Union  soldier  fought  for  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  that 
it  should  be  guaranteed  to  every  State  in  the  Union.  Are  we  quite  certain 
that,  although  victorious,  the  fruits  of  his  victories  have  been  safely  gar 
nered  ?  It  would  be  unseemly  here  to  enter  upon  a  discussion  of  any  of 
those  vexed  political  questions  which  agitate  and  divide  the  country.  But 
is  it  not  well  for  us,  our  judgments  cleared,  our  hearts  purified  by  the  sol 
emn  ceremonies  through  which  we  have  to-day  passed,  to  pause,  reflect, 
not  as  partisans,  but  as  patriots,  whether  there  are  not  in  the  South,  nay, 
even  in  the  North,  States  to  be  found  where,  so  far  as  the  real  rights  and 
interests  of  the  people  are  concerned,  while  the  form  of  a  republican  gov 
ernment  is  preserved,  its  spirit  has  been  destroyed? 

"In  the  triumph  of  the  Union  arms  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the  law 
was  maintained.  No  slave  to-day  breathes  upon  the  soil  of  the  Republic, 
and  there  would  seem  to  be  but  little  danger,  that  either  in  form  or  sub 
stance,  could  his  newly-acquired  freedom  ever  again  be  jeopardized.  But 
'eternal  vigilance  is  the  price  of  liberty.'  No  great  blessing  was  ever 
achieved  without  exertion,  No  right  was  ever  wrung  from  the  clutch  of 
power  without  a  struggle  fierce  and  bitter,  nor  retained  without  the  exercise 
of  ceaseless,  sleepless  vigilance.  If  our  gratitude  to  the  soldier  of  the 
Union,  and  our  respect  and  honor  for  his  memory  are  to  be  measured  by 
what  he  accomplished,  it  would  be  difficult  to  fix  a  limit.  He  preserved  our 
National  Union,  and  thus  saved  to  the  world,  in  its  integrity,  our  nation,  the 
only  custodian  of  the  priceless  treasure  of  free  government  among  men.  He 
crushed  out  the  barbarism  of  slavery  and  transformed  three  millions  of 
human  chattels  into  freemen  and  citizens.  These  results,  the  most  colos 
sal  and  resplendent  in  history,  were  accomplished  within  the  short  period 
of  four  years,  and  the  soldier  of  the  Union  thus  crowded  a  thousand  years 
of  history  into  four  short  years  of  time. 

"  Passing  all  considerations  of  affection,  springing  from  ties  of  kindred,  is 
it  strange  that  one  day  in  each  year  has  been  set  apart  to  enable  us  to  tes 
tify  our  devotion  to  those  who  surrendered  their  lives  for  results  so  magnifi 
cent?  But  the  heroes  who  accomplished  these  stupendous  results  were  not 
strangers.  They  were  our  fathers,  our  husbands,  brothers,  and  sons.  Thou 
sands  of  them  to-day  sleep  in  the  grave-yard,  at  the  old  home.  The  same 
sky  hangs  over  their  graves  to-day,  into  whose  blue  depths  they  looked  when 
they  were  boys.  The  same  hearts  beat  in  tenderness  for  them  now  that 
warmed  toward  them  in  the  old  days  at  home.  The  widow  to-day  casts 
flowers  upon  her  husband's  grave,  and  he  heeds  it  not.  The  orphan  lays 


A    DECORATION   DAY   ADDRESS.  3O/ 

his  floral  tribute  upon  his  father's  last  resting-place— he  heeds  it  not.  The 
father  and  the  mother-  repairing  to  the  old  hill-side  where  their  boy  is 
buried,  with  bedimmed  eyes  and  sorrowing  hearts,  robe  his  last  resting-place 
with  the  sweet  flowers  of  summer,  but  the  boy  heeds  it  not.  But  the  wife 
and  the  orphan  and  the  parent  all  know  that  the  spirits  of  husband,  father 
and  son  are  about  them.  They  feel  their  presence  in  their  hearts.  They 
know  that  the  gracious  offerings  which  love  and  affection  make,  rejoice  the 
spirits  of  the  departed  and  ennoble  and  sanctify  the  hearts  of  those  who  are 
left  behind. 

"When  the  widow  thinks  for  what  her  husband  died,  she  treasures  it  in 
her  heart  as  sacredly  as  his  memory.  The  cause  in  which  his  father  gave 
up  his  life,  stirs  the  heart  of  the  orphan  and  calls  to  him  after  such  a  sac 
rifice  to  maintain  it.  The  equality  of  man  is  something  more  than  a  'glit 
tering  generality  ' — it  is  a  living  principle,  as  sacred  to  him  as  the  memory 
of  the  father  who  died  for  it,  and  which,  were  it  endangered,  he  would 
himself  freely  part  with  all  to  defend. 

"Thus  it  is  that  a  deed  of  patriotic  heroism  is  in  its  effects  eternal.  It 
possesses  an  indestructible  vitality.  The  heroic  deeds  of  which  blind  old 
Homer  sung,  have  come  down  to  us  across  the  chasm  of  thousands  of 
years,  and  to-day  inspire  the  farmer  boy  upon  the  hill-side  and  the  prairie 
with  high  and  noble  resolve.  Great  deeds  and  great  men  make  great 
nations.  The  Greece  of  to-day  has  the  same  hills  and  the  same  valleys 
that  it  had  two  thousand  years  ago — the  same  sky  bends  over  it  to-day  that 
canopied  it  then ;  but  Pericles  and  Phidias,  Plato,  Demosthenes,  and  the 
great  men  who  made  Athens  the  seat  of  culture  and  philosophy,  are  no 
more,  and  Greece — the  Greece — lives  no  longer.  And  so  our  country,  young 
as  it  is,  is  the  country  which  our  great  and  patriotic  men  have  made  it. 
Into  the  current  of  our  national  history  the  heroic  deeds  of  the  Union  sol 
dier  have  passed.  Their  names  'history  will  never  willingly  permit  to  die.' 

"We  speak  a  few  weak  words;  but  the  great  heart's  gone  to  God. 
They  have  fought  with  their  swords,  won  our  battles,  red,  wet-shod! 
While  we  sat  at  home  new  laurels  for  our  land  they  went  to  win, 
And  with  smiles  Valhalla  lightens  as  our  heroes  enter  in. 
They  bore  our  banners  fearless  to  the  death  as  to  the  fight, 
They  raised  our  nation  peerless  to  the   old  heroic  height. 
We  weep  not  for  the  heroes  whom  we  never  more  shall  see, 
We  weep  we  were  not  with  them  in  their  ruddy  revelry. 

"  But  not  alone  in  the  rude  shock  of  battle  were  the  great  results  to 
which  I  have  referred  accomplished.  The  rebellion  was  a  contest  between 
opposing  ideas,  and  long  before  they  flamed  out  into  war  had  they  been 
brooded  over  by  the  thinker,  urged  upon  the  platform,  proclaimed  through 
the  press,  declaimed  upon  the  stump,  debated  in  Congress,  discussed  and 
argued  in  the  courts.  The  great  champion  of  the  cause  for  which  the  sol 
dier  died,  lived  to  see  its  complete  triumph — and  then  he  passed  away. 

"From  his  boyhood,  through  obloquy  and  abuse,  Charles  Sumner  stood 
forth  the  unflinching,  unswerving  champion  of  the  rights  of  man.  It  would 
ill  become  me  to  attempt  to  pronounce  a  eulogy  upon  Charles  Sumner. 


- 


308  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

That  work  has  been  so  well,  so  beautifully,  so  feelingly  and  truthfully  done 
already  in  every  city  in  the  country  that  it  would  be  an  impertinence  in 
me  to  undertake  the  task.  But  the  great  leading  features  of  Mr.  Sumner's 
character,  intellectual  and  moral,  were  of  such  transcendent  merit,  that 
surely  it  will  be  well  if  his  example  is  constantly  kept  before  us,  and  our 
public  men.  A  man  of  the  broadest  culture,  and  the  largest  literary  acquire 
ments,  he  never  employed  them  for  the  promotion  of  his  own  personal  ends, 
nor  for  any  purpose  of  self-aggrandizement.  He  never  used  his  vast  learn 
ing  to  tickle  the  ears  of  the  multitude,  nor  were  his  literary  quotations, 
numerous  and  beautiful  as  they  were,  ever  employed  to  gild  an  unworthy 
purpose.  His  intellectual  fiber  was  of  the  most  perfect  rectitude.  He  could 
no  more  take  a  position  that  he  did  not  believe  to  be  right  than  he  could 
change  his  nature.  He  made  up  his  mind  that  the  institution  of  slavery 
was  a  blistering  shame  to  our  civilization,  that  it  was  a  relic  of  barbarism, 
and  thus,  believing,  he  so  declared,  when  to  make  the  declaration  brought 
upon  him  not  only  frowns  from,  and  alienation  of,  old  friends,  but  personal 
violence,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  never  recovered.  In  the  midst  of  the 
tempest  which  surrounded  him,  he  stood  unmoved  and  immovable. 

"Those  perilous  times  came  when,  cringing  beneath  the  threats  of  the  slave 
power,  bent  on  destroying  the  Union,  the  cry  of  compromise  filled  the  air, 
and  frightened  politicians  hastened  to  abandon  the  professions  of  a  life-time; 
hastened  to  give  back  to  the  slave  power  all  that  years  of  manly 'struggle 
had  wrested  from  it ;  hastened  to  renounce  every  principle  secured  by  the 
election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  in  order — vain  hope — to  appease  their  Southern 
brethren,  and  to  persuade  them  not  to  leave  us.  Not  so  Charles  Sumner. 
Upon  the  eternal  rocks  had  he  planted  his  feet,  and  there  was  he  determined 
they  should  remain,  and  they  did  remain.  How  splendidly  he  stands  out 
to-day  as  he  then  stood,  now  that  the  mists  of  passion  and  prejudice  have 
cleared  away  and  revealed  his  true  position  to  us. 

"  The  war  came :  it  was  inevitable.  We  all  remember  how  reluctantly  we 
accepted  the  conclusion  ;  how  for  weeks  and  dreary  months  we  dallied  and 
toyed  with  the  slave,  fearing  to  touch  the  question,  and  even  returning  the 
slave  to  his  rebel  master,  hoping  still  to  appease  him  and  persuade  him  back. 
But  Charles  Sumner  knew  that  there  could  be  no  reconciliation  until  one  or 
the  other  of  the  opposing  ideas,  freedom  or  slavery,  perished.  Years  before 
in  his  college  halls,  he  had  chosen  under  which  banner  he  would  be  found. 
His  splendid  rhetoric,  now  persuading  and  now  denouncing  ;  his  powerful 
logic  was  day  and  night,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  employed  to  press 
upon  the  government  the  necessity  of  making  the  issue  direct,  offering  the 
slave  his  freedom,  and  using  his  services  as  a  Union  soldier.  The  procla 
mation  of  Emancipation  came.  I  do  not  attribute  this  result  solely  to  Mr. 
Sumner,  nor  do  I  say  that  Mr.  Lincoln  did  not  see  its  necessity  quite  as 
clearly  as  did  Mr.  Sumner.  Their  positions  were  entirely  different.  Their 
responsibilities  were  different.  The  merit  of  this  great  measure  can  be  attri 
buted  to  no  one  man. 

"But  as  the  war  progressed — defeat  following  defeat  in  swift  and  sicken 
ing  succession — Charles  Sumner  was  found  the  earnest  advocate  of  every 


A    DECORATION    DAY    ADDRESS.  3CX) 

measure  by  which  our  soldiers  could  be  sustained  in  the  field  and  the 
great  contest  finally  pushed  through  to  success.  During  all  these  years 
Charles  Sumner  never  for  one  moment  lost  sight  of  that  down-trodden  race 
in  whose  cause  he  had,  when  a  boy,  enlisted.  When  the  war  closed  the 
question  faced  the  country  and  could  not  be  avoided,  '  What  shall  be 
done  with  the  negro?'  The  slave-holder  thought  in  the  pacificating  policy 
pursued  by  Andrew  Johnson,  that  he  saw  an  opportunity  to  still  retain  the 
old  power  over  the  slave ;  penal  codes  were  adopted  by  the  seceding 
States,  the  effect  of  which  would  have  been  to  reduce  the  negro  to  sub 
stantially  his  old  condition.  The  people  were  wearied  with  the  slave 
question,  wearied  of  the  war,  anxious  at  once  to  heal  the  breaches  which 
it  had  made,  and  disposed  to  be  careless  as  to  the  means.  The  danger 
was  imminent.  Faithful  through  the  years  which  have  since  passed, 
Charles  Sumner  stood  sentinel,  and  never  rested  his  labors  until  the  negro 
was  not  only  a  freeman  but  a  citizen. 

"The  last  crowning  glory  of  his  life,  his  'Civil  Rights'  bill,  has  just 
ripened  into  law,  and  by  it  every  vestige  of  the  old  slave  system  is  wiped 
away.  His  'works  did  follow  him,'  and  almost  his  last  words  were  'take 
care  of  my  Civil  Rights  bill.' 

"And  thus  his  career  ended.  Where  shall  we  find  a  nobler,  a  more 
patriotic,  a  more  lofty  one?  But  one  great  feature  which  distinguishes  his 
career  I  have  not  yet  noted.  The  negro  having  secured  the  privileges  of  citi 
zenship,  Charles  Sumner  showed  to  the  world  that  the  warfare  which  he 
had  waged  in  his  behalf  was  based  upon  no  mean  considerations  of  per 
sonal  hatred  toward  the  master.  Accordingly  the  great  heart  that  bled  for 
the  slave,  when  he  was  in  the  agony  of  his  bondage,  after  his  release,  sor 
rowed  for  the  master  in  the  trouble  which  environed  him.  The  great  pur 
pose  of  his  life  had  been  accomplished,  and  he  turned  his  mind  to  reliev 
ing  the  oppressed  whites  of  the  South.  His  idea  of  human  rights  knew 
no  distinction  of  color  or  of  creed ;  and  Charles  Sumner,  he  who  but  ten 
short  years  ago,  had  he  then  died,  would  have  been  execrated  by  the 
entire  South,  to-day  finds  the  old  slave-holder  and  the  old  slave  alike  sin 
cere  mourners  at  his  grave,  both  feeling  that  they  have  lost  a  friend  whom 
money  could  not  buy,  whom  power  and  threats  could  not  coerce.  Over 
the  grave  of  this  great  moral  and  intellectual  hero  we  drop  the  tear  of 
affection  and  reverence.  It  too  shall  we  clothe  with  flowers,  for  in  that 
grave  rests  all  that  is  mortal  of  a  statesman  as  pure  in  heart,  and  lofty  and 
patriotic  in  purpose,  as  ever  brightened  the  pages  of  history. 

"His  spirit  stands  to-day  face  to  face  with  the  soldier  of  the  Union  whose 
cause  he  so  valiantly  maintained.  The  Confederate  who  once  deemed  him 
his  bitterest  enemy,  now  knows  that  he  was  his  friend.  Around  the  grave 
of  such  a  man,  all  citizens  of  a  restored  Union  can  meet.  In  that  solemn 
presence  all  bitterness  is  vanished.  Adapting  to  my  purpose  the  langu 
age  of  a  great  master  of  English  literature,  I  would  say  to  North  and 
South,  black  and  white  alike:  'Oh,  brothers,  enemies  no  more,  let  us  take 
a  mournful  hand  together,  as  we  stand  over  his  grave,  and  call  a  truce  to 
battle.  Hush,  strife  and  quarrel,  over  the  solemn  grave.  Sound,  trumpets, 
a  mournful  march.  Fall,  dark  curtain,'  upon  a  life  thus  gloriously  closed. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


LECTURES  ON  THE  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 

TWO  LECTURES  TO  THE  STUDENTS  OF  THE  CHICAGO  LAW  COLLEGE — THE  FOUR 
GREAT  DOCUMENTS  WHICH  FORM  THE  BASIS  OF  THE  MODERN  ENGLISH 
CONSTITUTION — "  BAILIFFS  AND  CONSTABLES  THAT  KNOW  THE  LAW  AND 
MEAN  TO  OBSERVE  IT" — HOW  MAGNA  CHARTA  WOULD  WORK  IN  CHICAGO — 
HISTORY  OF  CROWN  AND  PARLIAMENT. 

HARDLY  a  year  passed  during  the  last  decade  of  Mr. 
Storrs'  life  in  which  he  was  not  asked  by  some  seminary 
of  learning  to  address  its  students,  either  by  way  of  an  address 
at  what  is  called  the  "commencement,"  to  the  graduating  class,  or 
a  lecture  on  some  literary  or  philosophical  subject  to  a  students' 
club.  The  law  students  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  at  Ann 
Arbor,  and  those  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin,  at  Madison,  in 
particular,  addressed  to  him  pressing  invitations  for  this  purpose; 
and  similar  invitations  came  from  colleges  in  Indiana,  Iowa,  and 
even  as  far  west  as  Nebraska.  It  is  a  high  mark  of  the  respect 
in  which  he  was  held  in  his  own  adopted  city  as  the  brightest 
ornament  of  its  bar,  that  in  the  fall  of  1874  he  was  invited  by 
the  students  of  the  Chicago  Law  College  to  deliver  a  series  of 
lectures  for  their  benefit.  Mr.  Storrs  was  at  all  times  ready  to 
extend  a  helping  hand  to  young  men  toiling  up  the  steep  and 
rugged  pathway  of  professional  success;  his  manner  towards  such, 
when  they  were  on  the  other  side  of  a  case  in  court,  was  invar 
iably  courteous  and  forbearing;  and  among  no  class  of  his  fellow- 
citizens  is  his  memory  more  prized  and  honored  now  than  among 
the  younger  members  of  the  bar.  An  invitation  of  this  kind 
always  gratified  him,  and  the  performance  of  the  task  involved 
in  his  acceptance  of  it  was  sure  to  exhibit  him  in  the  fullest 
exercise  of  his  highest  powers.  The  students  of  the  Chicago 
310 


LECTURES   ON   THE   ENGLISH    CONSTITUTION.  311 

Law  College  of  that  year  will  long  remember  with  pride  and 
delight  the  prompt  compliance  of  Mr.  Storrs  with  their  request, 
and  still  more  the  wonderfully  luminous  way  in  which  he  unfolded  to 
them  a  chapter  of  constitutional  history  which  all  American  citizens 
should  learn,  for  it  lies  at  'the  foundation  of  our  own  constitu 
tional  history.  The  struggles  of  those  pioneers  in  the  cause  of 
popular  freedom  who  extorted  the  Great  Charter  from  King  John, 
who  procured  its  confirmation  by  Edward  I.,  who  compelled  the 
a*ssent  of  Charles  I.  to  the  Petition  of  Right,  and  secured  the 
enactment  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  on  the  accession  of  William  III., 
as  the  groundwork  of  the  present  English  constitutional  system/ 
must  always  be  interesting  to  the  youth  of  a  nation  whose  fore 
fathers  were  descended  from  these  men,  and  brought  hither  with 
them  those  imperishable  charters  of  constitutional  freedom.  To 
'our  kin  beyond  the  sea' — returning  the  kindly  phrase  used  by 
Mr.  Gladstone  in  writing  not  long  ago  of  the  American  people — 
these  lectures  must  be  interesting,  first  as  the  work  of  an  emi 
nent  American  lawyer,  and  next  as  one  of  the  clearest  and  most 
compendious  narratives  of  the  circumstances  out  of  which  the 
existing  English  constitution  grew  that  has  ever  yet  been  pub 
lished.  No  English  jurist  could  have  done  the  work  better 
within  the  limits  of  two  short  lectures.  Many  American  lectur 
ers,  attempting  the  same  feat,  would  have  failed  to  grasp  the 
salient  features  of  the  story,  and  might  have  fallen  into  inaccur 
acies  of  statement  from  which  Mr.  Storrs'  wide  reading  of  English 
books  and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  subject  preserved  him. 

No  extant  production  of  Mr.  Storrs'  pen  affords  such  abund 
ant  proof  of  his  vast  reading  of  a  class  of  books  not  generally 
included  in  the  average  lawyer's  library.  He  was  thoroughly 
conversant  with  the  general  literature  of  England  and  America; 
the  poets,  historians,  essayists,  and  political  writers  of  both  coun 
tries  were  familiar  society  to  him;  and  down  to  the  last,  he  kept 
himself  informed  of  all  that  was  passing  in  the  literary  world  of 
both  hemispheres.  The  best  new  books  and  magazines  were 
invariably  to  be  found  on  his  table.  His  intimate  friends  knew 
very  well  to  what  the  literary  excellence  of  all  his  arguments 
and  speeches  was  owing;  the  elegant  diction,  the  clear-cut,  pol 
ished  sentences,  that  seemed  to  flow  from  his  lips  without  effort, 
— the  eloquence  which  many  attributed  to  the  inspiration  of 


312  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

genius  or  the  felicitous  suggestion  of  the  moment, — they  well 
knew  that  the  source  from  which  this  splendid  result  was  derived 
was  the  habitual  study,  in  quiet  domestic  hours,  of  the  grand 
masterpieces  of  English  literature.  A  lawyer  discussing  a  chapter 
of  constitutional  history  with  the  students  of  a  law  school  might 
naturally  be  presumed  to  cite  largely  from  treatises  written  by 
the  recognised  authorities  on  the  subject.  The  lectures  on  the 
English  constitution  might,  in  the  hands  of  another  man,  have 
overflowed  with  erudition  and  ponderous  quotation  from  the  old 
text  writers.  Mr.  Storrs  kept  in  view  the  intellectual  needs  of 
his  youthful  audience,  and  rendered  them  a  far  more  valuable 
service  than  they  were  then  capable  of  appreciating  by  referring 
them  to  the  best  historical  authorities, — to  Freeman,  Thierry,  Sir 
Edward  Creasy,  Mr.  Walter  Bagehot,  and  Guizot.  The  arrange 
ment  of  his  matter  was  at  the  same  time  admirable  for  its  per 
spicuity.  In  terse,  vigorous,  crisp  sentences,  he  laid  before  the 
young  men  a  complete  outline  of  the  history  of  the  English  con 
stitution,  so  clear  and  full  and  accurate  that  it  well  deserves  to 
be  adopted  as  a  text  book  in  American  law  schools,  and  is  for 
the  purposes  of  the  American  student  vastly  better  than  the 
chapters  of  Blackstone  on  the  same  subject. 

The  lectures  were  two  in  number,  the  first  being  delivered  on 
the  1 2th  of  December,  1874,  and  the  second  on  the  iQth  of  the 
same  month.  The  first  was  devoted  to  an  account  of  the  four 
great  documents  which  form  the  basis  of  the  modern  English 
constitution, — the  Great  Charter,  secured  by  the  Barons  from 
King  John  at  Runnymede  in  1215;  the  Confirmatio  Cartarum, 
or  confirmation  of  the  Great  Charter  by  Edward  I.  in  Parliament 
in  1300;  the  Petition  of  Right,  exhibited  and  addressed  to 
Charles  I.  which  received  his  assent  in  1628;  and  the  Bill  of 
Rights,  enacted  by  Parliament  upon  the  accession  of  William  III. 
in  1689.  He  gives  a  very  full  summary  of  the  contents  of  each 
of  these  documents,  quoting  in  full  the  principal  clauses. 

He  had  a  remarkably  happy  way  of  making  a  modern  appli 
cation  of  a  mouldy  old  doctrine,  showing  its  eternal  veracity  and 
therefore  durability.  The  class  at  the  Chicago  college  were 
amused  as  well  as  edified  when,  after  quoting  the  stipulation  of 
Magna  Charta,  "Neither  we  nor  our  bailiffs  shall  seize  any  land 
or  rent  for  any  debt,  so  long  as  the  chattels  of  the  debtors  are 


LECTURES    ON    THE    ENGLISH    CONSTITUTION.  313 

sufficient  to  pay  the  debt,"  Mr.  Storrs  paused  to  observe — "In 
this  particular,  at  least,  the  statutes  of  the  State  of  Illinois  have 
reversed  Magna  Charta."  And  again,  after  reading  the  provision, 
"We  will  not  make  any  justices,  sheriffs,  constables,  or  bailiffs, 
but  such  as  know  the  law  of  the  realm,  and  mean  duly  to 
observe  it,"  with  indescribable  drollery,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  singular  aptitude,  he  contrasted  that  provision  with  the  state 
of  things  in  Chicago  to  day: 

"Would  to  God  that  in  this  State,  and  in  this  city,  the  forty-fifth  section 
of  Magna  Charta,  which  is  more  than  six  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  age, 
was  in  force  !  As  my  topic  may  be  considered  somewhat  dry  and  uninter 
esting,  may  I  be  excused  for  pausing  one  moment  here,  and  considering 
what  would  become  of  multitudes  of  our  justices,  constables,  sheriffs,  or 
bailiffs,  were  the  forty-fifth  section  of  Magna  Charta  suddenly  put  in  force  in 
our  midst?  How  many  judicial  mantles  would  fall,  how  many  of  our  con 
stables  and  bailiffs  would  be  compelled  to  seek  the  retirement  of  a  strictly 
private  life !  This  single  provision  illustrates  a  most  important  fact, — namely, 
that  many  of  the  most  important  reforms  which  we  call  modern  are  simply 
the  repeal  of  comparatively  modern  statutes,  and  a  return  to  the  old  order 
of  things." 

In  the  second  lecture,  Mr.  Storrs  traced  the  origin  and  history 
of  the  three  states  of  the  realm,  the  Sovereign,  the  Lords,  and 
the  Commons,  showing  that  the  Kings  of  England  did  not  reign 
by  hereditary  right,  but  that  the  monarchy  was  at  first  elective, 
and  that  at  all  times  their  power  was  subject  to  constitutional 
limitations,  long  anterior  to  the  assertion  of  those  limitations  in 
Magna  Charta.  He  quoted  Freeman  to  the  effect  that  Blackstone's 
theory  of  hereditary  monarchy  in  England  is  a  mere  "  lawyer's 
figment."  Hereditary  succession  did  not,  in  fact,  become  the 
practice  until  after  the  accession  of  Edward  I.;  and  even  after 
that,  the  right  of  parliament  to  settle  the  succession  was  repeatedly 
exercised.  Mr.  Storrs  shows,  in  a  few  incisive  paragraphs,  how 
the  prerogatives  of  the  Crown,  which  had  gradually  been  extended 
beyond  their  original  constitutional  limits,  were  pared  down  again 
by  successive  enactments  until  nothing  now  remains  of  them, 
the  powers  once  exclusively  wielded  by  the  monarch  being  now 
exercised  by  Parliament.  Mr.  Storrs  gives  excellent  reasons  why 
this  country  could  never  have  become  monarchical,  and  concludes 
an  admirable  summary  of  the  history  of  the  English  Parliament 
with  the  following  words: 

"The   growth  of  the    House  of  Commons  has  been   the   progress  of  the 


3 14  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

English  people,  and  every  step  forward  which  it  has  taken  has  been  a  step 
gained  in  the  great  cause  of  human  freedom.  We  have  seen  how  slowly, 
how  painfully,  have  these  advances  been  made.  For  seven  hundred  years 
have  the  English  people  been  engaged  in  securing  their  rights,  one  by  one. 
After  long  and  wearisome  delays,  through  bloody  wars,  at  the  cost  of  revo 
lutions,  have  they  finally  achieved  them  to  the  extent  which  they  now  hold 
them.  Their  advocates  and  champions  have  perished  on  the  field,  in  the 
dungeon,  on  the  scaffold,  and  at  the  stake.  But  they  have  never  wearied. 
As  one  champion  has  fallen,  another  has  taken  his  place  ;  for  the  desire  for 
freedom  is  deathless  and  imperishable.  By  thousands  have  men  willingly 
died  that  freedom  might  live,  while  but  few  will  meet  death  for  corner  lots 
or  bank  accounts.  These  great  principles  of  free  government  our  fathers 
brought  with  them  to  this  country,  more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
ago." 

These  two  lectures  are  so  interesting  to  the  historical  student,  so 
invaluable  to  the  student  of  law,  that  they  ought  sometime  be 
published  in  their  entirety.  They  are  of  such  high  merit  that  no 
abridgment,  nor  any  mere  extracts,  would  do  them  justice,  and 
to  insert  them  in  their  proper  order  here  would  interrupt  unduly 
the  narrative  of  Mr.  Storrs'  career. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


MUNICIPAL  REFORM. 

ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  "CITIZENS*  ASSOCIATION  OF  CHICAGO  " — MR.  STORRS 
DRAFTS  ITS  CONSTITUTION — ITS  OBJECTS — SUGGESTION  OF  SUBJECTS  FOR 
LEGISLATION — ADVOCATES  REORGANIZATION  OF  THE  CITY  GOVERNMENT 
UNDER  THE  GENERAL  LAW— CHANGING  VOTING  PLACES  FROM  SALOONS  TO 
OTHER  QUARTERS — THE  PROPOSITION  TO  DIVIDE  THE  COMMON  COUNCIL  IN 
TO  TWO  HOUSES — CITY  ELECTION  ON  THE  CHARTER  QUESTION — THE  CITI 
ZENS*  ASSOCIATION  AND  MR.  STORRS  PART  COMPANY — MR.  STORRS  IN  CON 
TEMPT  OF  COURT  FOR  A  LEGAL  OPINION— HIS  ARGUMENT  IN  DEFENCE  OF 
HIMSELF  AND  HIS  ASSOCIATES — THE  "FANNING  MILL"  ORATOR. 

AFTER  the  second  great  Chicago  fire,  in  July  1874,  a  num 
ber  of  the  leading  business  men  of  the  city  met  together 
to  consult  as  to  the  necessary  municipal  legislation  for  the  pre 
vention  of  such  conflagrations  in  future,  and  the  measures  to  be 
taken  in  aid  of  the  ordinances  to  put  the  fire  department  and 
water  supply  of  the  city  on  an  efficient  footing.  With  this  pri 
mary  end  in  view,  the  "Citizens'  Association  of  Chicago"  was 
organized;  but  among  those  who  saw  a  far  wider  field  of  useful 
operations  before  it  was  Mr.  Storrs,  who  drew  up  a  constitution 
for  the  new  association  embracing  in  its  aims  the  whole  question 
of  city  government.  This  was  submitted  to  a  meeting  of  citizens 
and  by  them  adopted,  and  in  a  short  time  was  signed  by  several 
hundred  citizens  of  Chicago.  A  committee  was  appointed,  con 
sisting  of  Messrs  L.  B.  Boomer,  Emery  A.  Storrs,  Thomas 
Hoyne,  A.  L.  Chetlain,  and  John  C.  Dore,  to  set  forth  more  in 
detail,  for  the  information  of  the  public,  the  purposes  of  the 
association;  and  their  report  was  published  on  the  3Oth  of  July 
in  the  form  of  an  address  to  the  citizens  of  Chicago,  written  by 
Mr.  Storrs. 

315 


3l6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A    STORKS. 

"The  machinery  of  our  city  government,"  it  said,  "is  unnecessarily  cum 
bersome  and  expensive.  City  legislation  is  crude,  hasty,  and  consequently 
in  many  instances  injudicious.  Our  fire  department  is  imperfectly  organized, 
inadequately  supplied  with  water,  lacks  other  facilities  necessary  for  the 
extinguishment  of  fires,  is  defectively  disciplined,  and  though  composed  of 
good  material,  is  necessarily  inefficient.  The  police  department  is  composed 
of  discordant  elements,  injuriously  affecting  the  police  force,  and  impairing 
its  efficiency.  Taxation  is  burdensome  and  oppressive;  and,  unless  some 
means  are  speedily  found  to  correct  these  and  other  evils,  which  certainly 
will  not  correct  themselves,  the  credit  and  prosperity  of  the  city  must  and 
will  be  seriously  injured. 

"The  power  to  correct  these  evils  rests  with  the  citizens  of  Chicago. 
United  action  upon  their  part  is  all  that  is  required  to  insure  a  wise  and 
faithful  administration  of  their  public  affairs.  Believing  that  the  public  senti 
ment  of  our  citizens  is  sound  and  healthy,  and  that,  when  properly  organized 
and  clearly  expressed,  it  is  controlling,  it  has  been  '  deemed  advisable  to 
adopt  some  means  by  which  the  Citizens  of  Chicago  may  meet  together  for 
the  discussion  of  such  questions  of  public  interest  as  may  from  time  to  time 
arise,  and  devise  and  mature  such  measures  as  may  be  deemed  necessary 
to  promote  the  growth  and  welfare  of  the  city,  and  to  strengthen,  develop, 
and  protect  the  industrial,  business,  and  property  interests  of  its  citizens." 

The  address  then  stated  that  the  association  was  to  be  perma 
nent  in  its  character,  have  rooms  furnished  for  its  use,  and  hold 
regular  meetings  for  discussion  and  action  upon  public  questions. 

"The  best  method  of  reorganising  the  fire  department;  the  best 
method  of  reforming  and  correcting  any  abuses  which  may  exist  in  the 
police  department,  or  in  any  other  department  of  the  city  government;  the 
propriety  of  reorganising  and  reconstructing  the  entire  framework  of  the 
city  government, — these,  and  many  other  subjects,  might  be  named  as 
among  those  which  will  probably  be  brought  at  once  before  the  associa 
tion." 

The  association  was  to  ignore  partisan  politics,  and  aim  to 
excite  such  an  interest  in  the  good  government  of  the  city  and 
to  create  such  a  public  opinion  as  would  secure  the  nomination 
and  election  of  fit  and  proper  men  to  the  city  offices,  regardless 
of  the  political  party  to  which  they  might  belong. 

"In  consequence  of  the  disinclination  of  business  men  to  attend  primary 
meetings,  nominating  conventions,  and  the  polls,  many  of  our  city  offices 
have  been-  filled  by  unfit  and  improper  men.  It  is  hoped  that  through  this 
association  a  more  decided  interest  in  these  questions  may  be  aroused ;  that 
good  citizens  of  all  parties  may  be  led  to  see  that,  to  secure  good  govern 
ment,  good  men  must  be  elected  to  office;  and  to  accomplish  this,  attend 
ance  at  primaries,  at  nominating  conventions,  and  at  the  polls,  is  an  indis- 
pensible  duty,  the  performance  of  which  no  good  citizen  should  avoid. 

"Close  and  continued  scrutiny  of  the   official  conduct  of  all  persons  con- 


MUNICIPAL    REFORM. 

netted  with  the  city  government,  and  of  all  measures  of  an  official  char 
acter,  affecting  the  interests  of  our  citizens,  is  one  of  the  prominent  pur 
poses  of  the  association." 

The  address  closed  with  an  appeal  to  all  good  citizens  to  give 
the  association  their  active  co-operation.  The  association  was 
organized  with  Mr.  Franklin  MacVeagh  as  its  first  president,  and 
Mr.  Storrs  as  its  first  secretary.  Among  other  objects  set  forth 
in  its  constitution,  a  paragraph  in  the  preamble  stated  that  it 
would  aim  to  "  secure  such  legislation,  both  State  and  National, 
as  the  interests  of  the  city  may  from  time  to  time  require." 
This  was  criticised  by  the  Chicago  Times,  which  contended  that 
the  general  government  could  not  legislate  as  to  city  affairs.  But 
Mr.  Storrs  had  much  broader  purposes  in  view  for  the  new  asso 
ciation  than  the  majority  of  its  members,  or  even  the  press 
contemplated  as  within  its  scope.  That  he  had  inserted  this 
paragraph  in  its  constitution  for  no  visionary  purpose,  but  that 
it  was  both  practical  in  its  aim  and  properly  within  the  scope  of 
such  an  association,  he  demonstrated  in  answer  to  the  criticism 
of  the  Times.  In  a  letter  to  Hon.  Thomas  Hoyne,  July  27,  1874, 
enclosing  printed  copies  of  the  constitution,  he  says: 

"  Suppose  we  desire  to  have  other  government  buildings  erected  here. 
Suppose  we  desire  larger  appropriations  for  the  completion  of  'those  already 
in  progress ;  a  petition  to  that  effect  was  circulated  this  Spring.  Suppose 
we  desire  to  improve  our  river  and  harbor.  Suppose  that  a  reciprocity 
treaty  with  Canada  would  largely  advance  the  interests  of  the  city.  Where, 
for  all  these  purposes,  would  we  go  but  to  Congress,  and  what  purposes 
would  more  legitimately  fall  within  the  range  of  such  an  association  than 
these  ? 

"  Fair  criticism  is  healthy.  For  one,  I  am  glad  to  see  it,  for  it  will  only 
develop  how  much  of  good  such  an  association  can,  if  it  honestly  makes 
the  effort,  accomplish." 

The  Executive  Committee  of  the  association  appointed  stand 
ing  committees  on  fire  affairs  and  finance.  In  notifying  the 
former  of  their  appointment,  Mr.  Storrs,  as  secretary,  stated  their 
duties  to  be  to  report  in  writing  concerning  a  fire  ordinance  sub 
mitted  to  the  Common  Council  regulating  the  erection  and  occu 
pation  of  buildings,  as  to  the  sufficiency  of  the  water  supply,  and 
as  to  the  fire  department  and  its  apparatus.  The  association  was 
now  fully  organized;  and  Mr.  Storrs'  professional  business  requir 
ing  all  his  attention,  he  resigned,  and  a  salaried  secretary  was 
appointed. 


3l8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

He  still  continued,  however,  to  give  the  association  the  benefit 
of  his  counsel  and  assistance.  He  put  the  report  of  the  fire 
committee  in  shape,  received  donations  of  books,  pamphlets,  and 
maps  for  the  use  of  the  association,  and  from  time  to  time 
addressed  letters  to  its  president  and  other  members,  full  of 
valuable  suggestion.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  was  that  the 
constitution  of  the  association  should  be  enlarged  so  as  to  extend 
the  qualification  for  membership  to  residents,  taxpayers,  and 
voters  in  the  whole  county,  instead  of  limiting  it  to  the  city. 
"Some  of  our  very  best  business  men,"  he  said,  "are  not  resi 
dents  of  the  city;  and,  as  we  take  cognizance  of  county  as  well 
as  city  affairs,  it  seems  proper  that  our  membership  should  be 
extended."  This  broad  and  liberal  suggestion  was  not  .acted 
upon,  but  on  the  contrary,  after  Mr.  Storrs  and  the  association 
parted  company,  its  membership  took  the  form  of  a  property 
owners'  club,  with  an  admission  fee  of  ten  dollars  a  year. 

Three  other  letters,  here  given,  will  show  how  thoughtfully 
Mr.  Storrs  had  considered  the  uses  which  such  an  association 
might  serve  for  the  good  of'  the  entire  community : 

"  September  7,   1874. 
"FRANKLIN  MAC  VEAGH,  ESQ. 

"  DEAR  SIR  : — In  the  State  of  New  York  there  is  a  statute  authorizing 
any  citizen,  upon  petition  to  the  Judge  of  any  court  of  record  embrac 
ing  charges  of  official  misconduct  against  a  person  in  office,  to  demand  an 
investigation.  The  petitioner  is  required  to  give  bonds  to  pay  all  costs  and 
charges  atttending  the  examination  and  investigation,  should  there  be  a  failure 
to  sustain  the  charges.  The  party  charged  is  subject  to  removal  from  office 
in  the  event  the  petition  is  sustained.  It  is  believed  that  such  a  statute 
would  be  of  great  service  in  this  State.  I  would  also  suggest  that  the  limi 
tation  for  prosecution  of  cases  of  bribery,  etc.,  is  too  short;  that  it  should 
be  made  three  years.  Would  it  not  be  well  to  refer  both  these  topics  to 
the  committee  on  State  legislation  for  examination  ?  They  would  have  ample 
time  to  hunt  up  all  the  legislation  in  other  States  on  the  first  point,  particu 
larly,  and  gather  such  information  as  to  the  practical  working  of  the  law  as 
might  be  desirable.  That  committee  could  then  frame  their  bill,  and  be 
ready  to  present  a  full  report  at  the  opening  of  the  next  session. 

"Yours,  £c., 

"  EMERY  A.  STORRS." 

"December  4,  1874. 
"  FRANKLIN  MACVEAGH,  ESQ. 

.  .  .  "Now  for  one  more  suggestion.  As  the  law  now  stands,  when 
ever  a  bill  in  chancery  is  filed  to  reach  real  estate  in  the  hands  of  an 


MUNICIPAL    REFORM.  319 

alleged  fraudulent  vendee  or  purchaser,  such  bill  is  a  lien  upon  the  prop 
erty  immediately  upon  service  of  process.  Although  the  records  might 
show  a  complete  and  perfect  title  in  such  vendee,  a  purchaser  from  him 
subsequent  to  the  commencement  of  such  chancery  suit  would  take  the 
property  subject  to  all  the  rights  of  the  complainant  asserted  in  the  bill. 
The  record  of  title  would  not  show  the  suit  pending,  nor  would  any  one 
examining  the  title  look  for  it.  The  remedy  is  easy.  A  book  should  be 
provided  for  the  Recorder's  office  called  the  '  Lis  pendens  book,'  in  which 
the  titles  of  all  such  cases  should  be  entered,  together  with  the  description 
of  the  property  sought  to  be  reached,  and  the  general  nature  of  the  claim 
made  against  it;  the  bill  to  be  a  lien  upon  the  property  against  all  subse 
quent  purchasers  only  from  the  time  of  the  record  made  in  the  '  Lis  pen- 
dens  book.'  That  book,  in  searching  titles,  would  then  be  examined  as 
much  as  mortgages.  This  is  no  new  idea.  The  practice  has  prevailed  in 
the  State  of  New  York  ever  since  1850,  and  it  ought  to  prevail  here.  Sup 
pose  you  think  of  this.  Yours  very  truly, 

EMERY  A.  STORKS." 

"December  7,   1874. 

"  FRIEND  BOOMER, 

"I  suggest  the  following  as  matters  for  State  legislation: 

"i.  Extending  period  of  limitation  in  bribery  cases.  This  already  is 
referred. 

"2.  Authorising  preferring  charges  against  officials.     Already  referred. 

"3.  Amendments  to  general  law  for  incorporating  cities  and  villages. 

"4.  Giving  Governor  power  to  remove  Mayor  for  cause  shown.  This  is 
in  harmony  with  the  New  York  statute.  , 

"5.  To  provide  for  recording  chancery  suits  wnich  seek  to  affect  title  to 
real  estate.  Mr.  MacVeagh  understands  what  this  is. 

"6.  Legislation  with  reference  to  funds  in  the  hands  of  city  or  county 
officials.  The  Gage  case  would  seem  to  show  the  necessity  for  some  legis 
lation  of  this  character. 

"7.  To  restore  to  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  power  to  grant  writs  of 
habeas  corpus  in  vacation.  This  is  very  important.  My  attention  was 
recently  called  to  it  by  Judge  McAllister.  "Yours  truly, 

"STORRS." 

In  a  series  of  letters  to  Mr.  L.  B.  Boomer,  during  the  month 
of  October  1874,  he  advocated  petitioning  the  City  Council  to 
call  an  election  to  determine  the  question  whether  the  old  city 
charter  should  be  abandoned,  and  the  city  government  reorgan 
ized  under  the  general  law.  To  this  end  he  advised  that  a  com 
mittee  of  the  Citizens'  Association  should  prepare  and  circulate 
petitions  for  signature  by  the  voters  of  the  city.  At  Mr.  Boomer's 
request,  he  prepared  a  form  of  petition,  and  in  the  letter  enclos 
ing  it  to  him,  October  5th,  Mr.  Storrs  said: 


32O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"I  think  it  would  be  well  to  get  copies  of  the  poll  lists,  and  perhaps  to 
get  them  printed,  but  the  circulation  of  the  petition  need  not  be  postponed 
for  that.  As  I  have  often  said  to  you,  this  step  is  an  indispensible  prelimi 
nary.  All  hands  are  agreed  that  we  should  reorganize  under  the  general 
law.  How  we  shall  reorganize,  and  what  changes  are  to  be  made,  should 
undoubtedly  be  referred  to  the  standing  committee  on  municipal  organiza 
tion.  I  have  no  doubt  but  that  committee  will  recommend  action  under  the 
general  law  ;  indeed,  there  is  no  other  practicable  course.  Mere  patchwork 
won't  help  us.  .There  must  be  a  complete  overhauling. 

"  Would  it  not  be  well  also  to  refer  the  equalization  law,  as  applied  to 
Chicago,  to  the  committee  on  taxation,  or  perhaps  State  legislation,  to  report 
as  to  the  advisability  of  contesting  it  in  the  courts?" 

Copies  of  the  petition  were  printed,  and  placed  in  the  hands 
of  responsible  gentlemen  for  circulation  to  secure  signatures.  In 
a  short  time  15,000  signatures  were  obtained,  but  the  Council 
refused  to  grant  its  prayer.  In  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the 
Times,  Mr.  Storrs  thus  commented  on  their  action: 

"The  genuineness  of  the  signatures  can  easily  be  shown.  Each  party 
circulating  a  petition  was  required  upon  its  return  to  mark  it  so  that  he 
could  recognize  it,  and  be  able  to  make  his  affidavit  that  all  the  signatures 
were  appended  by  the  signers,  or  under  their  direction.  These  affidavits 
affixed  to  the  petition  would  settle  the  question  as  to  the  genuineness  of 
the  signatures.  Alderman  Cullerton  undertook  to  say  that  all  the  petitions 
had  fictitious  signatures.  He  knows  that  this  is  not  true.  The  petition 
which  I  circulated  is  headed  with  the  name  of  Potter  Palmer  and  closed 
with  my  own.  I  saw  every  party  sign;  and  this  is  true  of  nearly  all  the 
petitions." 

In  another  letter  to  Mr.  Boomer,  October  23d,  Mr.  Storrs 
suggests  a  reform  which  he  had  very  much  at  heart,  and  which 
has  only  since  his  death  been  in  a  measure  accomplished  under 
the  new  election  law: 

"You  will  remember  that  at  quite  an  early  day  in  the  history  of  the  Citi 
zens'  Association  of  Chicago,  we  had  up  the  subject  of  making  some  move 
to  transfer  the  voting  places  from  saloons  and  drinking  places  to  some  dif 
ferent  quarters.  The  election  is  now  near  at  hand,  and  the  time  for  action, 
if  any  is  to  be  had,  has  arrived.  Would  it  not  be  well  for  your  committee 
to  make  this  request  to  the  County  Commissioners  at  once?  I  have  been 
called  upon  by  Miss  Frances  E.  Willard  on  this  subject,  and  she  will  under 
take  to  see  that  other  places  are  furnished  for  each  precinct,  situated  as 
conveniently  as  the  case  can  require." 

For  several  months  after  the  petition  was  presented  and 
refused,  the  association  was  at  work  perfecting  a  new  city  charter 
and  getting  it  passed  through  the  Legislature.  On  the  3Oth 
October,  Mr.  Storrs  prepared  a  short  statement  of  the  benefits  to 


MUNICIPAL    REFORM.  321 

be  gained  from   a   reorganization    under  the   general  law,  for   the 
columns  of  the  Times,  as  follows: 

"THE    ECONOMY   OF   REORGANIZATION. 

"Under  our  present  complex  and  horribly  confused  system  of  collecting 
taxes,  the  actual  expenses  of  collecting  the  city  taxes  for  the  year  1872  were 
187,416,99.  This  is  exclusive  of  the  large  sums  paid  for  the  rent  of  offices 
occupied  by  useless  and  worse  than  useless  officials,  and  the  very  large 
expenses  of  the  legal  department  engaged  in  what  so  often  p/oves  an  utterly 
abortive  attempt  to  enforce  the  collection  and  payment  of  these  taxes. 

"Moreover,  since  1869  there  has  been  actually  lost  of  the  taxes  levied 
and  assessed  under  this  clumsy,  complicated,  and  wretchedly  inefficient 
system  the  sum  of  £2,500,000. 

"These  enormous  expenses  and  losses  could  all  be  avoided  under  a 
system  having  one  head.  In  reorganizing  the  city  government  under  the 
general  law,  all  this  machinery  can  be  swept  away.  City  taxes  can  be 
certified  to  the  county  clerk,  and  extended  and  collected  as  are  the  State 
and  county  taxes.  The  countless  barnacles  who  would  be  swept  out  of 
their  places  by  the  new  system  will  doubtless  object  to  a  reorganization 
under  the  general  law,  on  the  ground  of  the  expense  attending  an  election  ; 
but  the  tax  payers  of  Chicago,  who  have  been  plundered  for  years,  will  be 
quite  certain  to  seize  hold  of  any  opportunity  to  relieve  themselv.es  of  the 
burdens  which  they  have  so  long  and  so  patiently  borne." 

During  the  agitation  of  this  question,  a  proposition  was  made 
to  constitute  the  city  council  in  two  chambers,  analogous  to  the 
upper  and  lower  houses  of  our  National  and  State  legislatures. 
In  a  letter  to  the  editor  of  the  Times,  Mr.  Storrs  discusses  this 
proposition  in  his  own  inimitable  way: 

"December  11,   1874. 
"  Friend  Matteson, 

"  I  see  you  have  a  little  discussion  on  your  hands  with  Mr.  Galloway 
with  reference  to  the  infernal  nonsense  of  two  houses.  I  have  recently 
learned  that  Messrs.  Hesing  and  Raster  have  both  made  propositions  for 
a  suggestion  to  some  of  the  committee  to  let  up  on  the  petition  for  reor 
ganizing,  and  in  some  way  to  get  a  bill  through  this  winter,  providing  for 
two  houses,  the  upper  house  to  be  made  up  of  the  representatives  of  tax 
payers.  I  am  not  aware  that  this  suggestion  has  been  received  with  any 
favor,  and  presume  that  it  has  not.  But  there  seems  to  be  a  growing  feel 
ing  in  some  quarters  that  tax-paying,  or  rather  the  ownership  and  posses 
sion  of  something  upon  which  taxes  can  be  imposed,  comprises  '  the  whole 
duty  of  man.'  I  am  constrained  to  think  that  there  are  very  many  persons 
outside  this  charmed  circle  who  have  immortal  souls,  and  can  take  and 
are  disposed  to  take  quite  as  unselfish  and  intelligent  a  view  of  our  real 
public  needs,  as  those  inside.  At  all  events,  a  second  house  elected  by  and 
representing  a  particular  class  would  be  an  abomination.  Between  it  and 
'21 


322  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the    more    popular   body    there  would   be    continual  jealousies    and   warfare; 
neither  would  aid,  but  each  would  cripple,  the  other. 

"If  it  be  proposed  to  select  better  men  for  the  upper  house,  the  only 
result  would  be  to  secure  poorer  ones  for  the  lower;  so  that  the  average 
badness  would  be  faithfully  preserved." 

In  another  letter  to  the  same  gentleman  he  says: 

"I  send  you  herewith  the  January  number  (1875)  of  the  North  American 
Review.  Begin  at  page  166,  and  read  ahead  ;  and  if  you  don't  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  history  repeats  itself,  I  will  confess  my  mistake.  Observe 
how  the  Citizens'  Association  of  New  York  City  was  captured,  page  169. 
That  charter  was  even  better  than  the  one  proposed  for  us.  In  the  Tweed 
charter  the  Mayor  did  not  have  the  appointment  of  the  comptroller  or  the 
corporation  counsel.  But  read  and  be  edified ;  and  then  decide  whether, 
after  all,  virtue  is  not  a  matter  of  geography." 

In  the  spring  of  1875,  the  relations  between  Mr.  Storrs  and 
some  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Citizens'  Association  became 
considerably  strained  in  consequence  of  his  perceiving  one  line 
of  professional  duty  in  connection  with  an  election  question  on 
which  he  was  professionally  consulted,  and  they  conceiving  that 
out  of  loyalty  to  them  and  to  the  Association  he  should  have 
construed  the  law  in  the  opposite  way.  The  Common  Council 
had  appointed  April  23,  1875,  as  the  day  on  which  the  question 
of  the  reorganization  of  the  city  government  should  be  submitted 
to  a  vote  of  the  people.  The  election  was  characterized  by  the 
most  shameless  frauds;  wholesale  ballot-box  stuffing  was  resorted 
to,  and  though  it  was  claimed  that  the  charter  of  1872  was 
defeated  by  three  votes  to  one,  the  result  of  the  count  was  to 
give  the*  friends  of  that  charter  a  majority. 

The  business  men  who  were  at  the  head  of  the  Citizens'  Asso 
ciation  were  naturally  indignant  on  finding  that  all  their  labor  in 
preparing  and  circulating  petitions,  and  in  securing  votes  for 
reorganization,  had  been  apparently  thrown  away,  through  the 
trickery  of  politicians  interested  in  the  perpetuation  of  the  old 
system.  Some  aspiring  young  lawyers  had  lately  become  mem 
bers  of  the  association,  with  a  keen  scent  for  prospective  business; 
they  all  dreaded  and  disliked  Mr.  Storrs,  because  he  was  so  much 
their  superior  both  in  native  gifts  and  legal  learning  that  they 
showed  like  pigmies  beside  him,  saw  him  dominating  councils  in 
which  they  were  mere  ciphers,  and  carrying  propositions  while 
they  could  only  sit  by  and  gnash  their  teeth  in  sheepish  silence. 
These  young  lawyers  advised  their  lay  brethren  of  the  association 


MUNICIPAL    REFORM.  323 

to  sue  out  an  injunction  to  restrain  the  aldermen  from  counting 
the  votes.  This  rash  advice  was  followed,  and  Judge  Williams, 
of  the  Circuit  Court,  issued  the  injunction.  The  aldermen  called 
for  the  advice  of  the  corporation  counsel,  Judge  Dickey,  after 
wards  one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of 
Illinois.  Judge  Dickey  engaged  Mr.  Storrs  for  consultation,  with 
the  authority  of  the  City  Council ;  and  after  a  careful  considera 
tion  of  the  statute,  they  both  agreed  that  the  statute  was  man 
datory,  leaving  the  aldermen  no  discretion  in  the  matter.  The 
statute  declares  that  the  Council  "shall"  proceed  to  count  the 
votes.  Judge  Dickey  and  Mr.  Storrs  therefore  concurred  in 
advising  the  aldermen  to  disregard  the  writ  of  injunction,  inas 
much  as  it  was  in  their  opinion  illegal  and  therefore  void,  and  to 
go  on  and  count  the  votes  in  obedience  to  the  statute.  Mr. 
MacVeagh  and  his  colleagues  of  the  association  could  not  under 
stand  that  in  giving  this  opinion  Mr.  Storrs  was  simply  perform 
ing  a  professional  duty.  They  regarded  his  course  as  treason  to 
the  association  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  had  been  one  of 
the  founders.  From  that  time  forth  he  and  they  went  separate 
ways,  and  the  record  books  of  the  association  were  so  written  up 
that  to-day  they  contain  no  mention  of  Mr.  Storrs'  name,  no 
recognition  of  his  services.  The  aldermen  did  proceed  to  count 
the  votes,  and  declared  a  result  which  exasperated  the  association 
still  more.  Acting  on  the  advice  of  the  young  lawyers  already 
mentioned,  they  obtained  from  Judge  Williams  a  rule  upon  Judge 
Dickey,  Mr.  Storrs,  and  the  aldermen  to  show  cause  why  they 
should  not  be  punished  for  contempt,  the  latter  for  disobeying 
his  writ,  and  the  two  former  for  counselling  such  disobedience. 
When  the  case  came  on  for  hearing,  the  dingy  little  room  in  the 
old  "rookery"  in  which  Judge  Williams  held  his  court  was 
crowded  almost  to  suffocation.  On  both  sides  several  counsel 
had  been  retained,  who  spoke  at  great  length,  Mr.  Storrs  closing 
for  the  defence,  and  Judge  C.  B.  Lawrence,  a  former  Justice  of 
the  Illinois  Supreme  Court,  making  the  final  argument  in  reply 
to  him  for  the  prosecution.  Mr.  Pence,  then  a  young  and  com 
paratively  unknown  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  had  delivered 
what  one  of  the  city  papers  called  "  a  flowery  oration  on  the 
majesty  of  the  law,"  demanding  that  each  alderman  be  sent  to 
jail  for  six  months  and  fined  a  thousand  dollars,  while  he  fixed  a 


324  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

much  higher  punishment  as  the  just  desert  of  the  presumptuous 
counsel  who  had  given  them  such  bad  advice.  Mr.  Storrs'  reply 
was  reported  as  follows: 

•*I  am  free  to  confess  I  should  have  been  exceedingly  gratified  to  have 
been  given  the  privilege  of  a  little  lapse  of  time  after  the  close  of  the 
remarkable  harangue  to  which  your  honor,  ourselves,  and  the  audience  have 
listened.  Its  effect  upon  me — not  perhaps  so  much  upon  my  mind  as  upon 
my  nerves — is  quite  inexplicable.  [Laughter.]  How  to  answer  it,  for  that 
seems  to  be  the  duty  which  has  been  assigned  to  me,  imposes  an  obligation 
to  me  probably  the  most  serious,  the  most  difficult  at  all  events,  that  I  have 
ever  undertaken  to  perform.  For  where  there  has  been  so  much  fancy 
mixed  up  with  the  facts,  and  so  large  an  amount  of  what  is  absolutely  dull 
and  prosaic  stirred  in  with  the  fancy,  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  separate  these 
incongruous  elements  from  each  other,  and  to  tell  where  the  fancy  begins 
and  the  facts  leave  off.  [Laughter.]  It  is  like  requiring  a  man  to  answer 
a  loud  noise.  [Renewed  laughter.]  It  is  like  requiring  me  to  reply  deliber 
ately  to  a  gong.  [Laughter.]  There  are  various  styles  of  oratory,  if  your 
honor  please.  There  are  various  styles  of  literary  composition.  There  are 
various  styles  of  architecture ;  and  a  very  excellent  old  lady  in  this  city,, 
several  years  since,  in  looking  at  the  old  spotted  Presbyterian  church,  down 
here,  declared  it  was  the  finest  specimen  of  '  cathartic '  architecture  she 
had  ever  seen.  [Loud  laughter.]  I  have  been  bothered  in  my  mind  as  to 
the  kind  of  oratory  to  which  we  have  just  been  listening,  but  I  accept  oui 
good  old  lady's  definition;  and  judging  of  it  from  its  effects  on  the  system, 
I  should  say  it  was  one  of  the  best  specimens  of  •  cathartic  '  oratory  that  I 
have  ever  heard.  [Universal  laughter  in  the  court-room.]  Possibly  I  am 
incorrect  about  that.  I  have  listened,  when  I  was  a  boy,  to  fanning-mills 
as  they  were  kept  safely  housed  in  the  barn,  and  as  we  turned  the  crank, 
I  remember  how  much  noisier  the  fanriing-mill  was  when  it  was  empty,  than 
when  it  was  full.  [Laughter.]  Now,  would  you  require  me  to  reply  to  a  fan- 
ning-mill?  I  am  expected  to  reply  to  one.  [More  laughter.]  Worse  than 
a  fanning-mill,  because  there  was  nothing  that  issued  from  that  harmless 
machine,  the  representative  of  agricultural  industry,  that  was  not  absolutely 
innoxious  unless  the  hens  had  gathered  about  it.  [Loud  laughter.]  But 
from  this  machine  that  has  been  running  here  for  the  last  two  hours,  there 
has  been  a  good  deal  of  insolent  criticism  ;  a  good  deal  of  foul  talk ;  a  good 
deal  of  ungenerous  and  indecent  commentary ;  a  good  deal  of  what  is  abso 
lutely  untrue. 

"  I  had  hoped,  your  honor,  that  this  case  might  be  tried  fairly.  I  could  see 
nothing  in  it  when  the  argument  began,  nor  could  I  see  anything  in 
it  when  the  rule  was  served  and  these  proceedings  were  inaugur 
ated,  that  ought  to  take  it  out  of  the  ordinary  range  of  judicial  controversy. 
The  question  which  this  record  presents,  and  the  argument  which  this  rule 
necessarily  involves,  are  not  personal  questions.  They  are  questions  of 
law  ;  not,  indeed,  unmixed  with  public  considerations,  but  they  are  known, 
after  all,  as  questions  of  law ;  and  if  there  is  any  point  to  which  a  lawyer 


MUNICIPAL    REFORM.  325 

should  industriously  strive,  if  there  is  any  goal  which  the  bench  ought 
industriously  to  seek  to  achieve,  it  is,  in  the  discussion  and  determination 
of  legal  questions,  to  throw  over  our  shoulders,  as  completely  as  we  would 
a  garment  for  which  we  had  no  use,  every  element  of  personal  feeling,  and 
to  pluck  from  our  hearts  and  drive  from  our  judgments  every  element  of 
passion,  or  prejudice,  or  bias  which  by  any  earthly  possibility  might  find 
lodgment  there.  If  this  was  to  be  regarded  as  in  any  sense  a  personal  ques 
tion,  it  would  have  been  in  order  for  myself,  and  for  my  associates  who 
have  addressed,  and  who  will  hereafter  address  your  honor,  to  make  some 
observations  with  reference  to  the  personal  relations  which  have  for  many 
years  past  subsisted  between  us.  But  it  has  seemed  to  me  so  utterly  imper 
sonal,  that  observations  of  that  character  appeared  to  me  to  be  hardly  in 
order.  If  they  were,  no  one  would  seize  the  opportunity  with  greater  pleas 
ure  than  myself  to  say  to  your  honor  that  from  the  earliest  period  when  I 
commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  this  city  down  to  to-day,  I  have  never 
received  at  the  hands  of  the  distinguished  judge  who  presides  here  to-day 
anything  except  the  politest  and  kindest  attentions,  for  which  I  have  ever 
been  duly  grateful;  and  they  have  been  and  always  will  be  among  the 
pleasantest  recollections  of  a  professional  life,  otherwise  somewhat  stony  and 
somewhat  dusty,  as  we  all  find  it  in  this  career  which  we  have  pursued. 

"I  am  glad  for  the  present — I  shall  have  occasion  to  recur  to  it  again — 
to  get  out  of  this  foul  atmosphere  of  personal  vituperation  and  attack.  I 
shall  content  myself  with  saying,  that  the  defendants  in  this  case  are  law 
yers,  myself  among  the  number,  and  twenty-two  aldermen  of  this  city.  The 
reputations  of  these  gentlemen  are  not  involved  here.  They  would  not  shirk 
the  discussion  of  these  questions  if  they  were  involved.  Their  degree,  of 
culture,  to  which  some  reference  has  been  made,  is  not  involved  here. 
May  I  ask  where  the  learned  counsel  who  has  just  addressed  the  court  got 
his  credentials  to  talk  to  anybody  about  culture?  [Laughter.]  In  what 
school  of  culture  has  he  been  reared?  From  what  school  of  culture  did  he 
graduate?  What  diploma  does  he  hold,  that  justifies  him  in  assailing  twenty- 
two  of  the  representatives  of  this  city  on  the  ground  of  culture  ?  If  your  honor 
please,  there  is  nothing  so  insolent  in  this  world  as  the  insolence  of  pinch 
beck  and  Peter-Funk  culture  ;' sham  culture;  paraded  culture;  boasted  cul 
ture;  culture  that  comes  by  sitting  on  a  book,  or  leaning  against  a  college 
wall  ;  [Laughter] — the  culture  of  observation  merely,  that  comes  in  by  pres 
sure,  and  goes  out  by  perspiration.  [Loud  laughter.] 

"After  some  further  remarks  on  the  law  of  the  case,  Mr.  Storrs  stated 
that  he  was  much  fatigued  on  account  of  late  and  unavoidable  labor  the 
night  previous,  and  he  would  esteem  it  a  favor  if  the  court  would  adjourn 
and  allow  him  to  resume  in  the  morning.  The  court  then  adjourned  to 
ten  A.  M." 

By  way  of  introduction  to  its  report  of  the  proceedings  on  the 
following  day,  a  local  paper  said: 

"The  fact  that  Mr.  Storrs  was  to  continue  his  argument  in  the 
contempt  case,  filled  the  court-room  to  overflowing  yesterday 


326  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

morning.  His  address  did  not  partake  so  much  of  the  humorous 
as  was  expected.  It  was  a  clear,  masterly  effort,  and  dealt  with 
the  legal  points  involved  with  great  force.  Every  one  appeared 
carried  away  with  the  arguments.  Mr.  Storrs'  gift  of  repartee 
showed  itself  frequently.  Indeed,  the  audience  kept  hoping  for 
interruptions,  in  order  that  the  distinguished  counsel  might  have 
an  opportunity  for  saying  a  smart  thing.  When  he  concluded, 
Messrs.  Goudy  aud  Tuley  intimated  that  the  ground  had  been  so 
completely  covered  that  they  would  waive  their  right  to  address 
the  court — a  great  compliment  to  their  colleague,  but  one  which 
he  richly  deserved." 

When  the  court  opened  at  ten  o'clock,  Mr.  Storrs  continued 
his  argument  for  the  defendants. 

"  He  could  not  but  express  his  obligations,  he  said,  to  the  Court  for  the 
kindness  extended  to  him  the  previous  evening,  which  he  would  endeavor 
to  repay  by  as  rapid  a  presentation  of  the  points  he  proposed  to  discuss  as 
was  consistent  with  what  he  deemed  to  be  his  duty  with  reference  to  the 
interests  of  his  clients  and  himself.  He  thought  he  had  closed  that  branch 
of  the  case  which  involved  the  point  as  to  the  waver  of  contempt.  He 
thought  he  had  demonstrated  from  the  authorities  that  when  an  order  had 
emanated  from  the  court  of  chancery  and  had  been  disobeyed,  any  step 
taken  by  the  complainants  in  the  bill  was  a  waiver  of  the  right  to  insist  on 
any  penalty  for  such  disobedience.  He  had  undertaken  to  demonstrate 
that  this  rule  rested  upon  solid  foundations  of  reason,  that  it  was  not  con 
fined  merely  to  cases  where  the  party  was  in  contempt  for  having  refused 
to  answer,  but  that  the  law  had  been  expressly  declared  that  the  same 
rule  referred  to  the  disobedience  of  ;\ny  order  issued  by  a  court  of  chan 
cery.  The  various  authorities  to  which  he  had  referred  covered  every 
ground  which  human  ingenuity  could  possibly  conceive  of  as  constituting  a 
waiver  of  the  alleged  contempt,  and  that  this  case  embraced  not  only  one 
of  the  cases  which  had  been  referred  to  in  the  authorities,  but  it  involved 
every  step  which  could  possibly  be  taken  by  complainants,  even  down  to 
the  practical  dismissal  of  the  bill  and  abandonment  of  the  case  itself.  The 
supplemental  bill,  which  was  but  a  prop  to  the  original  one,  and  which 
went  back  and  stated  facts  intended  to  support  the  averments  of  the  orig 
inal  bill,  which  asked  for  a  new  injunction  of  the  same  character  as  that 
prayed  for  in  the  original  bill,  which  was  filed  by  the  same  complainants 
and  against  the  same  defendants  in  the  original  bill,  which  was  voluntarily 
dismissed.  It  was  an  incorrect  statement  of  the  fact  to  say  that  all  the 
effects  sought  to  be  derived  from  the  injunction  were  destroyed  by  its  dis 
obedience,  for  the  injunction  was  not  only  to  restrain  the  Common  Coun 
cil  from  canvassing  the  votes  and  declaring  the  result,  but  from  taking  any 
steps  by  which  the  legality  of  that  election  should  be  recognized,  by  which 
the  re-incorporation  of  the  city,  under  the  act  of  1872,  could  be  construed 


MUNICIPAL    REFORM. 

as  adopted  in  any  way.  Such  an  injunction  was  prayed  for  by  the  original 
bill,  and  it  was  to  continue  such  injunction  that  arguments,  extending  over 
two  days,  were  made,  and  if  it  was  true  that  all  the  purposes  sought  by 
the  original  bill  were  destroyed  by  its  disobedience,  it  was  curious  com 
plainants  had  not  discovered  that  fact  earlier  and  saved  the  time  of  the 
court. 

"The  discussion  of  the  question  of  jurisdiction  involved  two  considerations; 
whether  the  court  had  jurisdiction  of  the  subject  matter  of  the  bill,  and 
whether  the  court  had  the  power  to  issue  the  writ.  There  was  no  necessity 
for  citing  authorities  in  support  of  the  proposition  that  an  injunction  impro 
perly  or  irregularly  granted  must  be  obeyed.  They  all  conceded  that. 
The  point  which  they  made,  however,  was  that  where  a  process  emanates 
from  a  court  having  no  jurisdiction  over  the  subject-matter  of  the  suit,  or 
if  such  jurisdiction  was  not  jurisdictional  power  to  issue  the  process,  then 
the  process  was  an  entire  nullity,  and  exacted  obedience  from  no  one,  and 
a  refusal  to  comply  with  its  mandates  could  not  by  any  possibility  be  con 
strued  into  contempt.  As  to  whether  the  court  had  jurisdiction  over  the 
subject-matter,  two  questions  were  presented :  First,  what  was  the  relief 
prayed  for  in  the  bill,  and  second,  upon  what  statement  of  facts  is  that 
relief  prayed  ?  If  the  court  could  not  in  any  event  grant  the  relief,  it  was 
because  it  lacked  the  power:  in  other  words,  had  no  jurisdiction  over  the 
subject-matter.  His  Honor  was  asked  to  intervene  and  prevent  the  action 
of  a  political  body  in  canvassing  returns,  in  the  making  of  which  they  had 
no  hand,  and  declaring  the  result.  In  answer  to  these  questions,  they  said 
that  the  bill  averred  no  irreparable  injury  from  the  canvassing  and  declaring 
the  result;  no  such  averment  could  in  any  earthly  possibility  be  true  if 
made,  because  the  evil  which  might  result  could  be  relieved  by  one  of  two 
modes — by  quo  wqrranto  or  by  contesting  the  election.  And  he  suggested 
further  that  while  all  evils  of  machinery  or  otherwise  that  might  flow  from 
canvassing  the  result  might  thus.be  corrected,  that  by  the  act  of  1872  no 
single  power  was  conferred  upon  the  council  in  addition  to  that  which  it 
already  possessed  under  the  old  charter.  Secondly,  they  claimed  that  not 
only  this  bill  did  not  aver  the  existence  of  any  irreparable  injury,  but  that 
no  bill  could  be  framed  in  which  such  a  statement  could  be  truthfully 
made,  and  if  any  bill  could  be  possibly  framed  to  secure  the  relief 
prayed  for,  complainants  were  without  remedy  at  law.  Thirdly,  the  duty 
of  canvassing  the  votes  and  declaring  the  result  was  imposed  on  defend 
ants  by  law,  and  they  were  bound  to  perform  it.  On  the  point  of  the 
general  jurisdiction  of  a  court  of  equity  counsel  on  the  other  side 
had  traveled  somewhat  into  history  and  referred  his  Honor  to  the 
celebrated  case  of  Lord  Holt,  as  exhibiting  the  distinguished  heroism  of 
a  great  judge  in  resisting  the  assumptions  of  the  British  House  of  Commons. 
History  was  useful  ;  it  was  philosophy  teaching  by  example  ;  but  distorted 
and  misstated  history  was  a  kind  of  culture  which  neither  the  counsel  nor 
the  other  defendants  in  the  case  possessed.  Mr.  Pence  stated  that  the  case 
to  which  he  referred  was  a  contested  election  case.  It  was  nothing  of  the 
kind.  A  chancery  question  could  never  have  come  before  Lord  Holt,  for 


328  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

he  was  not  Lord  Chancellor  but  Lord  Chief  Justice,  who  presided  in  the 
courts  of  law,  and  had  no  more  power  over  chancery  cases  than  a  British 
barber  or  a  British  sergeant.  Politics  ran  high  in  Great  Britain  at  that  time. 
The  parties  were  the  Whigs  and  the  Tories.  The  case  to  which  reference 
was  made  was  the  Ashley  case,  which  was  by  no  means  a  contested  elec 
tion  case.  They  were  in  the  habit,  in  those  rotten  boroughs,  of  making 
corrupt  and  fraudulent  returns,  and  one  of  the  most  corrupt  returns  was 
made  from  Aylesbury.  Parties  who  suffered  therefrom,  knew  it  was  vain  to 
petition  the  House  of  Commons,  and  it  was  resolved  to  bring  action  in  the 
Court  of  King's  Bench,  against  the  returning  officer.  Ashley  clearly  made  out 
his  case,  and  recovered  his  verdict  with  large  damages.  It  was  an  action 
brought  by  a  private  citizen  against  an  officer,  to  recover  damages  for  ille 
gally  refusing  to  receive  his  vote.  He  could  but  wonder  at  that  amaz 
ing  ingenuity,  at  that  remarkable  draught  power  which  could  pull  a  case 
of  that  character  out  of  its  legitimate  niche  in  the  history  of  jurispru 
dence,  and  try  to  fit  it  in  a  place  where  it  never  was  intended  to 
belong. 

"Judge  Lawrence  (interposing)  said  it  might  not  be  very  important,  but 
he  did  think  that  was  not  a  perfectly  fair  statement  of  his  colleague's  position. 
Mr.  Pence  spoke  of  that  case  as  a  case  growing  out  of  an  election,  and 
where  the  privileges  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  the  one  side  and  the 
power  of  court  on  the  other  were  the  questions  involved  ;  and  as  showing 
the  anxiety  of  the  courts  of  England  to  maintain  their  judicial  authority 
against  the  interference  of  the  House  of  Commons.  He  did  not  speak  of 
it  as  a  bill  in  chancery,  or  as  having  a  direct  bearing  in  its  legal  principles 
on  the  question  now  in  dispute. 

"Mr.  Storrs — 'I  have  two  replies  to  make  to  that,  first  on  the  fact  and 
next  on  the  inference.  Mr.  Pence  did,  in  express  language,  refer  to  the 
case  as  a  contested  election  case,  in  which  the  House  of  Commons  was 
involved,  explicitly  and  unmistakably.' 

"Mr.  Pence^'I  said  it  was  a  contest  growing  out  of  an  election.' 

"  Mr  Storrs— 'I  think  not.  Whether  it  has  any  relevancy  to  the  issue  here 
is  a  matter  for  Mr.  Pence  to  settle,  and  not  for  myself.  My  objection  to  it 
upon  that  ground  did  not  refer  merely  to  that  authority  ;  it  is  chronic  with 
all  the  cases  which  counsel  has  cited,  and  applies  to  them  all  as  well.' 

"Mr  Storrs  said  he  would  leave  history  and  general  literature  and  pro 
ceed  to  the  next  authority  cited  by  Mr.  Pence,  as  illustrating  the  general 
jurisdiction  of  courts  of  equity  over  cases  of  that  character.  (Kerr  vs,. 
Draco.)  After  exhausting  this,  knocking  the  ground  completely  from  under 
the  feet  of  complainants,  he  went  on  to  consider  the  cases  in  which  injunc 
tions  had  been  issued  by  courts  of  chancery,  showing  that  in  every  instance 
mere  property  rights  were  involved.  Under  the  plain  mandate  of  the  statute 
the  Council  might  have  been  compelled  by  mandamus  to  canvass  the 
returns,  and  the  Clerk  compelled  to  record  the  result ;  and  he  challenged 
counsel  to  produce  a  single  case  so  monstrous  in  its  character,  where  a 
court  of  equity  could  restrain  a  Common  Council  from  doing  that  which  the 
highest  judicial  power  in  the  State  would  intervene  to  compel  them  to  do. 


MUNICIPAL    REFORM. 

Suppose  they  had  undertaken  to  avoid  the  performance  of  this  duty  on  the 
ground  that  illegal  votes  were  cast,  the  reply  of  the  Supreme  Court  would 
have  been:  'You  are  not  the  judge  of  that;  it  is  your  duty  to  canvass:' 
and  a  demurrer  to  the  return  would  have  been  sustained.  It  was  insisted 
there  had  been  no  election.  In  the  bill,  however,  these  words  appeared: 
'  Your  orators  further  show  that  an  election  was  held  in  the  city  of  Chi 
cago,  in  conformity  with  such  resolution,'  etc.  The  emergencies  of  the 
case  seemed  to  demand  now  that  they  should  come  up  in  court  and  insist 
no  election  was  held.  Besides,  they  had  filed  petitions  in  every  court  in 
the  city,  averring  that  an  election  was  held  and  undertaking  to  contest  its 
validity.  The  dilemma  in  which  complainants  were  placed  was  this:  They 
insisted  his  Honor  had  jurisdiction  over  the  bill  on  the  ground,  first,  that 
the  election  was  void,  and,  next,  that  it  was  illegal,  because  of  the  casting 
of  fradulent  votes.  They  could  be  taken  upon  either  horn  of  the  dilemma. 
If  void,  quo  warranto  was  the  legal  remedy ;  if  fraudulent,  the  election  could 
be  contested.  The  law  was  to  be  obeyed  by  the  Common  Council,  not 
withstanding  a  mandate  of  the  court  to  the  contrary. 

"The  Court — 'Do  you  mean  to  state  that  as  a  universal  principle?' 
"Mr.  Storrs — 'Yes,  sir;  to  which  there  is  no  exception.     That,  where  there 
is  a  conflict  between  the  plain   mandate   of  the   law   and  the   mandate  of  a 
judge  the  law  must  be  obeyed.' 

"The  Court — 'Supposing  there  is  no  law?' 
"Mr.  Storrs — 'Then  there  would  be  no  judge.'     [Laughter.] 
"The  Court — 'Supposing  the  pretended  law  had  never  been  adopted?' 
"Mr.  Storrs— r' Then  settle  that  question  by  quo  warranto.' 
"The  Court — 'I  simply  wanted  to  get  your  opinion.' 

"Mr.  Storrs — 'I  have  conferred  a  lasting  benefit  on  these  gentlemen,  and 
have  received  no  pay  for  it.  [Laughter.]  I  stated  on  a  former  occasion 
that  the  bill  ought  to  have  been  entitled,  'A  bill  in  search  of  information,  as 
to  the  mode  of  contesting  an  election.'  '  [Renewed  laughter:] 

"Judge  Lawrence — 'We  will  have  to  pass  a  vote  of  thanks,  any  way.' 
"  Mr.  Storrs,  after  quoting  several  opinions,  held  that  the  writ  of  injunc 
tion  was  void,  and  a  party  could  not  disobey  a  void  writ.  The  whole  logic 
of  the  entire  controversy  was  crystallized  in  that  single  phrase — a  party 
could  not  disobey  a  void  writ.  The  functions  of  courts  were  to  preserve 
rights  and  prevent  wrongs,  and  they  had  no  right  to  interpose  to  prevent 
the  discharge  of  a  clearly  imposed  duty.  If  courts  reached  that  measure 
of  power  and  proposed  to  exercise  it  anarchy  had  been  reached,  and  they 
had  infinitely  better  go  back  to  the  old  barefooted  condition  of  Hercules 
with  his  club,  so  eloquently  referred  to  by  Mr.  Pence,  when  the  weak  chil 
dren  were  slaughtered,  and  none  but  the  strong  were  allowed  to  live. 
Take  the  Forty-eighth  Illinois,  which  tore  the  question  of  jurisdiction,  on 
the  ground  of  the  election  being  void,  up  by  the  roots ;  add  to  it  the  two 
cases  from  the  Sixty-first  and  Sixty-second  Illinois,  which  wiped  out  the 
pretense  that  a  court  of  equity  could  intervene  to  prevent  public  officers 
performing  a  duty,  and  the  discussion  might  rest  and  the  case  close.  Mr. 
St-oiTs  then  cited  the  law  imposing  the  duty  of  canvassing  on  the  Council, 


33O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

in  order  to  show  its  peremptory  nature.  He  continued :  The  law  said  to 
the  City  Council,  'You  shall  canvass  and  you  shall  cause  to  be  recorded.' 
But  then  came  the  writ  of  injunction  and  said:  'You  shall  not.'  Doubt- 
ingly,  inquiringly  the  Council  considered  which  should  be  obeyed.  Should 
it  be  the  law,  with  all  its  poetic  thunder,  or  should  it  be  the  court,  who 
carried  the  keys  of  the  county  jail?  There  was  no  question;  these  two 
directions  were  absolutely  irreconcilable.  There  was  no  earthly  way  in  which 
the  Council  could  effect  a  compromise.  If  they  obeyed  the  court  they  dis 
obeyed  the  law,  and,  if  they  obeyed  the  law  they  disobeyed  the  court. 
There  was  no  middle  ground,  and  they  disobeyed  the  court;  and  in  doing 
that  did  they  violate  or  perform  their  duty?  The  Sixty-first  Illinois  provided 
that  the  court  as  well  as  inferior  officers  must  be  governed  by  law,  and 
that  when  the  law  imposed  a  duty  upon  a  public  functionary,  and  the  court 
commanded  him  not  to  perform  it,  he  must  obey  the  law  and  disobey  the 
writ  of  the  court.  They  bowed  before  the  majesty  of  the  law,  as  repre 
sented  by  the  highest  tribunal  of  the  State,  and  in  doing  that  they  respected 
this  court  in  an  infinitely  higher  degree  than  if  they  had  shirked  the  per 
formance  of  their  duty.  No  human  ingenuity  could  suggest  a  case  where  a 
court  of  equity  had  interfered  to  restrain  the  performance  of  a  legal  act. 
He  hoped  that  day  would  never  come  when,  falling  from  their  high  position, 
from  passion,  prejudice,  or  haste,  any  judicial  tribunal  should  undertake  to 
do  that.  Much  had  been  said  of  the  dreadful  examples  flowing  from  the 
disobedience  of  judicial  orders.  He  was  impressed  quite  as  clearly  as  the 
distinguished  counsel  for  complainants  could  be  with  the  supreme  import 
ance  of  obeying  all  judicial  mandates,  but  the  dangers  which  threatened  us 
did  not  proceed  from  violations  of  injunctions.  That  offence  when  commit 
ted  cojuld  be  subjected  to  swift,  severe,  and  condign  punishment.  But  if 
there  was  any  danger  which  especially  threatened  private  and  public  rights,  it 
was  from  the  extension  of  this  power  of  issuing  writs  of  injunction ;  if 
there  was  any  danger,  to  the  extension  and  enlargement  of  which  wise  men 
looked  with  apprehension,  it  was  the  growing  tendency  of  courts  to  interfere 
by  the  exercise  of  this  great  power.  Mr.  Pence  said  the  courts  were  clothed 
with  sovereign  power ;  but  his  Honor  never  claimed  that,  and  never  would. 
There  was  no  sovereignty  in  a  court ;  there  never  was,  and  never  would  be. 
There  was  no  danger  to  be  apprehended  from  void  writs.  They  had  only 
to  travel  down  to  the  sea  coast,  to  the  city  of  New  York,  where  they  could 
see  by  example  where  the  danger  lay  ;  where  the  air  was  black  on  every 
occasion  of  panic  or  great  political  excitement  with  mandatory  writs  ;  where 
the  practice  had  been  carried  to  the  beautiful  extent  of  one  judge 
enjoining  another,  and  then  a  third  judge  enjoining  the  other  two ; 
[laughter]  where  injunctions  were  part  of  the  machinery  of  commerce; 
where  stock-brokers  had  writs  of  injunction  to  carry  on  their  business, 
and  deem  them  as  necessary  parts  of  their  furniture  as  their  tables  and 
chairs ;  where  politicians  carry  elections,  secure  offices,  prevent  defeat, 
and  overcome  calamities  by  the  convenient  process  of  injunction.  But 
we  were  not  driven  to  such  straits,  and  it  was  to  the  glory  and  credit 
of  the  judiciary  of  this  city  that  in  no  case  to  his  knowledge  had  an 


MUNICIPAL   REFORM.  331 

injunction  been  issued  where  its  issue  was  attributed  to  improper  motives 
on  the  part  fof  the  Judge.  Judges  had  erred  here,  but  the  errors  had 
been  errors  of  judgment,  which  the  courts  themselves  had  been  the  first 
to  seize  the  opportunity  to  correct.  There  could  be  no  doubt  the  Coun 
cil  had  the  right  to  pass  upon  the  question  of  the  legality  of  the  writ. 
They  had  to  determine  for  themselves  whether  his  Honor  had  jurisdic 
tion  or  not.  They  took  the  risk  of  deciding  correctly.  If  they  decided  that 
his  Honor  had  no  jurisdiction,  and  it  turned  out  that  they  agreed  with  his 
Honor,  certainly  those  poor  defendants  couJd  not  be  punished  for  deciding 
a  legal  question  correctly.  They  rested  their  case  on  the  ground  that  the 
writ  was  void,  and  that  the  court  had  no  jurisdiction  over  the  subject-mat 
ter,  and  for  these  grounds  he  trusted  his  Honor  would  retrace  the  steps 
which  had  so  far  been  taken  ;  to  presume  otherwise,  to  wish  otherwise,  to 
presume  that  an  erroneous  course  would  for  any  cause  be  persisted  in,  was 
an  insult  to  and  contempt  of  the  court  which  neither  of  the  defendants 
answering  this  rule  purposed  to  be  guilty  of.  The  answers  of  the  Alder 
men  had  been  accepted  as  true  ;  they  were  true.  He  would  not  pause  here 
to  characterize  the  unmanly  and  indecent  assault  that  had  been  made  upon 
them.  Those  gentlemen  needed  no  vindication  at  his  hands.  Counsel  (Mr. 
Pence)  could  have  but  very  little  respect  for  the  court,  for  the  protection  of 
whose  dignity  he  seemed  to  be  so  anxious,  who  would  violate  every  rule  of 
private  decency  and  professional  decorum  to  travel  far  out  of  the 
boundaries  of  the  record  to  denounce  his  superiors  as  perjurers  and 
falsifiers.  Nothing  had  occurred  during  the  proceedings  to  justify  that 
assault  upon  the  Council  of  this  city.  If  the  Mayor  was  guilty  of  any 
wrong,  and  if  he  assisted  and  urged  the  violation  of  the  injunction,  why 
not  come  manfully  forward  and  make  him  a  defendant,  instead  of  taking 
advantage  of  counsel's  privilege  to  administer  a  cowardly  insult.  It  w^s 
curious  that  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  this  case  seemed  to  be 
absolutely  leprous-spotted  all  over  with  circumstances  of  suspicion.  He 
believed  that  this  bill,  or  its  original  conceiver,  was  conceived  in  iniquity. 
Pretending  to  desire  honest  contest  of  election  and  fair  investigation  they 
filed  a  bill  which^  asked  that  the  government  of  the  city  should  be  sus 
pended  in  mid  air,  and  that  the  result  of  the  election  should  never  be 
reached  or  declared.  The  contents  of  papers  had  not  been  fairly  stated ; 
and,  finally,  whether  owing  to  the  surroundings  or  some  other  cause, 
counsel  had  dared  to  suggest  to  his  Honor  the  measure  of  punishment 
which  should  be  inflicted— six  months  in  jail,  and  £1,000  fine  each  would 
only  satisfy  his  royal  pleasure. 

"Upon   what   meat   doth   this   our   Caesar   feed 
That   he   has  grown   so  great  ? 

"Talk  about  contempt  of  court  when  counsel  would  endeavor  to 
thrust  himself  into  the  judicial  seat  and  dictate  the  terms  of  punishment 
and  its  measure  !  The  answers  defendants  made  were  manly  and  truth 
ful  answers.  They  -had  stated  that  they  meant  no  personal  disrespect  to 
the  court.  The  answer  was  conclusive  and  his  Honor  believed  it.  Were 


332  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

they  to  bandy  words  of  apology  and  explanation?  They  would  respect 
their  own  personal  dignity  and  the  dignity  of  the  court,  but  beyond  that 
pale  they  did  not  propose  one  single  step  to  tread.  With  regard  to  him 
self  and  colleagues  he  hardly  knew  what  to  say.  By  the  plain  mandate 
of  the  law  the  Corporation  Counsel  was  obliged  to  give  his  opinion  when, 
ever  asked  by  the  city.  Should  he  shirk  the  performance  of  that  duty  ? 
And,  if  he  gave  that  opinion,  how  should  he  give  it?  Give  it  as  the 
Citizens'  Association  would  like;  give  it  as  it  might  be  agreeable  to  his 
Honor;  or  give  it  as  his  opinion  really  was?  What  was  their  position? 
They  were  counselors  of  this  court,  members  of  a  high,  noble  profession 
— a  free,  liberal-spirited,  and  proud  profession.  On  them  the  most  solemn 
duties  devolved.  It  was  their  duty,  whenever  their  opinion  was  solicited 
by  their  clients,  to  give  their  opinion,  and  to  give  the  opinion  which  they 
entertained.  Whatever  other  sins  might  be  laid  at  his  door,  he  would  pluck 
his  heart  from  his  bosom  before,  when  called  upon  for  the  performance  of 
a  duty  of  that  character,  he  would  shirk  one  single  particle  from  its 
performance,  even  if  the  terrors  of  all  the  judges  that  had  ever  sat  on 
the  thrones  of  the  highest  judicial  benches  were  flaunted  in  his  face. 
The  dignity  of  the  courts  ought  to  be  respected,  but  in  parallel  lines 
with  that  dignity  ran  the  dignity  of  the  profession.  They  asked  no 
favors.  They  said  this,  and  his  Honor  quite  well  understood  it,  in  no 
spirit  of  bravado.  They  accepted  no  mercy  tendered  to  them  by  the 
counsel.  They  placed  themselves  upon  the  broad  platform  of  their  rights; 
it  was  a  foundation  strong  as  the  eternal  rocks,  and,  standing  there,  all 
the  gates  of  hell  should  not  prevail  against  them." 

Judge  Williams,  of  course,  upheld  his  own  writ,  and  fined  the 
Aldermen  $100  each  and  the  Corporation  Counsel  and  his  associ 
ates  $300  each  for  disobeying  it.  The  case  was  appealed  to  the 
Supreme  Court,  who,  equally  of  course,  reversed  Judge  Wil 
liams'  decision.  So  ended  a  farce  in  which  the  Citizens'  Associ 
ation  and  their  then  inexperienced  legal  advisers  only  covered  them 
selves  with  deserved  ridicule.  But  the  bitter  feeling  it  occa 
sioned  on  the  part  of  many  of  its  prominent  commercial  mem 
bers  against  Mr.  Storrs  never  was  and  never  has  been  allayed; 
and  it  accounts  for  many  of  the  dastardly  attacks  upon  Mr. 
Storrs'  reputation  and  memory  which  were  covertly  made  in 
Chicago  circles  in  his  lifetime,  and  have  not  ceased  with  his 
sudden  and  untimely  death.  From  that  time  on,  Mr.  Storrs  and 
the  Citizens'  Association  "walked  no  more  together."  By  the 
petulance  of  its  business  element,  and  the  intrigues  of  its  legal 
element,  it  lost  the  ablest  counsellor  and  brightest  member  it 
ever  had;  and  the  result  is  well  marked  in  its  subsequent  his 
tory  as  the  association  has  done  nothing  of  any  practical  value. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


PRACTICAL  TEMPERANCE  LEGISLATION. 

THE  DRINKING  HABIT  NOT  UNCOMMON  AMONG  THE  EARLY  SETTLERS  OF 
CHICAGO— A  CHANGE  AFTER  THE  FIRE  OF  1 87 1— MR.  STORRS  BECOMES  AN 
ABSTAINER  AND  AN  APOSTLE — WHAT  THE  "  TIMES  "  THOUGHT  OF  HIS  CON 
VERSION — TWO  TEMPERANCE  SPEECHES — CORRESPONDENCE  ON  PROHIBITION 
— HE  BECOMES  ONE  OF  THE  FOUNDERS  OF  THE  CITIZENS*  LEAGUE  FOR  THE 
SUPPRESSION  OF  THE  SALE  OF  LIQUOR  TO  MINORS — APOSTROPHE  TO  WATER. 

IN  the  early  days,  when  Mr.  Storrs  first  came  to  Chicago,  the 
drinking  habit  was  not  looked  upon  by  any  very  influential 
class  with  such  disfavor  as  it  is  universally  regarded  with  to-day. 
The  efforts  of  temperance  men  and  women  were  attended  with 
a  measure  of  success  which  discouraged  many  of  them,  and  the 
more  zealous  advocates  of  the  cause  began  to  be  impatient  of 
the  slow  results  of  moral  suasion.  Those  were  the  days  when 
even  the  President's  New  Year  receptions  were  attended  and 
followed  with  convivialities  often  carried  beyond  the  bounds  of 
decorum ;  when  it  was  no  uncommon  sight  to  see  an  intoxicated 
member  of  Congress  upon  the  floor  during  its  sessions,  or  an 
eminent  lawyer  undertaking  to  try  a  case  in  court  while  visibly 
under  the  influence  of  liquor ;  when  New  Year  calls,  even  among 
the  ''best  people,"  frequently  resulted  in  the  popular  man  of 
society  who  had  an  extended  list  of  acquaintances  getting 
oblivious  before  night,  and  waking  to  repentance  next  morning. 
Chicago  had  not  yet  outgrown  village  customs.  Its  populace 
were  pioneers,  whose  enterprise  was  drawing  after  them  the 
greater  part  of  that  band  of  immigrants  from  the  old  world  who 
had  started  with  the  vague  notion  that  America  was  the  land  of 
prosperity,  but  whose  ideas  of  American  geography  were  hazy, — 

333 


334 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 


Chicago  lot  having  as  yet  found  a  place  on  European  maps. 
They  brought  with  them,  of  course,  the  notions  of  individual 
freedom  and  the  social  customs  of  the  countries  from  whence 
they  came.  It  may  well  be  imagined  that  there  was  little  con 
ventionality  about  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago,  and  that  its 
select  society  was  not  numerous.  The  members  of  its  infant 
Board  of  Trade, — whose  gigantic  progress  Mr.  Storrs  recapitu 
lated  in  an  exhaustive  speech  at  the  opening  of  their  magnifi 
cent  ne^  hall  in  April  1885, — were  pretty  generally  drinking 
men;  and  in  fact  there  was  no  strong  and  decided  sentiment  on 
the  question  in  Chicago  until  after  the  fire  of  1871.  That,  in 
more  senses  than  one,  was  indeed  a  fire  of  purification. 

Mr.  Storrs  was  a  keen  observer,  an  acute  judge  of  men.  He 
quickly  saw  that  the  times  had  changed;  that  merchants  were 
inquiring  more  strictly  into  the  habits  of  their  clerks,  and  that 
business  men  were  beginning  to  look  askance  even  at  a  brilliant 
barrister  who  had  been  seen  in  a  bar  room.  He  determined  for 
himself  to  abandon  altogether  the  use  of  intoxicating  beverages 
in  any  form.  That  he  did  so  from  purely  prudential  motives, 
and  as  a  measure  of  business  necessity,  while  not  entitling  him 
to  rank  high  among  the  apostles  of  the  temperance  cause,  is 
nevertheless  creditable  to  his  sound  judgment  and  firm  will.  At 
no  time  of  his  life  did  he  indulge  in  the  use  of  intoxicants  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  rank  among  the  grovelling  victims  of  Circe's 
cup.  In  this  as  in  other  things,  he  preserved  his  self-respect,  and 
demeaned  himself  like  a  gentleman.  But  he  saw  that  under  the 
new  business  arrangements  of  the  reconstructed  city,  a  reputation 
for  drinking  was  sufficient  to  ruin  the  ablest  man  who  had  to 
depend  upon  his  brains  for  a  living,  and,  without  any  parade,  he 
became  an  abstainer. 

Earnest  in  all  his  convictions,  Mr.  Storrs  had  in  him  the  spirit 
of  a  missionary.  Had  he  not  been  so  able  and  successful  a  law 
yer,  he  would  undoubtedly  have  been  a  famous  journalist ;  with 
his  earnestness  and  resolute  energy  in  proclaiming  his  convictions, 
he  could,  had  his  inclinations  tended  that  way,  have  been  a  lead 
ing  presbyter  of  the  church  in  which  he  was  reared.  He  at  once 
lent  his  powerful  eloquence  to  the  service  of  the  temperance 
cause  which  he  had  espoused.  That  the  temperance  men  and 
women  of  Illinois  were  glad  and  proud  to  hail  such  a  coadjutor, 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION.  335 

"goes  without  saying."  In  June,  1874,  Mr.  Storrs  addressed  a 
large  and  enthusiastic  meeting  in  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
Chicago,  and  the  Times  headed  its  report  with  lines  which  were 
significant  of  the  importance  attached  to  his  adhesion  to  the 
cause  of  temperance  reform.  The  headlines  were : — "  Rum  Must 
Succumb.  Its  Doom  was  Sealed  when  E.  A.  Storrs  Joined  the 
Crusaders.  Remarks  of  this  Eloquent  Temperance  Apostle  at  a 
Meeting  on  Yesterday."  An  announcement  that  the  meeting 
would  be  a  sort  of  parting  love-feast  of  the  old-time  abolitionists 
who  had  just  concluded  a  reunion  in  Chicago,  and  who,  having 
finished  the  work  of  abolishing  slavery,  had  now  turned  their 
attention  to  that  of  abolishing  strong  drink,  drew  a  large  number 
to  the  meeting.  Mr.  Storrs  presided,  and  here  made  his  maiden 
temperance  speech,  and  it  was  brief.  On  taking  the  chair,  he 
said  : 

"  It  is  eminently  fitting  and  proper  that  the  old  abolitionists,  who  for  years 
bravely  fought  against  one  form  of  slavery,  having  at  last  nobly  triumphed, 
should,  instead  of  laying  down  their  arms  and  declaring  their  labors  at  an 
end,  devote  their  energies  to  the  extirpation  of  slavery  which  exists  in 
another  form  hardly  less  disastrous  in  its  consequences  than  that  from  which 
four  millions  of  people  have  but  recently  been  relieved.  Their  efforts  are 
not  now  limited  to  the  blacks  alone,  for  there  are  to-day  in  this  country 
millions,  both  black  and  white,  old  and  young,  men  and  women,  held  in  the 
bondage  of  strong  drink,  and  whose  liberation  it  is  the  great  problem  of 
the  hour  to  secure. 

"It  is  no  part  of  my  present  purpose  to  dilate  upon  the  evils  of  intem 
perance,  nor  the  measureless  calamities  which  it  visits  not  only  upon 
its  immediate  victim  but  upon  society  at  large.  So  familiar  are  we  with 
them,  and  so  constantly  are  they  brought  to  our  attention,  that  we  may  all 
be  said  to  know  them  by  heart.  Differing  from  the  old  form  of  what  we 
called  African  slavery,  no  one  has  been  found  shame-faced  enough  to 
claim  that  in  drunkenness  there  is  any  merit ;  that  it  is  anything  other  or 
else  than  an  unmixed  evil  and  a  curse.  In  the  old  days  of  the  anti-slavery 
contest,  men  did  urge  that  slavery  was  a  divine  institution,  and  they 
appealed  to  the  Bible  to  prove  it.  Yet  while  they  appealed  to  Noah's 
curse  of  Ham  as  a  reason  why  Ham's  descendants  should  be  held  in  per 
petual  slavery,  and  pointed  to  Noah's  curse  as  a  proper  example  for  us  to 
follow,  they  stopped  there,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  never  urged  us  to 
indulge  in  the  juice  of  the  grape  to  the  extent  which  it  is  recorded  that 
Noah  did ;  never  urged  us  to  voluntarily  place  ourselves  in  the  position 
which  he  did,  and  never  pointed  to  his  conduct  immediately  preceding  the 
pronouncing  of  the  curse  as  an  example  for  us  to  follow. 

"There  can  be  no  debate  as  to  the  evils  of  intemperance.     There  are  no 


336  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

two  sides  to  the  question.  Intemperance  has  no  victim  so  besotted  that  he 
will  not  readily  admit,  and  who  does  not  himself  fully  understand  and 
appreciate  all  that  you  can  say  to  him  on  that  point.  For  years  statis 
tics  have  been  showered  upon  them,  showing  the  frightful  consequences  of 
the  course  they  pursue,  and  yet  we  seem  no  nearer  converting  than 
twenty  years  ago.  Statutes  have  proved  unavailing.  Laws,  the  most  rig 
orous  in  their  character,  have  failed  to  accomplish  the  results  which  were 
anticipated.  Even  when  the  rum-shop  was  closed,  the  appetite  for  alco 
holic  drink,  and  from  which  the  rum-shop  thrived,  was  not  appeased. 

"The  problem,  therefore,  which  confronts  us  to-day  is  not  whether  intem 
perance  is  an  evil,  which  ought  to  be  exterminated,  for  that  is  admitted, 
but,  How  shall  this  gigantic  evil  be  corrected,  and  its  spread  be  prevented? 

"We  may  probably  never  hope  on  this  earth  to  reach  the  time  when  no 
man  will  drink  ;  we  shall  probably  never  live  to  see  the  day  when  no  man 
will  steal.  There  will  always  be  those  whose  appetites  are  beyond  legislative 
control,  as  there  will  always  be  those  who  will  appropriate  their  neighbor's 
property  even  with  the  perils  of  the  penitentiary  staring  them  full  in  the 
face.  But  we  may,  without  ranking  drunkards  and  thieves  together, 
reasonably  expect  to  see  the  day  when  the  number  of  drunkards  and  thieves 
shall  be  greatly  lessened. 

"Rigorous  statutes,  alone,  will  not  produce  either  of  these  results.  But 
a  few  years  since,  larceny  was  in  Great  Britain  punished  by  death.  But 
the  number  of  larcenies  was  then  greater  in  proportion  to  the  population 
than  it  now  is.  No  statute  avails  much  which  is  very  far  in  advance 
of  public  sentiment.  It  remains  in  such  cases  a  dead  letter  upon  the 
statute  book.  The  creation  of  a  public  sentiment  in  harmony  with  the 
statute  must,  if  it  is  to  be  efficacious,  always  precede  the  statute.  And 
here  is  a  magnificent  field  in  which  temperance  reformers  may  well  be 
delighted  to  work.  Here  may  be  invoked  those  social  agencies  more 
powerful  than  any  mere  legislation,  but  which,  when  working  in  harmony 
with  it,  is  irresistible.  The  slave  to  strong  drink  is  a  voluntary  one. 
And  so  long  as  he  can  hug  the  chains  of  his  bondage  and  still  receive 
social  recognition,  just  so  long  will  he  continue.  When  the  day  comes, 
as  I  believe  it  will  come,  that  society  frowns  upon  drunkenness  as  a 
crime,  we  are  not  very  far  from  final  success,  and  all  necessary  laws 
can  be  easily  enforced. 

"In  such  a  contest  thus  waged,  the  women  of  the  country  will  nec 
essarily  take*  a  most  important  part.  I  do  not  say  conspicuous — it  may 
be  so,  it  may  not;  but  the  influences,  great  or  otherwise,  which  they 
may  exert  in  the  way  of  reformation  and  prevention  are  incalculable. 

"Unlike  the  war  against  African  slavery,  this  great  contest  is  not 
waged  with  carnal  weapons.  No  blow  of  bugle  or  roll  of  drum  calls 
the  great  army  of  temperance  reform  to  the  battle.  No  smoking  cities 
nor  desolated  homes  mark  its  progress.  It  comes  not  to  destroy,  but  to 
save.  Its  weapons  are  love  and  charity  to  all.  Smiling  fields  and  happy 
homes,  and  God-fearing  and  law-abiding  men  and  women  are  the  traces 
which  this  great  army  leaves  behind  it. 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION.  337 

"There  is  no  poor  slave  to  alcohol  sunk  so  low  but  that  some  tender 
heart  will  lift  him  up,  bind  up  his  wounds,  pour  words  of  hope  and 
consolation  in  his  ear.  God  bless  such  a  movement.  Its  purity  of  pur 
pose  touches  every  human  heart,  and  receives  the  sanction  of  heaven. 
For  He  who  died  for  all  has  said,  '  Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it 
unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me.' ' 

In  October  1874,  Mr.  Storrs  addressed  a  large  and  enthusias 
tic  meeting  in  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  Chicago,  and  the 
practical  bent  of  his  mind  was  clearly  shown  in  the  suggestions 
which  he  made  in  the  course  of  that  address.  After  a  few  words 
of  encouragement  to  temperance  workers  who  were  despondent 
because  their  efforts  had  not  been  attended  with  the  success 
they  hoped  for,  he  said : 

"All  great  reforms,  and  particularly  those  of  a  moral  and  social 
character,  are  slowly  wrought  out.  The  habits  fastened  upon  men  by 
long  years  of  indulgence  are  not  at  once  eradicated,  and  when,  however 
vicious  and  hurtful  they  may  be,  their  damaging  nature  has  been  thoroughly 
established,  when  the  whole  world  is  convinced  that  indulgence  in  them 
is  sinful  and  hurtful,  the  real  labor  has  but  just  commenced.  For  the 
correction  of  evil  habits,  something  besides  arguments  or  mere  appeals 
to  the  understanding  is  required.  The  judgment  once  convinced,  the 
public  must  be  educated  fully  up  to  the  standard  of  the  argument.  No 
argument,  however  conclusive  and  convincing,  ever  eradicated  even 
serious  errors  in  belief.  The  belief  in  witchcraft  lingered  long  years  after  its 
absurdities  and  cruelties  had  been  thoroughly  exposed  and  demonstrated.  No 
one  can  tell  precisely  when  the  world  ceased  to  believe  in  witches,  for  the 
reason  that  human  intelligence  outgrew  the  belief,  and  mankind  had 
finally  so  far  advanced  that  the  very  atmosphere  was  unfavorable  to  it. 
This  growth,  however,  was  slow.  But  in  the  fullness  of  time  it  came  to 
pass  that  this  belief,  which  was  infantile  in  its  intellectual  character, 
could  not  adjust  itself  to,  and  was  sadly  out  of  harmony  with,  the  more 
manly  intellect  of  the  age,  and  so  it  dropped  from  the  shoulders  of  the 
more  highly  civilized  generation  as  noiselessly  and  as  naturally  as  the 
grown  man  renounces  the  garments  of  his  youth.  In  the  early  days  of 
the  temperance  movement  arguments  seemed  necessary,  and  they  were 
abundantly  furnished.  Facts  and  statistics,  showing  the  incalculable  mis 
chiefs  which  resulted  from  the  use  of  strong  drink,  were  supplied  with 
out  stint.  Appeals,  the  most  persuasive  and  eloquent  in  their  character, 
were  heard  from  every  pulpit  and  platform  in  the  country. 

"At  that  time  arguments,  facts,  statistics,  appeals,  were  necessary.  The 
judgments  of  men  had  first  to  be  convinced,  and  I  think  we  may  safely 
say  that  the  time  has  arrived  when  every  one  is  convinced.  There  are  no 
longer  doubters,  the  old  weapons  of  argument  may  now,  in  a  great  measure, 
be  laid  aside,  for  the  warfare  is  transferred  to  another  field  where  other 
instruments  must  be  employed. 
99 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"The  question  now  is,  having  convinced  the  understandings  of  men,  How 
shall  that  conviction  of  the  understanding  be  made  to  act  upon  the 
conduct  of  men?  In  other  words,  How  shall  the  man  who  freely  admits 
that  drunkenness  is  a  sin,  that  it  is  a  curse  unmixed  and  unmitigated, 
exhibit  that  belief  in  his  '  daily  walk  and  conversation  ?'  The  real  object 
which  we  seek  to  attain  is  not,  after  all,  good  doctrine  so  much  as  it  is 
good  works.  The  man  who  to-day  fully  agrees  with  all  that  you  may 
say,  and  would  thoroughly  believe  all  that  you  may  say,  as  to  the  destruc 
tive  and  baleful  consequences  of  drunkenness,  but,  nevertheless,  reels  home 
in  drunken  stupor  to-morrow,  is  not  reformed  up  to  our  standard  of  the 
necessities  of  the  case.  Something  is  gained,  it  is  true,  when  we  have 
convinced  him  that  he  ought  to  lead  a  sober  life,  but  he  is  then  only 
half  reformed,  and  the  reformation  is  completed  only  when,  as  a  result 
of  that  balief,  he  actually  does  lead  a  sober  life." 

He  then  discussed  the  subject  of  moderate  drinking,  and  the 
question  whether  the  adulteration  of  alcoholic  liquors  with  poison 
ous  substances  was  not  to  a  large  extent  the  cause  of  so  much 
drunkenness. 

"  I  have  said  that  no  more  argument  seemed  to  be  required.  In  this, 
perhaps,  to  a  certain  extent,  I  am  in  error.  While  every  one  admits 
the  evils  of  intemperance,  yet  many  claim  that  moderate  drinking,  as 
it  is  called,  is  quite  justifiable.  I  know  no  more  treacherous  and  delu 
sive  phrase,  than  that  of  'moderate  drinking.'  Who  will  prescribe  what 
is  moderate  and  what  is  not?  I  presume  we  would  be  told  that  the 
use  of  liquor,  whether  moderate  or  not,  must  be  determined  by  its 
effects,  and  so  long  as  a  man  succeeds  in  stopping  just  this  side  of  actual 
intoxication  he  is  a  moderate  drinker.  In  other  words,  when  it  operates 
solely  on  the  stomach,  its  use  is  moderate,  but  when  its  effects  are  trans 
ferred  to  the  brain  it  becomes  immoderate.  Thus  you  see  the  dividing  line 
has  to  be  very  finely  and  very  closely  drawn,  and  one  of  the  difficulties 
attending  this  very  fine  piece  of  self-examination,  results  from  the  fact  that 
these  observations  are  made  by  the  party  who  is  affected  by  the  use  of 
the  stimulant,  and  trespassing  one  step  too  far  in  his  experiments  upon 
himself,  the  brain  will  probably  be  reached  before  the  operator  is  fully 
aware  of  the  fact,  and  so  far  affected  that  the  work  of  analysis  will  not  be 
very  satisfactorily  performed. 

"Thus  it  is  apparent  that  moderate  drinking  reduced  to  actual  prac 
tice  is  attended  with  very  great  danger.  The  drinking  may  be  very  mod 
erate  up  to  a  certain  point,  but  beyond  that,  becomes  exceedingly  immod 
erate.  The  fact  is  that  an  indulgence  in  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors 
to  any  extent  which  may  result  in  intoxication  is  immoderate.  The  use 
of  any  poison  not  actually  required  for  some  medicinal  purpose  is  immod 
erate.  One  would  hardly  think  of  a  moderate  use  of  laudanum  as  a 
beverage,  nor  would  he  who  insisted  that  we  should  totally  abstain  from 
its  use  as  a  beverage  be  denounced  as  an  impracticable  fanatic. 

"  The  logic   of  the  whole  question  would   seem   to  be   this.     That   drunk- 


PRACTICAL   TEMPERANCE   LEGISLATION.  339 

enness  is  a  sin  and  an  evil  is  admitted.  That  anything  which  naturally 
tends  to  produce  it  should  be  avoided  is  admitted.  That  the  moderate 
use  of  alcoholic  drinks  tends  to  their  excessive  use;  that  it  begets  a 
morbid  and  unnatural  appetite,  which  will  ultimately  pass  beyond  control, 
will  hardly  be  disputed.  There  can,  therefore,  be  no  real  nor  genuine 
safety  save  in  total  abstinence.  There  may  be,  there  perhaps  are  men  of 
such  strong  wills,  such  iron  nerves,  such  phlegmatic  temperaments,  such 
absolutely  balanced  brains,  and  such  vigorous  stomachs  as  to  be  able  day 
after  day  to  march  safely  up  to  the  border  line  which  divides  sobriety  from 
drunkenness,  and,  withstanding  all  allurements,  never  cross  the  line.  But 
such  men  certainly  are  very  rare,  and  so  few  are  they  that  as  exceptions 
they  prove  the  general  rule.  One  thing  is  certain,  the  best  intentioned  mod 
erate  drinker  in  the  world  may  miscalculate  and  may  get  intoxicated.  The 
man  who  never  drinks  at  all  certainly  never  will.  In  the  latter  direction 
there  is  absolute  security.  In  the  former  danger  constantly  lurks. 

"It  is  also  insisted  that  the  evils  which  we  seek  to  correct  would  be 
cured  by  the  use  of  pure  liquors,  and  that  in  a  great  measure  the  disas 
trous  consequences,  flowing  from  the  use  of  strong  drink,  are  attributable 
to  the  fact  that  the  liquors  now  drunk  are  poisoned  and  adulterated.  In 
support  of  this  position  we  are  frequently  cited  to  the  asserted  fact  that  our 
fathers,  or  our  grandfathers,  as  the  case  may  be,  freely  indulged  in  the  use 
of  alcoholic  drinks,  yet  they  rarely  lost  their  self-control.  I  have  taken 
some  pains  to  investigate  this  matter,  and  am  constrained  to  doubt  the  exis 
tence  of  the  fact.  At  what  particular  period  of  time  intoxicating  liquors 
failed  to  intoxicate,  at  what  particular  period  of  this  world's  history  stim 
ulating  beverages  failed  to  stimulate,  we  are  not  told.  Bear  in  mind,  that 
the  question  now  is,  as  to  the  direct  and  necessary  effects  of  intoxicating 
liquors.  For  the  present  we  will  dismiss  all  considerations  as  to  their  col 
lateral  effects.  There  has  been  no  period  in  this  world's  history,  and  there  never 
will  be,  when  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors,  in  sufficient  quantity,  would 
not  produce  intoxication.  This  result  could  not  be  possibly  changed  by  the 
purity  of  the  liquors.  The  alcoholic  element  is  the  only  one  to  which  we 
particularly  object.  It  is  this  which  crazes  the  brain  and  works  the  infinite 
mischief  which  we  seek  to  correct.  Leave  out  every  trace  of  alcohol  from 
brandy,  whisky,  gin,  rum,  wines,  or  beer,  and  no  one  will  be  intoxicated 
by  their  use,  even  though  they  may  contain  strychnine,  arsenic,  log-wood, 
and  fusel  oil,  all  combined. 

"  Moreover,  with  the  alcohol  omitted  from  these  liquors,  the  other  poisons 
named  will  cease  to  be  drunk  as  beverages,  either  separately,  or  in  combi 
nation.  It  is  very  possible,  indeed  it  is  quite  probable,  that  our  fathers  were 
not,  in  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors,  poisoned  in  such  a  complicated  fashion 
as  are  their  descendants.  They  took,  in  using  pure  liquors,  the  hazard  of 
but  one  kind  of  poison,  while  the  present  drinker  runs  the  risk  of  several 
combined.  The  danger  is  now  much  greater  than  it  then  was,  because  if 
the  drinking  man  escapes  death  from  alcohol,  he  is  quite  likely  to  be  killed 
by  the  strychnine  or  the  fusel  oil.  The  use  of  either  will  kill  if  long  enough 
persisted  in,  but  the  alcohol  will  intoxicate  in  any  event. 


34O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"Moreover,  it  is  one  of  the  peculiar  qualities  of  all  alcoholic  stimulants 
to  produce  in  their  use  a  morbid  and  unnatural  appetite,  of  a  character  not 
created  by  other  beverages.  It  is  the  desire  thus  created  which  leads  men 
to  brave  all  the  terrors  of  the  poisoned  liquors  now  in  use.  It  is  idle  to 
argue  that  pure  liquors  do  not  have  this  tendency.  It  is  the  natural  and 
inevitable  effect  of  the  habitual  use,  even  of  the  purest  liquors  ever  drank, 
to  excite  this  morbid  appetite  for  more.  This  appetite  is  created,  not  by  the 
elements  with  which  the  alcohol  is  combined,  whether  they  be  harmless,  or 
whether  they  be  hurtful,  but  by  the  alcohol  itself.  Raw  spirits  in  their 
purest  possible  form  will  intoxicate,  and  will  excite  this  appetite.  Men  do 
not  indulge  in  the  use  of  pure  alcohol,  or  high  wines  as  a  beverage.  In 
that  shape  they  are  unpalatable.  That  road  to  drunkenness  is  so  rough  and 
disagreeable,  that  it  is  not  often  traveled.  But  however  easy  and  agreeable 
the  road  may  be  made,  the  end  of  the  road  is  the  same  ;  it  is  drunkenness, 
and  the  drunken  man  is  no  less  so  because  the  liquor  which  imbruted  him, 
which  robbed  him  of  his  senses,  which  blunted  his  moral  consciousness,  was 
absolutely  pure.  It  is  possible  that  our  forefathers,  as  a  rule,  drank  less 
than  we  do.  They  were  men  of  iron  will,  resolute  purpose,  and  a  strong, 
moral  sense.  They  were  not  subjected  to  a  tithe  of  the  temptations  which 
continually  be^set  their  descendants.  The  dangers  of  excessive  drinking  were 
not  as  great  then  as  now.  But,  nevertheless,  when  our  fathers  drank  to 
excess,  they  got  drunk  precisely  as  their  sons  do." 

He  then  discussed  the  question  of  native  wines  and  lager  beer 
as  substitutes  for  the  fiery  extract  distilled  from  corn.  The 
Chicago  Tribune  advocated  the  encouragement  of  beer  saloons 
and  the  restriction  of  whisky  shops  as  a  temperance  measure. 
But  Mr.  Storrs,  as  was  usual  with  him  in  reasoning  upon  all 
questions,  legal,  political,  or  social,  saw  no  middle  ground: 

"Very  much  is  said  in  recommendation  of  the  use  of  native  wines,  and 
we  are  urged  to  encourage  their  manufacture,  so  that  prices  may  be  cheap 
ened  and  their  use  extended. 

"  Native  wines  will  intoxicate  as  readily,  and  as  surely,  as  the  foreign 
and  imported  article.  The  alcohol  in  the  wines  made  from  grapes  grown 
in  the  Missouri  Valley,  or  California,  or  on  the  hillsides  of  Western  New 
York,  will  intoxicate  as  surely  as  though  the  grapes  were  grown  in  France, 
Spain  or  Portugal.  The  effects  of  alcohol  upon  the  human  system  are  not 
at  all  dependent  upon  the  geography  of  the  grape  from  which  the  alcohol 
is  produced.  Alcohol  is  the  same  everywhere.  It  may  be  that  under  cer 
tain  climatic  conditions  its  use  may  be  more  freely  indulged  in  than  under 
others.  It  may  be  that  wine  drank  in  France  will  not  intoxicate  as  readily 
there  as  when  drank  here,  but  it  is  not  recommended  that  we  should  go 
there  to  do  our  drinking.  The  encouragement  of  the  manufacture  of  native 
wines,  so  that  the  prices  should  be  lessened,  leads  to  their  more  extended  use, 
and  the  more  extended  the  use,  the  more  certain  is  intoxication  to  result 
from  it.  If  the  native  wine,  which  now  costs  £3  per  bottle,  could  be  man- 


PRACTICAL   TEMPERANCE   LEGISLATION.  34! 

ufactured  and  sold  for  fifty  cents  per  bottle,  the  result  would  not  only  be, 
that  more  people  would  drink  wine,  so  that  the  desire  and  taste  for 
alcoholic  stimulant  would  be  extended,  but  the  people,  who,  before  the 
price  was  lessened,  drank  some,  would  be  induced  to  drink  more.  I  utterly 
fail  to  see  that  the  evils  of  intemperance  are  in  the  slightest  degree  miti 
gated  by  the  consideration  that  the  liquor  which  produced  them  was  made 
at  home. 

"There  are  no  elements  of  patriotism  in  the  question.  We  would  hardly 
think  of  encouraging  men  to  get  drunk  on  home-made  wines  as  a  patriotic 
duty ;  nor  for  the  protection  or  encouragement  of  what  may  be  called 
American  industry.  On  the  other  hand,  1  think  that  so  far  as  public  bene 
fits  are  concerned,  the  man  whose  revels  are  exclusively  upon  foreign  liquors 
has  decidedly  the  advantage  of  the  consumer  of  the  home-made  article. 
The  former,  in  purchasing  his  foreign  wines,  is  compelled  to  pay  the  heavy 
duties  which  the  government  imposes  upon  them,  and  thus,  to  a  certain 
extent,  relieves  temperate  and  sober  people  from  the  burdens  of  taxation. 
So  far  as  the  mere  matter  of  intoxication  is  concerned,  the  bibber  of  foreign 
wines  and  the  consumer  of  the  domestic  article  stand  on  an  even  footing, 
and  in  the  particular  which  I  have  mentioned,  the  former  has  the  advan 
tage. 

"  I  now  approach  a  branch  of  the  discussion  which  seems  to  be  beset 
with  many  difficulties,  and  the  discussion  of  which  excites  much  feeling.  I 
refer  to  the  use  of  lager  beer  as  .a  beverage.  Now,  whether  such  use 
should  be  prohibited  by  law,  is  one  question,  and  whether  it  should  be 
encouraged  is  another,  and  quite  a  different  one,  It  is  the  latter  question 
only  which  I  now  propose  to  touch.  If  it  can  be  demonstrated  that  lager 
beer  is  entirely  harmless,  that  it  is  not  an  intoxicating  beverage,  we,  as 
temperance  men,  would  have  but  very  little  interest  in  the  question.  It 
might  be  in  other  respects  injurious,  as  the  excessive  use  of  tea  and  coffee 
is  injurious,  but  if  that  were  all,  it  would  not  fall  within  the  purposes  of 
the  temperance  reform.  That  there  is  a  certain  quantity  of  alcohol  in  lager 
beer  will  not  probably  be  denied.  That  if  drank  in  sufficient  quantities  it 
will  produce  intoxication  has  been,  I  believe,  denied.  But  to  deny  this 
fact  is  to  dispute  the  clear  and  unmistakable  evidence  of  our  senses.  If 
you  have  any  doubt  upon  this  point,  go  out  into  the  streets  to-morrow,  visit 
the  places  where  lager  is  sold  and  drank,  remain  long  enough  to  note  its 
effects.  I  will  not  ask  you  to  try  it  yourselves,  but  observe  how  it  oper 
ates  upon  others,  and  I  am  quite  sure  that  if  net  already  satisfied  that 
lager  beer  will  intoxicate,  you  will  very  soon  become  so.  That  more  lager 
beer  is  required  to  produce  intoxication  than  whisky  or  brandy  is  very  true, 
but  that  is  not  the  question.  There  is  less  alcohol  in  a  gill  of  lager,  than 
in  a  gill  of  whisky,  but  men  rarely  drink  a  pint  of  whisky  at  a  sitting,  while 
the  consumption  of  a  gallon  of  lager  at  a  single  sitting  is  perhaps  unusual, 
but  is  no  very  extraordinary  feat  for  the  expert,  accustomed  to  its  daily  use, 
to  accomplish.  While  there  is  less  alcohol  in  lager  than  there  is  in  the 
same  quantity  of  whisky  or  brandy,  there  is  a  much  larger  quantity  of  it 
drank  than  of  either  of  these  liquors,  and  so  the  result  is  quite  likely  to  be 


342  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

that   the    habitual    consumer   of    lager  beer   takes   during   the    day    quite   as 
much  alcohol  in  the  stomach,  as  he  who  habitually  drinks  brandy  or  whisky. 

"This  being  the  case,  the  results  are  substantially  the  same.  The  use  of 
lager  begets  the  same  morbid  appetite  for  more  that  is  created  by  any  other 
form  of  alcoholic  stimulant ;  not  only  that,  the  time  comes  when  the  stom 
ach  craves,  and  the  appetite  demands  a  more  active  and  a  more  powerful 
stimulant,  and  the  road  thus  opened  leads  directly  to  stronger  liquors. 
Without  further  pursuing  this  discussion,  I  conclude  that  we  can  make  no 
distinctions  between  any  alcoholic  and  intoxicating  beverages.  That  the  use 
of  all  of  them  should  be  discouraged. 

"  I  do  not  propose  to  consume  your  time  in  recapitulating  the  horrors  of 
intemperance,  nor  enlarging  upon  the  beauties  and  benefits  of  sobriety. 
All  these  have  been  so  well  done,  and  so  often  done,  that  the  world 
already  knows  them  by  heart.  No-  subtle  sophistries  as  to  moderate  drink 
ing,  or  pure  liquors,  or  native  wines,  or  harmless  ale  and  beer,  will  dis 
guise  from  us  for  one  single  moment,  the  appalling  horrors  of  strong  drink. 
Every  drunkard's  grave  that  has  ever  yet  been  filled  was  filled  by  one  who 
at  the  outset  scouted  all  idea  of  danger,  and  prided  himself  upon  the 
assurance  that  however  depraved  and  uncontrollable  the  appetite  of  others 
might  be,  he  was  a  moderate  drinker,  and  he,  at  least,  was  safe.  Beneath 
the  subtle  spells  and  lurking  deviltries  of  the  praises  of  pure  liquors,  thous 
ands  of  noble  spirits,  brilliant  intellects,  generous,  high-hearted  men  have 
fallen.  The  harmless  ale  and  beer  have  seduced  thousands,  and  hurried 
them  to  their  graves.  In  the  warfare  which  we  wage  there  can  be  no 
compromise.  A  compromise  to-day  is  total,  absolute,  unqualified  sur 
render  to-morrow.  There  is  no  middle  ground.  There  can  be  none.  The 
enemies  with  whom  we  are  at  war  are  our  enemies  still,  no  matter  under 
what  banners  they  march.  They  are  our  enemies,  and  the  enemies  of 
our  race,  whether  clothed  in  the  purple  of  foreign  wines  and  liquors,  the 
homespun  of  native  wines,  the  plain  fabric  of  lager  beer,  or  the  rags  of 
poisoned  whisky.  We  must  meet  them  all.  We  must  overcome  them 
all,  and  in  God's  good  time,  I  believe  we  shall." 

The  means  by  which  the  temperance  reform  movement  could 
be  carried  forward  to  success  were  next  considered  in  his  own 
practical  way. 

"And  this  leads  directly  to  the  consideration  of  by  far  the  most  difficult 
question  which  we  have  to  encounter.  How  shall  the  reform  which  we 
seek  be  accomplished?  Our  failures,  thus  far,  to  secure  that  fu-11  measure  of 
success,  long  ago  looked  for,  cannot  be  attributed  to  any  weakness  or  errors 
in  the  cause  itself.  Its  merits  are  beyond  all  question.  How,  then,  shall 
we  account  for  its  lack  of  complete  success?  This  is  a  very  vital  question. 
It  is  the  great  question  of  the  hour.  What  are  the  defects  in  our  old 
method;  how  can  they  be  remedied,  and  what  new  ones  can  be  devised? 

"One  explanation  of  the  long  postponement  of  final  success  I  have  already 
attempted  to  give.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  very  nature  of  the  reform  which 
we  seek.  Its  character  is  neither  political  nor  theological,  in  a  strict  sense. 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION.  343 

It  is  moral.  It  involves  the  necessity  of  a  change  of  habits,  almost  ineradi- 
cably  fixed  by  long  indulgence.  The  greatest  virtue  which  the  temperance 
reformer  and  agitator  can  possess  is  that  of  unwearied  and  unwearying 
patience.  No  blasts  from  rams'  horns  will  blow  down  the  thick  and  solid 
walls  which  generations  of  time  have  builded.  They  cannot  be  overthrown 
by  sudden  assaults,  nor  brilliant  dash ;  but  slowly  and  gradually  they  must 
be  undermined,  until  they  will  crumble  to  pieces  of  their  own  weight. 

"Before  the  great  body  of  the  people  can  be  thoroughly  reformed,  they 
must  be  first  educated  up  to  the  full  measure  of  the  reform.  This  educa 
tion  must  be  something  more  than  a  mere  intellectual  assent  or  conviction. 

"  It  must,  to  be  effective  in  the  way  of  results,  become  a  part  of  one's 
nature,  so  to  speak,  and  daily  habit.  But  this  reason  alone  is  not  suffi 
cient  to  cover  the  entire  ground  of  the  partial  failure  of  the  temperance 
movement.  We  all  now  quite  clearly  pfrceive^  that  there  now  is,  and  that 
there  always  has  been,  a  lack  of  that  thorough  organization,  and  that 
united  and  harmonious  action,  which  is  so  essential  to  success  in  all  refor 
matory  movements.  Each  temperance  reformer  has  had  his  own  special 
and  pet  theory  of  action.  He  has  nursed  it  carefully  and  tenderly,  and  is 
as  jealous  of  it  as  he  would  be  of  the  honor  and  safety  of  his  child.  He 
will  neither  modify  nor  change  it,  nor  hold  it  in  abeyance.  He  looks  with 
extreme  jealousy  upon  every  other  method  save  his  own ;  and,  hence, 
instead  of  bending  their  united  exertions  against  the  common  enemy,  their 
strength  is  frequently  frittered  away,  and  wasted  by  foolish  quarrels  and 
differences  among  themselves. 

"Of  course  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  that  these  remarks  are  true 
of  all  temperance  reformers,  but  I  appeal  to  your  own  experience  whether 
it  is  not  true  of  by  far  too  many  of  them.  To-night  and  here  we  are  met 
to  determine  how  'the  plague  can  be  stayed.'  Will  it  not  be  a  splendid 
beginning,  if  to-night  we  can  all  agree  to  surrender,  for  a  time,  our  indi 
vidual  views,  and  sacrifice  our  prejudices  upon  the  altar  of  the  great  cause 
itself.  We  all  are  loud  in  invoking  charity  for  the  poor  helpless  inebriate. 
This  is  well.  But  it  is  unnecessary  to  exhaust  it  all  upon  him, — let  us  leave 
a  little  for  each  other. 

"Let  us  now  examine  the  various  methods  which  have  hitherto  been 
adopted,  and  testing  them  by  their  actual  workings,  see  what  we  are  pre 
pared  to  say  about  them. 

"I  call  attention,  first  to  prohibition  by  legislation.  I  call  attention  to  this 
method  of  reform  first,  because,  concerning  its  wisdom  there  are  the  widest 
differences  of  opinion.  How  has  it  operated  ?  Do  you  all  feel  like  answer 
ing  me  that  it  has  operated  well?  Have  you  not  many  doubts  upon  that 
point?  But  suppose  you  tell  me  that  the  trouble  is  not  with  the  law,  but  that 
it  has  not  been  enforced.  But  I  inquire  why  has  it  not  been  enforced? 
There  is  no  difficulty  in  enforcing  any  legislation,  back  of  which  stands  an 
endorsing  and  thoroughly  approving  public  sentiment.  You  will  agree  with 
me,  that  had  prohibition  been  attempted  fifty  years  ago,  it  would  have  failed 
utterly  and  completely,  even  could  the  necessary  legislation  have  been 
secured.  The  officers  of  the  law  were  quite  as  capable  and  efficient  and 


344  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

quite  as  honest  then  as  they  now  are,  but  the  trouble  would  then  have 
been  that  public  sentiment  would  not  have  approved  the  law,  nor  sustained 
the  officers  in  its  execution.  It  may  be  disagreeable  to  listen  to  such  facts 
as  these,  but  they  are  facts  nevertheless  and  if  we  are  wise  we  will  take 
note  of  them.  Now,  has  there  been  since  that  time  such  a  growth  and 
advance  in  public  sentiment  as  to  change  our  policy?  to  make  that  wise 
to-day,  which  fifty  years  ago  was  impolitic  and  unwise?  Looking  the  ques 
tion  squarely  in  the  face,  what  do  you  think  about  it?  Bear  in  mind  that 
the  inquiry  is  not  how  we  would  be  glad  to  have  the  facts,  but  how  are  the 
facts?  The  question  is  not  one  of  feeling — but  of  dry,  hard,  unsympathetic 
statistics.  The  experiment  has  been  repeatedly  tried.  New  England  has 
tried  it  for  many  years.  I  am  not  prepared  to  say  whether  the  failure  has 
been  complete  or  not,  but  it  is  certain  that  prohibition  has  not  worked  as 
well  as  its  friends  anticipated.  One*,thing  is  absolutely  certain,  that  prohibitory 
legislation  alone  is  not  adequate  to  the  emergency.  It  is  clear  beyond  all 
question,  that  we  need  something  more  than  prohibition.  I  exercise  here 
that  charity  for  the  opinions  of  others  which  I  would  claim  for  my  own. 

"  I  do  not  insist  that  prohibition  is  an  absolutely  demonstrated  failure. 
Where  there  is  so  much  uncertainty  as  to  the  facts,  it  is  next  to  impossible 
to  be  certain  and  positive  in  our  conclusions.  Moreover,  we  are  not  seeking 
to  sustain  a  particular  theory ;  we  look  to  the  good  of  the  cause  itself;  and 
so  long  as  its  interests  are  advanced  and  promoted  we  need  not  be  very 
particular  as  to  the  means,  so  long  as  they  are  legitimate  ones.  But  it 
is  well  to  examine  all  aspects  of  this  question.  A  great  historian  has 
said  that  there '  is  nothing  so  hurtful  as  ignorant  conscientiousness. 
Remember  that  no  legislation  is  of  substantial  service  which  is  very  far  in 
advance  of  public  sentiment.  It  should  not  lag  behind  it;  it  should  not 
greatly  anticipate  it;  it  should  be  fully  abreast  of  it.  Excessive  statutes 
cumber  the  statute  books,  and  are  practically  a  dead  letter.  Of  the 
truth  of  this,  history  is  full  of  examples.  The  tax  of  two  dollars  per  gallon 
on  whisky,  imposed  by  the  general  government,  failed  utterly  as  a  Revenue 
measure.  Whisky  was  openly  sold  for  less  than  the  tax,  but  when  it  was 
reduced  to  fifty  cents  per  gallon  the  revenues  were  more  than  doubled. 
Excessive  tariffs  prove  failures.  Honest  importations  are  checked,  revenues 
are  thus  lost,  and  smuggling  encouraged,  for  the  excessive  tariff  is  an 
advertised  premium  upon  smuggling.  Excessive  punishments  invariably  fail 
to  produce  the  results  intended.  So  far  from  preventing  the  commission  of 
rcrime,  they  rather  stimulate  and  encourage  it.  When  in  England  the  death 
penalty  was  affixed  to  larceny,  thieves  went  unwhipt  of  justice  because  juries 
would  not  convict  where  the  punishment  was  so  excessively  severe.  Thus, 
instead  of  preventing  larcenies,  they  were  largely  increased.  Such  extreme 
legislation  is  not  only  unwise  because  it  cannot  be  executed  as  to  the  par 
ticular  offence  against  which  it  is  directed,  but  it  is  unwise  and  incalculably 
injurious  in  a  broader  sense,  and  for  more  exte'nded  reasons. 

"A  statute  unenforced,  because  public  sentiment  will  not  justify  it,  not 
only  brings  the  special  statute  into  disrepute,  but  begets  a  disregard  for  all 
law,  and  a  contempt  for  any  legal  restraint  whatsoever. 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION.  345 

"I  have  purposely  refrained  from  touching  the  question  as  to  the  wisdom 
of  what  it  called  sumptuary  legislation,  of  attempting  to  regulate  by  law 
what  a  man  shall  eat,  or  drink,  or  wear.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  as  a  gen 
eral  rule,  such  legislation  has  been  deemed  unwise.  Whether  legislation 
of  this  character,  with  reference  to  intoxicating  liquors,  is  an  exception  to 
this  general  rule,  I  shall  not  take  time  to  discuss.  Enough  has  been  said, 
however,  it  seems  to  me,  to  justify  us,  so  far  as  prohibitory  legislation  is 
concerned,  to  proceed  cautiously ;  to  weigh  well  every  aspect  of  the  ques 
tion,  and  finally  to  decide  it  solely  and  with  reference  to  its  probable  effects 
upon  the  ultimate  good  of  the  cause  itself. 

"Observe  that  what  I  have  said  has*  been  with  reference  to  prohibitory 
legislation.  Statutes  regulating  the  sale  and  use  of  ardent  spirits  are  of 
quite  a  different  character.  They  can  be  enforced.  Public  sentiment  clearly 
sustains  them,  and  they  ought  to  be  enforced." 

As  during  the  civil  war  he  had  no  sympathy  with  the  fanatics 
who  pestered  President  Lincoln  with  their  demands  for  an  immedi 
ate  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  long  before  our  armies  had 
gained  such  vantage  ground  as  to  make  such  a  proclamation 
other  than  a  dead  letter,  so  on  the  prohibition  question  he  had 
no  patiertce  with  the  extremists  who  insisted  on  making  it  a 
separate  issue  in  politics,  as  was  done  in  the  Presidential  cam 
paign  of  1884,  resulting  in  the  defeat  of  the  Republican  candi 
dates.  On  this  point  he  uttered  a  warning  note: 

"And  here  let  me  say  a  word,  with  reference  to  mixing  our  temperance 
with  our  politics.  I  doubt  if  you  can  find  a  solitary  instance  where  such  a 
mixture  has  not  injured  the  cause  of  temperance,  without,  in  any  way,  as  a 
compensation,  improving  politics.  I  would  not  go  about  with  our  temper 
ance  doctrines  in  our  hands,  seeking  to  barter  and  trade  them  with  some 
political  party.  I  would  not  say  to  any  party  organization  :  'Give  our  tem 
perance  ideas  a  place  in  your  platform,  and  we  will  give  you  our  votes  in 
return.'  Trades  of  this  kind  in  certain  localities  can  be  made,  and  have 
been  made,  but  the  never-failing  result  has  been  that  the  temperance  men 
have  been  fearfully  cheated.  I  desire  to  see  every  step  taken  by  the  tem 
perance  reform  in  advance  maintained  ;  I  desire  to  see  every  reform  achieved, 
a  substantial  and  permanent  one — so  to  speak,  structural  in  its  character. 
I  would  not  see  it  swinging  backwards  and  forwards,  subject  to  the  end 
less  freaks  and  caprices  of  partisan  and  political  changes.  I  would  not  see 
this  great  cause — spotless  in  its  purity — with  no  smurch  upon  its  garments 
— dragged  through  the  foul  mires  of  partisan  contention." 

After  referring  to  the  secret  societies  organized  in  aid  of  the 
temperance  cause,  Good  Templars  and  others,  who  reached  a 
class  who  could  not  perhaps  be  secured  in  any  other  way,  he 
said: 

"Great  results  were    expected    from  the    woman's  movement,    otherwise 


346  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

known  as  the  temperance  crusade,  which  spread,  of  late,  so  rapidly  all  over 
the  country.  No  doubt  much  good  was  accomplished  by  it,  but  it  remains 
to  be  seen  how  permanent  is  the  character  of  the  work  it  has  accomplished. 
It  was  short  lived — its  force  is  now  spent,  and  we  have  learned  what  we 
already  knew  before,  that  the  enemy  was  not  to  be  vanquished  by  any 
sudden  sally.  But  we  have  nevertheless  learned  a  most  useful  lesson  by 
this  movement,  brief  and  short  lived  as  it  was.  We  have  been  taught 
what  tremendous  power  women  wield  and  can  wield  in  this  great  cause. 
Organized  and  persisted  in,  the  influence  of  woman  would,  I  am  satisfied, 
result  in  the  largest  measure  of  success.  To  achieve  this  success  she 
need  not  go  into  the  streets,  or  she  may,  but  exercising  the  social  influ 
ence  which  peculiarly  belongs  to  her,  the  habit  of  indulging  in  strong 
drink  may  be  ultimately  driven  from  every  home.  Finally,  the  churches 
are  all  with  us.  It  is  fitting  that  they  should  be,  and  I  know  of  no  class  of 
teachers  who  have  larger  opportunities  of  advancing  our  cause  than  our 
clergy. 

"But  it  will  be  asked,  and  most  naturally,  what  means  would  you  adopt? 
I  would  answer  that  I  would,  if  necessary,  join  them  all  together  and  adopt 
them  all.  I  would  unite  wise  legislation,  the  churches,  the  secret  societies, 
the  open  temperance  organizations,  moral  suasion  and  social  influence  in  one 
compact  body,  all  working  to  a  single  purpose.  We  need  not  be.  afraid  that 
we  shall  adopt  too  many  means.  They  will,  all  taken  together,  be  found 
none  too  strong.  But  I  would  follow,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  precedents  set 
by  the  politicians;  I  would  organize  a  temperance  movement  in  every  ward 
and  divide  each  ward  into  districts.  Committees  should  be  appointed  in 
every  district  whose  duty  it  should  be  to  visit  every  household  cursed  with 
intemperance.  Personal  appeals,  persuasion  and  entreaty  would  do  much. 
I  would  continue  this  work  patiently  and  unceasingly.  It  is  wonderful  to 
see  how  strong  a  hold  a  kindly  expression  and  manifestation  of  interest  in 
the  well-being  of  your  neighbor  gives  you  upon  him.  In  this  work,  the 
assistance  of  temperance  women  will  be  invaluable,  and  we  can  hardly  pre 
dict  how-  much  of  splendid  results  such  a  line  of  labor  would  accomplish. 
I  believe  that  in  every  ward  and  district  in  this  city  organizations  of  women 
can  be  formed,  sufficiently  strong  and  powerful  to  drive  ardent  spirits  from 
every  household  and  from  every  table.  When  the  use  of  liquors  becomes 
unfashionable,  when  those  who  indulge  in  its  use  learn  that  the  penalty 
which  they  are  compelled  to  pay  for  such  indulgence  in  social  ostracism, 
when  it  becomes  as  disreputable  to  be  seen  entering  a  drinking  saloon  as  it 
would  to  be  seen  entering  a  gambling  hell,  we  may  be  assured  that  the 
final  triumph  of  the  temperance  cause  is  not  very  far  off. 

"  Immense  changes  in  this  direction  have  already  been  wrought.  As 
gloomy  as  the  prospect  may  appear  to  some,  great  and  substantial  progress 
has,  nevertheless,  been  made.  Twenty-five  years  ago  the  decanter  was 
found  upon  every  sideboard,  and  not  to  proffer  the  glass  to  your  guest 
would  have  been  deemed  the 'grossest  incivility.  To-day  the  sideboards  thus 
supplied  and  the  glass  thus  proffered  are  the  exceptions  rather  than  the 
rule.  Twenty-five  years  ago  our  Senators  reeled  to  their  places  in  the 

A 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE   LEGISLATION.  347 

Senate,  the  public  took  but  little  heed  to  the  disgraceful  exhibition,  or,  if 
they  noted  it  at  all,  called  it  an  eccentricity  of  genius.  To-day  such  a 
scene  would  shock  the  sense  of  the  whole  country,  and  so  much  more 
healthy  is  public  opinion,  that  habitual  drunkenness  in  a  public  man  is  the 
certain  loss  of  public  confidence  and  favor.  Years  ago  a  drunken  clergyman 
was  not,  by  any  means,  a  miracle.  To-day  how  is  it?  Clergymen  have 
not  so  much  changed  as  that  public  opinion  now  would  not,  for  an  instant, 
tolerate  in  its  religious  teachers  what  but  a  few  years  ago  it  complacently 
winked  at.  A  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  and  how  short,  after  all,  the  time 
now  seems,  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  by  the  members  of  the  learned 
professions,  law  and  medicine,  was  almost  universal.  Slowly  but  surely, 
nevertheless,  has  a  more  advanced  public  opinion  applied  the  corrective,  and 
the  professional  man  is  taught  in  a  manner  which  he  cannot  misunderstand, 
that  the  public  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  drunken  lawyers  or  physicians. 
These  marked  changes  are  apparent  in  every  rank,  in  every  station  in  life, 
and  in  every  department  of  business.  The  merchant  is  under  a  salutary 
restraint,  for  well  he  knows  that  the  moment  it  shall  once  become  known 
that  he  habitually  indulges,  and  at  times  to  an  excess,  in  the  use  of  ardent 
spirits,  his  credit  is  irretrievably  ruined.  The  church,  dormant  twenty-five 
years  ago,  is  now  thoroughly  aroused  and  lends  her  powerful  assistance  to 
the  temperance  cause.  Our  legislators  who,  twenty-five  years  ago,  treated 
the  temperance  reformer  as  an  impracticable  fanatic,  and  who  were  exceed- 
ingly  anxious  that  it  should  be  understood  that  they  had  no  sympathy  with 
them,  now  humbly  make  obeisance  in  their  presence,  and  are  eager  to  do 
their  bidding. 

"In  short,  the  entire  face  of  society,  so  far  as  the  question  of  temperance 
is  concerned,  has  been  changed  within  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Public 
opinion  has  been  revolutionized;  thousands  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
drunkards  have  been  reformed,  thoroughly  and  completely.  Thousands  of 
homes,  desolate  and  wretched  twenty-five  years  ago,  have  been  made  bright 
and  happy.  Temptations  have  been  withdrawn  from  countless  numbers  of 
young  men,  who  would  otherwise  have  gone  astray ;  the  spread  of  intem 
perance  has  been  checked,  and  now  strong  as  we  are,  having  stopped  its 
onward  course,  we  must  drive  it  back  to  its  own  foul  caverns. 

"  What  imagination  can  conceive — what  pen  can  portray — what  pencil 
can  paint  the  glorious  future  which  awaits  us !  Marching  under  one  single 
banner,  all  difficulties  healed,  all  dissensions  hushed,  there  awaits  us  nothing 
but  glory.  Our  mission  is  to  lift  up  the  fallen,  to  comfort  the  sorrowing,  to 
soothe  the  poor  bleeding  heart. 

"As  we  march  on,  the  fires  are  lighted  upon  the  old  hearth-stones,  whose 
embers  were  long  since  burned  out.  The  old  roof-tree,  long  since  leafless 
and  barren,  awakens  to  new  life  and  vigor,  and  fresh  green  leaves  again  fill 
all  its  branches.  The  wail  of  the  worse  than  widowed  wife,  the  cry  of  the 
worse  than  orphaned  child,  dies  out  from  a  thousand  stricken  homes,  and 
the  glad  song  of  renewed  hope  and  joy  ascend  to  Heaven  in  their  stead. 
Old  ambitions  rise  out  of  their  graves  and  bravely  challenge  the  future. 
Despair  gives  way  to  hope.  Strife  flies  at  the  approach  of  the  white-winged 


348  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

messenger  of  peace.  The  beclouded  intellect  is  cleared,  the  benumbed  con 
science  is  awakened,  and,  clothed  and  in  his  right  mind,  the  poor  slave  to 
strong  drink,  now  free,  sees  hope  and  honor  still  before  him.  Self-respect 
returns.  Every  noble  feeling,  long  since  slumbering,  is  awakened.  No 
smoking  cities  mark  the  pathway  of  this  great  army  ;  and  when  its  journey 
is  complete,  and  its  labors  achieved,  it  looks  back  upon  happy  homes,  upon 
fields  of  waving  grain,  it  hears  the  hum  of  busy  cities,  it  watches  the  happy 
and  contented  toil  of  the  laborer.  Be  assured,  our  cause  will  triumph.  And 
as  we  stand,  at  last,  on  those  glittering  eminences  which  we  are  sure  to  reach, 
there  shall  come  swelling  to  our  ears,  from  the  valleys  beneath,  the  praises 
and  plaudits  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  whom  our  labors  have  saved, 
saying:  "God  bless  the  great  army  of  temperance — God  save  the  temper 
ance  cause." 

This  address  was  printed  and  circulated  in  pamphlet  form,  and 
attracted  the  attention  of  all  thoughtful  temperance  reformers 
throughout  the  United  States.  The  paragraphs  about  prohibition 
conveyed  some  ideas  which  the  advocates  of  the  plan  of  curing 
intemperance  by  legislation  had  not  thought  of  before,  and  in 
Iowa,  which  has  a  purely  agricultural  population,  and  has  few 
populous  towns  beyond  the  bank  of  the  Mississippi  river, — in 
which,  therefore,  the  experiment  of  prohibitory  legislation  seemed 
to  have  a  better  chance  of  success  than  even  in  Maine, — Mr. 
Storrs'  published  opinion  created  quite  a  sensation.  A  prominent 
citizen  of  Iowa  wrote  to  him  for  a  completer  exposition  of  his 
views  on  this  subject.  The  correspondence  was  as  follows: 

'•DAVENPORT,  March   3,   1875. 

"  HON.  EMERY  A.  STORRS. 

"DEAR  SIR: — I  have  carefully  read  your  very  able  address  delivered 
at  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  in  Chicago,  on  the  evening  of  Oct.  I5th, 
1874,  and  knowing  you  to  be  an  earnest  worker  in  the  temperance  reform, 
I  was  struck  with  your  remarks  upon  the  subject  of  prohibitory  laws  as  a 
method  of  reform,  and  especially  that  part  of  it  which  asserts  that  '  a  stat 
ute  unenforced,  because  public  sentiment  will  not  justify  it,  not  only  brings 
the  special  statute  into  disrepute,  but  begets  a  disregard  for  all  law,  and  a 
contempt  for  any  legal  restraint  whatsoever.' 

"I  have  also  very  carefully  considered  the  expressions  of  opinion  by 
earnest  temperance  reformers  in  those  Eastern  States  where  prohibitory  laws 
have  existed  for  years,  which  so  nearly  accord  with  your  views,  that  I  have 
made  the  subject  one  of  thoughtful  study  and  inquiry  for  some  time,  and 
although  I  have  been  for  twelve  years  a  diligent  and  persistent  advocate  of 
prohibitory  legislation,  and  have  seen  its  workings  here  during  that  period, 
I  am  becoming  doubtful  in  regard  to  the  expediency  of  such  laws  as  auxil 
iaries  in  the  temperance  reform.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  the  existence 
of  such  laws  on  the  statute  books  has  tended  to  relax  the  labors  of  the 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION.  349 

advocates  of  total  abstinence,  and  induced  them  to  rely  upon  law  to  create 
and  sustain  that  public  sentiment  which  can  only  be  kept  alive  and  vigor 
ous  by  the  unremitting  labors  of  the  advocates  of  reform.  I  was  also  seri 
ously  impressed  with  that  part  of  the  message  of  the  Governor  of  Illinois, 
at  the  present  session  of  your  Legislature,  upon  the  same  subject.  They 
struck  me  as  words  of  'truth  and  soberness.'  In  this  State  the  laws,  so  far 
as  they  effect  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors,  are,  by  some  of  the  truest 
temperance  reformers,  esteemed  practically  a  failure,  for,  with  such  laws, 
in  almost  all  the  larger  cities,  the  sale  is  only  limited  by  the  demand,  and 
the  laws  silently  and  tacitly  ignored. 

"Now,  it  becomes  a  serious  inquiry  whether  or  not  (  to  use  your  own 
words)  this  'does  not  beget  a  disregard  for  all  law,  and  a  contempt  for  any 
legal  restraint  whatsoever.'  I  would  like  to  obtain  your  views,  more  clearly 
stated,  upon  this  subject,  for  I  am  almost  persuaded,  by  experience  demon 
strated,  that  in  a  republic  where  the  will  of  the  people  is  law,  all  prohibi 
tory  legislation  of  the  sale  of  an  article  so  generally  used,  in  advance  of  a 
safe  and  abiding  major  public  sentiment  sustaining  it,  is  unwise,  and  tends 
to  relax  individual  effort  in  favor  of  actual  reform 
"Yours  truly, 

"GEO.    E.    Hl'BBELL." 
"GEO.    E.    HUBBELL. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR: — Yours  of  the   3d  inst.,  came  to   hand   this  morning. 

"  I  have  not  given  to  the  subject  of  '  Prohibition  Legislation,'  the  examina 
tion  nor  the  thought  which  its  importance  demands ;  but  nevertheless  have 
quite  decided  opinions  with  regard  to  it. 

"There  are  several  methods  of  judging  of  the  wisdom  of  any  proposed 
scheme  of  legislation  : 

"I.     How  has  such   legislation  worked  practically? 

"2.     Is  it  wise  on  general  principles? 

"The  advocates  of  prohibition  have,  I  am  aware,  furnished  statistics  as 
to  the  practical  workings  of  the  law  in  certain  portions  of  Maine  and  Mass 
achusetts,  where  it  has  been  in  force,  and  claim  that  from  those  statistics 
it  clearly  appears  that  such  legislation  can  be  enforced,  and  that  when 
enforced,  its  results  are  of  a  most  satisfactory  character. 

"  But,  notwithstanding  these  statistics,  I  am  constrained  to  think  that  the 
great  mass  of  testimony  leads  to  the  conclusion  that  throughout  Maine  and 
Massachusetts  generally,  the  law  has  not  been  enforced,  and  in  the  former 
State  most  certainly  it  has  had  a  fair  trial. 

"Now,  if  it  has  not  generally  been  enforced  in  those  States,  we  must 
look  for  some  different  explanation  than  that  the  officials  whose  duty  it 
was  to  execute  the  law  were  corrupt  or  wilfully  failed  to  perform  their 
duties.  Maine  and  Massachusetts  are  both  par  excellence  law-abiding 
States,  and  the  people  are  an  order-loving,  law-abiding  people. 

"There  is  no  difficulty  in  enforcing  the  laws  there  generally,  and  there 
must  be  something  about  this  particular  kind  of  legislation  itself  which  cre 
ates  the  difficulty. 

"The   advocates  of  prohibition   tell  us  when  we  point  to  the   State   where 


35O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

it  is  in  force,  and  show  that  drunkenness  still  prevails  there,  and  that  there 
is  no  marked  and  apparent  benefit  .resulting  from  it;  that  the  trouble  is  that 
the  law  is  not  carried  out,  and  that  if  it  were  only  executed  we  would  soon 
see  that  drunkenness  would,  in  a  great  measure,  cease.  This  is  doubtless 
true.  If  the  sale  or  manufacture  of  intoxicating  liquors  were  for  any  cause 
to  absolutely  cease,  there  would  be  but  little  if  any  intoxication.  But  the 
trouble  is  that  such  extreme  statutes  are  not  enforced,  and  we  are  justified 
in  saying  from  that  very  fact,  that  they  cannot  be  enforced ;  so  the  very 
explanation  which  its  friends  give  us  for  the  failure  of  the  law,  is,  in  my 
judgment,  the  strongest  argument  against  the  law  itself. 

"Public  opinion  does  not  sustain  this  extreme  legislation.  Men  refuse  to 
be  forced  in  this  fashion,  and  the  opinion  of  the  best  thinkers,  is  almost,  if 
not  quite,  unanimously  opposed  to  any  legislation  which  seeks  to  coerce  the 
appetites  or  the  tastes  of  men. 

"Now,  an  unenforced  and  generally  disregarded  and  violated  statute  is, 
as  we  all  know,  especially  injurious  in  its  consequences.  The  continuing 
spectacle  of  a  violated  law — violated  openly  and  recklessly,  is  productive  of 
the  worst  results,  and  has  a  direct  tendency  to  bring  all  law  into  contempt. 
The  public  will  not  be  confronted  daily  by  a  statute  which  is  by  a  large 
portion  of  the  community  hated,  by  another  portion  utterly  spurned,  and  by 
another  regarded  as  unjust  and  oppressive  in  its  operations,  without  gradually 
extending  their  suspicions  and  doubts  to  the  entire  system  of  laws  under 
which  they  live. 

"It  is  idle  to  talk  of  enforcing  a  prohibitory  law  in  Chicago.  You  cannot 
by  a  statute  possibly  convince  a  German  that  it  is  wrong  either  to  sell  or 
drink  lager  beer.  The  moment  you  attempt  it  he  considers  himself  out 
raged  and  oppressed,  and  rebels  against  it.  Moderate  men  by  hundreds 
and  thousands,  are  driven  from  the  ranks  of  Temperance  Reform,  where 
they  really  belong,  by  these  extreme  measures,  into  the  ranks  of  the  oppo 
sition,  where  they  do  not  belong,  and  they  are  led  to  suspect  the  efficiency 
of  all  our  efforts  in  that  direction. 

"Any  man,  with  half  an  eye,  can  see  that  such  has  been  the  effect  in 
this  city.  I  know  not  how  it  may  be  in  Davenport,  but  human  nature  is,  I 
imagine,  very  much  the  same  there  that  it  is  here,  and  the  same  cause  would 
be  very  likely  to  produce  the  same  results  in  both  places. 

"  You,  of  course,  will  not  understand  me  as  recommending  or  approving 
the  moderate  use  of  even  lager  beer.  I  think  the  idea  of  moderate  drinking 
of  any  intoxicating  alcoholic  beverage  is  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  and  I 
would  employ  every  method  of  argument,  persuasion  and  entreaty,  to  lead 
others  to  the  same  conclusion.  But  legislation  is  another  matter.  We  can 
not  legislate  for  men  as  we  would  like  to  have  them,  but  as  they  are,  and 
when  that  time  comes  that  everybody  is  willing  that  his  appetites  shall  be 
regulated  by  law,  it  will  be  when  every  ones  appetites  are  such  as  the  law 
requires  them  to  be. 

"Of  course  we  all  recognize  the  necessity  of  regulating  the  sale  of  intoxi 
cating  liquors  by  law.  This  necessity  I  fully  appreciate,  and  think  the 
statute  we  now  have  in  this  State  is  in  the  main  a  good  one.  But  after  all, 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE   LEGISLATION.  351 

the  great  reforms  which  we  seek  to  accomplish  must  in  the  main  be  wrought 
out  through  other  agencies  than  that  of  legislation. 

"Yours  trulv, 
"CHICAGO,  March  4,  1875.  "£MERY  A.  STORKS." 

In  November  of  the  same  year  he  delivered  an  address  at 
Aurora,  111.,  in  aid  of  the  Aurora  Temperance  Reform  Club.  No 
report  of  it  has  been  preserved.  The  Aurora  Daily  News  of 
November  II,  1875,  thus  describes  the  occasion: 

"  Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs  addressed  one  of  the  largest  audiences  ever 
assembled  in  Aurora,  at  Coulter's  Opera  House  last  night.  It  is  always  a 
pleasure  to  listen  to  Emery  A.  Storrs  on  any  subject,  but  especially  so,  on 
the  subject  of  temperance.  His  reference  to  the  influence  of  one  reformed 
man,  will  find  an  illustration  in  his  own  life  and  experience.  He  appears 
to  have  more  confidence  in  public  sentiment,  and  the  will  and  pluck  of  the 
inebriate  to  work  a  reform,  than  in  legislative  enactments.  Being  one  of 
the  leading  lawyers  of  the  Northwest,  his  opinion  in  this  respect  ought  to 
have  particular  force.  He  believes  however  in  using  all  legitimate  means 
of  warfare.  It  was  without  doubt  the  finest,  most  sensible  and  best  appre 
ciated  temperance  lecture  ever  delivered  in  this  city." 

The  path  of  wisdom  which  he  had  resolved  to  tread,  he 
desired  that  others  should  follow.  With  the  utmost  delicacy  and 
tact,  he  pleaded  with  every  one  in  whom  he  felt  an  interest,  and 
there  was  no  surer  mark  of  Mr.  Storrs'  friendship  and  regard 
than  his  gradually  bringing  a  conversation  round  to  this  topic, 
and  urging  the  cause  he  had  so  much  at  heart.  Soon  after  the 
address  given  at  the  Second  Baptist  Church  was  printed,  he  sent 
some  copies  to  a  friend,  with  a  characteristic  letter: — "If  you  get 
drunk  after  reading  this,  it  is  your  own  fault.  I  relieve  myself 
from  all  further  responsibility  in  the  matter.  Soberly  hopeful 
that  you  may  join  the  band  of  reformed  drunkards,  that  you  too 
may  be  4a  brand  plucked  from  the  burning,'  I  am  affectionately 
yours." 

In  all  things  his  views  were  eminently  practical,  and  he  has 
the  credit  of  having  been  one  of  the  first  to  give  practical  shape, 
to  temperance  work  in  enforcing  legislation  already  on  the  statute 
book,  and  in  devising  further  legislation  in  the  same  direction. 
In  February  1875  he  addressed  a  letter  to  Mr.  Andrew  Paxton 
suggesting  that  some  corporate  action  should  be  taken  by  the 
temperance  societies  of  Chicago  with  the  view  of  persuading  the 
heads  of  large  manufacturing  establishments,  and  employers  of 
labor  generally,  to  make  Monday  pay-day  instead  of  Saturday — a 


352  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

suggestion  which  has  since  taken  general  effect,  and  ripened  into 
a  custom.  Mrs.  T.  B.  Carse  had  been  personally  canvassing  the 
business  houses  with  this  end  in  view,  but  Mr.  Storrs  thought 
there  should  be  an  organized  influence  brought  to  bear.  Though 
convinced  that  prohibition  was  impracticable  in  the  present  con 
dition  of  American  society,  and  especially  in  the  large  cities,  he 
yet  saw  a  wide  field  open  for  useful  legislation  in  the  way  of 
regulating  and  restricting  the  liquor  traffic.  He  saw  that  young 
men  who  formed  drinking  habits  before  they  had  arrived  at  a 
knowledge  of  the  deep  responsibilities  of  life  were  the  most  likely 
of  all  to  pursue  the  drunkard's  career,  and  that,  though  general 
prohibition  could  not  be  made  operative,  all  classes  would  hail 
such  legislation  as  would  remove  temptation  from  the  young. 
At  the  time  of  the  railroad  riots  in  1877,  it  had  been  observed 
that  most  of  those  engaged  in  the  disturbance  in  Chicago  were 
minors,  inflamed  by  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors.  On  investi 
gation  it  was  ascertained  not  only  that  tens  of  thousands  of  boys 
under  age  were  daily  patrons  of  the  saloons,  but  that  most,  if 
not  all  of  the  dram-shops  were  in  the  habit  of  selling  them  liquor. 
There  were  then  in  round  numbers  about  3,000  saloons  in  the 
.city  of  Chicago,  and  the  number  of  minors  to  whom  they  freely 
sold  beer  and  liquor  was  estimated  at  30,000.  Among  the  minors 
who  were  then  patronizing  the  saloons  were  hundreds  of  young 
girls.  The  city  police  were  notoriously  inefficient  to  check  the 
evil,  even  if  they  did  not  connive  at  it.  This  horrible  state  of 
things  was  vividly  portrayed  and  vehemently  denounced  by  Mr. 
Storrs  in  a  stirring  address  which  he  delivered  in  Farwell  Hall 
in  February  1878.  The  facts  set  forth  in  that  address  were 
gathered  from  personal  investigation  by  Messrs.  F.  F.  Elmendorf 
and  Andrew  Paxton,  who  visited  a  large  number  of  saloons  in 
the  Winter  of  1877  and  were  eye-witnesses  of  the  scenes  of 
juvenile  depravity  permitted  in  them.  A  meeting  of  temperance 
men  and  women  was  held  in  November  1877,  at  which  the  for 
mation  of  a  Citizens'  League  was  suggested  for  the  purpose  of 
suppressing  this  branch  of  the  liquor  traffic,  and  saving  the 
youth  of  the  city  from  habits  of  dissipation  and  vice.  Mr.  Storrs 
drafted  the  constitution  of  the  "Chicago  Citizens'  League  for 
the  suppression  of  the  sale  of  liquor  to  minors," — the  first  organ 
ization  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States, — and  it  was  incorporated 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE   LEGISLATION  353 

under  the  laws  of  Illinois  in  April  1878,  Mr.  Storrs  and  three 
other  gentlemen,  Messrs.  F.  F.  Elmendorf,  I.  P.  Rumsey,  and 
Andrew  Paxton,  being  the  incorporators  to  whom  the  certificate 
was  issued.  Mr.  Elmendorf  was  chosen  as  the  first  president  of 
the  League,  and  Mr.  Paxton  was  appointed  prosecuting  agent. 
Mr.  Storrs  was  appointed  special  counsel.  Mr.  Paxton  was  pro 
vided  with  assistants,  so  that  each  division  of  the  city  should  be 
thoroughly  looked  after,  and  every  saloon-keeper  found  selling 
liquor  to  minors  prosecuted  and  punished.  The  result  of  their 
work  was  that  in  a  few  years  the  sale  of  liquor  to  minors  was 
diminished  by  seventy-five  per  cent,  and  may  now  be  said  to  be 
entirely  suppressed,  most  saloons  having  posted  conspicuously 
over  their  bars  a  notice  that  minors  are  not  allowed  on  the 
premises.  As  Mr.  Elmendorf  said,  this  action  of  the  League  has 
been  the  turning  point  in  the  lives  of  thousands  of  young  men 
in  Chicago.  The  liquor  dealers  formed  an  association  to  combat 
the  efforts  of  the  League,  one  of  its  purposes  being  to  defend  its 
members  against  prosecutions,  but  even  they  were  compelled  to 
recognize  the  principle  for  which  the  League  contended,  by  pass 
ing  a  resolution  that  no  saloon-keeper  who  sold  liquor  to  minors 
should  be  a  member  of  their  organization.  In  January  1883  the 
Chicago  Citizens'  League  were  able  to  report  that  during  the 
preceding  five  years  300  saloons  had  been  closed,  25,000  youths 
had  been  kept  out  of  saloons,  1600  saloon-keepers  had  been 
arrested,  3000  homes  had  been  visited,  the  League  had  saved  in 
police  and  criminal  law  expenses  $500,000  to  the  city,  and  had 
diverted  from  the  tills  of  the  saloon-keepers  to  the  proper  support 
of  families  £2,000,000.  The  agents  of  the  League  at  first 
encountered  obstacles  in  their  work  from  the  lukewarmness  of 
the  magistrates,  but  by  steady  perseverance  they  brought  even 
the  justices  round  to  their  side ;  judgments  were  given,  fines 
inflicted,  licences  revoked,  and  thus  the  laws  were  enforced. 
Each  successive  step  strengthened  the  movement,  and  made  the 
next  advance  more  easy. 

The  success  of  the  Chicago  Citizen's  League  led  to  the  forma 
tion  of  similar  leagues  all  over  the  country.  Other  Illinois  cities 
and  towns  followed  its  example,  with  equally  gratifying  results. 
From  Pennsylvania  and  Massachusetts,  and  from  other  States, 
Mr.  Storrs  was  applied  to  for  information  as  to  the  constitution 
23 


354  LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

and  working  of  the  Chicago  League;  and  even  from  the  Sand 
wich  islands  a  message  came  asking  for  the  same  information, 
with  a  view  to  similar  work  there.  Finally,  in  December  1882, 
the  Citizen's  Law  and  Order  League  of  Massachusetts,  one  of 
the  numerous  progeny  of  the  organization  which  first  took  work 
ing  shape  in  Mr.  Storrs'  practical  mind,  issued  a  call  for  a 
national  convention  to  be  held  at  Boston,  for  the  purpose  of 
forming  a  National  League.  The  convention  met  at  Boston  in 
February  1883,  and  Mr.  Elmendorf  was  elected  president  of  the 
National  League  then  formed,  Mr.  Storrs  being  chosen  as  chair 
man  of  the  standing  committee  on  enforcement  of  the  laws. 

The  local  movement  to  which  Mr.  Storrs  was  mainly  instru 
mental  in  giving  practical  shape,  is  now  a  national  organization 
having  branches  all  over  the  country;  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
wherever  its  influence  has  penetrated,  wherever  a  branch  league 
has  been  formed,  the  sale  of  liquors  to  minors  is  comparatively 
unknown,  and  even  the  saloon-keepers  themselves  acknowledge 
that  the  change  is  altogether  for  the  better. 

While  Mr.  Storrs  was  in  St.  Louis,  as  leading  counsel  for  the 
defence  on  the  trial  of  the  celebrated  Babcock  case,  he  had  occa 
sion  to  exhibit  his  power  of  extempore  oratory  in  a  remarkable 
manner.  The  case  was  won ;  his  client  was  honorably  acquitted ; 
and  there  gathered  around  Mr.  Storrs  in  the  Lindell  hotel  a  host 
of  congratulating  friends,  citizens  of  St.  Louis,  including  many 
eminent  members  of  the  St.  Louis  bar.  Some  of  these  were  dis 
posed  to  celebrate  the  occasion  by  conviviality,  but  Mr.  Storrs 
couid  not  be  induced  to  join  in  their  potations,  though  he  lent 
them  his  countenance,  and  sat  smiling  by,  drinking  lemonade. 
One  of  his  legal  brethren  suggested  that  he  surely  never  had 
gone  through  the  fatigues  of  such  a  trial  without  some  stronger 
stimulus  than  lemonade ;  he  doubted  its  power  of  inspiration,  and 
challenged  Mr.  Storrs  to  make  an  off-hand  temperance  speech. 
Mr.  Storrs  promptly  responded  to  the  challenge,  and  a  short-hand 
reporter  who  was  present  took  notes  of  what  he  said,  and  pub 
lished  the  speech  from  his  notes  after  Mr.  Storrs'  death.  It  is 
unquestionably  a  wonderful  effort,  and  shows  not  only  what  an 
amazing  command  of  language  Mr.  Storrs  had,  but  also  his  readi 
ness  in  marshaling  his  thoughts  on  the  shortest  notice,  so  that 
everything  he  said  was  clear  and  to  the  point.  Although  model- 


PRACTICAL    TEMPERANCE    LEGISLATION.  355 

cd  on  Mr.  Cough's  well-know  apostrophe  to  water, — which,  by 
the  way,  was  not  original  with  him,  but  is  traced  back  to  Loren 
zo  Dow, — the  speech  which  follows  is  so  thoroughly  characteristic 
in  ideas  and  method  of  expression  as  to  be  altogether  Mr.  Storrs' 
own  : 

"How  do  you  expect  to  improve  upon  the  beverage  furnished  by  nature? 
Here  it  is — Adam's  ale — about  the  only  gift  that  has  descended  undefiled 
from  the  Gasden  of  Eden !  Nature's  common  carrier — not  created  in  the 
rottenness  of  fermentation,  nor  distilled  over  guilty  fires!  Not  born  among 
the  hot  and  noxious  vapors  and  gases  of  worms  and  retorts,  confined  in 
reeking  vats,  placed  in  clammy  barrels  and  kegs,  stored  in  malarious  cellars 
full  of  rats  and  cobwebs !  No  adulteration  fills  it  with  sulphuric  acid,  spirits 
of  nitre,  stramonium,  other  deadly  drugs  and  poisons,  until  it  is  called  '  forty- 
rod  death,'  and  'bug-juice,'  'fusel  oil,'  and  'Jersey  lightning!'  It  is  not  kept 
standing  in  the  fumes  of  sour  beer  and  tobacco-smoke  in  saloons  exposed 
for  weeks  and  months  before  it  is  drank  to  the  odor  of  old  cigar-stubs  and 
huge  spittoons.  Virtues  and  not  vices  are  its  companions.  Does  it  cause 
drunkenness,  disease,  death,  cruelty  to  women  and  children?  Will  it  place 
rags  on  the  person,  mortgages  on  the  stock,  farm,  and  furniture?  Will  it 
consume  wages  and  income  in  advance  and  ruin  men  in  business?  No! 
But  it  floats  in  white  gossamer  clouds  far  up  in  the  quiet  summer  sky, 
and  hovers  in  dreamy  mist  over  the  merry  faces  of  all  our  sparkling 
lakes.  It  veils  the  woods  and  hills  of  earth's  landscapes  in  a  purple  haze, 
where  filmy  lights  and  shadows  drift  hour  after  hour.  It  piles  itself  in  tum 
bled  masses  of  cloud-domes  and  thunderheads,  draws  the  electric  flash  from 
its  mysterious  hiding-places,  and  seams  and  shocks  the  wide  air  with  vivid 
lines  of  fire.  It  is  carried  by  kind  winds  and  falls  in  rustling  curtains  of 
liquid  drapery  over  all  the  thirsty  woods  and  fields,  and  fixes  in  God's 
mystic  eastern  heavens  His  beautiful  bow  of  promise,  glorified  with  a 
radiance  that  seems  reflected  out  of  Heaven  itself.  It  gleams  in  the  frost 
crystals  of  the  mountain  tops  and  the  dews  of  the  valleys.  It  silently 
creeps  up  to  each  leaf  in  the  myriad  forests  of  the  world  and  tints  each 
fruit  and  flower.  It  is  here  in  the  grass-blades  of  the  meadows,  and  there 
where  the  corn  waves  its  tassels  and  the  wheat  is  billowing!  It  gems 
the  depths  of  the  desert  with  the  glad,  green  oasis,  winds  itself  in  oceans 
round  the  whole  earth,  and  roars  its  hoarse,  eternal  anthems  on  a  hun 
dred  thousand  miles  of  coast!  It  claps  its  hands  in  the  flashing  wave- 
crests  of  the  sea,  laughs  in  the  little  rapids  of  the  brooks,  kisses  the 
dripping,  moss-covered,  old  oaken  well-buckets  in  a  countless  host  of 
happy  homes!  See  these  pieces  of  cracked  ice,  full  of  prismatic  colors, 
clear  as  diamonds!  Listen  to  their  fairy  tinkle  against  the  brimming  glass, 
that  sweetest  music  in  all  the  world  to  one  half-fainting  with  thirst !  And 
so,  in  the  language  of  that  grand  old  man,  Gough,  I  ask  you,  Brothers  all, 
would  you  exchange  that  sparkling  glass  of  water  for  alcohol,  the  drink 
of  the  very  Devil  himself?" 


CHAPTER  XXL 


THE  ST.  LOUIS  WHISKY  RING. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  ST.  LOUIS  WHISKY  RING — ITS  METHOD  OF  OPERATIONS — THE 
PROSECUTIONS  CONDUCTED  FOR  POLITICAL  ENDS — IMMUNITY  GIVEN  TO  THE 
WORST  OFFENDER — AN  ATTEMPT  TO  CAST  DISCREDIT  UPON  PRESIDENT  GRANT 
BY  INDICTING  HIS  PRIVATE  SECRETARY — THE  PROSECUTIONS  RUN  IN  THE 
INTEREST  OF  SECRETARY  BRISTOW'S  PRESIDENTIAL  ASPIRATIONS— GENERAL 

BABCOCK'S  CAREER — THE  MEPHISTOPHELIAN  ARTS  OF  JOYCE  AND  MACDON- 
ALD  IN  CORRESPONDING  WITH  HIM — POPULAR  PREJUDICE  AGAINST  BABCOCK 
— ATTITUDE  OF  PRESIDENT  GRANT — HIS  LETTER  TO  MRS.  BABCOCK. 

THE  latter  years  of  President  Grant's  second  administration 
were  clouded  by  the  exposure  and  prosecution  of  a  wide 
spread  organization  to  defraud  the  Government  out  of  a  large 
portion  of  its  legitimate  revenue,  which  has  passed  into  history 
under  the  name  of  the  "  whisky  ring."  Before  General  Grant 
had  been  in  office  for  many  months  of  his  second  term,  "  it 
became  evident,"  to  use  the  words  of  the  President  himself, 
"that  the  Treasury  was  being  defrauded  of  a  portion  of  the 
revenue  that  it  should  receive  from  the  distillation  of  spirits  in 
the  West."  Efforts  were  made  by  the  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue,  by  sending  out  special  revenue  agents,  to  obtain 
evidence  of  the  fraud,  and  to  punish  those  concerned  in  it ;  but 
some  of  those  agents  were  not  themselves  proof  against  tempta 
tion,  and  they  were  bought  off  by  the  distillers.  It  was  not  till 
1875  that  conclusive  evidence  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Internal 
Revenue  Department,  showing  the  existence  of  a  combination 
among  the  distillers  and  revenue  officers  all  over  the  West, — in 
St.  Louis,  Peoria,  Pekin,  Chicago,  Milwaukee,  and  in  Indianapolis, 
Louisville,  New  Orleans,  and  other  places, — to  defraud  the 

356 


THE    ST.    LOUIS    WHISKY    RING.  357 

Government  by  the  manufacture  on  an  extensive  scale  of  whisky 
on  which  no  tax  was  pard. 

The  storm  broke  first  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  where  the 
"  ring "  had  been  in  operation  for  four  years.  In  that  time  it 
was  estimated  that  they  had  cheated  the  Government  out  of  over 
a  million  dollars.  All  the  officers  entrusted  with  the  collection 
of  the  public  revenue,  from  the  District  Collector  down  to  the 
humblest  gauger,  were  concerned  in  it,  for  without  their  conni 
vance  the  distillers  and  rectifiers  could  not  have  carried  on  their 
fraudulent  operations  for  a  single  day.  It  was  one  of  the  most 
powerful  combinations,  both  as  to  the  wealth  of  one  branch  of 
its  membership  and  as  to  the  official  power  and  advantages  of 
the  other,  of  which  the  history  of  this  country  furnishes  an 
example. 

The  high  duty  on  distilled  spirits,  which  was  imposed  as  a 
necessary  means  of  raising  revenue  to  carry  on  the  war,  and 
which  was  then  70  cents  per  gallon,  offered  a  tempting  induce 
ment  to  dishonest  revenue  officers  and  distillers  to  confederate 
together  to  defraud  the  Government.  A  "ring"  for  this  purpose 
was  formed  in  St.  Louis  early  in  1871,  by  one  Conduce  G. 
Megrue,  who  had  been  Assessor  of  Internal  Revenue  in  the 
Cincinnati  district,  and  was  transferred  to  the  St.  Louis  district 
in  that  year,  through  the  solicitation  of  his  friend  John  A.  Joyce, 
who  had  been  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury  Department  at  Washington, 
but  was  now  employed  as  Revenue  Agent  at  St.  Louis.  Megrue 
had  won  over  to  the  prosecution  of  his  schemes  all  the  highest 
officers  of  the  revenue  in  that  city, — Charles  W.  Ford,  the  Col 
lector,  John  Macdonald,  the  Supervisor,  Joyce,  the  Revenue 
Agent,  and  the  proprietor  and  editor  of  the  Globe-Democrat, 
William  M'Kee.  He  made  propositions  to  the  distillers  to 
begin  the  manufacture  of  illicit  whisky,  assuring  them  that  the- 
local  officers  of  the  Government  would  afford  them  protection, 
and  the  business  was  commenced  at  once,  the  distillers  paying 
over  every  Saturday  night  to  Megrue  one  half  the  tax,  or  35 
cents  on  every  gallon  of  whisky  on  which  the  duty  had  been 
evaded.  This  fund  was  divided  among  the  five  members  of  the 
ring  already  named.  The  other  half  was  the  profit  of  the  distil 
lers,  who  sold  their  illicit  whisky  to  the  rectifiers  at  15  cents  a 
gallon  less  than  the  regular  market  price,  retaining  20  cents  a 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

gallon  to  themselves.  Part  of  the  money  paid  to  the  "ring" 
collector,  Megrue,  went  to  bribe  the  gaugers  and  store-keepers 
employed  by  the  Government  at  the  distilleries.  In  the  short 
period  of  fourteen  months  after  its  organization,  the  St.  Louis 
ring,  it  was  calculated,  had  cheated  the  Government  out  of 
more  than  $600,000.  The  shares  of  each  of  the  five  members 
of  the  ring  in  that  time  were  over  $60,000  each. 

Megrue  left  St.  Louis  in  1872,  and  for  some  months  the  illicit 
manufacture  was  suspended.  The  ring  had  to  be  formed  anew. 
In  the  spring  of  1873  Joyce  took  command  of  its  operations, 
and  appointed  as  "ring''  collector  a  revenue  officer  of  the  name 
of  Fitzroy.  Every  Saturday  night,  Fitzroy  paid  over  to  Joyce 
the  money  he  had  got  from  the  distillers,  amounting  sometimes 
to  $1000,  and  some  weeks  as  high  as  $3000,  as  the  unlawful 
gains  of  the  week.  In  August  1874,  Fitzroy  was  succeeded  in 
the  performance  of  this  delicate  duty  by  Abijah  M.  Everest,  a 
gauger,  who  became  one  of  the  most  sensational  witnesses  for 
the  Government  in  the  trials  which  subsequently  occurred.  When 
the  scent  became  too  warm,  and  Abijah  stood  in  danger  of 
indictment  himself,  he  set  an  example  which  so  many  bank 
cashiers  have  followed  since,  and  fled  his  country.  He  was 
allured  back  from  Rome  on  promises  of  immunity,  to  testify  in 
the  only  case  where  his  testimony  was  of  least  service  in  bring 
ing  out  the  truth,  but  where  these  trials  had  assumed  a  political 
complexion,  and  were  being  used  to  make  political  capital  for 
an  aspirant  to  the  Presidential  chair  then  occupied  by  General 
Grant.  Everest  continued  to  be  the  collector  for  the  ring  until 
the  distilleries  at  St.  Louis  were  seized,  and  all  the  participants 
in  this  gigantic  scheme  of  fraud  were  arrested  and  put  upon  trial. 

This  catastrophe  happened  in  May,  1875.  Secret  agents  had 
.been  sent  out  from  Washington,  and  on  their  reports  orders 
were  given  to  seize  all  the  distilleries  where  illicit  whisky-making 
was  found  to  have  been  carried  on,  their  proprietors  placed 
under  arrest,  and  informations  filed  against  not  only  the  distillers 
but  against  all  the  revenue  officers  who  were  found  to  have  been 
concerned  in  the  fraud.  Joyce,  Macdonald,  and  M'Kee  were 
indicted,  tried,  and  convicted  of  complicity  in  the  business,  and 
sentenced  to  severe  terms  of  imprisonment  in  Jefferson  penitentiary. 

The    prosecutions    of    the    whisky    ring    conspirators    lasted    all 


THE    ST.    LOUIS   WHISKY    RING.  359 

through  the  Fall  of  1875.  A  Vl^  witness  for  the  Government 
was  the  rascal  Megrue,  who  was  the  originator  of  this  whole 
gigantic  scheme  of  fraud,  so  far  as  the  St.  Louis  district  was 
concerned,  and  whose  testimony  was  purchased  by  Secretary 
Bristow  and  his  subordinate  officers  by  a  promise  of  absolute 
immunity.  Megrue  took  good  care  to  have  clear  documentary 
proof  of  this  bargain  before  he  went  on  the  stand  to  testify. 

It  was  of  course  indispensibly  necessary,  in  order  to  carry  on 
the  fraudulent  operations  of  the  ring  without  molestation,  that 
there  should  be  some  official  confederate  in  Washington  who 
could  give  prompt  and  timely  information  of  any  indication  of 
suspicion  on  the  part  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue, 
or  any  action  on  his  part  with  the  view  of  unearthing  the  frauds. 
Such  a  confederate  was  easily  found  by  Joyce,  from  his  previous 
knowledge  of  the  Department,  in  the  person  of  William  O.  Avery, 
who  was  chief  clerk  in  the  office  of  the  Commissioner,  and  there 
fore  knew  of  all  orders  for  the  sending  out  of  secret  revenue 
agents  into  suspected  districts.  The  evidence  of  his  complicity 
becoming  apparent  on  the  trial  of  the  St.  Louis  conspirators,  he 
was  likewise  indicted,  tried,  and  convicted. 

In  the  course  of  Avery's  trial,  some  telegrams  which  had  been 
sent  to  Joyce  and  Macdonald  by  General  Babcock,  the  private 
secretary  of  President  Grant,  were  put  in  evidence  by  the  prose 
cution  ;  and  then  was  developed  the  purpose  of  the  prosecuting 
attorneys,  acting  in  furtherance  of  Secretary  Bristow's  pretensions 
to  the  Presidential  nomination  in  1876,  to  seek  to  connect  Presi 
dent  Grant,  through  his  confidential  secretary,  with  the  revenue 
frauds  in  St.  Louis.  Not  only  was  absolute  immunity  promised 
and  given  to  the  worst  and  most  guilty  of  the  conspirators,  but 
the  telegraph  offices  all  over  the  country  were  ransacked,  and, 
as  Mr.  Storrs  said,  "the  cradle  and  the  grave  were  robbed*"  to 
obtain  the  slightest  scrap  of  evidence  which  could  in  any  way  be 

*This  phrase  was  not  Mr.  Storrs'  own.  It  is  one  of  those  aphoristic  say 
ings  of  General  Grant  which  have  become  historical.  In  a  letter  to  Hon. 
E.  B.  Washburne,  August  16,  1864,  General  Grant  discusses  the  result  of 
"peace  on  any  terms"  for  which  some  politicians  at  the  North  were  clam 
oring,  and  in  that  letter  he  says: — "The  rebels  have  now  in  their  ranks 
their  last  man.  The  little  boys  and  old  men  are  guarding  prisons,  guarding 
railroad  bridges,  and  forming  a  good  part  of  their  garrisons  for  entrenched 
positions.  A  man  lost  by  them  cannot  be  replaced.  They  have  robbed 
alike  the  cradle  and  the  grave  to  get  their  present  force." 


360  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

construed  to  implicate  General  Babcock  in  these  transactions.  It 
was  notorious  then,  and  has  since  become  the  settled  verdict  of 
the  entire  nation,  that  the  private  secretary  of  the  President  was 
made  the  scape-goat  of  a  scheme  which  had  for  its  ultimate  end 
the  tarnishing  of  General  Grant's  good  name,  to  enable  a  man 
who  had  never  been  heard  of  outside  of  his  own  State  until 
Grant  made  him  a  member  of  his  Cabinet,  to  creep  by  unworthy 
methods  into  the  Presidential  chair.  It  is  now  matter  of  history 
that  Mr.  Bristow's  ambitious  schemes  were  defeated  in  the  Cin 
cinnati  Convention  of  1876,  which  nominated  Mr.  Hayes  of  Ohio 
as  President  Grant's  successor. 

The  officer  against  whom  this  unscrupulous  persecution  was 
directed  had  up  to  this  time  borne  an  unblemished  reputation, 
and  had  already,  though  quite  a  young  man,  won  for  himself  an 
honorable  military  and  civil  record  in  the  service  of  his  country. 
A  native  of  Vermont,  he  entered  West  Point  at  the  age  of  six 
teen,  graduating  in  1861,  when  he  went  upon  active  duty  as 
second  lieutenant  in  the  corps  of  engineers,  After  spending 
some  time  in  Washington  drilling  the  raw  New  England  troops, 
he  was  assigned  to  duty  in  connection  with  the  fortifications  about 
Washington,  and  afterwards  served  on  General  Banks'  staff  in  the 
Shenandoah  valley.  He  first  came  into  prominent  notice  when, 
as  chief  engineer  of  the  Ninth  army  corps,  he  followed  his  com 
mand  to  Vicksburg.  At  the  siege  of  that  city,  he  was  given 
charge  of  the  outer  line  of  the  attacking  works,  opposite  General 
Joe  Johnston.  General  Grant  visited  these  works  a  few  days 
after  their  completion,  and,  being  struck  with  the  skill  shown  in 
their  construction,  asked  for  the  officer  who  had  raised  them. 
This  led  to  the  first  meeting  between  Grant  and  Babcock.  Soon 
afterwards,  when  Vicksburg  fell  General  Grant  paid  Colonel  Bab 
cock  the  special  compliment  of  requesting  his  personal  attendance 
at  the  ceremony  of  the  surrender.  When  Grant  received  his 
commission  as  Lieutenant-General,  he  appointed  Babcock  to  a 
position  on  his  staff.  From  this  time  onwards  the  utmost  confi 
dence  was  reposed  in  General  Babcock  by  his  chief;  and  when 
Lee  finally  surrendered,  it  was  to  General  Babcock  that  was 
deputed  the  honorable  task  of  meeting  the  fallen  Confederate 
chieftain  to  arrange  all  the  necessary  preliminaries  for  that  cere 
mony  which  crowned  the  victory  of  the  Union  armies.  A 


THE   ST.    LOUIS    WHISKY    RING.  361 

friendship,  thus  commenced  on  the  field,  was  continued  after  the 
war  into  civil  life.  The  President  chose  his  trusted  companion 
in  arms  for  his  private  secretary,  and  General  Babcock  filled  that 
position  at  the  time  of  these  prosecutions. 

The  first  intimation  of  a  design  to  connect  General  Babcock 
with  the  whisky  frauds  came  on  the  trial  of  Macdonald  in 
November,  1875,  when  some  of  the  distillers  already  convicted 
testified  that  Joyce  had  told  them  that  Babcock  was  in  the  ring. 
No  witness,  however,  ventured  to  testify  to  this  as  a  fact 
within  his  own  knowledge.  Judge  Krum,  of  St.  Louis,  who  was 
defending  Macdonald,  immediately  telegraphed  to  General  Babcock 
informing  him  of  this  fact.  The  consternation  and  horror  that 
would  naturally  possess  a  high-minded  man  of  sensitive  honor  on 
hearing  of  such  an  accusation  can  well  be  imagined.  General 
Babcock  at  once  went  with  Krum's  despatch  to  Mr.  Bluford 
Wilson,  the  solicitor  of  the  Treasury,  and  asked  him  what  course 
he  thought  he  ought  to  pursue  for  his  own  vindication.  General 
Babcock  wished  to  go  to  St.  Louis  and  disclaim  on  oath  all 
knowledge  of  or  connection  with  the  ring,  but  Mr.  Wilson 
thought  it  unnecessary  for  him  to  do  so,  and  Judge  Krum  wrote 
that  upon  reflection  he  thought  it  would  be  unwise  for  General 
Babcock  to  take  any  notice  of  a  charge  made  in  such  a  way. 
The  contents  of  the  despatch  were  stated  to  Attorney  General 
Pierrepont,  who  was  still  more  emphatic  in  the  expression  of 
his  opinion,  stating  that  for  General  Babcock  to  go  to  St.  Louis 
to  vindicate  himself  against  statements  from  such  a  source 
would  be  both  "improper  and  unwise." 

So  the  matter  rested  until  the  trial  of  Avery  in  the  following 
week,  when  some  telegrams  from  Babcock  to  Joyce  and  Macdonald 
were  for  the  first  time  offered  in  evidence,  and  nearly  at  the  close 
of  that  trial.  "  Precisely  how  they  got  in  evidence,"  said  Mr. 
Storrs  afterwards,  "no  lawyer  has  ever  yet  been  able  to  under 
stand."  In  the  course  of  argument  as  to  their  admissibility, 
General  John  B.  Henderson,  who  had  been  engaged  as  special 
counsel  to  help  District  Attorney  Dyer  in  the  prosecutions,  made 
a  speech  in  which  he  accused  the  President  of  improperly  using 
his  authority  to  influence  the  action  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Internal  Revenue,  and  while  ironically  and  gratuitously  exonerat 
ing  the  President  from  actual  complicity  in  the  ring,  claimed  that 


362  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  President  had  been  grossly  deceived  and  imposed  upon  by 
persons  pretending  to  be  his  friends,  both  in  Washington  and  St. 
Louis, — among  which  pretended  friends  he  named  General  Bab- 
cock.  He  expressed  his  opinion  that  "General  Babcock  had 
performed  his  part"  in  connection  with  the  ring,  and  alluded 
mysteriously  to  some  secret  knowledge  possessed  by  the  prosecut 
ing  attorneys. 

Instantly  upon  the  report  of  Henderson's  speech  coming  into 
his  hands,  General  Babcock  sent  the  following  telegram  to  Dis 
trict  Attorney  Dyer: 

"I  am  absolutely  innocent,  and  every  telegram  which  I  sent 
will  appear  perfectly  innocent  the  moment  I  can  be  heard.  I 
demand  a  hearing  before  the  Court.  When  can  I  testify?" 

To  this  the  following  reply  was  received  by  him  on  the  same 
day : 

"  The  evidence  in  the  Avery  case  is  closed.  The  next  case 
involving  questions  of  conspiracy  is  set  for  the  fifteenth  of  Dec- 
cember.  David  P.  Dyer,  District  Attorney." 

General  Babcock  thereupon  addressed  a  letter  to  the  President, 
setting  forth  these  facts,  and  concluding  thus: 

"The  opportunity  to  answer  the  charges  contained  in  the 
above  speech  having  been  thus  denied  me,  and  being  left  with 
out  any  opportunity  to  vindicate  myself,  I  respectfully  demand  a 
court  of  inquiry,  and  request  that  an  immediate  investigation  be 
ordered." 

The  President  made  the  following  endorsement  upon  this  letter 
the  following  day,  December  3,  1875: 

"The  Secretary  of  War  may  convene  the  court  of  inquiry 
asked  for.  (Signed.)  U.  S.  Grant." 

A  court  of  inquiry  was  accordingly  ordered  to  assemble  at 
Chicago  on  the  pth  December,  consisting  of  Lieutenant-General 
Sheridan,  Major-General  W.  S.  Hancock,  and  Brigadier-General 
Terry,  with  Major  A.  B.  Gardner  as  Judge  Advocate.  On  the 
1 5th,  the  court  of  inquiry  was  dissolved  by  order  of  the  Presi 
dent,  General  Babcock  having  in  the  meantime  been  indicted  at 
St.  Louis. 

It  is  perhaps  only  fair  to  the  officials  of  the  Government  to 
say  that  they  were  not  the  first  to  try  to  involve  the  White 
House  in  the  disgrace  which  had  befallen  the  ring  conspirators. 


THE    ST.    LOUIS    WHISKY    KING.  363 

From  the  first,  Joyce  and  McDonald  had  sought  to  impress  the 
distillers  with  the  idea  that  they  had  friends  in  influential  station 
in  Washington,  and  that  the  money  which  they  were  stealing  was 
being  used  for  political  campaign  purpose  in  the  interest  of 
General  Grant's  administration.  They  adroitly,  as  we  shall  soon 
find,  concocted  a  correspondence  with  both  the  President  and 
General  Babcock,  the  answers  to  which  must  inevitably  be  so 
worded  as  to  confifm  the  idea  that  their  practices  were  known  and 
tacitly  permitted  by  the  Executive.  One  of  the  convicted  distillers 
was  said  to  have  declared  that  they  were  perfectly  safe,  inasmuch 
as  they  could  "  fix  things  to  bring  Babcock  and  other  high  officers 
into  the  scrape,  and  the  President,  who  would  be  a  candidate 
again,  could  not  afford  that."  The  statements  of  Joyce  and  Mac- 
donald,  industriously  circulated,  that  the  stealings  of  the  ring  were 
devoted  to  a  corrupt  campaign  fund,  were  eagerly  believed  by 
the  opponents  of  the  administration,  who  in  the  State  of  Missouri 
were  of  course  very  numerous,  and  whose  ranks  had  lately  been 
increased  by  the  defection  of  Carl  Schurz,  then  U.  S.  Senator  from 
Missouri,  and  other  equally  prominent  politicians,  from  the  Repub 
lican  party.  They  were  taken  up  by  the  organs  of  Bristow  and 
of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  public  press,  and  Grant  and  Bab 
cock  wrere  already  condemned  and  sentenced  by  able  editorial  jur 
ists  before  a  word  of  testimony  had  been  taken.  As  in  this  country 
everybody  forms  his  opinion,  to  some  extent  at  least,  from  the 
newspapers,  the  minds  of  the  people  in  Missouri  were  made  up, 
and  there  was  but  one  opinion  pervading  the  community  as  to 
General  Babcock's  guilt. 

The  height  to  which  popular  prejudice  ran  was  strikingly 
exemplified  in  the  case  of  Mr.  McKee  of  the  Globe-Democrat. 
His  case  differed  from  all  the  others  in  this  respect,  that  the  only 
testimony  against  him  was  that  of  Megrue  and  some  of  the  con 
spirators  who  were  already  convicted ;  and  the  eminent  judge 
before  whom  these  trials  were  all  conducted,  Judge  Dillon,  in  a 
careful  charge,  warned  the  jury  that  the  evidence  of  these  persons 
although  admissable  to  prove  any  acts  of  the  defendant  in  further 
ance  of  the  conspiracy,  ought  to  be  received  with  extreme  caution, 
and  carefully  scrutinized  and  considered  in  the  light  of  the  sur 
rounding  circumstances.  The  charge  was  generally  regarded 
as  strongly  in  favor  of  the  defendant,  and  people  of  both  po- 


364  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

itical  parties  were  astonished  at  the  conviction  of  McKee  on 
such  slender  and  suspicious  evidence  after  so  favorable 
a  charge.  The  leading  counsel  for  Mr.  McKee's  defence  was 
Dan  Voorhees  of  Indiana,  now  U.  S.  Senator  from  that 
State.  It  is  said  that  after  the  verdict  was  rendered,  a  St.  Louis 
lawyer,  not  distinguished  for  the  elegance  of  his  attire,  met  Voor 
hees  and  remarked  that  he  could  point  out  where  the  weak  point  in 
the  case  against  McKee  was.  Voorhees  shook  hfs  head  mournfully, 
and  replied, — "If  you  had  gone  before  that  jury  with  a  boiled 
shirt  on,  you  couldn't  have  cleared  your  Saviour."  It  was  with 
such  a  bitterly  prejudiced  public  sentiment  that  Mr.  Storrs  had  to 
contend  from  first  to  last  in  the  defence  of  General  Babcock. 

The  correspondents  of  the  press  at  Washington,  St.  Louis,  and 
elsewhere,  kept  up  an  incessant  stream  of  highly  spiced  gossip, 
all  tending  to  smirch  Babcock,  and  keep  alive  the  popular  impres 
sion  which  they  had  created  that  Babcock  was  guilty.  The 
newspaper  and  popular  verdict  was  thus  made  up  before  the  case 
was  tried.  One  writer  said, — "The  ring  went  to  Avery  for  infor 
mation,  but  relied  on  Babcock  for  influence."  This  was  after  the 
proof  in  the  case  clearly  showed  that  Babcock  had  given  the 
ring  no  information  whatever,  and  was  intended  to  make  it  appear 
that  President  Grant  had  really  been  corrupted  through  his  means. 
A  more  disgraceful  Presidential  "  boom  "  never  was  known  in  this 
country  than  that  in  aid  of  Bristow's  nomination  in  1876.  Of 
course,  the  shrewd  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  saw  at  once  the 
advantage  which  this  newspaper  clamor  against  Grant  and  his 
trusted  secretary  was  giving  him ;  and  his  subordinate  officers,  the 
solicitor  to  the  Treasury  and  the  District  Attorney  at  St.  Louis, 
were  willing  to  help  him  to  the  best  of  their  ability.  General 
Henderson  passed  the  bounds  of  discretion  in  his  zeal  to  oblige 
the  Secretary  whom  he  lo.oked  upon  as  the  rising  sun.  One  of 
the  subordinate  officers  of  the  Government  at  St.  Louis,  Major 
Eaton,  telegraphed  to  the  solicitor  to  the  Treasury  immediately  on 
the  close  of  the  Avery  trial: 

"Nov.  29,  1875.  In  three  separate  telegrams  I  have  sent  you  the  lang 
uage,  dates,  and  parties  to  ten  telegrams  between  here  and  Washington. 
Henderson,  Dyer,  and  myself  regard  the  prosecution  of  Babcock  as  now  an 
inevitable  duty.  We  wish  you  to  lay  these  telegrams  before  the  Secretary 
and  Attorney  General  to-night  if  possible,  and  that  you  see  to  the  fullest 
compliance  with  sub  poena  duces  sent  on  Saturday.  Henderson  skillfully 
made  a  neat  vindication  of  the  President  in  course  of  proceedings." 


THE    ST.    LOUIS    WHISKY    RING.  365 

After  the  indictment  of  General)  Babcock,  the  newspapers 
fairly  bubbled  over  with  all  kinds  of  gossip,  the  organs  of  Bris- 
tow  even  outdoing  the  Democratic  papers  in  the  virulence  of 
their  comment.  District  Attorney  Dyer  paid  a  visit  to  Washing 
ton,  and  immediately  there  came  out  in  a  Bristow  paper  a  dis 
patch  from  its  Washington  correspondent,  giving  an  account  of 
a  pretended  interview  between  him  and  Attorney  General  Pierre- 
pont  in  the  presence  of  Secretary  Bristow,  in  which  it  was  said, 
— "  Pierrepont  told  Dyer  that  he  must  return  to  St.  Louis,  and 
proceed  according  to  his  own  pleasure,  but  he  explained  that  the 
evidence  against  Babcock  ought  to  be  very  sure  and  strong  to 
justify  an  indictment;  that  it  would  produce  great  scandal,  deeply 
mortify  the  President,  and,  if  not  sustained  by  a  verdict  of  guilty, 
would  do  great  harm  to  all  concerned.  Bristow  remarked  rather 
tartly,  'Do  your  duty,  General  Dyer,  and  the  consequences  will 
take  care  of  themselves.'"  This  entire  story,  so  far  as  it  is  related 
to  himself,  Mr.  Pierrepont  denounced  as  untrue.  If  true  to  the 
letter,  it  contained  nothing  to  his  discredit;  but  it  showed  very 
obtrusively  the  animus  of  the  paper  in  which  it  appeared,  to  hold 
Bristow  forth  to  the  world  as  a  public  spirited  officer,  who,  in 
his  Brutus-like  virtue,  would  not  spare  even  the  President  himself. 

What  the  President  thought  of  Mr.  Henderson's  "  neat  vindi 
cation"  was  shown  by  his  dismissal,  immediately  after  the  close 
of  the  Avery  trial,  from  the  further  prosecution  of  these  cases, 
and  the  appointment  of  General  Broadhead  of  St.  Louis  in  his 
place.  Immediately  there  was  a  howl  in  all  the  Democratic 
papers,  and  all  sorts  of  accusations  were  brought  against  the 
President.  The  Washington  correspondent  of  the  St.  Louis 
Republican  ventured  to  say, — "  Grant  does  not  dare  order  a  nol. 
pros,  in  Babcock's  case,  but  it  is  certain  he  has  only  been  pre 
vented  from  so  doing  by  Pierrepont,  and  there  is  authority  beyond 
contradiction  for  the  statement  that  he  did  actually  order  the 
whole  proceedings  against  Babcock  stopped  before  the  dismissal 
of  Henderson,  and  that  action  would  have  been  taken  if  the 
indignation  over  Henderson's  discharge  had  not  frightened  Grant 
too  much."  Honored  as  only  two  occupants  of  the  Presidential 
chair  before  him  have  been, — known  and  loved  as  he  is  now 
known  and  loved, — it  is  impossible  to  recall  such  a  diatribe  as 
this  against  the  grand,  silent  hero  without  a  blush  of  indignation, 


366  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Henderson  did  not  take  his  dismissal  with  a  good  grace,  but 
for  once  confided  in  the  correspondent  of  a  Democratic  news 
paper,  who  reported  him  as  "talking  with  a  little  party  of 
friends," — of  whom  the  writer  was  no  doubt  one, — and  saying, 
"I  doubt  if  people  really  understand  how  strong  this  case  is 
against  Babcock.  It  ought  to  be  presented  to  the  public  all 
together  and  connectedly.  The  papers  have  published  the  evi 
dence  piece-meal,  and  then  the  telegrams  by  themselves,  and 
very  few,  aside  from  the  attorneys  in  the  case,  understand  how 
complete  is  the  web  of  proof."  When  the  case  was  presented  to 
the  public  "all  together  and  connectedly,"  the  public  saw  fit  to 
reach  the  very  opposite  conclusion  from  that  arrived  at  by  General 
Henderson. 

The  attitude  of  the  President,  while  newspapers  of  the  copper 
head  and  mugwump  stripe  were  busy  defaming  him,  holding  him 
personally  responsible  for  the  wrong-doings,  alleged  or  actual,  of 
men  who  owed  their  commissions  to  him,  was  the  same  as 
always  characterized  him  in  all  the  crises  of  his  fortune.  Mag 
nanimous,  brave,  as  he  had  been  under  the  fire  of  detraction  in 
the  early  stages  of  the  war,  he  regarded  this  new  phase  of 
copperhead  warfare  with  the  same  calm  indifference,  trusting  to 
the  good  sense  of  his  countrymen  in  the  long  run  to  do  him 
justice.  When  he  was  informed  by  a  friend  in  St.  Louis,  a  few 
weeks  after  the  seizure  of  the  distilleries,  that  an  effort  was  being 
made  there  to  connect  his  name  with  the  whisky  frauds  on 
account  of  his  acquaintance  with  Macdonald  and  Joyce,  and  that 
he  was  being  slanderously  assailed  by  members  of  the  ring,  he 
quietly  sent  the  letter  to  Secretary  Bristow  with  the  following 
endorsement : 

"July  29,  1875.  Referred  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  This  was 
intended  as  a  private  letter  for  my  information,  and  contained  many  extracts 
from  St.  Louis  papers  not  deemed  necessary  to  forward.  They  are  obtain 
able,  and  I  have  no  doubt  have  been  read  by  the  Federal  officials  in  St. 
Louis.  I  forward  this  for  information,  and  to  the  end  that  if  it  throws  any 
light  upon  new  parties  to  summon  as  witnesses  they  may  be  brought  out. 
Let  no  guilty  man  escape  if  it  can  be  avoided.  Be  specially  vigilant,  or 
instruct  those  engaged  in  the  prosecution  of  fraud  to  be,  against  all  who 
insinuate  that  they  have  high  influence  to  protect  them.  No  personal  con 
sideration  should  stand  in  the  way  of  performing  public  duty. 

"U.  S.  GRANT." 

Secretary  Bristow  caused  the  endorsement  to  be  copied,  and  it 


THE    ST.    LOUIS    WHISKY    RING.  367 

was  given  to  the  public.  It  was  acknowledged  on  all  hands  that 
the  prosecuting  officers  were  materially  aided  by  these  manly 
words  of  encouragement  and  cheer,  and  the  ring  in  St.  Louis  was 
proportionately  demoralized.  Nevertheless,  the  party  organs  would 
not  take  General  Grant  at  his  word,  and  went  on  circulating  their 
defamatory  statements  concerning  him,  just  as  though  he  had 
been  proven  to  have  in  any  way,  by  word  or  act,  aided  the 
ring.  The  President  never  suffered  himself  to  be  moved  from  his 
wonted  serenity,  and  trod  the  path  of  duty,  now  made  for  him  a 
very  thorny  one,  with  as  much  apparent  unconcern  as  though  the 
newspapers  that  abused  him  had  no  existence.  But  he  refused  to 
be  "vindicated"  in  General  Henderson's  "neat"  fashion.  He 
would  not  allow  a  stain  of  suspicion  to  rest  upon  his  name,  and 
this  must  have  remained  had  it  been  possible  to  believe  that  his 
private  secretary,  or  anybody  else,  had  influence  enough  to  turn 
him  from  the  course  of  his  plain  duty  in  the  interests  of  any 
ring.  He  felt  keenly  that  the  attack  upon  Babcock  was  really 
an  assault  upon  himself  as  President.  He  knew  that  Babcock 
was  innocent  of  the  charge  made  against  him.  The  moment  that 
General  Henderson's  speech  was  made  public,  General  Babcock 
went  to  the  President  and  explained  all  there  was  requiring  expla 
nation  in  regard  to  the  telegrams  by  which  it  was  sought  to 
connect  him  with  the  St.  Louis  ring.  They  were  all  susceptible 
of  explanation  consistent  with  the  entire  innocence  of  General 
Babcock;  and  as  to  some  of  them,  President  Grant  himself 
remembered  the  circumstances  of  their  origin  so  clearly  that  he 
was  satisfied  that  this  explanation  had  only  to  be  made  to  the 
country,  and  his  private  secretary  would  be  fully  vindicated.  He 
was  not  a  man  to  desert  his  friends  in  the  hour  of  peril ;  indeed, 
the  steadfastness  with  which  he  stood  by  them  until  it  had  been 
proved  that  they  were  unworthy  of  the  confidence  he  had  placed 
in  them  was  one  of  the  heaviest  accusations, — the  only  one,  in 
fact, — that  ever  was  brought  against  this  great  soldier  and  states 
man  by  his  bitterest  opponents  in  political  life.  He  was  sure  of 
the  entire  innocence  of  General  Babcock ;  he  knew  the  purpose 
for  which  Babcock  was  assailed ;  he  never  took  the  slightest 

o 

notice  of  the  attacks  made  upon  himself  by  the  American  press, 
but  he  stood  by  his  friend  all  through  the  terrible  ordeal  to 
which  he  was  subjected.  To  one  who  conversed  with  him  on 


368  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A   STORKS. 

the  subject  just  after  General  Babcock  had  been  indicted,  he  said: 

"My  confidence  in  General  Babcock  is  unimpaired  and  undiminished. 
With  the  light  before  me  to-day  and  my  knowledge  of  the  man,  if  the 
Government  had  any  great  work  on  hand  requiring  the  services  of  a  skillful 
and  faithful  man  as  engineer,  I  know  of  no  one  whom,  as  Executive,  I  would 
select  in  preference  to  General  Babcock.  The  work  he  has  done  in  this 
city  (Washington)  is  proof,  as  far  as  can  be,  of  the  correctness  of  this  esti 
mate.  Since  his  time  as  Acting  Commissioner  of  Public  Grounds  and  Build 
ings  in  Washington,  members  of  Congress,  in  speaking  of  Ms  work  and  the 
improvement  of  the  public  grounds,  have  expressed  great  satisfaction,  and 
have  said  to  me:  'Now  we  can  see  where  the  public  money  goes.'  There 
never  has  been  a  deficiency  with  General  Babcock  since  his  time  as  Acting 
Commissioner." 

And  on  the  very  day  after  the  indictment  was  found,  and  he 
had  ordered  the  dissolution  of  the  Chicago  court-martial,  he 
addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  sorrowing  wife  of  his  maligned 
secretary : 

"WASHINGTON,   December  iyth,   1875. 

'•EXECUTIVE  MANSION. 

"  MY  DEAR  MRS.  BABCOCK  : — I  know  how  much  you  must  be  distressed 
at  the  publications  of  the  day  reflecting  upon  the  integrity  of  your  husband, 
and  write  therefore  to  ask  you  to  be  of  good  cheer  and  wait  for  his  full 
vindication.  I  have  the  fullest  confidence  in  his  integrity,  and  of  his  inno 
cence  of  the  charges  now  made  against  him.  After  the  intimate  and  confi 
dential  relations  that  have  existed  between  him  and  myself  for  near  four 
teen  years,  during  the  whole  of  which  time  he  has  been  one  of  my  most 
confidential  aides  and  private  secretary,  I  do  not  believe  it  possible  that  I 
can  be  deceived.  It  is  scarcely  possible  that  he  could,  if  so  disposed,  be 
guilty  of  the  crime  now  charged  against  him  without  at  least  having  created 
a  suspicion  in  my  mind.  I  have  had  no  such  suspicion  heretofore,  nor  have 
I  now.  His  services  to  the  government,  in  every  capacity  where  he  has 
been  employed,  have  been  so  valuable,  and  rendered  with  such  a  view  to 
its  good,  that  it  precludes  the  theory  of  his  conspiring  against  it  now. 

"My  confidence  in  General  Babcock  is  the  same  now  as  it  was  when  we 
were  together  in  the  field,  contending  against  the  known  enemies  of  the 
government. 

"With  great  confidence  in  the  full  vindication  of  him,  I  remain  very 
truly,  "U.  S.  GRANT." 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE  TRIAL  OF  GENERAL  BABCOCK. 

I. 
THE  PROSECUTION. 

MR.  STORR5  RETAINED  AS  LEADING  COUNSEL  FOR  THE  DEFENSE  OF  GENERAL 
BABCOCK — OPENING      SPEECH      OF      DISTRICT       ATTORNEY      DYER — CON* 
MEGRUE'S    EVIDENCE    RULED    OUT— MR.    STORRS'   CROSS-EXAMINATION  OF 

THE  GOVERNMENT  WITNESSES— WHERE  THE  RING  GOT  THEIR  INFORMATION 
OF  THE  COMING  OF  REVENUE  AGENTS — A  CONSCIENTIOUS  GAUGER — TESTI 
MONY  OF  ABIJAH  M.  EVEREST — JOYCE'S  HOCUS  POCUS  WITH  THE  TWO  $$OO 
BILLS— TESTIMONY  OF  THE  COMMISSIONER  AND  DEPUTY  COMMISSIONER  OF 
INTERNAL  REVENUE — ARGUMENT  ON  ADMISSION  OF  TELEGRAMS — "CHOPS 
AND  TOMATO  SAUCE" — HOW  COLONEL  BROADHEAD  ACCENTUATED  A  TELE 
GRAM — JOYCE'S  DECLARATIONS  RULED  OUT — TESTIMONY  OF  REVENUE 
AGENT  BROOKS — THE  GOVERNMENT  CASE  CLOSED. 

MR.  STORRS,  reputation  as  a  brilliant,  shrewd,  sagacious 
lawyer  was  now  fully  established.  He  stood  at  the  head 
of  his  profession  in  Chicago  as  a  successful  jury  lawyer,  and  the 
better  informed  of  his  legal  brethren,  both  on  the  bench  and  at 
the  bar,  had  long  ago  begun  to  recognize  that  behind  an  almost 
flippant  readiness  in  all  emergencies  there  was  a  solid  reserve  of 
careful  and  laborious  preparation,  and  that  his  sparkling  wit  and 
humorous  repartee  were  merely  accessory  to  sound  learning  and 
thorough  mastery  of  all  the  points  involved  in  the  case  with 
which  for  the  time  being  he  had  to  deal.  He  had  argued  cases 
before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  at  Washington, 
and  distinguished  himself  in  the  presence  of  that  imposing  forum 
by  the  clearness  of  his  logic,  the  luminousness  of  his  statements 
of  fact,  and  his  rare  and  happy  faculty  of  hitting  the  very  core 
of  the  questions  at  issue,  and  impressing  the  Court,  as  he  had 
24  369 


3/O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

so  many  times  impressed  juries,  with  the  force  of  the  reasoning 
he  could  bring  to  bear  in  favor  of  his  own  positions.  The 
crowning  triumph  of  his  career  at  the  bar  was  achieved  when 
he  was  selected  as  the  leading  counsel  for  the  defence  of  General 
Babcock  at  St.  Louis.  The  trial  was  one  of  national  importance, 
made  so  by  the  urgency  with  which  the  mugwumps  and  Demo 
crats  all  over  the  country  clamored  in  advance  for  a  conviction, 
and  the  equally  firm  determination  of  the  President  and  his 
friends  that  justice  should  be  done.  To  have  the  principal 
management  of  so  great  a  case  entrusted  to  him  at  this  time 
brought  Mr.  Storrs  thenceforward  into  the  front  rank  of  Ameri 
can  advocates. 

The  trial  of  General  Babcock  for  complicity  in  the  St.  Louis 
whisky  frauds  came  on  in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court  at  St. 
Louis,  on  the  8th  of  February,  1876.  The  Judges  before  whom 
•the  case  was  tried  were  men  of  the  highest  reputation  as  jurists. 
Judge  Dillon  was  known  to  every  student  as  an  authority  on  the 
law  of  corporations,  and  had  only  narrowly  missed  being  appointed 
Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States.  His  associate,  Judge  Treat, 
was  one  of  the  oldest  Judges  in  the  country.  The  counsel  for 
the  prosecution  were  all  well-known  in  the  State  of  Missouri. 
Colonel  Broadhead,  who  relieved  General  Henderson  after  his 
speech  in  the  Avery  trial,  had  been  a  gallant  Union  soldier,  and 
besides  serving  his  State  in  both  branches  of  the  legislature,  had 
filled  the  office  of  United  States  District  Attorney  at  St.  Louis. 
General  Dyer,  who  was  now  District  Attorney,  studied  law  in 
the  office  of  Colonel  Broadhead.  Messrs.  Eaton,  Bliss,  and  Ped- 
drick  were  the  assistant  attorneys  for  the  prosecution. 

Associated  with  Mr.  Storrs  for  the  defence  were  two  gentle 
men  who  had  already  held  a  conspicuous  place  before  the  public 
as  lawyers  of  the  foremost  rank.  Judge  J.  K.  Porter  of  New 
York  had  just  come  out  of  the  long,  protracted  and  sensational 
Beecher-Tilton  case,  in  which  he  made  a  memorable  speech  for 
the  defence,  and  everybody  recollects  how  ably  he  afterwards  led 
for  the  prosecution  in  the  trial  of  the  assassin  Guiteau.  With 
them  was  ex-Attorney  General  Williams,  who  had  been  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  and  its  representative  in  the 
United  States  Senate  when  it  was  admitted  as  a  State.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  High  Joint  Commission  on  the  Alabama  claims, 


THE   TRIAL   OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  371 

and  Attorney  General  of  the  United  States  from  1871  to  1875. 
The  local  attorneys  for  the  defence  were  Judge  John  M.  Krum 
and  his  son,  Mr.  Chester  H.  Krum. 

Judge  Porter  having  only  arrived  in  St.  Louis  the  previous 
day,  an  adjournment  was  asked  by  Mr.  Storrs  and  allowed,  to 
give  the  defendant's  counsel  an  opportunity  for  consultation;  and 
the  trial  commenced  on  Tuesday,  February  9th,  lasting  nearly  to 
the  end  of  the  month.  By  agreement,  the  jury  was  drawn  from 
the  remnant  of  the  September  panel  and  a  subsequent  special 
venire,  the  names  of  the  whole  number  being  drawn  at  random 
on  written  slips  shaken  up  indiscriminately  in  a  box.  No  tech 
nical  challenges  were  resorted  to  by  the  defence,  and  in  a  sur 
prisingly  short  time  a  jury  was  obtained, — the  political  prophets 
who  expected  a  vigorous  fight  on  the  part  of  the  defendant  in 
the  selection  of  a  jury  being  egregiously  out  in  their  calculations. 
General  Babcock's  counsel  thus  showed  at  the  outset  their  abso 
lute  confidence  in  the  merits  of  their  case  and  their  client.  The 
opening  speech  for  the  Government  was  made  by  District  Attor 
ney  Dyer.  After  reciting  the  history  of  the  St.  Louis  ring,  of 
which  an  outline  has  already  been  given,  he  came  down  to  the 
point  where  it  was  expected  that  the  prosecution  would  be  able 
to  prove  the  connection  of  General  Babcock  with  the  conspiracy. 
This  was  to  be  done  by  the  introduction  of  the  telegrams  on 
which  General  Henderson  based  his  remarks  in  the  Avery  case. 

Collector  Ford  had  died  in  Chicago  in  October  1873,  while  on 
a  visit  to  friends  there.  Joyce  thereupon  opened  a  correspondence 
with  General  Babcbck  as  to  the  appointment  of  a  successor  to 
Ford,  giving  Babcock  to  understand  that  he  wished  to  have  the 
vacant  place.  General  Babcock  laid  Joyce's  application  before 
the  President;  but  General  Grant  decided,  that  as  Mr.  Ford  had 
died  away  from  home,  and  his  accounts  might  have  to  be  settled 
up,  the  bondsmen  of  Collector  Ford  should  be  allowed  to  recom 
mend  a  successor.  General  Babcock  therefore  telegraphed  back 
to  Joyce  in  these  words: — " See  that  Ford's  bondsmen  recommend 
you  for  Collector  for  this  district."  Joyce  telegraphed  back, — 
"  The  bondsmen  prefer  the  man  that  they  have  recommended," 
and  a  telegram  was  sent  to  the  President  by  these  bondsmen, 
recommending  Colonel  Constantine  Maguire.  The  President  there 
upon  appointed  Maguire;  but  Joyce  again  foisted  himself  upon 


372  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  attention  of  the  secretary  with  a  despatch — "  See  the  despatch 
sent  to  the  President;  we  mean  it;  mum."  It  was  quite  clear, — 
and  the  case  for  the  defence,  when  it  came  to  be  presented,  left 
no  room  for  doubt, — that  Joyce  had  nothing  whatever  to  do 
with  securing  the  appointment  of  Maguire  as  collector  at  St- 
Louis.  But  the  prosecuting  attorneys  saw  something  suspicious 
in  the  words,  "  we  mean  it ;  mum ;  "  and  particularly  in  the  last 
word,  "mum."  Mr.  Dyer  contended  that  this  word  indicated  a 
secret  understanding  already  established  between  Joyce  and  Bab- 
cock  as  to  whisky  matters  in  St.  Louis.  When  the  entire  corres 
pondence  between  Babcock  and  Joyce  was  put  in  evidence  by 
the  defence,  it  was  seen  to  bear  a  perfectly  harmless  construction. 
Early  in  1874,  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  ordered 
Joyce  to  go  to  San  Francisco,  and  the  point  was  made  by  the 
District  Attorney  that  this  was  done  by  Commissioner  Douglass 
because  he  had  begun  to  suspect  Joyce's  integrity.  When  the 
Commissioner  came  on  the  stand  as  a  witness  for  the  Govern 
ment,  however,  he  did  not  sustain  this  view  of  his  action.  Just 
before  Joyce  left,  he  telegraphed  to  General  Babcock, — "  Make 
D.  call  off  his  scandal  hounds,  that  only  blacken  the  memory  of 
Ford  and  friends."  This  was  construed  to  mean  that  Babcock 
knew  of  previous  frauds  to  which  Ford  was  a  party,  and  was 
asked  to  use  his  influence  with  the  Commissioner  to  prevent 
investigation.  Joyce  was  absent  from  St.  Louis  for  some  months, 
during  which  no  illicit  whisky  was  made;  but  directly  on  his 
return  operations  were  resumed.  He  -gave  Fitzroy  a  memorandum 
of  assignments  of  gangers  and  storekeepers  to  the  distilleries 
which  he  wished  to  be  made,  and  Collector  Maguire  made  the 
assignments  in  conformity  with  that  list.  Directly  after  this, 
Joyce  visited  Washington  on  the  pretence  of  reporting  in  person 
to  Commissioner  Douglass  as  to  his  work  in  San  Francisco,  but 
in  reality  to  find  out  what  was  being  done  in  the  way  of  sending 
out  detective  agents,  and  to  ascertain  the  feeling  of  the  Depart 
ment.  He  telegraphed  back  to  Macdonald, — "  Things  look  all 
right  here;  let  the  machine  go;"  and  two  days  afterwards  he 
telegraphed  to  Macdonald, — "Matters  are  in  good  shape  here;  go 
it  lively."  In  October  1874,  Joyce  was  advised  by  telegram  from 
Avery  of  the  raid  which  Commissioner  Douglass  was  then  preparing. 
The  despatch  was  thus  worded, — "Your  friend  is  in  New  York, 


THE   TRIAL   OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  373 

and  may  come  out  to  see  you."  The  friend  referred  to  was  Mr. 
Brooks,  one  of  the  most  trusted  secret  agents  of  the  Treasury 
Department.  On  the  25th  of  that  month,  Joyce  telegraphed  to 
Babcock, — " Have  you  talked  with  D.?  Are  things  right?  How?" 
No  answer  to  this  telegram  was  found;  in  fact,  none  was  sent. 
The  next  telegram  from  Joyce  to  General  Babcock  was  dated 
December  3d,  and  was  in  these  words, — "Has  Secretary  or  Com 
missioner  ordered  anybody  here?"  To  this  General  Babcock 
replied,  two  days  afterwards, — "Can't  hear  that  any  one  has  gone 
or  is  going."  Macdonald  went  to  Washington  in  the  early  part 
of  December,  and  on  a  visit  to  the  Commissioner's  office  found  a 
letter  from  Brooks  to  Deputy  Commissioner  Rogers,  in  which  the 
proposed  raid  was  discussed.  He  took  a  copy  of  the  letter  to 
General  Babcock,  and  called  his  attention  to  the  following  passage 
in  it: — "May  I  ask  that  any  Western  case  you  think  we  can 
work  shall  be  put  in  such  a  state  that  we  can  take  charge  of  it, 
and  so  make  the  trip  profitable  to  the  Department  and  satisfactory 
to  ourselves."  The  phrase,  "satisfactory  to  ourselves,"  he  sug 
gested  to  Babcock,  had  a  blackmailing  look,  and  asked  the 
General  to  see  Commissioner  Douglass  about  it.  In  the  meantime 
he  himself  went  to  Deputy  Commissioner  Rogers,  and  boldly 
made  a  protest,  on  the  strength  of  the  information  the  purloined 
letter  had  given  him.  He  said  to  Rogers,  "I  don't  want  you  to 
tell  me  anything,  but  I  have  something  to  tell  you.  You  have 
ordered  revenue  agents  into  my  district,  and  I  protest  against  it. 
If  your  officers  there  are  fit  to  be  there,  you  ought  to  trust  them ; 
if  not,  turn  them  out."  Rogers  never  knew  until  the  Avery  trial 
how  Macdonald  came  by  his  information,  but  seeing  that  the 
secret  expedition  which  the  Department  had  planned  was  known 
to  Macdonald,  it  was  abandoned.  In  a  few  days  afterwards, 
General  Babcock  met  Commissioner  Douglass,  and  was  informed 
by  him  that  the  contemplated  raid  was  not  to  take  place. 
Macdonald  having  appealed  to  him  in  the  matter,  General  Bab 
cock,  as  soon  as  he  learned  this,  sent  the  following  telegram  to 
Macdonald. — "I  have  succeeded;  they  will  not  come;  I  will  write 
you."  To  this  despatch  he  put  the  signature,  "Sylph;"  and  the 
occult  meaning  of  that  word  exercised  the  ingenuity  of  prosecuting 
counsel  and  newspaper  reporters  all  through  the  trial.  This  tele 
gram,  with  its  unintelligible  signature,  was  taken  as  proof  that 


374  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Babcock  was  a  member  of  the  St.  Louis  whisky  ring!  Joyce 
undoubtedly  used  it  among  the  distillers  with  a  view  to  create 
that  impression,  and  to  reassure  them  in  their  manufacture  of 
illicit  whisky.  In  January  1875,  Commissioner  Douglass  addressed 
a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  advising  that  the  Super 
visors  and  Revenue  Agents  be  changed  from  one  district  to 
another,  and  under  the  order  which  the  Secretary  made,  Macdonald 
and  Joyce  were  transferred  to  Philadelphia,  and  the  officers  of 
corresponding  rank  there  were  ordered  to  St.  Louis.  Macdonald 
at  once  telegraphed  .to  the  Commissioners, — "Don't  like  the 
order;  it  will  damage  the  Government  and  injure  the  administra 
tion."  Other  Revenue  officers  protested,  and  the  order  was 
subsequently  revoked  by  order  of  the  President.  It  was  charged 
that  General  Babcock  had  used  his  influence  with  the  President 
to  secure  the  revocation  of  this  order;  and  this  was  the  improper 
interference  with  the  action  of  Commissioner  Douglas  to  which 
General  Henderson  referred  in  his  speech  in  the  Avery  case.  In 
March,  1875,  m  answer  to  a  letter  from  Macdonald  about  the 
movements  in  Washington  of  a  citizen  of  St.  Louis  whom  he 
supposed  to  be  trying  to  oust  him  from  his  place,  General 
Babcock  sent  Macdonald  the  following  telegram: — "Letter  received. 
Have  seen  the  gentleman,  and  he  seems  very  friendly.  Is  here 
looking  after  improvements  of  river."  This  telegram  was  also  put 
in  evidence  as  proof  of  General  Babcock's  complicity  in  the 
whisky  frauds;  and  the  four  despatches  sent  by  him  as  above 
recited  are  positively  all  the  documentary  proof  the  prosecution 
were  able  to  find  against  him. 

The  charge  against  General  Babcock,  then,  as  outlined  by  District 
Attorney  Dyer,  rested  upon  four  telegrams  sent  by  Joyce  and 
Macdonald.  and  upon  the  peculiarly  worded  telegrams  from  Joyce 
to  Babcock,  which  were  construed  as  evidence  that  Babcock  was 
a  member  of  the  St.  Louis  ring,  and  aiding  its  operations  by  his  influ 
ence  in  Washington.  In  support  of  this  theory,  the  prosecuting 
attorneys  introduced  the  testimony  of  several  of  the  conspirators, 
of  the  revenue  agent  Brooks,  who  made  the  final  seizure,  and  of 
the  Commissioner  and  Deputy  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue. 

From  the  opening  speech  of  General  Dyer,  it  was  apparent  that 
the  Government  had  mapped  out  an  unnecessarily  broad  line  of 
investigation,  with  the  object  of  giving  to  the  four  telegrams  of 


THE   TRIAL    OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  375 

Babcock  a  meaning  which  they  did  not  on  their  face  convey. 
The  first  witness  called  was  Fitzroy,  and  he  was  interrogated  as 
to  the  operations  of  the  ring  while  Megrue  was  its  chief  director. 
To  this  line  of  investigation  Mr.  Storrs  objected,  because,  as  he 
said,  "  the  conspiracy  under  Megrue  was  a  complete  and  finished 
piece  of  scoundrelism  in  itself,  and  after  he  left,  there  was  a  period 
of  sunshine  upon  honest  whisky  in  St.  Louis."  There  was  no 
pretence  that  General  Babcock  had  any  connection  with  a  ring 
in  1871.  Megrue  was  on  hand  to  testify  to  whatever  the  Govern 
ment  might  ask ;  but  the  Court  sustained  Mr.  Storrs'  objection, 
and  Megrue  and  all  his  unsavory  revelations  were  ruled  out.  The 
investigation  was  thus  narrowed  down  to  the  ring  operations  from 
1873,  when  Joyce  became  its  chief  manipulator. 

Several  of  the  convicted  distillers  and  rectifiers  gave  their  testi 
mony  ;  and  it  may  be  as  well  here  to  give  the  substance  of  their 
statements,  without  regard  to  the  order  in  which  they  were  put 
upon  the  witness  stand.  They  testified  that  in  the  fall  of  1872  a 
revenue  agent  named  Brashear  was  sent  to  St.  Louis,  for  whom 
they  raised  £io,OOO.  One  distiller  said,  "he  caught  us  bad,"  but 
nevertheless,  on  receiving  his  bribe,  he  sent  on  a  favorable  report 
to  Washington.  In  1872,  Joyce  persuaded  them  to  resume  the 
making  of  illicit  whisky,  and  one  distiller  testified  that  it  was 
through  Joyce's  representations  that  he  was  induced  to  go  into  the 
business  against  his  better  judgment,  and  that  Joyce  was  continually 
complaining  that  they  did  not  make  enough.  Whenever  a  revenue 
agent  was  expected  from  Washington,  Joyce  always  gave  them 
notice  of  his  coming,  so  that  they  could  put  their  houses  in  order 
and  no  trace  of  crookedness  be  discovered.  They  had  several 
notifications  of  this  kind  during  the  fall  of  1874.  Mr.  Engelke,  a 
rectifier,  said  that  during  1873,  l874,  and  the  spring  of  1875, 
there  never  was  a  revenue  agent  in  St.  Louis  whose  coming  was 
not  known  beforehand.  On  one  occasion  Joyce  showed  him  a 
telegram  in  the  Planters'  House,  folding  the  signature  underneath 
so  that  he  could  not  see  it ;  and  on  the  information  conveyed  in 
that  telegram  he  straightened  up  his  house.  Mr.  Bevis,  of  the 
firm  of  Bevis  &  Fraser,  distillers,  testified  that  his  house  was 
informed  in  December  1874  of  a  raid  to  be  made  by  Mr.  Brooks 
and  another  revenue  agent  named  Hoag ;  but  afterwards  Joyce 
showed  him  and  his  partner  a  letter  which  reassured  them,  and 
they  went  on  making  illicit  whisky  down  to  January  1875. 


3/6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

The  cross-examination  of  these  witnesses  was  admirably  man 
aged  by  Mr.  Storrs.  It  has  been  universally  acknowledged  that 
in  the  art  of  handling  a  witness,  and  getting  out  just  what  he 
wanted  and  no  more,  Mr.  Storrs  was  as  consummate  a  tactician 
as  he  was  eloquent  and  convincing  in  argument.  This  was  never 
better  proved  than  during  the  Babcock*  trial.  Although  he  only 
,  cross-examined  one  of  the  distillers  himself,  he  directed  and  shaped 
the  course  to  be  taken  in  the  cross-examination  of  all  of  them.  That 
there  had  been  a  conspiracy  was  taken  for  granted;  and  the  cross- 
examination  was  strictly  confined  to  bringing  out  facts  which  would 
be  serviceable  to  the  defence.  All  the  distillers  were  interrogated, 
therefore,  mainly  as  to  the  proceedings  of  the  revenue  agent  Hoag, 
who  visited  St.  Louis  with  Mr.  Brooks  in  the  spring  of  1874  to 
investigate  as  to  the  burning  of  the  books  at  Bevis  and  Eraser's 
distillery,  which  contained  damaging  evidence  of  previous  frauds. 
Mr.  Brooks  found  sufficient  material  to  enable  him  to  go  before 
the  grand  jury  and  have  Bevis  and  Eraser  indicted,  and  they 
compromised  the  case  by  paying  to  the  Government  $40,000. 
During  the  stay  of  Hoag  in  St.  Louis,  the  distillers  raised  for 
him  $10,000.  "This  money  was  raised,"  said  one,  "because 
Hoag  was  the  confidential  agent  of  the  Revenue  Department, 
and  was  consulted  a  good  deal  in  regard  to  raids  to  be  made, 
and  could  give  us  a  good  deal  of  information."  Another  said, 
"The  money  to  Hoag  was  paid  for  a  favorable  report,  keeping 
his  hands  off  in  future,  and  keeping  us  apprised  of  future  move 
ments."  This  was  rendered  still  more  explicit  by  Mr.  Storrs' 
cross-examination  of  Eraser,  and  we  cannot  do  better  than  give 
a  few  of  Mr.  Storrs'  incisive  questions,  and  the  answers  of  this 
witness : 

"Q.   'Do  you  know  John  T.   Hoag?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'How  long  have  you  known  him?  A.  I  met  him  here,  I  think,  in 
April  or  May,  1874.' 

"Q.  'Did  you  have  any  conversation  with  him  in  April  or  May,  1874, 
about  whisky  matters?  A.  Well,  Brooks  and  Hoag  came  here  to  investi 
gate  affafrs  here.' 

"Q.   'And  they  did  investigate  affairs  did  they?     A.   Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Did  you  make  Hoag's  acquaintance  during  the  investigation?  A.  Yes, 
sir.' 

"Q.  'That  was  the  time  you  were  taken  into  camp  and  made  to  pay 
about  £40,000,  wasn't  it?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"(2-  'Did  you  make  the  acquaintance  of  Hoag  pretty  intimately  at  that  time? 
A.  No,  sir.1 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  377 

"Q.  'Did  you  have  a  pretty  thorough  knowledge  of  him  in  any  way,  direct 
or  indirect,  at  that  time?  A.  Well,  I  met  him  several  times.' 

"Q.  'Did  you  ascertain,  at  that  time,  that  he  was  susceptible  to  bribes? 
A.  I  did  not  at  that  time.' 

"Q.  'When  did  you  first  discover  that  he  was  pliant?  A.  I  think  it  was 
some  time  after  that.' 

"  Q.   'During  the  summer  of  1874?    A.  Yes,  sir,  either  the  summer  or  fall.' 

"  Q.  'You  had  telegraphic  communication  with  John  T.  Hoag  during  the 
summer  of  1874  didn't  you?  A.  I  think  I  had  some  communication  with 
him  in  the  fall  or  winter  of  1874.' 

"Q.  'Did  he  give  you  information  as  to  contemplated  raids  here?  A.  He 
did.' 

"Q.  'There  is  no  doubt  about  that,  is  there,  Mr.  Fraser?     A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.  'How  much  did  you  pay  for  that  information?  A.  Ten  thousand 
dollars.' 

"Q.  'Did  you  pay  it  to  him  after  the  information  was  given  or  before? 
A.  I  think  he  gave  me  the  information  afterwards.' 

"  Q.  'Isn't  it  a  fact  that  information  communicated  to  one  distiller  was, 
4  in  your  usual  course  of  business,'  communicated  to  the  others — that  which 
was  of  interest  to  them,  so  far  as  seizure  and  raids  were  concerned?  A. 
Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'You  all  had  a  common  interest  in  that  business?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'When,  to  your  knowledge,  was  Hoag  first  seduced?  A.  I  had  a  con 
versation,  I  think,  with  Hoag,  some  time  in  November  or  December,  '74. 
My  impression  is,  it  was  in  November.  I  am  not  certain  about  that.' 

"Q.  'Did  he  express  any  anxiety  to  render  you  service,  or  the  distillery 
interests  generally?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.   'He  was  quite  willing  to  arrange  it  for  a  consideration  ?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Didn't  you  receive,  on  the  5th  of  April,  '75,  a  dispatch  from  him  at 
Xenia,  Ohio?  A.  I  don't  know.' 

"Q.  'I  will  read  you  the  dispatch:  'Have  to  go  to  Indiana,  Monday. 
Can  you  come  there — Bates  House?  Bixby.'  Did  you  receive  such  a  dis 
patch  as  that?  A.  I  may  have  received  it.' 

"  Q.  'Do  you  remember  it  now,  your  attention  having  been  called  to  it  ? 
A.  We  received  some  dispatch  to  meet  him  in  Indiana ;  I  don't  remem 
ber  the  wording  of  it.' 

"Q.  'April  8 — Cleveland — 'Your  letter  forwarded  here;  report  about  B. 
[Brooks  I  suppose]  '  coming  to  St.  Louis  incorrect ;  he  is  here  with  me ; 
Bixby.'  Do  you  remember  receiving  such  a  dispatch  as  that?  A.  I  may 
have  received  that  dispatch.' 

"  Q.  'Now,  Mr.  Fraser,  please  think  about  it?  Can't  you  put  that  a  lit 
tle  stronger;  you  may  have  received  it?  A.  I  have  nothing  to  fix  the  mat 
ter  in  my  mind;  I  don't  remember  positively.' 

"  Q.  'Don't  you  think  you  received  a  dispatch  of  this  character — this  is  of 
some  importance,  we  think — '  your  letter  forwarded  here ;  report  about  B. 
coming  to  St.  Louis' — that's  Brooks?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.   'Did    you   not,    on  or   about  April,   i6th,   '75,   receive   this  dispatch: 


378  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

'Did  you  get  my  telegram;  would  rather  see  you  here.  If  you  want 
to  see  me,  answer. 

"  BIXBY.'  " 

"Q.  'Do  you  remember  meeting  Hoag  in  response  to  that?     A.  I  remem 
ber  meeting  him  once  ;  I  don't  know  whether  it  was  in  response  to  that." 
" Q.   'Do  you  remember  meeting  him  in  Cincinnati?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 
"  Q.  '  Bixby'  was  his  assumed  name,  was  it  not?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 
"Q.  'Were  you  in  'communication   with  Hoag   frequently?     A.  Whenever 
I  had  occasion  to  communicate  with  him,  I  did.' 

"Q.  'And  he  communicated  with  you  whenever  he  thought  it  was  neces 
sary?  A.  Yes,  sir.1 

"  Q.  'Kept  you  well  posted  from  the  time  he  was  'retained'  by  you,  as 
to  contemplated  raids  in  St.  Louis?  A.  I  suppose  he  did.' 

"  Q.  'Don't  you  know  he  *did,  as  results  have  turned  out?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 
"Q.   'He  was  in  a  position   to  know,  wasn't   he,  and  you  considered  him 
a  faithful    and  vigilant   servant   for  the    distilling   interest   in   St.  Louis?    A. 
Yes,  sir,  we  considered  him  trustworthy.'" 

Mr.  Barton,  the  manager  in  St.  Louis  for  Bingham  Brothers, 
who  lived  in  Indiana,  testified  that  the  distilleries  had  to  shut 
down  even  on  crooked  whisky  because  the  market  was  glutted, 
— the  honest  tax-paid  product  having  been  fairly  beaten  out  of 
the  market.  Mr.  Bingham  once  sent  him  a -letter  signed  "Bixby," 
giving  notice  of  the  coming  of  revenue  agents.* 

The  testimony  of  the  distillers  on  the  part  of  the  Government 
was  supplemented  by  that  of  the  revenue  officers  who  acted  as 
ring  collectors.  Fitzroy  we  may  speedily  dismiss.  Having  told 
the  story  of  the  doings  of  the  ring  while  he  was  its  collector,  he 
testified  that  in  the  spring  of  1875  ne  raised  $5000  from  the  dis 
tillers  on  a  pretence  that  Macdonald  was  going  to  Washington  to 
use  it  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  seizures,  and  that  if  Macdon 
ald  did  not  succeed  in  this  it  was  to  be  returned.  He  also 
admitted  having  been  at  the  Collector's  office  one  Sunday  in 
November  1873,  when  Joyce  and  Bevis  and  others  burned  some 
forms  of  reports  to  the  Collector  which  contained  evidence  of 
fraud  at  Bevis  and  Eraser's  distillery,  which  was  followed  up  by 
the  destruction  of  Bevis  and  Eraser's  distillery  books,  the  invest 
igation  into  which  resulted  in  their  being  indicted  and  settling 
for  $40,000.  A  gauger  named  Bassett  gave  an  interesting  piece 
of  testimony,  to  the  effect  that  he  "neglected"  to  cancel  the 
revenue  stamps  at  one  of  the  distilleries  so  that  they  might  be 
used  over  again,  and  found  in  his  overcoat  pocket  next  day  an 
envelope  containing  $100.  After  this  he  was  careful  to  neglect 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  379 

the  canceling  of  the  stamps,  and  the  surreptitious  packages  that 
found  their  way  into  his  overcoat  pocket  increased  in  value  to 
$150  and  sometimes  $200.  One  day  such  an  envelope  was  laid 
on  his  desk,  and  finally  Bevis  had  courage  enough  to  hand  the 
bribe  to  him  in  person.  His  view  of  the  transaction  was  elicited 
on  cross-examination  by  the  counsel  for  the  defence;  "I  did  not 
take  the  money  as  a  bribe ;  it  was  an  accommodation  both  ways." 

Every  day  of  the  trial  had  its  sensational  features  for  the  news 
papers,  and  on  the  second  day  much  excitement  was  caused  by 
the  announcement  that  the  counsel  for  the  defence  intended  to 
take  the  President's  deposition.  "  At  this  moment,"  says  a  news 
paper  report,  "  no  man  drew  a  breath  that  could  be  audible,  and 
intense  attention  was  bestowed  to  the  lightest  word.  The  idea  of 
bringing  the  evidence  of  the  Executive  of  the  Nation  in  defence 
of  one  of  his  trusted  officers  appeared  to  strike  everybody  as 
though  it  were  new.  The  possibility  of  this  thing  had  been  hinted 
at  for  some  days,  but  this  fact  when  presented  in  its  naked  cer 
tainty,  seemed  to  make  an  impression  altogether  unlocked  for." 

Mr.  Storrs  asked  for  an  adjournment  in  order  that  counsel  on 
both  sides  might  consult  and  settle  upon  interrogatories  to  be  for 
warded  to  Washington  and  answered  by  the  President.  He  said, 
— "  We  had  intended,  at  first,  to  have  the  personal  attendance  of 
the  President  as  a  witness  in  this  case,  but  from  the  way  the 
case  stands  now  we  think  we  can  dispense  with  his  personal  attend 
ance.  We  are  anxious  to  do  this  in  consequence  of  the  difficulty 
of  securing  his  presence,  owing  to  the  exigencies  of  public  affairs, 
requiring  his  attendance  at  Washington.  We  desire  the  counsel  on 
the  other  side  to  proffer  with  us  the  interrogatories  to  be  made 
of  him,  and  then  to  have  his  testimony  taken  before  the  Chief 
Justice."  In  this  proposition  the  counsel  for  the  Government  con 
curred,  and  after  recess  General  Dyer  asked  for  a  further  adjourn 
ment  for  thd  day,  stating  that  the  prosecution  wished  to  prepare 
counter-interrogatories  and  send  a  messenger  with  them  to  Wash 
ington  without  delay.  In  granting  the  adjournment,  Judge  Dillon 
said, — "  It  is  well  known  to  us  that  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  is  in  session,  and  the  statement  made  by  counsel  as  to  the 
inexpediency  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  leaving  the 
capital  at  this  time  is  probably  correct,  and  it  may  save  time  to 
allow  the  parties  to  devote  the  afternoon  for  that  testimony." 


380  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

On  the  third  day  a  new  sensation  was  developed,  when  the 
truant  ring  collector,  Abijah  M.  Everest,  was  put  upon  the  stand 
to  tell  all  he  knew  about  the  doings  of  the  ring.  Important 
revelations,  directly  connecting  General  Babcock  with  the  St. 
Louis  ring,  were  expected  from  this  witness.  Down  to  this 
point  there  had  been  nothing  of  the  sort;  but  now  the  Govern 
ment  expected  to  supply  the  connecting  link.  After  stating  in 
lengthy  detail  his  own  proceedings  as  ring  collector,  and  telling 
how  he  was  sent  by  Joyce  in  April  1875  to  get  $5000  from 
Eraser,  which  Joyce  told  him  Macdonald  was  going  to  take  to 
Washington  "for  our  friends,"  he  was  led  by  General  Dyer 
directly  up  to  the  point  where  it  was  to  be  made  to  appear  that 
he  knew  of  Joyce  sending  two  $500  bills  by  mail,  one  to  Avery 
and  the  other  to  General  Babcock.  The  crowded  audience  list 
ened  with  breathless  interest  while  he  testified  that  in  the  latter 
part  of  February  1875,  Joyce  gave  him  a  package  containing 
$1000  in  small  bills,  and  asked  him  to  go  to  the  Sub-Treasurer's 
office  and  have  them  changed  into  two  $500  bills,  which  he  did, 
and  carried  the  two  $500  bills  back  to  Joyce.  His  account  of 
Joyce's  behaviour  on  this  occasion  we  prefer  to  take  from  the 
verbatim  report: 

"  Q.  'I  will  get  you  to  state  whether,  in  1875,  at  any  time  before  April, 
you  were  present  in  the  office  of  the  Supervisor,  and  had  a  conversation 
with  Joyce  in  reference  to  money  at  any  time  other  than  the  day  you  met 
them  each  week?  A.  I  remember,  in  1875,  he  was — 

"Mr.    Krum.     'When.' 

"  Q.  by  Mr.  Dyer:  'State  when  and  where  you  had  a  conversation  with 
him  in  reference  to  the  matter.  A.  It  was  in  the  Supervisor's  office  in 
1875.' 

"Mr.  Krum,  'When?  A.  February  or  March — along,  I  think,  in  the 
latter  part  of  February.' 

"Q.  by  Mr.    Dyer:      'Well?      A.   He  asked  me  about—' 

"Mr.   Storrs.     'One  moment — 

"  Mr.   Dyer.     '  This  is  an  act,  or  accompanying  an  act.'      • 

"  Mr.  Storrs.  '  I  would  like  to  have  the  witness  receive  the  same  admoni 
tion  from  your  Honors  that  he  has  already  received.' 

"  Q.  by  the  Court:  'Was  this  conversation  in  connection  with  any  act 
that  Joyce  requested  you  to  perform?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q  'Did   you    perform   that    act?      A.   I    did.' 

"The  Court.     'Go   on.' 

"  Witness.  '  He  gave  me  a  package  of  one  thousand  dollars  and  told  me 
to  go  to  the  Sub-Treasurer's  office  and  have  it  changed  into  two  five  hun 
dred  dollar  bills.' 

\ 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  38! 

"  Q.  'State  what  the  denominations  of  the  bills  you  carried  to  the  Sub- 
Treasury  were  ?  A.  Some  of  them  were  ten  dollar  bills,  some  fifty,  and 
perhaps  some  twenty  dollar  bills.' 

"Q.  'Well?  A.  I  gave  him  the  two  five  hundred  dollar  bills;  I  went 
back  to  the  office  and  gave  them  to  Colonel  Joyce.' 

"Q.  'Who  was  in  the  office  at  the  time?     A.  Nobody.' 

"  Q.  'After  you  gave  him  the  bills,  what  did  he  do  with  them?  A.  He 
separated  the  bills  and  looked  at  both  of  them,  and  he  picked  up  two 
envelopes,  laying  on  the  desk,  and  put  them  in  the  envelopes.' 

"Q.  By  the  Court:  'Into  separate  envelopes?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  By  Mr.  Dyer:  'Go  on  and  state  now,  in  your  own  way,  what  he 
did,  and  what  you  did?  A.  I  gave  him  the  money  and  he  took  up  the 
envelopes,  both  of  them,  and  put  one  bill  in  one  envelope  and  I  pre 
sume  the  other  in  another — 

"Mr.  Storrs.     'Hold   on;   we   don't   want   a   particle  of  presumption.' 

"The  Court.     'State  what  you  know.' 

"Witness.  'He  picked  up  both  envelopes,  examined  the  bills,  took  one 
$500  bill,  put  that  in  an  envelope,  and  transferred  it  to  the  rear  of  the 
other  one.  He  then  pulled  out  a  letter,  and  placed  the  other  £500  bill 
in  the  other  envelope.' 

"Q.  'Then  what  did  he  do?  A.  He  then  sealed  the  envelopes,  and 
he  talked  a  little  while,  and  he  gave  me  the  envelopes  to  put  in  the  Post- 
office.' 

"  Q.  'When  he  gave  you  them,  what  did  he  say  to  you?  A.  He  asked 
me  if  I  wouldn't  put  them  in  the  box,  across  the  street  from  his  office, 
which  I  did.'  ' 

General  Dyer's  next  question  was  whether  Everest  observed 
the  addresses  on  the  envelopes.  To  this  question  the  defence 
objected,  and  the  remainder  of  the  forenoon  was  taken  up  with 
argument  on  the  competency  of  the  evidence.  Judge  Krum  con 
tended  that  it  was  inadmissible  unless  the  prosecution  were 
prepared  to  follow  it  up  by  proof  that  General  Babcock  actually 
received  the '  letter.  Judge  Porter  followed,  insisting  that  the 
Government  must  first  show  by  direct  proof  that  General  Bab- 
cock  was  a  party  to  the  conspiracy,  before  they  could  introduce 
acts  or  declarations  of  any  of  the  other  conspirators  to  bind  him. 
The  mailing  of  a  letter  to  him  by  one  of  the  conspirators  would 
not  prove  him  to  be  a  conspirator.  No  connection  had  yet  been 
shown  between  General  Babcock  and  the  parties  in  St.  Louis. 

Mr.  Storrs  argued  that  to  admit  this  evidence  in  the  present 
state  of  the  case  would  be  "a  violation  of  the  fundamental  prin 
ciples  of  evidence  which  are  based  on  the  sound  construction  of 
public  policy,  the  maintenance  of  which  is  indispensable  for  the 


382  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

protection  of  private  rights  and  civil  liberty.  The  danger,"  he 
said,  "attending  prosecutions  of  this  character  is  one  which  has 
brought  this  class  of  actions  into  such  disfavor,  wherever  the 
common  law  prevails,  that  a  man  may  be  indicted  and  convicted 
not  from  any  word  he  has  ever  uttered,  not  from  any  act  he  has 
ever  done,  but  by  the  utterance  and  from  the  acts  of  others ;  and 
it  is  because  of  this  distinguishing  feature  about  it  that  for  the 
last  two  hundred  years  the  wisdom  of  the  wisest  men  that  have 
ever  presided  in  courts  of  justice  has  been  directed  to  restraining 
testimony  within  the  narrowest  possible  limits,  because  by  its 
enlargement  persecution  might  succeed  and  the  innocent  might 
suffer.  We  have  not  yet  reached  that  stage,"  he  said,  "where  there  is 
any  certainty  that  the  money  went  into  the  envelopes.  The  pro 
cess  of  handing  them,  the  dexterous  manipulation  of  them,  is 
already  detailed  by  the  witness,  and  the  carrying  of  them  to  the 
letter  box  and  the  depositing  of  them;  and  they  now  propose  to 
prove  that  one  of  them  was  addressed  to  General  Babcock.  Now, 
so  far  as  the  declarations  which  accompanied  these  acts  are  con 
cerned,  I  ask  your  Honors  to  pause  and  consider — are  they  Mr. 
Babcock's  ?  Twelve  hundred  miles  of  distance  separated  him 
from  the  spot  where  this  act  was  performed.  Hence  the  declar 
ations  are  not  admissible  to  convict  him.  If  they  are  acts,  whose 
acts?  We  are  willing  to  stand  by  our  acts.  They  are  not  the 
acts  of  Babcock.  No  pretense  is  made  that  they  are  his  acts, 
but  the  acts  of  Joyce  and  the  witness  on  the  stand. 

Mr.  Storrs  contended  that  the  receipt  of  this  $500  had  not 
been  and  could  not  be  proven,  and  this  evidence  having  no  tend 
ency  to  establish  General  Babcock's  connection  with  the  conspir 
acy,  it  ought  to  be  excluded.  At  the  afternoon  session  Judge 
Dillon  gave  the  decision  of  the  Court,  overruling  the  objections 
and  admitting  the  evidence,  not  as  raising  a  conclusive  presump 
tion  that  Babcock  received  the  letter,  but  as  tending  to  show  that 
fact.  Referring  to  and  overruling  Mr.  Storrs'  objection  that  the 
evidence,  even  if  allowed,  had  no  probative  force,  he  said : 

"If  it  was  admitted  here  by  the  counsel  for  the  Government  that  this  was 
all  the  evidence  which  they  expected  to  produce  for  the  purpose  of  connect 
ing  the  defendant  with  the  alleged  conspiracy,  its  inconclusive  character 
standing  alone,  in  a  case  where  the  defendant's  mouth  is  sealed,  would 
doubtless  be  such  as  that  the  court  would  be  bound  to  say  to  the  jury  that 
it  could  not  be  safely  made  the  basis  of  a  conclusion  inculpating  the  defen 
dant. 


THE   TRIAL    OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  383 

"  It  may  not  have  been  actually  received  ;  the  writer  may  not  have  been 
known ;  his  purpose  may  not  have  been  known,  or  the  person  who  received 
it  may  not  have  known  why  it  was  sent,  or  may  not  have  invited  it,  or 
have  known  that  it  was  in  any  way  connected  with  the  guilty  purpose  ascribed 
to  it  by  the  prosecution,  or  any  illegal  purpose  or  plan ;  and,  as  men  act 
differently  under  the  same  circumstances,  it  is  for  the  jury,  under  proper 
instructions  from  the  court,  to  look  at  the  letter,  if  it  was  sent  and  received, 
in  connection  with  all  the  other  circumstances  in  evidence." 

The  court  having  admitted  the  evidence,  Everest  was  again 
called  to  the  stand,  and  General  Dyer  attempted,  by  a  leading 
question,  to  make  the  witness  swear  that  the  two  $500  bills  were 
actually,  to  his  knowledge,  put  into  the  envelopes  and  mailed. 
How  watchfully  this  was  met  and  prevented  by  Mr.  Storrs  from 
going  on  record  is  best  shown  by  recurrence  to  the  verbatim 
report : 

"Colonel  Dyer  (to  the  witness.)  'You  stated,  Mr.  Everest,  that  Colonel 
Joyce,  on  the  occasion  referred  to  by  you,  handed  to  you  two  sealed  envel 
opes,  containing  two  $500  bills?' 

"Mr.  Storrs.  'I  object  to  the  question;  I  object  to  the  statement  of  the 
question  by  the  counsel.' 

"Judge  Dillon.   'Let  the  witness  restate   what  he  said  in  that  regard.' 

"Colonel  Dyer.  'Restate,  then,  if  you  please,  to  the  jury,  what  you  said 
in  regard  to  the  two  envelopes  after  you  received  them  from  Joyce.  A. 
When  Colonel  Joyce  handed  me  those  two  envelopes  he  directed  me  to  put 
them  in  the  letter-box  opposite  the  office,  which  I  did.' 

"  Q.  'Where  was  Joyce  at  the  time  you  deposited  the  letters  in  the  letter 
box?  A.  He  was  watching  me  from  the  window.' 

"Q.  'At  the  time  you  deposited  the  letters,  did  you  observe  him  at  that 
time?  A.  I  saluted  him  and  he  saluted  me.'  " 

He  then  testified  that  he  observed  the  addresses  on  the 
envelopes,  and  that  one  was  to  W.  O.  Avery  and  the  other  to 
General  Babcock. 

He  was  put  through  a  searching  cross-examination  by  Mr. 
Storrs.  "Everest  evidently  expected  to  get  a  pretty  rough  hand 
ling,  and  he  got  it,  but  not,  perhaps,  in  the  precise  way  he  had 
anticipated.  Mr.  Storrs'  manner,  while  perfectly  urbane — in  fact, 
oppressively  polite — was  sufficient  to  bring  the  beads  of  perspira 
tion  profusely  on  to  the  brow  of  the  witness,  who  tried  his  best 
to  testify  only  to  what  suited  himself,  but  who  found  that  very 
thing  just  an  impossibility.  He  was  taken  and  twisted  about  in 
all  sorts  of  ways;  his  answers  to  apparently  trivial  questions  were 
retorted  on  him  with  a  rasping  sarcasm  which  was  all  the  more 


384  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

severe  that  it  was  done  in  suclf  an  excessively  amiable  way;  he 
was  held  up  to  ridicule  and  pursued  to  contempt,  and  finally  was 
made  to  admit  that  he  did  not  see  the  money  put  into  one  of 
the  envelopes,  and  could  not  be  positive  that  it  had  been  sent 
at  all  to  the  defendant.  He  was  furthermore  compelled  to  admit 
on  three  several  occasions  that  he  had  informed  Colonel  Dyer  as 
to  his  want  of  positive  knowledge  as  to  the  fact  he  had  but 
recently  sworn  to." 

One  brief  extract  from  this  cross-examination  will  be    sufficient 
to  illustrate , Mr.  Storrs'  method: 

"Q.   'Can  you  fix  the  date  acccurately  as  to  when  you  mailed  these  envel 
opes  to  which  you  have  testified?     A.   No,  sir,  I  cannot.' 

"Q.   'Can  you  tell  us  the  month?     A.  It  was  in   the   early   part  of  Feb 
ruary  or  March.' 

"Q.   'February  or  March,   1875?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"  Q.   'Where   did   you  receive  this   money  in  the   first   place?    A.  In  the 
Supervisor's  office.' 

"Q.   'Who  was  present?     A.   Nobody.' 

"Q.  'You  first  brought  the  two  $500  bills  to  Colonel   Joyce?    A.  Yes,  sir.' 
"  Q.   'Now,  will  you  describe   to  the  jury    and  all   of  us   whether   Colonel 
Joyce   stood   or  sat  when   that  money   was   put   in   the   envelopes?     A.   He 
stood.' 

"Q.   'In  front  of  you?     A.   In  front  of  his  desk.' 

"Q.   'Picked  up  the  envelope  there,  did  he?     A.   He   picked  up  the   two 
envelopes.' 

"Q.  'Had  the  envelopes  already  been  addressed   before  you  handed  him 
the  money — the  two  $500  bills?     A.  Yes.  sir.' 

"Q.   'Were  the  envelopes  open  or  sealed?     A.  They  were  unsealed.' 
"  Q.   'You  came  and  handed  him  the  $500  bills?     Yes,  sir.'' 
"  Q.   'You  saw  him  take  up  the  envelopes?     Yes,  sir.' 
"Q.  'He   stood  up   while  he   went    through  the   operation   of  putting   the 
money  into  the  envelopes?     Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.   'Was  there  a  desk  between  you  and  Colonel  Joyce?     A.  No,  sir.' 
"  Q.   '  You  sat  upon  the  same  side  of  the  desk  that  he  did?     A.   He  stood — 
" Q.  'Answer  my  question.     Did  you  sit  upon  the  same  side  of  the   desk 
upon  which  he  stood?     A.   I  was  sitting  to  his  left.' 

" Q.   'Was  he  facing  you  when  he  filled  those  envelopes?     A.   No,  sir.' 
"  Q.   'Was  his  back  turned  toward  you?     A.   No,  sir.' 
"  Q.   '\Vas  he  standing  sideways  to  you?     A.   He  was.' 
"Mr.    Storrs  (standing   up  and    pointing  to  a  post  near  him).     'Your  rela 
tive  positions  would   be   about  this,  Colonel  Joyce  standing  towards  you  sit 
ting  there?     A.  About  six  feet  off.' 

"(2-   'And  Joyce  had  those  envelopes  in  his  hands?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"  Q.  'That  is  about  the  description  of  it,  isn't  it?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"  Q.   'Did  he   change  these   envelopes  at  all  while  this  process  was  going 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  385 

on?  A.  Yes,  sir;  he  first  took  the  two  envelopes  up,  and  pulled  a  piece  of 
paper  half  way  out ;  he  then  took  one  of  the  bills  and  put  it  in  that  envel 
ope,  or  that  piece,  and  put  the  letter  back  again.' 

"Q.  'Are  you  prepared  to  say  you  saw  him  put  the  other  bill  in;  isn't  it 
merely  a  presumption  in  your  mind?' 

"  Witness.     '  I  was  just  going  to  state  how  it  was.' 

"Mr.  Storrs.     'Just  answer  that  question.' 

"Witness.     'What  is  the  question?' 

"Mr.  Storrs.  'The  question  is  this:  Are  you  prepared  to  state  that,  in 
the  other  envelope,  you  saw  him  place  the  other  $500  bill?  A.  No,  sir,  I 
am  not.' 

"Q.  'That  is  what  you  meant  when  you  said,  this  morning,  that  you  pre 
sumed  he  did?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Then  the  amount  of  it,  Mr.  Everest,  is  just  this:  That  you  did  see 
Joyce  put  a  $500  bill  into  one  envelope,  and  you  presume  that  he  did  in 
the  rother,  but  you  don't  know,  you  didn't  see  him  put  it  there.  A.  I  didn't 
see  him.' 

"Q.  'Now,  that  is  just  it  exactly;  and  therefore  you  don't  know  that  he 
put  it  in  ?  A.  I  am  not  positive.' 

"Q.  'No,  no,  no,  of  course  not;  as  to  one  of  those  envelopes  you  don't 
know  of  your  own  knowledge  whether  he  put  a  $500  bill  in  or  not?  A.  I 
said  I  didn't  see  one ;  I  said — 

"Q.  'And  whether  it  was  the  one  directed  to  Avery  or  the  one  directed 
to  Babcock  you  wont  undertake  to  tell  the  jury?  A.  No,  sir.'  " 

He  was  next  asked  about  his  European  travels,  and  finally 
brought  up  in  the  city  of  Rome. 

"  Q.  '  You  wouldn't  have  gone  to  see  Rome  but  for  some  apprehension  as 
to  your  fate  in  your  native  city?  A.  I  don't  think  I  should.' 

"  Q.  'How  long  did  you  stay  at  Rome?  A.  Perhaps  three  or  four 
weeks  ;  I  don't  remember — three  or  four.' 

"  Q.  'Had  you  finished  seeing  Rome  when  you  left?  A.  Well,  I  don't 
know.' 

"  Q.  'Will  you  be  good  enough  to  state  to  the  jury  why  you  left  Rome? 
A.  I  received  a  notice  from  my  brother  to  return  home.' 

"  Q.  'What  was  the  nature  of  your  notice,  please?  A.  A  dispatch  to 
come  home.' 

"  Q.   '  Did  he  tell  you  why  you  should  come?     A.   No,   sir.' 

"Q.  'Did  he  indicate  to  you  that  it  would  be  safe  to  come?  A.  No, 
sir.' 

"Q.  'Didn't  you  agree  upon  some  signal,  cipher,  or  form  of  words  or 
other,  by  which  you  were  to  come  if  you  received  it?  A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.  'What  would  you  come  for  upon  the  notification  of  your  brother? 
It  wasn't  business  that  called  you  here,  was  it?  A.  I  suppose  he  wouldn't 
telegraph  to  me  without  he  wanted  me  to  come. ' ' ' 

He   then    described    how  he    met    McFall,  one    of  the    indicted 
25 


386  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

gaugers,    in    New   York    on    his   return,    and   went   with   him   to 
Philadelphia,  where  he  had  an  interview  with  General  Dyer. 

"(2-  'Was  McFall  boarding  in  New  York  when  you  went  to  Europe?  A. 
No,  sir.' 

"  Q.   '  Is  he  boarding  in  New  York  now?     A.   No,  sir.' 
"  Q.  '  He  is  a  resident  of  St.  Louis,  is  he  not?     A.  I  believe  he  is.' 
"  Q.   'Will  you  please  to  state  how   you   happened   to   light   upon  him  at 
Thirty-first  street?     A.  I  went  there.' 

"(2.  'It  was  not  instinct,  of  course?  A.  No;  I  went  there  to  see  my 
brother.' 

"Q.   'Was  your  brother  stopping  at  Thirty-first  street?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 
" Q.   'Did  he  come  down  with  McFall?     A.  I  guess  he  did.' 
"  Q.   'It  begins  to  look  probable.     How  long  had  McFall  and  your  brother 
been  at  Thirty-first  street?     A.  I  don't  know.' 

"  Q.  'Was  that  the  first  occasion  that  you  saw  McFall,  at  that  boarding- 
house?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"  Q.  'What  special  interest  did  McFall  have  in  your  going  to  Philadel 
phia?  A.  Friendship.' 

"Q.   'Pure,  unadulterated  friendship?    A.  Yes,  sir.' 
"Q.  'Were  there  any  other  interests?     A.  I  don't  know.' 
"  Q.   'Your  friendship  with  him  was  strong?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 
"(2-   'Do  you  want  the  jury  to  understand   that  it  was  merely  from   con 
siderations  of  friendship  that  you  went  to   Philadelphia  to   meet   McFall  at 
the   Bingham    House  ?      A.    No,    sir.      If  you   will   allow  me  I  will  make  a 
voluntary  statement.' 

"Mr.  Storrs.     'The  best  way  for  us  to  get  along  nicely  is  not  for  you  to 
make  any  voluntary  statement ;  answer  my  questions,  and  we  will  get  along 
very  nicely.      How  long  did  you  remain  in  Philadelphia?    A.  About  five  days.' 
"  Q.  'Who  else  did  you  see  there?     A.  I  saw  Mr.  Dyer.' 
"Q.  'You   have  given   in   your  testimony    to  Dyer   since   your  return  in 
this  city,  have  you  not,  Mr.  Everest?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

" Q.  'Did  you  then  state  to  Colonel  Dyer  that  in  one  of  these  envelopes 
you  could  not  state  that  there  was  placed  a  $500  bill?  A.  I  did.' 

"  Q.  'And  you  could  not  tell  whether  that  was  the  envelope  directed  to 
Babcock  or  Avery  ?  A.  I  did.' 

"Q.  'Do  you  wish  in  this  court  and  before  this  jury,  as  a  continual 
recurrence,  to  be  understood  as  saying  that  in  one  of  these  envelopes  you 
did  not  see  any  money  put  at  all,  and  that  whether  it  was  the  Babcock  or 
the  Avery  letter  you  cannot  tell?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"  Q.  'Now,  Mr.  Everest,  tell  us  quite  frankly  whether  there  was  not  the 
slightest  pressure  to  have  you  remember  that  $500  was  put  in  both  enve 
lopes?  A.  No,  sir;  not  a  bit.' 

"(2-   'Nobody  wanted  you  to  remember  that?     A.  No,  si-r.' 
"  Q.   'Will  you  please   state   to  the  jury  why  in  delivering  your  testimony 
upon  direct  examination,  you  did  not  say  squarely  as  you  have  now,  that  in 
one  of  these   envelopes  you  did  not  see  a  £500  bill?     A.  I  have   no  reason. 


THE   TRIAL   OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  387 

"Q.  'Mr.  Everest,  are  you  indicted  here  in  this  district?  A.  I  don't 
know  ;  the  paper  said  I  was.' 

"  Q.  '  Have  you  been  told  so?    A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.  'The  balance  of  your  opinion  is  that  you  are  not  indicted,  from  the 
most  authentic  information  that  you  can  obtain  on  the  subject  ?'  [No  ans 
wer.] 

"Q.  'Your  interest  in  the  subject  is  not  sufficient  to  induce  some  little 
inquiry  on  your  part?  A.  I  made  no  inquiry  about  it.' 

"Q.   'Don't  it  concern  you?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'There  are  twelve  indictments  against  you?  A.  I  am  sure  I  don't 
know  how  many.' 

"Q.   'Never  counted   them   up  or  pleaded  to  any  of  them?     A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.   'Never  been  arrested  on  any  of  them?     A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Can  you  tell  what  sort  of  talismanic  influence  you  possess  with  the 
officers  by  which  you  have  been  thus  favored?  A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.   'No  bargain,  I  presume?     A.   No,  sir.' 

"Q.   'Well,  no  understanding?     A.  No,  sir.' 

"  Q.  '  You  arrived  here  an  indicted  man,  absolutely  free  to  go  where  you 
please ;  '  no  one  to  molest  or  make  you  afraid ; '  that  is  about  the  condition 
you  find  yourself  in,  isn't  it?  A.  I  go  about.' 

"Q.  'You  simply  rely  upon  something  or  other;  what  is  it  you  rely  upon? 
A.  Nothing  at  all.' 

"Q.  'You  have  no  reliance?     A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Mr.  Everest,  you  came  all  the  way  from  Rome  here  to  testify, 
didn't  you?  A.  I  don't  know.'" 

The  Chicago  Times,  in  its  account  of  Everest's  examination, 
said, — "  The  fact  that  such  exertions  were  made  to  bring  back 
Everest,  on  the  part  of  the  Government,  and  that  he  has  been  so 
sedulously  guarded  up  to  the  day  of  trial,  caused  a  good  deal  of 
speculation  as  to  his  testimony.  The  prosecution  have  not  done 
with  Everest  what  was  promised  in  the  District  Attorney's  open 
ing.  Mr.  Storrs  forced  out  of  Everest  some  damaging  admissions, 
which  greatly  weakened  the  force  if  they  did  not  annul 
the  direct  evidence.  The  witness  fell  into  the  trap,  and  in 
fifteen  minutes  his  evidence,  gotten  in  after  so  much  argument, 
was  shattered." 

Another  point  which  the  government  proposed  to  make 
against  Babcock  was  shattered  the  next  day.  Major  Grimes,  U. 
S.  Quartermaster  at  St.  Louis,  gave  evidence  that,  at  the  request 
of  General  Babcock,  he  had  allowed  that  gentleman  to  send  let 
ters  to  Macdonald  under  cover  to  his  address,  after  Macdonald  had 
been  indicted.  For  a  time  matters  looked  serious,  but  as  soon  as 
the  witness  fell  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Storrs  for  cross-examination, 


388  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

a  totally  different  complexion  was  put  on  the  transaction.  It 
appeared  that  the  sole  reason  for  his  request  was  that  Macdonald 
suspected  that  his  mails  were  being  tampered  with.  At  the  time 
he  delivered  to  Macdonald  one  of  these  letters,  Major  Grimes 
asked  him, — "  Macdonald,  has  Babcock  anything  to  do  with  this 
thing?"  Macdonald  replied,  "Grimes,  I  don't  believe  he  knows 
a  bit  more  about  it  than  you  do,  and  you  don't  know  anything 
about  it."  General  Dyer  sought  to  nullify  the  effect  of  this  by 
eliciting  the  fact  that  in  the  same  conversation  Macdonald  dis 
claimed  having  any  knowledge  of  the  ring  himself,  and  that  Grimes 
asked  the  question  "because,"  as  he  said,  "if  Babcock  had  been 
mixed  up  in  it,  I  was  going  to  drop  him  right  there."  Mr. 
Storrs  brought  the  examination  handsomely  round  to  his  client's 
advantage  by  asking,  "  You  have  not  dropped  him,  have  you  ? " 
"No,"  was  the  witness'  reply;  "I  don't  believe  him  guilty  to-day." 

Deputy  Commissioner  Rogers  described  the  efforts  made  in 
1874  and  1875  to  investigate  frauds  in  St.  Louis,  and  stated  that 
in  August  1874  he  put  the  arrangements  for  an  expedition  into 
the  hands  of  Brooks,  who  was  to  take  Hoag  along  with  him. 
The  matter  was  delayed  in  consequence  of  the  approach  of  the 
fall  elections,  and  again  taken  up  in  the  latter  part  of  November. 
Mr.  Rogers  then  testified  as  to  his  receipt  of  a  letter  from 
Brooks  in  December,  and  the  visit  of  Macdonald  to  his  office,  as 
already  narrated.  Commissioner  Douglass  afterwards  showed  him 
a  copy  of  Brooks'  letter,  which  he  thought  he  had  destroyed. 
The  expedition  was  abandoned  because  it  was  intended  to  be 
secret,  and  the  secret  had  been  disclosed  by  Macdonald.  On 
cross-examination,  Mr.  Rogers  said  that  Hoag  was  then  fully 
trusted  by  the  Department. 

Commissioner  Douglass  was 'the  next  witness.  His  testimony 
helped  the  defence  rather  than  the  Government,  by  whom  he 
was  called.  He  said  that  he  sent  Joyce  to  California  to  get  him 
out  of  the  way  of  the  agents  sent  to  St.  Louis,  who  complained, 
of  excessive  attention  on  Joyce's  part,  "wining  and  dining"  them, 
so  that  they  could  not  do  any  work.  Even  the  virtuous  Brashear,  it 
seemed,  complained  of  Joyce's  exuberant  hospitality.  After  the 
visit  of  Macdonald  to  Washington  in  December  1874,  General 
Babcock  showed  the  Commissioner  a  copy  of  a  letter,  and  called 
his  attention  to  the  objectionable  expression  in  it  already  alluded 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  389 

to.  He  asked,  "  Now,  what  would  a  sensitive  man  like  Logan 
think  of  this  letter?"  Shortly  after  this,  the  Commissioner  met 
General  Babcock  on  the  sidewalk  one  Sunday  morning,  and  they 
walked  down  the  street  together  and  talked  about  St.  Louis  and 
Chicago  matters.  Brooks'  expedition  had  been  abandoned  then, 
and  he  told  Babcock  so.  Once,  early  in  1874,  Babcock  had  a 
conversation  with  him  about  charges  against  Ford,  blackening 
his  character  after  his  death.  He  told  Babcock  there  were  no 
charges  against  Ford.  On  another  occasion  Babcock  asked  if 
any  one  from  his  office  was  going  West,  because  he  wanted  to 
send  a  bird  to  a  friend.  On  the  26th  of  January,  1875,  the 
Commissioner  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
with  reference  to  changing  thex  Supervisors.  There  had  been 
rumors  of  frauds  in  1872,  and  in  1873  and  1874  agents  had  been 
sent  to  St.  Louis,  all  of  whom  seemed  to  fail.  Two  or  three 
months  before  Mr.  Richardson  went  out  of  office,  he  talked  with 
the  President  and  suggested  that  there  should  be  a  change  of 
officers  all  over  the  country,  to  break  up  old  habits  and  friend 
ships,  and  get  them  out  of  the  ruts.  President  Grant  said  he 
thought  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  do,  and  asked  how  soon  it 
could  be  done.  The  Commissioner  thought  it  best  to  wait  till 
after  the  fall  elections.  Shortly  after  that,  Bristow  came  into 
office,  and  the  Commissioner  talked  the  matter  over  with  him. 
The  result  was  the  sending  of  his  letter  to  the  Secretary,  and 
an  order  being  made  by  the  Secretary  for  the  transferring  of  the 
Supervisors.  After  the  order  was  made,  the  Commissioner  and 
General  Babcock  had  a  conversation  at  the  White  House  in 
regard  to  it.  General  Babcock  thought  the  order  was  bad 
policy;  that  it  would  bring  great  pressure  upon  the  President, 
and  the  order  would  have  to  be  recalled.  The  order  was  sus 
pended  by  telegraph  on  the  4th  of  March.  For  two  or  three 
days  the  question  was  in  doubt,  the  Secretary  going  tg  the 
White  House  every  day  at  Commissioner  Douglass'  request  in 
reference  to  it.  On  the  morning  of  the  4th,  Secretary  Bristow 
came  to  his  office,  and  said  the  order  would  have  to  be  recalled. 
Mr.  Storrs'  cross-examination  of  the  Commissioner  was  subtle 
and  skillful.  How  it  impressed  those  who  heard  it  may  be  gath 
ered  from  the  comment  of  the  St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat,  which 
gave  a  verbatim  report  of  the  trial  day  by  day.  That  journal 
said: 


39O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"•  It  would  be  difficult  to  imagine  anything  prettier  in  the 
shape  of  forensic  display  than  the  skill  which  Mr.  Storrs  shows 
in  sifting  the  evidence-in-chief  of  a  witness,  and  in  destroying 
its  effect  on  the  minds  of  the  listeners.  His  skill  is  not  merely 
shown  by  the  terms  of  the  adroit  questions  he  uses  as  they 
appear  in  print,  and  no  mere  reading  of  the  evidence  can  possi 
bly  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  the  beauty  of  the  operation.  He 
speaks  not  merely  with  his  tongue,  but  with  his  eye,  the  modu 
lation  of  his  voice,  and  almost  as  effectively  with  his  hands — the 
long,  slender,  white  fingers  of  which  are  in  constant  motion,  as 
by  some  expressive  gesture  he  appears  to  compel  from  the  wit 
ness  just  that  answer  which  will  be  most  effective  in  bringing 
out  the  point  he  desires  to  elicit.  Moreover,  he  uses  exquisite 
tact  in  suiting  his  style  of  questioning  to  the  witness  who  is 
under  his  hands  for  the  time  being.  With  Everest — a  difficult 
and  stubborn  witness— while  perfectly  polite,  he  used  the  keenest 
and  most  powerful  sarcasm,  making  him  feel  himself  an  object 
of  contemptuous  ridicule,  while  forcing  him  to  obedience  to  his 
will.  With  Major  Grimes,  on  the  contrary,  his  manner  was 
absolutely  courtly,  while  still  bringing  the  will  of  the  witness 
entirely  within  his  control.  Again,  in  the  cross-examination  of 
ex-Commissioner  Douglass,  his  manner  was  varied  to  suit  the 
needs  of  the  moment.  Mr.  Douglass  is  a  quiet  official-minded 
personage,  willing  to  tell  the  truth  according  to  his  best  recol 
lection,  but  slow  of  thought  and  requiring  some  patience  in 
manipulation.  With  him  Mr.  Storrs  was  gentle  and  suave  as 
could  be;  but  still,  under  the  suavity,  the  same  will-power  shone 
forth  in  conspicuous  triumph  as  he  resumed  his  seat,  in  the 
serene  consciousness  of  having  demolished  the  main  points  which 
the  prosecution  brought  out  in  their  examination." 

Though  the  mere  reading  of  the  questions  and  answers  will 
not  convey  any  vivid  idea  of  the  manner  of  the  cross-examina 
tion,  we  cannot  forbear  selecting  a  few  by  way  of  illustration: 

"Q.  'How  long  a  time  were  you  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue? 
A.  From  the  8th  of  August,  1871,  to  the  I5th  of  May,  1875.' 

"Q.  'During  the  whole  of  that  period  of  time  did  not  complaints  come 
up  from  almost  every  portion  of  the  country  from  Revenue  officials  when 
ever  detectives  were  sent  into  their  various  districts?  A.  I  frequently  had 
complaints  of  that  character.' 

"  Q.   '  Did  not  those  complaints  depend  in  a  large  manner  upon  the  tem- 


THE   TRIAL    OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  39 1 

perament  of  the  official  into  whose  district  the  Revenue  Agents  were  sent 
— for  instance,  a  sensitive  man  would  complain?  A.  In  a  manner.' 

"Q.1  Whereas  a  more  sluggish  one  would  not?  A.  I  think  that  had  much 
to  do  with  it.' 

"Q.  'It  was  regarded  as  unusual,  and  of  and  by  itself  a  cause  of  suspi 
cion,  for  a,n  official  to  complain  that  detectives  were  sent  into  his  district? 
A.  Not  exactly.' 

"Q.  That  of  itself  did  not  create  a  suspicion — the  fact  that  a  complaint 
was  made  ?  A.  Not  of  itself. ' 

"  Q.  '  Have  you  not  known  it  to  be  a  fact  that  some  of  the  very  best,  or 
supposed  to  be  the  very  best,  of  the  officials  of  your  department  have  made 
these  complaints?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Those  complaints,  too,  as  I  understood  you,  were  of  frequent  occur- 
ence — came  from  all  portions  of  the  country?  A.  Quite  frequent.' 

"  Q.  'They  were  not  confined  to  the  locality  of  St.  Louis?  A.  Not  con 
fined  to  St.  Louis.' 

"Q.  'Was  it  not  frequently  the  case  that  trusted  officials  would  inquire 
of  you  and  other  members  of  the  same  department,  whether  you  contem 
plated  sending  detectives  into  their  districts?  didn't  that  occur  some  times? 
A.  Not  frequently  in  that  shape.' 

"  Q.   'But  it  would  sometimes  occur?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Well,  we'll  put  a  supposititious  case.  Suppose  that  Supervisor 
Tutton  had  made  that  direct  inquiry  of  you,  whether  you  contemplated  send 
ing  detectives  into  his  district,  would  you  have  any  hesitancy  in  giving  him 
an  answer?  A.  Not  a  bit.' 

"Q  'Then  the  propriety  or  impropriety  of  an  inquiry  of  that  kind  would 
depend  not  upon  the  inquiry  itself,  but  upon  the  character  of  the  man  that 
made  it?  A.  Largely.' 

"Q.  'So  that  if  it  were  made  by  a  man  of  the  established  character  of 
Supervisor  Tutton,  such  an  inquiry  would  excite  no  suspicion?  A.  Not  in 
the  least.'  " 

Commissioner  Douglass  went  on  to  say  that  he  did  not  think 
General  Babcock  ever  intended  to  influence  him.  Mr.  Storrs 
asked ; 

"Q.  'Did  you  gather,  or  was  there  any  ground  laid  for  the  conjecture  in 
your  mind,  from  anything  he  said  or  did,  that  he  desired  in  the  slightest 
degree  to  interfere  with  any  investigation  into  supposed  frauds  on  the  reve 
nue  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis?  A.  I  can  answer  that  by  saying  that  when 
ever  he  spoke  to  me  he  always  premised  that  he  did  not  wish  to  interfere 
with  the  public  interests.' 

"Mr.  Broadhead.     'We  object  to  that  question.     It  is  too  broad.' 

"Mr.  Storrs.  'I  insist  upon  the  question.  This  is  a  conspiracy,  and  I 
think  the  objection  comes  with  a  very  ill  grace  from  the  counsel  for  the 
Government.' 

"The  Witness.     'Well,   I  will  tell  you—' 

"Mr.  Broadhead.     'Hold  on,  Mr.   Douglass.' 


392  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"Judge  Dillon.  'The  substance  of  the  inquiry  is  correct,  but  the  form  in 
which  it  is  put  is  a  little  objectionable.  You  have  a  right  to  inquire  of  the 
witness  as  to  whether  he  understood  that  Babcock  was  seeking  to  influence 
his  official  action.* 

"Mr.  Storrs.  'I  will  accept  that  form,  and  will  demand  an  explicit 
answer.  Did  you  understand,  from  anything  that  Gen.  Babcock  said  upon 
the  occasion  of  that  interview,  that  he  desired  to  influence  your  action  with 
reference  to  the  investigation  of  the  supposed  frauds  in  St.  Louis?  I  wish 
you  would  answer  that  categorically.  Answer  yes  or  no.' 

"Witness.     'That  is  a  little  difficult.' 

"Q.  'Did  you  understand  that  he  attempted  to  prevent  investigation.  A. 
No,  sir;  I  understood  him  to  be  solicitous  about  the  reputation  of  a  man 
who  was  the  President's  friend  and  his,  and  whom  he  believed  to  be  an 
honest  man,  and  whose  reputation  he  was  anxious  to  protect.' 

" Q.  'You  did  not  understand  that  he  was  seeking  to  protect  Joyce  and 
Macdonald  at  all?  A.  He  never  said  anything  at  all  about  them.' 

"Q.  'You  gathered  no  such  conclusion  from  anything  that  he  said?  A. 
No,  sir.' 

As  to  the  conversation  one  Sunday  about  sending  detectives  on 
a  Western  raid,  the  Commissioner  said  that  no  specific  allusion 
was  made  to  St.  Louis,  but  it  merely  referred  to  a  Western  trip. 

"Q.  'Now,  isn't  it  a  fact,  Judge  Douglass,  that  upon  the  occasion  of  the 
exhibition  of  the  letter  to  you,  St.  Louis  and  this  district  was  not  mentioned 
by  General  Babcock?  A.  I  did  not  say  it  was.1 

"  Q.  'But  isn't  it  a  fact  that  it  was  not  mentioned?  A.  I  don't  remember 
that  it  was  mentioned.' 

" Q.   'He  spoke  of  General  Logan?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'And  that  General  Logan  would  put  an  injurious  construction  upon 
it?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'Didn't  he  call  your  attention  to  the  phrase,  'satisfactory  to  our 
selves'?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

" Q.  'Do  you  remember  his  saying  that  it  looked  like  addition,  division 
and  silence  ?  A.  I  remember  that  phrase  being  used  about  that  time  in  our 
State." 

"Q.   'Did  that  originate  in  Pennsylvania?     A.  Yes,  sir,  in  Pennsylvania.' 

"Mr.  Storrs.     'I  am  glad  to  know  where  that  came  from.' 
*     "Q.  'Isn't  it  true  that  it   was   considered  necessary    about   that  time   that 
all  these  Senators  should  be  conciliated?     A.  My  experience  has  been — 

"  Q.  "In  reference  to  the  particular  Senator,  was  it  not  deemed  important? 
A.  Well,  sir — well,  sir — that  has  always  been  more  or  less  the  case  in  ref 
erence  to  Logan,  who  is  a  spirited  man.' 

"Q.  'On  the  I3th  of  December,  on  Sunday  afternoon,  you  met  General 
Babcock  on  the  sidewalk?  A.  Yes,  sir,  about  half  an  hour  after  dinner.' 

"Q.   'It  had  not  been  a  prearranged  meeting  at  all?     A.  No,  sir.' 

"  O.  'This  contemplated  trip  to  St.  Louis  of  Hoag  and  Brooks  had  been 
abandoned?  A.  That  is  my  recollection.' 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  393 

"Q.  'Because,  in  fact,  Macdonald  himself  had  advised  Mr.  Rogers  that 
he  knew  what  was  going  on?  A.  Yes.' 

"Q.  'That  is  just  what  exploded  that  trip?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

Commissioner  Douglass  was  then  asked  a  few  questions  as  to 
his  conversation*  with  General  Babcock  in  relation  to  the  order 
transferring  the  supervisors: 

"  'The  idea  of  this  transfer,  as  I  understand  you,  Judge  Douglass,  was 
conceived  before  Mr.  Secretary  Bristow  came  into  Office  ?  A.  My  first  con 
versation  with  the  President  about  it  was  two  or  three  days  before  he  came 
in,  during  the  latter  part  of  Richardson's  administration.' 

"  Q.  'Didn't  you  have  several  conversations  on  that  subject?  A.  Yes, 
sir;  I  thought  there  would  be  objection,  and  I  thought  we*  had  better  wait 
until  the  elections  were  over.' 

"  Q.  '  Now,  these  objections  that  you  were  afraid  of  were  from  political 
men?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'And  you  apprehended  that  they  would  be  based  upon  political 
considerations?  A.  That  was  my  apprehension  then.' 

"  Q.  'Now,  will  you  please  state  how  long  after  that  order  had  been 
determined  upon  that  you  had  this  little  quiet  conversation  with  Babcock 
upon  that  subject?  A.  I  think  about  the  time  it  was  known,  a  couple  of 
days.' 

"  Q.  'It  was  not  more  than  that  after  you  had  this  little  talk  with  Bab 
cock?  A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.   'This  conversation  was  at  the  White  House?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'You  were  necessarily  frequently  in  and  out  of  the  White  House, 
while  you  were  Commissioner?  A.  Yes  sir,  whether  he  sent  me  word  and 
asked  me  to  drop  in,  or  whether  I  happened  to  be  there  on  other  business, 
I  don't  know.' 

"Q.  'Now,  you  have  said  something  with  regard  to  a  statement  made  to 
you  by  Mr.  Rogers.  Isn't  it  a  fact  that  Mr.  Rogers,  in  his  interview  which 
he  detailed  to  you,  called  upon  General  Babcock  and  had  the  interview, 
and  didn't  Mr.  Rogers  say  so  to  you?  A.  I  think  that  is  so.' 

"Q.  'Then  Babcock  didn't  seek  Rogers  for  the  purpose  of  an  interview 
on  the  subject?' 

"Mr.  Broadhead.  'We  object  to  anything  that  Mr.  Rogers  said  to  the 
witness.' 

"Mr.  Storrs.  'The  witness  has  stated  a  portion  of  what  Mr.  Rogers  said, 
we  would  like  to  know  the  rest.' 

"Judge  Dillon.     'If  it  is  the  same  conversation,  it  can  go  on.' 

"Col.  Dyer.     'I  don't  remember  that  he  said  anything  about  that.' 

"Mr.  Storrs.  'My  memory  is  better  than  yours;  I  noted  it  at  the  time. 
It  occurred  to  me  that  it  might  be  necessary  to  call  Mr.  Rogers  on  that 
subject.' 

"Judge  Dillon.     'Examine  him,  then,  on  some  other  topic.' 

"Q.  'This  interview  between  you  and  Gen.  Babcock,  as  I  understand  you, 
Mr.  Douglass,  was  quite  a  brief  one?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 


394  LIFE    OF.  EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"Q.  'And  the  reasons  which  he  assigned  you  were  of  a  purely  political 
character?  A.  That  is  all.' 

"Q.  'Let  me  ask  you  quite  directly  whether  the  reasons  that  he  sug 
gested  did  not  seem  to  be  inspired  by  considerations  of  friendship  to  your 
self?  A.  Yes;  I  said  this  morning  that  he  said  if  the  order  was  withdrawn 
by  order  of  the  President  it  would  be  unpleasant  for  me.* 

" Q.  'He  said  that  a  great  deal  of  pressure  would  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  President,  and  the  pressure  he  alluded  to  was  political  pressure?  A. 
Political  pressure.' 

"Q.   'Just  that  thing?     A.   Exactly.' 

"Q.  'And  that  it  would  come  from  men  in  high  political  position?  A. 
Yes,  sir.' 

"  Q.  'And  General  Babcock  told  you  that  the  political  pressure  would  be 
great,  and  he  apprehended  that  the  President  would  be  compelled  to  sub 
mit?  A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"  Q.  '  Now  let  me  ask  you,  Judge  Douglass,  whether  or  not  you  had  then 
some  idea  of  a  position  on  the  Court  of  Claims — whether  your  friends  were 
not  urging  you  for  that  position?  A.  There  was  some  talk  about  the  elec 
tion  district  of  Pennsylvania.' 

"Q.  'Now,  was  it  not  with  reference  to  that  fact — this  antagonism  of 
prominent  politicians — that  Gen.  Babcock  talked  to  you?  A.  Now  that  I 
remember,  I  think  I  got  that  from  Mr.  Rogers.' 

"Q.  'Now  this  order  was  not  suspended  the  next  day  after  this  talk?  A. 
I  don't  remember  the  dates — I  should  think  three  or  four  days.' 

"Q. 'The  order  was  not  suspended  by  reason  of  anything  that  Gen.  Bab 
cock  said  to  you?  A.  No;  I  didn't  agree  to  it.  It  was  suspended  because 
I  was  ordered  to  do  it.' 

The  Commissioner  also  testified  that  Joyce  was  in  the  habit 
of  sending  letters  to  officers  of  the  Government,  with  enclosures 
consisting  of  editorials  and  the  like,  which  he  claimed  to  have 
written. 

Deputy  Commissioner  Rogers  was  recalled  for  the  Government, 
and  testified  that  General  Babcock  was  a  warm  personal  friend 
of  Commissioner  Douglass,  and  was  anxious  to  bring  about  his 
appointment  to  a  judgeship  in  the  Court  of  Claims  that  was  then 
expected  to  fall  vacant.  General  Babcock  told  him  that  the  order 
for  the  transfer  of  the  Supervisors  was  likely  to  cause  a  political 
pressure  to  be  brought  to  bear  on  the  President,  which  might  be 
detrimental  to  the  aspirations  of  Douglass.  Mr.  Storrs,  on  cross- 
examination,  brought  out  from  Mr.  Rogers  also  the  fact  that 
Joyce  had  been  in  the  habit  of  sending  letters  to  Government 
officials  enclosing  newspaper  editorials  purporting  to  have  been 
written  by  himself.  In  following  out  his  plan  of  entangling 
Government  officers  in  correspondence  which  he  could  show  to 


THE   TRIAL    OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  395 

distillers  in  support  of  his  pretence  of  official  connivance,  he 
would  ask  by  telegraph  whether  his  letter  of  such  and  such  a  date 
had  been  received,  ajid  the  reply  would  come  by  telegraph, — 
"Yours,  with  inclosure,  received."  It  was  important,  therefore, 
that  out  of  the 'mouths  of  the  witnesses  for  the  Government  this 
fact  should  be  established,  in  refutation  of  the  theory  that  these 
enclosures  were  necessarily  pecuniary  bribes. 

Several  telegraph  clerks  and  minor  Government  officials  having 
been  called  to  identify  copies  of  telegrams  supposed  to  have 
passed  between  Babcock  and  the  conspirators,  an  afternoon  was 
passed  in  hearing  argument  as  to  their  admissibility.  Mr.  Storrs 
addressed  an  elaborate  argument  to  the  Court  to  show  that  none 
of  the  whole  series  of  telegrams,  whether  from  Babcock  to  Joyce 
or  from  Joyce  and  Macdonald  to  Babcock,  were  admissible  as 
evidence  against  the  defendant  '<It  is  difficult,"  said  a  contemp 
orary  report,  "to  decide  which  to  admire  most, — the  advocate's 
absolute  command  of  legal  learning  bearing  on  the  case,  or  the 
adroitness  with  which  he  used  the  opportunity  to  argue  on  a 
purely  law  question  to  make  a  regular  defence  speech  to  the 
jury.  Certain  it  is,  that  he  made  the  best  use  of  his  opportunity 
to  create  an  impression  on  the  minds  of  the  jurors  favorable  to 
his  client.  At  each  turn  in  his  argument,  he  wove  into  his 
speech  a  weft  of  reasoning  that  was  calculated  to  show  at  once 
the  weakness  of  the  case  for  the  prosecution  and  the  consistency 
of  the  idea  of  the  innocence  of  his  client,  even  should  the  tele 
grams  be  admitted  as  evidence." 

This  argument  is  a  fine  specimen  of  Mr.  Storrs'  forensic  skill, 
and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  it  cannot  be  here  quoted  in  full. 
Its  nature,  however,  will  be  fairly  apprehended  from  the  extracts 
which  we  give. 

"'The  offer  of  the  defendant's  telegrams,'  he  said,  'seems  to  be  in  a 
large  measure  based  upon  the  assumption  that  they  are  admissible  because 
he  wrote  them.  But  it  is  perfectly  clear,  even  if  that  were  to  be  said  with 
reference  to  them  all.  that  that  of  itself  furnishes  no  sufficient  reason  why 
they  should  be  admitted.  It  is  not  every  oral  declaration  of  a  defendant  to 
a  suit  either  civil  or  criminal,  which  is  competent  as  evidence.  It  is  not 
every  written  declaration  of  a  defendant,  in  a  suit  either  civil  or  criminal, 
which  is  admissible  as  evidence  against  him.  The  admission,  no  matter 
what  shape  it  takes,  and  the  declaration,  no  matter  what  form  it  assumes, 
is  not  properly  admissible  in  evidence  unless  the  admission  or  declaration  is 
relevant  to  the  issue,  and  relates  with  that  degree  of  clearness  that  the 


39^  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

court,  before  taking  the    proposition   simply,  can    say  that  it  relates  to    some 
controverted  point  in  the  case.     A  letter  addressed   by  General    Babcock  to 
Joyce,  detailing  at  length  the  condition  of  his  health,  would  be  clearly  incom 
petent,    although    the    fact    might   be    indisputable.*    A    letter    addressed   by 
General    Babcock  to   Joyce,  or   any  other  of  the    conspirators,    discussing  at 
length   the    subject  of  a  corrupt   operation,  would  be  equally   and  as   clearly 
inadmissible,  notwithstanding  he  wrote  it,  because  upon  the  face  of  the  letter 
there  would  probably  be  this  fact  that  it  did  not  relate  to  any  subject  matter  in 
the  trial.     I  can  safely  proceed  one   step  further  with   the  proposition.     The 
paper  offered    in    evidence    by    the    counsel    for    the    prosecution   must   show 
upon  its  face  whether  it  is  relevant  or  not,  because  in  the  presence  of  to-day 
the  defendant  cannot  be  rightfully  called  upon  to  explain.     The  explanation 
must  invariably  come  from  the    party    who    presents    the    paper,  and    claims 
that  it  is  complete.     If  the  words  in  the  latter   possess   any  occult   meaning, 
if  there  is   to    be    attached    to   them  a  significance  which  is  not  a  legitimate 
one  from  the  language  employed,  that  occult  meaning  must  first  be  displayed 
by    extraneous    evidence,  and    this   demand    must    be    supplied    by    extrinsic 
proofs.     Therefore,  if  your  Honors  please,  if,  upon  the  face  of  any  or  either 
of  these    dispatches   from    Babcock,    it   is   a   matter   of  doubt   whether   they 
relate  to  the  combination    existing    in   the    city    of  St.  Louis   to   defraud   the 
Government  of  the    United   States,  that   doubt    must   be    removed,  and   the 
doubt   must    be    removed    by    the    party    offering    the    paper.     For  no  court 
would  permit  a  paper  to  be  offered  in  evidence  by  a  public  prosecutor  and 
offered  to  a  jury,  of  doubtful  construction,  out  of  which  innocence  appeared 
to  be  guilt  or  guilt  might  be  guessed,  unless  some  foundation  were  previously 
made  by  the  party  offering  the  paper.     It  seems  to  me  that  every  consider 
ation    of   common  justice    and    individual   safety    requires    a    strict  and  rigid 
enforcement  of  this  rule.     Here  comes   into  court,  if  your    Honors  please,  a 
defendant  whose    lips  are  sealed    and  whose  mouth  is  closed.     There  are    in 
evidence  against  him   telegraphic  dispatches ;  if  they  relate  to  some   fact,  if 
they    are  of    doubtful  meaning,  the   relation   of  which  does   not   clearly  and 
sufficiently  appear  upon  the  face  of  the  paper,  that   relation  must  be    estab 
lished  by  the  prosecutor — by  the  party  offering  the    paper   before   the    paper 
itself  can  be  competent.     Now,  how  was  it  with  these  dispatches  ?     I  propose 
to  take   them   all — dispatches   which   have   been   referred   to   by  the   learned 
counsel  for  the  Government  in  opening  this  case  to  the  jury — and  I  do  this 
upon  the  assumption  that  at  some  time  during  the  progress  of  this  trial  they 
may  be  offered  in  evidence.     These  dispatches,   I  may  remark   here,  cannot 
be  received  as  evidence,  on  the  ground  that  they  tend  to  show  an  intimacy 
between  Macdonald    and  defendant.       Clearly   they    are    not   competent   evi 
dence  on  that  ground,  for  intimacy  between  these    parties  cannot  be  shown, 
unless  it  appears  at  the  time  this  intimacy  existed  the  political  and  personal 
standing  of  Macdonald  and  Joyce  was  the  same  that  their  political  and  per 
sonal    standing    is    to-day.      The    fact   that   one  man  who  is  to-day  intimate 
with  an  individual  whose  general  reputation  is  good,  or  whose  general  repu 
tation  he  supposes  to  be   good,  can  not  be    introduced   as   evidence    against 
him   after   the    lapse    of  years,  when    times   have    changed,  when  men  have 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  397 

changed,  and  the  guilt  of  one  of  the  parties  has  suddenly  been  discovered  ; 
and,  therefore,  this  is  a  point  to  be  considered;  this  is  the  light  in  which 
these  dispatches  are  to  be  read.  And  the  great  danger  in  this  investigation, 
and  in  investigations  of  this  character,  is  that  the  messages  will  be  read  not 
in  that  light,  or  with  the  surroundings  of  the  time  they  were  sent,  but  in  the 
light  and  with  tjie  surroundings  of  the  time  when  they  are  offered  in  evidence. 
The  danger  is  ( and  how  grossly  and  wickedly  unjust  it  would  be  to  the 
defendant  need  not  be  stated  ) — the  danger  is  that  all  the  dispatches  to 
Joyce  and  Macdonald  will  be  read,  not  in  the  light  of  the  prosperity  they 
then  stood  in  ;  not  in  the  light  of  the  high  official  position  they  occupied  ; 
not  in  the  light  of  the  spotless  name  they  then,  so  far  as  the  knowledge  of 
the  defendant  was  concerned,  enjoyed,  but  in  the  fogs  and  in  the  darkness 
of  to-day.  When  these  dispatches  were  sent,  Joyce  and  Macdonald  were 
honored  and  trusted  men,  so  far  as  the  Departments  at  Washington  had  any 
knowledge.  The  trouble  is,  and  the  difficulty  against  which  this  court  or  any 
other  court  should  sedulously  guard  this  defendant — the  trouble  is  that  the 
public  and  the  jury  will  fail  to  place  themselves  in  this  defendant's  place  ; 
and  it  is  for  that  reason  that  the  relation  of  these  telegrams  to  some  fraudu 
lent  and  corrupt  purposes  should  be  a  clear  and  explicit  chain,  and  not 
only  that,  so  far  as  the  telegrams  from  Joyce  and  Macdonald  are  concerned 
— not  only  that  so  far  as  they  were  concerned  must  it  be  shown  that  they 
relate  to  some  fraudulent  combination  in  which  they  had  a  part,  but  that 
this  defendant,  when  he  received  these  dispatches  and  answered  them,  knew 
that  they  had  such  a  relation." 

Mr.  Storrs  then  reviewed  the  whole  series  of  dispatches  sent 
by  Babcock,  and  argued  that  not  one  of  them  on  its  face  had 
the  slightest  relevancy  to  the  charge  of  complicity  with  the  ring. 
As  to  the  first,  he  said, — "  It  can  have  no  real  significance  so  far 
as  any  question  at  issue  is  concerned.  It  simply  exhibits  the 
wonderful  ingenuity  which,  in  a  great  public  excitement,  can  suc 
ceed  in  twisting  facts  out  of  their  true  and  proper  relations,  and 
placing  the  defendant  upon  his  trial  and  subjecting  him  perhaps 
to  conviction,  because  there  is  in  the  nature  of  things  not  a 
probability  of  guilt,  but  a  remote,  distant  and  conjectural  possi 
bility  that  he  may  not  be  innocent."  Passing  by  the  dispatch 
of  December  5th,  as  to  which  the  Court  had  reserved  its  decision, 
he  next  came  to  the  "Sylph"  dispatch,  and  insisted  that  it  was 
inadmissible  because  the  testimony  of  both  Commissioner  Doug 
lass  and  Mr.  Rogers  showed  that  General  Babcock  had  no  part 
in  bringing  about  the  abandonment  of  Brooks  and  Hoag's  expe 
dition.  If  it  meant,  "I  have  succeeded  in  finding  out  that  they 
will  not  go,"  it  conveyed  no  information,  because  Macdonald  knew 
it  before  Babcock  did.  He  then  paid  a  high  compliment  to  the 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

ingenuity  of  the  prosecuting  counsel,  who  could  attempt  to  twist 
such  an  innocent  looking  despatch  as  the  last, — "  I  have  seen 
the  gentleman,  and  he  seems  friendly;  he  is  here  looking  after 
improvement  of  river," — into  evidence  that  the  sender  was  guilty 
of  defrauding  the  Government  out  of  its  duties  on  spirits.  "At 
this  compliment,"  says  a  St.  Louis  paper,  "Colonel  Broadhead 
leaned  his  bald  head  backwards,  and  looked  his  inverted  acknow 
ledgements  to  the  speaker  over  the  hill  of  his  venerable  eyebrows. 
Colonel  Dyer  turned  half  round,  and  bowed  a  smiling  recognition." 
Mr.  Storrs  went  on  to  state  that  he  desired,  on  this  point,  to 
submit  an  authority  which  seemed  to  be  somewhat  parallel  to 
this  to  the  consideration  of  the  Court.  Turning  to  Judge  Porter, 
that  gentleman  handed  him  a  volume  bound  in  green,  with  ele 
gant  gilt-lettered  title,  looking  like  anything  in  the  world  rather 
than  a  law  book.  Mr.  Storrs,  with  imperturbable  gravity,  said 
he  was  about  to  cite  a  case  from  the  1st  Dickens,  118,  the 
great  case  of  Bardell  v.  Pickwick. 

Mr.  Dyer.     "What  page?" 

Mr.  Storrs.  "Page  118.  This  was  an  action  for  breach  of 
promise,  brought  by  Mrs.  Bardell  against  Pickwick,  and  the  plain 
tiff  in  that  case  relied  principally  upon  two  letters.  The  report 
gives  the  argument  of  the  counsel  upon  the  side  of  the  prosecu 
tion.  Let  me  read: — 'Garraway's,  12  o'clock.  Dear  Mrs.  B: 
Chops  and  tomato  sauce — 

At  this  moment  Judge  Treat  leaned  over  and  whispered  some 
thing  in  the  ear  of  Judge  Dillon,  who  said,  "  I  doubt  whether 
that  case  will  give  us  much  assistance."  Closing  his  book,  Mr. 
Storrs  submitted  to  the  ruling  of  the  Court  in  his  own  graceful 
style,  remarking  that  he  only  desired  to  submit  the  authority  as 
it  appeared  just  about  parallel  with  the  evidence  contained  in  the 
telegram  he  was  discussing.  "  The  audience,"  says  the  Globc- 
Democrat,  "  was  evidently  disappointed  of  a  chance  of  amuse 
ment,  and  comments  were  freely  made  to  the  effect  that  this  was 
the  first  time  that  a  court  had  been  known  to  forbid  the  reading 
of  competent  authorities  in  hearing  arguments  on  a  law  point."  Mr. 
Storrs  went  on  to  argue  that  the  prosecution  must  show  not 
only  that  General  Babcock  was  cognizant  of  the  conspiracy,  but 
of  the  particular  mode  stated  in  the  indictment  by  which  it  was 
to  be  carried  out,  before  either  his  despatches  to  Joyce  or 
Joyce's  to  him  could  be  received  as  evidence  against  him. 


THE   TRIAL   OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  399 

"These  declarations  of  Joyce  are  none  the  more  cogent  because  they  are 
written;  they  are  none  the  more  admissible  because  they  are  written.  I  do 
not  apprehend  that  these  declarations,  were  they  offered  in  evidence,  would 
in  the  present  stage  of  this  case  be  received,  and  the  only  theory  by  which 
declarations  of  this  character  are  received  at  all  is  that  they  are  made  to 
the  party  to  the  record.  If  the  declaration  is  an  oral  one,  the  parties  stand 
ing  face  to  face,  while  the  opportunity  of  denial  or  repudiation  is  at  hand, 
then  there  is  some  force  and  effect  to  be  given  to  the  oral  communication, 
because  the  courts  have  said  that  the  silence  of  the  party  to  whom  the  oral 
communication  is  addressed  may  be  construed  into  an  acquiescence.  But 
the  wisdom  of  the  law  has  already  done  away  with  any  such  presumption 
as  that  where  the  communication  is  a  written  one,  and  made  either  by  letter 
or  by  telegram.  And  hence  it  is  that  an  unanswered  letter  ranks  no  higher 
in  the  scale  of  proof  against  the  party  to  whom  the  letter  is  addressed  than 
the  trivial  deduction  made  by  an  alleged  conspirator  to  a  third  person,  and 
not  in  the  presence  or  hearing  of  the  party  against  whom  that  declaration  is 
offered.  That  distinction,  your  Honor,  runs  through  all  the  books ;  it  is 
found  everywhere;  it  is  one  which  exists  of  a  very  necessity.  The  only 
reason  that  the  declaration  of  a  party  when  made  to  a  defendant  is  admis 
sible,  is  because  the  poison  and  the  antidote  are  both  together.  It  is  because 
if  the  assertion  be  false,  it  would  be  at  once  controverted  and  denied.  It 
is  because  all  our  ambiguities  about  it  may  be  explained,  and  explained  in 
the  hearing  of  those  who  are  present,  and  who  would  report  it.  The  admis- 
sibility  of  that  kind  of  declaration  rests  upon  this  idea.  Its  foundation  is  a 
philosophical  one,  perhaps  I  may  say  a  metaphysical  one.  It  is  derivable 
from  the  nature  of  man,  from  the  conception  which  we  have  of  him,  that 
where  crime  is  charged,  if  not  guilty,  he  will  deny  it:  that  where  complicity 
or  crime  is  charged,  if  innocent,  he  will  deny  it ;  that,  at  all  events,  it  is 
the  very  nature  of  man,  where  he  is  placed  in  a  false  position  by  the  spoken 
declarations  of  others,  then  and  there  to  right  his  position.  But  for  these 
reasons,  if  the  court  please,  it  fades  into  thin  air  in  the  case  of  telegraphic 
communications  or  by  letters.  The  possibility  of  complete  instantaneous 
repudiation  or  denial  does  not  exist ;  the  necessity  for  it  does  not  exist ; 
there  is  no  necessity  for  personal  intercourse  or  explanation.  And  hence  it 
is  again  revolving  in  this  circle,  and  founded  upon  these  general  principles; 
an  unanswered  letter  is  no  proof,  it  tends  to  prove  nothing.  In  reference 
to  telegrams  from  Joyce  to  Babcock  we  won't  stop  to  discuss  them  in  detail. 
It  will  be  found,  upon  an  inspection  of  them,  that  they  bear  no  immediate 
relation  to  the  subject  matter  involved  in  this  trial;  in  the  next  place,  that 
they  are  unanswered  ;  and,  with  regard  to  the  dispatches  of  the  3d  and  the 
5th,  no  sufficient  proof  has  been  made  either  that  they  were  sent  or  received 
by  third  parties.  With  that  I  submit  that  these  dispatches,  so  far  as  they 
have  been  offered,  should  be  excluded  from  the  consideration  of  the  jury." 

Judge  Porter's  argument  on  the  same  side  was  a  scholarly 
exposition  of  the  law  and  citation  of  authorities.  He  held  the 
Government  to  strict  proof  that  Babcock  himself  wrote  the  tele- 


4OO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

grams  put  in  evidence,  and  as  to  Joyce's  telegrams  to  him, 
several  of  which  were  never  answered,  he  contended  that  it  would 
be  inaugurating  a  new  rule  to  allow  a  party  to  make  evidence 
against  another  by  simply  writing  to  him,  thus  casting  upon  that 
other  the  onus  of  the  response.  During  Judge  Porter's  address, 
he  read  the  first  telegram  from  Babcock  to  Joyce  in  reference  to* 
the  appointment  of  Ford's  successor,  when  Colonel  Broadhead 
interrupted  him,  and  read  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  suggest  a  startling 
interpretation  of  its  meaning.  The  ingenuity  of  the  prosecuting 
counsel,  and  their  determination  to  secure  the  conviction  of  General 
Babcock  by  any  kind  of  artifice,  were  so  pointedly  exhibited  here 
as  to  create  a  feeling  rather  of  sympathy  with  the  defendant, 
against  whom  the  Government  officers  were  straining  evidence 
in  so  unworthy  a  way.  The  report  is  worth  reading  : 

"'See  that  Ford's  bondsmen  recommend  you.'  That  is  all.  He  under 
stands  Joyce  as  being  a  candidate  for  that  position,  and  he  says  that  if  he 
wishes  that  position  he  should  have  the  recommendation  of  Ford's  bonds 
men.' 

"Colonel  Broadhead.  'Let  me  read  that,  'See  that  Ford's  bondsmen  recom 
mend  you." 

"Mr.  Storrs.     'Where  is  the  accentuation  in  that  telegram?" 

"Judge  Krum.  'We  would  be  pleased  if  the  gentleman  would  show  us 
the  underscoring.' 

"Judge  Porter.  'Precisely  that.  In  a  criminal  case  the  officer  represent 
ing  the  Government  asks  that  you  convict  a  man  on  an  accent,  when  it 
is  a  generally  recognized  principle  of  law  that  where  two  constructions  are 
possible,  the  innocent  one  must  be  accepted.  Not  only  the  innocent  con 
struction,  but  the  most  reasonable  is  that  which  the  other  reading  gives  it. 
But  suppose  it  is  read  as  Col.  Broadhead  ingeniously  suggests,  does  that 
prove  any  more  than  the  other  that  Babcock  had  any  evil  purpose  in 
thus  advancing  a  man  whom  he  regarded,  as  others  did,  as  honest  and 
as  entitled  to  advancement  ? ' ' 

The  object  of  the  prosecution,  in  suggesting  this  ingenious 
reading  of  the  telegram,  was  to  make  the  jury  believe  that  Gen 
eral  Babcock  had  some  special  private  reason  for  desiring  Joyce 
to  be  appointed  to  the  vacant  Collectorship.  The  deposition  of 
the  President,  however,  disposed  of  that  idea,  and  the  artifice  of 
the  Government  counsel  only  recoiled  upon  themselves. 

Judge  Dillon  overruled  the  objections  to  the  dispatches  on  the 
ground  that  their  relevancy  was  a  question  for  the  jury  to  deter 
mine  under  advice  from  the  Court,  and  the  fact  that  some  of 
them  were  unanswered  did  not  constitute  alone  a  sufficient  ground 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  4<DI 

for  excluding  them,  but  they  must  be  viewed  in  connection  with 
all  the  circumstances  of  the  case.  As  to  the  despatches  between 
Macdonald,  and  Joyce,  these  were  admitted  as  statements  or  acts 
of  the  conspirators  among  themselves,  in  furtherance  of  the  con 
spiracy ;  "but  as  to  the  defendant,"  said  Judge  Dillon,  "they  go 
for  naught,  unless  he  is  shown  by  other  evidence  to  be  connected 
with  the  conspiracy." 

The  telegrams  were  then  read  in  evidence,  and  they  showed 
very  clearly  the  methods  of  Joyce  and  Macdonald's  operations, 
and  their  way  of  sending  telegrams  to  officials  in  Washington 
which  would  call  out  replies  such  as  they  wanted  to  show  to  the 
distillers  for  their  encouragement  Joyce,  for  instance,  sent  a 
telegram  to  General  Babcock, — "Have  you  talked  with  D.?  Are 
things  right?  How?" — to  which  he  got  no  answer,  but  the 
distillers  to  whom  he  showed  it  before  sending  it  were  doubtless 
impressed  by  the  familiarity  of  Joyce's  style,  and  that  was  enough. 
While  Macdonald  was  in  Washington  in  December  1874,  he 
telegraphed  Joyce, — "Had  a  long  ride  with  the  President  this 
afternoon.  B.  and  H.  are  here.  You  will  hear  from  me  to-mor 
row."  By  showing  this  to  the  distillers,  Joyce  could  create  an 
impression  on  their  minds  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
was  either  advised  of  or  co-operated  with  them  in  their  scheme 
of  fraud.  He  could  take  that  telegram  and  call  their  attention  to 
the  fact  that  Macdonald  was  hobnobbing  with  the  President,  and 
so  induce  them  to  think  that  through  Macdonald's  influence  they 
would  be  safe  from  prosecution.  The  next  day,  after  he  had  his 
talk  with  Deputy  Commissioner  Rogers,  and  learned  that  Brooks 
and  Hoag  were  not  to  be  sent  to  St.  Louis,  Macdonald  exultingly 
telegraphed  to  Joyce, — "Dead  dog;  goose  hangs  altitudilum  ;  the 
sun  shines."  This  was  sent  on  the  8th  of  December,  five  days 
before  Babcock's  "Sylph"  dispatch,  in  which  it  was  claimed  by 
the  Government  that  General  Babcock  informed  the  ring  of  the 
abandonment  of  the  expedition. 

An  important  ruling  was  made  by  Judge  Dillon  just  after  the 
admission  of  these  telegrams,  which  still  further  narrowed  the 
volume  of  evidence  for  the  Government,  and  relieved  the  defence 
of  some  trouble.  While  Mr.  Barton  was  testifying,  he  was  asked 
by  General  Dyer  to  state  a  conversation  between  himself  and 
Joyce  as  to  the  purpose  to  which  the  $5,000  that  he  and  Fraser 
26 


4O2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

raised  in  April   1875  was  to  De  applied.     Mr.  Storrs  at  once  rose 
and  said: 

"  'Now,  if  they  propose  to  reach  the  defendant  by  this  conversation,  we 
object.' 

"Mr.   Dyer.     'Well,  we  propose  to  do  so.' 

"Judge  Dillon.  '  Do  you  seek  to  show  by  this  evidence  declarations  of 
Joyce  in  connection  with  the  transaction  to  implicate  the  defendant?' 

"Mr.   Dyer.     'Yes,  sir.' 

"  Mr.  Broadhead.  '  Yes,  sir  ;  upon  the  principles  of  the  ruling  in  the  Mc- 
Kee  case  in  regard  to  Leavenworth's  declarations.  They  are  the  same  pre 
cisely  ;  I  do  not  see  any  difference — subject  to  your  ruling.' 

"Judge  Dillon.  'Yes,  sir.  The  difference  would  be  this,  with  regard  to 
them  ;  In  the  McKee  case,  we  required  the  defendant's  connection  with  the 
conspiracy  to  be  established  before  we  received  the  declarations.' 

"Mr.  Storrs.     'An  important  difference.1' 

Judge  Dillon  promptly  ruled  upon  the  question,  excluding  the 
declarations  of  Joyce  in  grave,  dignified,  and  significant  language. 
He  said : 

"Now,  the  object  of  this  testimony,  as  it  seems  to  both  of  us,  is  not  for 
the  legitimate  purpose  of  showing  the  nature  of  this  conspiracy,  but  for  the 
purpose,  by  indirection,  to  do  what  the  law  will  not  permit  directly  to  be 
done  ;  namely,  to  show  the  defendant's  connection  with  the  conspiracy.  Now 
the  court  has  a  discretion  in  such  cases  to  admit  such  testimony,  or  testi 
mony  of  this  character,  on  the  assumption  that  it  may  finally  be  shown  that 
the  defendant  was  connected  with  the  conspiracy,  and,  therefore  the  state 
ments  of  one  of  the  conspirators  with  another  in  the  execution  or  fur 
therance  of  the  scheme  would  be  competent.  But  it  is  true  that  the  regular 
course  is,  and,  as  the  books  say,  the  advisable  course  is  in  cases  of  this 
kind  to  require  that  connection  to  be  first  established.  And  if  there  ever 
was  a  case  where  that  should  be  done,  it  is  a  case  of  this  character.  The  char 
acter  of  this  man  Joyce,  the  obvious  purpose  which  he  seems  to  have 
manifested  in  this  case — his  forcing  the  distillers  to  make  illicit 
whisky,  the  bold  and  defiant  character  of  his  operations  here,  makes 
it  extremely  dangerous  to  receive  this  kind  of  testimony.  I  don't  know  what 
lie  might  undertake  to  say.  He  might  have  undertaken  to  implicate  the 
judicial  officers  of  the  Government,  and  I  would  tremble  for  the  reputation 
of  the  court  if  it  was  to  be  admitted  upon  the  mere  declaration  of  this  man 
in  carrying  out  this  scheme  ;  and  we  think  the  testimony  as  to  his  mere 
declarations  ought  not  to  be  received." 

The  last  witness  called  for  the  Government  was  the  revenue 
agent  Brooks;  and  as  to  this  gentleman  was  due  the  credit  of 
detecting  and  exposing  the  St.  Louis  frauds, — as  he  was,  like 
Abdiel, 

"Alone   among   the   faithless,    faithful   found," — 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  403 

his  testimony  carried  great  weight.  The  St.  Louis  Globe-Demo 
crat,  in  a  graphic  description  of  his  appearance  on  the  witness 
stand,  said:  "Mr.  Brooks  was  decidedly  the  best  witness  that 
has  been  examined  during  the  progress  of  the  case.  He  pos 
sesses  remarkable  accuracy  of  memory,  and  answered  the  ques 
tions  addressed  him  in  clear,  full  tones  that  were  audible  and 
distinct  in  the  furthest  recesses  of  the  court-room.  His  features, 
while  delivering  his  testimony,  betrayed  not  the  slightest  evidence 
of  emotion,  except  that  a  smile  was  once  or  twice  forced  from 
him  in  cross-examination.  Aside  from  this,  his  look  was  one  of 
continued  introspection,  and  the  cautious  deliberation  with  which 
he  framed  his  answers  and  the  exceeding  exactitude  of  his  lan 
guage  showed  clearly  the  effort  he  was  making  to  state,  and 
only  state,  precisely  what  he  knew,  of  his  own  personal  knowledge." 

Mr.  Brooks  testified  that  in  August  1874  the  Commissioner 
ordered  him  to  Washington  to  consult  as  to  the  condition  of  dis 
tilleries  in  the  West,  and  what  means  should  be  taken  to  detect 
the  frauds  that  were  being  committed  there.  The  result  was 
that  the  charge  of  the  expedition  was  put  into  his  hands,  and 
he  recommended  that  Hoag  should  co-operate  with  him.  The 
trip  was  put  off  on  account  of  the  elections  till  December,  when, 
being  engaged  in  Philadelphia  on  legal  business  for  the  Govern 
ment,  Hoag  came  and  saw  him  there.  On  the  I4th  of  Decem 
ber  he  received  a  letter  from  Deputy  Commissioner  Rogers, 
informing  him  that  the  raid  \vas  off. 

In  the  cross-examination  of  this  witness  Mr.  Storrs  again,  and 
more  distinctly  than  before,  foreshadowed  the  main  feature  that  the 
defence  relied  on  to  prove  that  the  secret  information  furnished 
from  time  to  time  to  the  conspirators  came  from  Hoag,  and  not 
from  General  Babcock.  Speaking  of  the  raid  on  the  distilleries 
in  New  Orleans,  the  witness  gave  evidence  which  left  no  shadow 
of  doubt  that  Hoag  had  remained  purposely  behind  in  Cincinnati 
to  get  an  opportunity  to  send  information  by  wire  to  the  distil 
lers  that  Government  officers  were  on  their  track ;  and  when 
Brooks  arrived  in  New  Orleans  he  found  the  law-breakers  busy 
running  off  the  evidences  of  their  guilt.  The  witness  further 
stated  that  the  seizures  were  hastened  by  the  knowledge  he  had 
acquired  of  this  fact  after  his  arrival  in  New  Orleans,  and  that 
they  were  made  without  waiting  for  the  arrival  of  his  coadjutor, 


404  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Hoag.  At  the  time  of  the  visit  to  St.  Louis  of  Brooks  and  Hoag 
in  May,  1874,  the  witness  stated  that  Hoag  again  failed  to  make 
connections  on  time,  and  after  the  latter  did  come,  he,  Brooks, 
had  felt  compelled  to  warn  him  against  his  too  frequent  habit 
of  associating  at  night  with  parties  who  at  that  time  were 
suspected  by  the  Government. 

It  is  necessary,  in  order  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  Mr. 
Storrs'  cross-examination  of  this  important  witness,  to  make  some 
extracts  from  the  verbatim  report: 

"Mr.  Storrs:  'Mr.  Brooks,  in  one  way  and  another  you  have  been  con 
nected  with  the  Revenue  or  Secret  Service  for  many  years,  have  you  not? 
A.  For  eleven  years.' 

"Q.  'You  have  had  a  very  large  experience  in  this  business,  haven't  you? 
A.  Somewhat  extensive.' 

"O.  'And  your  efforts  for  the  detection  of  frauds  and  the  punishment  of 
the  offenders  have  been  attended  with  a  great  measure  of  success  as  com 
pared  with  other  officials?  A.  I  think  a  large  measure  of  success.' 

"Q.  'Perhaps  it  might  seem  a  little  vain  in  you  to  volunteer  a  statement, 
but,  notwithstanding  that,  I  will  ask  you  whether  you  don't  consider  your 
self  a  pretty  good  judge  of  men?  A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q. 'Is  the  fact  that  you  were  deceived  by  Hoag  one  reason  why  you 
have  lost  your  confidence  in  yourself  in  that  direction?  A.  It  is,  sir.' 

"  Q.  'Up  to  the  time  that  Hoag  so  fearfully  deceived  you  didn't  you 
think  you  were  a  pretty  good  judge  of  men?  A.  I  am  afraid  I  did.'  [Laugh- 
ten] 

"  O.  '  But  that  ambition,  that  vanity,  now  is  crushed  to  earth  in  the  devel 
opment  of  Hoag's  duplicity?  A.  Not  exactly.' 

"Q.  'It  is  smothered  a  good  deal?     A.  It  is  a  little  crowded.' 

"Q,  'When  did  you  first  make  the  acquaintance  of  John  T.  Hoag?  A. 
I  made  his  acquaintance  early  in  April,  1874;  he  was  recommended  to  me 
by  the  Commissioner.' 

"Q.  'He  was  recommended  to  you  by  the  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue  ?  A.  He  was,  and  I  objected  to  association  with  him  for  some 
time.' 

"Q.  'Were  your  objections  based  on  any  previous  knowledge,  or  were 
they  excited  in  your  mind  from  an  inspection  of  the  man?  A.  Neither.' 

"Q.  'Why,  then,  did  you  object  to  being  associated  with  him?  A 
Because  I  had  not  proved  him.' 

"Q.  'And  you  didn't  want  to  be  associated  with  any  man  that  you  had 
not  proved?  A.  No,  sir.' 

"Q.  'When  did  you  first  begin  to  prove  him?  A.  Well,  I  don't  know  how 
to  answer  that.  Do  you  ask  when  I  discovered — 

"Q.  'I  don't  want  to  know  what  you  first  discovered.  What  was  your 
first  experience  with  him  in  an  official  way?  A.  I  had  positively  no  experi 
ence  with  him  in  an  official  way.' 


THE   TRIAL   OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  405 

"Q.  'What  I  mean  is,  what  trip  did  you  first  become  associated  with 
him  in?  A.  The  trip  to  New  Orleans.' 

"Q.  'Looking  back  on  the  New  Orleans  trip  now,  with  your  present 
lights,  did  you  see  anything  in  the  conduct  of  Hoag  that  was  suspicious? 
A.  Yes,  sir — that  is,  no ;  let  me  recall  that  answer.  Only  by  common  report 
I  am  judging  now,  not  by  experience.' 

"Q.  'Was  he  on  hand  promptly  at  New  Orleans?     A.   He  was  not.' 

"Q.  'W7hy  wasn't  he?  A.  I  don't  know,  sir;  I  attributed  it  to  the 
best  motives. ' 

"Q.  'What  reason  did  he  assign?  A.  He  couldn't  get  his  man  in  Cin 
cinnati.' 

41  Q.  'He  was  delayed  in  Cincinnati  watching  for  his  man?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'When  did  Hoag  get  to  New  Orleans?  A.  Two  or  three  days  after 
the  raid  had  been  made.'  ' 

Mr.  Brooks  stated  that  on  his  arrival  in  New  Orleans  he 
found  that  the  distillers  there  had  been  making  illicit  whisky, 
and  running  it  off  into  flatboats.  He  discovered  indications  that 
in  some  mysterious  way  the  distillers  had  received  information 
of  his  coming.  Hoag  went  with  him  from  New  Orleans  to  St. 
Louis,  and  his  conduct  while  in  St.  Louis  excited  Brooks'  suspi 
cion. 

"Q.  'Hoag  was  behind,  at  New  Orleans?  How  long  after  the  seizures 
did  Hoag  get  there?  A.  About  two  days.' 

"  Q.   'Was  that  your  first  experience  with  him?     A.  It  was.' 

"  Q.   '  Please  tell  the  jury  where  was  your  next?     A.   In  St.   Louis.' 

"Q.   'The  Be  vis  &  Fraser  matter?     A.  Yes,  sir.' 

"Q.  'I  will  ask  you  the  general  question,  whether  in  visiting  these  vari 
ous  places  with  Hoag,  you  ever  observed  anything  in  his  conduct  that 
excited  your  suspicion?  A.  Not  then — yes — I  did  in  this  city — not  excite 
my  suspicion,  but  I  thought  his  conduct  was  to  be  deprecated.' 

"Q.  'Will  you  please  to  state  what  that  conduct  was  that  you  thought 
was  to  be  deprecated?  A.  Well,  he  would  associate  so  much  with  Mr. 
Fitzroy,  and  others  in  this  city,  at  night,  going  around  with  them.  I  warned 
him  then  to  be  careful  of  his  associations.' 

"  Q.  'When  was  it  that  you  visited  here  for  the  purpose  of  investigating 
Bevis  and  Fraser's  condition?  A.  On  May  4.' 

"Q.   '  1874?     A.    1874.' 

"  Q.  'Then,  as  I  understand  you,  Hoag  was  an  industrious  searcher 
after  truth  with  you  during  the  day,  and  went  around  with  Fitzroy  in  the 
night.  A.  He  went  out  with  them ;  he  spent  his  evenings  with  them.' 

"  Q.  '  Did  you  look  upon  that  sort  of  mixture  of  operations  as  suspicious  in 
its  character?  A.  No,  sir;  I  protested;  I  told  him  he  should  be  careful  of 
his  associations,  not  become  too  familiar.' 

"Q.  'With  Fitzroy?  A.  Not  Fitzroy  especially;  I  had  probably  Fitzroy 
in  my  mind,  but  I  assumed  that  he  was  associating  with  others  besides  Fitz 
roy.' 


4O6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"Q.  'You  of  course,  had  not  the  slightest  idea  that  Hoag  was  giving 
information?  A.  Not  at  all.' 

"  Q.  'You  had  not  the  slightest  idea  that  he  was  communicating  with 
Bingham  or  any  of  the  other  distillers?  A.  No,  sir.'' 

Hoag  had  the  same  avenues  of  information  that  he  had,  and 
had  the-  full  confidence  of  the  Department. 

Several  telegrams  from  Avery  to  Joyce  having  been  put  in 
evidence,  showing  one  source  at  least  from  which  the  St.  Louis 
ring  got  their  information  from  Washington,  the  case  for  the 
Government  was  closed. 


II. 

THE  DEFENSE. 

OPENING  SPEECH  OF  EX-ATTORNEY-GENERAL  WILLIAMS — WHAT  JOYCE'S  "MUM" 
DISPATCH  MEANT — MR.  WILLIAMS'  PERSONAL  EXPERIENCE  OF  THE  CARES  OF 
OFFICE — SPLENDID  ARRAY  OF  WITNESSES  TO  GENERAL  BABCOCK'S  CHARAC 
TER — TESTIMONY  OF  SUPERVISOR  TUTTON — WHY  THE  ORDER  TRANSFERRING 
THE  SUPERVISORS  WAS  REVOKED — DISINGENUOUS  COURSE  OF  THE  PROSECU 
TION—THE  DISTRICT  ATTORNEY  WALKS  INTO  A  TRAP  OF  HIS  OWN  CONSTRUC 
TION — SECRETARY  BRISTOW  DIRECTLY  RESPONSIBLE  FOR  THE  REVOCATION 
OF  THE  ORDER — JOYCE'S  CORRESPONDENCE — REVENUE  AGENT  HOAG  THE 
SOURCE  OF  THE  RING'S  INFORMATION — DEPOSITION  OF  THE  PRESIDENT — 
— JUDGE  PORTER'S  MOTION  FOR  A  DIRECTION  TO  ACQUIT  OVERRULED — 
COLONEL  BROADHEAD'S  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  PROSECUTION — THE  "SYLPH" 
TELEGRAM — CLOSING  ARGUMENT  OF  MR.  STORRS  FOR  THE  DEFENSE — JUDGE 

PORTER    FOLLOWS— GENERAL     DYER'S     REPLY— JUDGE   DILLON'S   CHARGE    TO 
THE   JURY. 

ON  the  eighth  day  of  the  trial,  Attorney-General  Williams 
opened  the  case  for  the  defence.  He  admitted  at  the 
outset  that  for  four  years  the  St.  Louis  whisky  ring  had  been 
plundering  the  Government,  and  that  Macdonald  and  Joyce,  while 
unsuspected,  held  high  social  position,  and  corresponded  with 
influential  Government  officials.  Their  social  acquaintances,  how 
ever,  were  not  necessarily  their  confederates  in  crime.  All  that 
the  Government  had  been  able  to  prove  against  General  Babcock 
amounted  merely  to  a  suspicion,  derived  from  the  wording  of 
some  telegrams;  and  such  a  suspicion  General  Babcock's  whole 
career  and  character  went  to  disprove.  Mr.  Williams  then  reminded 
the  jury  that  party  strife  in  the  State  of  Missouri  had  been 
characterized  by  unnecessary  harshness  and  bitterness,  owing  to 
the  course  taken  by  Carl  Schurz,  Gratz  Brown,  and  their  adher 
ents;  and  that  Macdonald  and  Joyce  had  made  themselves  con 
spicuous  as  champions  of  the  administration  and  friends  of  the 

407 


408  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

President,  and  took  every  opportunity  to  impress  on  President 
Grant,  through  correspondence  with  General  Babcock,  the  magni 
tude  and  value  of  their  services.  The  reading  of  Joyce's  letters 
to  General  Babcock  by  Mr.  Williams  produced  a  striking  effect 
in  the  court-room.  They  showed  that  at  the  time  this  corres 
pondence  was  commenced  by  Joyce,  he  was  comparatively  a 
stranger  to  General  Babcock,  and  had  to  recall  to  the  mind  of 
the  latter  the  fact  that  Orville  Grant,  a  brother  of  the  President, 
once  introduced  them  to  each  other.  They  enclosed  editorials, 
clipped  from  newspapers,  which  Joyce  claimed  to  have  written  in 
support  of  the  administration  and  against  Schurz  and  Brown,  and 
which  could  easily  have  induced  General  Babcock  to  respond, 
"with  thanks  for  the  enclosure."  One  letter  clearly  showed  the 
true  explanation  of  the  telegram,  "See  the  dispatch  sent  to  the 
President;  we  mean  it;  mum."  The  dispatch  referred  to  was  that 
sent  by  the  bondsmen  of  Ford  recommending  Maguire,  with 
which  Joyce  had  nothing  whatever  to  do;  and  the  words,  "we 
mean  it,"  were  written  to  salve  over  Joyce's  mortified  self-impor 
tance.  All  the  mysterious  significance  was  taken  out  of  the 
word  "mum,"  when  it  became  apparent  to  the  jury  that  Joyce 
had  been  a  candidate  and  had  been  defeated,  and  did  not  want 
to  have  it  known  by  the  other  politicians  in  St.  Louis,  and  par 
ticularly  by  Maguire,  that  he  had  been  Maguire's  competitor  for 
the  office.  He  said  in  this  letter: 

"Dear  General:  I  heard  from  you  in  due  course  in  regard  to  the  Collect- 
orship,  and  at  once  went  to  see  the  bondsmen,  but  I  found  they  were  fixed 
upon  the  man  they  had  recommended,  and  not  being  in  a  position  to  induce 
them  to  act  in  my  behalf,  telegraphed  as  I  have  already  done.  Of  course 
telegrams  to  parties  here  revolving  about  the  Globe  office  got  out  among 
particular  friends,  and  therefore  newspaper  hawks  got  just  enough  informa 
tion  to  spread  themselves  and  tell  more  than  anybody  else  can." 

This  letter  plainly  showed  what  Joyce  meant  by  the  word 
"mum,"  and  that  it  indicated  nothing  more  than  the  vulgar  and 
familiar  style  which  he  adopted  in  all  his  communications.  The 
correspondence  about  Ford's  successor  was  shown  to  be  of  the 
most  innocent  official  character,  and  its  reading  produced  a 
marked  sensation.  Joyce  knewr  that  the  President  was  an  old 
and  intimate  friend  of  Collector  Ford,  and  he  adroitly  availed 
himself  of  that  circumstance  to  pretend  a  great  solicitude  for 
Ford's  memory,  when  in  fact  all  he  wanted  was  that  revenue 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  409 

agents, — "scandal  hounds,"  as  he  termed  them, — should  not  be 
sent  to  St.  Louis  during  his  absence  in  San  Francisco.  A  start 
ling  flood  of  light  was  thrown  on  this  telegram  by  Mr.  Williams' 
reading  of  Babcock's  letter  in  reply: — "I  have  seen  D.,  and  he 
assures  me.no  mention  has  ever  been  made  of  Ford's  name  .  .  . 
I  don't  know  your  instructions  on  trip  to  San  Francisco;  I  think, 
though,  it  is  because  D.  trusts  you  to  do  important  work." 
General  Babcock  had,  in  compliance  with  Joyce's  request,  had 
an  interview  with  Commissioner  Douglass  about  Ford,  as  already 
explained  by  the  Commissioner's  testimony,  and  this  letter  was 
the  answer.  The  vindication  of  General  Babcock,  so  far  as  these 
telegrams  of  Joyce  were  concerned,  was  made  complete  and  sat 
isfactory  by  the  production  of  the  accompanying  correspondence. 
The  impression  made  by  these  letters  is  shown  by  the  comment 
of  the  Globe-Democrat  on  their  production: 

"In  this  respect  the  counsel  for  the  defense  has  shown  a  vast  amount  of 
finesse.  These  letters,  so  vital  to  the  case,  were  never  hinted  at  before  they 
were  produced  in  court,  and  their  production  at  this  critical  stage  shows 
beyond  a  peradventure  that  the  counsel  for  the  prosecution  have  been  more 
anxious  to  find  evidence  in  support  of  a  preconceived  theory  than  to  con 
duct  a  fair  investigation  into  the  acts  of  an  officer  whose  heedless  good 
nature  had  led  him  into  an  innocent  correspondence  with  fellow  officials 
which  has  since  placed  him  in  so  much  peril." 

Mr.  Williams  showed  that  General  Babcock,  instead  of  being  a 
member,  was  in  fact  a  victim  of  the  conspiracy  ;  that  by  the  use 
of  his  name,  and  by  drawing  him  adroitly  into  correspondence, 
innocent  enough  so  far  as  he  was  concerned,  Joyce  and  Mac- 
donald  were  able  to  keep  up  the  idea  with  the  distillers  and  rec 
tifiers  in  St.  Louis  that  they  were  safe,  because  they  were  under 
the  protection  of  the  White  House.  They  simply  abused  the 
generous  confidence  and  friendship  of  General  Babcock,  who 
down  to  the  date  of  the  seizures  had  no  idea  that  they  were  even 
suspected  by  the  Revenue  Department.  The  conduct  of  Joyce  in 
regard  to  the  two  envelopes,  and  the  two  $500  bills,  as  detailed 
by  Everest,  was  severely  commented  upon  as  another  example  of 
Joyce's  unscrupulous  use  of  General  Babcock's  name  to  carry  on 
his  pretence  to  the  distillers  that  Babcock  was  in  the  ring. 

"Joyce  takes  the  bills,"  said  Mr.  Williams, "in  the  presence  of  Everest, 
and  puts  them,  or  pretends  to  put  them,  in  two  envelopes,  already  directed 
and  spread  out  on  the  desk  of  Joyce.  Joyce  hands  them  to  Everest,  and 
tells  him  to  go  and  put  them  in  a  certain  post-office  box,  while  he  stands 


4IO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

at  the  window  and  watches  him.  Why  all  this  parade  over  this  act,  which, 
if  intended  to  be  criminal,  would  have  been  concealed  ?  You  can  readily 
see,  gentlemen,  that— as  the  distillers  and  rectifiers  were  a  little  restive,  and 
doubtful  as  to  whether  or  not  they  were  safe — all  this  parade  was  made  by 
Joyce  to  impress  upon  the  mind  of  Everest  the  fact  that  Avery  and  Babcock 
were  receiving  money  from  the  Ring,  so  that  he  could  go  to.  the  rectifiers 
and  distillers  and  say  to  them,  'Be  quiet;  all  is  right ;  Babcock  and  Avery 
are  getting  our  money,  and  they  will  see  that  we  are  not  disturbed.'  Do 
you  believe,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  that  Joyce  sent  a  dollar  in  these  letters? 
You  will  be  satisfied  before  this  case  closes,  if  you  are  not  already  satisfied, 
that  this  was  one  of  the  tricks  of  Joyce,  to  keep  up  the  delusion  here  that 
others  in  Washington  were  implicated  in  this  conspiracy  ;  and  this  damnable 
trick  of  a  desperate  and  unprincipled  villain — a  fact  of  which  Gen.  Babcock 
was  as  ignorant  as  a  new-born  babe— is  brought  in  here  as  evidence  of  his 
guilt.  Look,  again,  at  that  transaction  of  #10,000  they  raised.  Five  thous 
and  was  paid  to  Joyce,  and  $5,000  to  Macdonald.  in  April,  1875.  Macdon- 
ald  pretended  that  it  was  money  to  prevent  seizures,  and  it  was  obtained 
upon  a  promise  that  if  the  seizures  were  made  the  money  should  be  returned. 
But  they  were  made,  and  there  wasn't  a  cent  returned.  Joyce  and  Macdon 
ald  saw  that  this  conspiracy  was  tottering  to  its  fall ;  that  it  was  on  its  last 
legs ;  that  the  opportunity  for  making  more  money  out  of  it  was  rapidly 
expiring  ;  and  so,  under  this  pretext  they  black-mailed  the  distillers  and  rec 
tifiers  here  out  of  $10,000.  Macdonald  pretended  at  one  time  that  it  was  to 
pay  somebody  in  Washington,  as  a  remuneration  for  services  rendered 
them  ;  and  at  another  time,  that  it  was  to  prevent  seizure.  But  I  will  not 
insult  your  intelligence  by  supposing  that  you  have  any  doubt  that  every 
dollar  of  that  money  went  into  the  pockets  of  Joyce  and  Macdonald." 

Not  a  particle  of  evidence  had  been  offered  to  show  any  agree 
ment  or  understanding  between  Babcock  and  the  men  in  St.  Louis. 
All  that  was  left  in  a  region  of  conjecture  and  doubt.  Mr. 
Williams  closed  by  saying: 

"  I  cannot  express,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  all  I  feel  in  this  case.  I  have 
been  associated  in  public  life  with  General  Babcock  for  several  years,  and 
I  know  and  can  appreciate  the  difficulties  and  responsibilities  of  his  position. 

"And  I  know  from  bitter  experience  how  easy  it  is  for  evil-disposed  per 
sons,  who  pervert  an  act  performed,  perhaps  without  much  care  or  thought, 
in  the  hurry  of  business,  and  amid  the  multiplicity  of  duties,  an  act  inno 
cent  in  itself,  into  evidence  of  a  wrong  purpose,  or  a  disposition  to  violate 
the  law. 

"I  have,  gentlemen,  exhibited  to  you,  not  in  detail,  but  as  briefly  as  I 
could,  the  weakness  of  this  prosecution,  and  the  points  upon  which  we 
depend  for  our  defense.  I  do  not  ask  sympathy  or  favor  for  the  defendant, 
but  I  do  ask  an  enlightened  and  righteous  judgment  from  you.  President 
Grant  has  said  'let  no  guilty  man  escape,'  and  I  approve  of  that  policy. 

"But  it  would  be  a  sad  and  strange  spectacle  to  see  scores  of  self-con 
victed  felons  walking  the  streets  as  free  as  the  encasing  air,  enjoying  life 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  411 

and  the  fruits  of  their  years  of  robbery,  while,  by  their  testimony,  and  a  few 
facts  offered  to  give  it  decency  and  strength,  Gen.  Babcock  is  dragged  from 
his  home,  his  family,  his  friends  and  his  country,  and  thrust  into  the  jaws 
of  a  Penitentiary.  Let  justice,  however,  be  done,  though  the  heavens  fall. 
"Show  him  no  favor,  unwarranted  by  law,  on  account  of  his  past  career 
or  recent  position.  But  in  doing  that  I  doubt  not  that  you  will  come  from 
your  final  consideration  over  this  case  with  beautiful  feet  to  bring  glad 
tidings  to  family  and  friends  of  his  full  deliverance  from  this  prosecution." 

Seldom  in  a  criminal  trial  have  witnesses  to  character  been 
called  on  the  part  of  the  defendant  of  such  high  public  station 
and  conceded  national  reputation  as  were  called  on  behalf  of 
General  Babcock.  First  came  General  Humphreys,  Chief  of  the 
Engineer  Department  of  the  United  States  army,  a  silver-haired 
veteran  whose  erect  martial  bearing  and  honest  face  reminded 
one  of  that  Colonel  Newcome  with  whose  character  Thackeray 
has  made  us  all  so  familiar.  He  spoke  of  General  Babcock's 
high  standing  in  the  army,  and  said  that  as  Superintendent  of 
Public  Buildings  and  Grounds  at  Washington,  General  Babcock 
had  charge  of  an  expenditure  of  over  $400,000  annually,  and  had 
performed  his  duties  admirably.  The  first  Auditor  of  the  Treasury, 
Mr.  Mahon,  testified  that  the  accounts  of  General  Babcock's 
annual  disbursements  balanced  to  a  cent.  Mr.  Berrett,  Mayor 
of  Washington  from  1858  to  1 86 1,  a  white  haired  gentleman  of 
magnificent  appearance,  who  was  at  this  time  Police  Commissioner 
for  the  District  of  Columbia,  said  that  General  Babcock's  reputa 
tion  as  a  gentleman  was  unexceptionable,  and  his  integrity 
unquestioned.  The  jury  listened  with  interest  to  Mr.  Berrett 
when  he  said,  "  I  have  been  a  life-long  Democrat,  and  have  never 
been  affiliated  with  the  party  of  which  General  Babcock  is  a 
member."  He  was,  in  fact,  a  prisoner  in  Fort  Lafayette  for  some 
months  in  1861,  on  account  of  his  Southern  sympathies.  General 
N.  P.  Banks  of  Massachusetts  gave  emphatic  testimony  to  the 
high  character  of  the  defendant  as  a  man,  a  soldier,  and  a  citizen. 
He  had  known  General  Babcock  from  the  time  he  served  on  his 
staff  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  never  heard  a  word  said 
to  his  detriment  until  this  trial.  The  General  of  the  Army  of 
the  United  States,  William  T.  Sherman,  said  he  first  knew  General 
Babcock  as  the  bearer  to  him  of  dispatches  from  General  Grant 
at  Savannah.  From  that  time  on  he  had  known  him  intimately, 
and  had  never  heard  his  reputation  questioned  until  the  proceed- 


412  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

ings  in  this  case.  The  old  veteran,  General  Harney,  the  ex-Sec 
retary  of  the  Navy,  Mr.  Borie,  General  Simpson,  General  Sturgis, 
General  Fullerton,  and  Captain  Babbitt,  all  testified  to  their  com 
plete  belief  in  Babcock's  integrity,  and  gave  him  a  handsome 
send-off  in  the  way  of  character. 

A  new  light  was  thrown  upon  the  revocation  by  President 
Grant  of  the  order  transferring  the  Supervisors,  when  Mr.  Alex 
ander  P.  Tutton,  supervisor  of  the  district  embracing  the  States 
of  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Maryland  and  Delaware,  and  the 
District  of  Columbia,  was  put  upon  the  stand  for  the  defence. 
The  counsel  for  the  prosecution  struggled  zealously  to  exclude 
the  vital  portions  of  Mr.  Tutton's  testimony,  but  unsuccessfully, 
and  at  last  by  their  own  indiscretion  enabled  Mr.  Storrs  to  get 
it  all  in.  Mr.  Tutton  testified  that  in  January  1875  an  order  was 
made  transferring  him  from  Philadelphia  to  St.  Louis,  and  he 
went  to  Washington  and  had  an  interview  with  Commissioner 
Douglass  in  reference  to  it  on  the  3d  of  February.  The  District 
Attorney  objected  to  the  witness  stating  his  conversation  with 
the  Commissioner.  "  We  have  never  insisted,"  he  said,  "  and 
do  not  now  insist,  that  there  is  any  evidence  tending  to  show 
that  General  Babcock  said  anything  to  the  President  in  reference 
to  the  suspension  of  the  order.  This  is  a  conversation  with  an 
outside  party,  and  therefore  inadmissible."  Yet  General  Dyer 
had  distinctly  charged  General  Babcock,  in  his  opening  speech, 
with  procuring  the  revocation  of  the  order.  He  now  admitted 
that  there  was  no  evidence  to  maintain  the  charge,  but  wanted 
to  prevent  the  defence  from  showing  just  how  the  revocation  of 
the  order  carne  about.  The  reason  for  this  disingenuous  course, 
this  anxiety  to  suppress  the  truth,  was  apparent  the  moment  the 
testimony  was  admitted.  Judge  Dillon,  in  overruling  the  objec 
tion,  said: 

"We  think  that  you  could  have  no  other  purpose  in  the  introduction 
of  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Douglass.  The  jury  may  infer  that  there  was 
improper  motive  on  the  part  of  Babcock  in  connection  with  that  order. 
And  if  so,  clearly,  on  the  clearest  principles,  they  ought  to  be  entitled 
to  remove  that  impression  if  they  can  do  so." 

Mr.  Tutton  went  on  to  say  that  after  his  interview  with  the 
Commissioner,  he  next  called  upon  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
and  had  a  conversation  with  him  in  reference  to  the  order. 
General  Dyer  again  objected,  more  nervously  than  before,  to  the  dis- 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  413 

closure  of  Tutton's  conversation  with  Secretary  Bristow.  Judge  Dil 
lon's  ruling  was  of  a  nature  to  give  some  comfort  to  the  Dis 
trict  Attorney,  and  shut  out  the  awkward  facts  he  feared  to  have 
disclosed,  but  in  a  short  time  General  Dyer  threw  away  all  the 
advantage  he  had  gained.  Judge  Dillon  said: 

"It  does  not  seem  to  be  disclaimed  here  that  the  government  will 
maintain  upon  the  evidence  of  Douglass  and  the  other  witnesses  that 
the  defendant  was  improperly  concerned  in  the  revocation  of  the  order 
for  the  transfer  of  the  Supervisors.  That  must  have  been  the  purpose  of 
that  testimony,  that  order  being  a  step  designed  by  the  Commissioner  in 
order  to  ascertain  the  frauds  to  be  ferreted  out.  Now  we  think  it  is 
competent  for  the  defendant  here  to  show  the  history  of  the  revocation 
of  that  order  to  the  jury.  \\e  don't  think  it  material  for  the  witness  to 
go  into  a  conversation  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury-,  but  if  the 
witness  called  upon  the  Secretary  in  reference  to  this  order,  and  was  by  the 
Secretary  'referred  to  the  President,  that  fact  may  be  stated." 

Mr.  Tutton  said  that  after  his  conversation  with  the  Secretary, 
Mr.  Bristow  directed  him  to  call  upon  the  President,  and  state 
to  him  substantially  what  he  had  stated  to  the  Secretary.  He 
went  directly  to  the  Presidential  mansion,  and  stated  to  President 
Grant  his  objections  to  the  order,  as  he  had  already  done  to  the 
Commissioner  and  Secretary  Bristow.  The  President  said  that  it 
was  thought  that  a  great  deal  of  fraud  had  been  perpetrated  in 
St.  Louis  and  Chicago  and  other  points,  and  this  order  had  been 
issued  with  the  hope  that  it  might  enable  the  Government  to 
detect  the  frauds;  that  while  he  himself  did  not  think  the  officers 
in  St.  Louis  were  involved  in  the  frauds  or  had  anything  to  do 
with  them,  he  did  think,  from  what  he  had  heard,  that  frauds 
were  being  committed;  that  considerable  political  influence  had 
already  been  brought  to  bear  upon  him  to  revoke  the  order,  but 
he  felt  that  it  was  necessary  to  carry  it  out,  in  order  to  put  a 
stop  to  the  alleged  frauds  on  the  Government.  Mr.  Tutton  then 
explained  to  the  President  why  he  thought  the  order  would  not 
effect  the  object  for  which  it  was  made.  Its  publication  had 
already  given  notice  to  the  distillers  to  put  them  on  their  guard, 
and  the  new  officers  would  therefore  find  no  traces  of  past  frauds. 
While  it  might  result  in  preventing  fraud  for  the  future,  it  would 
fail  so  far  as  the  detection  of  past  frauds  and  the  punishment  of 
those  engaged  in  them  was  concerned.  As  he  had  already  said 
to  Secretary  Bristow,  he  again  said||i  the  President,  that  in  his 
opinion  a  better  plan  would  be  to  send  out  some  trustworthy 


4H  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

man  who  knew  all  about  the  distilleries,  what  they  could  do 
legally,  and  what  it  was  unlawful  for  them  to  do,  and  let  him 
visit  them  unawares  and  find  out  what  they  were  doing  before 
they  had  time  to  conceal  the  evidence. 

"I  said  to  him  that  I  had  suggested,  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
Revenue  Agent  Brooks  as  the  very  best  person  that  I  knew  of  to  have 
charge  of  that  business — most  likely  to  get  down  to  what  was  actually  tak 
ing  place  at  these  points;  that  Brooks  had  been 'on  duty  with  me  for  five 
or  six  years ;  that  he  was  not  only  competent,  but  he  was  honest,  was 
shrewd,  and  I  was  satisfied  that  if  sent  out  there  without  anybody  knowing, 
or  the  parties  getting  any  information  of  his  coming,  I  believed  he  would  be 
able  to  detect  the  frauds  that  were  being  committed,  if  such  were  the  case. 
Now,  that  is  the  substance  of  what  took  place,  though  the  interview  was  a 
lengthy  one,  and  I  can't  say  that  I  recollect  everything  that  was  uttered. 

"Q.  'You  will  state,  if  you  please,  what  the  President  said?  A.  The 
President,  after  listening  to  my  statement  in  regard  to  the  matter,  said  that 
the  more  he  thought  about  this  thing,  and  the  more  information  he  had 
about  it,  the  better  he  became  satisfied  that  this  arrangement  would  not 
accomplish  what  they  had  expected  it  would  accomplish,  and  that  he  would 
order  the  revocation  of  it  that  day.'  ' 

The  result  of  this  conversation  was  that  President  Grant  ordered 
the  suspension  of  the  order.  Mr.  Tutton  said,  on  cross-examina 
tion,  that  he  had  no  conversation  with  General  Babcock  on  the 
subject.  The  District  Attorney  then  put  some  questions  tending 
to  draw  out  part  of  Mr.  Tutton's  conversation  with  Secretary 
Bristow, — the  very  conversation  to  which  he  had  objected  while 
Mr.  Storrs  had  the  witness  under  examination  in  chief.  The 
scene  that  followed  is  very  ably  described  in  the  Globe-Democrafs 
report : 

"  Mr.  Tutton's  testimony  was  exceedingly  important,  and  amounted,  indeed 
to  a  turning  point  in  the  trial.  He  showed  clearly  that  the  famous  order  of 
the  President,  suspending  .the  order  of  Commissioner  Douglass  for  the  trans 
fer  of  Supervisors,  was  brought  about  solely  through  his  own  intervention. 
And  during  the  examination  and  cross-examination  a  curious  scene  occurred, 
wherein  it  was  shown  how  easy  it  is,  sometimes,  for  a  really  shrewd  lawyer 
to  walk  deliberately  into  a  trap  of  his  own  construction.  The  witness  was 
asked  by  Mr.  Storrs  for  the  defense,  to  state  the  substance  of  a  conversation 
he  had  had  with  Secretary  Bristow,  and  the  counsel  for  the  Government 
objecting,  the  'court  very  properly  ruled  out  the  question.  Subsequently,  on 
cross-examination,  Colonel  Dyer  led  the  witness  up  to  relate  some  of  the 
details  of  this  very  conversation^hat  had  been  ruled  out  on  his  own  objec 
tion.  Every  one  expected  thei^nsel  for  the  other  side  to  jump  up  with 
a  counter  objection,  and  one  of^iem  did  make  a  move  to  do  so.  But  Mr. 
Storrs,  whose  management  of  the' case  throughout  has  been  beyond  all  praise, 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  415 

with  a  quiet  gesture  restrained  his  impatient  associate,  and  the  evidence  was 
given  unchallenged.  As  this  line  of  cross-examination  was  going  on,  how 
ever,  Judge  Dillon,  interposed  with  a  remark  to  the  effect  that  he  had 
already  ruled  out  this  evidence  on  the  objection  of  the  prosecution.  Storrs 
smiled  a  quiet  smile  of  triumph,  while  Dyer  looked  absolutely  scared  when 
it  dawned  upon  him  what  he  had  done.  Storrs  then  rose  quietly,  and  insisted 
that,  as  the  counsel  for  the  other  side  had  introduced  this  matter,  his  side 
had  a  right  to  pursue  the  inquiry.  Even  Judge  Treat  smiled  at  the  adroit 
ness  of  the  learned  counsel,  and  the  court,  after  brief  debate,  consented  to 
admit  the  testimony  to  a  limited  extent.  This  was  all  that  Storrs  wanted, 
and  he  immediately  proceeded  to  get  in  testimony  to  the  effect  that  Secre 
tary  Bristow  was  a  willing  and  consenting  party  to  the  suspension  of  the 
order  to  transfer  the  Supervisors,  and  that  this  consent  had  led  him  to  sug 
gest  to  Mr.  Tutton  that  he  should  lay  his  arguments  to  that  end  before 
the  President.  Said  a  listening  attorney  to  the  reporter  of  this  paper : 
'  If  Secretary  Bristow  knew  of  this  suspension  before  it  was  ordered,  and 
if  that  suspension  and  subsequent  revocation  were  brought  about  with  his 
express  consent,  it  seems  that  his  motives  in  permitting  General  Babcock, 
and  even  General  Grant,  to  be  questioned  in  this  matter,  are  somewhat 
queer.  If  Babcock  is  guilty,  then  the  officers  who  signed  the  order  of  sus 
pension  must  be  guilty.'  ' 

It  was  now  clear  to  the  jury,  and  to  the  country  at  large,  why 
General  Dyer  was  so  anxious  to  exclude  this  testimony.  There 
was  no  longer  any  shadow  of  doubt  that  Secretary  Bristow  was 
directly  responsible  for  the  revocation  of  the  order ;  that  it  was 
done,  not  on  account  of  anything  that  General  Babcock  did  or 
said, — for  in  fact  he  had  nothing  to  do  with  it, — but  on  the 
advice  of  Supervisor  Tutton,  approved  by  Secretary  Bristow.  The 
counsel  for  the  Government  should  have  known  this ;  and  had  it 
been  known  to  them,  it  can  scarcely  be  supposed  that  they  would 
have  instituted  the  proceedings  against  General  Babcock.  There 
are  only  two  possible  explanations  of  the  District  Attorney's 
course  of  action.  Either  he  knew  what  Secretary  Bristow  had. 
done,  and  yet  proceeded  against  Babcock  with  the  deliberate  pur 
pose  of  casting  a  slur  upon  the  President  and  his  private  secre 
tary  to  serve  Mr.  Bristow's  political  ambition,  or  he  was  ignorant 
of  the  facts,  and  the  responsibility  for  this  prosecution  must  rest 
upon  Secretary  Bristow  himself.  In  whatever  way  the  case  is 
viewed,  it  will  be  hard  to  find  a  scruple  of  palliation  for  this 
wanton  arraignment  of  one  of  the  most  honorable  and  distin 
guished  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

Several   confidential   letters   from   Deputy  Commissioner   Rogers 


41 6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

to  Macdonald  were  put  in  evidence  by  the  defence,  which  tended 
to  show  that  Macdonald  had  the  full  confidence  of  the  Depart 
ment  down  to  the  very  date  of  the  seizures.  Some  post-office 
officials  were  called  to  prove  that  the  mail  boxes  in  St.  Louis 
were  not  intended  for  the  depositing  of  valuable  matter,  and  one 
of  them  said  he  could  open  any  of  the  boxes  with  a  stick. 

Joyce's  letters  to  General  Babcock,  and  the  letters  of  Babcock 
in  reply,  were  read  in  evidence.  Their  nature  has  already  been 
stated.  The  correspondence  was  begun  in  1871  by  Joyce  for 
warding  editorials  to  Babcock,  and  some  idea  of  Joyce's  bombastic 
style  may  be  gathered  from  such  expressions  as  these :  "This  is 
the  way  General  Macdonald  and  myself  win  friends  for  the  admin 
istration."  "  I  enclose  herewith  an  article  from  the  pen  of  the 
undersigned.  Sumner  and  Schurz  are  for  the  first  time  shown  up 
in  their  true  light."  "How  do  you  like  the  ring  of  the  article? 
We  will  make  the  *  cops '  of  this  State  hump  themselves  in  the 
campaign  of  '72."  To  all  such  letters  General  Babcock  sent 
courteous  replies  and  acknowledgements,  and  was  thus  drawn  on  by 
Joyce  into  the  telegraphic  correspondence  which  led  to  the  charge 
now  made  against  him. 

Several  letters  from  the  revenue  agent  Hoag  to  a  member  of 
the  ring,  Gordon  Bingham,  were  also  introduced,  and  their  con 
tents  showed  that  Hoag  was  keeping  the  ring  advised  of  every 
thing  that  was  contemplated  to  be  done  at  Washington,  in  con 
sideration  of  the  bribe  that  had  been  paid  him.  This  man  went 
to  Canada  to  escape  punishment. 

To  rebut  the  statement  of  Everest  about  the  two  $500  bills, 
and  neutralize  its  effect,  a  witness  was  called  for  the  defence, — 
a  letter-carrier  named  Magill, — who  testified  that  he  had  opened 
the  mail-box  near  the  Supervisor's  office  at  Joyce's  request,  and 
handed  back  to  him  the  two  letters  addressed  to  Avery  and  Bab 
cock.  The  counsel  for  the  Government  were  unable  to  impeach 
this  man's  veracity,  but  he  was  dismissed  from  the  service  because 
of  his  inconvenient  memory. 

The  last  witness  for  the  defence  was  the  President  himself, 
whose  deposition  had  been  taken  before  Chief  Justice  Waite  at 
the  Executive  Mansion.  President  Grant  testified  that  he  had 
known  General  Babcock  since  1863,  having  first  met  him  during 
the  Vicksburg  campaign  in  that  year.  From  about  March  1864 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  41  / 

to  the  4th  March,  1869,  General  Babcock  was  an  aide-de-camp 
on  his  military  staff,  and  since  that  time  had  been  acting  as  his 
private  secretary.  He  had  also,  for  several  years,  been  Superin 
tendent  of  the  Public  Buildings  and  Grounds. 

His  duty  as  private  secretary  was  to  carry  to  Congress  all 
communications  of  the  President,  and  he  had  charge  of  all  corres 
pondence,  particularly  that  of  an  official  character.  He  received 
the  mails,  opened  letters  and  referred  them  to  the  appropriate 
Departments,  submitting  to  the  President  such  as  required  instruc 
tion  or  -answer  from  himself.  Applications  from  persons  through 
out  the  country  to  lay  their  matters  before  the  President  were  of 
almost  daily  occurrence.  "I  have  always,"  said  the  President, 
"regarded  him  as  a  most  efficient  and  faithful  officer.  If  an 
intimate  association  of  twelve  years  with  a  man  gives  one  an 
opportunity  of  judging  what  others  think  of  him,  I  have  certainly 
had  not  only  an  excellent  opportunity  of  knowing  his  character 
myself,  but  of  hearing  the  general  reputation  he  sustains.  That 
reputation  is  good."  He  then  stated  that  he  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  Collector  Ford,  first  in  the  State  of  New  York 
when  he  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  army,  and  Ford  a  young  lawyer 
in  the  same  town,  and  subsequently,  from  1854  to  1860,  when 
they  were  both  living  in  St.  Louis  County.  When  Ford  died, 
General  Babcock  brought  him  a  dispatch  from  Joyce,  in  which 
Joyce  practically  applied  for  the  position.  "When  General  Babcock 
exhibited  to  me  the  dispatch  from  Joyce,  I  said  to  him  that,  as 
Mr.  Ford  had  died  away  from  home,  and  very  suddenly,  I  would, 
in  the  selection  of  a  successor,  be  guided  to  a  great  extent  by 
the  wishes  of  his  bondsmen.  The  bondsmen  recommended 
Constantine  Maguire.  I  do  not  think  Babcock  ever  sought  to 
influence  the  appointment  of  Maguire,  nor  do  I  believe  he  was 
aware  of  the  existence  of  Constantine  Maguire  prior  to  his  recom 
mendation  as  the  successor  of  Mr.  Ford.  I  do  not  remember  of 
Babcock  ever  speaking  to  me  on  the  subject  of  charges  against 
Joyce  or  Macdonald;  he  took  no  lively  interest  in  the  matter,  or 
I  should  have  recollected  it.  He  did  not  seek  to  influence  my 
action  in  reference  to  any  investigation  into  the  alleged  whisky 
frauds  in  St.  Louis.  I  do  not  remember  one  instance  when  he 
talked  with  me  on  the  subject  of  these  investigations,  excepting 
since  his  indictment.  It  was  then  simply  to  say  to  me  that  he 


41 8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

had  asked  Mr.  Douglass  why  it  was  his  department  treated  all 
their  officials  as  though  they  were  dishonest  persons,  who 
required  to  be  watched  by  spies;  why  he  could  not  make  inspec 
tions  similar  to  those  which  prevailed  in  the  army,  selecting  for 
the  purpose  men  of  character,  who  could  enter  the  distilleries, 
examine  the  books,  and  make  reports  which  could  be  relied  upon 
as  correct."  As  to  Macdonald's  visit  to  Washington  the  President 
said:  "I  remember  Macdonald  being  in  Washington  in  February 
1874,  but  not  the  precise  date.  I  picked  him  up  on  the  sidewalk 
as  I  was  taking  a  drive.  I  invited  him  to  go  with  me.  I  have 
no  recollection  of  any  word  or  words,  or  any  matter  touching 
his  official  position  or  business." 

The  President  was  next  interrogated  as  to  the  order  changing 
the  supervisors;  and  his  testimony  utterly  routed  and  exploded 
the  theory  of  the  prosecution,  that  its  revocation  was  brought 
about  by  the  intercession  of  Babcock  in  the  interest  of  the  St. 
Louis  whisky  ring.  He  confirmed  the  statement  of  Supervisor 
Tutton  in  every  particular. 

'"Some  time  when  Mr.  Richardson  was  Secretary,  I  think,' he  said, — 'at 
all  events,  before  Secretary  Bristow  became  the  head  of  the  Department, 
Mr.  Douglass,  in  talking  with  me,  expressed  the  idea  that  it  would  be  a 
good  plan  occasionally  to  shift  the  various  Supervisors  from  one  district  to 
another.  I  expressed  myself  favorably  tqward  it,  but  it  was  not  done  then ; 
nor  was  it  thought  of  any  more  by  me,  until  it  became  evident  that  the 
Treasury  was  being  defrauded  of  a  portion  of  the  revenue  that  it  should 
receive  from  the  distillation  of  spirits  in  the  West.  Secretary  Bristow,  at  that 
time,  called  on  me  and  made  a  general  statement  of  his  suspicions,  when  I 
suggested  to  him  this  idea.  On  that  suggestion  the  order  making  these 
transfers  of  Supervisors  was  made.  At  that  time  I  did  not  understand  that 
there  was  any  suspicion  at  all  of  the  officials,  but  that  each  official  had  his 
own  way  of  transacting  his  business.  These  distillers  having  so  much  pecu 
niary  interest  in  deceiving  the  officials,  learn  their  ways  and  know  how  to 
avoid  them.  My  idea  was,  that  by  putting  in  new  Supervisors,  acquainted 
with  their  duties,  over  them,  they  would  run  across  and  detect  their  crooked 
ways.  This  was  the  view  I  had,  and  explains  the  reason  why  I  suggested 
the  change.' 

"Q.  'Can  you  state  whether  Mr.  Douglass,  at  that  time  Commissioner  of 
Internal  Revenue,  was  aware  of  the  fact  that  you  suggested  or  made  the 
order?  A. -I  do  not  know  that  he  knew  anything  about  it.' 

"Q.  'After  the  order  had  been  finally  issued,  were  any  efforts  made  to 
induce  you  to  order  its  revocation  or  suspension?  A.  Yes,  sir;  most  strenuous 
efforts.' 

"Q.  'Were  such  efforts  made  by  prominent  public  men?     Did  you  resist 


THE    TRI/vL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  419 

the  pressure  that  was  made  upon  you  for  the  revocation  or  suspension  of  the 
order,  and  if  you  finally  decided  to  direct  the  revocation  of  that  order,  will 
you  please  state  why  you  were  induced  to  do  so  and  by  whom?  A.  I 
resisted  all  efforts  to  have  the  order  revoked,  until  I  became  convinced  that 
it  should  be  revoked  or  suspended  in  the  interests  of  detecting  frauds  that 
had  already  been  committed.  In  the  conversation  with  Supervisor  Tutton, 
he  said  to  me  that  if  the  object  of  that  order  was  to  detect  frauds  that  had 
already  been  committed,  he  thought  it  would  not  be  accomplished.  He 
remarked  that  this  order  was  to  go  into  effect  on  the  i5th  of  February. 
This  conversation  occurred  late  in  January.  He  alleged  that  it  would  give 
the  distillers  who  had  been  defrauding  the  Treasury  three  weeks  notice  to 
get  houses  in  order,  and  be  prepared  to  receive  the*new  Supervisor.  That 
he,  himself,  would  probably  go  in  a  district  where  frauds  had  been  com 
mitted,  and  he  would  find  everything  in  good  order,  and  he  would  be  com 
pelled  so  to  report.  That  the  order  would  probably  result  in  stopping  the 
frauds  at  least  for  a  time,  but  would  not  lead  to  the  detection  of  those  that 
had  already  been  committed.  He  said  that  if  the  order  was  revoked,  it 
would  be  regarded  as  a  triumph  for  those  who  had  been  defrauding  the 
Treasury.  It  would  throw  them  off  their  guard,  and  we  could  send  special 
agents  of  the  Treasury  to  the  suspected  distilleries — send  good  men,  such  a 
one  as  he  mentioned,  Mr.  Brooks.  They  could  go  out  and  would  not  be 
known  to  the  distillers,  and  before  they  could  be  aware  of  it,  the  latter's 
frauds  could  be  detected.  The  proofs  would  be  complete,  the  distilleries 
could  be  seized  and  their  owners  prosecuted.  I  felt  so  conscious  that  his 
argument  was  sound,  and  that  it  was  in  the  interest  of  the  detection  and 
punishment  of  fraud  that  this  order  should  be  suspended,  that  I  then  told 
him  that  I  would  suspend  it  immediately,  and  I  did  so  without  any  further 
consultation  with  any  one.  My  recollection  is,  that  I  Wrote  the  direction  for 
the  suspension  of  the  order  on  a  card,  in  pencil,  before  leaving  my  office 
that  afternoon,  and  that  order  was  issued  and  sent  to  the  Treasury -by  one 
of  my  secretaries.' 

"Q.  'Did  General  Babcock  ever,  in  any  way,  directly  or  indirectly,  seek 
to  influence  your  action  in  reference  to  that  order?  A.  I  do  not  remember 
his  ever  speaking  to  me  about  it  or  exhibiting  any  interest  in  the  matter.'  ' 

In  answer  to  further  questions,  President  Grant  said:  "To  my 
knowledge,  General  Babcock  has  not  undertaken  to  prevent  an 
investigation  of  his  alleged  connection  with  the  St.  Louis  whisky 
ring.  He  has  not  used  any  effort  with  myself,  or  any  one  else, 
to  prevent  the  finding  of  indictments  against  any  person  suspected 
of  complicity  with  the  ring.  I  have  never  seen  anything  in  his 
conduct,  nor  has  he  said  anything  to  me,  which  indicated  that 
he  was  in  any  way  interested  in  or  connected  with  the  St.  Louis 
whisky  ring.  I  have  always  had  great  confidence  in  his  integrity 
and  efficiency." 


42O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

The  questions  propounded  by  the  Government  counsel  on  the 
cross-examination  were  of  the  most  searching  and  inquisitorial 
character,  no  deference  being  shown  the  President  on  account  of 
his  high  official  position.  He  answered  them  all  in  his  own 
plain,  straightforward  way,  as  will  be  seen: 

"Q.  'General,  of  course  you  do  not  suppose,  do  you,  that  while  General 
Babcock  has  been  your  private  secretary,  and  in  intimate  and  confidential 
relations  with  you,  any  one  would  voluntarily  come  to  you  with  statements 
injurious  to  his  reputation?  A.  I  do  not  know  any  such  thing.' 

"Q.  'Perhaps  you  are  aware,  General,  that  the  whisky  ring  have 
persistently  tried  to  fix  the  origin  of  that  ring  in  the  necessity  for  funds  to 
carry  on  political  campaigns.  Did  you  ever  have  any  information  from 
General  Babcock,  or  any  one  else,  in  any  manner,  directly  or  indirectly, 
that  any  funds  for  political  purposes  were  being  raised  by  any  improper 
methods?  A.  I  never  did;  I  have  seen  since  these  trials  intimations  of  that 
sort  in  the  newspapers,  but  never  before.' 

"Q.  'Then  let  me  ask  you  if  the  prosecuting  officers  have  not  been 
entirely  correct  in  repelling  all  insinuations  that  you  ever  had  tolerated  any 
such  means  for  raising  funds?  A.  I  was  not  aware  that  they  had  attempted 
to  repel  any  insinuations.'  ' 

He  went  on  to  say — 

"I  never  had  a  suspicion  that  anything  was  wrong  about  Ford.  I  had  as 
much  confidence  in  him  as  in  any  person  I  knew  in  St.  Louis.  We  corres 
ponded  regularly,  because  I  had  such  confidence  in  him  that  I  left  him  to 
conduct  my  own  affairs  there ;  and  I  had  to  be  constantly  sending  him  money. 
I  would  send  checks^to  him  of  $500,  $1000,  and  $1200  at  a  time,  and  he 
would  pay  out  the  money  and  account  to  me  for  it.  My  confidence  in  him 
was  such  that  I  did  that  without  even  saving  my  letters.  Joyce  was  not 
recommended  to  me  as  Ford's  successor  by  Babcock.  He  presented  to  me 
a  despatch  that  he  had  received  from  Joyce,  making  application  for  the  posi 
tion.  My  reply  to  him  was,  that  I  should  be  guided  largely  in  selecting  the 
successor  of  Mr.  Ford  by  the  recommendation  of  his  bondsmen.  He  having 
died  suddenly,  unexpectedly  and  away  from  home,  I  thought  they  were  enti 
tled  to  be,  at  least,  consulted  as  to  the  successor  who  should  settle  up  his 
accounts. 

"Q.   'Did  you   advise   General  Babcock  to  telegraph  to  Joyce   to  get  the 
bondsmen  of  Ford  to  recommend  Joyce  for  Collector  ?     A.  I  made  the  state 
ment  in  substance  that  I  made  in  answer  to  a  former  question.      Whether  I* 
told  him  to  so  telegraph  or  not  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  say.     That 
might  be  regarded  as  at  least  authority  to  so  telegraph.' 

"Q.  '  Dkl  you  see  any  telegram  of  that  character  from  Babcock  to  Joyce 
at  that  time?  A.  I  do  not  remember  to  have  seen  any.' 

"Q.  'Did  General  Babcock  at  that  time  show  you  a  despatch  from  Joyce 
in  these  words? 

"'Sx.  Louis,  October  28,  1873. — See  dispatch  to  the  President.  We  mean 
it.  Mum.  JOYCE.'' 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  421 

"A.  'I  do  not  think  that  my  memory  goes  back  to  that  time.  Since  these 
prosecutions  were  commenced  I  have  seen  that.' 

"I  left  the  nomination  of  Ford's  successor  to  his  bondsmen,"  the  President 
went  on  to  say,  "because  they  were  liable  on  the  bond,  and  some  of  them 
were  men  I  knew  very  well,  and  had  great  confidence  in.  I  do  not  remem 
ber  to  have  received  a  protest  against  Macdonald's  appointment,  signed  by 
Carl  Schurz  and  others;  I  do  not  know  that  it  would  have  had  any  parti 
cular  weight  with  me,  his  endorsement  being  good.  I  had  never  heard  of 
Joyce,  and  did  not  know  of  the  existence  of  such  a  man  until  he  was 
appointed  on  the  recommendation  of  the  then  Commissicner.  I  knew  that 
Babcock  received  frequent  letters  from  Joyce,  for  I  saw  a  number  of  them 
myself;  and  those  that  I  did  see  were  generally  as  to  what  he  was  doing 
in  the  way  of  writing  editorials  for  the  different  papers  and  inclosing  edito 
rials,  which  he  would  say  in  his  letters  he  had  written,  and  asking  how  he 
liked  the  tone  of  them  and  so  on  ;  I  recollect  of  him  saying  in  one  letter 
that  some  papers  in  the  State  of  Missouri,  and,  perhaps,  in  Arkansas — at 
different  points,  at  all  events — were  willing  to  publish  as  editorials,  matter 
that  he  would  write  for  them.  He  showed  me  a  letter  that  had  been 
handed  to  him  from  somebody  in  Philadelphia  to  Mr.  Rogers,  and  he  said 
that  appeared  to  his  judgment  to  be  simply  blackmailing,  and  I  think  that 
was  the  occasion  when  he  told  me  what  he  had  said  to  Mr.  Douglass ; 
that  is  as  I  remember  it  now.  I  have  heard  General  Babcock' s  explanation 
of  most  or  all  of'these  dispatches." 

"  Q.  'You  have  said  that  you  resisted  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  on 
you  by  prominent  public  men  in  regard  to  the  suspension  or  revocation  of 
the  order  transferring  Supervisors.  If  you  have  no  objections,  will  you  please 
state  the  names  of  those  prominent  men  who  brought  that  pressure  to  bear 
on  you  ?  A.  There  were  many  persons,  and  I  think  I  could  give  the  names 
of  several  Senators,  and  probably  other  members  of  Congress,  but  probably 
I  should  have  to  refer  to  the  papers  that  are  on  file.  I  do  not  know  that 
it  is  material.  I  know  that  the  pressure  was  continual  from  the  Supervisors 
and  their  friends.' 

"Q.  'Can  you,  from  memory,  name  any  Senators  or  Representatives?  A. 
I  could  name  two  or  three,  but  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  necessary.' 

"Q.  'Did  General  Babcock  at  the  time  tell  you  he  had  endeavored  to 
influence  Commissioner  Douglass  to  revoke  that  order?  A.  No.' 

"Q.  'Since  you  say  that  General  Babcock  has  not  manifested  to  you  any 
desire  to  interfere  with  or  prevent  the  trial  of  the  indictments  against  him 
self  and  others,  will  you  be  so  good  as  to  state  whether  any  of  his  friends 
for  him,  have  at  any  time  since  these  indictments  were  found  endeavored 
to  prevent  the  trial  of  the  indictments  against  him  or  any  other  indicted 
parties?  If  so,  please  state  who  have  made  such  efforts?  A.  They  have 
not  with  me.' 

"Q.  'Did  Gen.  Babcock  show  you  a  telegram  from  District  Attorney 
Dyer,  saying  that  the  next  conspiracy  case  would  be  tried  on  December 
J5,  1875?  A.  He  did.  I  did  not  remember  about  the  date  particularly.' 

"  Q.  'Now  I  suppose,   Mr.   President,  that  the  substance  of  your  testimony 


422  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

is — what  we  all  know  to  be  true — that  if  there  has  been  any  misconduct  on 
the  part  of  General  Babcock,  it  has  not  come  to  your  knowledge  ?  A.  Yes, 
sir,  that  is  true.' 

"Q.  'You  do  not  know,  of  course,  do  you,  whether  Mr.  Douglass  sug 
gested  to  Secretary  Bristow  the  same  thing  about  the  transfer  of  Super 
visors  what  you  say  he  originally  suggested  to  you?  A.  I  do  not  know 
anything  about  it  except  from  the  Secretary  himself.'" 

It  was  expected  that  the  Government  would  call  some  wit 
nesses  to  impeach  the  credibility  of  Magill,  but  they  did  not  do 
so,  and  the  case  on  both  sides  was  closed. 

Judge  Porter  moved  the  Court  for  a  peremptory  charge  to  the 
jury,  directing  an  acquittal,  on  the  ground  that  no  sufficient 
evidence  had  been  produced  to  carry  the  case  to  the  jury  on  its 
merits. 

"We  supposed,"  he  said,  "that  we  might  well  have  raised  the  question  of  law 
which  we  now  propose  to  submit,  at  the  close  of  the  evidence  for  the  pros 
ecution,  but  we  thought  it  advisable  in  any  view,  we  thought  it  due  to  the 
court,  to  the  jury,  to  the  defendant  and  the  cause  of  public  justice,  and  the 
country  at  large,  that  all  questions  in  regard  to  the  mooted  facts  should  be 
removed  by  affirmative  evidence  upon  our  part,  such  as  we  did  not  our 
selves  deem  to  be  necessary,  but  which  was  proper,  and  which  we  were  bound 
to  submit.  We  pursue  in  this  case  the  same  line  which  was  adopted  on  the 
trial  of  Judge  Fullerton  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  New  York,  before  the  illus 
trious  and  lamented  jurist,  Judge  Woodruff.  We  preferred  not  to  raise  the 
question  until  the  whole  evidence  was  before  the  court.  And  now,  in  view 
of  that  evidence,  we  respectfully  submit  for  the  consideration  of  your  Honors 
whether  the  precise  case  has  not  arisen  which  has  been  so  often  acted  upon, 
not  only  in  England,  under  the  common  law,  but  by  the  ablest  and  most 
eminent  jurists,  as  well  in  the  Federal  as  in  the  State  courts,  under  like  cir 
cumstances.  We  think  it  is  a  case  which  calls  upon  the  court  for  the  same 
interposition  which  we  find  reported  extensively  in  the  books  from  jurists  like 
Marshall,  like  Story,  like  Curtis,  like  Woodruff,  not  to  mention  others  who 
are  still  among  the  living,  and  whose  names  shall  be  equally  honored  when 
they  shall  have  passed  from  the  scenes  of  life." 

After  reviewing  the  undisputed  facts  of  the  case  in  relation  to 
the  conspiracy,  he  came  to  the  question, — Was  Babcock  an 
agent  ? 

"The  prosecution  has  had  the  advantage  of  six  months  unwearied  services 
of  the  detective  force  of  the  Treasury  Department — the  best  organized  detec 
tive  body  that  perhaps  was  ever  to  be  found  in  any  country  except  that 
headed  in'  France  under  the  reign  of  the  First  Napoleon,  by  the  celebrated 
Fouche.  They  have  had  advantages,  not  only  those  facilities  which  are 
afforded  the  commercial  community,  but  they  have  been  furnished  with  force 
and  ability  to  reach  and  produce  the  unsealed  correspondence  of  General 


THE    TRIAL   OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  423 

Babcock,  whatever  it  was,  with  any  one  on  earth,  through  the  telegraphic 
dispatches.  They  have  had  the  further  advantage  of  a  publication  of  this 
case  extending  to  forty  millions  of  people,  through  the  constant  notice  in  the 
public  papers  of  the  accusations,  or  suspicions,  or  rumors  or  supposed  evi 
dence  against  General  Babcock;  and  now,  when  we  come  to  the  day  of  trial, 
what  is  the  result?  They  have  not  produced  from  all  these  sources  one 
single  letter  from  General  Babcock  showing  his  knowledge  of  the  conspiracy, 
or  his  purpose  to  aid  in  accomplishing  its  end." 

The  letter  that  Everest  mailed  at  Joyce's  request,  he  was 
unable  to  swear  contained  money,  and  there  was  evidence  that 
Joyce  had  reclaimed  it  from  the  box.  It  was  a  trick  of  Joyce 
to  restore  confidence  to  the  minds  of  his  confederates  in  crime, 
to  induce  them  to  make  further  advances  of  money.  Babcock's 
conduct  throughout  had  been  entirely  open  and  straight-forward. 
He  sent  no  information  of  the  coming  of  revenue  agents,  and 
did  not  even  know  when  they  were  to  be  sent  out.  "  If  he  was 
a  conspirator,  he  was  so  without  conspiring,  without  word  or 
act,  without  knowledge  of  the  covenant,  without  motive,  without 
temptation,  and  without  reward." 

Judge  Dillon  overruled  the  motion  for  two  reasons.  First, 
there  were  facts  which  were  not  undisputed, — for  example,  those 
relating  to  the  letter  testified  to  by  Everest  and  Magill.  Second, 
the  proper  inferences  to  be  drawn  from  the  telegrams  and  other 
facts  were  not  so  clear  and  certain,  in  the  mind  of  the  Court,  as 
to  enable  them  to  declare  their  effect  as  a  matter  of  law.  The 
case  must  therefore  be  left  in  the  hands  of  the  jury.  The  jury, 
however,  were  warned  that  this  denial  of  the  motion  must  not 
be  construed  into  an  indication  of  the  opinion  of  the  Court  as 
to  the  strength  of  the  evidence.  That  would  come  in  its  proper 
place  in  the  instructions  the  Court  would  give  at  the  close  of 
the  argument. 

On  the  eleventh  day  of  the  trial,  Colonel  Broadhead  made 
the  opening  argument  for  the  prosecution.  He  began  by  remind 
ing  the  jury  that  the  nation  was  oppressed  by  a  public  debt 
which  was  paralyzing  the  arm  of  industry  in  almost  every  part  of 
the  country,  and  that  the  taxes  raised  for  the  purpose  of  paying  off 
that  debt  fell  more  or  less  heavily  on  every  citizen.  This  appeal  to 
the  pockets  of  the  jury, — which  was  composed  largely  of  Missouri  far 
mers, — was  shrewdly  calculated  to  arouse  them  to  indignation  against 
the  whisky  thieves,  who  had  stolen,  as  Colonel  Broadhead  put  it, 


424  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

"  enough  money  to  pay  the  interest  upon  the  public  debt."  It 
was  hoped  by  the  Government  counsel  that  in  this  storm  of  in 
dignation  General  Babcock  would  be  swept  away.  Colonel  Broad- 
head  next  impressed  the  jury  with  a  sense  of  their  own  dignity 
by  telling  them  that  the  ties  of  party  obligation  were  such  that 
the  people  themselves  could  not  remedy  the  evils  of  corrupt  ad 
ministration  by  means  of  the  ballot-box,  but  that  their  only  safe 
guard  was  in  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  law  by  courts  and 
juries.  "  You,"  he  said,  "  have  it  in  your  hands  to  purify  the 
country  of  corruption."  If  they  were  satisfied  of  the  defendant's 
guilt,  they  must  convict  him,  no  matter  how  high  his  position, 
nor  what  might  have  been  his  previous  character  in  the  history 
of  this  country  or  in  his  own  private  life.  "The  law  is  no 
respecter  of  persons;  high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  are  equally 
subject  to  its  provisions."  With  this  impressive  exordium,  Colo 
nel  Broadhead  proceeded  to  state  the  law  as  to  proof  of  conspir 
acy  and  reviewed  at  great  length  the  history  of  the  St.  Louis 
ring.  Coming  to  the  telegrams,  he  made  the  most  of  the  pecu 
liar  wording  of  those  of  Joyce,  and  held  General  Babcock 
responsible  for  the  inferences  that  the  Government  counsel  drew 
from  them.  He  ridiculed  the  suggestion  that  the  word  "mum" 
meant  that  Joyce  wanted  his  having  been  a  candidate  kept  quiet. 
Was  there  any  disgrace  in  having  been  a  candidate?  To  break 
the  force  of  the  argument  for  the  defence,  that  Macdonald 
knew  of  the  abandonment  of  Brooks'  expedition  before  Bab 
cock  did,  he  insinuated  that,  notwithstanding  Macdonald's 
gleeful  telegram  about  the  goose,  dated  December  8th,  the 
Commissioner  really  did  not  change  his  mind  till  the 
1 5th,  two  days  after  Babcock's  '-Sylph"  telegram.  But  there 
was  no  evidence  of  this,  and  the  Commissioner's  own  testimony 
disproved  it.  Notwithstanding  the  President's  own  plain  testi- 
rmony,  he  insisted  that  no  effort  had  been  made  by  politicians 
to  induce  President  Grant  to  recall  the  order  as  to  the  Supervi 
sors.  He  made  much  of  the  mysterious  word  "Sylph,"  and 
claimed  that  it  was  a  cipher  agreed  upon  between  Joyce  and 
Babcock;  as  to  which,  again,  there  was  no  evidence.  These 
examples-,  together  with  the  astute  Colonel's  way  of  reading  the 
first  telegram  from  Babcock, — "See  that  Ford's  bondsmen 
recommend  you," — accentuating  the  word  you, — are  sufficient  to 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  425 

show  how  determined  these  partisans  of  Bristow  were  to  convict 
General  Babcock  at  all  hazards.  Colonel  Broadhead,  not  being 
able  to  impeach  Mr.  Tutton's  veracity,  insisted  that  his  reasons 
for  asking  the  President  to  suspend  the  order  were  puerile,  and 
that  the  President's  interference  was  "most  unusual,  and  of 
doubtful  authority  under  the  law."  Notwithstanding  the  straight 
forward  testimony  of  Major  Grimes,  he  still  saw  something  wrong 
in  B-abcock's  corresponding  with  Macdonald  under  cover  to  that 
gentleman,  and  concluded  his  argument  by  saying: 

"If  Babcock  had  a  general  knowledge  of  the  object  of  these  parties;  that 
they  were  attempting  to  defraud  the  Government,  and  he  aided  them  in 
doing  it  either  by  warning  them  of  the  approaching  danger,  or  assisting 
them  in  the  rescinding  of  orders,  or  anything  else  by  which  they  could  have 
been  benefited,  whether  he  ever  received  money  or  not,  it  matters  not,  he 
is  a  guilty  party  to  this  crime.  It  matters  not  how  high  he  may  have  stood  ; 
it  matters  not  what  position  he  may  have  held,  if  he  is  guilty  of  this  crime 
he  is  to  be  punished.  When  the  Minister  of  Charles  I.  was  arraigned  before 
the  House  of  Lords  for  high  treason,  not  against  the  King,  but  against  the 
laws  ot  the  country,  that  distinguished  commoner,  in  his  eloquent  denuncia- 
ti(  n  of  the  Earl  of  Strafford,  said  'nothing  can  be  more  equitable  than  he 
should  perish  by  the  justice  of  that,  law  w'hich  he  would  have  subverted,' 
and  he  spoke  of  a  man  who  had  sat  side  by  side  with  him  as  a  vindicator 
of  the  law  and  a  champion  of  English  liberty  in  days  past.  But  he  had 
yielded  to  the  inducements  of  Charles  I.,  and  betrayed  the  people,  and  he 
met  his  just  judgment.  So,  gentlemen,  if  you  should  find  from  the  facts 
in  this  case  that  corruption  has  nestled  within  the  precincts  of  the  Presiden 
tial  Mansion,  it  becomes  your  duty  to  crush  it  out,  no  matter  what  may  be 
the  consequences." 

Mr.  Storrs  followed  Colonel  Broadhead,  and  occupied  the  after 
noon  of  Saturday  and  all  of  the  following  Monday  with  his  argu 
ment  for  the  defence.  "The  fame  of  Mr.  Storrs'  qualities  as  an 
advocate,"  said  the  Globe-Democrat,  "had  gone  abroad,  and  an  eager 
throng  crowded  every  avenue  leading  to  the  court-room  in  the 
hope  of  gaining  a  chance  to  listen  to  the  expected  eloquence. 
Not  more  than  one-fifth  of  the  applicants  for  places  could,  how 
ever,  be  accommodated,  and  the  police  had  a  hard  time  in  keep 
ing  the  surging  multitude  in  order.  They  succeeded,  however, 
and  in  spite  of  the  crush  outside,  the  inside  of  the  court-room 
presented  throughout  the  whole  afternoon  an  appearance  of  per 
fect  order.  Mr.  Storrs'  few  first  words  were  so  quietly  delivered 
that  they  were  hardly  audible  across  the  court-room,  but,  as  he 
warmed  to  his  subject,  his  matchless  elocution  and  splendidly 


426  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

modulated  voice  told  with  thrilling  effect  on  every  listener,  and 
his  disclaimer  of  any  intended  oratorical  effort  only  served  to 
point  more  effectively  the  eloquence  with  which  he  conducted 
his  completely  logical  chain  of  argument.  The  speaker's  frame  is 
fragile,  and  his  organization  extremely  nervous;  it  therefore 
seemed,  to  all  who  heard  him,  a  marvel  that  so  vast  a  power  of 
vocal  inflection  could  be  wrought  out  from  so  apparently  slender 
a  physical  basis.  As  point  after  point  in  his  argument  was 
made,  his  powerful  voice  seemed  to  shake  the  frame  from  which 
it  issued,  as  a  high-pressure  engine  will  shake  a  piece  of  delicate 
machinery.  After  about  an  hour  of  his  speech  the  intensity  of 
his  emotions  began  to  tell  on  the  strength  of  his  voice,  and 
hardly  anybody  was  surprised  when,  near  4  o'clock,  his  physical 
energies  succumbed,  and  he  had  to  ask  the  indulgence  of  the 
court  to  continue  his  argument  on  Monday  morning." 

The  first  premonitory  symptoms  of  the  disease  which  so  sud 
denly  cut  him  off  had  appeared  at  this  early  stage  of  his  career. 
In  asking  an  adjournment,  Mr.  Storrs  said: 

"I  have  palpitation  of  the  heart  sometimes,  and  I  shall  have  to  rest 
some  minutes,  at  all  events.  It  will  be  very  difficult  for  me  to  talk  much 
more. 

"Mr.  Dyer.  'I  ask,  if  your  Honors  will  grant  my  request,  that  Mr.  Storrs 
be  permitted  to  close  his  argument  on  Monday  morning.  I  dislike  to  ask 
so  much  more  time,-  but  I  know  he  would  willingly  go  on  if  he  were  in  a 
condition  to  do  so."' 

Mr.  Storrs  began  his  argument  by  referring  to  the  great  public 
interest  which  this  case  had  excited,  and  went  on  to  say: 

"I  am  a  firm,  thorough,  devoted  believer  in  the  ultimate  right  of  what  is 
called  public  opinion.  I  believe  that  it  is  almost  always  correct  and  almost 
always  right  upon  the  premises  upon  which  it  is  founded.  A  well  regulated 
public  opinion,  understanding  all  the  facts,  moving  without  bias  or  preju 
dice  or  passion,  is,  I  am  glad  to  recognize,  the  surest  earthly  evidence  we 
have  of  truth.  But,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  it  has  never  been  considered  a 
very  safe  element  in  the  administration  of  justice,  since  nearly  2,000  years 
ago  it  profaned  the  judgment  seat,  and  insulted  heaven  with  the  cry  'cru 
cify  him,  crucify  him !'  You  are  here,  to-day,  as  jurors  in  a  great  and 
solemn  case.  I  am  here  as  an  advocate  in  that  case.  You  have  your  duties 
to  perform,  I  have  mine;  and  I  ask,  I  pray  you,  gentlemen,  as  we  both 
enter  upon  the  performance  of  these  duties,  that  we  may  do  it  with  hearts 
void  of  offense  toward  all ;  that  you  may  dismiss  from  your  minds  every 
bias  of  prejudice  and  passion,  which  by  any  earthly  possibility  could  h#ve 
found  a  lodgment  there;  that  with  clear  judgment,  unwarped  by  any  breezes 
or  heats  of  public  controversy  ;  that  with  unprejudiced  hearts,  unaffected  by 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  42/ 

the  poison  of  political  passion,  and  that  with  pure,  upright,  honest  judgment, 
untwisted  by  any  mere  private  feelings  of  your  own,  we  may  approach  the 
discussion  of  this  great  case. 

"  Let  us,  with  God's  help  and  our  own,  reach  in  the  investigation  we  are 
pursuing,  and  in  the  conclusions  to  which  we  shall  ultimately  arrive,  the 
full  height  and  measure  of  this  mighty  argument.  If  you  have  prejudices, 
dismiss  them.  If  you  have  preconceived  opinions,  put  them  do\vn.  If  you 
have  feelings  that  have  already  been  aroused,  smother  them.  Approach  and 
come  to  this  great  question  with  that  rectitude  and  perfect  fiber  of  conscience 
which  the  law  and  your  own  better  judgment  demand.  We  are  all,  gentle 
men  of  the  jury,  far,  very  far  from  being  perfect.  There  is  no  duty  which 
men  are  ever  called  upon  to  perform  so  solemn  in  its  nature  as  that  of  pass 
ing  judgment  upon  the  motives  of  our  fellows. 

"The  poet  has  well  said,  and  I  repeat  it; 

•In  men,  whom   men  condemn  as  ill, 

I  find  so  much  of  goodness  still; 

In  men,  whom  men  pronounce  divine, 

I  find  so  much  of  sin  and  blot; 

I  hesitate  to  draw  the  line 
Between  the  two  where  God  has  not. '  ' 

He  complimented  Colonel  Broadhead  on  the  ingenuity  of  his 
argument,  "but,"  said  he: 

"You  will  agree  with  me,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  when  I  tell  you  that  but 
one  general  impression  could  be  drawn  from  the  speech  of  Col.  Broadhead. 
It  was  a  speech,  gentlemen,  without  heart  and  without  faith  in  the  case  he 
advocated  ;  able  to  the  very  last  degree,  able  in  the  statement  of  facts  which 
were  not  proved,  able  in  the  suppression  of  facts  which  were  proved,  able 
in  the  distortion  and  contortion  of  facts,  the  obvious  existence  of  which  no 
man  could  controvert.  For  nearly  two  weeks  have  we  been  engaged  in  this 
investigation.  Day  after  day  passed  before  the  name  of  this  defendant  had 
even  been  mentioned.  We  investigated  down  to  the  very  last  detail  all  the 
circumstances  attending  the  conspiracy  about  which  so  much  has  been  said, 
and  concerning  which  all  men's  mouths  and  minds  have  been  full.  It  is 
well  for  us  to-day,  gentlemen,  it  seems  to  me,  before  proceeding  to  the  dis 
cussion  of  this  case,  to  determine  in  our  own  minds  just  what  the  refuse 
matter  of  the  case  is,  and  what  is  the  actual  issue  that  this  record  presents 
to  us." 

He  challenged  the  prosecuting  counsel  to  show  a  single  syllable 
in  all  the  vast  volume  of  evidence  to  which  the  jury  had  listened, 
directly  connecting  General  Babcock  with  the  conspiracy. 

"The  Government  was  defrauded  by  the  removal  of  high  wines  without 
the  payment  of  the  taxes,  and  more  than  one  thousand  miles  separated 
this  defendant  from  the  active  theater  in  which  this  conspiracy  was  in  oper 
ation.  How,  then,  does  he  become  a  conspirator?  What  has  he  done  in 


428  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

furtherance  or  this  corrupt  and  fraudulent  scheme?  He  has  removed  no 
spirits  ;  that  is  not  claimed.  It  is  avowed  by  the  learned  counsel  who  have 
addressed  you,  that  the  position  that  he  filled  was  to  furnish  information — of 
what?  They  say,  of  the  coming  of  detectives.  I  say  now  to  you  generally, 
gentlemen,  and  I  will  demonstrate  it  before  I  have  finished,  that  if  that  was 
the  part  assigned  to  General  Babcock  he  miserably  and  wretchedly  failed  in 
its  performance  ;  for,  during  the  whole  period  of  time  covered  by  the  opera 
tions  of  this  conspiracy,  not  one  single  syllable  of  information  did  he  ever 
furnish  to  the  active  conspirators  with  reference  to  the  coming  of  any  human 
being  here  to  investigate  their  frauds.  Was  it  to  give  information  generally  ? 
There  is  not  in  all  this  vast  mass  of  testimony,  piled  up  as  it  has  been  within 
the  last  t\vo  weeks,  one  single  syllable  of  evidence  showing,  or  tending  to 
show,  that  General  Babcock  ever  communicated  to  a  single  member  of  this 
conspiracy  one  single  item  of  information  which  they  had  not  before  that 
time  possessed.  To-day  it  was  hinted  by  Colonel  Broadhead  that  the  pecu 
liar  mission  he  was  to  fill,  and  the  special  duty,  which  General  Babcock 
was  to  perform,  was  to  prevent  the  sending  of  officials  hither.  There  is  not 
one  single  syllable  of  evidence  in  this  case,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  and  I 
challenge  your  attention  to  that  fact — not  one  single  syllable  of  evidence 
showing,  or  tending  to  show,  that  he  ever  prevented  a  single  man  from  com 
ing  here.  1  pause  right  here  upon  the  very  threshold  of  this  case.  What 
in  the  name  of  God  was  he  to  do?  For  what  was  he  to  be  paid?  What 
part  was  he  expected  to  play  in  this  grand  conspiracy  ?  Two  weeks  have 
come  and  gone,  reams  and  reams  of  testimony  have  been  taken,  the  whole 
power  of  the  Government  has  been  employed  for  nearly  a  year  in  develop 
ing  the  facts.  The  cradle  and  the  grave  have  been  robbed  for  evidence. 
Every  telegraph  office  in  the  country  has  been  ransacked  and  raided,  the 
sanctity  of  privileged  communications  between  counsel  and  client  has  been 
invaded,  and  yet  down  to  to-day  there  is  not  one  single  syllable  of  evidence 
from  which  any  honest,  right-minded  man  can  say  that  he  could  tell  or 
guess  what  part  in  this  conspiracy  General  Babcock  was  to  play." 

He  appealed  for  a  fair  construction  of  the  telegrams  which  had 
been  put  in  evidence. 

"Now,  gentlemen,  you  must,  when  you  come  to  consider  these  facts,  put 
yourselves  back  to  the  period  of  time  when  all  these  facts  occurred.  When 
you  come  to  read  these  dispatches  and  these  letters  you  must  read  them 
not  in  the  light  of  to-day.  It  is  a  false  light;  it  will  mislead  you;  but  in 
the  light  of  the  day  when  they  were  written,  and  when  the  parties  to  them 
received  and  read  them.  Read  these  telegrams  sent  to  Babcock  in  the 
light  of  the  days  when  he  received  and  read  them,  when  Joyce  and  Macdon- 
ald  were,  so  far  as  he  knew,  honored  officials  and  trusted  men  ;  and  do  not 
read  them  in  the  light  of  to-day,  when,  broken  in  character  and  bankrupt 
in  reputation,  they  fill  a  convict's  cell.  Read  them,  remembering  this,  that 
with  all  the  gigantic  preparations  that  have  characterized  this  case  from  its( 
commencement  till  to-day,  not  one  single  syllable  of  evidence  has  been 
adduced  that  General  Babcock  ever  suspected,  or  had  reason  to  suspect,  that 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  429 

down  to  the  time  of  their  indictment,  Joyce  and  Macdonald  had  been 
engaged  in  any  conspiracy  against  the  Government.  I  challenge  your  atten 
tion,  one  and  all — your  solemn  attention — to  this  inquiry  :  Go  through  with 
all  the  patience  and  care  that  you  can,  note  every  word  that  has  been 
dropped  upon  the  witness-stand,  and  tell  me  where  is  the  proof  that  Gen 
eral  Babcock  ever  suspected,  or  had  reason  to  suspect,  that  Joyce  and 
Macdonald  were  engaged  in  a  scheme  to  defraud  the  Government.  Take 
this  question,  put  it  in  your  heart  of  hearts,  carry  it  with  you  into  the  jury- 
box,  look  each  other  in  the  face,  and  ask  each  other  that  question,  and  then 
come  back  into  court  with  the  solemnities  of  your  oaths  resting  upon  you, 
and  answer  to  this  court  and  to  the  country.  Where  is  the  evidence?  In 
ordinary  times  and  under  ordinary  circumstances,  I  might  rest  this  case 
right  there.  I  defy  any  man  who  knows  the  evidence  in  this  case  to  point 
to  me  the  spot  or  place  which  indicates  that  General  Babcock  knew  the 
corrupt  schemes  in  which  Joyce  and  Macdonald  were  engaged  ;  and  if  he 
knew  them  not,  the  case  fails  at  its  very  threshold.  Gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
either  of  you  may  give  information  of  the  most  unimportant  character  to  a 
man  who  in  his  heart  is  the  most  notorious  scoundrel  on  the  planet.  The 
information  which  you  then  communicate  may  be  absolutely  indispensable 
to  enable  the  party  to  whom  it  is  communicated  to  consummate  and  carry 
out  the  crime.  But  you  know  in  your  hearts,  and,  following  me,  have 
already  made  the  suggestion  to  yourselves,  that  the  communication  that 
that  intelligence  which  may  have  ripened  into  the  most  stupendous  crime, 
can  not  implicate  you  unless  you  knew  the  character  of  the  man  to  whom 
it  was  given,  and  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  to  be  employed." 

Mr.  Storrs  proceeded  to  review  the  telegrams  between  Joyce 
and  Babcock,  and  to  show  their  entire  innocence,  so  far  as 
General  Babcock  was  concerned. 

*'  Ford  was  an  old-time  friend  of  the  President.  They  had  been  old-time 
friends  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  He  had  died,  and  if  there  is  a  man  in 
this  country  whose  heart  warms  up  to  his  old  friends  and  those  whom  he 
had  known  in  his  earlier  days,  it  is  the  heart  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States.  He  is  very  slow  to  forget  them;  he  is  very  slow  to  bury  out  of  sight 
any  act  of  kindness  that  in  olden  time  they  have  done  for  him.  He  is  very 
quick  and  ready  to  forgive  the  old  friend  whom  for  a  quarter  ot  a  century 
he  had  known,  and  who  was  dead.  Away  from  home,  alone,  suddenly,  he  had 
died;  and  with  that  pall  about  him,  Joyce  knew  the  chord  that  he  would  strike. 

He  telegraphed  to  the  Private  Secretary  of  the  President,  '  Poor  Ford  is 
dead.  Macdonald  is  with  his  body.'  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  is  that  evidence 
of  guilt?  In  the  name  of  God,  to  what  conditions  have  we  reached  if  that 
is  evidence  of  guilt?  What  will  you  have  a  man  do  in  order  to  avoid  a 
conclusion  of  guilt?  What  shall  he  not  do  in  order  that  he  shall  not  be 
considered  guilty  ?  On  the  very  day  that  Ford  died,  or  on  the  very  day  at 
least  that  this  dispatch  was  forwarded  by  Joyce  to  Babcock,  the  sureties 
upon  the  bonds  of  Ford  interested  in  the  matter,  telegraphed  to  the  Presi- 


430  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

dent.  Let  me  read  to  you,  and  let  me  explain  the  situation,  because,  when 
the  situation  is  fully  explained,  the  miserable  pretense  that  there  is  guilt  in 
these  dispatches  fades  entirely  away,  and  it  leaves  no  smear  or  stain,  except 
upon  the  hands  and  tongues  of  those  who  have  made  the  charge.  Ford 
was  away  from  home  when  he  died.  His  sureties,  leading,  prominent  men 
in  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  were  liable  for  all  the  acts  of  his  deputies,  of  whom 
they  knew  nothing.  The  bond  was  a  large  one,  and  it  was  a  question  in 
which  their  interests  were  very  seriously  involved.  Accordingly,  on  the  25th 
day  of  October,  1873,  the  very  day  upon  which  Joyce  had  sent  this  dispatch, 
this  one  was  forwarded  to  the  President :  '  Please  see  our  dispatch  of  this  day 
to  Delano,  and  tell  us  how,  as  securities  of  our  friend  C.  W.  Ford,  we  can 
protect  ourselves  from  any  wrong  action  of  his  deputies.'  Now  watch,  gen 
tlemen,  and  see  the  light  come  in  ;  watch  and  see  these  unhealthy  vapors, 
which  have  been  thrown  around  this  case  for  the  last  month,  dispel  them 
selves  and  shrink  away." 

He  showed  from  the  President's  deposition  that  General  Bab- 
cock  had  not  recommended  Joyce,  and  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
appointment  of  Maguire  as  Collector. 

"Now,  I  come  to  the  first  dispatch  from  Babcock,  and  you  remember 
the  hullabaloo  about  the  accent,  '  See  that  Ford's  bondsmen  recommend 
you.'  I  do  not  care  where  you  accent  that,  in  view  of  these  facts.  You 
may  put  the  accent  all  along,  so  that  there  shall  be  no  partiality  in  way  of 
accent;  you  may  accent  it  at  either  end,  or  both  ends,  or  through  the  mid 
dle,  but,  with  the  facts,  there  is  not  the  slightest  earthly  significance  to 
the  accent.  Why  did  he  send  that,  now?  Why,  you  know  that  the  Presi 
dent  had  first  told  him  that  he  was  going  to  consult  Ford's  bondsmen,  and 
answering  Joyce's  dispatch,  he  says  to  him — it  amounts  to  this  when  it  is  all 
expressed:  'You  cannot  get  this  place  unless  Ford's  bondsmen  recommend 
you.  If  you  do,  you  are  doubtless  all  right ;  if  you  do  not,  you  are  just  as 
doubtless  all  wrong.'  Ford's  bondsmen  did  not  recommend  him  ;  and  now 
I  come  to  another  very  extraordinary  feature  in  this  case.  Colonel  Broad- 
head  says  that  Joyce  tried  to  get  Ford's  bondsmen  to  recommend  Maguire. 
Now,  what  is  the  matter  with  that  statement?  Nothing,  only  it  ain't  true. 
The  only  objection  I  have  to  it  is  that  there  is  not  the  slightest  foundation 
in  fact  for  it  ;  and  that,  I  beg  to  remark,  in  a  court  of  justice,  is  always 
considered  a  serious  objection  to  a  statement.  Treated  as  a  pure  romance, 
as  a  mere  effort  of  the  imagination,  I  might  admire  it;  as  such,  I  do, 
because  it  does  require  an  athletic  effort  of  the  imagination,  which  I  must 
admire,  to  get  out  from  the  facts  in  this  case,  and  the  sea  of  evidence  which 
surrounds  it,  the  remarkable  statement  that  Joyce  tried  to  get  Ford's  bonds 
men  to  recommend  Maguire.  Gentlemen,  there  is  not  a  single  syllable  of 
proof,  or  semblance  of  proof,  of  this  statement.  My  good  old  friend,  Colonel 
Broadhead,  ought  to  have  known  better,  and  I  think  he  does. 

"We  have  all  been  in  conventions,  and  we  have  seen  a  candidate  for  nomi 
nation,  after  it  has  become  perfectly  evident  to  him  that  he  cannot  succeed, 
worship  the  rising  sun,  rush  to  the  front,  and  with  a  marvelous  show 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  431 

of  magnanimity,  move  the  unanimous  nomination  of  his  rival.  On 
the  28th  day  of  October,  1873,  John  A.  Joyce,  finding  that  his  own 
aspirations  had  faded  away,  comes  with  a  show  of  magnanimity  absolutely 
splendid,  and  says,  'Macdonald  and  I  recommend  you  to  do  what  you  have 
already  decided  to  do.  We  recommend  you  to  nominate  Constantine 
Maguire  because  we  know  you  are  going  to  do  it.  We  recommend  you  to 
nominate  Maguire  because  the  bondsmen  to  whom,  in  a  great  measure,  you 
are  to  submit  this  question  have  a  day  or  two  before  this  recommended  him  ;' 
and  then,  after  having  done  that  utterly  useless  piece  of  literature,  the  whole 
thing  having  been  previously  determined,  he  sits  down  and  writes  a  dispatch 
to  General  Babcock,  which  the  General  never  answered — '  See  our  dispatch 
to  the  President.  We  mean  it.  Mum.' 

"Colonel  Broadhead  asks  what  that  means.  Just  exactly  what  it  says. 
Joyce  always  did  attach  to  his  dispatches  an  importance  which  nobody  else 
attached  to  them.  The  real  moving  men,  upon  whose  recommendation  the 
appointment  of  Constantine  Maguire  depended,  were  Krum,  John  M.;  Henry 
T.  Blow  and  \Villiam  H.  Benton,  the  sureties  on  Ford's  bond.  They  had 
spoken  ;  they  had  represented  to  the  President  the  danger  that  they  were  in 
from  the  action  of  Ford's  deputies.  The  whole  question  had  been  settled. 
Mum  about  what?  Mum  about  Maguire's  appointment?  How  ridiculous 
that  is!  Why  every  newspaper  in  the  country  had  published  that  to  the 
world.  Mum  about  what?  Mum  about  the  fact  which  these  gentlemen  did 
not  know  till  this  trial  began.  Mum  about  the  fact  that  Joyce  himself  had 
been  an  applicant  for  the  place.  Why,  Colonel  Broadhead  says  that  is  queer. 
Not  a  bit  of  it.  He  had  been  an  applicant  and  was  defeated.  Now,  gen 
tlemen  of  the  jury,  men  are  not  anxious  to  have  unnecessarily  published 
to  the  world  the  fact  that  they  had  applied  for  an  office  and  could  not  get 
it.  Joyce  was  like  the  balance  of  mankind  in  that  respect  precisely. 
Translated  in  full,  he  says  to  Babcock :  '  I  come  down  ;  I  am  beaten ;  I 
am  perfectly  satisfied,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned,  with  Maguire's  appoint 
ment;  I  carry  no  disappointment  in  my  heart;  but,  General,  there  is  no  use 
saying  to  these  fellows  down  here — it  may  affect  me  with  them,  and  there 
is  no  use  in  publishing  the  fact — that  I  myself  wanted  the  place  and  did 
not  get  it.' 

"Joyce  accepted  the  situation,  and  telegraphed  to  Babcock  that  he  waived 
his  own  claims,  because  he  was  obliged  to  waive  them ;  and  then  he  goes 
on  to  say  that  this  fact,  circulating  in  the  newspapers,  the  newspaper  hawks 
had  got  hold  of  it — 'just  enough  to  spread  themselves — '  as  he  says,  'and 
tell  more  than  anybody  else  knew.'  Now,  then,  I  read  the  balance  of  this 
letter,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  because,  although  it  is  dead  and  lifeless,  yet 
it  is  eloquent  with  the  truth  of  the  situation,  which  these  parties  held  toward 
each  other  at  that  time:  'I  am  sure,'  he  says,  'if  the  President  act  upon 
the  recommendation  of  the  bondsmen  and  what  has  been  sent  from  the 
officers,  the  interests  of  the  Government  will  be  secured,  and  the  public 
generally  will  be  satisfied.  Words  are  not  sufficient  to  convey  to  yourself 
and  the  President  the  pride  I  feel  for  the  confidence  thus  far  displayed  in 
me  in  connection  with  the  vacancy.  I  shall  endeavor  in  my  future  action 


432  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

to  continue  to  meet  the   good  wishes  of  the   President,  and   you  will   please 
convey  to  him  my  most  hearty  thanks  for  his  kindness  and  confidence.' 

"Now,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  unless,  since  this  investigation  began,  human 
nature  has  changed  itself,  unless  the  whole  current  of  human  affairs  has 
been  reversed,  unless  human  motives  and  the  methods  in  which  they  express 
themselves  have  been  absolutely  revolutionized,  it  is  utterly  impossible  that 
on  the  day  that  letter  was  dated,  written  and  received,  General  Babcock  held 
to  John  A.  Joyce  the  relation  of  one  conspirator  to  another.  Why,  the 
entire  purpose,  object,  scope  and  intent  of  the  letter  is  to  impress  upon  its 
recipient  the  idea  that  he,  Joyce,  is  engaged  not  in  any  scheme  to  defraud 
the  revenue,  but  that  he  is  an  honest,  faithful,  vigilant  officer,  in  whom,  by 
the  President  and  his  Private  Secretary,  the  largest  measure  of  confidence 
can  with  safety  be  reposed.  In  the  presence  of  these  facts  which  are  in 
this  record,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  and  which  can  not  be  removed  from  it, 
I  denounce  the  charge  which  is  made  against  this  defendant  as  participating 
in  the  appointment  of  Maguire  for  any  guilty  purpose,  as  wicked  and  cruel 
to  the  last  degree." 

Their  Sunday's  rest  appeared  to  have  had  a  good  effect  on  the 
jury,  who  all  looked  bright  and  fresh  when  they  came  into  Court 
on  Monday  morning.  Though  Mr.  Storrs  had  spent  his  Sunday 
largely  in  laborious  preparation,  he  also  arrived  in  good  spirits, 
and  as  he  would  say,  "with  his  war  paint  on."  The  interval 
was  fortunate  for  him  both  ways,  because  he  was  ready  for  a 
good  day's  talk  and  the  jury  were  refreshed  and  ready  to  listen. 

"As  soon  as  Court  was  set  and  counsel  were  in  their  places, "- 
to  quote  again  from  the  admirable  report  of  the  Globe-Democrat, 
— "Mr.  Storrs  commenced  his  argument  in  a  quiet,  business-like 
fashion,  which  created  a  feeling  of  disappointment  among  those 
new  attendants  who  had  come  expecting  a  sensational  palaver. 
They  did  not  know  the  manner  of  the  great  advocate  to  whom 
they  were  about  to  listen.  He  commences  always  in  a  low  mon 
otone;  his  speeck  slow,  deliberate  and  passionless  as  a  money 
lender  discussing  the  value  of  securities  offered  for  a  loan.  It  is 
possible  Mr.  Storrs  has  had  opportunities  for  studying  this  pecu 
liar  style  of  oratory,  as  many  men  of  genius  have  had  before 
him.  After  a  few  preliminary  remarks,  in  which  he  rehearsed 
the  concluding  points  of  his  speech  on  Saturday,  he  warmed  to 
his  subject,  and,  before  fifteen  minutes  had  past,  had,  with  his 
vivid  and  powerful  reasoning,  made  an  electric  circuit  between 
himself  and  his  auditors  which  compelled  a  vibrative  response 
from  every  mind  and  heart  in  the  throng.  Like  the  day  on 
which  he  spoke,  he  commenced  dull  and  torpid  (though  never 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  433 

cloudy),  and  like  that  day  his  speech  soon  burst  through  the 
mere  morning  mist  into  the  full  sunshine  and  splendor  of 
Demosthenic  eloquence.  The  effect  of  the  speech  was  perfectly 
appalling  at  times,  particularly  when  he  indulged  in  invective  or 
irony.  His  mastery  of  both  these  weapons  of  the  rhetorician  is 
something  to  wonder  at.  His  ironical  remarks  concerning  the 
amazing  uselessness  of  General  Babcock  as  a  co-conspirator  brought 
out  a  smile  from  even  the  iron  face  of  Colonel  Dyer,  and  a  smile, 
too,  which  showed  that  the  sagacious,  sardonic  Prosecuting 
Attorney  was  for  once  surprised  out  of  thinking  out  his  case  into 
a  genuine  expression  of  admiration  for  his  opponent.  But  it  is 
in  invective  that  he  showed  to  the  greatest  advantage,  and  his 
invective  is  nearly  always  maliciously  barbed  by  the  delicate  air 
of  refined  politeness  with  which  he  lacerates  the  flesh  of  the 
victim,  for  the  time  being,  under  his  hands.  Mr.  Storrs  showed 
that  he  was  master  of  the  thunder  of  invective,  as  well  as  of  the 
lancet  blade,  which  hardly  leaves  outward  trace  of  the  stroke 
which  may  reach  the  life-blood  of  reputation.  When,  in  reference 
to  the  manner  in  which  the  prosecution  had  been  conducted,  he 
referred  to  one  of  the  attorneys  as  having  sought  certain  evidence 
with  all  the  savage  hunger  of  a  hyena  hunting  for  a  cemetery, 
his  strident  tones  and  impressive  gestures  sent  a  thrill  throughout 
the  room  such  as  is  rarely  known  in  a  law-court." 

He  first  took  up  Joyce's  telegram  just  before  starting  for  San 
Francisco, — "Make  D.  call  off  his  scandal  hounds,  that  only 
blacken  the  memory  of  Ford  and  friends." 

"That  very  dispatch,"  he  said,  "is  demonstrative,  to  my  mind,  as  I  have 
no  doubt  it  will  be  to  yours  before  I  have  finished,  that  not  only  had 
General  Babcock  no  guilty  knowledge  of  the  fraudulent  purposes  which  the 
gentlemen  in  St.  Louis  were  promoting,  but  that  they  at  that  time  took 
every  occasion  and  resorted  to  every  device  to  conceal  from  him  the  real 
nature  of  the  schemes  in  which  they  were  engaged,  and  to  impress  upon 
him  the  fact  that  as  officials  they  were  honorable  and  altogether  to  be 
trusted. 

'"Make  D.  call  off  his  scandal  hounds.'  For  what?  In  order  to  prevent 
investigation  into  frauds,  supposititious  or  real,  here  in  the  city  of  St. 
Louis?  By  no  means;  but  another  reason  is  given — 'That  only  tend  to 
blacken  the  memory  of  Ford  and  friends.' 

"Now,  who  was  Ford?  Ford,  as  I  have  said  to  you,  was  dead.  He 
had  been  the  old-time  friend  of  the  president;  their  associations  had  been 
cordial,  intimate  and  friendly  to  the  last  degree;  and  Joyce,  with  the 
sagacity  and  shrewdness  which  he  possessed,  knew  very  well  there  was  no 

28 


434  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

chord  he  could  possibly  strike  to  which  there  would  be  a  readier  response, 
than  a  defense  and  protection  of  the  memory  of  the  dead  friend  of  the 
President.  The  President  tells  you  in  that  terse,  vigorous,  clear  and  unmis 
takable  language  for  which  he  is  so  justly  celebrated,  precisely  who  Ford 
was.  It  is  a  matter  of  no  difference  to  the  President  to-day  that  clouds 
have  gathered  about  the  memory  of  Ford.  His  heart  beats  as  kindly 
towards  him  and  his  memory  as  it  ever  did  in  the  old  time  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago,  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Slander  may  have  been  piled  on 
him;  all  manner  of  venom  may  have  been  heaped  upon  his  memory;  the 
tooth  of  scandal  may  have  bitten  it  through  and  through  ;  and  yet  there 
lingers  in  the  heart  of  the  President  the  same  feeling  of  affection  that  he 
ever  entertained  toward  the  memory  of  his  old  friend." 

After  quoting  fully  the  President's  deposition  in  respect  to  Ford, 
Mr.  Storrs  went  on  to  say : 

"It  is  pleasant,  gentlemen,  it  is  delightful,  to  strike  somewhere  in  the 
desolate  desert  of  this  case  a  confidence  like  that  where,  through  these  long 
and  weary  weeks  of  investigation,  in  which  truth  seems  to  have  absolutely 
deserted  us,  in  which  the  confidence  of  man  in  his  fellow-man  seems  to 
have  been  a  thing  of  the  past — it  is  absolutely  delightful,  I  say,  and 
encouraging  to  our  human  nature,  to  strike  a  green  spot  like  this.  Holding  a 
position  the  most  exalted  in  the  nation,  with  a  reputation  world-wide  behind 
him,  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  not  forgotten  or  forsaken  the 
memory  of  his  old  friend.  Twenty-five  years  ago — it  is  a  long  period  of 
time  in  the  rushing  events  which  have  surrounded  us — young  men,  and 
struggling  young  men  together,  C.  W.  Ford  and  the  President  became 
acquainted  in  the  State  of  New  York.  That  acquaintance  continued 
unbroken,  undiminished  by  suspicion,  confidence  in  the  integrity  of  each 
other  strengthening  and  strengthening  as  the  years  passed  on,  and  finally 
when  resulting  from  the  gigantic  events  through  which  we  have  passed,  the 
modest  man  who  is  to-day  as  the  head  of  the  nation  was  elevated  to  the 
position  which  he  occupies,  that  confidence  was  undiminished,  and  hundreds 
and  thousands  of  dollars  passed  between  these  men  of  which  no  sort  of 
record  was  kept,  no  memorandum  preserved.  Confidence  was  so  perfect 
and  complete  that  it  was  not  deemed  essential.  On  the  I4th  day  of  March, 
1874,  Joyce,  who  understood  as  well  as  any  man  possibly  could  understand, 
the  deep  feeling  of  affection  which  the  President  entertained  towards  the 
memory  of  Ford,  sends  a  dispatch  to  his  Private  Secretary,  sudden  and 
unannounced. 

'Start  for  San  Francisco  to-morrow.  Make  D.  call  off  his  scandal 
hounds,  that  only  blacken  the  memory  of  Ford  and  friends.' 

"Very  well  did  John  A.  Joyce  know  that  an  appeal  of  that  character 
made  to  the  Private  Secretary  of  the  President  would  meet  with  a  quick 
and  ready  response,  and  it  did.  Taking  this  dispatch  in  his  hands,  the 
Private  "Secretary  of  the  President,  the  defendant  in  this  case,  did  what? 
Did,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  precisely  what  you  would  have  done.  Ford 
was  dead  and  gone  ;  the  grave  had  covered  over  him.  He  had  passed  the 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  435 

dark  river;  but  his  memory  was  still  fresh  and  green  in  the  heart  of  the 
President.  Thus  appealed  to,  the  defendant  in  this  case  takes  that  dispatch 
and  goes  to  the  Commissioner,  telling  him  that  he  has  learned  that  an 
attack  is  about  to  be  made  or  has  been  made  on  Ford,  and  confining  his 
investigations  and  his  inquiries  exclusively  to  that  point.  The  Commissioner 
tells  him  that  it  is  a  mistake,  and  that  there  are  no  charges  against  Ford. 
Moreover,  and  as  absolutely  characterizing  the  purpose  for  which  these 
inquiries  were  made,  Mr.  Douglass,  upon  the  stand,  tells  you  that  they 
were  directed  to  no  officer  holding  position  here  in  St.  Louis — that  they  had 
no  reference  to  any  proposed  investigation  into  the  probity  of  their  official 
conduct,  and  that  not  the  slightest  disposition  was  exhibited  to  check  these 
investigations,  to  postpone  them  or  to  prevent  them,  but  that  solely  and 
exclusively  this  defendant  confines  his  inquiries  to  Ford  ;  and  having  ascer 
tained  from  the  Commissioner  that  there  were  no  charges  against  him  left, 
his  errand  was  finished  and  complete.  And  yet,  you  are  asked  to  deduce 
from  these  circumstances,  from  this  telegram,  and  from  the  facts  proven  in 
the  case  which  surround  it  and  light  it  all  up — you  are  asked  to  deduce  a 
conclusion  of  guilt.  To  what  desperate  extremities,  in  view  of  these  facts, 
must  this  prosecution  be  driven,  when  twelve  men  are  drawn  from  their 
homes  to  sit  as  jurors  under  the  solemnity  of  an  oath,  and  they  are  asked 
to  put  down  every  prompting  of  their  consciences  and  every  throbbing  of 
their  hearts  which,  as  honorable  men,  must  prompt  and  throw  all  in  the 
same  direction,  and  denounce  as  a  crime  an  act  in  the  highest  measure 
honorable  to  the  defendant  in  this  case." 

He  argued  that  if  Babcock  had  been  in  the  confidence  of  the 
ring,  Joyce  would  have  told  him  the  real  reason  for  calling  off 
the  "  scandal  hounds."  He  would  have  said,  "  they  will  discover 
our  purpose  in  my  absence." 

"  But  this  dispatch  is  an  absolute  demonstration  that  not  only  did  General 
Babcock  not  know  the  schemes  in  which  these  men  were  engaged,  but  that 
Joyce  took  every  means  to  conceal  from  him  the  fact,  and  render  it  impos 
sible  that  he  should  know,  understanding  perfectly  well  that  if  he  did  know, 
from  General  Babcock  he  could  get  no  assistance.  He  assigned  the  reason 
which  he  did  assign,  knowing  that  there  he  would  touch  a  chord  to  which 
there  would  be  an  immediate  and  instant  response." 

Had  Babcock  been  a  conspirator,  he  would  have  known  why 
Joyce  was  sent  away,  and  Joyce  would  have  appealed  to  him  to 
help  him  to  stay  where  he  was.  But  Babcock  innocently  wrote, 
"  I  do  not  know  your  instructions  on  trip  to  San  Francisco ;  I 
think,  though,  it  is  because  D.  trusts  you  to  do  important  work." 
And  Joyce  never  asked  him  to  intervene,  except  to  have  the 
"  scandal  hounds "  called  off,  because  they  would  only  "  blacken 
the  memory  of  Ford  and  friends." 

"You   will   ask  yourselves    the  question,    What,    in  response  to  that  dis- 


436  LIFF.    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

patch,  did  the  defendant  do?  And  you  will  answer,  he  went  to  the  Com 
missioner  of  Internal  Revenue  and  asked  of  him  whether  there  were  any 
charges  against  Ford  in  the  Eastern  District  of  Missouri.  Ford  was  then 
beyond  the  reach  of  human  process;  no  indictments  could  disturb  him.  His 
mouth  was  closed,  his  ears  could  not  hear.  It  was  to  protect  a  memory 
which  I  presume  this  prosecution  would  have  indicted  if  they  could — they 
have  done  the  next  best  thing — not  able  to  drag  into  this  court  the  memory 
of  a  dead  man — not  able  physically  to  trail  it  through  the  polluted  mire 
with  which  these  self-convicted  felons  have  filled  this  court  for  the  last 
months  and  months — yet  they  have  blackened  that  name  ;  and  it  was  that 
name  and  that  memory,  then  absolutely  above  suspicion — and  against  which 
no  word,  up  to  that  time,  of  reproach  had  ever  been  uttered  ;  it  was  with 
reference  to  that  name  and  that  memory  that  this  defendant  made  his 
inquiries.  That  is  the  act  that  he  did.  If  it  is  guilty,  punish  it.  If  to 
respond  to  such  a  call  as  that  is  a  felony,  characterize  it  as  a  felony,  and 
punish  it  accordingly.  But  if  you  do  that,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  you  might 
as  well  leave  your  own  hearts  behind  you.  If  you  have  friends  you  may  as 
well  prepare  to  abandon  them.  There  is  not  a  man  upon  this  jury  whose 
good  name  is  not  very  dear  to  him,  and  in  the  still  hours  of  the  night  when 
you  call  up  in  review  your  past,  and  it  troops  in  slow  procession  by  you, 
and  you  think  of  the  future  that  opens  before  you,  and  you  see  your  chil 
dren  about  you,  there  will  occur  to  you  this  thought,  that  there  are  those 
growing  up  about  me,  who,  when  I  am  dead  and  gone,  will  remember  the 
good  deeds  that  I  have  done  and  will  vindicate  my  name.  It  is  the  sweet 
est  reflection  which  men  have,  and  it  comes  to  us  all.  If  you  have  no  such 
friends  as  that,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  you  have  no  friends  worth  counting 
on  as  such.  You  would,  from  your  place  in  heaven,  when  you  are  dead 
and  gone,  look  down  upon  and  bless  the  men  who  .vindicated  your  name 
and  saved  it  safe  from  scandal ;  and  to-day  and  to-morrow,  from  your  jury- 
box,  I  want  you  to  look  upon  this  defendant,  and  the  great  and  modest 
man  in  whose  interests  he  acts,  and  thank  him  for  doing  for  the  memory  of 
C.  W.  Ford  a  noble  and  manly  act.  Say  to  him,  gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
and  say  to  the  whole  court:  'These  are  not  crimes:  these  are  deeds  that 
lift  us  up  from  the  baseness  of  earth,  and  make  us  absolutely  immortal.'  I 
wish  that  when  you  come  to  render  your  verdict  upon  this  act  of  Gen. 
Babcock  and  the  President,  you  could  render  one  specifically  upon  the 
deeds  which  surround  that  transaction.  I  wish  that  you  could  tell  the  coun 
try,  as  you  would  desire  to  tell  the  country,  trumpet-toned,  that  here  is  a 
deed  selected  from  the  desert  which  has  surrounded  us,  that  is  green  and 
eternal  in  its  beauty  and  in  its  freshness." 

After  arguing  that  Macdonald's  inquiry  as  to  whether  revenue 
agents  had  been  sent  into  his  district  was  perfectly  legitimate 
under  the  rules  of  the  Department,  and  was  properly  answered 
by  Babcock,  he  went  on  to  say : 

"You  will  be  told,  and  you  have  been  told  that  Joyce  and  Macdonald 
were  then  actively  engaged  in  the  perpetration  and  commission  of  these 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  437 

frauds.  Admit  tint  that  is  so,  and  yet  that  fastens  no  stain  of  guilt  upon 
this  defendant ;  because,  tracking  all  through  this  case,  there  has  not  been  a 
single  spot  or  place  where  knowledge  of  that  fact  has  been  brought  home 
to  General  Babcock.  Will  you  say  that  he  ought  to  have  known  it  ?  If  you 
feel  like  saying  that,  let  me  demonstrate  to  you,  right  here  and  now,  how 
unjust  and  unfair  a  burden  you  are  placing  upon  him.  Why  should  he  have 
known  it?  Did  Douglass  know  it?  No.  Douglass  was  at  the  very  head  of 
that  department ;  in  his  hands  were  all  the  evidences,  if  any  evidences  existed, 
of  guilt  against  Joyce  and  Macdonald.  He  tells  you  that,  up  to  that  time, 
no  official  charges  of  which  he  had  any  information  had  ever  been  presented 
against  them.  All  the  rumors  of  their  frauds  that  could  have  been  gathered 
from  any  quarter  would  have  centered  in  the  office  of  the  Commissioner  of 
Internal  Revenue.  Yet  Douglass  knew  nothing  against  them.  How  much 
more  did  the  Chief  Clerk  of  that  department  know  ?  Mr.  Rogers  tells  you 
that  Jhrough  his  hands  every  charge,  every  hint,  every  suspicion  passed, 
and  Rogers  tells  you  that  at  that  time  he  did  not  even  suspect  that  Joyce 
and  Macdonald  were  engaged  in  the  perpetration  of  frauds  against  the  rev 
enue.  On  the  other  hand,  he  regarded  them  as  honorable,  upright,  active 
officials.  More  than  all  that ;  the  Chief  Clerk  in  this  very  Department,  who, 
of  all  others,  should  have  known  the  fact,  had  no  suspicion  ;  and  months 
afterwards — away  down  into  the  month  of  May,  1875,  the  very  month  when 
these  seizures  were  made,  the  month  when  this  gigantic  fraud  was  displayed 
to  the  whole  country — down  to  that  time,  not  only  did  the  Chief  Clerk  of 
the  Department,  a  shrewd  and  sagacious  man,  know  nothing  against  Joyce 
and  Macdonald,  but  he  wrote  to  Macdonald  a  friendly  letter  early  in  May 
asking  his  kindly  offices  to  secure  for  a  friend  of  his  an  appointment  in 
Arkansas,  and  at  a  salary  of  $1,200  a  year,  and  telling  him  that  such  an 
appointment  would  confer  a  great  favor  upon  a  member  of  the  Cabinet. 

"The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had  no  suspicions;  the  President  had  no 
suspicions;  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  had  no  suspicions;  the 
Chief  Clerk  of  the  Department  had  no  suspicions.  What  more?  Did  the 
world  know  their  guilt  as  it  knows  it  now  ?  Nowhere  in  this  country  are 
the  diligent  seekers  after  news  more  diligent  than  here  ;  newspapers,  enter 
prising  to  the  last  degree,  vigilant,  quick,  active,  eager,  and  yet  they  did 
not  publish  to  the  world  the  guilt  of  Joyce  and  Macdonald.  Here,  in  their 
own  home,  so  far  as  we  know,  they  were  unsuspected.  Their  immediate 
friends  looked  upon  them  as  honest  and  upright  men.  The  officials  with 
whom  they  were  brought  into  contact  looked  upon  them  as  efficient  and 
upright  men.  And  yet,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  when  all  the  world  else 
regarded  them  as  competent  and  honest  officials,  you  are  asked  to  say  that 
General  Babcock  should  have  known  what  the  testimony  in  this  case  has 
demonstrated  to  you  nobody  else  did  know. 

4 'Had  General  Babcock  occupied  the  position  which  the  Commissioner  of 
Internal  Revenue  occupied  there  might  have  been  some  force  in  the  sug 
gestion.  Had  he  occupied  the  position  that  Rogers  held,  there  might  have 
been  some  force  in  the  suggestion.  Bear  in  mind,  too,  because  the  evidence 
of  silence  and  the  nega'tive  evidence  in  this  case  are  tremendously  telling  in 


438  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORES. 

their  effect,  there  is  not  a  single  syllable  of  proof  in  all  this  vast  record 
showing,  or  tending  even  to  show,  that  General  Babcock  ever  did  visit  the 
Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  except  upon  two  occasions — that  he  ever 
visited  Mr.  Rogers  in  his  office — that  he  ever  had  a  single  word  to  say  with 
Mr.  Rogers  on  the  subject  of  revenue  affairs  in  the  City  of  St.  Louis.  Twice 
during  all  this  period  of  time  in  the  office  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue — never  shown  to  have  exchanged  a  word  with  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury:  never  shown  to  have  exchanged  a  word,  and  the  fact  is  that  he 
never  did  exchange  a  word  with  Avery,  the  Chief  Clerk  in  that  Department; 
never  shown  to  have  exchanged  a  word  with  the  Chief  Clerk  ip  the  Depart 
ment  of  Internal  Revenue,  and  yet  this  defendant,  you  are  required  by  a 
clamor — the  parallel  of  which  has  never  before  been  witnessed  in  this  coun 
try,  to  hold  as  having  guilty  knowledge  of  facts  which  the  parties  who 
should  have  possessed  all  the  information  knew  nothing  about." 

He  then  referred  to  Hoag's  letters  to  Bingham,  a  confessed  mem 
ber  of  the  ring.  These  letters  showed  that  Hoag  had  been  giving 
information  to  Bingham,  who  had,  in  turn,  transmitted  it  to  all  the 
illicit  distillers  in  St.  Louis,  and  Mr.  Storrs  argued  therefrom  that 
the  prosecution  had  been  wasting  its  time  in  endeavoring  to  show 
that  General  Babcock's  services  were  even  necessary  to  the  ring, 
when  they  had  already  bought  and  paid  for  the  services  of  a 
man  who  had  such  vastly  better  means  of  procuring  and  giving 
information,  as  Hoag  had.  The  letters,  themselves,  created  a  pro 
found  sensation  as  they  \vere  read  in  connection  with  each  other 
and  by  the  light  of  the  emphasis  and  concurrent  comment  the 
defendant's  counsel  gave  to  them.  After  the  Court  adjourned 
for  recess,  these  letters  were  the  general  topic  of  talk  on  the 
street.  It  is  true  that  eight  of  them  had  been  read  before  in 
evidence,  but  they  had  never  before  been  given  as  one  perfect 
picture  of  their  unprincipled  author's  part  in  the  conspiracy. 

The  expedition  of  Brooks  and  Hoag  to  the  West  had  been 
countermanded,  and  Macdonald,  knowing  this,  sent  the  jubilant 
despatch  to  Joyce  in  St.  Louis  : 

"  'Dead  dog.  Goose  hangs  altitudilum.  The  sun  shines.'  And  yet,  my 
good  friend  Colonel  Broadhead  says  that  the  dog,  after  all,  was  not  dead. 
He  says  that  that  was  merely  a  hint  or  suggestion  from  Macdonald  to  Joyce 
that  the  dog  would  ultimately  die.  But  no  such  language  as  that  did  Mac 
donald  employ.  'Dead  dog!  the  goose  hangs  altitudilum;  the  sun  shines;' 
which,  being  translated  into  our  vernacular,  means  :  '  I  have  exploded  this 
whole  business;  Brooks  and  Hoag  will  not  go;  that  raid  is  at  an  end.' 
That  is  the  English  of  it — the  other  is  Macdonaldese. 

"  Now,  here  is  another  curious  fact — a  very  extraordinary  fact.  Bear  in 
mind  that  it  is  insisted  that  General  Babcock  must,  all  this  time,  march  arm- 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  .  439 

in-arm  along  with  Macdonald  and  Joyce  as  a  guilty  conspirator  with  them. 
Why  how  shamefully  they  neglected  him.  How  badly  they  treated  him. 
They  tell  you,  and  would  have  you  and  the  country  believe  that  the  place 
which  General  Babcock  was  to  fill  was  to  prevent  these  contemplated  raids 
and  to  give  them  information.  But  Macdonald  goes  there  and  himself  breaks 
up  the  whole  scheme.  He  personally  encounters  the  great  plunderer  and 
leaguer  of  the  combination,  and  telegraphs  in  exulting  joy  the  success  of 
his  trip;  and  he  never  favors  General  Babcock  with  a  single  syllable  of 
information  as  to  the  success  of  his  enterprise.  Why,  was  a  conspirator  ever 
treated  in  that  fashion  before?  They  would  have  you  believe  that,  of  all 
men  in  the  world,  Babcock  was  the  most  interested  to  know  how  this  expe 
dition  was  to  terminate — whether  it  was  really  to  be  made.  But  it  was 
abandoned  long  before  he  saw  a  single  human  being  with  reference  to  it, 
and  his  co-conspirator  never  opened  his  head  to  him  on  the  subject. 

"There  is  no  power  of  declamation  or  denunciation,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  that  can  get  around  that  posture  of  affairs.  Rogers  tells  you  that, 
before  the  letter  was  shown  to  him,  the  trip  had  been  abandoned  ;  Douglass 
tells  you  that  before  he  saw  General  Babcock  the  trip  had  been  abandoned. 
The  first  that  General  Babcock  ever  knew  that  such  a  trip  had  been  con 
templated  was  when  this  letter  was  shown  him  by  Macdonald,  and  then  the 
trip  had  been  abandoned  ;  and  yet,  reversing  the  order  of  all  things  natural, 
a  jury  of  twelve  at  least  ordinarily  intelligent  men  are  asked  to  say  upon 
their  oaths  that  General  Babcock  prevented  the  investigation  here  in  St. 
Louis,  which  investigation  had  been  absolutely  abandoned  before  he  knew 
that  it  had  been  contemplated.  Can  human  perversity,  gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
go  further  than  that?  '  I  succeeded;  they  will  not  go.'  How  it  must  have 
amused  the  hearts  of  Macdonald  and  Joyce  when  they  read  that  dispatch. 
•Why,'  they  say,  'you  good-natured  young  man  up  there  in  Washington, 
you  do  not  know  what  you  are  talking  about.  You  giving  us  information  ! 
\Vhy,  we  discount  you  ;  this  very  information  which  you  are  communicating 
to  us  we  have  had  a  week  ;  we  knew  all  about  it,  but  I  did  not  intend  you 
should  know  anything  about  it  at  all,  and  left  the  City  of  Washington  with 
out  communicating  it  to  you.'  That,  as  you  know,  is  the  great  corner-stone 
of  this  prosecution.  I  do  not  feel,  when  I  deal  with  evidence  so  absolutely 
worthless  as  that,  like  rising  up  and  denouncing  the  iniquity  of  this  prosecu 
tion.  1  feel  merely  a  sensation  of  thankfulness  to  the  great  Being  who  rules 
over  us  all,  that  passing  the  fiery  furnace  of  those  '  afflictions,  although  the 
mouth  of  my  client  is  sealed,  and  his  tongue  is  dumb,  yet  there  have  sprung 
urJ  to  our  assistance,  as  if  from  the  very  earth  itself,  the  witnesses  by  which 
we  are  vindicated.  I  feel  in  the  presence  of  interpositions  so  conspicuously 
providential  as  those  which  have  been  disclosed  to  you  to-day,  gentlemen, 
when  I  look  through  the  awful  danger  that  has  environed  him,  I  feel  more 
like  bowing  in  prayerful  thankfulness  before  the  good  God  who  has  saved 
him,  than  from  uttering  one  single  syllable  of  denunciation.  And  in  the  presence 
of  such  an  intervention  as  this,  of  such  a  great  and  blessed  deliverance  as 
this,  it  does  seem  to  me  that  the  tongue  of  scandal  should  be  hushed  and 
the  voice  of  detraction  should  be  silent." 


4/LO  •  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Mr.  Storrs  next  addressed  himself  to  the  history  of  the  order 
transferring  the  Supervisors,  showing  that  General  Babcock  had 
nothing  to  do  with  it. 

"But,"  he  said,  "the  gentlemen  are  not  content;  they  are  not  satisfied 
with  the  revocation  of  the  order.  They  think  it  was  unwise  and  unpatriotic 
to  revoke  it.  Let  me  stop  right  here  to  ask  you  this  question:  Suppose 
they  were?  What  are  you  here  for?  To  revise  the  action  of  the  President 
and  of  the  Cabinet?  By  no  means.  You  are  not  sitting  in  judgment  upon 
matters  of  policy.  You  are  not,  as  jurors,  to  determine  questions  of  that 
kind.  You  are  to  try,  not  the  fact  whether  General  Babcock  assisted  in 
securing  the  suspension  of  that  order,  nor  whether  he  did  wisely  or  not  in 
procuring  its  suspension,  but  you  are  to  inquire  whether  for  any  guilty  pur 
pose,  whether  as  a  member  of  this  conspiracy,  and  with  the  object  of  further 
ing  and  aiding  it,  he  did  intervene  and  make  the  representations  to  Commis 
sioner  Douglass  which  have  been  detailed  here  before  you.  Colonel 
Broadhead  says  that  it  was  an  unwise  and  improper  thing  to  do.  What 
now,  finally,  after  all  the  demonstrations  that  have  been  made  upon  that 
subject,  after  the  public  mind  has  been  filled  with  poison  concerning  it  for 
months  and  months,  what  turns  out  to  be  the  actual  truth  of  the  situation? 
Months  before  that  time,  gentlemen,  the  President,  for  the  purpose  not  of 
preventing  frauds,  but  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  in  detecting  frauds  that 
had  already  been  committed,  devised  the  scheme  of  changing  the  Supervi 
sors — not  one  Supervisor,  but  all  the  Supervisors  throughout  the  entire 
country.  He  has  told  you  in  his  forcible  and  clear  language  that  the  idea 
originated  with  him,  not  because  he  suspected  the  officials,  but  because  they 
operated  in  ruts,  that  this  man  had  his  peculiar  way  of  doing  business,  of 
which  the  distillers  would  get  the  hang,  and  for  the  purpose  of  subjecting 
them  to  new  methods  and  new  modes  it  occurred  to  him  that  the  transferring 
of  the  Supervisors  from  one  district  to  another  would  be  wise.  Before  Mr. 
Bristow  was  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  .this  whole  subject'  had 
been  discussed  between  the  President  and  Commissioner  Douglass.  What 
ever,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  therefore  of  merit  there  is  to  be  attached  to 
the  original  order  belongs  to  the  President.  Bristow  called  upon  the  Presi 
dent,  directed  his  attention  to  the  fact  that  frauds  were  being  perpetrated 
here  and  elsewhere,  the  President  suggests  to  him  that  idea,  and  acting  upon 
it  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  under  the  direction  of  the  President,  issues 
the  order  that  the  transfer  be  made." 

Mr.  Tutton    had    represented   that   on   three   hours'    notice   tne 
distillers  could  get  rid    of  all    evidence    of  their   frauds,    but   this 
,  order  was  giving   them    three   weeks,  and   would    defeat   its   own 
object. 

"Now,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  has  not  the  time  arrived  when  a  little  jus 
tice  may  be  done?  For  the  first  time  throughout  this  trial,  facts  have  been 
told.  You,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  are  the  first  in  all  this  country  who  have 
known  the  exact  truth,  and  there  it  is  laid  down  clearly,  plainly,  unmisun- 


THE   TRIAL   OF   GENERAL    BABCOCK.  44! 

derstandably  before  you.  Does  it  not  give  to  each  one  of  you  a  profound 
feeling  of  satisfaction  that  the  whole  truth  of  the  matter  removes  every  stain 
or  suspicion  of  guilt?  Does  it  not  make  you  feel  prouder  of  yourselves  and 
of  the  great  country  in  which  you  live,  when  you  find  that  the  highest  offi 
cial  has  the  nerve  to  resist  all  the  pressure  which  politicians  may  bring  to 
bear  upon  him ;  but  in  the  presence  of  the  arguments  addressed  to  him  by 
a  plain  and  practical  man,  which  he  can  not  answer,  he  will  surrender  his 
own  long-settled,  convictions,  and  bow  to  the  irresistible  logic  which  Tutton 
suggested.  He  tells  you  in  his  own  clear,  incisive,  sharp-cut  language :  '  I 
directed  the  suspension  of  this  order  because  I  considered  the  good  of  the 
public  service  demanded  it.'  Babcock  had  never  said  a  word  to  him  on 
the  subject.  He  had  never  opened  his  head  to  him  with  reference  to  this 
order.  But  when  Tutton  comes — the"  oldest  official  in  the  Revenue  Service 
of  the  United  States,  a  man  of  the  strictest  and  most  incorruptible  integrity, 
of  large  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of  the  whole  subject — and  lays  the 
matter  plainly  before  the  President,  the  President  acts." 

Quoting   again    from  the    President's    deposition,  he    continued: 

"  Now,  that  is  very  plain  reading.  There  are  no  flowers  of  speech  about 
it.  I  commend  it,  however,  to  your  earnest  and  honest  judgment,  whether 
it  is  not  as  absolute  and  perfect  a  vindication  of  the  policy  which  the  Pres 
ident  pursued  as  any  rational  human  being  could  ask  for.  And  yet  he  is 
arraigned  here,  he  has  been  arraigned  by  the  counsel  for  the  course  which 
he  there  pursued.  I  let  the  President  speak  for  himself.  There  is  no  vigor 
of  denunciation  enough,  however  largely  they  may  be  furnished  of  it  on  the 
part  of  the  counsel  for  the  prosecution,  to  convince  one  single  right-minded 
man  throughout  this  whole  country  that  the  action  thus  taken  was  not  dic 
tated  by  the  highest  and  purest  of  motives.  And  yet  watch  the  course  that 
the  prosecution  from  the  beginning  has  been  pursuing.  Week  after  week, 
and  month  after  month,  such  an  unbroken  flood  of  calumny,  and  detraction 
and  abuse,  has  been  poured  in  upon  the  President,  has  been  poured  in  upon 
this  defendant,  because  it  was  said  that  he  interfered  with  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  and  prevented  him  from  carrying  out  a  line  of  policy  which  he 
had  inaugurated  for  the  purpose  of  detecting  frauds  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis. 
Finally,  however,  we  get  to  the  fact ;  the  course  which  the  President  pur 
sued  was  not  against  the  will  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury ;  the  revoca 
tion  or  suspension  of  the  order  was  not  averse  to  any  scheme  which  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  entertained  ;  but,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  as  the 
evidence  in  this  case  shows,  the  President  did  precisely  what  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  was  anxious  he  should  do,  the  President  was  convinced 
precisely  as  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  was  convinced.  The 
same  arguments  which  reached  the  President  and  convinced  him 
reached  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  and  convinced  him.  Before  the  Presi 
dent  had  said  'Mr.  Tutton,  I  agree  with  you,'  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  had  said  'Mr.  Tutton,  I  agree  with  you.'  Is  it  not  astonishing,  in  the 
face  of  these  facts,  that  through  these  long  and  dreadful  months  of  pro 
secution  and  persecution  through  which  we  have  been  compelled  to  pass, 


442  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

no  man  has  had  the  courage  to  stand  up  and  say  in  the  face  of  the  country 
precisely  what  the  truth  of  this  matter  is?  Isn't  it  melancholy  to  reflect  that 
down  to  the  time  when  Mr.  Tutton  took  the  stand  the  real,  God's  truth  of 
the  business  had  never  been  told?  And  yet,  in  the  face  of  this  very  record, 
the  truth  of  which  no  man  can  gainsay  or  deny,  counsel  stand  here  and 
tell  you  that  the  President  interfered  with  the  Secretary  to  thwart  and 
upset  the  design  which  he  had  formed  for  the  purpose  of  punishing  the 
Whisky  Ring  in  the  city  of  St.  Louis." 

"There  we  stand,  gentlemen,  in  the  last  act  of  this  drama,  so  far  as  its 
official  aspects  are  concerned.  It  makes  no  earthly  difference  with  us  what 
our  political  opinions  may  be.  I  believe  in  parties,  in  party  organization, 
and,  to  a  certain  extent,  in  party  drill.  But  the  eternal  sense  of  eternal 
justice  is  deeper  than  all  the  parties  that  ever  existed  on  earth.  I  care 
not  what  your  political  predilections  may  be,  you  can  not  look  at  that 
record  a  single  moment,  and  say  that  against  the  parties  who  were  instru 
mental  in  procuring  the  revocation  of  that  order,  there  is  spot  or  stain  or 
blemish  of  any  kind.  Thus  triumphantly  vindicated,  the  Executive  head  of 
this  great  Nation,  the  President  over  your  country  and  over  mine,  stands 
completely  exonerated.  He  has  remained  silent  down  to  the  very  last 
moment  of  time,  and  has  only  spoken  when  the  law,  whose  majesty  he 
respects,  required  that  he  should  speak.  He  becomes  a  witness,  because 
it  was  his  duty.  Thus  he  spoke.  We  could  have  brought  him  here, 
secured  here  his  personal  attendance,  but  the  exigencies  of  public  affairs 
and  the  necessity  for  his  presence  at  the  capital,  induced  us  to  waive 
that,  if  possible,  and  produce  to  you  his  deposition.  Taken  under  all 
the  forms  of  law,  by  consent  of  the  counsel  for  the  prosecution,  before 
the  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States,  this  plain  man  has  told  his  plain 
story,  and  in  his  own  plain  way.  There  are  no  more  flowers  of  rhetoric 
in  it  than  there  are  in  Christ's  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  speaks  straight 
to  the  heart  and  judgment  of  every  honest  man  in  these  United  States. 
He  intended  by  it  no  rebuke,  but  what  a  rebuke  it  carries!  He  does 
not  stand  there,  before  this  whole  country,  as  a  witness,  because  he 
volunteered  to  be  such,  but  it  was  done  because  he  did  know  the  facts, 
and  he  knew  them  all.  Now,  Tutton  says,  at  the  very  close  of  his 
testimony,  speaking  of  his  interview  with  Secretary  Bristow:  'Yes,  sir;  he 
only  raised  one  objection,  and  then  he  fully  acquiesced  and  agreed  with 
me  that  that  was  the  better  plan' — the  plan  which  Tutton  suggested.  One 
short  hour  before  this  interview  was  had  with  the  President,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury  fully  acquiesced  that  this  was  the  better  plan." 

How  useless  Babcock  was  to  the  ring  was  shown  by  Macdon- 
ald's  telegram  to  Commissioner  Douglass  after  the  order  had 
been  promulgated. 

"Suppose  there  had  been  a  dispatch  of  that  character  sent  to  Babcock. 
How  full  of  declamation  would  this  court-room  have  been.  How  splendid, 
how  vigorous  would  have  been  the  vituperation  which  the  counsel  would 
have  employed.  Ah,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  if  a  dispatch  of  that  character 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  443 

would  have  been  evidence  of  guilt  if  sent  to  Babcock,  what  do  you  say  of 
it  as  applied  to  Douglass?  and  yet  no  one  questions  the  integrity  of  Doug 
lass;  no  one  has  a  right  to  question  it.  Facts  do  not  change.  Macdonald 
in  the  same  dispatch  says,  'I  don't  like  the  order.'  He  says  that  to  whom? 
Babcock?  No,  no.  Babcock  is  the  most  useless  man  in  Washington,  so 
far  as  the  purpose  of  Macdonald  is  concerned.  He  says  it  straight  to  head 
quarters.  'I  don't  like  the  order.'  Immediately  upon  its  issuance,  and  after 
the  receipt  of  that  dispatch,  Douglass  sent  him  the  conciliatory  telegram,  in 
which  he  says  the  order  is  general,  and  will  be  merely  temporary  in  its 
character.  And  Joyce,  with  that  windy  effusiveness  so  characteristic  of 
Joyce,  sits  himself  down  in  «a  quasi,  humbug,  military  fashion,  and  says: 
•We  have  official  information  that  the  enemy  weakens — push  things.'  Push 
what  things?  There  is  nothing  left  to  push.  Help  to  set  aside  the  order? 
It  had  been  set  aside.  Argue  with  the  President?  He  had  never  said  a 
word  to  him  on  the  subject.  Revoke  the  order  of  transfer?  It  had  been 
revoked.  And  because  John  A.  Joyce  was  a  natural-born  poet,  because  he 
would  gush  even  at  the  expense  of  a  dollar  for  ten  words,  because  he  sent 
this  utterly  stupid  and  meaningless  dispatch  to  Babcock — there  being  no  law 
that  we  are  aware  of  to  prevent  him  from  making  a  fool  of  himself, — because 
he  sent  that  windy,  declamatory  and  useless  dispatch  to  General  Babcock,  to 
which  no  earthly  attention  was  paid,  therefore  General  Babcock  is  guilty  of 
conspiring  with  Joyce  to  defraud  the  Government  of  the  United  States  of  the 
Revenue  tax  of  seventy  cents  per  gallon  on  proof  spirits,  and  for  the  pur 
pose  of  carrying  on  this  conspiracy,  and  aiding  in  the  removal  of  high 
wines  without  the  payment  of  the  Revenue  tax  thereon.  What  becomes  of 
logic  in  the  presence  of  such  a  state  of  facts  as  that?  It  is  buried. 

Mr.  Storrs  closed  with  a  crushing  onslaught  upon  Everest  and 
his  testimony.  He  reviewed  the  testimony  of  Everest  with  the 
closest  analytical  scrutiny.  He  compared  the  evidence  of  Everest, 
a  confessed  conspirator,  with  that  of  Magill,  a  man  whose  char 
acter  was  unimpeached,  and  for  whose  veracity  there  were  hun 
dreds  of  old  citizens  ready  to  vouch.  Then,  speaking  of  the 
admitted  vagueness  of  Everest's  testimony,  so  far  as  it  concerned 
the  defendant,  he  drew  an  appalling  picture  of  the  consequences 
that  would  hang  over  every  citizen  were  such  evidence  to  be 
permitted  to  cast  a  man  of  heretofore  high  and  honorable  career 
down  in  the  dust  of  criminal  degradation. 

"  But  the  case  limped  and  staggered  along  under  various  stages  of  decrep 
itude  and  decay,  and,  finally,  the  great  sensation  of  the  case  arrived  in 
the  person  of  Mr.  Abijah  M.  Everest.  Men  rubbed  their  eyes  and  said : 
'Where  are  we?  Have  human  motives  all  been  changed?  We  have 
waited  now  six  days.  If  General  Babcock  was  really  a  party  to  this  con 
spiracy,  why  was  he  a  party?  What  share  did  he  have  of  the  plunder? 
What  did  he  make  by  it?  What  earthly  conceivable  motive  spurred  him 


444  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

to  take  in  his  hands  and  throw  away,  as  if  to  throw  it  to  the  dogs,  as 
splendid  a  reputation  as  a  young  man  ever  achieved?'  Joyce  was  here 
in  St.  Louis — I  would  not  use  unnecessarily  harsh  words  about  him,  but 
the  character  of  the  man  has  been  portrayed  before  you;  a  man  infinite 
in  his  resources  of  cheek  and  assurance,  absolutely  stupendous  and  almost 
sublime  in  the  magnificence  of  its  proportions.  He  was  the  great  corres 
pondent.  He  would  write  letters  to  this  man,  that  man  and  the  other 
man,  and  his  letters  always  required  an  answer.  And,  floating  around 
grandly  about  St.  Louis,  he  would  approach  these  distillers  from  whom 
he  received  corrupt  moneys — and  every  distiller  that  happens  to  be  pres 
ent  in  this  court-room  will  recognize  the  truth  of  the  picture  I  draw — and, 
holding  out  a  letter,  he  would  say:  'There,  you  see  the  influence  I  have 
at  the  Executive  Mansion ;  you  understand  my  rising  relations  with  the 
White  House.'  Lying  to  exalt  his  own  reputation,  constantly  magnifying 
his  own  consequence,  and  assuring  all  these  men  of  the  importance  of 
the  position  he  occupied  ;  endeavoring  by  his  own  unassisted  words  to 
impress  upon  them  the  idea  that  he  had,  at  the  White  House  somewhere, 
some  powerful,  influential  backing,  which  enabled  him  to  guarantee  those 
distillers  absolute  immunity  from  detection  and  punishment  for  the  frauds 
in  which  they  were  engaged.  This  business  Joyce  pursued  day  after  day, 
and  month  after  month.  Unceasing  in  his  devotion  to  the  god  of  lying, 
this  trade  he  followed  had  neither  'variableness  nor  shadow  of  turning.' 
But  by  and  by  the  faith  and  credulity  of  the  distillers  weakened.  His 
calls  for  money  were  continuous  and  exacting.  They  substantially  say  to 
him,  'Mr.  Joyce,  we  must  have  some  better  evidence  than  your  mere 
word  that  you  are  strong  in  Washington'  and  thereupon,  in  order  to  show 
them  his  strength  in  Washington,  he  takes  the  dispatch  of  the  I3th  of 
December,  and  exhibits  it  to  Bevis  &  Fraser.  They  had  become  alarmed. 
Some  evidence  must  be  furnished  the  distillers  that  he  has  this  influence  at 
Washington. 

"Letters  have  been  exhausted,  telegrams  have  been  used  and  failed,  and, 
therefore,  he  takes  Abijah  M.  Everest,  and  goes  through  one  of  the  most 
stupendous  farces  ever  enacted  in  the  face  of  high  heaven.  He  places 
Everest  in  his  room  and  takes  two  $500  bills  and  two  open  envelopes,  con 
spicuously  displayed  on  the  desk,  shuffles  them  about,  as  a  prestidigitator, 
turning  his  back  upon  Everest,  puts  the  money  in  his  hand  into  one,  jug 
gles  with  the  other,  and  goes  through  the  wretched  farce  of  sending 
Everest  down  to  the  street  letter-box  to  deposit  those  letters,  watching  him 
from  his  window  as  he  goes.  Why  was  it?  Simply  for  the  purpose, 
gentlemen  of  the  jury,  of  enabling  Everest  to  say  to  these  distillers:  'Well, 
Joyce  has  got  some  influence  at  Washington;  Joyce  to-day  sent  $500  to 
Avery  and  $500  to  Babcock.'  Bevis  is  a  little  incredulous,  and  Fraser, 
who  is  a  good  deal  more  incredulous,  says:  'Now,  Mr.  Everest,  that  is 
all  very  nice,  but  how  do  you  know?'  'How  do  I  know?  Why  because 
Joyce  sent  me  with  the  letters.'  And  for  that  purpose,  that  execrable  farce 
was  enacted.  Those  letters  might  as  well  have  been  deposited  on  the 
curbstone  as  in  the  place  they  were  put.  They  were  put  in  a  letter-box, 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  445 

where  cio  sensible  man,  no  man  with  sufficient  intelligence  to  run  an  ordin 
ary  ink-stand  would  have  placed  them,  and  that  was  the  only  occasion  that 
Joyce  ever  did  anything  of  the  kind.  And  he  watches  his  poor,  weak, 
shivering  tool  as  he  carries  these  letters  and  deposits  them  in  the  street 
letter-box,  watches  until  he  sees  him  out  of  the  way,  selects  his  time  (for 
he  knows  when  the  carrier  goes  past  there  on  his  accustomed  rounds), 
stops  him,  describes  the  letters,  takes  them  from  his  hand,  and  the  whole 
business  is  accomplished.  He  refuses  to  give  a  receipt ;  says  it  is  '  Hunky 
Dory,'  and  goes  off  absolutely  contented.  Now,  I  have  little  to  say  about 
the  testimony  of  Everest.  But  there  are  some  very  extraordinary  things 
about  it.  He  was  put  upon  the  stand  after  he  had  been  a  vagabond  and 
a  self-made  outlaw  from  his  own  country.  With  this  great  load  of  crimin 
ality  resting  upon  him,  Everest  had  fled  his  home,  and  was  a  wandering 
felon  and  a  fugitive  through  all  the  cities  of  continental  Europe ;  and 
through  some  mysterious  way  or  other,  for  the  ways  ot  this  prosecution  up 
to  this  time  have  been  'inscrutable  and  past  rinding  out,'  there  did  Mr. 
Me  Fall,  another  conspirator,  find  Everest,  and  brought  back  home  the 
acquisition.  You  heard  the  story  which  he  told,  and  the  reason  of  his 
return.  The  press  of  the  country  filled  with  the  astonishing  developments 
he  was  to  make  preceding  him  in  his  triumphal  march  into  the  City  of  St. 
Louis,  he  comes  here  a  self-convicted  outlaw,  and  is  entertained  hke  a 
prince.  Gentlemen,  lying  pays.  A  man  whom  the  Government  would  not 
trust  with  the  inspection  of  a  gallon  of  distilled  spirits,  in  which  the  Gov 
ernment  had  an  interest  of«only  seventy  cents,  is  brought  all  the  way  from 
Rome;  splendid  avenues  are  opened  before  him,  old  friends  attend  him, 
luxurious  quarters  are  furnished  him,  his  incomings  and  his  outgoings  are 
watched  and  the  great  American  eagle  spreads  its  protecting  wings  over 
this  self-convicted  outlaw,  and  the  man  not  fit  to  be  trusted  with  seventy 
cents  is  authorized  by  the  Government  to  stand  up  there,  and  with  the 
perspiration  standing  out  upon  his  forehead  to  swear  away  the  rights  of 
one  of  the  best  men  on  earth.  Moreover,  he  tells  you,  that  when  he 
came  here  he  saw  Mr.  Dyer,  and  they  had  a  careful  and  a  prayerful 
interview  together.  He  said  to  Mr.  Dyer,  'Now,  Mr.  Dyer,  I  didn't  see 
this  money  put  into  both  envelopes,  and  I  can't  swear  to  it.  It  would  be 
well  if  I  could  remember  it;  but  I  can't  remember  anything  of  the  kind. 
I  will  go  to  the  very  farthest  verge.  I  will  say  there  has  been  no  arrange 
ment  with  me  I  have  not  been  promised  immunity ;  I  will  say  these 
twelve  indictments  are  liable  to  fall  upon  me  ;  I  will  stand  up  to  the  rack 
like  a  man  ;  but,  Mr;  Dyer,  excuse  me,  I  can't  say  I  saw  the  money  put  in 
both  envelopes.'  Again  the  whole  force,  the  stars  and  the  stock  company, 
Colonel  Dyer,  Colonel  Broadhead,  Peddrick  and  the  rest  of  them,  surround 
this  man  and  brace  him  up  and  crowd  him  up,  and  again  he  says  to 
him :  '  Mr.  Dyer,  I  can't  say  I  saw  that  money  put  in  the  envelope 
addressed  to  General  Babcock,'  and  yet  that  poor,  weak  man,  for  whom 
I  have  no  words  of  denunciation,  but  for  whom  I  entertain  the  profound- 
est  feeling  of  pity,  that  poor,  self-convicted  felon,  with  his  wife  down  here 
shivering  and  trembling  for  him,  is  placed  on  the  stand,  and  there,  with 


446  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  gate  of  the  Penitentiary  opened  broadly  before  him,  they  say  to  him, 
'  If  you  will  escape  years  and  years  of  a  felon's  life,  swear  to  what  we 
want  you  to  testify,  and  damn  your  very  soul  by  saying  you  saw  the  money 
put  into  the  envelope;'  and  he  did  it.  Gentlemen,  it  is  simply  awful.  It 
is  shocking  to  the  very  last  degree.  The  prayer  which  the  Father  of  us 
all  taught  his  children  first  to  utter  is,  '  Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
deliver  us  from  evil.'  And  here  a  powerful  coercion,  absolutely  oppressive 
and  gigantic  in  its  character,  as  if  a  mountain  of  pressure  had  been  brought 
to  bear  upon  that  poor,  frail  man,  and,  shaken  by  it,  he  swore,  with  the 
knowledge  that  his  poor,  young,  trembling,  tearful  wife  was  awaiting  his 
return  home.  He  swore,  with  the  terrible  knowledge  that  this  iron  grip  of 
the  law  was  ready  to  clasp  him.  Time  after  time,  and  again  and  again, 
he  had  said  he  did  not  know,  he  could  not  say,  that  a  dollar  of  money 
had  ever  been  paid  to  Babcock.  Yet,  by  shaking  the  Penitentiary  in  his 
face,  he  swore  it.  For  the  emergencies  in  this  case  seemed  so  great  that 
the  soul  of  the  man  was  absolutely  damned  in  the  presence  of  this  audience 
and  the  whole  world,  in  order  that  an  innocent  man  might  be  convicted. 
We  took  him  and  subjected  him  to  that  severest  of  tests,  a  cross- 
examination,  which  you  remember,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  was  kind  to 
the  very  last  degree,  and  the  poor  soul  weakened  and  failed  of  its  pur 
pose,  and  the  majestic  form  of  eternal  truth  rolled  up  before  the  day's 
vision  of  -  poor  Everest.  And  he  saw  the  magnitude  of  the  execrable 
act  that  he  had  committed  and  the  enormity  of  the  danger  he  was 
about  to  inflict  upon  an  innocent  man,  and  the  soul  revolted  at  the 
thought,  and  he  says,  'So  help  me  God  I'll  not  do  it,'  and  like  a  man, 
finally  he  told  the  story.  Wasn't  that  a  true  deliverance?  What  a 
thrill  would  have  rung  through  the  whole  country  had  he  possessed 
sufficient  nerve  to  face  the  wrath  of  an  outraged  God,  and  said  that 
there  is  proof  certain  that  General  Babcock  is  a  member  of  the  conspiracy 
because  he  has  received  guilty  money ;  but  the  same  great  God  that 
guided  our  fathers  has  watched  over  this  young  man,  and  with  his  very 
finger  he  touched  the  lips  of  Everest,  as  he  stood  on  the  stand,  and 
enabled  him  to  speak  the  truth.  How,  then,  the  fabric  of  this  pr?>secu- 
tion  fell.  How  honest  men  raised  themselves  up  and  said,  thank  God 
our  faith  in  our  common  nature  is  again  restored.  He  left  the  stand, 
and  the  knell  of  the  prosecution  had  been  sounded,  and  its  doom  had 
been  fixed ;  buried  deeper  than  ever  plummet  sank ;  covered  over 
with  a  mighty  weight  which  truth  had  placed  there.  Let  it  rot  in  its 
dishonorable  grave." 

But  it  was  in  the  peroration  that  the  speaker  showed  his  grand 
est  powers.  "  As  a  mere  literary  effort,"  said  the  Globe-Demo 
crat,  "  it  cannot  fail  of  having  its  effect  on  those  who  read.  To 
those  who  heard,  it  seemed  a  perfect  revelation  of  the  awful  fate 
that  may,  at  any  time,  through  heedless  contact  with  apparently 
honorable  men,  Fall  on  any  one,  even  the  most  reputable.  The 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  447 

picture  and  its  suggestions  moved  everybody  in  Court,  and  even 
the  hitherto  impassible  jury — even  the  grave  Court  itself — showed 
evident  signs  that  the  genius  of  the  advocate  had  stirred  them 
to  the  depths  of  their  hearts." 

"And  so,  gentlemen,  I  have  reached,  I  believe,  the  conclusion  of  all  the 
facts  I  have  desired  to  discuss.  I  have  stated  nothing  about  the 
character  and  reputation  of  my  client.  It  was  splendid,  and  he  ought 
to  be  proud  of  it,  and  he  is  proud  of  it,  as  given  by  those  men  who 
have  known  him  for  years  past.  Men  whom  we  all  delight  to  honor  have 
come  here  and  given  him  such  a  reputation  as,  I  am  sure,  every  man  on 
this  jury  prays  that  his  son  may  in  the  future  have.  Spotless,  without 
stain  or  blemish ;  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  we  are  proud  of  it.  We  give  it  to 
you,  trusting  and  feeling  that  it  will  be  safe  in  your  hands,  and  that  you 
will  preserve  it  sacredly  until  this  trial  is  altogether  closed.  I  have  no 
consideration  of  mercy  to  appeal  to,  but  this  has  been  a  long  trial,  a  dreadful 
trial,  and  never,  since  it  has  been  my  pleasure  to  appear  in  a  court  of  justice, 
have  I  felt  so  weighed  down  in  my  heart  of  hearts  with  so  tremendous  a  respon 
sibility  as  that  which  rests  upon  me  to-day.  It  was  but  a  few  weeks  ago 
that  I  left  Chicago,  where  my  client  lives,  that  I  saw  his  family  grouped 
together,  the  children  grouped  in  prayer  around  the  mother's  knee.  I  saw 
the  patient,  calm  courage  of  the  poor  wife,  and  to-day,  it  seems  to  me,  that 
the  veil  of  distance  that  spreads  between  us  is  lifted,  and  I  see  her  again 
'in  prayer,  that  her  husband  may  return  a  vindicated  man.  I  see  the  chil 
dren  of  that  man,  as  they  gather  again  around  the  mother's  knee,  sending 
forth  the  same  sweet  prayer,  that  their  father  may  be  saved.  Let  us  take 
our  minds  back  over  the  long  journey  we  have  passed,  and  travel  with  the 
defendant  up  to  the  time  of  his  final  acquittal,  when  the  heart  of  the  wife 
shall  be  gladdened,  the  hearts  of  the  children  lifted  up,  when  by  a  verdict 
of  his  fellow-citizens  he  shall  go  back  to  his  home,  and  shall  walk  the 
streets  of  the  city  he  has  done  so  much  to  beautify,  a  thoroughly  vindicated 
man." 

Judge  Porter  occupied  the  whole  of  the  following  day  in  argu 
ment  on  behalf  of  the  defendant.  His  speech,  during  the  delivery 
of  which  he  had  to  make  frequent  and  continual  reference  to  his 
notes,  reads  much  better  than  it  sounded.  The  first  marked  sen 
sation  he  created  was  when  he  charged  the  counsel  for  the  prose 
cution,  .Colonels  Broadhead  and  Dyer,  with  having  pursued 
the  defendant  with  a  vindictiveness  dictated  by  hostility 
to  the  President,  of  whom  he  was  Private  Secretary.  The  motives 
he  attributed  to  these  gentlemen  for  this  course  were  that  the 
President's  depositions  stood  as  a  bar  in  the  way  of  their  obtaining 
another  professional  victory.  "The  speaker's  denunciatory  elo 
quence,"  said  the  same  paper,  "was  again  and  again  directed 


44$  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

against  the  whole  fraternity  of  the  press,  in  such  powerful  language 
that  every  newspaper  reporter  present  felt  almost  guilty  of  a  large 
degree  of  criminality,  although,  be  it  said,  it  is  only  through  the 
agency  of  these  very  men  that  Judge  Porter  can  speak  to  the 
forty  millions  of  American  citizens  to  whom  he  constantly  avowed 
he  was  speaking." 

He  characterized  the  prosecution  as  in  reality  a  covert  attack 
upon  the  President. 

"  In  view  of  the  relations  of  General  Babcock  to  President  Grant  the  prose 
cution  seemed  to  be  impressed  with  the  utter  improbability  of  the  truth  of 
such  an  accusation  without  the  privity  of  the  President.  Hence,  like  some 
of  the  more  violent  of  the  newspapers,  though  they  did  not  venture  to  assert, 
they  did  not  hesitate  to  insinuate  by  innuendo  that  the  President  himself 
was  privy  to  the  conspiracy.  These  covert  insinuations  should  be  brought 
out  from  their  hiding-places ;  let  us  meet  them  face  to  face.  President  Grant 
either  was  or  was  not  privy  to  the  St.  Louis  conspiracy.  If  he  was,  it  should 
be  proved.  Can  anything  be  more  absurdly  grotesque  than  such  an  impu 
tation?  The  President  of  the  United  States  conspiring  against  his  own 
administration.  Violating  his  official  oath  and  confederating  with  a  gang  of 
thieves  to -defeat  the  collection  of  the  public  revenue!  What  is  the  tempta 
tion? 

"Why,  they  would  have  us  believe  that  it  was  to  enable  the  distillers  and 
corrupt  officers  of  St.  Louis  to  steal  a  million  of  the  public  money.  Who 
for  ?  For  the  President  ?  No.  Half  of  it  for  themselves,  a  quarter  of  the 
residue  for  the  gangers  and  store-keepers,  and  one-fifth  of  the  remaining 
residue  to  Fitzroy,  to  Everest,  to  Macdonald  and  to  Joyce  ;  and  all  this  in 
the  hope,  the  faint  and  bare  hope,  that  these  bribed  officers  might  have 
grace  and  conscience  enough  once  in  three  years  to  send  #500  to  his  Private 
Secretary,  which  could  be  divided  between  President  Grant  and  his  Secre 
tary,  and  in  the  earnest  confidence  that  these  men  could  secure  to  him  that 
$250  and  not  tell  of  it.  They  would  have  you  believe,  if  insinuation  would 
do  it,  that  with  knowledge  of  his  own  and  General  Babcock' s  guilt,  he 
directed  the  prosecution  of  his  St.  Louis  confederates  in  crime,  with  the  per 
emptory  injunction  to  the  department  of  the  Government  charged  with  the 
prosecution,  to  let  no  guilty  man  escape ;  they  would  have  you  believe  that 
the  'President,  from  whom  Colonel  Dyer  received  the  appointment  he  has  so 
honorably  graced,  by  whose  direction  Colonel  Broadhead  stands  here  to-day 
as  the  representative  of  the  Government — that  General  Grant  was  himself 
privy  to  the  conspiracy  because  he  swears  to  facts  within  his  knowledge,  to 
protect  an  innocent  man  and  a  member  of  his  own  household  against  an 
infamous  accusation.  Who  is  it  that  is  thus  maligned?  What  are  his 
antecedents?  His  life  is  an  open  book.  The  name  of  General  Grant  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  criticism  and  of  much  calumny,  but  it  stands  even  to 
day  unstained  with  the  imputation  of  personal  dishonor.  He  has  made  his 
name  historic.  He  stands  now  in  the  judgment  of  Europe  the  foremost 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  449 

representative  of  American  character  ;  he  will  stand  in  all  aftertirae,  in  the 
judgment  of  mankind,  among  the  foremost  men  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
What  honest  man,  friend  or  enemy,  believes  or  dares  to  countenance  the 
impeachment  of  his  integrity  on  the  charge  of  personal  meanness,  baseness, 
crime  and  dishonor?  If  General  Lee  was  to-day  among  the  living,  who  more 
promptly  than  he  would  brand  the  infamous  calumny  with  burning  and  con 
temptuous  scorn?  What  private  in  the  Union  army — what  manly  and  chiv 
alrous  son  of  the  South,  who  fought  as  long  as  the  State  flag  fluttered — what 
one  of  them  all  but  would  resent  such  an  imputation,  in  the  one  case  upon 
an  honored  leader,  in  the  other  upon  an  honored  enemy  ?  We  are  a  free 
people ;  we  are  bold  and  fearless  partisans  ;  we  deal  hard  blows  in  fair  fight, 
but  there  is  a  manhood  in  the  American  people  which  abhors  mean  calumn 
ies  and  scorns  alike  the  coward  and  the  bravo  who  strike  below  the  belt. 
I  do  not  reproach  the  government  counsel  with  intentional  wrong,  but  I 
submit  to  them  whether  it  is  a  professional  device  which,  even  in  their  zeal 
to  blast  the  good  name  of  this  defendant,  is  worthy  of  their  position  and 
reputation.  They  were  driven  to  this  expedient  by  the  necessities  of  a  scut 
tled  and  sinking  prosecution.  Gentlemen,  if  General  Grant  were  not  a  party 
to  this  conspiracy,  if  he  were  not  privy  to  its  existence,  you  see,  as  the  pro 
secution  see,  how  utterly  improbable  it  is  that  General  Babcock  was  one  of 
their  confederates.  No  one  will  charge  him  with  infidelity  to  his  Chief. 
What  would  be  the  measure  of  General  Babcock's  infamy  if,  in  his  relations 
to  the  President,  he  had  been  capable  of  betraying  his  trust?  What  would 
have  been  the  depth  of  his  degradation  if,  after  being  educated  at  the  expense 
of  his  country  at  WTest  Point,  after  being  honored  in  peace  and  in  war  in 
the  public  service,  and  still  holding  his  commission  in  the  Army,  he  had 
been  capable  of  selling  the  Government  to  thieves  and  dividing  with  them 
the  price  of  his  own  degradation  in  crime  ?  Gentlemen,  in  the  light  of  the 
evidence,  the  Prosecuting  Attorney  can  not  believe  it.  No  honest  man,  after 
reading  this  testimony,  can  believe  it." 

In  referring  to  the  value  of  character  in  relation  to  evidence  of 
guilt,  Judge  Porter  rose  to  real  grandeur  of  eloquence.  He 
demanded,  in  the  most  impressive  manner,  to  know  whether  a 
life-time  spent  without  reproach,  and  in  the  most  honorable  ser 
vice  of  the  country,  was  not  to  be  considered  as  worth  something 
in  itself  as  a  rebuttal  of  the  evidence  of  convicted  or  confessed 
thieves,  and  appealed  to  the  common  experience  of  mankind  to 
decide  what  would  be  the  possible  value  of  a  career  of  integrity 
to  any  man,  if  his  honor  could  be  blasted  and  his  name  polluted 
by  the  interested  testimony  of  known  perjurers  and  conspirators. 
This  was,  probably,  the  most  effective  part  of  the  whole  argu 
ment,  and  was  listened  to  with  the  closest  attention  by  the  jury. 

"An  adverse  verdict,  I  confess,  might  for  the  moment  gratify  the  per 
sonal  enemies  of  the  President,  but  these  hostilities  are  but  temporary. 
29 


45O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Such  a  verdict,  after  the  excitement  of  the  hour  has  passed  away,  would 
be  condemned  by  your  own  sense  of  justice,  and  by  the  enlightened  judg 
ment  of  mankind.  It  would  gratify  no  personal  enemy  of  General  Babcock, 
for  he  has  not  one  this  day  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  not  even  my  friend, 
the  Prosecuting  Attorney.  It  is  upon  others  entirely,  and  not  upon  him, 
that  the  blow  is  given.  A  gallant  and  manly  soldier  during  the  war ; 
a  Northern  man,  he  was  true  to  his  State,  and  fought  for  the  Northern 
cause.  When  the  war  closed  he  was,  as  he  has  been  from  that  hour  to 
this,  one  of  those  whose  constant  voice,  whose  utmost  influence,  have 
been  against  bitterness  and  strife,  and  in  favor  of  conciliation,  union  and 
harmony.  Among  the  warmest  friends  to-day  who  rally  around  him  are 
gallant  and  distinguished  soldiers  in  the  Southern  army,  from  whom,  during 
this  trial,  we  receive  assurances  of  their  unswerving  confidence  in  his  integ 
rity  and  their  earnest  and  hearty  sympathy.  What  they  assure  us  we  believe, 
and  that  is  that  a  Missouri  jury  will  never  permit  an  innocent  man  to  be 
wronged.  You  would  not  do  it  if  he  were  your  enemy  ;  much  less  would  you  do 
it  to  one  whose  character  is  unstained  by  dishonor,  and  who  never  consciously 
betrayed  an  earthly  trust  or  wronged  a  human  being.  You  see  by  the 
deposition  of  the  President  why  he,  who  knows  him  better  than  any  living 
man,  has  the  most  clear  and  absolute  conviction  of  his  innocence.  In  the 
darkest'  days  and  nights  of  the  civil  war  they  slept  in  the  same  tent,  shared 
together  the  same  rations  with  the  private  in  the  ranks,  rode  side  by  side 
by  night  and  by  day,  on  the  line  of  the  rifle-pits  and  in  the  presence  of  death  ; 
rode  side  by  side  in  the  hour  of  battle,  in  front  of  the  cannonade.  When, 
after  the  elevation  of  General  Grant  to  the  Presidency,  and  of  all  the  men 
he  knew  and  trusted  among  these  40,000,000  of  Americans,  he — no  blind 
judge  of  men,  not  inexperienced  in  affairs — selected  that  young  man  as 
his  faithful,  trusted  and  confidential  Secretary,  and  to  this  hour  holds 
him  to  his  heart  as  a  man  he  has  proved  in  peace  and  in  peril,  under 
all  circumstances,  and  in  whose  innocence  he  declares,  in  the  presence 
of  this  tribunal,  in  the  presence  of  the  jury,  and  in  the  presence  of 
that  God  where  there  is  no  distinction  between  the  humblest  persons  of 
mankind." 

The  scope  of  the  argument,  however,  was  mainly  a  general 
review  of  that  which  his  predecessor,  Mr.  Storrs,  had  analyzed  in 
detail.  The  object  of  the  speaker  was,  evidently,  to  give  a 
rounded  picture  of  the  whole  course  of  the  trial  and  the  evidence 
and  arguments.  He  sought  to  show  up  the  motives  of  the  pros 
ecution,  and  to  convince  his  hearers,  mainly  by  reference  to  the 
general  principles  that  govern  human  action,  rather  than  by  care 
ful  analysis  of  the  several  points  as  they  have  successively 
appeared  in  the  case. 

His  characterization  of  Joyce  as  "the  Mephistopheles  of  the 
gang,"  was  a  scathing  word-picture,  well  worth  recalling  were 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  45  I 

there  room  for  it  in  this  mere  outline  of  the  case.  He  showed 
how  Joyce  had  abused  General  Babcock's  confidence  and  mis 
used  his  name  all  along,  and  made  a  strong  point  against  the 
Government  by  reminding  the  jury  that,  although  they  had  proved 
that  information  from  Washington  came  to  the  ring  through 
Avery,  they  had  never  attempted  to  show  the  slightest  collusion 
between  Babcock  and  Avery.  The  word  "  Sylph,"  he  said,  had 
been  ignorantly  applied  by  Joyce  to  a  woman  weighing  three 
hundred  pounds,  and  Babcock,  who  had  been  amused  by  the  blun 
der,  in  mere  badinage  had  adopted  it  as  the  signature  to  one  of 
his  telegrams  to  Joyce.  And  that  was  all  the  significance  there 
was  to  the  mysterious  word  which  had  puzzled  prosecution  and 
press  so  long.  He  closed  with  an  earnest  appeal  to  the  jury  to 
do  justice  to  the  defendant. 

"Gentlemen,  it  is  a  grave  matter  to  this  defendant  that  he  has  been  com 
pelled  to  stand  here  to  be  gazed  at  as  an  accused  criminal.  You  know 
how  you  would  feel  if,  among  strangers,  you  were  subject  to  such  an  ordeal 
for  two  long  weeks,  day  after  day,  as  the  alleged  confederate  of  conspira 
tors  and  thieves.  But,  gentlemen,  we  feel  that,  notwithstanding  all  the  great 
burdens  of  his  accusation,  notwithstanding  the  enormous  expense  which  it 
entails  upon  us,  notwithstanding  that  we  claim  to  have  been  unjustly 
accused,  when  the  defendant  leaves  this  Court  we  shall  be  happy  to  find 
that  though  he  leaves  it  poor  in  worldly  goods,  he  leaves  it  rich  in  the 
consciousness  of  his  rectitude  and  in  the  indorsement  which  you  will  give  him 
in  vindication  of  his  honor  and  his  innocence.  It  may  still  happen,  gentle 
men,  that,  until  the  grand  Assize  at  which  we  shall  all  be  arraigned  as 
defendants,  you  will  never  look  upon  the  pallid,  anxious  face  of  the  noble 
and  devoted  wife,  who,  with  trembling  heart,  is  looking  to  you  for  the 
deliverance  of  her  wronged  husband.  It  may  happen  that  the  little  circle 
of  children  who  look  to  you  for  the  return  of  their  father  untouched  by  the 
flame,  may  never  have  an  opportunity  of  expressing  to  you  their  gratitude ;  but 
you  know,  strangers  as  they  are  to  you,  your  names  will  be  written  indel 
ibly  on  their  young  hearts,  and  I  may  venture  to  say  that,  when  you  return 
to  your  own  homes,  where  bright  eyes  and  beaming  smiles  await  you,  the 
thought  that  you  have  vindicated  an  innocent  man  will  rejoice  those  young 
hearts,  who  will  feel  that  their  father  was  instrumental  in  protecting  a 
stranger  from  wrong  and  in  sending  joy  into  his  household  when  you  were 
asked  to  drown  it  with  ignominy  and  shame.  Your  verdict  of  vindication 
will  secure  our  common  country  from  an  enduring  imputation  of  base 
dishonor.  Your  verdict  is  waited  for  by  every  citizen  of  the  American 
Union,  and  by  every  country  in  Europe,  as  that  of  an  American  jury  on 
the  honor  of  the  American  people." 

General  Dyer  occupied  an  entire  day  in  his  closing  argument  for 


452  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  prosecution,  and  on  Thursday,  the  24th  of  February,  Judge 
Dillon  delivered  a  carefully  prepared  charge  to  the  jury.  The 
reading  of  the  charge  was  listened  to  with  eager  attention  by  all 
present, — counsel,  auditors,  and  jury; — and  was  made  particularly 
impressive  by  the  grave,  clear  elocution  of  the  Judge,  whose 
emphasis  added  to  the  force  of  the  words  themselves,  and  stamped 
their  meaning  most  vividly  on  the  minds  of  all.  The  evidence, 
both  documentary  and  oral,  was  marshalled  in  logical  sequence, 
and  a  complete  history  given  of  all  the  acts  of  the  defendant  and  the 
conspirators  as  shown  in  evidence,  which  bore  any  relation  to  the 
case.  "Assuming,"  he  said,  "that  you  will  find  the  existence  of 
the  conspiracy  between  Joyce  and  the  distillers  and  others,  your 
inquiry  will  be  narrowed  down  to  a  single  ultimate  question  of 
fact,  namely,  was  the  defendant  one  of  the  conspirators, — a  fellow 
conspirator  with  Joyce  and  the  distillers  named  in  the  indictment? 
The  Government  affirms  it,  and  must  prove  it  by  legal  and 
satisfactory  evidence,  in  order  to  ask  a  verdict  in  its  favor.  No 
witness  has  been  introduced  who  has  testified  that  the  defendant 
was  ever  informed  or  knew  of  the  conspiracy,  or  that  he  ever 
admitted  his  knowledge  of  it,  or  his  participation  in  it.  No  writ 
ing  signed  by  the  defendant  has  been  produced  which  in  direct 
or  express  terms  shows  such  guilty  knowledge  and  participation 
on  his  part.  But  the  law  does  not  require  direct  proof  of  these 
facts,  but  they  may  be  proved  by  facts  and  circumstances  which 
show  them  beyond  a  reasonable  doubt.''  The  charge  was  through 
out  clear,  judicial,  and  impartial,  but  the  general  impression  it 
left  upon  all  who  heard  it  was  strongly  in  favor  of  the  defendant. 


IIL 

THE  VERDICT. 

THE  JURY  FIND  THE  DEFENDANT  NOT  GUILTY— AN  OVATION  TO  GENERAL 
BABCOCK  AND  MR.  STORRS — THE  GENERAL  SERENADED — SPEECH  OF  MR. 
STORRS — SENATOR  HOWE'S  OPINION  OF  THE  CASE. 

AT  the  close  of  the  charge,  the  Court  took  a  recess  until 
three  o'clock,  and  in  half  an  hour  from  that  time  the 
jury  were  ready  with  their  verdict.  Throughout  the  trial,  Gen 
eral  Babcock  had  borne  himself  like  a  gallant  gentleman,  con 
scious  of  his  own  innocence,  and  waiting  with  patience  for  the 
law  and  the  evidence  to  establish  it  beyond  a  doubt.  The  scene 
that  followed  upon  the  announcement  of  the  verdict  is  thus 
described  by  the  Globe-Democrat: — "The  Court  then  asked  the 
usual  question,  as  to  whether  they  had  determined  on  a  verdict, 
and  was  responded  to  by  a  silent  bow  from  the  entire  jury, 
as  the  foreman  "handed  up  the  all-important  document.  At  this 
point  the  sensation  of  suspense  was  simply  painful,  and  men's 
faces  shone  ghastly  white  all  over  the  court-room.  This  feeling 
was  intensified  by  a  slight  hesitation  the  Clerk  made  in  the 
reading.  He  read:  'We,  the  jury,  find  the  defendant — not 
guilty.' 

"No  sooner  were  these  last  words  uttered  than  a  scene  of 
confusion  that  baffles  description  ensued.  General  Babcock's 
hands  were  seized  and  shaken  by  everybody  who  could  get  within 
reach  of  him,  Judge  Porter  being  the  first  in  his  congratulations. 
The  crowd  in  the  rear  burst  out  into  a  hearty  shout  of  applause, 
hand-clapping  and  all  other  forms  of  enthusiastic  expression  of 
joy  were  heard,  and  for  a  moment  the  scene  rather  resembled 
the  pit  of  a  theater  than  a  grave  and  decorous  court  of  justice. 
The  Judges  very  wisely  overlooked  this  very  natural  ebullition, 
and  in  a  few  moments  the  crowd  recovered  its  self-possession. 

453 


454  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Judge  Chester  H.  Krum  then  rose  and  asked  that  the  defendant 
be  discharged,  and,  on  that  order  being  made,  and  after  the 
order  for  the  discharge  of  the  jury,  General  Babcock  and  Judge 
Porter  stepped  forward  and  shook  hands  with  each  juryman  as 
they  filed  out,  thanking  each  personally  for  the  steady  attention 
they  had  given  to  the  case,  and  the  manly  manner  in  which 
each  had  done  his  duty.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  tell  which  of 
these  two  gentlemen  showed  the  greater  emotion  under  the  cir 
cumstances.  The  eyes  of  both  were  wet  with  tears  of  joy,  and 
the  voices  of  both  trembled  as  they  endeavored  to  utter  their 
gratitude.  Mr.  Storrs  stepped  across  the  court-room  to  'shake  his 
client  by  the  hand,  looking  calm  and  passionless,  but  out  of  his 
eyes  there  shone  a  light  of  triumph  as  of  a  victor  surveying  the 
field  where  he  has  but  just  conquered  in  a  great  fight." 

It  was  learned  that  a  unanimous  vote  for  acquittal  was  the 
result  of  the  first  informal  ballot, in  the  jury-room,  and  was  con 
firmed  by  the  formal  ballot  which  was  next  taken.  The  news 
of  the  verdict  reached  the  street  and  sped  over  the  business  part 
of  the  city  with  the  rapidity  of  lightning.  An  immense  multitude 
of  congratulating  citizens  escorted  General  Babcock  and  his 
counsel  to  their  hotel.  Telegrams  flo\ved  in  from  Washington 
and  other  cities  expressing  the  joy  of  sympathizing  friends  over 
his  deliverance.  Leading  citizens  of  St.  Louis  called  at  the 
Lindell  House  to  shake  hands  with  the  man  whom  a  few'  weeks 
before  they  were  all  anxious  to  send  to  the  penitentiary.  A 
deputation  of  colored  citizens  called  to  express  their  thankfulness 
at  the  result;  and  in  the  evening  he  was  serenaded,  a  large  con 
course  of  Missourians,  in  open  carriages,  assembling  in  front  of 
the  hotel  to  demonstrate  their  rejoicing.  Colonel  Hatch,  a  Con 
federate  soldier,  made  a  cordial  speech,  in  the  course  of  which 
he  said: 

"The  General  and  I  have  differed  in  the  past — we  differed  fundamentally 
— but  we  submitted  the  decision  to  the  tribunal  of  war.  The  god  of  battles 
was  the  judge,  and  the  course  which  General  Babcock  took  in  that  war, 
and  no  less  as  a  soldier  and  a  citizen  since,  toward  the  people  of  the  South 
has  been  such  that  we  could  all  admire.  [Applause.]  I  appear  here 
to-night,  in  your  behalf,  to  extend  my  congratulations  to  him.  During  that 
war,  under  the  aegis  of  the  white  flag  of  peace,  he  endeavored  to  stop  the 
mighty  effusion  of  blood.  And  he  knew  that  no  people  on  the  face  of  the 
earth  would  give  him  a  more  cordial  welcome  than  the  people  of  Missouri. 
Let  me  say  to  you  and  your  friends  that  no  greater  mistake  was  ever  made 


THE    TRIAL    OF    GENERAL    BABCOCK.  455 

than  when  the  public  press  uttered  the  sentiment  that  there  was  a  rebel 
feeling  in  the  State  of  Missouri  that  would  strike  down  General  Babcock  in 
the  hour  of  his  peril  before  this  tribunal.  Let  me  say  to  you  that  no  Con 
federate  ever  struck  down  a  man  in  trouble,  manacled  or  a  prisoner. 
[Applause.]  We  struck  them  breast  to  breast,  face  to  face,  but  we  never 
yet  struck  a  fallen  foe  or  a  fallen  friend.  [Applause.]  But  let  the  public 
sentiment  be  what  it  may,  there  is  one  thing  certain.  Let  the  wild  wave  of 
public  ^sentiment  in  this  intense  excitement  say  what  it  may,  your  minds 
always  bow  to  the  tribunal  of  public  justice,  and  neither  the  howlings  of 
public  prejudice  nor  the  shafts  of  personal  malice  can  ever  leave  a  stain 
upon  the  high  character  of  the  Missouri  Court  before  which  you  were 
tried.  The  wave  of  public  sentiment  may  battle  against  that  in  voice, 
but  the  Court  will  stand  the  test,  whatever  it  be. 

And  now,  General  Babcock  [looking  toward  the  General],  these  friends 
have  come,  not  to  flatter  you,  not  to  say  flattering  words  upon  this 
occasion,  but  to  give  you  the  cordial  hand  of  friendship,  and  give  you 
their  hearty  and  sincere  congratulations  for  your  acquittal  before  a 
Missouri  jury." 

The  band  played  "  Dixie,"  and  then  General  Babcock,  his 
voice  broken  by  emotion,  acknowledged  the  honors  paid  him, 
but  delegated  to  Mr.  Storrs  the  task  of  making  a  fitting  reply. 

Mr.  Storrs  said  he  had  never  entertained  the  slightest  doubt 
that  the  defendant  would  receive  from  a  Missouri  jury,  in  this, 
the  great  metropolis  of  the  Southwest,  anything  but  a  fair  and 
impartial  trial.  [Cries  of  "good,"  and  applause.]  And  the  gen 
tlemen  of  the  press,  who  surrounded  him,  would  do  him  the 
justice  to  say  that  from  the  first  moment  of  his  arrival  here,  he 
never  for  a  moment  entertained  any  apprehension  that  from  this 
great,  broad,  noble  hearted  people,  he  would  receive  anything  but  an 
ample  vindication,  anything  but  a  triumphant  acquittal.  [Applause.] 
The  result  had  justified  their  anticipations,  and  they  felt  now 
nothing  but  a  sense  of  prayerful  thankfulness  at  the  verdict  which 
had  been  rendered  to-day.  They  had  had  demonstrated  to  them 
the  sense  of  eternal  justice  as  limited  to  no  party  and  to  no  class 
of  men — that  we  are  all  one  people  and  one  nationality. 
[Applause.] 

Judge  Krum  added  a  few  words,  and  so  ended  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  scenes,  appropriately  closing  one  of  the  most 
notable  trials,  that  have  ever  been  held  in  the  history  of  the 
United  States. 

Two  years  after  these  events,  after  General  Grant  had  returned 
to  private  life,  and  the  ambitions  which  had  prompted  this  pros- 


456  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

ecution  of  his  Private  Secretary  were  dead  and  buried  beyond 
hope  of  resurrection,  a  pamphleteer  of  the  Democratic  party, 
George  W.  Julian  of  Indiana,  wrote  an  article  in  the  March 
number  of  the  North  American  Review  for  1878,  attacking 
Grant's  administration,  and  particularly  singling  out  General  Bab- 
cock  as  an  example  of  official  corruption.  To  this  article  Mr. 
Storrs  had  intended  to  write  a  reply,  and  in  a  letter  to  a  New 
York  friend  on  the  subject  he  said, — "All  that  portion  of  the 
article  which  relates  to  the  Babcock  case  I  know  to  be  false,  and 
presume  the  balance  is."  It  does  not  appear  that  Mr.  Storrs 
ever  carried  out  his  intention,  which  perhaps  was  owing  to  the 
fact  that  in  the  June  number  of  the  same  magazine  Senator 
Howe  of  Wisconsin  took  up  Julian's  points  and  effectually 
demolished  them.  In  this  article  Mr.  Howe  said: 

"  In  the  annals  of  criminal  jurisprudence,  there  is  perhaps  not 
another  case  where  an  individual  was  subjected  to  so  terrible  an 
ordeal  as  was  Orville  E.  Babcocls  at  St.  Louis.  There  is  no 
probability  that  he  would  ever  have  been  accused  of  crime  if  he 
had*  not  held  confidential  relations  with  President  Grant.  But 
the  brutal  appetite  for  smirching  the  President  could  not 
be  resisted.  The  lure  was  too  dazzling.  He  was  accused. 
He  was  dragged  to  a  distant  and  a  strange  city  for  trial. 
That  there  might  be  no  possible  lack  of  zeal  in  the  prose 
cution,  special  counsel  was  employed  for  the  purpose.  The 
counsel  selected  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  his  profession.  He 
stood  high  in  the  confidence  and  regard  of  the  Democratic  party. 
He  was  inspired  by  the  assurance  of  large  fees,  and  by  the  sug 
gestion  of  the  highest  political  honors.  Never  did  an  advocate 
appear  at  the  bar  under  so  many  spurs  to  effort.  We  do  not 
need  to  suggest  that  all  these  incentives  impelled  General  Broad- 
head  to  go  beyond  his  duty.  We  do  mean  to  say  that  they  were 
ample  securities,  if  any  were  needed,  against  his  falling  short  of 
his  duty. 

"  One  great  party,  and  part  of  the  other,  clamored  for  convic 
tion  until  candid  men  sickened  at  the  spectacle.  It  was  not  to 
punish  Babcock,  it  was  to  disgrace  Grant.  After  all,  Babcock  was 
acquitted ;  and  after  all,  Julian  reiterates  the  charge  of  his  guilt, 
and  ascribes  his  acquittal  to  Grant's  friendship, — the  very  circum 
stance  which  provoked  his  prosecution." 


CHAPTER  XXIIL 


THE  CHICAGO  WHISKY  RING. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  CHICAGO  SEIZURES— THE  "FIRST  BATCH"  INFORM  ON  THE 
"SECOND  BATCH,"  AND  ARE  GRANTED  ABSOLUTE  IMMUNITY — JACOB  REHM, 
THE  ORGANIZER  OF  THE  CHICAGO  RING,  BECOMES  THE  LEADING  INFORMER 
—INDICTMENT  OF  THE  DISTRICT  ATTORNEY,  AND  OTHER  GOVERNMENT 
OFFICIALS,  ON  HIS  INFORMATION — PUBLIC  ASTONISHMENT — DISCREDITABLE 
COURSE  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  ATTORNEYS — TRIAL  OF  RUSH  AND  PAHLMAN — 
MR.  STORRS'  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  DEFENSE — CRUSHING  DENUNCIATION  OF 
THE  GOVERNMENT  WITNESSES— THE  GOVERNMENT  COUNSEL  ALSO  COME  IN 
FOR  A  FLAYING — ALTERCATION  BETWEEN  MR.  STORRS  AND  THE  COURT — 
CHICAGO  "SEWER  POLITICIANS" — TRIAL  OF  SUPERVISOR  MUNN — THE 
JURY  REFUSE  TO  BELIEVE  REHM,  AND  MUNN  IS  ACQUITTED— DISMISSAL  OF 
THE  OTHER  INDICTMENTS — LETTER  OF  MR.  STORRS  TO  PRESIDENT  GRANT 
— COMMENTS  OF  THE  LOCAL  PRESS — EFFORTS  TO  IMPLICATE  SENATOR 
LOGAN,  CONGRESSMAN  FARWELL,  AND  THE  CHICAGO  POSTMASTER — MR. 
STORRS  APPOINTED  SPECIAL  DISTRICT  ATTORNEY— BRINGS  SUIT  AGAINST 
REHM  FOR  CIVIL  PENALTIES — THE  SUIT  DISMISSED — JUDGE  DRUMMOND's 
OPINION. 

PROSECUTIONS  similar  to  those  at  St.  Louis  were  com 
menced  in  Chicago,  but  although  there  existed  a  ring  in 
that  city  whose  peculations  had  been  quite  as  enormous  as  those 
of  the  St.  Louis  ring,  the  result  of  the  Chicago  prosecutions  was 
not  creditable  to  the  government  officers  who  had  them  in 
charge.  The  first  seizures  in  Chicago  were  made  in  May  1875, 
and  grew  out  of  investigations  conducted  by  Messrs.  Tutton, 
Brooks,  and  Elmer  Washburn.  The  Honorable  Jasper  D.  Ward 
was  at  that  time  United  States  District  Attorney,  and  under  his 
administration  indictments  were  found  against  twenty-three  dis 
tillers  and  rectifiers,  fifteen  gaugers,  and  six  storekeepers,  while 
two  gaugers  and  two  storekeepers,  who  were  afterwards  used  by 
the  government  as  witnesses,  and  testified  to  their  own  frauds 

457 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

and  perjuries  while  implicating  others,  never  were  indicted  at  all. 

There  never  seems  to  have  been  an  honest  purpose  to  convict 
these  men.  Several  of  them  were  invited  back  from  Canada, 
whither  they  had  fled,  and  promised  immunity  if  they  would 
testify  against  others  who  had  been  guilty  of  the  like  fraudulent 
practices.  These  constituted  the  "first  batch." 

To  these  men  the  prosecuting  officers  of  the  government  offered 
absolute  immunity  provided  they  would  testify  (or  "  squeal,"  as 
the  newspapers  called  it)  against  ten  other  distillers,  whose  offences 
were  so  slight  and  trifling  as  to  become  insignificant  in  compari 
son  with  the  frauds  of  which  the  "first  batch,"  had  been  guilty. 
The  evidence  against  the  "first  batch,"  as  shown  by  the  revenue 
officers  who  made  the  seizures,  was  complete,  and  absolutely 
sufficient  to  have  procured  their  conviction.  But  the  government 
saw  fit  to  permit  these  men  to  go  virtually  unpunished,  and  to 
visit  the  penalties  of  the  law  exclusively  upon  the  "second  batch," 
for  reasons  which  have  never  been  satisfactorily  explained. 

The  organizer  of  the  Chicago  whisky  ring  was  Jacob  Rehm, 
who  had  been  for  the  preceding  fifteen  years  most  potential  in 
the  local  politics  of  the  city  and  county.  In  order  to  secure 
evidence  against  Rehm,  which  it  was  supposed  the  fifty-odd  men 
comprising  the  "first  batch"  could  give,  they  were  all  very 
liberally  excused  on  condition  of  their  giving  the  necessary  testi 
mony.  Such  wholesale  traffic  in  immunity  was  never  known  in 
the  history  of  the  criminal  jurisprudence  of  this  or  any  other 
country.  The  precedent  having  been  set,  Rehm  at  once  followed 
it,  and  in  order  to  secure  his  own  exemption  from  punishment 
he  implicated  Mr.  Ward,  the  District  Attorney;  Mr.  Wadsworth, 
the  Collector;  and  Mr.  Munn,  the  Supervisor  of  Internal  Revenue. 
Such  a  bold  bid  for  safety  surely  never  was  made  and  accepted 
before.  Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Rehm  was  the  founder  and 
organizer  of  the  conspiracy,  and  had  received  from  it  nearly  half 
a  million  dollars, — notwithstanding  that  he  had  made  the  legiti 
mate  distillation  of  spirits  in  the  city  of  Chicago  a  practical 
impossibility, — Mr.  Dexter,  one  of  the  special  counsel  engaged  by 
the  Government  to  assist  in  the  prosecution,  stated  in  Court  that 
he  was  authorized  by  Secretary  Bristow  to  accept  Rehm's  testi 
mony,  even  at  the  cost  of  absolute  immunity,  if  it  could  not 
otherwise  be  obtained. 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  459 

The  whole  public  of  Chicago  were  astonished  when  Jacob 
Rehm,  the  organizer  of  this  scheme  of  fraud  against  the  govern 
ment  in  Chicago,  joined  hands  with  the  government,  and  seemed 
at  least  to  be  acting  in  co-operation  with  it,  and  under  its  pro 
tection.  On  the  testimony  of  Rehm,  indictments  were  found 
against  Munn,  Ward,  and  Wadsworth.  Mr.  Ward  was  removed  from 
his  office,  and  succeeded  by  Judge  Bangs.  The  charge  made  against 
Mr.  Ward  that  he  had  an  interest  in  one  of  the  distilleries,  when 
investigated,  was  shown  to  be  false.  But  it  served  as  a  pretext 
for  his  indictment  and  removal,  it  being  clear  that  he  could  not 
be  used  for  the  purpose  of  indicting  prominent  and  respectable 
men  without  evidence,  and  relying  upon  the  testimony  of  charac 
terless  vagabonds,  thereafter  to  be  procured,  to  convict  them.  Mr. 
WTadsworth  also  stood  in  the  way;  and  although  Tutton  had 
spoken  most  flatteringly  of  him  to  the  Department,  he  was 
removed. 

The  "second  batch,"  very  naturally,  sought  to  follow  the  exam 
ple  of  the  first,  and  make  terms  with  the  government.  They 
sent  a  deputation  to  District  Attorney  Bangs,  and  a  consultation 
was  held  at  his  office  with  him  and  the  other  government  coun 
sel,  at  which  it  was  agreed  by  all  except  the  firm  of  Rush  and 
Pahlman  that  they  should  plead  guilty  to  two  counts  in  the  indict 
ments,  and  withdraw  their  opposition  to  the  condemnation  of 
their  property.  The  prosecuting  attorneys,  on  their  part,  prom 
ised  that  all  the  members  of  the  "second  batch"  should  be  treated 
alike,  and  that  the  judge  would  probably  pass  a  nominal  sen 
tence.  The  main  object  was  to  avoid  a  trial,  and  therefore  after 
much  negotiation  these  pleas  were  accepted.  The  arrangement 
was  carried  out  to  the  letter  by  the  distillers,  but  not  by  the 
government  attorneys,  who  on  sentence  day  made  speeches  in 
favor  of  severe  sentence,  and  also,  as  shown  by  the  affidavits  of 
the  distillers  of  the  "second  batch,"  sent  a  man  to  the  distilleries 
to  bid  up  the  property  to  a  point  that  suited  them  before  any 
body  else  was  allowed  to  bid.  Instead  of  being  all  treated  alike, 
some  of  them  received  exceptionally  severe  sentences, — those 
singled  out  for  special  punishment  being  men  like  Mr.  A.  C. 
Hesing,  who  had  discredited  the  testimony  of  Rehm,  the  principal 
government  witness  in  one  only  of  the  two  trials  which  were  all 
that  were  ever  had  as  the  result  of  over  sixty  indictments. 


460  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

Rush  and  Pahlman  having  refused  to  plead  guilty  and  turn 
State's  evidence,  they  were  placed  upon  trial,  and  the  whole 
strength  of  the  first  band  seized  in  Chicago  was  brought  against 
them.  Mr.  Storrs  had  just  returned  from  St.  Louis,  where  he 
had  been  defending  General  Babcock,  and  he  was  at  once 
retained  to  defend  them. 

In  a  letter  addressed  to  President  Grant  Mr.  Storrs  reviewed 
this  case,  and  it  is  best  described  in  his  own  words: 

"  It  was  really  a  case  where  Rush  and  Pahlman  were  compelled  to 
expose  the  frauds  practised  upon  the  revenue,  and  the  government 
officials  were  compelled  to  defend  the  integrity  of  those  who  had  been 
most  largely  engaged  in  the  perpetration  of 'such  frauds.  Yet  it  was  with 
the  greatest  difficulty  that  a  conviction  could  be  secured  even  in  this 
case,  although  there  were  about  seventeen  witnesses  against  the  defend 
ants,  the  jury  absolutely  refusing  to  credit  the  uncorroborated  testimony 
of  these  accomplices,  and  reaching  their  conclusion  simply  upon  the  test 
imony  of  two  witnesses  who  had  not  turned  States'  evidence,  and  who 
were  not  active  participants  in  the  frauds  concerning  which  they  testified."' 

The  case  was  tried  in  March,  1876,  and  on  the  day  when  Mr. 
Storrs  made  his  closing  argument  for  the  defence,  there  was  an 
unusually  large  crowd  assembled  in  the  court-room.  A  Chicago 
paper  thus  describes  the  scene  : 

"It  had  been  anticipated  that  when  Mr.  Storrs  should  begin  his  speech 
a  regular  field-day  would  be  inaugurated,  and  that  gentleman's  forensic 
ability  and  the  knowledge  that  he  had  a  good  deal  to  say,  and  that 
he  would  say  it  all,  was  reason  enough  for  the  jam.  On  the  bench  with 
Judge  Blodgctt  were  the  Rev.  Dr.  Tiffany  and  the  Hon.  Alonzo  Hunting- 
ton,  and  in  front  of  them  were  many  members  of  the  bar.  Judge  Bangs 
occupied  the  seat  which  he  has  so  seldom  left  during  the  past  six  days' 
sessions,  and  in  front  of  him  was  a  big  bundle  of  papers  and  books.  Mr. 
Ayers,  the  only  other  member  of  the  governmental  squad  present,  sat  at  the 
Judge's  left,  with  his  overcoat  thrown  across  his  shoulders  and  pulled  up 
about  his  neck.  Mr.  Pahlman  sat  among  the  ranks  of  his  prosecutors,  and 
near  him  Mrs.  Pahlman  was  seated,  soberly  habited  in  a  blue  and  black 
striped  mattellaise  walking  dress.  Dr.  Rush  occupied  his  old  position.  The 
general  character  of  the  assemblage  of  mere  listeners  was  very  good,  but 
there  were  some  of  the  'squealers'  present. 

"Mr.  Storrs  was  busy  at  a  table  preparing  the  books  and  documents  he 
Mas  to  use  during  the  argument,  and  was  ready  for  his  share  of  the  work 
when  the  court  told  him  to  proceed.  He  began  in  a  very  low  voice,  but 
gradually  warmed  to  his  work.  The  little  rencontre  between  the  speaker 
and  the  court,  in  the  first  part  of  the  argument,  had  the  effect  to  start  all 
of  the  counsel's  energies  and  faculties  into  vigorous  action.  Every  now  and 
then  he  would  spear  the  government  counsel  so  severely  that  they  would 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  461 

call  upon  the  court  for  protection,  but  every  time  they  did  so  they  were 
met  half-way  by  the  speaker. 

"The  'noble  band  of  squealers'  must  have  felt  rather  uncomfortable, 
and  the  witnesses  who  had  been  used  by  the  prosecution,  and  who  were 
present,  must  have  been  obliged  to  exert  all  their  self-control  to  prevent 
them  fleeing  the  room.  Mr.  Storrs  stood  close  to  the  rail  in  front  of 
the  jury-box,  and  as  he  proceeded  with  the  argument  his  voice  rang  out 
clear  and  loud,  so  that  the  unfortunate  and  late  comers  who  were  obliged 
to  remain  in  the  outside  hall  could  hear  every  word  he  uttered.  In  his 
denunciation  of  the  squealers  and  the  witnesses  who,  as  he  said,  had 
lied  for  the  government,  he  was  bitter  and  caustic.  His  sarcasm  and 
invective  were  sharp  and  keen  as  a  razor's  edge,  cutting  clear  to  the 
bone  and  leaving  no  ragged  edge,  and  the  well-rounded  periods  marked 
and  emphasized  with  his  extended  index  finger,  which  seemed  to  carry 
the  point  of  the  argument  with  it." 

At  the  outset,  he  referred  to  the  course  pursued  by  the  Gov 
ernment  in  trading  with  witnesses,  as  follows: 

"  Has  there  been,  with  two  single  exceptions,  a  single  witness  brought 
upon  the  stand  on  behalf  of  the  government  who  has  not  been,  by  his 
own  confession,  not  only  a  plunderer  of  the  public  funds  and  a  conniver 
at  the  plundering,  but  a  perjurer  as  well?  I  stated  to  you,  gentlemen 
of  the  jury,  in  the  opening  that  these  men  were,  one  and  all,  perjurers, 
not  because  I  called  them  perjurers,  but  because  before  the  case  had 
finished  they  would  be  compelled  to  proclaim  themselves  as  perjurers. 
Was  my  opinion,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  true  or  false?  You  have  heard 
the  testimony.  I  told  you  that  the  case  was  most  remarkable,  and  would 
be  in  that  respect  unique. 

"  I  challenge  all  your  past  experiences  and  all  your  former  reading  as 
a  verification  of  that  statement.  Have  you  ever  before  been  present, 
gentlemen  of  the  jury,  in  a  court  of  justice  where  men  of  unblemished 
reputation  and  spotless  character  have  been  placed  upon  trial  by  a  gov 
ernment  whose  first  duty  is  the  protection  of  the  citizen,  and  their  con 
viction  demanded  upon  the  testimony  of  men  so  morally  rotten  that  the 
English  language  supplies  no  epithets  sufficiently  forcible  fittingly  to 
characterize  them?  Is  it  my  fault  that  it  is  so?  And  is  such  a  char 
acterization  of  the  witnesses  who  have  been  day  by  day  trailed  before 
you,  and  have  fouled  this  court  by  their  presence,  is  such  a  characteri 
zation  wild  extravagance?  If  I  should  call  the  course  which  the  govern 
ment  has  pursued  in  seeking  the  conviction  of  men  of  good  character 
upon  such  testimony  as  utterly  and  indescribably  infamous,  would  that 
be  a  wild  exaggeration?  Challenge  all  your  past  history,  recur  to  all 
that  you  have  read,  refresh  your  recollections,  if  you  please,  by  the 
experience  of  all  the  past,  and  I  tell  you,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  from 
the  earliest  periods  of  savagery  down  to  to-day  no  single  instance  has 
been  recorded  in  any  history,  sacred  or  profane,  where  from  ten  to  fif 
teen  witnesses  who  shamelessly  proclaimed  their  own  guilt  and  announced 


462  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

their   own    perjury   have  been    placed   upon  the  stand   for  the   conviction  of 
the   citizen. 

"It  is  because  this  most  extraordinary  course  has  been  pursued — a 
course  absolutely  without  a  parallel  anywhere  in  the  history  of  this 
world ;  it  is  because  this  course  has  been  pursued  by  the  government, 
which  is  your  protector  and  mine,  and  which  should  be  in  the  time  of 
calamity  and  trouble  the  protector  and  defender  of  these  defendants,  that 
there  is  a  deep-seated  feeling  of  outrage  running  through  all  this  com 
munity  of  which  this  vast  audience  here  to-day  is  merely  the  exponent. 
No  man,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  feels  himself  safe ;  and  this  trial  had 
not  proceeded  twelve  hours  before  Rush  and  Pahlman  drifted  clean  out 
of  sight  and  were  forgotten.  The  great  issue,  as  I  knew  it  would  be. 
gradually  loomed  up  in  all  its  fearful  and  tremendous  proportions  before 
the  people,  and  they  ask  themselves  this  question :  Has  it  come  to  this, 
that  the  government  shall  trade  with  scoundrels :  that  it  shall  bargain 
with  them;  that  it  shall  buy  them;  and  after  having  made  the  purchase, 
that  it  shall  put  them  upon  the  stand  and  under  the  sacred  solemnities 
of  an  oath  in  the  almost  divine  presence  of  the  court?" 

Then  followed  a  scene  which  recalled  the  intrepid  manner  in 
which  me  great  Lord  Erskine,  upon  whom  Mr.  Storrs  was  wont 
to  model  himself,  maintained  his  ground  against  the  hostile  atti 
tude  of  the  Court : 

"THE  COURT — 'Mr.  Storrs,  there  is  no  evidence  here  that  the  gov 
ernment  has  traded  with  the  witnesses — none  whatever,  with  the  exception 
of  Becker,  and  that  was  simply  to  give  him  safe  conduct.' 

"MR.  STORRS — '  I  propose,  if  the  court  please,  and  with  your  Honor's 
permission,  and  I  think  I  have  the  right,  to  flatly  deny  the  charge  which 
Mr.  Boutelle  has  made  here,  and  which  I  know  is  untrue.' 

"THE   COURT— '  I    say   there  is   no   evidence.' 

"MR.  STORRS — 'There   is  evidence.' 

"THE   COURT — 'No,  sir.' 

"MR.    STORRS — 'There   is  evidence   of  trading.' 

"THE  COURT — 'I  shall  not  allow   you   to   assume  that  there   is  evidence.' 

"  MR.  STORRS — '  I  will  read  it  to  the  jury,  and  the  jury  will  judge  of 
the  fact.' 

"THE   COURT — 'No,    sir.' 

"MR.    STORRS — 'I  will   read   it  to    the    jury.' 

"THE   COURT — 'There   is   no   evidence   upon   that   point.' 

"MR.  STORRS — 'Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  that  immunity  has  been  promised 
these  witnesses  is  a  fact  established  by  the  evidence ;  that  they  are  here 
under  the  promise  of  immunity  is  another  fact,  and  that  there  are  wit 
nesses  here  and  have  been  upon  this  stand — 

"THE  COURT — 'Mr.  Storrs,  I  shall  not  permit  you  to  go  on  and  make 
such  statements.' 

"  MR.    STORRS — '  I    shall    read    it,    sir,    from   the   testimony    of  Ford.' 

"THE  COURT — 'There  is  no  such  statement  in  the  testimony  of  Mr. 
Ford.' 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  463 

"MR.  STORKS — 'Well,  sir,  I  will  come  to  that  presently,  and  I  will  read 
Mr.  Ford's  testimony.  It  is  flat  and  unmistakable.  And  there,  sir,  it 
comes  to  this,  it  must  be  a  question  between  your  Honor's  recollection  and  tke 
short-hand  reporters'  notes.' 

"THE  COURT — 'Let  us  understand  each  other  distinctly  now.  You  have 
a  right  fully  ta  comment  upon  the  motives  and  influences  which  may  have 
affected  the  witnesses  in  their  testimony,  and  the  effect  which  their  testi 
mony  will  have  upon  the  charges  pending  against  them  :  but  that  there  was 
any  evidence  of  an  agreement  between  them  and  the  officers  of  govern 
ment  in  reference  to  immunity  the  record  is  entirely  bare.' 

"Mr.  Storrs — 'I  will  read  the  record  if  your  Honor  please,  without  stop 
ping  to  contradict  your  Honor  now  or  to  discuss  the  question.  I  will 
read  the  record  when  I  come  to  it,  and  then  the  jury  must  judge.  With 
out,  then,  drawing  my  own  inferences,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  which  it 
seems  that  it  is  improper  for  me  to  do — or  the  court  deems  it  improper — 
I  will  say  this,  and  you  can  draw  your  own  inferences,  that  from  ten 
to  fifteen  who  were  guilty  of  crimes  by  their  own  confessions  have  been 
used  by  the  government;  that  some  of  these  men  guilty  of  these  crimes 
are  unindicted  to-day.  What  do  you  call  that?  Is  it  immunity?  That  their 
crimes  were  proclaimed  as  long  ago  as  last  January,  and  that  yet  they  are 
untouched!  Is  that  immunity?  That  one  of  these  criminals  and  one  of 
the  leading  witnesses  in  this  case,  is  unindicted  and  still  is  the  holder  of 
governmental  position.  Is  that  immunity  ? 

"Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  you  are  the  judges  of  the  facts.  There  are 
the  facts.  Draw  your  inferences.  Has  Marshall  P.  Beecher  received 
immunity?  Whether  he  has  been  promised  it  or  not,  hasn't  he  got  it? 
When  he  was  appointed  ganger,  by  his  own  testimony  he  was  a  thieC? 
By  his  own  declarations  he  has  been  so  ever  since  he  was  appointed. 
Added  to  this  there  are  a  series  of  perjuries  which  he  shamelessly 
admits.  He  is  unindicted ;  and  he  to-day  holds  the  commission  that  he 
has  soiled.  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  \vhat  do  you  call  it?  I  care  not 
what  words  you  select  to  characterize  it?  Why  is  it  that  he  has  not 
been  indicted  ?  Is  it  because  in  the  hurry  of  business  it  has  been  for 
gotten?  Is  it  because  the  case  of  so  conspicuous  a  scoundrel  has  been 
overlooked  ?  Drawr  your  own  inferences,  gentlemen  of  the  jury.  There 
are  the  facts ;  call  it  immunity  or  whatever  you  please.  Has  he  escaped 
indictment  because  somebody  representing  the  government  has  promised 
that  he  should  escape  it?  I  care  not  that  the  man  upon  the  stand 
swears  that  no  immunity  has  been  promised  him.  He  has  got  it ;  and 
it  is  simply  an  insult  to  the  understanding  of  any  man  to  say  that  it  is  an 
accident  that  Marshall  P.  Beecher  is  not  to-day  in  Joliet,  where  he 
belongs.  I  pass  this  question  of  immunity  for  the  present,  because  before 
I  have  finished  I  will  read  to  you  the  testimony ;  and,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  of  that  testimony  you  are  to  judge. 

"The  learned  counsel  for  the  government  who  has  addressed  you  went 
away  out  of  his  way  and  outside  of  the  record  for  the  purpose  of  sing 
ing  the  praises  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 


464  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"I  have  no  discussion  to  make  with  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
Possibly  Mr.  Boutelle  deemed  that  he  was  on  trial.  If  so,  if  he  were, 
and  if  he  is  the  engineer  of  this  scheme  (I  do  not  say  that  he  is);  if 
it  is  through  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  that  this  spectacle  has  been 
presented,  he  will  be  convicted  if  he  is  on  trial ;  and  there  is  not  a 
jury  that  can  be  raked  up  in  this  State  that  would  acquit  him.  All  that 
portion  of  Mr.  Boutelle' s  speech  was  a  stump  speech,  and  none  the  less 
objectionable  because  it  was  a  poor  one.  Mr.  Boutelle  undertook  to  tell 
you  from  what  he  said  was  his  own  knowledge  as  to  the  understandings 
with  these  men ;  clearly  outside  of  the  record,  and  as  clearly,  as  I  will 
show  you,  false  from  the  testimony  in  the  case. 

"  Many  years  ago  it  was  recommended  by  some  one  who  had  wit 
nessed  curious  proceedings  in  courts  of  justice  that  witnesses  be  elected 
by  the  people.  The  plan  is  unnecessary.  It  seems  they  are  appointed 
by  the  government.  Discharged  from  office  because  they  are  unfit  to 
guage  even  a  gallon  of  whisky,  they  flourish  out  and  appear  in  better 
clothes  than  they  ever  did  before,  and  blossom  out  as  witnesses  in  a 
court  of  justice  in  favor  of  the  government.  The  surest  road  to  preferment 
now  seems  to  be  the  proclamation  of  one's  own  guilt.  And  the  measure 
of  the  preferment  is  merely  the  extent  of  the  infamy  which  the  man  is 
willing  to  proclaim.'  " 

The  witnesses  for  the  government  were  attacked  with  all  Mr. 
Storrs'  tremendous  power  of  invective.  The  following  are  some 
specimens: 

"  First.  Junker  testified  that  the  frauds  of  which  his  firm  was  guilty  were 
those  perpetrated  with  Pahlman  and  Rush.  There  is  no  doubt  but  what  he 
testified  to  that,  is  there,  gentlemen?  And  how  eloquent  Mr.  Boutelle  became 
yesterday  in  commenting  upon  that  branch  of  the  case !  How  vigorous  was 
he  in  the  denunciation  of  my  clients ;  tnese  poor  men  he  called  them  ;  he 
said  Roelle,  Junker  &  Co.  were  poor.  There  was  nothing  in  the  evidence 
upon  that  subject.  They  are  rich.  A  man  may  possibly  be  excused  from 
going  outside  of  the  record  to  state  the  truth  ;  there  is  no  palliation  for  his 
traveling  outside  of  the  record  to  state  an  untruth.  How  eloquent, 
again  I  say,  did  Mr.  Boutelle  become  in  picturing  to  you  this  guileless, 
innocent,  intelligent  man,  Mr.  Junker,  walking  along  in  the  straight  path 
of  internal  revenue  rectitude,  deflected  from  that  course  by  the  seductive 
wiles  of  Rush  and  Pahlman,  God  save  the  mark !  Junker  deceived  by  any 
body !  Junker  betrayed  by  anybody!  Junker  seduced  by  anybody!  An 
unhealthy  imagination,  the  result  of  a  disordered  liver — an  underdone 
steak — must  have  been  the  fountain  from  which  such  a  conception 
sprung. 

"  If,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  an  instrument  partly  written  and  partly 
printed  is  presented  to  you,  and  the  man  whose  signature  is  appended 
to  it  tells  you  that  he  did  not  understand  what  the  instrument  was,  and 
yet  all  the  blanks  are  regularly  and  correctly  filled  in  his  own  hand 
writing,  what  have  you  got  to  say  to  such  a  witness?  When  you  come 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  465 

here  into  this  jury-box  you  do  not  leave  your  every-day  judgment  out 
of  doors  on  the  street ;  you  bring  it  with  you,  and  you  apply  it  here 
precisely  as  you  apply  it  in  your  ordinary  avocations.  There  is  not  a 
man  now  on  this  jury — there  is  not  a  man  in  the  wide  circuit  of  this 
State — who  would  believe  a  man  who  told  a  story  of  that  kind,  and  yet 
Anton  Junker  has  told  that  story,  and  you  are  asked  to  believe  him  to 
the  extent  that  you  will  convict  good  men  on  his  testimony.  Gentlemen 
of  the  jury,  I  say  that  it  is  simply  shocking — it  is  atrocious — that  men 
as  decent  as  my  clients  shall  be  put  in  peril  of  their  personal  freedom 
upon  as  infamous  and  completely  riddled  testimony  as  that.  But  that  is 
not  all.  I  come  now  to  his  general  credibility.  Who  is  the  man?  By 
his  own  testimony,  supplemented  by  that  of  his  employe,  he  is  shown  to 
have  been  engaged  in  a  steady,  persistent  course  of  fraud  ever  since 
1870.  Not  a  week  nor  a  month  has  passed  during  that  long  interval 
of  time  in  which  this  witness  has  not  been  guilty  of  fraud ;  he  has  com 
mitted  felony  upon  the  government  by  robbing  the  revenue ;  he  has 
committed  frauds  upon  the  government  by  unblushing  perjury  over  and 
over  again,  which  he  is  compelled  to  admit ;  he  has  committed  frauds 
upon  the  revenue  by  the  wilfull  and  deliberate  destruction  of  his  own 
books,  from  which  his  multifarious  frauds  would  have  been  discovered. 
Yet,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  you  are  asked  to  believe  him ! 

"  Perhaps  the  course  that  has  been  pursued  might  have  been  justified 
had  but  one  informer  been  taken  ;  but  what  is  the  spectacle  presented 
here  to-day  ?  It  is  not  one  informer  detached  from  the  many  and  swear 
ing  against  the  multitude  ;  but  it  is  the  multitude  let  loose  and  swearing 
against  the  individual.  I  have  undertaken  to  find  some  precedent  for  a 
case  like  this.  It  cannot  be  found ;  history  shows  no  parallel  to  it. 
From  twenty  to  thirty  men  guilty  of  felonies  against  the  government 
have  turned  state's  evidence  against  one  or  two !  That  is  a  violation  of 
the  law,  for  while  the  law  does  give,  in  extreme  cases,  to  the  incon 
spicuous  conspirator  who  turns  state's  evidence  a  pardon  and  immunity, 
it  is  just  as  well  settled  that  the  principal  offenders  shall  never  be  per 
mitted  to  escape.  He  is  not  only  a  defrauder  of  the  revenues,  a 
perjurer,  the  suppressor  of  proof,  the  destroyer  of  his  books,  but  bribe- 
giving  and  bribe-taking  seem  to  be  a  part  of  his  daily  avocations.  And 
added  to  the  crimes  already  piled  up  against  him,  he  comes  in  here  as 
the  contributor  to  Mr.  Jacob  Rehm  of  from  £20,000  to  $30,000  in  money 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  immunity  for  the  frauds  he  has  perpetrated. 
The  idea  of  immunity  seems  to  be  high  and  strong  in  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  these  men.  This  firm  paid  Jake  Rehm  $20,000  for  immunity  ; 
they  got  his  promise  for  it.  He  was  then  their  defendant.  They  are 
paying  a  higher  price  for  the  same  thing,  only  they  have  had  to  select 
a  different  champion,  and  that  is  the  officers  of  trie  government. 

"The   next   corroborating  witness,    DeBos,    a   poor   sniveling   employe   of 

this   strong   and   powerful    firm ;   illiterate  to  the  last  degree ;    a  participant, 

according   to   his   own   statement,    in   all   the    offenses    of    which    that    firm 

had    been    guilty    from    day   to    day,    and    month  to   month,    and   year  to 

.30 


466  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

year,  comes  here,  fished  up  at  the  last  moment,  for  the  purpose  of 
proclaiming  the  guilt  of  his  employer  and  his  own  guilt  as  well.  He 
stated  to  you  upon  his  direct  examination — and  it  would  have  been  plaus 
ible  had  not  this  plausibility  been  dissolved  upon  his  cross-examination — 
that  the  reason  that  he  knew  that  these  spirits  had  thus  been  fraudu 
lently  sold  by  Rush  &  Pahlman  to  Roelle  &  Junker,  was  that  he  read 
upon  the  stamps  of  these  barrels  the  inscription  by  which  he  was  enabled 
to  determine  the  character  of  the  stamps.  I  am  stating  that  testimony 
with  entire  and  absolute  accuracy.  His  attention  having  been  called  in 
his  cross-examination  to  the  facts,  he  was  unable  to  satisfactorily  describe 
why  he  could  distinguish  the  difference  of  one  from  another,  and  he 
was  driven  to  that  conclusive  corner  where,  upon  the  presentation  of  the 
stamp  to  him,  he  was  compelled  to  say  that  he  could  not  read  a  single 
word  of  it.  He  swore  upon  his  direct  examination  that  he  did  read  the 
stamps.  He  swore  upon  his  cross-examination  that  he  could  not  read  that 
stamp  or  any  other ;  and  that  single  significant  fact  is  enough  to  consign 
his  testimony  to  the  realms  of  utter  unbelief  and  disbelief,  and  denounces 
him  as  a  party  in  the  same  great  crime  in  which  his '  employers  are 
implicated. 

"I  have  said  to  you  furthermore,  that  there  are  exceedingly  curious  features 
about  this  corroborating  testimony.  When  were  these  corroborating  witnesses 
first  discovered,  and  who  were  they?  These  defendants  had  been  indicted. 
They  had — or  at  least  one  of  themselves  declared  himself  as  prepared  after 
a  little  time  to  go  to  trial.  Time  passed  on,  and  we  came  into  court 
here  and  asked  for  a  continuance  of  two  days,  which  the  court  kindly 
granted  us.  Then,  it  being  absolutely  certain  the  trial  must  be  heard, 
the  necessity  of  finding  corroborating  evidence  was  very  apparent.  On 
Tuesday,  this  trial  commencing  on  Wednesday,  these  corroborating  wit 
nesses  were  suddenly  fished  up  by  Roelle  and  Junker  going  back  to 
their  places  of  business,  talking  with  their  employes — I  am  justified  in 
saying  instructing  them  as  to  the  character  of  corroboration  which  was 
required,  and  dragging  them  down  here  before  the  officers  of  the  gov 
ernment,  where  they  were  examined  and  then  put  upon  the  stand. 

"  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  when  you  find  corroborative  evidence  of  that 
character  thus  incidentally  and  mysteriously  discovered,  the  conclusion 
which  you  inevitably  reach  is  that  there  is  no  corroboration,  but  that 
there  is  simply  another  evidence  of  the  long  line  of  guilt  in  which  these 
men  have  been  engaged.  Am  I  stretching  presumption  when  I  ask  you 
to  believe  with  me  that  these  so-called  corroborating  witnesses  were  the 
agents  and  tools  of  their  employers?  Have  not  Roelle  and  Junker  both 
proclaimed  to  you  on  the  stand  here  that  their  subordinates  and  employes 
would  make  false  returns  and  swear  to  them  whenever  their  oaths  were 
required,  without  the  slightest  hesitancy,  at  the  demand  from  their  em 
ployers — from  week  to  week,  and  month  to  month,  perjured  themselves? 
Do  you  believe  that  there  would  be  any  hesitancy  when  the  great  ques 
tion  of  immunity  from  punishment  was  before  them,  that  these  same  men 
thus  true  to  perjury  would  hesitate  for  a  second  as  witnesses  upon  the 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  467 

stand?  Remember,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  it  is  no  untrained  men  that 
they  have  brought  here  to  corroborate  them.  They  are  men  trained 
already  in  crime.  Guilty  of  numberless  felonies,  one  additional,  one  more 
crime  in  the  long  and  sickening  catalogue  is  not  a  matter  of  the  slightest 
moment. 

"  Now  talk  about  the  corroborating  evidence !  They  are  corroborated 
by  witnesses,  accomplices — corroborated  by  their  own  guilty  agents  and 
instruments — and  the  fact  that  they  have  failed  to  draw  corroboration  from 
any  other  quarter  demonstrates  the  extremity  to  which  this  case  has 
been  driven — demonstrates  that  one  more  crime  has  already  been  added 
to  the  others. 

"Now,  then,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  I  come  to  the  testimony  of  Mr. 
Ford — Mr.  Burton  M.  Ford.  I  desire  to  call  your  attention  to  this  fact, 
that  the  impeaching  testimony  of  Mr.  Ford  was  not  fairly  treated  yester 
day.  Counsel  suppressed  its  leading  features  and  characteristics,  and  un 
dertook  to  wriggle  out  from  the  conclusion  which  the  evidence  in  the 
case  inevitably  fixes  upon  it,  that  in  denying  what  occurred  before  the 
Grand  Jury,  Mr.  Ford  on  this  stand  was  guilty  of  willful  and  corrupt 
perjury.  Praises  of  Mr.  Ford  have  been  very  highly  sung  here :  you 
have  been  told  how  high  is  his  social  position.  You  know  nothing  of 
his  social  position ;  we  know  nothing  of  his  social  position,  and  the  longer 
I  live  in  this  world  and  the  more  I  see  of  it  the  more  unsatisfactory 
do  1  regard  it  when  the  condition  of  real  and  general  manhood  are  to 
be  employed.  This  little,  wretched,  miserable  man,  is  of  high  social 
standing.  He  may  have  been  to  all  the  glittering  receptions  in  this  city, 
faultless  in  his  attire  and  Chesterfieldian  in  his  manners,  and  a  very 
admirable  character  in  his  accomplishments,  but  he  is  a  scoundrel  to  the 
government  and  a  perjurer.  There  has  been  such  a  punctilio  of  crime, 
such  a  refined  gentility  of  scoundrelism,  such  a  course  of  fraud,  such  an 
elegant  propriety  in  swindling,  that  in  the  estimation  of  the  counsel 
for  the  government  who  are  seriously  carrying  out  the  great  reform,  when 
these  crimes  are  being  committed  by  men  of  social  prominence,  they 
turn  round  and  say  it  is  a  little  indiscretion. 

"Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  men  of  integrity  existed  long  before  there  was 
much  social  distinction;  in  the  earlier  and  better  days  of  the  world 
people  did  not  count  much  on  social  distinction.  Why,  the  best  men 
had  but  little  social  distinction.  Johnson  violated  all  the  proprieties  of 
the  parlor,  smoked  with  a  cob  pipe  and  sat  with  his  legs  crossed.  In 
company  he  had  no  social  position,  but  he  was  a  pretty  reputable  man, 
as  all  the  world  knows.  Even  Abe  Lincoln  never  had  social  accomplish 
ments.  Mr.  Ford,  punctured  through  and  through  as  he  has  been  with 
frauds  against  his  government,  was  infinitely  Mr.  Lincoln's  superior. 
Lincoln  was  a  pretty  decent  man." 

"MR.    AVER — 'What   frauds  do  you   accuse   Mr.    Ford   of?' 

"MR.  STORRS — 'I  can't  stop  now  to  particularize,  but  I  will  let  you 
know  before  I  get  through.' 

"Anxious  to    know   of   what    scoundrelism    his    friend    Ford    has    been 


468  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

guilty — this  man  elevated  as  an  exemplar  of  social  position !  Before  I 
have  finished  I  will  show  four  or  five,  which  will  perhaps  be  large 
enough  to  satisfy  the  keen  curiosity  of  Brother  Ayer. 

"Why  is  Ford  on  the  stand?  The  Penitentiary  was  opening  its  gates 
to  receive  him.  There  is  freedom  and  his  oath  on  the  one  side  and 
the  Penitentiary  on  the  other.  No  coarse  bribe  like  dollars  would  reach 
Mr.  Ford,  but  for  a  man  in  his  eminent  social  position  to  be  sent  for 
a  crime  to  the  Penitentiary  was  dreadful.  And  thus,  as  the  evidence  in 
this  case  stands,  not  only  have  you  an  informer,  but  a  bad  informer, 
and,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  this  is  the  highest  praise  that  was  ever  offered 
to  the  man.  I  hope  that  no  such  calamities  in  the  future  may  ever  over 
take  you.  I  trust  that  no  such  troubles  may  ever  surround  you  as  that  you 
will  be  placed  before  a  jury  of  your  countrymen  on  trial,  where  your 
life  or  liberty  is  involved,  and  your  conviction  or  acquittal  rests  upon 
the  testimony  of  a  man  who  is  swearing  under  such  a  tremendous  pres 
sure  as  that.  Here  it  is  as  clearly  as  if  it  had  been  written  in  letters 
of  living  flames  against  the  sky:  'The  price  that  we  pay  for  the  testi 
mony  which  you  shall  deliver  in  this  case  is  your  freedom.  Your 
testimony  must  be  convicting  testimony,  or  the  price  will  not  be  paid. 
Your  freedom  for  your  oath.'  Has  the  government  been  a  party  to  this? 
If  not,  who  has?  This  arrangement  was  not  made  all  on  one  side  ;  there 
were  two  parties  to  it,  and  here  stands  a  witness  driven  at  least  to  this 
confession.' 

"  Q.  'Have  you  ever  been  assured  by  your  counsel,  Mr.  Smith,  that  you 
are  to  receive  immunity?  A.  Yes,  sir;  he  gave  me  to  understand  I  was.' 

"Q.  'Did  you  receive  assurances  of  immunity  before  you  testified?  A. 
Yes.  sir.' 

"What  does  immunity  mean?  It  does  not  mean  a  little  punishment; 
it  does  not  mean  a  light  fine.  It  means,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  abso 
lute  exemption.  It  means  that  this  man,  because  of  social  position  or 
for  some  other  reason,  guilty  of  all  the  crimes  which  he  has  himself 
detailed,  is  to  be  let  free  on  condition  that  he  will  swear  against  his  old 
friend.  Friend!  Friend!  I  know,  and  you  know  how  to  value  friends  ;  but  such 
a  friend  as  that,  who  will  kiss  and  betray !  I  have  already  made  some 
commentaries  to  you  about  Beecher.  Please  stop  and  think  of  that.  A 
government  officer  for  years,  by  his  own  statement  consistently  and.  per 
sistently  a  criminal — his  whole  guilt  disclosed  last  January.  Why  on  earth 
was  there  no  indictment?  Will  you  tell  me?  Are  you  to  sit  there  and 
to  be  befogged  by  the  averments  and  noisy  dictates  of  counsel,  that  there 
has  been  no  immunity  offered  to  that  man?  Offered  him!  Why,  he  has 
it.  It  is  not  a  promise ;  it  is  performance.  Go  back  to  your  homes  and 
think  of  it ;  think  of  the  scheme  in  which  your  government  and  mine  has 
been  engaged.  That  government  to  preserve  which  you  willingly  expended 
three  thousand  millions  of  money,  went  through  the  perils  of  war,  and 
sacrificed  half  a  million  lives;  think  of  it!  Men  like  Beecher,  placed 
upon  the  stand  here  as  witnesses,  denying  that  they  have  immunity,  and 
holding  in  their  hands  their  government  commission,  unindicted,  and  their 


THE   CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  469 

freedom  unchallenged  and  unquestioned.  If  this  is  the  kind  of  govern 
ment  we  have  got,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  let  us  take  hold  of  it  and 
regulate  it.  I  go  further.  Is  there  no  immunity?  Ernst  Mattern,  Adolph 
Mueller — all  that  savory  gang  of  vagabonds  unindicted,  unpunished,  free 
as  the  wild  birds  in  their  roamings.  No  ;  there  is  no  immunity !  No ; 
there  is  no  immunity.  Becker ;  has  he  got  immunity  ?  What  do  you 
call  it,  gentlemen  of  the  jury?  They  say  it  is  a  safe  conduct.  Which 
is  a  safe  conduct?  Becker  left  his  country  for  his  country's  good,  as 
Beecher  had  left,  and  it  was  fondly  hoped  that  he  might  remain.  But 
no,  his  country  called  him,  and  he  must  obey.  Think  of  Becker,  that 
pure  perjurer  and  plunderer,  come  back  to  his  adopted  city  at  the  call 
of  his  adopted  country !  Is  the  government  engaged  in  punishing  crim 
inals?  No!  What  is  its  chief  business?  In  sheltering  and  protecting 
them.  The  lightning  telegraph  carries  the  message  to  Becker:  Becker 
come  back!  He  receives  assurance  of  freedom — the  thing  he  wants;  of 
immunity,  which  his  heart  has  so  longed  for.  The  operation  in  that 
case  was  carried  on  through  counsel.  You  observe  how  counsel  are  in 
all  these  cases.  There  is,  so  to  speak,  a  "toniness"  about  these  bargains. 
There  is  a  professional  delicacy  required.  The  counsel  managed  this 
business  ;  Junker's  counsel  managed  his  business  :  Mattern' s  counsel  man 
aged  his  business;  Becker's  counsel  managed  his  business;  Ford's  assur 
ance  came  from  his  counsel ;  and  the  time  having  arrived  when  there 
were  two  men  found  against  whom  there  was  no  documentary  evidence, 
and  nothing  but  the  testimony  of  perjurers,  and  determined  they  would 
stand  up  for  trial,  counsel  went  to  dispatching  telegrams.  He  received 
his  dispatch  on  Tuesday  afternoon,  and  back  starts  Becker  on  his  patri 
otic  mission  and  returns  a  purified  man. 

"Who  have  been  the  witnesses  in  this  case?  How  many  of  them  have 
been  officials?  Beecher,  Mattern,  George  H.  Miller,  Bummer  Mueller, 
Herman  Becker — all  these  are  officials,  and  some  of.  them  are  unindicted  ; 
unpunished,  some  of  them.  Does  that,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  look  like 
carrying  out  their  promise? 

"  But  I  come  back  again  to  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Ford,  from  which  I 
was  diverted  by  the  consideration  with  reference  to  immunity.  Now,  then, 
what  is  his  testimony?  He  was  spotless,  Mr.  Ayer  tells  you,  down  to 
the  time  he  was  seduced  by  Rush  and  Pahlman.  Was  he?  Does  Ford 
tell  you  so?  What  kind  of  spotlessness ?  Will  it  wash?  Engaged  for  years 
in  buying  distilled  spirits,  for  a  sum  less  than  the  revenue  tax  on  it, 
of  course  he  could  not  suspect  that  the  purchase  was  perpetrating  any 
frauds  upon  the  government  to  which  he  was  a  party  ?  Think  of  it, 
gentlemen,  how  miserable  the  pretense!  Through  1866,  1867,  1868,  by 
his  own  testimony,  he  was  engaged  in  helping  distillers  defraud  the  rev 
enue.  There  can  be  no  surer  evidence  of  fraud  than  the  value  of  dis 
tilled  spirits  at  a  price  less  than  the  government  tax  thereon.  Mr.  Ford 
is  no  chicken.  If  an  unknown  man  comes  to  him  with  a  valuable  piece 
of  property  which  he  offers  to  sell  at  a  price  greatly  less  than  its  actual 
value,  and  the  property  turns  out  to  be  stolen,  in  the  good  old  times 


4/O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

when  the  sun  rose  in  the  East,  and  before  we  had  any  revenue  cases,  that 
circumstance  was  considered  as  evidence  of  guilty  knowledge.  When  a 
rectifier  of  such  high  distinction,  of  experience  of  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
purchases  distilled  spirits  at  a  price  somewhat  less  than  the  tax  which  the 
government  imposes  upon  it,  he  knows  as  well  that  there  is  a  fraud  in  the 
transaction,  and  that  he  is  a  party  to,  and  aiding  and  abetting  it,  as  he 
knows  that  two  and  two  are  four;  and  this  is  the  business  in  which  Mr. 
Burton  M.  Ford,  by  his  own  testimony,  has  been  engaged. 

"He  bought  at  less,  he  says,  than  the  tax,  and  sold  for  as  high  a  price 
as  he  could  get.  He  relieved  his  conscience  of  the  inefficiency  of  the  pur 
chase  money  by  the  exuberance  of  the  price  which  he  received." 

"MR.  AVER — 'Mr.  Storrs,  I  think  Mr.  Ford  never  testified  in  any  such 
thing.' 

"MR.  STORRS — 'Do  you?  Well  you  are  mistaken.' 

"MR.  AVER — 'He  didn't  testify  that  he  bought  any  spirits  of  Rush  & 
Pahlman  for  less  than  the  government  tax.' 

"MR.  STORRS — 'Oh,  yes  he  did.  You  do  not  talk  like  a  man  that  has 
ever  been  in  a  court-room.' 

"MR.  AVER — 'Your  declarations  to  that  must  be  received  with  some 
degree  of  allowance.' 

"  MR.  STORRS — '  Your  contradictions  must  be  taken  with  a  very  large 
degree  of  allowance,  Mr.  Ayer.' 

"THE  COURT — 'I  think  Mr.  Storrs  is  correct  in  that.  He  stated  that  he 
had  bought  in  times  past — in  1866,  1867,  and  1868 — below  the  government 
tax.  That  is  my  recollection  of  it.' 

"MR.  AYER — 'I  don't  remember  it  so.' 

"MR.  STORRS — 'That  don't  change  the  fact.  If  you  find  it  you  won't 
read  it.  But  that  is  so  conspicuous  a  fact  I  did  not  think  it  would  be 
contradicted.  I  do  not  know,  after  all,  but  that  it  is  better  that  we  should 
have  these  occasional  interruptions,  because  it  simply  emphasizes  the  facts. 
It  underscores  them.  It  italicizes  them  in  your  memory  and  in  mine. 
You  are  right,  and  so  am  I.  We  are  both  right. 

"You  will  inquire,  what  kind  of  case  is  it  where  the  counsel  are  guilty 
of  such  marvelous  obliviousness  of  all  that  has  been  transpiring  here. 
They  have  looked  with  such  steady  gaze  upon  the  dazzling  rays  of  P^ord's 
social  position  that  they  have  not  been  able  to  see  another  earthly  thing.  Put 
your  eyes  against  the  sun  sometime  and  try  it. 

"Let  us  go  a  step  further  with  Mr.  Ford.  Is  he  entitled  to  belief? 
Not  if  the  same  rule  is  to  be  applied  to  him  that  the  courts  have 
applied  to  witnesses  for  hundreds  of  years  past;  not  if  he  has  sworn 
falsely  upon  any  material  point  in  this  case.  If  he  has,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  it  is  your  privilege — not  only  your  privilege,  but  your  duty — to  dis 
credit  him.  He  comes  upon  the  stand  bearing  this  terrific  load  of  guilt. 
He  cannot  roll  it  from  his  shoulders.  He  comes  here  bearing  an 
immunity  in  one  hand  and  his  testimony  in  the  other.  Suppose  we  dis 
count  that;  take  him  as  a  spotless  man;  start  with  him  as  such;  then 
what?  Oh,  Mr.  Ford  would  not  stand  the  test  of  truth  then!  Why? 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  4/1 

Because  he  has  proven  to  have  committed  one  distinct,  unmistakable 
perjury  in  this  case. 

"  Burton  M.  Ford,  but  a  few  years  since,  carrying  a  pleasant  exterior, 
walked  among  his  fellows  as  an  honorable  man,  To-day,  that  he  might 
have  his  freedom,  he  is  morally  and  absolutely  shipwrecked  and  blasted. 
To-day,  by  his  own  lips,  he  stands  the  perpetrator  of,  and  the  partici 
pator  in,  a  long  line  and  series  of  frauds  against  this  government. 

"  Have  I  told  all  this  story  ?  By  no  means.  By  no  means.  It  is 
considered  among  men,  and  has  been,  as  one  of  the  meanest  of  crimes 
— the  destruction  of  one's  old  books  and  papers  that  may  possibly  lead 
to  one's  own  conviction.  Conflagrations  seemed  to  be  frequent  with  Bur 
ton  M.  Ford.  Time  and  again  and  again  were  his  books  destroyed. 
Why?  Destroyed  because  with  all  their  suppressions,  with  all  the  false 
hoods  they  contained — and  contained  by  his  direction — still  the  keen  vig 
ilance  of  an  honest,  shrewd,  and  faithful  officer  could  detect  him  in  the 
crimes  of  which  he  had  been  guilty.  And  so,  covering  one  crime  to 
escape  detection  in  another,  he  calls  his  man  McMahon  to  his  side  ;  he 
waits  until  this  court  has  delivered  a  decision,  takes  his  checks  and 
invoices,  all  his  books  and  papers,  puts  them  in  the  flames,  and  waits 
to  see  that  the  evidences  of  his  criminality  are  destroyed.  Is  that  an 
indiscretion?  Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  this  is  a  story  which  no  man  has 
invented  against  Burton  M.  Ford.  No  witness,  influenced  by  passion  or 
prejudice  or  zeal,  has  testified  to  it  against  him.  But,  great  heavens!  it 
is  the  man  who  has  told  it-  against  himself!  Taken  out  one  by  one  from 
the  recesses  of  his  heart,  where,  in  the  long  years  past,  they  had  been 
hidden,  the  crimes  of  which  he  has  been  guilty  he  has  dated  out  to  you, 
gentlemen  of  the  jury,  and  exhibited  them  in  all  their  hideous  deformity, 
in  order  that  the  greater  the  crimes  of  which  he  had  been  guilty  the 
more  should  he  be  entitled  to  your  credence  and  belief. 

"Is  that  all?  No.  It  is  enough,  is  it  not?  It  is  not  all.  I  asked 
Burton  M.  Ford  if  he  ever  signed  any  of  these  returns,  which,  as  a 
rectifier,  he  was  obliged  to  make.  He  never  had ;  his  book-keeper  had 
done  that.  And  now  let  me  show  you  what  he  says  about  that  poor 
book-keeper.  Do  you  remember  the  commentaries  of  Mr.  Boutelle  upon 
that  branch  of  the  case,  yesterday?  Were  you  not  appalled  at  it,  when4 
unblushingly,  Boutelle  stood  up  before  you,  representing  this  great  gov 
ernment,  and  says:  'Why,  he  didn't  commit  any  perjuries;  he  merely  got 
his  book-keeper  to  do  it  for  him.'  I  say,  again,  gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
what  is  there  in  the  air  of  this  business  that  so  utterly  demoralized  men? 
When  have  your  consciences  ever  been  outraged  so  before,  and  your 
judgments  insulted?  A  witness  justified,  defended,  because  the  perjuries 
from  the  commission  of  which  he  has  rolled  up  his  thousands  were  not 
committed  by  himself,  but  he  got  his  book-keeper  to  do  it  for  him. 
True,  Ford  knew  they  were  perjuries.  He  knew  they  were  necessary. 
True,  he  knew  that  without  them  detection  of  his  frauds  were  sure  and 
inevitable,  and  he  took  this  poor  book-keeper  on  the  little,  miserable 
stipend  that  book-keepers  get — Wobecke — he  goes  up  to  him  month  by 


4/2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

month  with  these  fraudulent  aud  lying  returns  and  says  to  him:  'Wobecke, 
here  is  a  little  piece  of  perjury;  please  perform  it.'  [Laughter.]  It  is 
perjury  or  dismissal.  And  now,  see  how  callous  the  man  is  about  it 
[reading  from  the  testimony  in  the  case] : 

"Q  'Let  me  show  them  to  you' — that  is,  these  returns.  'Is  it  possi 
ble  that  you  would  let  your  book-keeper  go  along  week  after  week  and 
month  after  month  committing  perjury  in  your  interest  and  behalf?1  He 
answers :  '  It  was  none  of  my  interest  to  see  what  he  swore  to,  but  the 
man  that  took  the  oath.'  That  is  the  dirtiest  deed  of  the  lot;  the  dirtiest 
deed  of  the  whole  sickening  line  of  dirty  deeds.  Pocketing  the  proceeds 
of  this  crime,  this  man  of  veneered  and  frescoed  social  distinction  had  no 
interest  in  the  question  as  long  as  his  mere  subordinate  and  tool  committed 
the  perjuries  for  him.  I  might  feel,  and  you,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  if  our 
hearts  were  particularly  charged  with  mercy,  and  in  the  sunshine  of  a  new 
centennial  we  were  beneficent  all  over,  I  might  feel  to  say  to  Ford:  'Poor 
Ford;  you  did  commit  these  perjuries;  they  were  perjuries;  you  are  pun 
ished  for  them;  go  and  sin  no  more.'  But  when  he  sneaks  upon  the  wit 
ness'  stand  and  adds  to  the  crime  of  perjury,  the  meaner  crime  of  a  sneak 
and  the  coward,  there  is  something  so  deep  in  the  bone  that  no  human 
being  who  speaks  English  naturally  ever  in  this  world  excused  or  forgot  it. 
And  if,  after  this  trial  is  over,  you  have  any  peculiar  record  at  home  of 
peculiar  classes  of  wickedness,  hunt  them  all  up  and  see  if  you  can  find 
anything  anywhere  more  utterly  heartless,  soulless,  or  bloodless  than  this. 
What  is  the  soul  of  a  poor  book-keeper  to  this  decorous  gentleman  ?  What 
is  his  reputation  to  him?  What  is  the  fact?  What  is  that  soul  that  has 
been  blasted  by  the  crimes  it  has  committed  to  this  man  who  pockets  the 
proceeds  and  reaps  the  benefits?  Nothing. 

"  The  plunder  which  by  this  suborned  perjury  he  has  reaped  enables 
him  to  shine  in  those  social  circles  of  which  Mr.  Boutelle  speaks.-  Gen 
tlemen,  let  us  resolve  to-day  that  we  will  have  none  of  this  social  dis 
tinction.  We  see  what  it  has  led  us  to.  Suspected  of  bribes,  frauds  of 
all  kinds,  felonies  of  every  description,  perjury  and  subornation  of  per 
jury!  These  are  the  instruments  by  which  elevation  on  that  giddy,  unsub 
stantial  platform  called  social  distinction  are  achieved. 

"If  Ford's  credibility  from  his  own  testimony,  is  not  seriously  impaired, 
will  you  be  good  enough  to  tell  me  how  you  are  going  to  impair  any 
man's  testimony?  What  is  it  that  you  will  ask  a  man  to  do?  Murder 
may  be  committed  in  the  heat  of  passion.  Human  life  may  be  taken 
under  tremendous  provocation.  We  may,  while  we  may  not  forgive  it, 
still  see  in  the  heart  of  the  man  guilty  of  so  great  a  crime  some  grains 
of  sanctifying  grace.  Necessity  and  want  may  so  overcome  the  rulings 
of  one's  conscience  as  that  robberies  and  thefts  may  be  the  result;  but 
yet  the  robber  and  the  thief  may  have  his  good  qualities.  But,  gentle 
men,  the  use  of  power  which  the  employer  has  over  the  employed  in 
these  times  to  force  the  latter  into  the  constant  commission  of  perjury  is 
a  sin  which  in  the  last  great  day  will,  in  its  fearful  enormity,  cast  its 
black  and  damning  shadow  all  over  the  crimes  which  I  have  named, 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  473 

so  that  it  will  utterly  obscure  them.  A  robber  of  the  revenues  through 
1866,  1867,  1868,  and  1869;  a  destroyer  of  his  own  books;  a  demonstrated 
perjurer  upon  the  stand  himself;  a  suborner  of  his  own  employes — 
twelve  men  called  here  from  every  portion  of  Northern  Illinois  are  asked 
upon  the  testimony  of  such  a  man,  who  is  swearing  for  the  priceless 
boon  of  freedom,  to  convict  Dr.  Rush  and  Mr.  Pahlman,  against  whose 
names  up  to  this  time  no  breath  of  suspicion  had  ever  been  cast. 
Should  you  do  it,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  your  consciences  would  never 
let  you  sleep. 

"It  seems  to  me,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  that,  right-minded  men  as 
you  are,  you  would  see  your  arms  rot  and  drop  from  their  sockets 
before,  by  a  verdict  of  conviction  in  this  case,  you  would  justify  that 
kind  of  scoundrels  who  have  been  running  riot  and  rampant  in  this  city 
for  days  and  weeks  and  months.  Upon  what  precipice  have  we  stood  and 
do  we  stand  to-day  ?  Can  human  imagination  possibly  conceive  of  dangers 
more  awful  and  appalling  than  those  which  have  surrounded  us  during  all 
these  dreadful  times?  Mark  you,  not  an  honest  pursuit  of  the  truth,  not  an 
earnest  effort  to  discover  guilt  and  punish  it,  but  an  utter  abandonment  of 
all  designs  of  that  kind,  and  immunity  to  the  principal  actors  in  this  gigan 
tic  scheme  of  government  plunder  which  has  been  carried  on  here  for  years'. 
The  time  has  come  when  a  halt  must  be  called,  and  when  you  shall  say 
to  this  rolling  tide  of  wrongs  as  it  sweeps  up  against  your  feet,  '  Thus  far 
shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther;  here  shall  thy  proud  waves  be  stayed.' 

"So  I  say,  in  the  presence  of  those  dangers,  Rush  and  Pahlman  sink  out 
of  sight  utterly.  The  prosecution  of  Wilkes  in  Great  Britain  years  ago  almost 
brought  about  a  revolution,  worthless  demagogue  as  he  was;  but  the  princi 
ple  involved  was  a  great  and  a  sacred  one.  These  men  are  honest  and 
upright  men,  but  even  if  they  were  ten  thousand  fold  greater  men  than  they 
are  to-day  they  would  not  be  of  the  slightest  consequence  when  compared 
with  the  great,  overshadowing  question  which  rests  upon  your  consciences, 
which,  as  jurors  and  citizens,  you  must  decide.  You  cannot,  if  you  would, 
escape  this  responsibility.  Mueller  is  put  upon  the  stand.  He  was  tracked 
down  to  a  period  as  far  back  as  1864,  when  he  was  engaged  in  frauds. 
Adolph  Mueller,  whose  characteristics  have  crystallized  into  a  name  so 
that  the  men  who  know  him  best  and  have  known  him  the  longest  call 
him  'Bummer'  Mueller,  the  propriety  of  which  he  himself  instinctively 
recognizes. 

"One  of  their  witnesses  says  to  you  in  the  whining  manner  that  he 
displayed  here — I  think  it  was  George  A.  Mueller — that  he  held  out  that 
his  ccnscience  troubled  him,  but  he  thought  first  of  the  dollar  a  barrel 
and  then  of  his  conscience.  [Laughter.]  And  after  two  weeks  of  prayerful 
meditation,  while  the  dollar  was  upward  first  and  the  conscience  next 
[laughter],  down  went  the  conscience  and  up  went  the  dollar,  and  he 
came  to  the  front  like  a  man  who  raised  on  his  bid  and  says:  'My 
conscience  troubles  me  for  a  dollar,  but  I  can  go  it  for  a  dollar  a  half.' 
[Laughter.]  These  are  officials. 

"Gentlemen   of  the   jury,    possibly    it   is    outside   of  the    record,    but   it  is 


474  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

a  piece  of  such  solid  truth  I  would  like  to  tell  it  to  you.  These  are 
specimens — good  specimens — of  the  Chicago  sewer  politicians.  They  are 
all  little,  'bummer,'  city  ward-politicians.  A  dirtier  set  never  lived.  The 
day  before  election  ring  a  bell  at  the  mouth  of  a  sewer  and  see  how 
they  will  come  forth  [laughter] — men  just  like  Bummer  Mueller.  [Laughter.] 
The  slums  give  them  up.  [Laughter.]  They  breed  with  the  lizards. 
[Laughter.]  This  is  a  city  politician.  These  are  fitting  types  and  repre 
sentatives.  I  would  make  no  unkind  commentaries  on  a  man's  face. 
The  Lord  is  in  a  measure  responsible  for  that  [laughter]  except  the  tone 
and  color  which  whisky,  straight  or  crooked,  vigorously  applied,  has 
given  to  the  countenances  of  some  of  these  men;  but  our  Great  Father 
is  kind  to  us  here — very  kind — and  when  He  makes  a  bummer  if  He 
don't  write  it  upon  the  face  of  a  man  like  Adolph  Mueller  in  such 
legible  characters  that  no  man  who  can  see  could  be  mistaken,  I  am 
mistaken.  Put  those  countenances  altogether — read  them.  Look  at  them. 
Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  would  you  go  to  that  kind  of  faces  for  truth  ? 
Would  you  search  the  records  of  such  lives  as  those,  low  down  and 
depraved  as  they  have  been  for  years,  for  any  satisfactory  evidence  in 
so  sacred  a  business  as  the  administration  of  justice?  Better  go  to  pois 
oned  springs  for  the  water  you  drink  than  to  go  to  such  sources  as  these 
for  truth,  from  which  truth  fled  disgusted  long  years  since. 

"One  happy  result  we  have  reached  is  this:  They  have  been  trained 
on  this  stand  one  after  another,  and  the  tax-ridden  and  oppressed  peo 
ple  have  read  the  record  which  these  scoundrels  have  made  for  them 
selves,  and  they  finally  have  got  to  see  by  whom  in  the  years  past 
they  have  been  ruled  and  governed.  Roelle  has  been  a  County  Com 
missioner,  Becker  active  in  politics ;  Bummer  Mueller  tells  you  he  was 
elected  by  the  people  as  'assassor.'  Little  low-down  politicians  all  of 
them ;  utterly  characterless — completely  and  utterly  so — with  souls  -  so 
small  that  even  with  the  largest  measure  of  redemption  and  salvation 
the  great  danger  is  that  in  the  final  day,  with  the  most  microscopic 
vision,  they  will  be  overlooked.  [Laughter.]  They  have  been  contra 
dicted,  gentlemen;  they  contradict  themselves  and  each  other." 

He  then  turned  to  the  consideration  of  the  documentary  and 
other  evidence  introduced  for  the  defence: 

"  I  desire  rtow  to  call  your  attention  to  one  tremendous  bit  of  evidence 
in  this  case.  It  is  the  fact  that  while  these  other  confessed  plunderers  of  the 
revenue  destroyed  their  books,  because,  as  they  have  proclaimed  to  you,  the 
emergency  of  the  case  demanded  it,  Rush  and  Pahlman  have  seduously 
preserved  and  cared  for  theirs.  These  witnesses,  one  after  another,  have 
demonstrated  to  you  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  that  the  books — taking  the 
whole  series  of  them — should  not  betray  these  frauds.  Start  with  a  false 
entry  anywhere,  your  falsehood,  must  be  carried  consistently,  persistently 
through  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  It  must  not  only  be  a  falsehood; 
not  only  a  fraud,  but  the  same  fraud  ;  else  you  slip  and  detection  is  sure. 
A  lie,  a  suppression,  once  finding  a  record  on  the  books  must,  if  it  succeed, 


THE   CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  4/5 

know  'neither  variableness  nor  shadow  of  turning;'  and  yet  this  govern 
ment,  engaged  as  it  has  been  in  the  prosecution  of  these  investigations  for 
months  and  months,  having  in  its  custody  the  books  of  these  defendants 
ever  since  last  January,  subjecting  them  during  all  those  months  to  the  most 
rigid  scrutiny  and  the  keenest  examination,  to  all  the  tests  which  human 
ingenuity  could  apply  or  devise,  have  utterly,  miserably  failed  in  producing 
from  all  that  vast  multitude  of  records  one  single  trace  or  line  that  is  crim 
inatory  to  these  defendants.  I  do  not  know  how  it  strikes  your  mind,  gen 
tlemen  of  the  jury,  but  it  seems  to  me  to  be  a  tremendously  telling  cir 
cumstance  here.  There  are  cases  where  the  most  tremendously  telling 
evidence  which  possibly  can  be  commanded  is  the  evidence  of  silence. 
When  one  is  charged  of  wrong,  and  remains  silent  in  the  presence  of 
the  wrong,  how  telling  and  significant  is  the  silence.  If  there  were  frauds, 
these  books,  examined  as  they  might  be,  would  speak  the  fact  so  elo 
quently,  so  clearly  that  they  could  by  no  earthly  possibility  be  the  shadow 
of  a  mistake  about  it.  What  have  the  books  done?  We  have  produced 
them  as  far  as  we  could.  We  would  be  glad  that  they  should  all  go 
before  you.  And  yet  Mr.  Boutelle,  representing  the  government,  yester 
day  had  the  hardihood  to  ask  us  why  we  have  not  produced  all  this 
great  volume  of  record  which  has  been  in  the  custody  of  the  govern 
ment  ever  since  last  January.  And,  gentlemen,  was  that  a  fair  point  to 
make?  Was  that  an  honest  point  to  make?  Was  there  anything  in  the 
situation  of  the  counsel  that  justified  the  making  of  such  a  point  as 
that  ?  Was  there  anything  in  the  emergency  of  the  case  which  possibly 
could  have  excused  it?  There  those  books  have  lain,  and  every  one  of 
them  that  has  been  introduced  in  evidence  we  have  introduced  ourselves. 
We  would  be  glad,  if  time  permitted,  that  you  would  go  through  every 
one  of  them.  They  have  not  suffered  them  to  be  removed  from  the 
custody  where  they  have  been  since  January,  and  subjected  to  the  keen 
est  scrutiny  and  the  most  rigid  investigation.  Those  voiceless,  tongueless 
books  yet  speak,  and  speak  more  eloquently  than  I  can,  from  their 
very  silence,  as  to  fraud  and  the  absolute  guiltlessness  and  innocence  of 
these  defendants.  In  the  presence  of  the  tremendous  evidence  of  that 
silence,  hordes  and  hordes  of  self-proclaimed  plunderers  and  self-convicted  per 
jurers  might  come  upon  the  stand  here  until  the  weary  soul  sickened  at  the 
spectacle,  and  yet  the  silent  testimony  of  the  books  would  prevail. 

"  I  superadd  to  all  that  the  high  and  flattering  testimonials  which  have 
been  borne  here  to  their  reputation.  You  observed,  gentlemen  of  the 
jury,  that  we  stopped  calling  witnesses  as  tp  character  because  the  court 
required  us  so  to  do.  Scores  of  witnesses  had  been  summoned  upon  tnat 
point,,  and  would  have  been  placed  upon  the  stand  here,  but  the  court, 
in  the  exercise  of  its  rightful  discretion — judicial  discretion — declared  that 
we  had  gone  far  enough  on  that  point.  You  would  be  satisfied,  gentle 
men,  if  the  old  friends  that  had  known  you  in  the  long  years  that  have 
passed,  men  who  had  themselves  borne  honorable  lives,  and  in  some  instances 
those  lives  have  ripened  into  large  measures  of  fame  and  renown:  would 
it  not  be  a  source  of  solid  satisfacticn  to  you,  standing,  as  the  most  of  you 


476  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

do,  upon  the  down-hill  side  of  your  lives,  that  the  old  friends  whom  you 
had  known  in  the  years  that  are  passed  could  speak  nothing  but  bene 
dictions  in  your  praise?  That  is  the  splendor  of  character.  That  is  the 
beauty  of  a  good  name ;  that  when  it  is  assailed  by  informers  and  by  sneaks 
and  cowards  the  good  deeds  of  the  long  years  that  are  passed  seem  to  take 
root  and  ripen,  and  ripen,  and  ripen,  and  they  blossom  into  the  final  fruit 
of  complete  and  perfect  vindication.  All  this  results  from  a  good  name, 
which  is  not  the  birth  merely  of  a  day,  but  is  the  steady  outgrowth  of  the 
steady  working  of  the  long  years  of  the  past.  Such  a  result  it  is  that 
sweetens  all  the  troubles  and  disasters  of  life  to  us.  And  in  the  presence 
of  such  a  character  thus  vindicated  and  thus  sustained,  the  outraged  citizen 
thus  assailed  may  clothe  himself  safely  about  with  the  good  name  that  his 
friends  give  him.  It  is  a  potent  armor  that  will  protect  him  against  the 
poisoned  darts  of  malice  and  perjury.  It  is  a  sure  shelter  and  refuge 
in  the  time  of  trouble.  If  you  have  sons,  I  know,  gentlemen  of  the  jury, 
that  you  can  ask  nothing  better  for  them  than  that,  in  the  long  road  of  . 
time  which  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  may  have  before  them,  when  they 
reach  the  years  that  these  defendants  have  attained,  they  can  call  about 
them  such  hosts  of  friends  who  will  stand  up  with  the  enthusiasm  which 
has  been  indicated  upon  this  witness  stand  and  vindicate  them. 

"Gentlemen  of  the  jury,  I  am  loath  to  leave  this  case.  I  am  loath  to  leave 
you.  I  am  impressed  with  the  greatness,  with  the  solemnities  of  the  issues 
which  it  involves. 

"We  are  standing  to-day,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,  just  upon  the  thresh 
old  of  our  second  centennial.  The  one  hundred  years  that  are  before 
us  hold  out  to  us,  as  I  sincerely  believe,  great  achievements  and  noble 
deeds,  and  that  in  those  years  that  are  before  us  the  Almighty  is,  slowly 
it  may  be,  but  surely  nevertheless,  hewing  out  for  this  land  that  we  love 
the  most  colossal  and  splendid  results  of  history.  Standing  upon  the 
threshold  of  that  coming  time,  remembering  the  perils  through  which  we 
have  passed,  and  the  perils  through  which  our  fathers  before  us  have 
passed,  let  us  signify  our  devotion  to  the  great  cause  of  good  govern 
ment  and  undivided  liberty  by  saying  to  these  defendants  that  they  stand 
vindicated,  and  that  the  tongue  of  the  slanderous  and  perjured  informer 
can  work  no  harm.  Their  interests  are  intrusted  to  your  hands ;  we  feel 
that  they  are  safe  there.  I  need  not  impress  upon  you  further  the  import 
ance  of  these  great  questions  which  you  are  called  upon  to  decide. 
You  know  them  as  well  as  I  know  them,  and  when  the  final  decision 
comes,  gentlemen,  gladden  your  own  hearts,  justify  your  own  judgments, 
make  all  these  people  rejoice  that  the  great  danger  which  has  threat 
ened  them  is  averted,  and  pronounce,  as  I  believe  it  will  be  your  pleas 
ure  to  pronounce,  the  verdict  which  shall  meet  the  approval  of  the  best 
judgment  of  the  best  men  of  the  country — 'We  find  the  defendants,  Not 
Guilty.1  " 

This  strong    appeal  was    unsuccessful,  and    the    defendants  were 
convicted.     The   jury    were    out    nearly   twenty-four   hours    before 


THE   CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  477 

they  reached  a  verdict.  That  trial  had  the  effect  of  breaking  down 
the  informer  system;  and  so  great  was  the  public  indignation  at 
the  result,  that,  as  stated  by  the  District  Attorney,  any  success 
with  evidence  of  such  a  character  thereafter  became  impossible. 

The  trial  of  Supervisor  Munn  was,  however,  proceeded  with  on 
evidence  of  the  same  character.  The  leading  witness  against  Mr. 
Munn  was  Jacob  Rehm. 

"His  testimony,"  said  Mr.  Storrs  in  his  letter  to  the  President,  "and 
that  of  the  other  witnesses  in  the  case,  demonstrated  the  fact  that  Rehm  was 
the  fountain-head  of  these  frauds,  that  he  absolutely  dominated  and  control 
led  the  appointment  of  all  the  subordinate  officers  here,  that  they  held  their 
positions  subject  to  his  will,  and  that  it  has  been  utterly  impossible,  since 
the  spring  of  1872,  for  any  one  engaged  in  the  business  of  distilling  to  pro 
secute  it  without  paying  contributions  to  Mr.  Jacob  Rehm.  The  fact  is 
that  he  has  received  by  this  course  of  plunder  from  the  distilling  inter 
ests  in  this  city,  since  the  spring  of  1872,  it  is  safe  to  say,  at  least  four  hun 
dred  thousand  dollars.  The  shallow  pretence  he  made,  that  he  was  se 
duced  by  Mr.  Hesing  into  this  business,  and  that  he  had  himself 
retained  none  of  the  money  which  he  had  thus  extorted  from  the  dis 
tillers,  met,  when  the  pretence  was  first  made,  with  universal  derision 
and  contempt,  and  was  totally  overthrown  during  the  progress  of  the 
trial.  The  entire  community  felt  that  the  conviction  of  any  man  upon 
the  testimony  of  Mr.  Rehm  would  be  such  an  outrage  upon  the  rights 
of  the  citizen,  that  it  could  not  for  an  instant  be  tolerated ;  and 
although  the  government  officials  put  forward  the  case  of  Mr.  Munn  first 
as  being  doubtless  the  strongest  one,  yet  his  acquittal  meets  with  univer 
sal  approval,  and  the  course  which  Mr.  Rehm  has  pursued,  and  the 
protection  which  he  seems  to  be  receiving  from  the  government,  meet 
with  as  universal  condemnation.  The  present  District  Attorney,  Judge 
Bangs,  is  a  most  faithful,  efficient,  and  without  doubt,  honest 'officer.  He 
apprehends,  as  clearly  as  I  do,  the  unfortunate  position  in  which  the 
government  is  placed  whenever  it  seeks  the  conviction  of  any  man  upon 
the  testimony  of  such  a  witness.  He  understands,  as  clearly  as  I  under 
stand,  that  every  effort  now  made  in  that  direction  is  a  discredit  to  any 
administration  which  makes  it.  From  the  prosecution  of  any  officials 
based  upon  the  testimony  of  Mr.  Rehm,  is  withdrawn  every  element  of 
moral  support  in  this  community.  I  venture  to  say  that  in  this  entire 
State,  not  one  intelligent,  honest-minded  citizen  can  be  found  who  would 
not  deplore  any  further  efforts  in  that  direction,  believing  that  a  contin 
uance  of  these  prosecutions  would  result  in  most  serious  discredit  to  the 
government  itself,  and  believing  also,  so  thoroughly  aroused  is  the  public 
feeling  against  this  man  that  a  conviction  is  an  utter  impossibility." 

The  trial  of  Mr.  Munn  resulted  in  an  honorable  acquittal ;  and 
Judge  Bangs  thereupon  dismissed  the  indictments  against  Ward 
and  Wadsworth,  notwithstanding  that  he  had  been  directed  by 


4/8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Bluford  Wilson,  to  go  on  with 
them. 

"There  still  remain  upon  the  docket  undisposed  of,  two  cases, — one 
against  the  former  Collector,  Mr.  Wadsworth,  and  the  other  against  the 
former  District  Attorney,  Mr.  Ward.  I  think  it  is  safe  to  say  that  in 
this  community,  where  Mr.  Wadsworth  is  known,  not  one  man  in  a  thous 
and  to-day  believes  he  is  guilty ;  not  one  in  a  thousand  ever  believed  it. 

"  The  case  against  him  is  weaker  than  the  case  against  Munn,  and  it 
practically  rests  upon  the  unsupported  testimony  of  Jacob  Rehm.  There  is 
practically  no  case  against  Mr.  Ward,  except  such  as  Mr.  Rehm  may 
see  fit  to  swear  to.  But  the  difficulty  has  been  that  up  to  the  present 
time,  at  least,  Rehm  has  held  the  distillers  in  such  complete  subjection 
as,  by  threats  and  otherwise,  to  lead  them  to  believe  that  if  they  told 
the  truth  against  him  severer  punishment  would  be  inflicted  upon  them 
for  it ;  so  that  it  has  been  impossible  to  expose  the  full  extent  and  meas 
ure  of  his  iniquities.  I  have  represented  to  Judge  Bangs  this  condition 
of  affairs,  and  the  terrorism  under  which  the  distillers  have  rested,  and 
he  assured  me  that  he  was  not  aware  of  it,  and  I  do  not  believe  that 
he  -was.  I  think,  however,  that  he  now  credits  my  statement;  and  I  do 
not  believe  that,  if  left  to  his  own  judgment,  he  would  deem  it  wise,  or 
just,  or  decent  to  go  one  step  further  in  the  prosecution  of  the  cases 
against  either  Wadsworth  or  Ward.  I  have  nothing  to  say  now  as  to 
this  business  of  immunity,  although  it  is  a  matter  upon  which  I  have 
very  positive  opinions.  That  will  probably  be  a  subject  for  future  inves 
tigation  ;  but  I  desire  to  state  to  you  that  my  profound  conviction  is  that 
the  league  which,  unwittingly  or  otherwise,  the  government,  through  its 
representative  in  this  city,  has  made  with  the  worst  men  engaged  in  the 
whisky  business  does  more  damage,  and  inflicts  an  infinitely  greater 
injury  upon  public  morals  and  the  substantial  public  interests,  than  all 
the  robbing  of  the  revenues  since  we  had  a  national  existence.  The  gov 
ernment  has  demonstrated  that  it  is  sufficiently  powerful  to  protect  itself 
against  frauds  upon  its  revenue.  The  whisky  ring  in  this  city,  of  which 
Jacob  Rehm  was  the  author,  is  crushed  out  of  existence.  The  members 
of  that  ring  are  to-day  bankrupt,  without  a  single  exception,  and  it  is 
not  only  my  opinion,  but  the  opinion,  I  believe,  of  every  fair-minded  man 
in  this  community,  that  the  time  has  now  come  when  the  government 
should  stay  its  hand,  and  declare  that  through  no  self-proclaimed  thieves 
and  perjurers  will  it  seek  the  conviction  of  any  one.  Regarded  merely 
from  the  low  stand-point  of  political  expediency,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that 
a  continuance  of  the  methods  which  have  been  employed  -in  these  pros 
ecutions  would  be  most  unwise.  The  fact  is  that  in  the  prosecutions  in 
this  city  the  government  itself  has  been  in  league  with  the  whisky  ring, 
and  Rush  and  Pahlman  in  their  case,  and  Munn  in  his,  have  been,  and 
Wadsworth  in  his  case  will  be,  compelled  to  attack  that  ring  and  the 
members  of  it.  The  earliest  sinners  and  the  worst  have  stood  the  high 
est  in  the  favor  of  the  government.  Such  men  as  Goleson,  Parker  R. 
Mason,  and  Jacob  Rehm,  who  have  always  been  utterly  disreputable  and 


THE   CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  4/9 

characterless,  seem  at  least  to  have  had  control  of  the  prosecutions,  and 
to  have  dictated  the  methods  in  which  the  prosecutions  shall  be  carried 
on.  They  have  had  the  confidence  and  the  ear  of  the  government.  This 
condition  of  affairs  Judge  Bangs  is  beginning  to  understand.  I  do  not 
believe  that  he  relishes  the  position  in  which  he  finds  himself  placed. 

"He  has,  I  understand,  written  to  the  Attorney-General  with  reference 
to  the  cases  of  Wadsworth  and  Ward ;  and  he  declares  to  me  that,  left 
to  himself,  he  should  have  no  hesitancy  in  directing  the  dismissal  of  those 
cases.  I  have  troubled  you  upon  this  subject  for  the  reason  that  I  felt  desir 
ous  you  should  understand  what  the  general  feeling  of  the  public  is,  and 
I  assure  you  nothing  could  be  done  which  would  meet  with  more  unan- 
mous  and  cordial  approval  of  our  entire  community,  and  the  more  thor 
ough  endorsement  of  our  best  public  sentiment,  than  the  discountenan 
cing  of  the  employment  of  such  men  as  Jacob  Rehm,  by  the  dismissal 
of  the  cases  in  which  he  figures  as  the  principal  witness.  I  am  anxious 
that  you  shall  understand  what  this  feeling  is,  and  that  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral  should  understand  it;  and,  were  he  inquired  of,  I  have  not  the 
slightest  doubt  that  Judge  Drummond  and  every  friend  that  you  have  in 
this  city  would  thoroughly  endorse  what  I  have  said.  Among  the  distillers 
who  have  been  indicted  and  pleaded  guilty,  there  are  a  few  who  have 
always  stood  well.  H.  B.  Miller,  Mr.  Powell,  Dickinson,  Leach  &  Co., 
and  Rush  &  Pahlman  are  men  who  went  into  the  distillation^  of  illicit  spir 
its  when  it  became  evident  that  the  government  would  not  assist  them  in 
the  prevention  of  frauds  in  other  cities,  and  that  they  must  either  them 
selves  engage  in  the  manufacture  of  illicit  spirits  or  quit  the  business.  These 
men  have  already  been  most  severely  punished ;  they  are  all  bankrupt;  they  are 
useful  men,  and,  in  the  main,  good  citizens.  They  are  entitled  to  belief; 
they  have  not  sought  their  own  escape  by  the  ruin  of  their  associates  and 
competitors  in  business.  Their  course  has  been  manly  and  straightforward; 
and  yet,  the  curious  result  seems  to  be  reached  that  they  are  specially  to 
be  made  to  suffer,  while  the  infinitely  guiltier  ones  are  to  escape.  It  is 
through  them,  and  through  the  exposure  which  Mr.  Hesing  has  made,  that  the 
full  extent  and  measure  of  Mr.  Jacob  Rehm's  long  continued  frauds  upon 
the  revenue  have  been  discovered.  Upon  Mr.  Hesing,  Mr.  Rehm,  taking 
advantage  of  his  position  as  a  government  witness,  attempted  to  unload. 

"Of  course  such  an  effort  was  ridiculous  upon  the  face  of  it,  and  encoun 
tered  utter  and  shameful  failure.  Whatever  Mr.  Hesing' s  political  errors 
may  have  been,  he  is  a  truthful  man,  and,  at  the  risk  of  added  years  of 
imprisonment  with  which  he  was  threatened,  he  took  the  stand,  and,  as  far 
as  he  was  permitted  to  do  so,  told  the  truth  of  Mr.  Jacob  Rehm.  These, 
however,  are  matters  to  be  considered  in  the  future.  It  will  be  well  and 
wise,  I  think,  at  some  future  period  for  the  administration  to  understand 
precisely  the  facts,— the  truth,  the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth. 

"I  am  as  certain  as  I  am  of  anything  in  this  world,  that  if  you  ever  come 
to  know  the  truth,  justice  will  be  done ;  not  such  justice  as  seems  to  have 
been  arranged  for  in  these  prosecutions,  but  such  as  an  intelligent,  honest 
public  sentiment  will  approve." 


480  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

The  local  press,  with  singular  unanimity,  adopted  Mr.  Storrs' 
view  of  these  cases.  They  commended  the  action  of  the  District 
Attorney  in  dismissing  the  indictments  against  Wadsworth  and 
Ward.  Mr.  Bluford  Wilson,  the  Solicitor  of  the  Treasury,  had 
ordered  the  trials  to  proceed,  but  Judge  Bangs  decided  to  dismiss 
them  upon  deliberate  conviction  that  the  government  could  expect 
only  a  verdict  of  acquittal.  One  Chicago  paper  said: — "It  was 
known  at  the  time  of  the  Munn  trial  that  the  government  had 
made  as  strong  a  case  as  lay  within  its  power.  The  result  in 
that  case  demonstrated  that  juries  would  not  convict  on  such 
testimony  as  the  government  had  to  offer.  This  was  the  situa 
tion,  as  we  understand  it,  when  Mr.  Solicitor  Wilson  arrived  in 
Chicago  and  ordered  that  the  trials  should  be  proceeded  with, 
against  the  better  judgment  of  the  distinguished  counsel  in  charge. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  we  say  Judge  Bangs  and  his  associates 
are  to  be  especially  commended.  They  are  to  be  commended 
because  in  the  course  of  the  administration  of  justice  they  have 
seen  fit  to.  disregard  altogether  the  unwarranted  interference  of 
a  subordinate  of  the  Treasury  Department  by  declining  to  prose 
cute  within  reasonable  expectation  of  conviction.  Messrs.  Wads- 
worth  and  Ward  have  been  long  and  favorably  known  in  this 
community,  and  public  sentiment  had  long  since  acquitted  them." 
Another  journal  said, — "  The  Munn  trial  was,  in  effect,  the  trial 
of  their  cases.  Jake  Rehm  was  relied  upon  as  the  main  witness 
against  the  three.  To  have  put  him  on  the  stand  again  would 
have 'been  a  species  of  subornation  of  perjury.  Judge  Bangs  was 
true  to  his  duty  as  a  prosecutor  for  the  Government  when  he 
moved  for  a  nolle  proscqui  in  the  two  remaining  cases,  and 
Judge  Blodgett  could  hardly  have  done  otherwise  than  order  the 
motion  entered.  If  any  remaining  case  really  turns  on  the  testi 
mony  of  Jake  Rehm,  it  should  be  dismissed.  A  perfectly  innocent 
man  might  have  fled  in  terror  from  Rehm's  tongue.  It  required 
remarkable  courage  on  Colonel  Munn's  part  to  stand  trial."  Still 
another  paper  said, — "This  action  of  the  government  counsel  in 
dismissing  the  indictments  against  Ward  and  Wadsworth  will  meet 
with  universal  approval  under  the  circumstances.  They  had  no 
evidence  against  eithe:  of  these  gentlemen  except  that  of  Jake 
Rehm,  and  the  Munn  trial  abundantly  demonstrated  that  neither 
the  public  nor  a  jury  would  accept  his  story  as  true.  It  would 


THE   CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  481 

therefore  have  been  a  useless  task  to  have  gone  on  with  the 
other  trials  depending  upon  the  same  evidence,  and  the  result 
would  merely  have  served  to  demoralize  the  administration  of 
justice  in  the  Federal  Courts  so  that,  as  one  of  the  counsel  was 
heard  to  say,  'it  would  be  eventually  impossible  to  convict  a 
counterfeiter  with  the  tools  in  his  pockets.'  If  the  government 
counsel  are  open  to  criticism,  it  is  from  lack  of  sagacity  in  going 
to  trial  in  any  case  on  Jake  Rehm's  story,  which  was  repug 
nant  to  the  common  judgment  of  those  who  have  known  him." 
It  was  a  noticeable  fact  very  early  in  the  history  of  these 
prosecutions  that  there  did  not  seem  to  be  so  great  an  anxiety 
to  punish  really  guilty  men,  against  whom  the  evidence  was 
overwhelming,  as  to  implicate  by  the  testimony  of  these  guilty 
parties  men  of  official  and  political  prominence.  This  was 
observed  by  Mr.*Tutton  while  in  Chicago.  He  stated  before  an 
investigating  committee  at  Washington  that  at  an  interview 
between  himself,  Treasury  Solicitor  Wilson,  the  District  Attorney, 
and  the  special  government  counsel,  Messrs.  Dexter  and  Ayer, 
he  was  instructed  to  procure  evidence  against  Ward  and  Wads- 
worth,  the  Solicitor  saying,  "After  they  are  indicted  there  will 
be  plenty  of  people  to  give  you  evidence  against  them.  The 
main  thing  is  to  get  them  indicted."  It  was  even  suggested 
that,  as  Rehm  and  Hesing  were  political  men,  and  backers  of 
Congressman  Farwell  and  Senator  Logan,  an  effort  should  be 
made  to  hunt  up  evidence  against  these  two  latter  gentlemen. 
Mr.  Tutton  declined  to  act  in  the  matter  from  a  political  point 
of  view,  believing  that  the  sole  purpose  of  the  government  should 
be  to  establish  the  guilt  of  the  actual  offenders,  and  punish 
them.  The  eagerness  to  indict  Senator  Logan  and  other  promi 
nent  officials  was  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  evidence  taken 
before  the  Congressional  investigating  committee,  and  it  was  also 
conclusively  shown  that  the  guilty  distillers,  gaugers,  and  store 
keepers  were  to  be  used  as  witnesses  for  that  purpose.  Mr. 
Ward  stated  that  the  question  of  immunity  was  raised  before  he 
went  out  of  office,  and  that  Mr.  Bluford  Wilson,  in  talking  about 
it,  said  there  were  several  men  to  implicate  whom  he  would  be 
willing  to  grant  these  men  immunity.  He  referred  to  General 
Logan,  Mr.  Farwell,  and  Mr.  Frank  Palmer.  "He  said  that  he 
believed  Logan  was  the  mover  and  backer  of  this  ring?  and  that 
31 


482  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

he  and  his  agents  and  appliances  were  the  life  of  it."  The  ques 
tion  was  put  to  Mr.  Ward,  "  Did  Wilson  say  in  your  presence, 
•Damn  the  evidence?'  Mr.  Ward  replied,  "He  said,  'Damn  the 
men;'  that  the  people  were  afraid  of  them  now;  indict  them, 
and  there  would  be  lots  of  people  ready  to  come  and  peach  on 
them — to  blow  upon  them.  I  said  to  him  I  did  not  believe 
that  was  good  practice.  He  confined  his  denunciation  chiefly  to 
Logan  and  his  friends.  Harwell's  name  was  not  often  used  in 
my  presence,  for  the  reason  that  I  had  some  words  with  Mr. 
Wilson  on  the  subject.  I  told  him  that  Mr.  Farwell  was  a  friend 
of  mine  of  many  years  standing,  and  that  I  did  not  believe  any 
thing  of  the  kind  against  him."  A  newspaper  correspondent  at 
Washington  also  testified  to  a  conversation  he  had  had  with  Mr. 
Bluford  Wilson,  in  which  the  Solicitor  expressed  his  confidence 
that  he  would  succeed  in  indicting  Senator  Logan. 

Mr.  Tutton  subsequently  laid  the  whole  matter  before  the 
President,  and  gives  the  following  narrative  of  what  occurred: — 
"I  said  to  the  President  that  it  might  be  good  policy,  though  I 
doubted  it  very  much,  and  at  any  rate  if  that  policy  was  to  be 
carried  out,  of  letting  thieves  who  had  stolen  hundreds  of  thous 
ands  of  dollars,  which  we  could  prove  against  them,  -go  free  and 
be  relieved  from  punishment,  no  man  in  the  revenue  service  was 
safe;  that  these  men  who  had  been  committing  perjury  right 
along,  both  distillers  and  gaugers,  month  after  month,  would 
swear  anybody  into  the  penitentiary  in  order  to  escape  it  them 
selves.  I  did  not  want  to  have  anything  to  do  with  matters  of 
that  kind.  The  President  said  he  thought  that  something  ought 
to  be  done  to  stop  that  wholesale  bargain  and  sale  business." 

It  was  at  this  time,  while  the  air  was  filled  with  rumors  of 
bargains  being  made  by  the  wholesale  with  the  guiltiest  members 
of  the  whisky  ring  in  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  and  Milwaukee,  that 
Attorney-General  Pierrepont  wrote  a  circular  letter  on  the  sub 
ject  to  the  District  Attorneys  in  those  cities.  A  tremendous 
outcry  was  raised  because  of  that  letter.  The  most  vehement 
denials  were  made  that  any  such  bargains  existed.  The  President 
and  the  Attorney-General  were  both  denounced  as  being  in  the 
interest  of  the  whisky  ring.  The  parties  with  whom  these  alleged 
bargains  were  made  zealously  denied  them  under  oath.  The 
government  counsel  denied  them.  Mr.  Tutton  was  charged  with 


THE   CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.        ^  483 

interfering  with  the  officers  of  the  law  in  their  righteous  efforts 
to  put  down  the  whisky  ring,  and  his  removal  was  threatened. 
A  telegram  from  Secretary  Bristow  to  Mr.  Tutton  was  published, 
denying  that  there  was  any  truth  in  the  statement.  Mr.  Storrs, 
who  attempted  in  court  to  urge  that  such  bargains  had  been 
made,  was  summarily  stopped  by  the  presiding  judge;  and  yet, 
until  he  received  his  commission  as  special  District  Attorney  for 
the  disposal  of  the  Chicago  cases,  not  one  of  these  guilty  parties 
was  ever  called  up  for  sentence,  and  they  then  claimed  that  it 
was  because  of  an  agreement  that  they  should  not  be. 

In  the  summer  of  1876  Mr.  Storrs  was  appointed  special  Dis 
trict  Attorney  for  the  purpose  of  closing  up  the  cases  against  the 
Chicago  whisky  ring  operators  still  remaining  on  the  docket. 
Believing  that  his  clients,  Rush  and  Pahlman,  had  been  wrong 
fully  convicted  on  the  testimony  of  perjured  informers,  he  had 
naturally  a  strong  feeling  and  desire  to  see  that  if  the  other 
parties  against  whom  suits  for  civil  penalties  had  been  instituted 
were  made  to  refund  to  the  Government  their  ill-gotten  gains, 
the  worst  offender  of  all,  as  he  judged  Mr.  Rehm  to  be,  should 
in  particular  be  compelled  to  disgorge.  But  the  special  purpose 
of  his  appointment,  and  the  end  which  he  was  most  anxious  to 
accomplish,  was  to  fix  the  responsibility  for  the  extraordinary 
bargain  entered  into  between  the  government  counsel  and  the 
culprits  under  indictment  where  it  properly  belonged,  and  to 
relieve  the  President  from  the  odium  which  had  been  attempted 
to  be  cast  upon  him  in  connection  with  this  discreditable  trans 
action.  With  this  end  in  view  he  endeavored  to  perfect  record 
evidence  as  to  the  actual  terms  of  the  bargain  and  the  authority 
on  which  such  bargain  was  made,  and  to  have  this  evidence 
spread  upon  the  records  of  the  United  States  Circuit  Court.  In 
a  letter  to  Attorney  General  Taft,  dated  August  29,  1876,  he 
reports  the  result  of  an  interview  with  District  Attorney  Bangs 
as  to  the  course  to  be  pursued  in  regard  to  the  disposition  of 
the  whisky  cases  still  remaining  on  the  docket.  .  In  that  letter 
he  said: 

"The  Judge  at  first  seemed  to  think  that  the  facts  with  reference  to 
the  promised  immunity  were  already  sufficiently  well  known ;  but  after 
calling  his  attention  to  the  consideration  that  there  was  no  recorded  evidence, 
and  that  the  testimony  before  the  Whisky  investigating  committee  at  Wash 
ington  was  exceedingly  conflicting  upon  that  point,  he  agreed  with  me 


484  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

that  it  was  desirable  that,  upon  the  disposition  of  the  cases,  evidence 
either  by  way  of  affidavits  regularly  filed  in  Court  or  by  the  examination  of 
the  parties  under  oath  was  important,  in  order  to  ascertain  just  what  the 
immunity  was,  and  to  what  extent  it  was  to  be  carried,  and  with  whom 
the  agreements  were  made,  so  that  the  Court  might  be  enabled  to  act 
intelligently  and  justly  in  the  final  disposition  of  the  cases.  He  agreed 
with  me  that  if  the  facts  showed  an  agreement  for  absolute  immunity 
from  punishment,  the  indictments  should  be  dismissed,  and  he  also  agreed 
with  me  that  the  entry  dismissing  the  indictments  should  recite  the 
grounds  upon  which  the  entry  itself  was  made.  I  urged  upon  Judge 
Bangs  the  importance  of  an  immediate  disposition  of  these  cases,  and  he 
agreed  with  me  that  they  might  as  well  be  dismissed  under  proper 
showings  at  Chambers  as  elsewhere." 

Mr.  Storrs  accordingly  had  the  affidavits  of  the  representatives 
of  the  " first  batch"  taken  and  filed  in  the  United  States  Court, 
setting  forth  the  terms  on  which  they  were  granted  immunity ; 
and  it  appeared  from  these  that  a  very  liberal  discretion  had  been 
allowed  by  the  Department  to  the  District  Attorney  and  his 
special  assistants  in  dealing  with  these  informers.  Upon  reading 
and  filing  those  papers,  an  order  was  entered  in  each  of  the  cases, 
in  which  the  facts  were  recited  as  Mr.  Storrs  had  suggested;  and  thus 
that  list  of  cases  was  disposed  of,  very  little  to  the  satisfaction  of 
the  general  public  or  to  the  credit  of  the  government,  but  to  the 
complete  refutation  of  all  pretences  that  the  President  was  in 
any  way  responsible  for  the  extraordinarily  lenient  way  these  cul 
prits  were  treated.  The  order  dismissing  the  indictments  sets 
forth  that  "  it  was  agreed  between  the  counsel  for  the  above-named 
defendants  on  the  one  part,  and  Hon.  Mark  Bangs,  the  U.-  S. 
District  Attorney  for  the  Northern  District  of  Illinois,  and  Hon. 
Wirt  Dexter,  Benjamin  F.  Ayer,  and  L.  H.  Boutelle,  special 
assistant  District  Attorneys,  on  the  other  part,  that  in  case 
the  said  defendants  should  divulge  the  facts  within  their  know 
ledge  as  to  the  alleged  whisky  frauds  fully  and  fairly,  and  turn 
State's  evidence,  they  should  have  among  other  things  complete 
immunity  from  punishment  by  fine  or  imprisonment,  and  from, 
any  criminal  liability  on  account  of  any  matters  set  forth  in  said 
indictment,  or  which  might  appear  against  them  by  reason  of  any 
disclosures  which  they  might  make."  The  entire  responsi 
bility,  therefore,  rested  in  the  first  place  with  Secretary  Bristow  and 
the  solicitor  to  the  Treasury,  Mr.  Bluford  Wilson,  who  authorized, 
and  next  with  the  District  Attorney  and  his  assistants,  who  made 


THE    CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  485 

the  bargain.     In  a  letter  to  the  President  just  after  the  dismissal 
of  these  cases,  Mr.  Storrs  said  : 

"Yesterday  morning  the  parties  appeared  before  Judge  Blodgett  in 
chambers.  Messrs.  Swett  and  Smith  filed  their  affidavit,  which  was  endorsed  as 
true  by  Judge  Bangs,  and  an  order,  which  I  had  prepared,  was 
entered,  dismissing  the  indictments.  I  send  you  herewith  copies  of  the 
statement  and  the  order.  Thus  we  have  finally  reached  bottom,  and  the 
truth  has  at  last  come  to  light  and  is  of  record.  We  have  not  yet  the 
whole  truth.  I  have  insisted  that  upon  the  claim  for  immunity  from 
civil  liability,  I  must  have  the  facts  at  first  hand.  The  agreement  was 
originally  made  between  Gholson  G.  Russell,  the  leader  of  the  'squealers,' 
and  Bristow,  Wilson,  and  Matthews.  Russell  is  now  in  Colorado.  He 
has  been  telegraphed  for,  and  his  affidavit  showing  up  this  whole  busi 
ness  will  go  upon  the  files.  This  will,  of  course,  make  most  interesting 
reading.  Mr.  Swett  made  an  elaborate  statement  justifying  the  course 
which  he  had  pursued,  and  also  justifying  the  action  of  the  government 
counsel.  It  is  enough  to  say  as  to  that,  that  Tutton  clearly  shows  that 
the  proof  was  conclusive  against  all  these  men.  However,  it  does  appear 
from  Swett's  speech  that  the  trade  was-  opened  and  practically  concluded 
at  Washington." 

In  this  same  letter,  Mr.  Storrs  urged  the  pardon  of  the  "  sec 
ond  batch,"  who  he  thought  had  been  harshly  treated. 

"I  have  been  beset,"  he  said,  "by  many  Republicans  who  were  at  first 
disinclined  to  take  any  steps  towards  securing  pardons,  for  immediate 
action  in  those  cases.  As  matters  now  stand  we  must  expect  to  lose 
the  German  vote.  They  say  the  government  has  carried  out  its  agree 
ment  with  the  great  thieves  ;  why  should  it  not  at  once  carry  out  its 
agreement  with  the  comparatively  innocent  men  now  in  jail?  There  is 
no  answer  to  this.  There  can  be  no  answer  to  it.  The  agreement  was 
clear  and  unmistakable  that  they  should  all  be  treated  alike,  and  the 
mere  announcement,  so  that  it  can  be  authoritatively  used,  that  the 
pardons  had  been  granted  for  all,  which  is  the  clear  line  of  justice, 
would  do  us  incalculable  service.  Of  course,  I  am  not  to  be  understood 
as  arguing  immediate  action  on  political  grounds;  but — there  stands  the 
agreement  with  these  men  on  the  one  hand  violated,  and  the  agreement 
with  the  'first  batch'  carried  out  in  all  its  details.  Hesing's  pardon 
should  be  simultaneous  with  the  others,  because  then  all  chance  of  say 
ing  that  it  was  the  price  paid  for  political  advantages  would  be  removed. 
If  he  is  pardoned  when  the  rest  are,  and  on  the  same  conditions  and 
for  the  same  reasons,  to  wit,  that  the  agreement  under  which  he  pleaded 
guilty  was  the  same  as  that  made  with  the  other  parties,  all  cavils  of 
this  kind  are  put  out  of  the  way,  and  it  stands  on  the  strong  and  solid 
foundations  of  absolute  truth.  These  men  are  all  hopelessly  ruined,  and 
now  feeling  begins  to  run  so  strongly  in  their  favor  that  the  danger  is 
that  they  may  come  to  be  regarded  as  martyrs." 


486  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

This  letter  had  its  due  weight,  and  the  pardons  were  shortly 
afterwards  granted.  Mr.  Storrs  next  turned  his  attention  to  the 
prosecution  of  a  civil  suit  against  Jacob  Rehm,  for  a  penalty 
amounting  to  one  million  dollars,  or  double  the  amount  of  which 
he  was  claimed  to  have  defrauded  the  revenue.  Rehm's  counsel 
claimed  that  his  exemption  from  civil  liability,  while  not  included 
specifically  in  the  agreement  made  with  him,  was  a  fair  inference 
from  the  fact  that  he  was  used  as  a  government  witness.  Judge 
Bangs  was  not  a  party  to  the  agreement  with  Rehm,  and  at 
first  was  inclined  to  agree  with  Mr.  Storrs  that  the  immunity 
extended  to  him  from  criminal  punishment  did  not  relieve  him 
of  his  civil  liability.  Mr.  Storrs  held  that  Rehm's  testimony  had 
not  been  of  the  slightest  service  to  the  government;  that  in  any 
event,  the  immunity  granted  to  him  was  on  condition  that  he 
should  testify  "  truthfully,  fully,  and  fairly,"  and  that  Rehm  had 
not  done  this ;  and  that  therefore  the  government  was  not  bound 
by  the  agreement  as  to  immunity,  even  if  it  specifically  covered 
Rehm's  civil  liability.  He  prepared  an  elaborate  argument  review 
ing  the  whole  question,  which  was  submitted  to  Attorney  Gen 
eral  Taft,  eliciting  the  following  reply: 

"I  have  received  your  letter  of  the  3d  inst.,  covering  your  opinion  in 
the  Rehm  case.  I  have  carefully  read  the  opinion,  and  am  pleased 
with  the  argument  you  make  upon  the  points  in  the  case,  and  concur 
in  your  conclusion.  "Very  respectfully, 

"  ALPHONSO  TAFT,    Attorney-General." 

While  the  civil  suit  was  pending,  Rehm  was  called  up  for  sen 
tence  in  the  District  Court,  and  the  light  penalty  of  six  months' 
imprisonment  and  $10,000  fine  imposed  upon  him  by  Judge 
Blodgett.  A  pardon  was  speedily  obtained  for  him  on  the 
recommendation  of  Judge  Blodgett  and  the  District  Attorney. 

His  counsel  then  filed  a  motion  to  dismiss  the  suit  against 
him  for  the  civil  penalty,  basing  it  upon  the  alleged  immunity 
and  the  pardon.  While  this  motion  was  pending,  they  made  a 
strenuous  effort  to  secure  a  dismissal  of  the  suit  through  the 
Department  of  Justice.  Against  this  course  Mr.  Starrs  protested, 
and  in  a  letter  to  Attorney-General  Devens  stated  his  views  fully, 
concluding  as  follows: — "I  have  seen  no  reason  to  change  the 
opinion  expressed  by  me  in  the  document  submitted  to  Judge 
Taft,  and  notwithstanding  all  that  has  been  or  may  be  said  to 
the  contrary,  do  not  believe  that  the  prosecution  of  this  suit 


THE   CHICAGO    WHISKY    RING.  487 

against  him  involves  any  breach  of  faith  with  him.  Success  in 
this  case, — so  conspicuous  is  the  case,  and  so  prominent  has 
Rehm  been  among  the  large  brood  of  local  and  machine  politi 
cians — would  in  my  judgment  be  productive  of  the  most  health 
ful  and  salutary  results." 

Attorney-General  Devens  wrote  to  Judge  Bangs  instructing 
him,  in  connection  with  Mr.  Storrs,  to  submit  to  the  Court  the 
question  whether  the  arrangement  between  the  counsel  for  the 
Government  and  Rehm's  counsel  was  such  as  to  impose  upon  the 
Government  the  duty,  as  a  matter  of  honor  and  good  faith,  of 
dismissing  the  suit.  "If  the  court,"  he  said,  "shall  find  this 
question  affirmatively,  or  shall  upon  the  hearing  of  the  evidence 
so  advise,  you  will  dismiss  the  suit.  I  write  this  with  the  approval 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury." 

Mr.  Storrs  had  previously  recommended  that  this  question  be 
submitted  to  Judge  Drummond,  in  a  letter  to  Attorney-General 
Devens  in  which  he  said: 

"There  is  not  in  the  Northwest  a  judicial  officer  who  commands  such 
universal  respect,  confidence,  and  esteem  as  Judge  Drummond.  In  no 
hands  will  the  interests  of  the  government  be  more  secure,  or  the  rights  of 
the  accused  more  conscientiously  guarded  and  respected  than  in  his.  The 
trouble  is,  as  I  think,  that  the  counsel  for  Mr.  Rehm  are  very  certain  that 
before  Judge  Drummond  .this  motion  will  be  denied.  I  have  every  confidence 
that  it  will  be  denied,  and  that  too  not  merely  upon  technical  grounds,  but 
upon  the  justice  and  fairness  of  the  whole  case.  The  extreme  reluctance  of 
Rehm  and  his  counsel  to  confront  Judge  Drummond  does  not  grow  out  of 
any  doubt  of  the  ability  and  integrity  of  the  man,  but  from  an  entire  lack 
of  confidence  in  the  case  which  they  will  present  to  him.  I  am  justified  by 
the  opinion  of  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  of  our  citizens  in  stating  that 
Rehm's  testimony  was  in  many  material  particulars  grossly  and  absurdly 
false.  The  pretence  that  he  is  entitled  to  civil  immunity  was  never  thought 
of  until  after  this  suit  was  brought.  The  fact  is,  neither  his  counsel  nor  the 
then  representatives  of  the  government  had  thought  of  his  liability  under 
section  3296,  and  their  attention  had  never  been  called  to  it;  and  I  under 
take  to  say  that,  placed  upon  the  stand  and  subjected  to  a  cross-examination, 
not  one  of  the  counsel  for  the  government  will  testify  that  they  supposed 
when  they  were  trading  with  Rehm  that  they  were  relieving  him  from  a 
pecuniary  liability  to  the  government  of  over  one  million  dollars.  I  think 
we  have  a  right  to  a  fair  trial  of  that  question,  together  with  the  other 
question  as  to  whether  he  testified  truthfully,  fully,  and  fairly,  not  by  ex 
parte  affidavits,  but  by  an  examination  of  the  witnesses  in  open  court.  If 
upon  such  a  test,  Rehm  should  make  a  case,  I  certainly  would  make  no 
protest  against  any  result  which  might  legitimately  follow  from  it." 


488  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

The  former  government  counsel,  nevertheless,  did  go  upon  the 
stand  before  Judge  Drummond,  and  were  closely  cross-examined 
by  Mr.  Storrs;  and,  contrary  to  his  expectation,  they  did  testify 
as  to  the  bargain  made  with  Rehm  in  such  a  manner  as  to  leave 
Judge  Drummond  only  one  duty  to  perform.  He  reported  his 
conclusion  to  District  Attorney  Bangs  as  follows: 

"I  have  considered  the  case  of  Jacob  Rehm,  now  under  prosecution  by 
the  United  States  for  a  money  penalty  for  violation  of  the  Internal  Revenue 
law,  in  view  of  the  testimony  heard  before  us  to-day.  An  indictment 
under  the  Internal  Revenue  law  was  found  against  him  at  the  Decem 
ber  term  A.  D.  1875  ;  and  while  it  was  pending,  a  proposition  was  made 
by  his  counsel  to  the  counsel  of  the  government,  that  he  would  fairly 
and  truly  communicate  all  he  knew  as  to  offences  against  the  Internal 
Revenue  law,  and  would  in  the  same  spirit  testify  as  a  witness  for  the 
government  in  any  prosecutions  for  its  violation.  An  interview  accordingly 
took  place  between  Messrs.  Lawrence  and  Campbell,  representing  the 
defendant,  and  yourself  and  Messrs.  Ayer,  Dexter,  and  Boutelle,  repre 
senting  the  government.  The  result  was  an  agreement  that  Rehm  should 
plead  guilty  to  all  the  counts  of  the  pending  indictment,  and  carry  out  in  good 
faith  the  proposition  made  through  his  counsel,  and  that  the  government 
should  not  insist  upon  a  certain  punishment.  All  of  the  terms  agreed  on 
by  the  counsel  of  the  respective  parties  touching  the  indictment  and  its 
contingent  penalties  need  not  be  mentioned,  as  that  proceeding  is  ter 
minated,  and  no  question  arises  on  the  subject.  The  only  controversy 
is  whether  it  was  a  condition  made  by  the  defendant  and  accepted  by 
the  government  that  he  should  receive  immunity  as  to  all  penalties  other 
than  what  might  be  considered  strictly  criminal,  for  offences  committed 
by  him  against  the  Internal  Revenue  law,  and  for  which  he  would  be 
liable  to  a  money  penalty  merely.  It  does  not  appear  that  such  immu 
nity  was  expressly  mentioned,  or  promised  by  the  counsel  of  the  govern 
ment,  at  the  interview  named  ;  but  it  is  clear  from  their  statements  that 
the  counsel  of  the  defendant  understood  it  to  reach  that  extent,  and  to 
constitute  a  part  of  the  contract  made  between  the  parties.  Had  they 
the  right  to  assume  that  this  was  necessarily  implied  from  all  the  cir 
cumstances  of  the  case  ?  I  think  they  had.  This  is  admitted  by  three 
of  the  counsel  representing  the  government.  It  is  of  more  importance  to 
the  public  interests  that  all  agreements  of  this  kind  should  be  carried  out 
in  good  faith  by  the  government,  than  the  possible  success  of  a  prose 
cution  for  a  money  penalty  against  the  defendant.  That  the  defendant 
fulfilled  his  part  of  the  agreement  is  not  questioned  by  the  counsel.  I 
think,  therefore,  that  the  government  ought  not  to  continue  the  prosecu 
tion  now  pending  against  the  defendant  for  a  money  penalty  for  a  viola 
tion  of  the  Internal  Revenue  law." 

Upon  this  finding,  the  District  Attorney,  in  accordance  with 
his  instructions,  dismissed  the  suit. 


CHAPTER  XXIV, 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1876. 

RATIFICATION  MEETING  IN  CHICAGO— COLORLESS  CANDIDATES— SPEECH  AT 
AURORA,  ILLINOIS — THE  RECORDS  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  AND  DEMOCRATIC 
PARTIES  COMPARED — THE  ST.  LOUIS  PLATFORM,  WITH  ITS  SOPHISTRIES 
ABOUT  REFORM,  CENTRALISM,  AND  DEFALCATIONS — THE  FINANCIAL  ADMIN 
ISTRATION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY — REDUCTION  OF  TAXATION  AND 
EXPENSES — TILDEN  THE  FRIEND  OF  TWEED — SPEECH  AT  DETROIT — REVIEW 
OF  THE  DEMOCRATIC  PLATFORM  AND  TILDEN*S  RECORD — SPEECH  AT 
FREEPORT,  ILLINOIS — RECORD  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY — ENFORCING  THE  CON 
STITUTIONAL  AMENDMENTS — A  NEW  APPLICATION  OF  THE  PARABLE  OF 
THE  PRODIGAL  SON — WHERE  TILDEN  WAS  DURING  THE  WAR. 

THE  result  of  the  Republican  National  Convention,  which  met 
at  Cincinnati  in  May,  1876,  and  nominated  Hayes  and 
Wheeler,  was  as  much  of  a  disappointment  to  Mr.  Storrs  as  it 
was  to  the  majority  of  the  party  throughout  the  United  States. 
In  common  with  them,  he  would  have  preferred  a  known  leader 
at  the  head  of  the  ticket;  a  man  who  was  stalwart  in  his  convic 
tions,  and  who  could  give  effect  to  the  demand  of  the  party  as 
expressed  in  the  platform  of  1876,  for  the  vigorous  and  continu 
ous  exercise  of  the  powers  of  the  Federal  Government  until  all 
classes  were  secure  in  their  civil  and  political  rights.  How  Mr. 
Hayes  would  carry  out  this  programme  was  entirely  a  matter  of 
conjecture,  as  he  was  almost  without  a  record  when  he  unexpec 
tedly  rose  into  the  most  prominent  place  before  the  nation. 
Ahvays  ready  to  subordinate  his  personal  preferences  to  the  inter 
ests  of  the  party,  howrever,  Mr.  Storrs  took  a  vigorous  part  in  the 
campaign,  and  stumped  Mr.  Hayes'  own  State  in  his  behalf. 

A  ratification  meeting  was  held  in  Chicago  shortly  after  the 
adjournment  of  the  Convention,  and  Mr.  Storrs  addressed  the 
Republicans  there  assembled  as  follows : 

489 


49O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"As  I  look  about  on  this  platform  and  in  the  body  of  this  very  fine 
hall,  I  see  many  of  the  most  conclusive  evidences  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
Republican  Convention  which  has  recently  been  held  at  Cincinnati  in  the 
nomination  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler.  I  see  many  of  my  good  old  Liberal 
friends  returned  to  the  Republican  fold.  [Applause.]  I  welcome  them 
back.  [Cheers.]  I  am  sorry  that  they  ever  left — I  am  glad  that  they 
have  returned.  [Cheers.]  My  friends  were  foolish,  fiut  after  having 
learned  that  the  adventure  of  the  Prodigal  Son  always  results  in  a  husk 
dividend  [laughter],  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  in  future  we  will  stand 
together  as  we  do  to-night,  and  as  we  will  in  the  canvass  upon  the 
threshold  of  which  we  are  just  standing.  We  will  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  Republican  party  is  strong  and  virtuous  enough  to  effect  its  own 
reforms,  and  that  one  of  the  poorest  methods  on  earth  to  reform  the  Repub 
lican  party  is  by  voting  the  Democratic  ticket.  [Cheers.]  I  think  it  is  well 
for  us  to  be  here.  I  know,  after  the  nomination  is  made,  no  distinctions 
between  men  and  individual  preferences,  and  I  was  glad  to  hear  from  my 
brother  Smith,  who  has  been  for  so  many  years  an  ardent  and  enthusiastic 
Republican,  that  the  nomination  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler  has  secured  to  us 
without  question  the  vote  of  the  Bristow  Club.  [Cheers.]  There  was  never 
any  danger  about  the  Blaine  men,  nor  the  Conkling  men.  [Laughter  and 
cheers.]  Nothing  was  ever  said  in  better  part,  and  I  see  you  have  taken 
it  in  good  part.  [Renewed  cheers.] 

"I  ratify  the  nomination  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler,  of  course,  because 
they  are  both  good  men,  because  they  are  both  fit  men,  because  they 
are  both  men  unassailed  and  unassailable,  and,  gentlemen,  I  ratify  the 
nomination  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler  for  another  reason — because  they  are 
the  Republican  nominees.  [Cheers.]  I  would  not  vote  for  Hayes  or 
Wheeler,  or  any  other  man  running  on  a  Democratic  ticket.  I  have 
that  confidence — that  sublime  and  perfect  confidence — that  in  a  tight 
place  and  in  a  delicate  position,  the  Democratic  party  will  do  the  wrong 
thing  as  a  party, — that  no  nomination  that  they  could  possibly  make 
could  combine  in  itself  virtue  enough  in  the  candidates  to  overcome  the 
inherent  cussedness  of  that  great  aggregation  of  men.  [Cheers  and 
laughter.]  I  am  for  the  Republican  nominees  because  the  Republican 
party  is  as  good  as  the  nominees  [laughter]  ;  because,  taken  as  a  great 
mass,  it  represents  the  loyal  sentiment  and  the  patriotism  and  the  honest 
desire  for  reform  in  this  country.  I  believe  that  the  Republican  party, 
as  a  party  organization,  with  all  its  mistakes,  with  all  its  errors,  and  with 
all  its  shortcomings,  has  within  itself  to  clean  the  Augean  stable,  to  elevate 
our  civil  service,  and  to  march  all  the  time,  if  not  a  little  ahead,  fully 
abreast  of  a  wise  and  honest  public  sentiment.  [Cheers.]  When  the 
Republican  party  ceases  to  be  a  party  of  movement,  and  forward  move 
ment,  it  will  cease  to  be  the  Republican  party.  It  was  a  party  organized 
not  for  a  day,  but  for  all  time.  It  takes  things  as  it  finds  them,  but 
it  never  leaves  them  as  it  finds  them.  It  found  4,000,000  of  chattels — it 
has  made  4,000,000  of  voters  in  their  place.  [Cheers.]  It  found  a  great 
nation,  the  hope  of  civil  liberty  all  over  the  globe,  struggling  in  the 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1876.  49 1 

arms  of  a  gigantic  rebellion,  and  it  carried  it  safely  through  its  flaming 
perils,  and  has  guaranteed  to  our  Republic  the  etwnity  of  success  and 
glory.  [Cheers.]  It  found  a  depreciated  and  almost  exploded  currency, 
and  a  crippled  national  credit.  Steadily  and  persistently  it  began  eight  years 
ago  to  denounce  the  fraudulent  conception  that  our  national  debt  should 
be  paid  in  greenbacks;  it  has  never  swerved  a  moment  from  the  course 
it  then  took  ;  it  has  pursued  it  unceasingly  ever  since,  and  it  will  never 
abandon  the  question  until  the  word  of  the  United  States  finds  its  redemp 
tion  in  coin,  in  the  currency  of  the  world.  [Cheers.] 

"I  agree  thoroughly  with  what  your  President  has  so  well  said  as  to 
the  demands  of  the  people.  I  go  a  little  further  than  my  good  friend 
Mr.  Larned.  It  is  impossible  that  all  the  reforms  which  the  people 
demand  shall  be  wrought  out  by  the  election  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler,  or 
by  that  of  anybody  else.  Their  election  is  simply  the  expression  of  the 
public  will  that  there  shall  be  a  reform.  An  honest  man  standing  at  the 
head  of  the  Government  and  backed  up  by  a  constituency  which  has  a 
lack  of  moral  sympathy  with  him  is  as  helpless  as  a  baby.  But  it  is 
because  we  have  a  leader  fit  for  the  party  and  a  party  fit  for  the 
leader,  that  reform  is  not  only  possible,  but  is  easy.  I  cannot  forget 
our  party  and  its  greatness  and  its  glory.  I  would  as  soon  tear  from 
my  heart  the  recollection  of  my%  old  home,  the  dearest  thing  of  my  life, 
as  to  forget  the  glories  of  the  great  party  with  which  I  have  voted  from 
the  time  I  was  a  boy.  I  approve  and  ratify  these  nominations,  because 
they  represent  the  average  sense  and  the  best  matured  judgment  of  the 
whole  people  of  the  whole  country.  It  was  wise  policy,  because  upon 
that  altar  there  is  laid  every  bitterness  of  feeling,  every  animosity,  and 
every  heart-burning  engendered  by  that  long  and  great  Convention.  The 
inference  is  that  the  men  Morton  and  Conkling  and  Elaine  and  Bristow  are 
buried  out  of  sight,  and  the  old  Republican  party  that  has  carried  the  ban 
ner  of  the  nation  since  1860,  stronger  than  ever,  united,  and  without  a 
dissenting  voice,  is  as  sure  of  triumph  as  the  sun  is  to  rise  at  dawn  to-mor 
row.  [Cheers.] 

"It  has  been  my  habit  .in  looking  at  political  questions,  when  I  was  in 
doubt  as  to  the  best  course  to  pursue,  to  see  what  the  Democratic  party 
desired,  and  then  select  the  opposite.  [Laughter.]  I  am  perfectly  certain 
that  we  have  followed  the  wisest  course,  because  the  nomination  of  Hayes 
and  Wheeler  has  unlimbered  their  every  gun,  and  demoralized  the  crowd. 
They  must  seek  for  a  great  unknown,  but,  Mr.  President,  there  is  one  thing 
that  is  known,  and  that  is  the  Rebel  record  of  the  party  which  the  great 
unknown  must  head.  The  past  of  their  career  weighs  down  upon  them  like 
a  mountain  load,  and  no  man,  snatched  from  any  obscurity  however  great, 
can  carry  that  record  forward  safely,  and  triumph  in  the  face  of  the  united 
Republicanism  of  the  nation  which  we  see  to-day. 

"I  observe  that  they  say  that  our  candidates  are  colorless.  Good.  It 
is  probably  because  their  garments  are  absolutely  white.  There  is  no 
genius  for  plunder,  no  audacity  for  rings.  We  belong  to  that  party  which 
to-day  has  an  "infinitely  profounder  belief  in  the  goodness  of  God  than  it 


492  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

ever  had  in  the  dexterity  of  the  Devil.  Our  party  platform  is  so  clear 
that  everybody  understands  it.  Reform  in  administration ;  not  work  to  be 
accomplished  by  a  spurt ;  one  election  does  not  achieve  it.  The  army 
capture  an  outpost,  but  the  citadel  of  corruption  for  which  our  party  is 
not  responsible — of  that  corruption  which  began  and  gathered  strength  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago — will  never  surrender  without  the  most  unwear 
ied,  patient,  and  persistent  exertion.  Every  man — every  private  in  the 
ranks — can  contribute  his  mite  in  that  direction.  A  reform  of  our  civil 
service  ;  how,  and  exactly  by  what  method,  we  will  tell  by  one  experi 
ment  after  another,  if  experiment  be  necessary,  until  the  result  be  achieved. 
An  honest  currency,  the  redemption  of  our  promises  to  pay  in  coin  by  the 
fulfilment  of  the  national  engagements, — these  are  the  principles  upon 
which  the  Republican  party  stands  to-day,  absolutely  unchallengeable, 
and  they  commend  themselves  to  the  good  judgment  and  the  loftier 
patriotism  of  the  whole  people. 

"This  nomination  has  been  received  by  no  sudden  outburst  of  enthusiasm, 
no  gush,  no  gust,  such  as  sometimes  goes  out,  but  take  my  word  for  it 
that  it  will  grow  every  hour  and  every  day,  and  every  week  as  the 
campaign  lengthens  out  and  as  the  summer  comes  on,  as  the  Democratic 
candidate  and  the  party — whomsoever  that  candidate  may  be — shall  be 
before  us  to  be  riddled,  we  will  find  that  the  Convention  at  Cincinnati, 
disappointed  as  thousands  of  us  were  even,  worked  for  the  best  in  the 
nominations  which  it  had  made. 

"Fellow-citizens,  honest  men,  of  experience  in  public  affairs,  we  can 
ask  nothing  more,  nothing  better ;  and,  united  once  again,  Liberals,  Inde 
pendents,  and  altogether,  as  in  the  good  old  days  that  are  past,  we 
will  roll  up,  when  the  November  election  comes,  such  a  majority  for 
the  Republican  ticket  as  will  gladden  the  friends  of  good  Government  all 
over  the  globe.  [Loud  and  prolonged  applause.]" 

On  the  1 4th  of  July,  he  addressed  a  large  and  enthusiastic 
meeting  at  Aurora,  Illinois,  and  criticised  very  keenly  and  minutely 
the  sophistical  platform  which  the  Democrats  had  adopted  at  the 
St.  Louis  Convention,  and  which  Mr.  Storrs  characterized  as  "the 
cheekiest  platform  ever  witnessed  in  political  history  or  literature." 
The  concluding  part  of  his  speech  was  devoted  to  a  telling 
review  of  Mr.  Tilden's  record.  Mr.  Storrs  spoke  as  follows: 

•  "It  has  been  my  pleasure,  for  every  political  canvass  of  any  national 
importance  since  1861,  to  address  the  Republicans  of  this  growing  and 
this  very  beautiful  city,  and,  I  by  no  means  feel  that  I  am  among 
strangers,  for  as  I  look  about  I  see  those  whom  I  saw  on  the  first  occasion 
I  ever  visited  Aurora,  who  have  stood  with  me  during  those  long  and 
terrible  years  of  the  war.  I  see  those  who  never  faltered  when  dangers 
of  the  most  serious  character  threatened  us.  I  see  those  to-night  who, 
after  the  war  had  closed,  were  as  resolute  that  the  fruits  of  our  victory 
should  be  gathered  and  garnered  as  they  were  that  those  effects  should 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  493 

• 

be,  in  the  first  instance,  achieved.  I  see  those  who  have  always  been 
Republicans  ever  since  there  has  been  a  Republican  party,  and  who  always 
will  be  Republicans  as  long  as  there  is  a  Democratic  party.  When  I 
am  asked,  as  I  sometimes  am,  how  long  the  Republican  party  will  live, 
1  say  it  will  live  at  least  one  election  after  the  final  and  eternal  death 
of  the  Democracy  [loud  cheers], — for  so  long  as  the  Democratic  party 
keeps  above  ground  and  exhibits  any  signs  of  vitality,  so  long  is  the 
existence  of  the  Republican  party  a  military  necessity.  [Cheers. J  It  will 
not — this  Democratic  party — always  endure,  for  we  are  a  great  evangeli 
zing  and  missionary  agency.  We  began  the  good  work  of  converting  that 
party  in  1860,  and  we  have  been  pursuing  that  purpose  steadily  and 
persistently  and  unwaveringly  ever  since.  Thousands  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  those  original  Democrats  have  been  converted  to  Republi 
canism  and  are  now  safely  within  the  ample  folds  of  the  Republican 
party. 

"  Ever  since  1860,  gentlemen,  the  Democrats  have  been  just  four  years 
behind  us.  In  1864  they  practically  adopted  our  platform  of  1860;  in 
1868  they  adopted  our  platform  of  1864;  in  1872  they  adopted  our  platform 
of  1868;  and  in  1876  they  have  adopted  our  platform  of  1872.  It  works 
well.  [Laughter.]  It  is  a  hard  pull;  it  is  a  long  pull;  it  is  a  strong  pull. 
They  are  obstinate,  but  so  thorough  is  my  belief  in  the  power  of  truth  that 
I  think  Mr.  Harrington  and  John  Farnsworth  may  be  again  both  back  in 
the  Republican  fold.  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  Speaking  of  conversion,  just 
think  of  it:  the  Democratic  party  is  opposed  to  stealing.  [Laughter.]  In 
1876  this  party,  whose  record  is  one  of  the  most  stupendous  and  gigantic 
larcenies  ever  charged  up  against  a  political  organization,  solemnly  declare  that 
they  are  opposed  to  larceny.  [Renewed  laughter.]  It  is  possible,  it  is  probable, 
that  there  are  members  of  the  Republican  party  who  have  individually  been 
guilty  of  corrupt  pratices  ;  but,  on  the  general  question  of  stealing,  the 
impounding  of  a  keg  of  nails  or  a  bolt  of  cloth,  is  a  very  small  affair,  my 
good  friends,  when  compared  with  the  running  off  with  a  whole  nationality.  The 
Democracy  undertook  to  steal  the  Government  of  the  United  States ;  Belk- 
nap  traded  in  a  post-tradership  situation.  Why,  we  might  keep  on  indus 
triously  in  the  line  of  stealing  Belknap  pursued  until  the  crack  of  doom, 
and  the  Democracy  might  stop  to-day,  and  there  would  .be  a  large  margin 
yet  left  in  our  favor. 

"They  complain  of  us  that  we  are  waving  the  'bloody  shirt,'  that  we 
will  not  let  by-gones  be  by-gones,  and  that  we  are  continually  singing 
the  same  old  song,  and  making  the  same  old  speeches.  It  is  unfortunate  that 
it  is  so,  but  the  misfortune  arises  from  the  fact  that  it  is  necessary  it  should  be 
so.  When  one  of  my  dear,  deluded  Democratic  friends  says,  'For  God's  sake, 
why  don't  you  stop  talking  these  same  old  things? '  I  say,  'For  God's  sake,  why 
don't  you  stop  being  that  same  old  party?'  [Cheers.]  We  must  talk 
about  the  antecedents  and  the  history  of  the  Democratic  party,  because 
the  party  of  to-day  is  the  same  party,  identical  in  material,  identical  in 
its  membership,  identical  in  its  spirit,  identical  in  its  traditions,  identical 
in  all  its  purposes— the  same  old  party  that  declared  that  the  great 


494  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

chart  of  American  liberties  was  a  glittering  generality,  that  scoffed  at 
patriotic  feeling  as  a  delusion  and  a  sham,  that  asserted  the  right  of 
secession,  that  involved  this  nation  in  rebellion  the  most  stupendous  in  its 
purposes  that  the  world  ever  witnessed,  that  obstructed  the  fair  and  patri 
otic  reconstruction  of  these  States,  that  attempted  the  repudiation  of  the 
national  debt  and  the  destruction  of  the  national  credit.  [Cheers.]  It  is 
the  same  old  party  that  has  been  guilty  of  all  these  crimes  and  offenses, 
and  the  men  who  now  make  up  that  organization,  and  give  it  tone,  and 
character,  and  life,  and  the  vigor  that  it  possesses,  are  the  individual  men 
who  have  been  guilty  of  all  those  political  offenses  which  ought  to  have 
consigned  them  to  eternal  political  oblivion.  [Loud  cheers.]  In  the  nature 
of  things  the  Democratic  party  must  expect  to  face  its  terrific  record.  It 
comes  once  every  four  years  before  the  people  of  this  country,  and  demands 
their  recognition  and  confidence.  It  certainly  cannot  demand  the  confidence 
of  this  people  by  what  it  proposes  to  do  in  the  future,  for  it  is  necessarily 
a  party  of  violated  promises  and  broken  faith.  It  cannot  demand  the  con 
fidence  of  this  people  by  what  it  has  done  in  the  past,  for  its  career  has 
been  a  blood-stained  and  destructive  career.  [Cheers.]  The  Democratic 
party  comes  before  the  people  of  this  country  to-day  and  asks  that  it  shall 
have  the  management  of  our  national  debt,  the  control  of  the  national 
finances,  and  be  intrusted  with  what  it  calls  the  reform  of  both.  It  makes 
loud  and  lofty  promises  of  its  performances  in  the  future.  But  as  wise  men, 
as  absolutely  unimpassioned  men,  if  such  a  thing  were  possible  in  the  pre 
sence  of  questions  so  great  in  their  magnitude — as  wise  men,  I  say,  we 
must  take  you,  not  by  the  assurances  you  make  to-day,  but  by  your  per 
formances  in  the  long  past  which  stretches  behind  you. 

"Understand,  my  friends, — and  I  am  not  finding  fault  with  the  Demo 
cratic  party, — that  they  complain  of  us  that  we  persistently  attack  their 
record.  If  we  had  such  a  record  as  theirs  wouldn't  we  be  anxious 
to  bury  it?  If  they  had  such  a  record  as  ours  wouldn't  they  be  anxious 
to  exploit  it?  If  behind  us  were  blighted  faith,  violated  honor,  ruined 
homes,  ruined  credit,  wars,  rebellions,  treasons — if  that  was  the  record 
that  this  Republican  party  had  made,  we  would  deafen  our  ears  and 
call  upon  the  mountains  to  fall  upon  and  bury  us  rather  than  hear  it 
denounced  or  commented  upon.  But  the  Republican  party  glories  to  talk 
of  its  record, — it  is  a  glorious  record  to  talk  about, — and  the  Democratic 
party  hides  its  head  when  it  is  mentioned,  because  it  is  a  record  in  the 
presence  of  which  every  patriotic  head  ought  to  be  bowed.  The  party  has 
not  changed ;  its  character  has  not  changed ;  its  membership  has  not 
changed.  It  is  a  question  beyond  and  infinitely  above  the  mere  personal 
characteristics  of  the  men  placed  in  nomination. 

"You  are  here  to-night  to  ratify  the  nomination  of  Hayes  and  Wheeler. 
Their  nomination  was  wise.  It  is  a  nomination  which  combined  all  the  ele 
ments  of  the  Republican  party.  It  brought  the  Liberals  back  home.  It 
brought  the  Independents  back  home.  If  there  are  any  Liberals  or  Inde 
pendents  here  to-night  who  wandered  off  with  Greeley  in  1872,  I  say  to 
them,  'We  open  wide  the  door;  we  bid  you  welcome,  only  don't  do  so  any 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  495 

more."  [Laughter  and  cheers.]  If,  my  friends,  you  desire  to  reform  the 
Republican  partjtr  don't,  for  Heaven's  sake,  try  to  do  it  by  voting  the  Dem 
ocratic  ticket;  it  is  the  poorest  way  in  the  world  to  attempt  anything  of  the 
kind.  You  are  all  back,  safely  housed  in  that  glorious  old  Republican  tem 
ple,  the  walls  of  which  are  decked  with  the  most  heroic  achievements  of  the 
past  century,  with  a  record  that  is  as  enduring  as  time,  and  history  will 
never  willingly  let  die — that  splendid  temple  whose  dome  is  lifted  even 
among  the  very  stars,  and  whose  foundations  are  as  secure  as  the  eternal 
rocks — you  are  back  again  within  it,  and  see  that  no  inscription  ever  goes 
upon  those  walls,  that  nothing  is  emblazoned  thereon,  except  such  as  can 
shine  along  with  the  deeds  that  already  adorn  it.  [Cheers.] 

"We  are  to-day  a  united,  a  powerful,  and — I  feel  it  in  the  air — a  victor 
ious  party.  It  is  the  same  old  organization,  with  the  same  old  patriotic 
fire  and  nerve  that  has  carried  this  great  nationality  through  the  Rebellion 
and  saved  it.  It  is  the  same  party  that  faced  the  results  of  its  own  logic 
as  courageously  as  the  young  David  of  old  faced  the  great  Goliath.  It 
knew  in  its  early  days — and  it  knows  to-day — neither  '  variableness  nor  shadow 
of  turning.'  It  found  the  negro  a  slave,  it  made  him  free.  Making  him  a 
free  man  it  made  him  a  citizen.  Making  him  a  citizen  it  clothed  him  with 
all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship,  even  unto  the  power  of  voting. 
True  still  to  its  trust,  what  it  said  in  1868  it  said  again  in  1872.  No  talk 
about  negro  equality  or  competition  could  frighten  it;  and  to-day  we  have 
through  the  agency  of*  the  Republican  party  a  nationality — not  a  mere 
aggregation  of  States,  but  a  nationality,  the  United  States  of  America, 
powerful  enough  and  always  willing  to  protect  the  poorest  and  meanest  of 
its  subjects  even  in  the  remotest  quarter  of  the  globe  when  his  liberty  is 
assailed.  The  old  party  said,  'The  men  whom  we  have  made  free  men, 
citizens,  voters,  we  will  protect,  if  the  States  in  which  they  live  will  not 
protect  them.  If  the  States  in  which  they  live  will  not  protect  them  this 
General  Government,  which  we  call  the  United  States  of  America,  will  pro 
tect  them.'  And  that  promise  the  Republican  party  of  the  United  States 
with  the  help  of  God  proposes  to  keep.  Down  to  to-day  we  have  come. 
The  great  debt,  which  hung  like  an  incubus  upon  us,  is  gradually  melting 
away — taxation  reduced,  coming  back  by  slow  degrees,  but  sure,  neverthe 
less,  to  the  good  old  times  when  the  basis  of  our  currency  was  specie. 
We  may  look  with  the  most  perfect  and  absolute  confidence  that  at  no  very 
distant  period  of  time,  with  the  debt  placed  beyond  all  doubt,  the  integrity 
of  the  nation  thoroughly  vindicated,  its  faith  absolutely  approved,  our  cur 
rency  recognized  all  over  the  globe,  good  times  come  again,  spindles  turn 
ing  as  they  were  before,  mills  in  full  blast,  business  prospering,  no  bond 
man  on  the  soil  of  the  Republic — at  no  very  distant  day,  all  these  splendid 
results  we  may  look  upon  as  the  natural  outcome  of  the  policy  of  the 
Republican  party. 

"The  Democratic  party  have  had  a  convention  in  the  City  of  St.  Louis. 
I  need  not  describe  it  to  you,  but  at  the  expense  of  being  possibly  some 
what  tedious  permit  me  to  suggest  that  we  stand  at  the  very  threshold  of 
the  canvass,  and  it  may  be  well  for  us  to  read  the  St.  Louis  platform,  or 


496  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

portions  of  it.     The  platform  of  the  Democracy  says:     'We,  the  Democratic 

delegates .'     It  is  important  to  get  that  in,  for  page  after  page,   and  page 

after  page  follows  in  denunciation  of  the  Republican  party  and  in  the  demand 
for  reform.  When  you  read  volumes  of  denunciations  you  inquire,  'Who  is 
it  that  denounces?'  When  you  read  volumes  of  clamor  for  reform  you 
naturally  inquire,  'who  is  it  that  is  clamoring  for  reform?'  If  it  turns  out 
that  the  name  of  Judas  Iscariot  is  signed  at  the  bottom  of  the  paper,  and 
he  demands  the  utmost  fidelity  to  sworn  engagements  and  sacred  ness  of 
trust,  you  say,  '  Such  a  demand,  proceeding  from  that  source,  is  probably 
hollow.'  When  you  read  a  platform  headed,  'We,  the  Democratic  dele-, 
gates,'  congratulating  the  nation  on  its  freedom  from  the  perils  of  civil 
war,  and  demanding  reform,  etc.,  you  say,  'That  is  as  cheeky  and 
impudent  as  the  proclamation  of  Judas  would  have  been — it  would  '  pale 
its  ineffectual  fires'  before  such  a  document  as  this.'  [Cheers.] 

"Now,  what  do  'We,  the  Democratic-  delegates,'  say?  They  say: 
'  Reform  is  necessary  to  rebuild  and  establish  in  the  hearts  of  the  whole 
people  of  the  Union,  eleven  years  ago  happily  rescued  from  the  danger 
of  a  secession  of  States.'  'We,  the  Democratic  delegates,'  two-thirds  of 
whom  were  in  favor  of  the  secession  of  States,  one-half  of  whom  fought 
that  that  secession  of  States  might  succeed,  get  together  in  national  con 
vention  in  St.  Louis,  and  say  that  '  reform  is  necessary  to  rebuild  and 
establish'  a  nation  'happily  saved  from  the  perils  of  secession!'  which 
they  undertook  to  inaugurate  and  carry  out.  [Loud  cheers.] 

"Is  further  comment  necessary  on  that?  Is  further  comment  possible? 
Let  us  go  a  little  further.  As  Squeers  says,  'Here  is  richness.'  [Laughter.] 
What  have  we  next?  '  'But  now  to  be  saved  from  a  corrupt  centralism.' 

"  Can  anybody  tell  me  what  that  means.  Now,  if  centralism  is  something 
very  bad,  I  am  opposed  to  it ;  if  it  is  something  very  good,  I  am  in  favor 
of  it.  If  it  is  something  about  between  the  two,  I  don't  take  much  interest 
in  it.  But  what  do  they  mean  by  'corrupt  centralism'?  Precisely  this: 
'  We  the  Democratic  delegates,  we  Ben  Hill,  we  Fitzhugh  Lee,  we  Henry 
Clay  Dean,  congratulate  the  country  upon  its  happy  rescue  from  the  perils 
of  secession,'  and  insist  upon  it  that  this  '  corrupt  centralism '  must  cease  to 
be.  This  corrupt  centralism,  my  friends,  is  this:  It  is  that  inner  power 
which  inheres  in  the  General  Government,  which  is  to  that  extent  central, 
which  whipped  eleven  States  back  into  their  traces.  This  'corrupt  cen 
tralism,'  is  that  central  power  which  I  call  the  Government  of  the  United 
States — this  great  nation,  not  like  a  lot  of  marbles  in  a  bag  that  touch, 
but  do  not  adhere,  but  'distinct  like  the  billows,  and  one  like  the  sea.' 
This  centralism  is  our  national  heart  and  existence  itself.  It  is  that  cen 
tralism  which,  while  with  its  strong  right  arm  it  bound  up  3,000  miles  of 
sea-coast  in  rebellion,  sent  its  hundreds  and  thousands  of  conquering  legions 
to  the  South,  and  vindicated  our  national  existence,  at  the  same  time  with 
its  left  scattered  all  over  the  North  all  the  blessings  of  a  time  of  beneficent 
peace. 

"'We,  the  Democratic  delegates,' — let  me  not  miss  it — hope  to  be  saved 
from  'corrupt  centralism.'  It  is  the  same  centralism  which,  after  the  war 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1876.  497 

had  closed,  had  the  courage  to  say,  'This  war  was  not  a  joke  ;  it  has  cost 
us  $3,000,000,000  and  500,000  lives ;  it  was  a  gigantic  trial  of  strength  between 
ideas,  and  the  idea  for  which  you  have  fought  has  been  beaten  in  the  last 
court  to  which  you  can  take  a  contest — the  arbitrament  of  war — and  it  must 
perish.  Your  doctrine  of  State  Rights  is  buried, — your  right  of  secession  is 
buried  with  the  sword  and  gun  with  which  you  fought.'  It  is  the  same  cen 
tralism  which  said  '  We  cannot  afford,  we  will  not  afford,  to  place  this  nation 
in  peril  again,  but  way  down  in  the  very  fountains,  buried  in  the  Constitu 
tion,  where  the  freaks  of  a  Confederate  Congress  cannot  reach  it,  we  will 
secure  the  fruits  of  this  contest  where  they  will  be  safe  for  all  time  to  come.' 
That  is  the  'corrupt  centralism.'  [Loud  cheers.]  It  is  the  'corrupt  central 
ism'  which  took  'we,  the  Democratic  delegates,'  by  the  throat  in  1864  and 
choked  them  into  silence  and  submission.  It  is  the  '  corrupt  centralism '  . 
which  met  the  infamous  proclamation  in  1868  of  the  repudiation  of  the 
national  debt  and  annihilated  it.  It  is  '  corrupt  centralism,'  made  up  of  this 
loyal  nation,  North  and  South,  which  proposes  that  every  engagement  shall 
be  kept  and  every  national  promise  faithfully  performed. 

"But  let  us  go  on  with  the  platform.  When  the  platform  ceases  to  be 
ridiculous,  it  will  become  false,  as  I  will  show  you.  'We,  the  Democratic 
delegates,'  further  say  'reform  is  necessary  to  establish  a  sound  currency.' 
What  does  that  mean?  Don't  they  like  our  currency?  Do  they  want  to 
abolish  the  greenback  and  go  back  to  the  State  bank  system?  Do  they 
want  to  abolish  the  National  Bank  note  ?  The  currency  is  sound  enough ; 
nobody  complains  of  that.  The  simple  question  is  as  to  the  time  and  man 
ner  for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments.  But  we  will  go  a  little  further. 
'We  denounce,' — here  it  comes  again.  'We  the  Democratic  party,' — 'the 
failure.'  That  has  a  familiar  sound.  In  1864  I  remember  Mr.  Tilden  de 
nounced  another  failure.  For  instance  : 

'  Resolved,  That  this  Convention  does  explicitly  declare  as  the  sense  of  the 
American  people,  that  after  four  years  of  failure,'  etc. 

"So  you  see  that  is  a  favorite  word  with  them.  In  1876  they  'denounce 
the  failure  for  all  these  eleven  years  to  make  good  the  promise  of  the  legal- 
tender  notes,  which  are  a  changing  standard  of  value  in  the  hands  of  the 
people,  and  the  non-payment  of  which  is  a  disregard  of  the  plighted  faith 
of  the  nation.'  Then  again,  'We,' — the  Democratic  delegates — 'the  finan 
cial  imbecility  and  immorality.'  The  Democratic  delegates  talking  about 
financial  immorality !  What  in  the  name  of  all  the  gods  are  we  coming  to 
when  the  people  of  this  country  are  to  learn  lessons  of  morality  from  the 
Democratic  party  ?  '  We — the  delegates  of  the  Democratic  party  in  National 
Convention  assembled,' — 'we  denounce  the  imbecility  and  immorality  of  that 
party  which  during  eleven  years  of  peace  has  made  no  advance  toward 
resumption  and  no  preparation  for  resumption.'  The  simple  trouble  with 
this  is  that  is  just  as  false  as  it  can  be.  That  is  all  there  is  about  it.  What, 
my  friends,  has  been  the  trouble  with  this  business  of  resumption?  'We, 
the  Democratic  delegates,'  shut  their  eyes  absolutely  to  the  whole  history  of 
the  past,  and  denounce  the  Republican  party,  because  for  eleven  years  it 
has  made  no  preparation  for  resumption,  and  taken  no  step  toward  it.  What 
32 


498  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

have  they  done?  In  1866,  again  in  1868,  going  into  a  national  canvass 
they  demanded  the  payment  of  the  Government  bonds  in  greenbacks,  which 
would  not  only  have  utterly  destroyed  the  national  credit,  but  would  have 
of  necessity  so  inflated  the  national  currency  that  the  resumption  of  specie 
would  have  been  eternally  and  everlastingly  postponed.  And  yet  this  party, 
with  the  smell  of  repudiation  on  its  garments,  with  the  recent  history  of  the 
Indiana  and  Ohio  campaigns  fresh  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  with  their 
miserable  record  behind  them  of  a  steady,  persistent,  wilful  opposition  to 
and  interference  with  every  scheme  which  looked  to  the  re-establishment  of 
the  national  credit  and  the  payment  of  the  national  debt — they  denounce 
the  Republican  party  for  imbecility  or  immorality,  because  it  has  taken  no 
step  in  that  direction!  Let  us  see  what  the  facts  are.  What  was  gold  in 
.1865?  What  is  gold  to-day?  Have  we  made  no  advance  toward  resump 
tion  during  the  last  eleven  years?  This  truthful  platform  says  we  have  not. 
Gold  was  in  the  neighborhood  of  150  in  1865  ;  it  is  112  or  thereabouts  to-day. 
Is  not  that  a  long  step  forward?  Is  it  not  an  immense  stride  in  advance 
that  this  growing  nation  has  taken  ?  How  is  the  debt  ?  Has  it  taken  any 
step  forward  in  that  direction  ?  In  the  eleven  years  of  which  this  lying  plat 
form  speaks,  this  Republican  party  which  is  denounced  for  its  imbecility  and 
immorality,  has  paid  the  enormous  sum  of  £456,000,000  of  the  national  debt. 
[Cheers.]  Has  it  taken  no  step  in  the  way  of  decrease  of  the  expenditures? 
Our  appropriations  have  been  reduced  from  1874  to  1875  over  #27, 000,000. 
Our  expenditures  in  1866  were  $520,000,000,  and  in  1873  they  were  #290, 
000,000.  Gold  reduced  from  200  to  112:  $456,000,000  of  the  national 
debt  paid ;  hundreds  of  millions  of  taxation  removed  from  the  shoulders 
of  the  people;  our  bonds  largely  appreciated  in  every  money-mart  in  the 
world;  and  yet  'we,  the  Democratic  delegates,'  in  National  Convention 
assembled,  solemnly  denounce  and  arraign  the  Republican  party  for  tak 
ing  no  steps  towards  making  the  promise  of  the  legal-tender  notes  good ! 
[Cheers.] 

"My  good  friends,  figures  sometimes  become  very  eloquent,  and  in  this 
connection  they  are  eloquent.  Let  me  read  a  little  more  of  figures.  Our 
tariffs  have  been  so  that  the  people  hardly  feel  the  burden  ;  every  expense 
of  the  Government  has  been  so  removed  that  the  burden  is  but  lightly  felt 
to-day.  Our  internal  taxes  that  would  have  been  paid  in  the  several  years 
had  the  laws  remained  unchanged  under  Grant's  Administration,  calculated 
on  the  basis  of  the  taxes  collected  in  1868,  would  have  been  in  1869,  $63,- 
919,416;  in  1870,  $58,295,182;  in  1871,  $92,726,132;  in  1872,  $110,810,083; 
in  1873,  $123,533,307,  etc.  In  1877  there  would  have  been  collected  on  that 
basis  $129,700,000.  This  shows  a  saving,  an  absolute  decrease  of  the  taxa 
tion  on  an  average  of  $104,696,190  per  year  during  the  last  eight  years. 
[Cheers.]  And  yet  the  Republican  party,  which  has  accomplished  those 
magnificent  results,  is  denounced  by  the  '  Democratic  delegates '  as  guilty 
of  imbecility  and  immorality !  But  that  is  not  all.  '  We,  the  Democratic 
delegates,'  also  say  that  'reform  is  necessary  in  the  scale  of  public  expense. 
Our  Federal  taxation  has  swollen  from  $60,000,000  gold  in  1860  to  $450,- 
000,000  currency  in  1870.'  I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  whose  fault  is  it  that  the 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    18/6.  499 

expenses  of  this  Government  have  'swollen  from  $60,000,000  gold  in  1860 
to  $450,000,000  currency  in  1870?'  Uo  'we,  the  Democratic  delegates/ 
forget  the  fact  that  $157,000,000  per  year  of  the  expenses  which  this  people 
have  been  compelled  to  bear  are  put  upon  us  because  of  this  Democratic 
Rebellion?  [Cheers.]  Yet,  reading  this  platform,  where  'we,  the  Democratic 
delegates, 'demand  reform,  you  would  never  dream  that  there  had  been  a 
war;  one  would  have  supposed  from  1860  down  to  to-day  it  had  been  a 
long  summer  day  of  peace,  and  that  this  profligate  party,  with  no  unusual 
reasons  for  expenditure,  had  run  up  the  national  expenditures  from  $60,000,- 

000  to  $450,000,000  per  year,  while  the  fact  is  that  the  political  organization 
that   denounces   us  because   of  that  frightful   increase   upon  the  burdens  of 
this  people  is  itself  the  guilty  cause  and  agent   through  which   that  increase 
was   made  a  necessity.     [Cheers.]       It   is   the   war  that   has  imposed   those 
terrible    burdens   upon    us,  and  while    you    are    sweating   and   groaning    over 
them  Ben  Hill   comes  up  from  Georgia,  and    Henry  Clay  Dean  from    Iowa, 
and   denounces    the    mild    men    of    Kane    County   because,  in  putting  down 
their  rebellion,  they  were  compelled  to  incur  additional  millions  of  expense. 

1  say  it  is  the  cheekiest  platform  ever  witnessed  in  political  history  or  litera 
ture.     [Cheers.]     Why,  I  would  suppose  that  whenever  the  occasion  occurred 
you  could  not  drive  a  Democrat  into  the  mention  of  the  tremendous   burdens 
under  which  the  people  are    laboring,  for    right    back    of   us    looms   up   the 
memory    of   this   great    Rebellion !      Right   back,  fresh   in   our   minds  is  the 
memory  of  the  war  which   compelled    us  to    raise    the    expenditures    of  the 
country.     It  is  none  of  their  business   how  much  that  war  cost.     Treated  as 
they    deserved  to  have   been  treated,  as  any    other  nationality  would  have 
treated  them,  this  $157,000,000,  which  the  people  of  this  country  have  been 
compelled  to  pay  since  that  time  as  a  yearly  burden  for   putting  down   and 
crushing   the    Rebellion,    would  have   been   shouldered    by   the    Democratic 
party    and    paid    by    them    even    to    the    confiscation    of    every    thing   they 
possessed. 

"I  suppose  that  in  the  interests  of  conciliation  we  must  submit  to  it  with 
out  murmuring ;  but  it  does  seem  hard  that  the  recently-reconstructed 
Confederates  assembled  at  St.  Louis,  and  doing  business  under  the  name, 
style,  and  firm  of  'We,  the  delegates  of  the  Democratic  party,'  should 
denounce  us  because,  as  they  say,  we  expended  more  money  in  putting 
down  their  Rebellion,  and  in  whipping  them  back  into  the  Union,  than  was 
absolutely  necessary. 

"We  next  come  to  the  question  of  defalcations.  The  history  upon  this 
point  is  very  short.  One  would  think,  from  the  clamor  that  is  made,  that 
corruption  was  in  every  branch  of  the  public  service, — that  there  was  not 
an  official  anywhere  who  was  not  guilty  either  of  stealing  public  funds  or 
of  taking  corrupt  money.  This,  my  friends,  you  will  pardon  me  for  suggest 
ing,  is  a  great  deal  bigger  nation  than  it  was  fifty  years  ago.  We  collect 
and  expend  to-day  millions  of  money  where  we  handled  and  expended  only 
thousands  half  a  century  ago.  I  am  one  of  those  sanguine  men  who  believe 
that  this  world  is  all  the  time  getting  better.  I  believe  that  even  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  is  slowly  improving.  [Laughter.]  It  is  a  great  deal  better 


5<DO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

world,  officially  considered,  than  it  was  in  the  days  of  Old  Hickory,  it  has 
improved  since  the  days  of  Martin  Van  Buren,  it  is  an  immense  improve 
ment  over  Polk,  it  is  a  great  ways  ahead  of  James  Buchanan's  time.  The 
fact  of  the  matter  is  just  this:  There  is  not  a  first-class  merchant  in  the 
.City  of  Aurora  who  does  not  lose  by  little  petty  defalcations  on  the  actual 
amount  of  his  business  a  much  larger  sum  of  money  than  does  the  United 
States  on  the  enormous  expenditures  it  has  been  compelled  to  make  under 
Grant's  administration.  Now  I  wjll  read  from  an  authentic  report  the  his 
tory  of  all  those  proceedings:  'The  losses  on  every  $1,000  of  disbursements 
were,  in  the  Administration  of  Jackson,  $10.55;  Van  Buren,  $21.15;  Harri-. 
son,  $10.37;  Polk,  $8.34;  Taylor,  and  FUlmore,  $7.64  ;  Pierce, -$5.86  ;  Buch 
anan,  nearly  $6.98;  Lincoln,  $1.41  ;  Johnson,  48  cents;  Grant,  the  first  four 
years,  40  cents,  the  second  four  years,  26  cents.'  [Loud  cheers.]  That,  my 
good  friends,  is  the  veritable  record,  and  it  is  an  immensely  satisfactory 
one.  [Cheers.]  It  is  a  record,  however,  that  you  would  not  dream  of 
amid  the  clamor  and  clatter  made  about  thievery  in  every  branch  of 
the  public  service. 

"We  are  asked  if  we  approve  of  Grant,  and  i'f  we  indorse  him.  I  do 
not  suddenly  change  my  opinion  of  men.  I  have  yet  this  to  say :  that 
when  the  memory  of  'We,  the  Democratic  delegates,'  shall  have  perished 
in  oblivion  and  forgetfulness,  when  the  generations  to  come  will  have  for 
gotten  that  such  men  ever  lived,  the  real,  solid,  patriotic  achievements  of 
U.  S.  Grant  will,  growing  brighter  and  brighter  as  the  years  wear  away, 
make  a  record  for  him  that  shall  be  absolutely  imperishable.  [Loud  and 
continued  cheering.]  In  all  this  terrible  storm  of  obloquy — and  no  man 
has  ever  suffered  more  in  the  frightful  flood  of  calumny  which  has  been 
poured  upon  us — silent,  and  patient,  and  steady  has  he  sat,  conscious  that 
the  hearts  of  the  people  beat  with  and  for  him,  and  conscious  in  his  own 
heart  that  he  never  breathed  a  breath  that  was  not  a  patriotic  one,  and 
never  entertained  a  purpose,  so  far  as  this  great  nation  was  concerned,  that 
was  not  patriotic  as  well.  I  pass  to  another  branch  of  the  Democratic 
platform,  and  I  hope  I  am  not  wearying  you.  You  have  to  go  through  all 
this  some  day,  and  we  may  as  well  take  it  up  to-night.  They  speak  of 
some  '  false  issues' : 

"'The  false  issue  by  which  they  seek  to  light  anew  the  dying  embers 
of  sectional  hate.  .  .  .  All  these  abuses,  wrongs,  and  crimes,  the  product 
of  sixteen  years'  ascendancy  of  the  Republican  party.' 

"My  Republican  friends,  will  you  stop  to  think  of  that?  'All  these 
abuses,  wrongs,  and  crimes,  the  product  of  sixteen  years'  ascendancy  of 
the  Republican  party!'  That  carries  us  away  back  to  1860;  carries  us 
back  to  when  many  of  us  were  boys;  carries  us  back  when  the  great  party 
was  new,  and  fresh,  and  young;  carries  us  back  to  the  time  when  with  the 
watchword  '  Liberty '  on  our  banners  we  won  our  first  great  victory  ;  carries 
us  back  to  the  time  of  Lincoln ;  carries  us  back  to  those  years  of  trouble 
through  which  we  passed ;  and  the  Democratic  party,  '  we  the  Democratic 
delegates  in  National  Convention  assembled,'  speak  of  that  ascendancy — 
the  ascendancy  of  Lincoln,  his  first  and  second  term,  the  first  term  of 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  5OI 

Grant,  the  whole  history  of  reconstruction — speak  of  that  as  a  history  of 
'abuses,  wrongs,  and  crimes,'  which  'we,  the  Democratic  delegates,1  pur 
pose  and  intend  to  reform!  [Laughter.]  And  yet  they  say,  'Let  the  dead 
past  bury  its  dead — forget  these  old  issues.'  At  the  same  time  there  comes 
trooping  up  from  the  South,  from  every  Confederate  cross-roads,  the  bearer 
of  a  Confederate  heart,  filled  full  of  Confederate  hopes,  believing  that  the 
Lost  Cause  is  finally  won,  flaunting  in  the  face  of  this  great  nation,  just 
out  of  its  terrible  perils,  the  denunciation  of  sixteen  years  of  wrong,  outrage, 
and  crime  of  this  Republican  party !  If  this  Democrat. c  party,  insulting 
the  grandest  history  of  the  nation  in  that  charge,  insulting  the  memory  of 
the  heroic  dead  and  the  heroic  living  as  it  does,  could  take  some  visible 
shape,  would  not  the  strong  Republican  army  of  Kane  County,  with  the 
old  nerve  and  vigor  and  its  old  heart  back  of  it,  feel  like  grinding  it  into 
powder  ?  We  can  bear  taxation  ;  our  treasures  may  be  sunk  into  the  seas, 
but  this  glorious  record,  which  challenges  the  admiration  of  all  the  world, 
and  which  is  the  work  of  a  great  loyal  people,  shall  not  be  spit  upon  and 
defiled  by  '  We,  the  Democratic  delegates  in  National  Convention  assem 
bled.'  You  cannot  smite  it  directly,  but,  carrying  this  infamous  charge  in 
your  hearts,  keeping  it  warm  on  your  lips,  when  the  day  of  November 
comes,  go  up  to  the  polls  and  say  to  them,  '  You,  the  Democratic  delegates 
that  sought  the  destruction  of  this  great  nation,  we  repel  your  slander  and 
now  bury  you  for  eternity.' 

"Now  what  are  the  'false  issues?'  Let  us  see.  A  word  or  two  about 
sectional  hate.  What  is  the  danger  from  sectional  hate — from  what  source 
does  that  danger  spring  ?  You  have  seen  some  exhibitions  of  it-  in  the  past 
and  during  the  present  session  of  Congress,  when  the  old  fires  of  rebellion 
have  been  rekindled,  when  the  old  illustrators  of  plantation  manners  again 
appear  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  and  when  unrepentant  rebellion  flaunts 
its  horrid  front  in  the  face  of  the  people,  and  denounces  the  nation  and 
the  party  that  crushed  that  Rebellion  to  atoms — Hill,  Lamar,  all  the  promi 
nent  leaders  of  secession  back  again  into  the  councils  of  the  nation  they 
sought  to  destroy !  And  in  the  presence  of  such  magnanimity  as  that  we 
have  this  sympathetic  blubber  about  bloody-shirt,  etc.  Do  you  suppose 
that  there  would  have  been  one  prominent  improvement,  national  in  its 
character,  made,  had  this  Democratic  party  which  to-day  prates  of  Reform 
succeeded  since  1860?  Contemplate  such  a  result  as  their  successr,  if  you 
can  without  shuddering.  Think  of  the  success  of  the  Democratic  party 
in  1864!  Down  from  its  high  pedestal  our  nation  would  have  come? 
Home  would  have  come  our  conquering  legions,  with  their  banners 
trailing  in  the  dust  and  in  the  mire  of  defeat!  The  dishonor  and 
disruption  of  the  nationality — that  would  have  been  the  sure  result  had 
the  promises  of  Democratic  reform  been  listened  to  by  the  people,  and 
had  their  solicitation  for  public  confidence  met  with  any  response  in 
1864.  Then,  again,  1868.  Contemplate,  if  you  can,  their  success  then. 
Every  measure  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  nation  which  they  sought  to 
destroy  would  have  been  rendered  utterly  fruitless,  our  gigantic  debt 
would  have  been  rendered  still  more  gigantic,  our  credit  would  have 


5<D2  LIFE   OF   EMERY   A.    STORKS. 

been  gone,  and  we  would  have  been  to-day  a  disgraced  and  discredited 
nationality  in  the  eyes  of  the  whole  world.  In  1872,  think  of  the  calam 
ities  that  would  have  followed  a  Democratic  triumph,  when  one  of 
their  own  candidates  pronounced  the  reconstructive  measures  '  revolution 
ary,  unconstitutional,  and  void.'  What  has  occurred  to  make  the  evil 
of  a  Democratic  success  less  to-day?  What  has  occurred  to  make  the 
necessity  of  a  Republican  triumph  less  imperative  now,  than  it  has  been 
every  hour  since  1860?  The  time  has  not  come  when  this  ideal  sentiment 
of  hand-shaking  shall  take  the  place  of  that  recognition  of  principles 
which  the  great  emergencies  of  the  occasion  demand.  And  what  has  the 
Republican  platform  said  that  calls  from  the  Democrats  these  reproaches? 
This  is  all:  'We  sincerely  deprecate  all  sectional  feeling  and  tendencies. 
We,  therefore,  note  with  deep  solicitude  that  the  Democratic  party  counts, 
as  its  chief  hope  of  its  success,  upon  the  electoral  vote  of  a  united  South.' 
It  is,  my  fellow-citizens,  its  only  hope.  The  success  of  the  Democratic  party 
means  a  united  South,  secured  at  the  expense  of  the  colored  vote.  It 
makes  an  appeal  for  that  Southern  vote  directly,  as  in  the  days  of  old, 
to  sectional  prejudices  and  sectional  hate.  It  means  that  every  newly- 
made  citizen  shall  be  deprived  of  the  privileges  which  he  is  entitled  to 
under  the  Constitution.  Well,  I  shall  not  appeal  to  any  sectional  feeling, 
but  to  the  broad,  catholic  spirit  of  nationality — the  Republican  party 
demands  the  suffrage  of  every  citizen  North  and  South,  East  and  West, 
black  and  white, — every  citizen,  of  whatsoever  race  he  may  originally  have 
been,  who  desires  the  largest,  truest,  broadest  measure  of  national  prosperity 
for  the  land  we  love  so  justly  and  so  well. 

"•Now,  about  this  wretched  platform.  They  have  lost  none  of  their  old 
differences.  They  are  the  same  old  issues.  It  is  the  bitter,  intense  spirit  of 
State  Rights  working  agairfst  a  distinct  and  united  nationality  that  has  been 
waging  war  for  the  long  years  that  are  passed.  W7e  stand  upon  the  threshold 
of  a  new  century.  We  will  inaugurate  it  well,  I  am  sure,  and  say  that  this 
nation,  one  and  indivisible,  shall  be  perpetuated. 

"Upon  this  platform  of  'WTe,  the  Democratic  delegates,'  they  have  placed 
in  nomination  Mr.  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  of  the  City  of  New  York,  as  their 
exemplar  and  illustrator  of  reform.  What  has  he  done  ?  Who  is  Samuel  J . 
Tilden?  One  of  the  most  expert  railroad  lawyers  on  the  continent.  That  is 
not  a  first-class  recommendation.  A  man  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  cor 
poration  spirit,  so  completely  that,  like  the  client  which  he  represents,  he 
has  no  soul.  [Renewed  laughter  and  cheers.]  It  has  ordinarily  been  the 
case  that  physicians  are  prospered  in  proportion  as  they  have  cured  their 
patients.  He  is  a  great  railroad  doctor — the  great  corporation  physician ; 
but  all  precedent  in  his  case  is  abolished, — the  patients  have  died  and  the 
physician  has  prospered.  Wherever  and  whenever  Samuel  J.  Tilden  has 
been  called  to  stand  by  the  bed-side  of  a  sick  railroad,  there  was  a  funeral 
in  the  near  future.  He  is  the  father  of  watered  stock.  He  is  the  great 
absorber  and  absorbent.  He  is  the  author  of  farm  mortgage  bonds,  and  I 
don't  need  to  explain  to  you  what  those  instruments  mean.  There  never 
yet  came  into  the  door  of  his  office  a  healthy  corporation  which  did  not 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF     1876.  503 

hobble  out  from  the  other  door  on  crutches  and  in  bandages.  [Laughter 
and  cheers.]  All  along,  up  and  down  this  great  West,  are  the  wrecks  of  dis 
appointed  hopes  and  blasted  expectations  that  stockholders  and  corporations 
have  had,  when  they  have  passed  through  the  gentle  but  death-dealing 
treatment  of  the  man  Tilden.  He  is  a  Democratic  politician  of  the  highest 
and  lowest  type.  In  1864  he  was  a  Democratic  politician.  We  are  told  that 
our'candidate,  Governor  Hayes,  is  a  man  of  very  ordinary  abilities.  I  thank  God 
that  he  did  not  have  genius  enough  to  have  been  in  the  McClellan  Conven 
tion  of  1864.  Take  the  two  men — one  a  man  of  genius  and  the  other  a  man 
of  ordinary  talent.  In  that  year  the  man  of  ordinary  talent  had  telegraphed, 
in  reply  to  the  inquiries  of  his  friends,  in  his  ordinary  way,  having  merely 
a  patriotic  desire  to  do  his  duty,  as  follows  : 

'"I  have  other  business  to  attend  to  now.  Any  man  who  leaves  the 
army  to  electioneer  for  a  seat  in  Congress  ought  to  be  scalped.'  [Cheers.] 

"At  the  same  time,  almost  as  the  wires  were  throbbing  with  Hayes* 
dispatch  to  his  friends  in  Ohio,  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  the  great  railroad  physi 
cian,  put  the  signet  of  his  approval  upon  this  infamous  declaration  ;  '  Resolved, 
That  this  Convention  does  explicitly  declare,  as  the  sense  of  the  American 
people,  that  after  four  years  of  failure  to  restore  the  Union  by  the  experi 
ment  of  war — during  which,  under  the  pretense  of  a  military  necessity  or 
war  power  higher  than  the  Constitution,  the  Constitution  itself  has  been  disre 
garded  in  every  part,  and  public  liberty  and  private  right  alike  trodden  down, 
and  the  material  prosperity  of  the  country  essentially  impaired — justice,  human 
ity,  liberty,  and  the  public  welfare  demand  that  immediate  efforts  be  made 
for  a  cessation  of  hostilities,  with  a  view  to  an  ultimate  convention  of  the 
States,  or  other  peaceable  means,  to  the  end  that  at  the  earliest  practicable 
moment  peace  may  be  restored  on  the  basis  of  the  Federal  States.' 

"Samuel  J.  Tilden,  a  war  man  in  time  of  peace,  a  peace  man  in  time  of 
war!  Manton  Marble  says  in  a  letter,  addressed  to  a  delegate  from  Illinois, 
that  while  Tilden  was  on  that  day  present  at  the  deliberations  of  the  Com 
mittee  he  in  no  way  lifted  up  his  voice  against  that  resolution,  yet  down  in 
the  bottom  of  his  heart,  Mr.  Marble  says,  there  was  a  deep  feeling  against 
that  resolution,  which  he  always  discreetly  kept  to  himself.  Was  it  true  ? 

If,  as  Mr.  John  Farnsworth  says,  Tilden  is  a  resolute,  high-toned  man, 
who  spurns  all  leaders,  who  will  not  be  dictated  to,  I  think  he  would  have 
risen  in  his  power  and  might,  and  said  to  the  framers  of  that  resolution: 
'  Get  thee  behind  me,  Satan.  I  won't  have  the  resolution,  and  will  make 
a  minority  report.'  But  he  did  nothing  of  the  kind.  When  the  Convention 
grew  restive  over  the  fact  that  the  platform  had  not  been  presented,  Mr. 
Tilden  rose  in  his  place  and  said :  « We  are  all  agreed.  There  is  no  con 
troversy  in  the  Committee  ;  there  is  no  disagreement  there ;  we  are  await 
ing  only  its  revision  by  the  Sub-Committee.'  He  was  followed  in  that  state 
ment  by  other  members  of  the  Committee,  and  Mr.  Guthrie  solemnly  rose 
to  his  Kentucky  feet,  and  said :  •  There  is  no  disagreement,  and  Kentucky 
declares  that  we  are  all  Kentucky ously  unanimous  for  peace.' 

"There  is  the  record  of  Samuel  J.  Tilden  back  in  1864.  Let  the  dead 
past  bury  its  dead!  Don't  wave  the  bloody  shirt!  Yet,  Mr.  Tilden,  this 


504  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

very  platform  on  which  you  stand  to-day,  which  you  must  have  written 
yourself,  denounces  the  wrongs  and  crimes  of  the  Republican  party  of  that 
very  time!  Now,  don't  you  tell  us  to  close  our  mouths  about  your  wrongs ! 
Remember  that  very  period  of  time ! 

"Gentlemen,  I  might  bring  myself  to  such  a  frame  of  mind  as  to  vote 
for  a  Confederate.  I  can  understand  how  a  man  living  in  the  South  might 
have  voted  for  the  South;  but  not  until  my  heart  has  ceased  to  beat,  not 
until  my  whole  being  is  changed,  will  I  ever,  on  any  ticket,  nor  under  any 
circumstances,  cast  my  suffrages  for  a  man  living  in  the  North,  who,  in 
1864,  denounced  the  war  as  an  experiment,  as  a  failure,  and  abjectly  and 
meanly  sued  for  peace !  I  follow  him  still  further,  back  to  the  State  of 
New  York — worse  than  that,  back  to  the  City  of  New  York — back  to  the 
embrace  of  Hoffman  and  Tweed — back  to  the  associations  he  seemed  to 
love  so  well.  Chairman  of  the  Central  Committee,  he  approved  and  aided 
in  the  most  stupendous  frauds  upon  the  rights  of  franchise  ever  committed 
by  any  party,  [Cheers] — a  great  fraud,  which  wrested  the  State  of  New 
York  from  the  Republicans  to  whom  it  belonged,  and  polled  in  four  wards 
over  20,000  fraudulent  votes.  This  was  done  under  the  direction  of  the 
modern  reformer,  the  friends  of  peace  in  1864,  Samuel  J.  Tilden  !  I  go  still 
further.  The  gigantic  robberies  of  that  great  ring  had  finally  excited  the 
alarm  of  the  whole  nation.  During  the  time  when  millions  and  millions 
were  being  shamelessly  plundered  from  the  people  of  New  York,  the  Chair 
man  of  the  State  Central  Committee,  the  recipient  of  Tweed's  bounty,  was 
curiously  and  marvelously  silent.  But  this  Republican  press,  Republican 
speakers,  the  Republican  party,  denounced  and  denounced  again  and 
again  those  gigantic  frauds.  A  great  newspaper  brought  them  to  light ; 
exposure  came,  the  lightnings  of  public  wrath  visited  the  head  of  Tweed 
and  his  gang.  When  escape  from  detection  was  no  longer  possible,  then 
from  behind  the  loop-holes  of  his  safe  retreat,  from  behind  his  barricade 
of  law  books  and  railroad  bonds,  Tilden  comes  forth  as  a  patriotic 
reformer  and  demands  the  punishment  of  Boss  Tweed!  [Cheers.J  The 
Republican  carriage  was  all  ready,  and  he  jumped  in  and  rode!  Is  he 
entitled  to  the  credit?  [Cries  of  'No,  No!']  As  I  said  the  other  night, 
the  whole  history  is  in  a  nutshell.  Tweed  was  tried  by  a  Republican 
Judge,  before  a  Republican  jury,  prosecuted  by  a  Republican  Attorney- 
General,  convicted  in  Republican  style,  sent  to  a  Democratic  jail,  in  charge 
of  a  Democratic  jailer,  and  ran  away  in  true  Democratic  fashion. 

"But,  it  is  said,  he  has  exposed  the  Canal  Ring.  The  air  has  been  filled 
with  his  exploits  as  a  reformer  of  the  Canal  Ring.  Three  suits  have  been 
brought, — three  law  suits.  One  man  has  been  convicted,  another  has  been 
acquitted,  another  case  has  been  dismissed.  Nobody  has  been  punished  ; 
not  a  dollar  has  been  recovered,  and  $80,000  have  been  spent.  That  is 
the  way  the  book  stands  so  far  as  the  records  of  canal  reformers  are  con 
cerned. 

"Now  gentlemen,  it  is  a  long  record  that  Mr.  Tilden  has,  and  we  are 
going  to  have  all  summer  to  pursue  it.  His  record  as  a  reformer  is  a  gilded 
fraud  ;  it  is  a  delusion,  a  humbug,  and  a  cheat.  [Cheers.]  We  have  at  the 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    18/6.  505 

head  of  our  party  a  right  true,  honest  man,  the  Governor  of  Ohio.  He  has 
written  a  letter  of  acceptance  which  makes  to-day  one  of  the  finest  State 
papers  in  American  political  literature.  He  will  be.  elected.  Mr.  Tilden 
claims  in  the  little  Pecksniffian  speech  he  made  at  Albany,  saying,  '  Behold 
how  holy  am  I' — he  claims  that  he  has  had  great  experience  in  administra 
tive  reform,  and  there  must  be  a  reform  in  the  Civil  Service.  Well,  how, 
Mr.  Tilden,  how  ?  We  want  a  reform,  not  in  salaries,  we  want  a  reform  in 
the  men  ;  and,  having  a  reform  in  the  men,  we  want  a  reform  in  the 
methods  of  their  selection  and  appointment.  Gentlemen,  I  put  this  question 
squarely  and  fairly  to  you :  '  Do  you  think  that,  with  that  embodied  cor 
poration  at  the  head  of  our  nation,  and  with  the  woods  full  of  the  Confed 
erates  and  Democrats  flying  to  the  Capital  for  an  office,  there  would  be  any 
improvement?'  What  in  the  name  of  God  would  be  the  personnel  of  the 
dvil  service  that  would  be  picked  out  of  that  measly  crowd.  And  it  is  out 
of  that  crowd  that  Tilden  would  have  to  select.  They  have  tried  the  oper 
ation  in  their  Confederate  Congress,  and  see  what  an  exhibition  they  made 
of  themselves.  Why,  Washington  was  absolutely  alive  with  men  who  were 
looking  for  offices,  because  they  supposed,  there  being  a  Confederate  House 
of  Representatives,  the  lost  cause  was  won.  Think  of  a  Democratic  triumph 
all  along  the  line,  and  what  the  results  must  be  !  We  have  seen  this  Dem 
ocratic  crowd  in  1864.  The  Saturday  before  the  great  National  Convention 
which  nominated  McClellan  met,  this  city  was  full  of  them.  I  made  a 
speech  over  there  in  the  park,  on  the  same  stand  with  Dick  Oglesby  and 
John  Farnsworth.  I  started  to  go  home  to  Chicago  Sunday  morning,  and 
what  a  sight  there  was !  Every  fellow  dressed  in  grey  ;  breezes,  in  compar 
ison  with  which  the  odors  from  Bridgeport  were  sweet  as  those  from  a  bank 
of  flowers,  came  from  every  car.  Train  after  train,  the  engines  all  doubled 
up,  and  not  a  seat  to  be  had  on  the  cars.  They  were  the  Democratic 
delegates  on  their  way  to  the  Convention.  After  I  arrived  in  Chicago,  a 
good  old  Democrat  said  to  me :  'I  was  very  much  surprised  a  little  while 
ago.  I  saw  a  great  mass  of  men  going  down  Wabash  Avenue,  and  I 
thought  it  was  a  procession  of  rebel  prisoners  on  their  way  for  exchange, 
but  I'll  be  damned  if  it  wasn't  the  Democratic  delegation  from  Missouri.' 

"In  the  presence  of  that  same  savory  crowd  Samuel  J.  Tilden  appeared 
in  1864.  Some  fellows  had  an  ear  bitten  off  in  a  joint  debate,  men  with 
their  noses  broken  in  an  election  contest,  fellows  with  short  hair.  Those 
men  came  on  with  banners  with  doves  upon  them,  engaged  in  the  olive- 
branch  business,  and  all  swearing  for  peace.  At  the  head  of  this  crowd  in 
1864  was  Samuel  J.  Tilden.  My  friends,  the  crowd  has  not  changed,  and 
the  leader  of  the  Democracy  has  not  changed  one  single  bit  since  that 
time.  I  would  not  say  an  unkind  word  of  my  Democratic  friends, — there 
are  many  clever  gentlemen  among  them,— but,  as  a  political  organization, 
I  think  their  party  is  absolutely  cussed  and  infernal.  I  think  there  can  be 
nothing  more  suicidal  than  to  intrust  into  the  hands  of  these  men,  who 
sought  the  destruction  of  our  national  life,  the  direction  of  our  national 
interests.  I  believe  in  this  nation.  I  know  what  it  is, — it  is  the  sacred 
custodian  of  the  priceless  treasure  of  free  government  for  all  peoples  and  all 


5O6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

nationalities.  I  hope  to  see  it  endure  forever.  I  cherish  in  my  very  heart 
of  hearts  the  memory  of  the  great  heroes  who  have  lived  and  died,  the 
great  leaders  of  our  great  party.  It  may  be  that  I  may  be  false  to  every 
thing  else.  I  hope  that  I  may  never  be  false  to  it.  I  hope  to  carry  in 
my  heart  as  the  most  sacred  thing  \vhich  it  bears  an  intense,  indulging, 
never-ending  love  of  this  great  nation,  embalmed,  sanctified,  and  glori 
fied  as  it  has  been  by  the  blood  of  so  many  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  noble  men;  and  I  believe  in  my  very  soul  that  this  nation  can  be 
saved,  and  that,  with  all  its  faults  and  shortcomings,  this  Republican 
party,  whose  cause  I  to-night  advocate,  is  the  real  custodian  of  our 
national  honor  and  integrity.  All  hail,  then,  the  great  cause !  We  stand 
upon  the  threshold  of  this  great  contest.  Let  the  old  fires  be  everywhere 
relighted ;  let  the  old  spirit  be  again  rekindled,  and  let  the  word  come 
up  from  the  old  leaders,  as  in  the  olden  time,  'Attention!  forward!"1 

At  Detroit,  the  Republicans  opened  the  campaign  by  the 
dedication  of  a  large  central  wigwam  on  the  24th  of  August. 
In  compliance  with  an  invitation  from  the  State  Central  Commit 
tee,  Mr.  Storrs  was  present,  and  addressed  one  of  the  largest  and 
liveliest  indoor  meetings  ever  witnessed  in  the  State  of  Michigan. 
A  Detroit  paper,  reporting  the  proceedings,  said: 

"  His  speech  was  an  excellent  one  and  full  of  witty  points,  but  was  repeat 
edly  interrupted  and  almost  spoiled  by  the  comings  and  goings  of  a  lot  of 
ward  clubs,  who,  at  intervals  of  ten  minutes,  marched  into  the  wigwam  and 
then  marched  out  again,  arrayed  in  oilcloth  caps  and  capes  and  carrying 
lamps,  screeching,  cheering,  firing,  drumming  and  indulging  in  other  tom 
foolery,  until  the  speaker  almost  lost  the  thread  of  his  argument  by  the  fre 
quency  with  which  he  had  to  lay  it  down  to  give  way  to  the  noisy  nonsense 
of  these  fellows.  He  bore  it,  however,  with  much  good  nature,  only  making 
it  the  text  of  several  good  jokes.  '  Even  a  first-class  voice,'  he  said  at  one 
time,  'has  no  chance  with  a  second-class  band.'  At  another  time  he  inter 
jected  :  '  I  have  no  objection  to  the  tune,  but  to  its  length.'  At  another 
interruption  :  '  Republicans  around  here  seem  to  be  innumerable,  and  every 
one  of  them  seems  to  have  a  band  of  his  own.'  As  another  gang  of  howl 
ers  passed  through,  he  was  again  compelled  to  stop,  and  turning  to 
those  on  the  platform,  he  said  with  good-natured  sarcasm,  '  If  they  would 
only  march  one  way ! '  His  speech  glittered  with  witticisms  and  scathing 
satire.  The  News  has  not  space  for  a'  full  report,  and  no  condensation 
could  be  made  of  it  which  would  not  obliterate  its  most  meritorious  features. 
It  was  not  an  argument  the  heads  of  which  could  be  reproduced,  syntheti 
cally,  but  a  spoken  satire,  whose  best  parts  depended  more  upon  the  words 
and  manner  upon  than  the  thought  conveyed. 

"After   a   few   words   of  introduction,    he    said: 

"What  evidence  has  the  Democratic  party  given  us  to  warrant  us  in  re 
storing  it  to  power  ?  I  am  constantly  met  with  the  beseeching  question, 
•For  God's  sake,  can't  you  let  bygones  be  bygones?'  and  I  invariably 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1876.  5O/ 

reply  that  I  will  cease  to  talk  about  the  glories  of  the  Republican  party 
when  you  cease  to  be  Democrats.  When  will  the  mission  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  be  ended  ?  Never,  while  there  is  on  the  face  of  the  earth  an 
unreconciled  and  unreconstructed  Democrat.  They  have  learned  during  the 
past  six  years  that  the  poorest  way  of  reforming  the  Republican  party  is  to 
vote  the  Democratic  ticket,  and  I  am  glad  to  see  that  many  of  them 
are  being  converted.  Welcome  back,  my  friends,  and  sit  by  the  Repub 
lican  fire,  but  please  don't  do  so  any  more.  The  Democrats  entreat  us  to 
let  by-gones  be  by-gones,  and  the  first  moment  we  speak  of  the  issues 
of  the  war  they  accuse  us  of  waving  the  bloody  shirt.  If  our  record 
was  an  infamous  as  theirs, .  we  would  be  as  ashamed  as  they  are,  and 
would  wish  to  keep  still  about  it.  Every  page  of  the  record  of  the 
Democratic  party  is  written  in  blood,  repudiation  and  attacks  on  the 
national  credit.  We  must  judge  of  the  party  as  we  would  judge  of  an 
individual,  forecast  the  future  by  the  past.  Judging  the  Republican  party 
by  this  standard  what  you  can  say  of  it?  Sixteen  years  ago  it  had 
crystallized  about  itself  the  best  men  of  the  nation,  and  when  the  rebel 
lion  broke  out,  this  great  party  came  to  the  rescue  and  saved  the 
nation.  This  young  political  organization  did  not  cease  its  good  work 
then.  It  freed  4,000,000  people  who  were  slaves  and  made  them  men, 
elevating  them  to  the  rights  of  citizenship.  It  has  taken  the  old  ship  of 
state  and  torn  from  it  the  decaying  timbers  and  replaced  them  with 
granite  of  universal  freedom.  It  has  met  every  issue  resolutely  and 
honorably.  It  found  a  disturbed  and  impaired  national  credit,  and  it  has 
restored  and  strengthened  it.  It  has  taken  this  country,  our  country, 
through  its  hours  of  trial,  until  to-day  it  is  the  proudest  country  that  the 
sun  shines  upon.  Can  you  wonder  that  words,  that  language  seem  pow 
erless  to  express  its  glories.  It  will  grow  brighter  and  brighter  as  the 
long  years  recede. 

"We  are  asked  to-night  to  surrender  this  party,  and  to  whom?  You  are 
asked  to  barter  all  its  glories  away — to  say  that,  having  achieved  this  much, 
we  give  it  up,  and  to  whom?  To  that  party  which  all  through  the  war 
resisted  its  prosecution,  the  party  that  after  the  war  said,  'You  shall  sur 
render  every  idea  that  you  have  advanced  and  confirmed  ; '  the  party  that 
said,  'Repudiate  the  public  debt;'  the  party  that  declared  the  constitu 
tional  amendments  void;  the  party  that  believed  and  still  do  believe  that 
what  was  lost  in  the  field  can  be  achieved  in  a  confederate  house  of  repre 
sentatives.  Now  I  claim  that  when  a  party  transfers  the  issues  of  the  day 
from  the  halls  of  congress  to  the  arbitrament  of  arms,  and  is  defeated, 
there  must  be  a  surrender,  not  only  of  arms,  but  of  the  ideas  that  were 
fought  for.  Unless  the  surrender  of  Lee  included  the  surrender  of  every 
Democratic  principle  that  brought  on  the  war,  Tilden  was  correct  in  1864 
when  he  said  that  the  war  was  a  failure. 

"Gentlemen,  these  issues  do  not  die  away  as  soon  as  our  Democratic 
friends  would  have  you  believe.  If  the  national  credit  is  in  danger,  from 
whence  does  it'  come  ?  Does  it  come  from  the  Republican  party  ?  Every 
Republican  who  hears  my  voice  will  answer  '  no ! '  Now,  has  the  Demo- 


508  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

cratic  party  changed?  Yes,  it  has  somewhat,  for  the  Republican  party  is  a 
missionary,  and  evangelizer.  At  the  close  of  the  war  it  liberated  4,000,000 
negroes,  and  God  knows  how  many  Democrats,  the  only  difference  being 
that  the  negroes  had  the  good  sense  to  avail  themselves  of  their  freedom, 
while  the  Democrats  did  not  do  it.  The  Democrats,  at  the  St.  Louis  con 
vention,  declared  that  they  were  opposed  to  stealing.  Was  there  ever  a 
missionary  enterprise  attended  with  better  success?  Why  it  seems  that 
they  actually  believe  now  in  one  of  the  commandments,  and  with  your 
help  I  propose  to  ram  the  whole  ten  down  their  throats  before  this  cam 
paign  is  over. 

"The  Democrats  have  held  a  national  convention.  They  always  do, 
by  the  way,  once  in  four  years,  and  I  propose  to  read  from  Mr.  Til- 
den's  essay,  called  the  platform  of  the  Democratic  party.  It  begins  by 
saying  that  'We,  the  Democratic  party,  declare  that  reform  is  demanded.' 
Listen  to  that  'We  the  Democratic  party,'  who,  after  dieting  on  east 
wind  for  sixteen  years,  now  declare  in  favor  of  reform.  They  also  say 
something  about  the  permanency  of  the  federal  Union.  These  Democrats 
engaged  for  four  years  in  a  steady  effort  to  destroy  the  Union,  and  for 
twelve  years  in  an  effort  to  prevent  the  efficiency  of  the  constitutional 
amendments,  declare  that  they  '  hereby  reaffirm  their  belief  in  the  perma 
nency  of  the  federal  Union.  Reaffirm  it!  When  did  they  ever  affirm 
it?  That  same  party  in  1864  declared,  through  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  that 
the  war  had  been  a  failure,  and  in  1868  sought  the  destruction  of  the 
national  credit  by  an  infamous  proposition  to  pay  the  national  debt  in 
greenbacks.  This  platform  also  denounces  the  financial  imbecility  and 
immorality  of  the  Republican  party.  Think  of  the  Democratic  party 
denouncing  the  immorality  of  anybody  or  anything.  There  are  two  things 
to  be  said  about  this  plank ;  first,  it  is  impudent,  and  second,  it  is  false. 
The  Republican  party  has  reduced  the  public  debt  hundreds  and  hundreds 
of  millions  of  dollars,  and  yet  the  Democratic  delegates  at  St.  Louis 
denounce  the  party  because  they  have  taken  no  steps  towards  resumption. 
Eleven  years  ago,  gold,  our  standard  of  value,  was  quoted  at  #160. 
To-day  it  is  quoted  at  #1.10.  Thus,  without  disturbing  the  currents  of  trade, 
gold  has  been  reduced  to  a  point  where  resumption  is  not  far  distant.  The 
Democrats  denounce  the  failure  of  the  Republican  party  for  1 1  years  to  make 
good  the  legal  tender  notes.  I  have  already  shown  you  that  the  Republican 
party  has  stood  unflinchingly  by  the  national  credit,  and  the  day  is  not  far 
distant  when  we  shall  wake  up  some  fine  morning  and  find  that  gold 
is  at  #i,  greenbacks  at  $i,  and  that  specie  payment  has  resumed  itself. 
This,  gentlemen,  can  never  be  done  by  turning  over  the  government  to 
the  Democratic  party.  It  can  only  be  done  by  steadily  pursuing  the 
course  of  the  past. 

"Here  are  the  Democratic  delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  country  repre 
senting  the  lost  cause,  denouncing  a  period  of  crimes  and  abuses  which  the 
Democratic  party  propose  to  right.  These  sixteen  years  embraced  four 
years  of  war,  four  years  of  the  administration  of  Lincoln  and  eight  years 
of  the  administration  of  General  Grant.  Sanctified  by  the  blood  of  a  quarter 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1876. 

of  a  million  of  brave  men,  these  years  are  denounced  by  such  men  as 
Ben  Hill,  Lamar  and  others.  If  there  is  a  particle  of  the  old  spirit  in 
Detroit  I  know  that  you  will  consider  this  an  insult.  Tilden's  letter  of 
acceptance  and  the  St.  Louis  platform  are  full  of  accusations  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  and  are  much  alike  in  this  respect ;  they  are  shocked  at  its  thefts 
and  immorality,  and  promise  peace  and  good  times.  If  the  government 
was  turned  over  to  the  Democratic  party  it  would  be  indeed  the  time  when 
the  lion  and  the  lamb  shall  lie  down  together,  with  the  very  small  dif 
ference  that  the  lamb  would  be  on  the  inside.  I  do  not  propose  to 
defend  the  Republican  party.  Wherever  stealing  has  been  done  it  has  been 
done  by  individuals,  irrespective  of  the  principles  of  the  Republican  party, 
and  those  individuals  are  the  ones  to  blame.  The  Democratic  party  is  a 
robber  as  an  organization,  and  I  say  to  you  that  the  stealing  and  corruption  in 
the  Republican  party  are  too  small  to  be  noticed  when  compared  with  a 
party  that  would  steal  arms,  steal  states,  and  that  finally  attempted  to  steal 
the  whole  nation.  Precisely  how  the  Democratic  party  propose  to  carry 
out  the  reforms  about  which  they  talk  so  much  they  do  not  tell  us. 

"I  hear  something  said  about  centralization,  and  I  wish  to  say  that  if 
it  is  a  bad  thing  I  am  opposed  to  it.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  is  a 
good  thing  I  am  in  favor  of  it,  and  if  it  is  neither  good  nor  bad  I 
don't  care  much  about  it.  If  they  mean  by  centralization  such  an 
administration  of  the  law  as  shall  secure  freedom  and  protection  to  all, 
I  am  in  favor  of  it.  I  should  consider  a  party  beneath  contempt  that 
would  give  a  man  his  freedom  and  refuse  to  give  him  the  right  to  pro 
tect  that  freedom  by  withholding  the  ballot.  I  say  again,  that  if  that 
is  centralization  I  am  in  favor  of  it,  and  I  would  protect  the  colored 
men  in  such  rights.  These  constitutional  amendments  are  absolutely 
inoperative  of  themselves.  They  simply  declare  the  freedom  of  the  negro, 
but  it  takes  something  more  than  that.  These  amendments  need  legisla 
tion  to  give  them  force,  and  the  Republican  party  has  supplied  this,  so 
that  it  is  to  this  party  that  the  colored  men  of  the  south  are  indebted 
for  the  privileges  they  enjoy  to-day.  With  a  Democratic  congress  and  a 
Democratic  president  I  ask  you  how  long  these  statutes  would  stand  upon 
the  statute-books?  They  would  disappear  like  the  snow  before  the 
morning  sun,  and  all  the  rights  we  have  secured  to  the  negroes  would 
be  undone.  Are  you  tired  of  what  you  have  done?  Would  you  take 
back  the  rights  given  to  them?  Would  you  say  to  them  you  are  free, 
but  you  cannot  vote?  or  would  you  say  to  them  you  can  vote,  but  if 
your  former  masters  attempt  to  intimidate  you  and  keep  you  from  the 
ballot-box  we  will  stand  idly  by  and  shake  hands  with  them  over  the 
bloody  chasm  ? 

"The  Democrats  propose  to  reform  the  civil  service,  but  how?  Tilden 
says  by  selecting  a  higher  grade  of  men ;  but  from  where  ?  Where  will  you 
find  them?  The  offices  must  be  filled  by  either  Democrats  or  Republicans. 
If  you  want  loyal  men,  men  of  refinement,  men  of  culture,  the  Republican 
party  is  full  of  them.  At  Washington  this  winter  we  have  seen  the  kind  of 
men  that  the  Democrats  propose  to  reform  the  civil  service  with,  the  emis- 


5IO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

saries  of  the  lost  cause.  Culture?  Men  who  can't  tell  whether  the  Saviour 
of  mankind  was  crucified  at  Calvary  or  shot  at  Bunker  Hill.  Why  the 
roads  through  the  country  are  full  of  tramps,  Democratic  office-seekers, 
hoofing  it  from  Washington.  Another  instance,  what  a  great  moral  city  is 
the  city  of  New  York.  How  piously  the  Democrats  there  can  stuff  a  ballot 
box,  and  count  this  man  in  or  that  man  out.  How  very  quietly  they  go 
about  doing  good — so  quietly  that  no  one  ever  hears  of  it. 

"Who  is  the  Democratic  candidate?  Samuel  J.  Tilden.  Some  people 
say  that  they  shall  vote  for  him  because  they  are  tired  of  machine  poli 
tics.  Why,  gentlemen,  Samuel  J.  Tilden  is  the  perfection  of  a  machine. 
He  is  a  reaper  and  mower  combined,  a  self-sharpener,  and  has  never 
been  anything  else.  They  tell  us  that  Mr.  Tilden  is  a  patriotic  man,  but 
how  very  quietly  he  went  about  saving  the  union,  his  left  hand  on  the 
Chicago  convention,  and  his  right  hand  didn't  know  anything  about  it. 
Here  was  a  war  where  millions  of  men  met  on  the  field  of  battle,  where 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  lives  were  lost,  where  an  immense  amount  of 
treasure  was  expended,  and  I  ask  you,  was  there  a  man  about  whose 
position  there  could  be  a  particle  of  doubt?  Why,  every  school  boy  in 
the  land  was  able  to  define  his  position  in  regard  to  the  war,  but  skulk 
ing  behind  his  law  books  and  railroad  bonds  Samuel  J.  Tilden  was  not 
heard  from.  We  all  have  the  right  to  say  to  him,  You  were  no  obscure 
country  lawyer,  why  could  you  not  at  once  say,  '  God  speed  to  the  good 
cause.  God  speed  to  the  noble  soldiers.'  How  different  was  the  posi 
tion  of  our  candidate.  There's  his  record,  (pointing  to  the  '  scalping'  let 
ter  printed  on  a  banner.)  Recognizing  the  claim  on  him  he  went  to  the 
front.  There's  no  doubt  where  he  was.  But  Tilden  did  not  utter  one  little 
word  about  the  war.  Riding  on  a  pass  of  one  of  the  numerous  rail 
roads  he  had  consolidated,  he  arrived  in  the  city  of  Chicago,  and  the 
dapper  little  gentleman  was  carefully  folded  in  a  piece  of  tissue  paper  and 
wafted  to  the  Democratic  convention.  I  wonder  if,  when  Tilden  retires  at 
night  to  his  lonely  bachelor's  bed,  he  doesn't  wish  a  mountain  would  fall  on 
him  and  crush  him  before  morning,  or  that  some  great  gulf  would  open  and 
swallow  up  the  peace  plank  in  the  Chicago  platform.  They  tell  us  that 
Tilden  wasn't  responsible  for  it,  and  according  to  the  Democrats,  lions  and 
tigers  wouldn't  be  anywhere  in  the  way  of  this  little  dapper  governor  of 
New  York.  Why  didn't  he  rise  up  and  protest  against  this  plank  in  the 
Chicago  convention?  He  did  worse  in  that  convention  of  Greenbackers  for 
greenbacks.  Tilden  got  up  and  said,  We,  of  the  committee  on  resolutions, 
are  all  agreed.  Another  peace  member  got  up  and  said  we  are  all  agreed. 
Morrissey  was  there  for  peace,  and  in  fact  they  were  all  engaged  in  the 
olive  branch  business.  All  the  record  you  can  find  of  this  valiant  man, 
Samuel  J.  Tilden,  who  was  crazy  to  go  to  the  war  as  a  private,  is  this 
peace  plank. 

•'They  say  he  is  a  reformer,  and  that  he  unearthed  the  frauds  of 
Tweed.  Tilden  and  Tweed  were  personal  friends  for  many  years,  and 
long  after  all  Tweed's  villainies  had  been  exposed  by  the  Republican  press, 
Tilden  met  him  in  convention  and  took  him  up  as  a  political  equal  and 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    18/6.  511 

friend.  After  the  Republican  party  and  the  Republican  press  had  exposed 
Tweed,  Tilden  came  to  the  front  and  rolled  into  office  as  Governor  of 
New  York  on  the  tide  that  swamped  Tweed.  Now,  Tweed  was  tried 
before  a  Republican  Judge,  by  a  Republican  prosecuting  attorney,  and 
convicted  by  a  Republican  jury,  but  he  escaped  from  a  Democratic 
sheriff.  It  is  truly  wonderful  to  mark  the  progress  of  reform.  Confined  in 
a  small  room  not  much  larger  than  this,  poorly  furnished  with  marble- 
top  tables  and  tapestried  throughout,  eating  but  five  or  six  meals  per  day, 
and  seeing  only  fifty  or  sixty  visitors  each  day,  Tweed  pined  for  a  sight 
of  his  wife ;  he  never  loved  her  so  much  in  his  life  before.  The  jailor 
took  him  in  a  carriage  to  his  humble  dwelling  in  that  pauper  street, 
Fifth  Avenue,  and  he  went  in  at  the  front  door.  From  that  moment 
to  the  present  time  the  places  that  knew  him  know  him  no  more  forever. 
"Tilden  is  reform  governor  of  New  York;  he  has  broken  the  canal 
ring.  Eighty  thousand  dollars  has  been  expended,  three  men  indicted, 
one  of  whom  was  convicted  and  is  now  imprisoned  out  of  doors  on  bail. 
This  is  the  great  ring-smasher.  Now  I  suppose  you  all  know  that  if 
there  is  anything  that  will  make  a  man  love  his  fellow  men  all  through 
and  through,  it  is  to  consolidate  railroads.  That  is  where  Samuel  J. 
Tilden  has  proved  himself  a  success.  He  is  the  great  railroad  physician, 
and  whenever  he  has  stood  at  the  bedside  of  a  railroad  there  has  been 
a  railroad  funeral  in  that  immediate  neighborhood  very  soon  thereafter. 
Generally,  you  know,  a  physician's  success  depends  upon  his  ability  to 
save  his  patients,  and  it  seems  strange  that  when  railroads  have  died 
on  his  hands  Tilden  has  achieved  great  success.  He  is  the  author  of 
watered  stock  and  the  finisher  of  blighted  railroad  stock.  There  is  hardly 
a  farmer  in  this  broad  land  but  that  has  a  little  piece  of  paper  stowed 
away  somewhere  that  he  occasionally  takes  out,  and,  as  he  looks  at  it 
and  mourns  its  worthlessness,  he  can  trace  it  to  the  great  reform  candi 
date,  Samuel  J.  Tilden." 

The  same  newspaper,  editorially,  said — "The  meeting  at  the 
Central  Wigwam  on  Michigan  avenue  was  a  splendid  one  in 
numbers  and  in  spirit.  The  speech  of  Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs 
kept  the  attention  of  the  audience  from  first  to  last.  It  was 
among  the  most  admirable  efforts  of  its  kind  to  which  we  have 
ever  listened.  Keen  in  its  irony,  scathing  in  its  sarcasm,  power 
ful  in  its  arraignment  of  the  Democracy  and  their  leaders, 
eloquent  and  convincing  in  its  tribute  to  the  services  of  the 
Republican  party,  it  carried  every  hearer  with  it.  The  Republi 
cans  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  auspicious  manner  in 
which  the  campaign  has  been  opened." 

On  his  return  home,  Mr.  Storrs  accepted  an  invitation  to 
address  the  Republicans  of  Freeport,  and  fulfilled  his  engagement 
on  the  1 5th  of  September.  The  <announcement  that  he  was  to 


512  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

speak,  and  the  meeting  of  the  Congressional  Convention  in  the 
afternoon,  had  filled  the  town  with  people,  and  the  large  hall 
which  had  been  secured  for  the  meeting  could  not  hold  the 
crowds,  Republican  and  Democrat,  who  thronged  to  hear  him. 
He  said: 

"I  by  no  means  feel  in  addressing  the  magnificent  audience  hereto-night 
assembled  that  I  am  among  strangers,  or  that  I  am  speaking  to  stran 
gers.  I  have  known  Freeport,  its  people,  its  surroundings,  its  patriotic 
spirit,  its  loyal  impulses,  for  the  last  sixteen  years.  I  am  somewhat  renew 
ing  to-night  an  acquaintance  commenced  sixteen  years  ago,  and  I  am 
renewing  that  acquaintance  on  an  occasion  very  much  like  that  under 
which  we  met  when  the  acquaintance  began.  It  is  curious  to  me,  and, 
perhaps,  may  be  so  to  you,  to  see  how  long  a  time  it  takes  to  wipe  out 
old  political  issues,  and  to  substitute  in  their  place  entirely  new  ones.  We 
have  all  waited,  watched,  and  hoped  for  the  day  to  come  when  bygones 
should  be  really  bygones, — when  the  past  with  all  its  dreadful  memories 
could  be  erased, — when  all  the  troubles  which  we  had  overcome  \vould 
be  behind  us  as  a  bad  dream;  when,  with  new  issues,  new  parties,  new 
organizations,  this  great  nation,  starting  afresh  upon  its  career,  might 
say  to  itself  that,  whatever  else  may  happen,  the  past  is  safe,  and  to 
the  future  alone  are  we  called  to  look.  That  time,  every  heart  that  beats 
before  me  to-night  tells  me  has  not  yet  arrived.  Bygones  are  not  bygones. 
The  past  is  not  altogether  past.  The  past  is  not  quite  secure.  We  do 
not  stand  to-day  a  nation  with  that  past  absolutely  safe,  with  the  broad 
future  before  us  absolutely  untrammeled  by  any  history  which  lies  behind 
us.  We  confront  to-day — and  it  is  one  of  the  wonders  of  this  century — 
the  same  great  political  organization,  consisting  of  the  same  membership, 
inspired  by  the  same  feelings,  devoted  to  the  same  purposes,  holding  pre 
cisely  the  same  ideas,  that  that  party  held  sixteen  years  ago  when  it  organ 
ized  treason  and  sought  the  destruction  of  the  national  existence  that  we 
met  and  defeated  in  1860.  We  had  hoped — and  you  all  had  hoped — 
that,  long  before  the  centennial  year  had  arrived,  this  Democratic  party, 
from  which  the  cause  of  human  freedom  and  of  good  government  every 
where  had  suffered  so  much,  would  have  utterly  passed  out  of  existence, 
and  would  have  vexed  us  no  more.  You  had  hoped,  my  good  friends,  that 
all  those  old  political  ideas  on  which  that  party  was  based,  and  to  maintain 
and  enforce  which  it  organized  a  gigantic  rebellion,  would  have  been  buried 
in  oblivion  and  absolutely  be  regarded  among  the  things  of  the  past.  But, 
as  eagerly  as  you  might  have  hoped  this,  you  are  doomed  to  disappoint 
ment.  In  the  year  of  grace  1*876  this  same  organization,  whose  record  is  a 
record  of  broken  promises  and  violated  pledges, — this  same  political  organ 
ization,  which  has  carried  within  itself  all  the  most  dangerous  political 
heresies  that  have  threatened  the  destruction  of  our  national  life, — is  proud, 
asserting,  dominant,  demanding  that  the  custody  of  the  affairs  of  the  nation, 
whose  destruction  it  sought,  shall  be  by  a  loyal  people  turned  over  to  its 
keeping.  And  the  solemn  question  which  you  are  to  answer  to-night, — the 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  $13 

solemn  question  which,  men  and  women  alike,  you  are  from  this  day  forth 
to  put  to  yourselves  without  ceasing,  is  this:  Shall  those  who  would  have 
murdered  this  nation,  the  grandest  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  within  eleven  short 
years  after  their  attempt  had  failed — shall  they  be  called  back  into  power, 
and  intrusted  with  the  life  and  integrity  of  that  nation,  whose  destruction 
they  sought?  [A  voice,  "Never,"  and  applause.]  This  is  the  question  which 
is  constantly  recurring.  I  am  told  that  these  are  bygones,  and  that  we  are 
making  the  same  old  speeches  that  we  made  in  the  years  that  are  past. 
This  question  of  loyalty,  of  devotion  to  the  national  existence,  is  as  old  as 
virtue,  and  the  vices  of  the  Democratic  party  are  as  old  as  sin.  [Laughter 
and  applause.]  As  well  might  you  ask  a  preacher  to  hush  his  voice  and 
let  the  pulpit  go  untenanted  because  preachers  before  him  have  denounced 
sin,  as  to  ask  Republicans  to  hush  their  voices  and  close  their  meetings  as 
long  as  a  Democrat  lives  above  ground.  [Applause.]  We  are  assured, 
however,  that  the  Democratic  party  has  changed ;  that  the  war  is  past ; 
that  we  should  have  a  period  of  silence ;  that  the  bitterness  of  the  war 
should  be  buried ;  that  a  feeling  of  universal  gushing  sentimental  brother 
hood  should  prevail ;  that  we  should  at  once  proceed  to  shake  hands  across 
the  'bloody  chasm';  that  we  should  forget  all  the  sacrifices  and  glories  of 
the  past,  and  that  we  should  call  to  our  bosom  with  a  sort  of  paroxysmal 
enthusiasm,  which  no  blushing  maiden  ever  yet  excelled,  the  organizers  of 
treason  and  the  unconverted  enemies  of  the  free  spirit  and  tendencies  of 
modern  times. 

"  I  am  in  favor  of  conciliation — thoroughly  and  altogether  in  favor  of 
conciliation.  The  simple  question  in  my  mind  is  who  shall  be  conciliated? 
I  turn  to  the  old  Republicans  on  this  platform ;  I  turn  to  the  old 
Republicans  in  the  body  of  the  hall ;  I  ask  them  if  they  remember  the 
days  when  we  started  out  in  our  procession  twenty-two  years  ago ;  I 
ask  them  if  they  remember  how  small  a  procession  it  was;  that  we  went 
afoot ;  that  the  going  was  bad ;  that  our  feet  were  sore ;  that  the  winds  blew 
through  every  hole  in  our  garments;  that  the  skies  were  inclement,  and 
that  there  were  conservative  gentlemen  standing  on  the  side-walks  heaving 
mud  at  the  procession  as  it  passed?  [Laughter.]  I  ask  them  if  they  remem 
ber  the  days  when  the  old  procession  grew,  when  it  came  up  a  great  party, 
when  it  crystalized  about  itself  all  the  holiest  objects,  the  loftiest  impulses, 
the  best  purposes  of  the  country,  and  called  itself  the  Republican  party  ?  I 
ask  them  if  they  remember  when  that  great  procession  swelled  in  volume 
so  that  it  embraced  the  whole  continent,  when  it  met  a  rebellion  in  arms, 
when  it  throttled  the  life  out  of  it,  when  it  saved  the  great  Nation?  I 
ask  them  if  they  remember  when  these  loyal  people  buried  their  loyal 
sons  in  every  valley  and  on  every  hill-side  in  the  land?  I  ask  them  if 
they  remember  the  thousands  and  millions  of  dollars  and  the  countless 
thousands  of  lives  sacrificed  that  this  nation  might  live?  I  ask  them, 
finally,  if  they  remember,  when  peace  came,  and  when,  to  protect  the 
national  credit,  another  war  quite  as  great  in  its  proportions  as  the  first 
to  vindicate  and  maintain  the  national  credit  has  been  fought  and 
won  against  the  same  adversaries;  and  I  ask  them  to-day  if,  when  the 

33 


514  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

victory  is  finally  achieved,  we  may  not  be  permitted  to  sit  down  by  the 
hearth-stones  which  we  have  saved,  and  ask  that  the  robbers  and  plunderers 
of  the  national  honor  shall  conciliate  us?  [Laughter.]  Wouldn't  it  be  well 
that  there  should  be  a  Confederate  deputation  coming  up  from  the  rice-fields 
of  South  Carolina ;  wouldn't  it  be  well  if  a  delegation  of  Confederate  Dem 
ocrats  should  come  here  from  Hamburg, — come  here  to  this  beautiful  Town 
of  Freeport, — bearing  the  olive-branch  in  their  hands,  and  say  to  the  good 
old  loyal  citizens  of  loyal  old  Stephenson,  'We  have  come  here  to  conciliate 
you?'  No;  the  gushing  little  candidate  running  for  President  to-day,  and 
all  his  forces,  Tray,  Blanche,  and  Sweetheart,  say  that  the  broad-browed, 
big-hearted  men  of  Stephenson  must  go  down  to  Hamburg  and  conciliate 
Butler,  and  his  murderous  associates. 

"I  speak  of  the  Democratic  party.  It  comes  to  you  to-day  asking  that 
the  confidence  which  you  withdrew  from  it  twenty  years  ago  nearly  shall 
be  again  restored  to  it.  What  has  it  done?  Twenty  years  ago  this  same 
Democratic  party  made  human  sympathy  a  curse,  and  made  charity  an 
indictable  offense.  Twenty  years  ago  this  same  Democratic  party,  which 
to-day  demands  the  suffrages  of  the  people,  organized  itself  into  a  party 
which  said  the  sunshine  of  freedom  shall  be  local,  and  the  black  shadow  of 
slavery  shall  be  national.  This  same  party  organized  secession  in  the  war, 
and,  having  failed  in  meeting  reason  by  the  bullet  and  argument  by  the 
bludgeon,  took  its  political  principles  to  the  last  field  to  which  those  ques 
tions  are  ever  referred.  It  carried  them  into  battle;  its  banners  went  down 
in  defeat;  its  hopes  were  crushed;  its  arms  were  defeated;  and  I  said,  and 
you  said,  as  we  stood  upon  the  edge  of  that  mighty  conflict, — its  roar  still 
ringing  in  our  ears,  and  its  smoke  still  filling  the  sky — 'Surrender' — not 
only  the  men  who  fought,  and  the  guns  with  which  they  fought,  but  '  Sur 
render  every  single  political  idea  for  which  you  fought.'  If,  when  Lee's 
armies  surrendered  at  Appomattox,  they  did  not  surrender  the  damnable 
heresies  out  of  which  the  war  grew;  if  we  did  not  demand  that  surrender, 
the  war  was  a  failure  as  base  and  shameless  as  Tilden  declared  it  in  1864. 

I  supposed,  we  all  supposed,  that,  when  their  armies  were  annihilated, 
their  political  ideas  were  annihilated  as  well.  Has  there  been  any  conver 
sion?  Point  me  to  a  single  Democrat  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  big 
or  little,  who  to-day  will  tell  you  that  he  entertains  on  the  question  of  State 
Sovereignty  an  opinion  in  the  slightest  degree  different  from  that  which  he 
held  when  the  war  began.  Point  me  to  a  single  leading  Democrat  North, 
prominent  in  politics,  who  was  a  Democrat  when  the  war  began  who  to-day 
will  tell  you  that  he  believes  on  the  question  of  State  Sovereignty  one  iota 
differently  from  what  he  did  sixteen  years  ago.  Is  it  possible,  then,  that  a 
party  made  up  of  the  same  members,  each  individual  member  holdmg  the 
same  belief  that  he  held  twenty  years  ago, — that  the  party  has  changed 
when  there  has  been  no  change  in  the  opinions  of  its  individual  members? 

"In  1861,  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  with  James  Buchanan,  declared  as  his  opin 
ion  that,  although  a  State  had  no  right  to  secede,  the  General  Government 
had  no  right  to  coerce  it  into  the  Union.  Has  Tilden  changed?  Is  there  a 
Democrat  in  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  the  land  that  has  changed? 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  51$ 

Not  one.  If  no  individual  member  has  changed,  how,  then,  has  the  party 
changed  ?  If  they  have  changed,  if  they  have  revolutionized  that  belief,  if 
they  are  now  honestly  of  the  opinion  that  this  nation  is  one  and  indivisible; 
that  the  right  of  secession  does  not  exist;  that  there  is  inherent  in  the  Gen 
eral  Government  the  power  to  crush  out  the  attempt  whenever  it  is  made ; 
if,  to  follow  this  out,  there  is  a  single  Democrat  who  has  to-day  reached 
those  conclusions,  there  is  but  one  way  in  which  the  genuineness  of  his 
change  of  conviction  can  be  demonstrated,  and  that  is  by  leaving  the 
Democratic  party  and  joining  the  ranks  of  Republicanism.  [Applause.] 
When  the  heathen  ceases  to  worship  his  idol  of  block  or  stone  as  the  real 
God — when  he  believes  in  the  divinity  of  the  Saviour,  and  in,  the  truths  of 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  he  doesn't  stay  among  the  heathen,  but 
joins  the  Christian  Church.  And  if  these  Democrats  are  converted,  I  have 
this  advice  to  give  them :  Get  out  from  among  your  heathen  associations, 
stop  worshiping  your  images  of  brick  and  of  stone,  change  your  soiled  and 
battered  clothing  of  Democracy,  wash  yourselves  clean,  put  on  a  new  shirt, 
come  into  the  ranks  of  Republicanism,  don  its  garments,  and  thus  prove  the 
genuineness  of  the  change  of  heart  which  you  claim  to  have  experienced. 
[Applause  and  laughter.] 

"This  Republican  party  of  ours  comes  to  you  to-day  with  substantially 
the  same  membership.  It  is  the  same  party  with  its  unbroken  record  of 
glory,  that  made  four  millions  of  chattels  freemen  and  citizens.  It  found 
the  old  structure  of  State  filled  with  the  rotten  and  decayed  timbers  of 
African  servitude.  It  removed  them  all  amid  the  thunders  of  war,  and 
replaced  them  with  the  everlasting  granite  of  freedom.  This  same  Repub 
lican  party  that  crowded  into  four  short  years  of  war  the  most  colossal 
and  resplendent  results  ever  recorded  in  history,  confronted  at  its  close 
a  vast  debt,  and  honestly,  manfully,  faithfully,  it  has  pledged  the  credit 
of  the  whole  nation  that  it  shall  be  paid,  and  reduced  it  more  than 
$400,000,000  of  money.  This  same  great  party,  confronting  this  new  con 
dition  of  things,  found  these  former  slaves  freemen.  It  made  them  citi 
zens.  Making  them  citizens,  it  said  to  them  and  the  nation  and  the 
world,  '  We  will  clothe  them  with  all  the  weapons  by  which  the  right 
of  citizenship  may  be  protected  ;  we  will  make  them  voters.'  It  made 
them  voters,  and,  making  them  voters,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
has  placed  it  within  the  power  of  the  General  Government  to  protect 
them  in  the  exercise  and  enjoyment  of  that  right. 

"  It  has  lifted  millions  of  dollars  of  tax  from  the  shoulders  of  the 
people.  It  has  decreased  by  millions  of  dollars  the  national  expenditures. 
It  has  increased  by  millions  of  money  the  national  revenues;  and  this 
brings  its  history  down  to  to-day. 

"But  while  I  am  discussing  questions  of  this  character,  some  Democrats 
tell  me,  'Why,  those  are  old  issues.'  'The  freedom  of  the  slave,'  they 
say,  'is  secure  beyond  all  question.  His  citizenship,  as  you  have  said,  is 
imbedded  in  the  Constitution.'  His  right  to  vote,  they  tell  us,  is  secure. 
And  when  they  make  that  line  of  argument  they  seem  to  think  that  the 
whole  discussion  is  closed.  Right  here,  my  fellow-citizens,  let  us  pause  and 


5l6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

think.  Let  me  suggest  to  you  that  there  is  hardly  a  clause  in  our  Federal 
Constitution  which  is  self-enforcing.  We  have  a  provision  that  there  shall 
be  Federal  courts,  and  I  think  I  see  a  conservative  Democrat — one  of  the 
old-time  Democrats  who  respects  the  Constitution  beyond  all  measure — 
stand  with  his  toes  turned  out  and  his  back  to  the  fire,  and  with  his  hand 
under  his  coat-tail,  saying.  '  I  am  in  favor  of  the  Constitution — I  am  in 
favor  of  that  clause  which  provides  for  Federal  courts,  but  I  am  not  in 
favor  of  this  Congressional  legislation  by  which  the  Court  is  created.' 

I  ask  you,  gentlemen,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  Democrat  is  in 
favor  of  the  Constitution,  is  he  in  favor  of  the  Court?  We  have  our  clauses 
in  that  Constitution  providing  for  mail  routes  and  post-offices.  What  is  a 
clause  in  the  Constitution  worth  unless  there  be  some  Congressional  legisla 
tion  to  put  it  into  force?  We  have  these  Constitutional  Amendments  by 
which  citizenship  and  freedom  are  both  conferred  upon  the  negro,  but  they 
are  not  self-enforcing.  Each  one  of  these  amendments  provides  that  they 
shall  be  enforced  by  appropriate  legislation.  Now,  what  is  that  appropriate 
legislation,  and  what  is  its  precise  value?  Let  me  tell  you,  if  you  will 
strike  out  all  Congressional  legislation  upon  the  subject  and  leave  the 
amendments  standing  alone,  they  are  as  idle  for  all  useful  purposes  '  as  a 
painted  ship  upon  a  painted  ocean.'  The  Republican  party  is  a  practical 
party.  It  imbedded  those  great  rights  in  the  Constitution.  It  took  them 
down  to  the  solid  rock  upon  which  the  nation  lives,  and  it  said.  '  We  will 
make  these  no  idle  gifts.  These  shall  be  no  treacherous  benefactions.  We 
mean  precisely  what  we  say.'  We  gave  freedom  to  the  slave.  It  were 
base  not  to  protect  him  in  its  enjoyment.  We  gave  citizenship  to  the 
negro.  It  were  base  not  to  protect  him  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  its  privi 
leges.  We  gave  him  the  right  to  vote.  It  were  outrageous  if  it  were  an 
idle  gift.  We  protect  him  in  the  full  and  complete  enjoyment  of  the  right, 
and  therefore  Congress  has  by  legislation  provided  that,  whenever  any 
privileges  thus  conferred  shall  be  interfered  with,  this  great  central  power 
which  we  call  the  General  Government  may  intervene>  and  may  protect  the 
negro  in  the  enjoyment  of  every  privilege  which  the  Constitutional  Amend 
ment  confers  upon  him.  It  says  this :  '  We  give  you  by  the  Constitution 
the  right  to  citizenship  and  to  vote,  and  more  by  legislation.  This  is  no 
ideal  gift.  If,  when  you  go  to  deposit  your  ballot,  that  right  is  interfered 
with,  if  the  State  in  which  you  live  cannot  or  will  not  protect  you,  this 
great  Government  will  protect  you.  If  you  are  interfered  with  by  force,  we  will 
protect  you  by  force.  If  armed  men  threaten  you  in  the  enjoyment  of  any  of 
those  privileges,  armed  men  shall  march  to  your  support,  and  assert  your  full 
and  complete  enjoyment  of  them.'  This  is  what  the  Democratic  party  call 
centralization. 

It  is  a  centralization  of  which  I  am  enthusiastically  in  favor.  I  would 
give  nothing  for  that  Government  so  utterly  powerless  and  helpless  that 
could  not,  even  at  the  cost  of  war,  at  the  extremes  of  the  globe,  protect  the 
meanest  and  poorest  of  its  citizens  when  insulted  and  outraged.  I  would 
spit  upon  that  Government  which  would  not  at  home  protect,  even  at  the 
cost  of  war,  the  meanest  and  poorest  of  its  citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1876.  5 1/ 

every  privilege  which  the  Constitution  conferred  upon  him.  And  the  man 
to-day  who  is  in  favor  of  the  Constitutional  Amendments,  and  is  opposed  to 
that  legislation  by  which  they  shall  be  enforced,  is  a  coward  and  a  sneak, 
and  fittingly  belongs  to  the  Democratic  party. 

"I  will  pursue  this  subject  still  further.  Let  me  illustrate  a  little.  I  think 
I  am  familiar  with  this  Democratic  party.  I  have  read  its  history.  It  has 
been  burned  into  me  and  into  you.  During  the  war,  all  through  the  North, 
you  found  magnificent  Democrats  who  were  in  favor  of  a  vigorous  prosecution 
of  the  war.  Certainly  they  were.  They  were  in  favor  of  a  vigorous  prose 
cution  of  the  war,  but  were  opposed  to  drafting  a  single  man.  They  were 
in  favor  of  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion,  but  were  opposed  to  buying  a 
gun.  They  were  in  favor  of  the  suppression  of  treason,  but  opposed  to 
invading  what  they  call  a  Sovereign  State ;  opposed  to  secession,  and  opposed 
to  putting  it  down  ;  opposed  to  a  dissolution  of  the  Union,  and  opposed  to 
preventing  anybody  dissolving  it. 

"One  more  question  on  this  point.  You  have  seen  one-half  of  a  Confed 
erate  Congress.  They  cannot  disturb  the  amendments.  But  place  the  whole 
of  the  affairs  of  this  nation  in  the  hands  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  where  do 
you  suppose,  within  thirty  days  after  attaining  power,  where  do  you  suppose 
every  single  syllable  of  legislation  will  be  left  that  was  intended  to  enforce 
the  provisions  of  those  amendments?  Away  back  in  1863,  in  the  Democratic, 
patriotic,  honestly-governed  John  Morrissey-Sam  Tilden-Isaiah  Rynders-Bill 
Tweed  City  of  New  York,  there  was  inaugurated  a  little  one-horse  Demo 
cratic  rebellion.  The  Draft  law  had  been  enforced.  Seymour,  Tilden,  all 
good  Democrats,  had  assured  the  rank  and  file  that  all  that  legislation  was 
revolutionary,  unconstitutional,  and  void.  If  there  ever  was  a  man  that 
loved  the  Constitution  and  talked  about  it  all  the  time,  that  carried  it  about 
with  him,  and  slept  with  it  under  his  pillow,  it  is  one  of  the  meek  and  lowly 
followers  of  John  Morrissey  and  Isaiah  Rynders.  [Laughter.]  If  there  ever 
was  a  class  of  men  up  in  science  who  denied  privileges  to  the  negros  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  not  men,  and  that  their  astragalus  differed  from 
that  of  a  white  man,  it  was  the  learned  savans  whose  noses  have  been 
broken  and  whose  ears  have  been  bitten  off  in  those  discussions  in  the  City 
of  New  York.  [Great  laughter.]  At  that  time  these  good,  zealous  Demo 
crats  really  believed  in  the  bottom  of  their  patriotic  souls  that  the  Constitu 
tion  had  been  violated  by  the  Draft  law,  and  organized  a  mob  and  brought 
on  a  great  riot,  in  the  midst  of  which  Horatio  Seymour  wrote  a  letter  to 
President  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  said  to  him  practically:  'We  are  all  in 
favor  of  the  prosecution  of  the  war.  We  all  devoutly  pray  that  the  LTnion 
may  be  saved.  We  pray  every  night  when  we  retire  to  our  couches  that  the 
Union  may  be  restored.  But  this  Draft  law  opposes  and  violates,  as  we 
think,  some  of  the  fundamental  provisions  of  the  Constitution.  The  temper 
of  the  loyal  people  of  this  State,'  he  said,  'is  greatly  aroused,'  and  there 
fore  he  proposed  to  Abraham  Lincoln  that  the  draft  be  suspended,  and  that 
a  lawsuit  be  commenced  in  some  court  in  the  City  of  New  York  and  car 
ried  through  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  which,  in  the 
course  of  two  or  three  years,  might  be  terminated,  and  by  which  it  might 


5l8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

be  ascertained  whether  the  draft  was  all  right  or  not.  [Laughter.]  Mr. 
Lincoln  wrote  back  to  him:  'My  dear  sir:  I  cannot  see  how  your  proposi 
tion  will  work.  The  difficulty  is  our  Confederate  friends  south  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line  won't  wait  for  your  lawsuit.  They  go  right  along  and  fill 
up  their  armies.'  And  he  says,  'My  dear  Seymour,  go  on  with  your  law 
suit,  one  or  two,  or  as  many  of  them  as  you  please.  I  will  go  along  with 
my  draft,  and  we  will  run  them  in  parallel  lines;'  and,  as  it  turned  out,  the 
other  Democratic  rebellion  south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  was  crushed 
into  powder  long  before  Horatio  Seymour's  suits  would  have  been  reached 
upon  the  docket.  [Applause  and  laughter.]  It  is  the  same  party  precisely 
that  acted  thus  when  such  dangers  as  those  were  threatening  us  which  now 
asks  that  the  affairs  of  this  nation  shall  be  turned  over  to  its  keeping.  It  is 
the  same  party,  reeking  all  through  with  its  political  crimes,  that  insists  upon 
it  that  from  the  hands  of  this  great  loyal  organization  that  saved  the  nation, 
it  shall  be  taken,  and  passed  over  into  the  keeping  of  that  great  disloyal 
mob  who  sought  its  destruction.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  time  has  yet 
arrived  when  this  loyal  people  have  so  far  forgotten  the  history  of  the  past 
twenty  years  that  they  are  prepared  to  accede  to  this  request. 

"It  occurs  to  me  that  here  is  a  proper  place  to  be  scriptural.  I  have 
watched,  as  I  have  told  you,  this  Democratic  party  curiously — watched  its 
promises.  It  is  a  party  absolutely  without  performance,  and  depends 
altogether  upon  promise.  If  there  is  a  banker  in  this  town,  or  a  citizen 
who  is  not  a  banker,  that  has  loaned  some  fellow  $100  which  the  fellow  has 
never  paid,  he  may  forgive  the  debt — let  that  be  a  bygone ;  but  I  don't 
believe  he  will  make  another  loan.  [Laughter.]  How  may  I  know  that 
this  Democratic  party  is  to  keep  its  promises?  By  judging  from  what  it  has 
done?  Oh,  no.  They  say,  'We  will  save  the  nation.'  We  saved  it.  We 
have  saved  you  that  trouble.  They  say,  'We  will  protect  it.'  Why,  you 
sought  to  destroy  it.  They  say,  'We  will  maintain  the  national  credit.' 
Why,  you  sought  to  ruin  it.  They  say,  'We  will  make  greenbacks  equal 
to  gold.'  We  say,  'You  sought  to  destroy  them  altogether.'  They  say, 
'  We  will  lift  up  the  national  credit  to  where  it  belongs,  and  pay  the  national 
debt.'  We  say,  '  It  was  eight  years  ago  that  you  sought  to  repudiate  it.1 

These  are  the  promises  it  is  making  to-day.  These  are  the  performances 
of  the  past.  How  are  you  going  to  judge  from  promises?  Suppose  there 
comes  into  your  place  of  business  a  young  man  magnificently  adorned  with 
a  platform.  He  shines  and  glistens  all  over  with  it.  He  has  brought,  per 
haps,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  the  Saint's  Rest, 
and  Taylor's  Holy  Living,  all  rolled  into  one:  and  he  says,  'I  would  like 
to  be  treasurer  of  your  insurance  company ;'  and  you  produce  to  him  a 
record  from  the  Police  Court  simply  showing  that  he  has  been  indicted  and 
convicted  twice  of  larceny,  what  on  earth  becomes  of  his  platform  ?  [Laugh 
ter.]  And  when  this  Democratic  party  comes  to  you  with  its  platform, 
'  We,  the  delegates  of  the  Democratic  party  in  National  Convention  assem 
bled  in  the  City  of  St.  Louis,  insist  upon  it  that  the  country  demands  imme 
diate  reform,'  you  say,  'All  right;  but,  in  case  anybody  should  doubt  you, 
I  propose  to  take  a  hand  in.  [Laughter.]  Try  it  on  yourselves  first.'  I  saw 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6. 

an  announcement  some  days  ago  of  a  meeting  of  a  'Tilden  Reform  Club,' 
I  asked  them  which  they  intended  to  reform,  Tilden  or  the  Club.  [Laughter.] 
Now,  then,  as  to  the  scripture.  A  noted  ex-Senator  is  on  the  stump 
again,  and  he  is  always  scriptural.  A  good  man,  but  his  heart  is  running 
over  with  this  milky  kind  of  goodness  that  would  arrest  a  thief,  capture  the 
spoons  from  him,  and  then  give  him  your  hat  and  overcoat  that  there 
should  be  no  misunderstanding  nor  unkind  feeling  in  the  future.  [Great 
laughter.]  He  says  that  we  should  treai  our  brethren  of  the  South  with 
the  same  Christian  spirit  that  the  father  in  the  parable  treated  the  Prodigal 
Son.  I  have  read  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son.  I  am  willing  to  accept 
that  test;  and  I,  for  one,  would  be  willing  to  treat  the  Southern  prodigal 
precisely  as  the  old  man  in  the  story  treated  his  prodigal.  The  prodigal 
of  the  parable  was  a  pretty  good  sort  of  boy,  as  the  world  went.  He  came 
to  man's  estate.  He  left  home  when  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  leave. 
Nobody  questioned  it.  No  soul  doubted  it.  His  portion  was  paid  over 
to  him.  He  didn't  take  a  single  dollar  that  did  not  belong  to  him.  If  I 
have  read  history  aright,  that  was  not  precisely  the  course  which  the  South 
ern  Prodigal  pursued.  [Laughter.]  The  old  scripture  Prodigal  was  a  boy 
standing  just  upon  the  threshold  of  life,  foolish  as  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  boys  have  been  since,  with  his  pocket  full  of  rocks.  He  went  out  to  see 
the  world,  fell  among  the  Democrats,  and  naturally  enough  was  cleaned 
out.  [Laughter.]  He  did  not  seek  the  destruction  of  the  old  homestead 
when  he  left  it.  He  went  away  with  no  ill-will.  He  did  not  attempt  to 
plunder  either  the  old  man  or  the  brother  he  left  behind  him.  But  he  found 
that  playing  prodigal  didn't  pay.  When  his  money  was  gone,  and  his 
credit  was  gone,  and  his  Democratic  friends  had  no  further  use  for  him,  he 
went  to  feeding  swine,  and  then  went  to  feeding  with  swine.  He  got  about 
as  low  down  as  he  could,  and,  sore,  sick,  disheartened,  covered  with  blis 
ters  and  scars,  the  poor,  foolish  boy,  loaded  down  with  his  unhappy  exper 
ience,  but  with  his  heart  still  in  the  right  place,  got  up  from  among  the 
hogs  where  he  was  groveling  and  says,  '  I  will  go  back  to  my  father,'  and 
back  he  went.  And,  as  he  was  tottering  on  the  way,  the  old  man  was 
looking  over  the  gate  watching  down  the  long  and  dusty  highway  for  the 
poor  boy  to  return,  as  he  knew  he  would  ;  and  he  saw  him  coming  hob 
bling  along,  ragged,  and  wretched,  and  miserable  ;  but  he  was  his  boy  still, 
and  he  went  out  and  threw  his  arms  around  him  and  bade  him  welcome 
and  gave  him  a  suit  of  clothes  and  a  ring  and  a  veal  dinner,  and  that  was 
all.  [Laughter.]  Now  that  is  all  that  boy  got.  I  want  you  to  observe  he  didn't 
come  back  headed  by  a  band-wagon  and  a  banner  with  'Tilden  and  Reform'  on 
it.  What  did  he  ask  for  ?  He  did  not  come  back  after  the  fashion  of  these 
large-headed  gentlemen  from  the  South,  saying.  'I  will  run  this  farm.' 
No  sir.  He  came  back  saying,  '  Father,  I  haven't  a  cent ;  take  me  as  a 
hired  servant';  and,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  discover, — if  there  are 
any  preachers  here  they  will  correct  me, — he  did  kitchen  work  forever 
after.  And  yet  the  loyal  stay-at-home  boy  .was  not  quite  satisfied  with  that 
arrangement.  He  looked  at  that  calf  when  about  immolating  him  in  con 
gratulation  for  the  return  of  the  boy,  and  he  said  to  the  old  man :  '  Father, 


52O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

I  never  went  off  to  be  a  prodigal.  I  never  spent  my  money  and  substance 
in  riotous  living,  and  you  never  killed  any  fatted  calf  for  me.'  And  the 
loyal,  patriotic  father  turned  around  to  him  and  said :  'Son,  thou  art 
always  with  me.  All  that  I  have  is  thine.  Not  a  dollar  in  money,  not  a 
foot  of  land,  not  an  office,  not  a  smell  of  an  office,  goes  to  this  returning 
prodigal.'  [Cheers  and  uproarious  laughter.]  But  this  loyal,  patriotic 
Northern  ex-Senator  says  that  we  should  let  the  Southern  prodigals  take 
this  Government — this  farm — and  .run  it  for  all  time  in  the  future.  Now 
suppose  we  do  offer  the  Southern  prodigals  this  nation.  Suppose  they  do 
come  back  kindly.  They  say  they  accept  the  situation.  It  is  remarkable; 
is  it  not  a  little  extraordinary,  after  the  surrender  at  Appomattox,  that  they 
accept  the  situation?  Isn't  it  a  little  extraordinary  that  the  Rebel  army 
accepted  the  situation  at  Vicksburg  ?  Isn't  it  quite  strange  and  startling, 
and  doesn't  it  make  the  world  come  out  in  violent  gushing  kindness,  to  think 
that  Bragg's  army  accepted  the  situation  at  Chattanooga?  Isn't  it  curious 
that  the  Confederate  army  accepted  the  situation  at  Five  Forks?  Isn't  it 
strange  that  Floyd  and  the  rest  of  them  accepted  the  situation  at  Donelson?  Ah, 
of  course  they  did.  There  was  nothing  else  under  God's  heavens  that  they 
could  do.  [Applause.]  They  did  accept  the  situation,  and  that  is  all  there 
is  about  it, — not  only  when  their  armies  were  beaten  in  the  field,  when  the 
last  ditch  was  reached,  when  their  banners  were  trailing  in  the  mud  and 
mire  of  everlasting  and  eternal  defeat,  with  their  arms  stricken  from  their 
hands,  with  their  cause  hopelessly  lost.  This  was  done  after  the  nation 
had  been  filled  with  mourning,  and  the  Northern  people  burdened  with  a 
debt  of  three  thousand  millions  of  dollars ;  after  the  little  hero  to-day  at  the 
head  of  the  Government  had  Rebellion  by  the  throat  and  choked  the  life 
out  of  it.  Then  the  courteous  Rebels  accepted  the  situation. 

"  It  is  this  same  party  which  to-day  demands  the  custody  of  the  national 
finances,  and  at  the  head  of  their  ticket  they  have  a  great  financial 
reformer,  and  stumping  in  various  sections  of  the  country  are  Democratic 
orators,  eager  and  earnest,  introducing  their  arguments  to  the  people  in  order 
to  convince  them  that  a  sound  currency,  a  restored  credit,  must  be  the  neces 
sary  result  of  a  Democratic  Administration.  Somewhere  in  the  State  of  Indi 
ana  is  a  distinguished  Senator  denouncing  the  Republican  party  in  that  it 
fixed  a  day  for  the  resumption  of  specie-payments.  He  says  if  that  policy 
is  carried  out  there  will  be  such  a  contraction  of  the  greenback  that  it  will 
be  quadrupled  in  its  value,  and  that,  therefore,  every  debt  which  every  citi 
zen  owes  will  be  practicaly  quadrupled  in  amount.  Isn't  it  a  terrible  cal 
amity  to  think  of?  Let  us  stop  and  consider  it.  Has  it  ever  occurred  to 
you  whether  it  is  very  probable  that  any  time  within  our  prospects  of  living 
a  greenback  will  be  worth  very  much  more  than  gold  ?  Suppose  some  enter 
prising  citizen  of  Jo  Daviess  County  concludes  he  will  start  a  dairy.  He  gets  his 
cows,  and  his  machinery  for  running  the  business.  He  issues  his  milk  tickets, 
and  he  finds  by  and  by,  so  many  tickets  has  he  issued,  that  he  has  a  great 
many  more  tickets  than  milk.  What  is  he  going  to  do  ?  Can  he  contract 
his  tickets  so  as  to  resume?  Suppose  he  began  contracting, — that  he  calls 
in  his  tickets, — the  time  will  never  come  when  the  milk  ticket  will  be  worth 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    18/6.  $21 

more  than  the  milk.     What  is   the  policy  of  the  Republican  party?     If  you 
cannot  contract  your  tickets,— if  you  cannot  call  them  in,  inflate  your  dairy, 
—get  more  cows  ;  get  no  more  tickets,  but  for  God's  sake  get  more  cows. 
(Laughter.)     What  is  the   policy  of  the    Democratic    party?     It   is   to  inflate 
your  tickets,  and  to  inflate  your  milk  at  the  same  time.     Instead  of  having  a 
tendency  toward  honest  resumption  of  your  tickets,  instead  of  enlarging  your 
dairy,  they  have   immediate   recourse  to  the   pump.     When  it  is  inflated   by 
that   process,  have   they  got   any  more  milk?     [Laughter.]     I    am   asked  by 
Democratic  orators,  'Do  you   pretend  to   claim   that  Congress   cannot  make 
money  :  that  the  inscription  which  it  puts  upon  a  piece  of  paper  doesn't  con 
fer  upon  it  actual  value?     Do  you/  they  say,   'deny  the  power  of  Congress 
to  do  that  ? '     Yes.     I  have  the  utmost  reverence  for  the  power  of  Congress, 
but  there  are  many  things  that  Congress  cannot  do.     Congress  cannot  make 
a  horse.  Congress  cannot  make  two  hundred  acres  out  of  one.  Congress  cannot 
make  actual  value  by  saying  that  it  is  actual  value.     Take  a  £20  gold  piece 
fresh  from  the  mint,  with  the  inscription  clear  and  bright  upon  it.     Obliter 
ate   every   letter   and   every  figure ;  leave   it   an   absolutely  smooth   surface ; 
twist  it  into    any  shape  you   please  ;  make  a  round  ball  of  it,  and  it  is  then 
worth    $20.      Take    a    $20    greenback.     Obliterate    the    inscription    from  it; 
make  it  a  blank  piece  of  paper;  roll  it  up  in  a  wad,  and  it  isn't  worth  a — 
Democratic  curse.      [Laughter.]     It  is  absolutely  good  for  nothing.     There  is 
no  inherent  value  in  it  ;  and  the  only  worth  it  possesses  is  the  belief  of  the 
holder   of  the    paper  in  two  things  ;     First,   in   the    ability   of  the    nation  to 
make    the    promise   good  ;  and    second,  in   the   willingness   of  the    nation   to 
make  the  promise  good.     You  cannot  enforce  a  liability  against  a  nation  by 
an  attachment  proceeding.     It  is  to  a  certain  extent  idle  to  say  that  every 
blade  of  grass  and  grain  of  wheat  is  pledged  to  the  payment  of  the  green 
back  and  of  the  bonds.     So  long  as  the  Republican  party  is  in  power,  that  is 
true ;  but   with   the    Democratic    party   in   power  it   is   false.     The    credit   of 
either  the  greenback  or  the  bond  depends  upon  the  integrity  of  the  party  in 
power,  and  the  just  management   of   national    affairs.     Place    to-day — if  the 
Almighty  in  His  wrath  should  see  fit  to  do  it — this  Democratic  party  at  the 
head  and  in  custody  of  our  national  interests,  with  its  long  black  record  of 
repudiation  behind  it,  and  where,  so  far  as  the  national  credit  is  concerned, 
would  the    national    credit    be?     Let   them    come    up   from    the    South,  from 
every  Confederate   cross-road,  a   bearer   of  a   Confederate   heart   full   of  the 
belief  that  the  lost  cause  is  won  ;  let  the  Government  be  made  up  in  that  way, 
and  where  would  our  national  credit  be  ?     Do  you  gather  grapes  from  thorns, 
and    figs    from   thistles?     Is   this    Democratic    party    characterized    to-day   by 
being  a  solid  South-is  that  party,  which  for  years  and  years  has  waged  relentless 
war  against  the  national  life,  to  be  trusted  with  its  old  doctrine  still  fresh  upon  its 
lips,  and  its  old  bitterness   still    lingering  in  its  heart  ?      It  is  to  be    intrusted 
with  the  care  and  protection  of  the  national  credit  ?     Let  the  wires  carry  the 
intelligence  abroad  that  the  old  Rebel  Democratic  party  has  triumphed,  that 
it  has  charge  of  the  national  debt,  that  it  has  charge  of  the  national  credit, 
knowing   that    that    party  has  always   sought    and  desired    the  ruin  of   both, 
where  would  our   national  credit  be?     Where  would   be   the  pledge  of  your 


522  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

blades  of  grass,  your  gold  and  your  silver  in  your  mines,  your  coal  in  your 
coal-field,  your  grain  on  your  prairies — where  would  the  pledge  of  them  be 
with  the  Democratic  party  in  power  ? 

"There  is  nothing  in  this  world  more  sensitive  than  national  credit  to  the 
slightest  outside  interference.  Place  in  charge  of  it  a  party  punctured  all 
through  with  the  name  of  repudiation,  and  this  national  credit  which  we  all 
hold  so  dearly  to  our  heart  would  perish  in  a  night.  I  am  told  that  we 
cannot  interfere  with  the  national  debt.  I  may  overstate  it.  I  am  assured, 
however,  that  in  the  last  session  of  this  Confederate  Congress  more  than 
1,000  bills  for  private  claims  from  the  South  were  presented,  and  smuggled  in 
by  that  most  astute  Northern  Democratic  gentleman  having  charge  of  those 
affairs  in  Committee.  Imagine  the  condition  of  those  claims  if  they  should 
triumph  !  Cords  and  cords,  scores  and  scores,  of  claims  of  that  character 
would  come  into  Congress,  and  millions,  countless  millions,  of  additional 
indebtedness  be  saddled  upon  the  people,  which  would  render  the  time  of 
resumption  of  specie-payments  not  only  an  indefinite  postponement,  but  an 
everlasting  impossibility. 

"  But  they  assure  us  they  desire  to  reform  the  Civil  Service.  How? 
Have  you  ever  heard  a  Democrat  say  how  ?  Have  you  ever  read  a 
Democratic  speech  that  told  you  how?  Has  there  ever  stood  up  in  Wash 
ington,  in  the  Senate  or  in  the  House,  a  single  Democratic  legislator,  and 
made  one  single  recommendation  of  a  practical  character  looking  to  the 
reform  of  the  Civil  Service?  Wade  through  their  long-winded  platform,  if 
you  please.  Balance  each  dreary  platitude  with  the  utmost  care  ;  search  it 
all  with  the  keenest  analysis  and  criticism,  and  then  tell  me  if  you  can.  Can 
you  see  a  practicable  remedy  suggested  by  the  Democratic  party  for  the 
reform  of  the  Civil  Service?  My  good  friends,  without  reference  to  plat 
forms,  without  reference  to  letters  of  acceptance,  let  us  take  this  business  as 
it  is.  We  all  know  that,  as  long  as  this  form  of  Government  continues,  the 
nation  must  be  managed  by  parties.  I  believe  in  political  organization.  I 
believe  that  men  are  so  constituted  that  upon  great  political  questions  they 
do  not  all  think  alike ;  and  I  think  two  pretty  evenly-balanced  parties,  eager 
and  zealous,  are  the  most  healthy  indications  that  you  can  find  in  any  free 
Government.  I  believe,  moreover,  and  you  believe  it,  that  the  party  in 
power  will  fill  the  Government  offices  to  a  great  extent  with  men  holding 
the  same  political  belief  that  the  party  entertains.  This  is  a  necessity.  You 
will  never  reach  that  beatific  condition  of  government  when  it  will  be  other 
wise.  Suppose  that  the  only  issue  were  hard  or  soft  money  ;  a  large  majority 
of  the  people  vote  that  they  will  have  hard  money,  and  they  elect  a  Presi 
dent  upon  that  basis,  what  would  you  say  to  him  if,  continuing  upon  that 
basis,  representing  that  idea,  he  placed  at  the  head  of  the  Treasury,  as  its 
Secretary,  a  man  who  believed  in  inflation?  I  have  this  to  say:  If  I  were 
a  hard-money  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  believed  in  it  as  thoroughly 
as  I  believe  in  it  to-day,  I  would  see  to  it  that  my  first  assistant,  my  second 
assistant,  my  third  assistant,  my  chief  clerk,  and  my  subordinates,  if  I  could 
command  it,  should  be  hard-money  men  too.  I  should  see  to  it  that  they 
talked,  when  they  talked  anything,  hard  money  ;  that  they  talked  hard 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1876.  523 

money  out  of  the  office;  that  they  would  be  hard  money  all  the  way 
through.  When  I  desired  to  advance  hard-money  ideas  I  wouldn't  go  to 
the  soft-money  men  to  help  me.  Suppose  you  undertake  to  reform  the 
civil  service.  Let  me  say  to  you  here  that  out  of  one  or  two  of  these 
great  aggregations  which  we  call  the  Democratic  and  the  Republican  parties 
must  these  offices  be  filled— either  by  Republicans  or  by  Democrats.  From 
which  aggregation  will  you  fill  them?  If  you  desire  men  who  can  write, 
where  will  you  find  the  most  men  who  can  read  and  who  can  write?  In 
the  Republican  party,  or  in  the  ranks  of  the  Democracy?  If  you  want  to 
find  the  great  mass  of  the  intelligent,  honest,  patriotic  thought  of  the  country, 
where  will  you  go?  The  question  is  answered  by  your  own  hearts  the 
instant  it  is  asked.  You  know  that  within  the  boundaries  of  this  Republican 
party  of  the  nation,  within  its  great  temple,  on  the  walls  of  which  are 
inscribed  the  grandest  records  either  of  ancient  or  modern  history, — that  in 
that  temple  are  to-day  assembled,  and  have  been  gathered  for  a  quarter  of 
a  century  past,  the  wisest,  and  purest,  and  best,  and  the  most  patriotic  men 
on  the  continent. 

"  I  ask  you  one  other  question.  From  either  one  of  these  two  aggregations 
must  your  choice  be  made.  Imagine  such  a  thing  as  a  Democratic  success. 
I  do  not  care  how  well-intentioned  Mr.  Tilden  may  be;  I  do  not  care 
how  resolute  he  may  be;  that  man  doesn't  live  sufficiently  strong  to 
encounter  a  solid  party  against  him.  There  would  come  floating  down 
upon  him  like  the  resistless  waves  of  old  ocean  a  tide  that  would  sweep 
that  little  bachelor  clean  up  into  the  clouds  if  he  didn't  obey;  that 
would  demand  for  these  Confederate  Democrats  who  have  for  sixteen 
years  been  dieting  on  east  wind,  a  reward  for  their  services.  Think  of  the 
City  of  Washington.  Think  of  the  congregations  that  would  be  there  assem 
bled.  Think  of  the  thousands,  and  tens  of  thousands  of  the  helpless, 
hopeless,  hatless,  shirtless,  and  lost  Confederates  there  appealing  for  an 
office  and  in  search  of  a  reform  of  Civil  Service.  [Laughter.-]  Is  that  your 
remedy  ?  Straws  show  which  way  the  wind  blows.  We  vainly  thought  tha 
the  old  Union  cause  had  triumphed.  We  saw  the  old  flag  floating  above 
our  heads,  and  supposed  that  the  cause  which  it  represented  had  triumphed. 
We  thought  we  had  triumphed,  but  in  an  idle  hour,  in  an  evil  hour,  our 
outposts  were  unguarded  and  the  Rebel  host  rushed  in,  and  when  they 
came  in  they  threw  their  pickets  out.  The  old  skirmishers  of  the  Union 
Army,  the  old  Boys  in  Blue,  who  had  watched  the  doors  and  attended 
to  the  messages  of  Congress,  have  surrendered, — surrendered  to  the  foe 
who  but  eleven  years  ago  surrendered  to  them.  In  went  again  the  old 
conquered  Confederate  soldier.  Out  went  the  victorious  soldier  of  the  Union. 
Soldier  after  soldier  who  had  fought  that  the  Union  might  live  was  driven  from 
his  place.  Soldier  after  soldier,  with  the  old  plantation  threat  on  his  lips, 
who  had  fought  that  the  Union  might  be  destroyed,  was  put  back  in  his 
place  of  triumph.  Doesn't  it  seem  as  if  Samuel  J.  Tilden,  in  1864,  spoke 
the  words  of  prophesy  when  he  said  the  war  was  a  failure? 

"Point  me  to  a  city  under  Democratic  rule  where  the  treasury  has  not 
been  robbed.  Point  me  to  a  city  under  Democratic  government  where  the 


524  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

revenues  have  not  been  plundered.  Point  me  to  a  little  patch  of  land, 
I  do  not  care  care  how  small  it  is,  that  has  been  under  Democratic 
management  for  years,  and  I  will  show  you  withered  fields  and  blasted  political 
crops.  Point  me  to  any  place  where  their  policy  has  had  its  full  swing,  and 
I  will  show  you  poor  schools,  bootless  men,  shoeless  children,  and  ruined 
wives. 

"They  tell  us  that  we  have  forced  upon  the  nation  an  ignorant  vote,  that 
the  black  man  is  ignorant.  But  the  black  man  knows  he  is  ignorant.  He 
has  learned  that  much.  We  erect  school-houses;  the  Rebels  tear  them 
down.  We  send  teachers;  they  slaughter  them.  And  yet,  with  the  blood 
of  the  innocent  citizen  upon  their  hands,  and  with  the  smoke  of  burning 
asylums  and  school-houses  on  their  garments,  they  turn  around  to  this 
great  loyal  North,  and  spit  upon  their  history  for  the  last  twenty  years,  and  ask 
that  they  may  be  permitted  to  take  charge  of  our  national  affairs.  More 
than  all  that.  Not  only  have  they  embodied  assassination  in  their  creed, 
but  they  have,  by  a  reign  of  terror  which  is  a  disgrace  to  modern  civiliza 
tion  and  would  be  a  discredit  to  a  Turk,  driven  every  white  man  from  their 
midst.  Farmers  of  Stephenson  County,  business  men  of  this  thriving  city, 
send  your  son  with  his  youthful  hopes  and  bounding  ambitions  to  the  South. 
Let  him  take  that  free  tongue  with  him,  the  free  thought  and  free  speech 
which  he  has  enjoyed  here,  and  go  thefe.  He  goes  there  in  pursuit  of  an 
honest  living  in  an  honest  way.  How  is  he  met?  Broad-hatted  Democratic 
lawyers  demand  of  him  not  what  he  can  do,  but  what  does  he  think.  And, 
if  his  views  on  some  political  question  does  not  agree  with  those  of  the 
worthless  men  who  were  born  there,  he  is  denounced  as  a  carpet-bagger 
and  shot  in  the  night.  I  spit  upon  this  cry  of  carpet-bagger.  I  believe  in 
the  carpet-bag  principle.  I  believe  that  there  is  no  State  in  the  Union,  no 
foot  of  soil  in  all  its  broad  domain,  upon  which  I  am  not  to  be  permitted 
to  tread,  a  free  man;  and  where  I  am  not  to  be  permitted  to  utter  what  I 
think.  [Applause.]  And  the  man  who  would  deny  me  that  privilege  is  a 
sneak,  and  if  it  comes  into  the  politics  of  the  nation,  the  war  is  not  yet 
ended.  I  say,  throw  down  every  barrier,  remove  every  obstruction,  open 
every  avenue  of  enterprise.  Let  us  have  it  for  God's  sake,  if  we  have  to 
fight  for  it;  let  us  have  the  largest,  broadest  freedom  of  thought  and 
opinion  of  which  any  Government  is  capable.  Who  are  you,  what  are 
you,  who  talk  about  carpet-baggers?  Were  you  born  here?  Hundreds  of 
thousands  of  you  are  from  old  fatherland,  where  patriotic  feeling  is  an 
instinct  with  the  people, — thousands  from  the  old  Empire  State.  From 
all  the  hills  and  valleys  of  New  England  and  New  York  you  have 
come  here,  young  men,  poor  men,  filled,  however,  with  that  unconquer 
able  spirit  which  is  characteristic  of  a  carpet-bagger;  and  you  have  reared 
here  the  most  magnificent  empire  that  the  world  has  ever  seen.  I  say,  go 
on  with  the  carpet-bag  spirit.  Send  it  all  over  the  South.  Make  its  fields 
blossom.  Make  evey  swift-running  stream  active  with  the  wheels  of  swift- 
running  machinery  ;  develop  its  mines  ;  increase  its  resources ;  develop  every 
thing  of  a  material  character;  educate  its  people;  and  then  we  will  have 
what  we  will  never  have  otherwise, — a  united,  homogenous  nationality. 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  525 

"The  Democracy  have  nominated  Samuel  J.  Tilden  on  a  platform  which 
reads  well  enough,  but  who  is  he?  I  desire  to  say  no  unkind  thing  of 
Mr.  Tilden,  but  the  unkindest  thing  that  I  could  say  of  him  would  be  truth 
ful  things.  Suppose  I  should  say  that  he  was  born  with  a  Democratic  plat 
form  in  one  hand  and  a  railroad  charter  in  the  other  (laughter) ;  that,  at 
the  early  age  of  twelve  years,  he  was  incorporated ;  that  he  has  had  no  soul 
since:  that  he  was  consolidated  with  the  Democratic  party  and  run  in  con 
nection  with  Bill  Tweed  as  a  great  railroad  wrecker,  and  great  railroad 
physician,  under  whose  ministrations  there  have  been  more  corporation  fun 
erals,  and  at  whose  door  have  been  seen  larger  processions  of  corporation 
hearses,  than  all  the  corporations  that  have  ever  flourished  in  all  the  times 
before.  [Applause.]  I  ask  this  simple  question  of  him:  Mr.  Tilden,  where 
were  you  during  the  war?  What  were  you  doing  during  the  war?  It  is  an 
important  question  for  us  to  ask,  I  ask  the  loyal  men  to-day,  whose  hearts 
and  all  whose  sympathies  and  feelings  were  with  and  are  with  the  great 
cause,  where  was  he?  Now  and  then  we  have  a  stray  affidavit  from  some 
inconspicuous  individual  that  Samuel  J.  Tilden  quietly,  modestly,  unobtrusively, 
was,  away  down  at  the  bottom  of  his  little  corporation  heart,  a  genuine,  all- 
wool,  yard-wide,  patriotic  man.  I  have  never  found  it  out.  I  do  not  believe 
in  patriotism  that  is  so  stealthy.  I  do  not  believe  in  loyalty  that  is  so  shy. 
I  do  not  believe  in  an  emergency  as  great  as  that  was  that  made  so  good 
a  man  hide  the  whole  of  his  patriotism  under  so  small  a  bushel. 

' '  Take  the  case  home  to  yourselves.  I  ask  every  man  here — I  ask  every 
woman  here — if  there  was,  during  the  dreadful  period  of  war,  in  the  neigh 
borhood  where  you  live  one  solitary  individual  about  whose  position  there 
was  any  doubt  ?  Do  you  know  a  man  so  inconspicuous,  so  obscure,  so  little 
known,  that  had  not  his  position  during  the  war  absolutely  and  clearly 
defined  ?  And  yet,  in  the  presence  of  this  great  rebellion,  when  armies  that 
numbered  millions  were  making  $ie  whole  continent  rock  beneath  their 
tread,  when  the  very  globe  paused  beneath  the  thunders  of  that  mighty 
conflict,  when  the  whole  heavens  were  reddened  with  the  flames  of  this 
great  rebellion,  this  great  corporation  lawyer,  this  head  of  the  Democratic 
party,  this  head  of  New  York,  this  Chairman  of  the  Democratic  Committee 
of  that  State,  in  the  midst  of  those  great  perils,  never  uttered  one  single 
word  or  wrote  one  single  line  which  betrayed  where  his  sympathies  were. 
Is  there  a  single  instance  to  which  you  can  point  where,  when  the 
hearts  of  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  mothers  were  bleeding  for 
their  sons  lost  in  battle,  the  heart  of  a  mother  was  comforted  or  cheered 
by  one  single  word  that  Samuel  J.  Tilden  uttered?  Where  is  the  wad- 
owed  wife  to-day,  where  ever  has  there  been  one,  whose  heart  has  been 
comforted  for  her  husband,  filling  some  grave  in  the  South,  by  one  single 
word  of  cheer  that  Samuel  J.  Tilden  has  ever  spoken?  And  when  that 
contest  was  pending,  when  our  own  hearts  were  all  in  our  throats,  when 
good  men  trembled  everywhere  lest  this  nation,  the  sacred  custodian  of 
the  priceless  treasure  of  free  government  among  men,  might  die,  why 
did  not  a  man  so  conspicuous  as  he  stand  up  when  it  seemed  that  the 
very  throne  of  the  Almighty  was  assailed?  Why  could  he  not  come  out 


£26  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

from  his  barricade  of  law  books  and  railroad  bonds  and  lift  up  his  loyal 
voice  and  say  to  the  Boys  in  Blue,  '  All  hail.  God  bless  you.  You  fight 
in  the  noblest  cause  that  ever  lifted  up  the  human  heart  or  nerved  the 
human  arm  to  action.'  But  no,  not  one  word  from  Mr.  Tilden — not  one 
dollar.  And,  when  the  clouds  hung  over  us  like  a  pall,  having  a  free  pass 
upon  a  railroad,  he  hied  himself  to  the  City  of  Chicago,  and  went  down 
to  that  disreputable  Convention,  and  while  the  thunders  of  the  great 
conflict  were  ringing  in  his  ears,  put  his  name  to  an  infamous  resolution 
which  declared  that  the  great  war  was  a  failure,  and  most  basely  and 
submissively  sued  for  peace.  By  the  Eternal,  if  I  had  a  war  record  of 
that  kind  back  of  me  I  would  rather  be  a  dog  and  bay  the  moon, — 
be  a  lizard  and  crawl  in  the  dust, — than  to  carry  a  record  so  damnable 
and  so  infamous  on  my  shoulders,  and  look  a  loyal  people  in  the  face,  and 
ask  them  to  vote  for  me.  [Applause.] 

"At  that  time  Rutherford  B.  Hayes  was  no  Chairman  of  the  State  Com 
mittee.  He  held  no  high  place ;  but  he  had  what  was  better  than  a  thous 
and  Chairmanships, — a  strong  arm  and  a  loyal  heart.  He  went  where  the 
danger  was,  and  came  not  home  until  the  danger  was  past. 

"  History  is  slow,  but  it  always  in  the  end  makes  all  things  right.  It  does 
seem  as  if  upon  the  threshold  of  this  election  all  the  sacred  associations  of 
a  sacred,  and  a  holy,  and  a  noble  past  crowd  full  upon  us  to-night.  I  stood 
but  a  few  weeks  ago  at  the  late  mansion  of  Lee  at  Arlington,  just  as  the 
sun  was  going  down  behind  the  hills.  Before  me  were  the  great,  splendid 
trees.  Beyond  them  the  broad  river,  and  beyond  it  the  Capitol,  with  flags 
flying,  for  the  Confederate  House  of  Representatives  was  in  session ;  and 
back  of  me  were  thousands  and  thousands  of  the  slain  heroes  of  the  great 
Republic.  It  seemed  to  me  as  if  there  might  be  some  almighty  agency  that 
would  bid  those  poor  bodies  arise  from  the  graves  where  they  have  been  so 
long  buried,  and  go  down  to  that  Confederate  House  and  shake  their 
long,  bony  fingers  in  their  faces,  and  say  to  them,  '  Beware.  We  fought 
in  a  holy  cause.  We  won  a  noble  victory.  See  to  it  that  no  cowardly 
recreancy  shall  fritter  away  the  fruits  of  our  victories.'  This  is  a  sol 
emn  question  which  presses  upon  you.  History  will  make  these  things 
right.  It  has  called  Abraham  Lincoln  up  to  its  splendid  summits,  and 
some  of  these  days  it  will  call  the  noble,  silent  U.  S.  Grant  to  stand 
beside  him,  and  Hayes  will  take  his  place  there  too,  and,  with  uncov 
ered  heads  in  the  presence  of  those  great  and  lofty  characters,  the  mil 
lions  of  good  men  and  good  women  of  this  world  will  stand  and  hail  and 
bless  them.  And,  perhaps,  (for  it  would  be  likely,)  the  little,  tortuous, 
crooked,  twisted,  wiry  spirit  of  Samuel  J.  Tilden  may  undertake  to 
corkscrew  itself  up  to  those  majestic  heights  where  its  does  not  belong, 
and  the  Muses  of  History,  looking  at  the  wretched  little  apology  for  a 
patriot,  may  say,  '  Samuel,  take  off  your  whitewash ;  take  off  your  mask ; 
take  down  your  veneering.  There  is  no  patriotism  in  you.  Go  down  among 
those  who  sought  to  obstruct  a  great  nation  in  its  glorious  march  for  the 
highest  eminence  of  heroic  achievement  and  national  renown.'  [Cheers  for 
Hayes  and  Wheeler  and  for  Mr.  Storrs.]" 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  52/ 

The  Chicago  Tribune,  whose  report  \ve  have  adopted,  made 
the  following  editorial  comment  upon  the  speech : 

"We  surrender  space  this  morning  to  a  full  report  of  the  great 
oratorical  effort  of  Mr.  E.  A.  Storrs,  at  Freeport,  111.,  on  Friday 
evening.  It  is  a  searching  and  scathing  analysis  of  the  hollow 
and  fraudulent  claims  of  the  Democratic  party  for  a  restoration 
to  power,  from  which  it  was  deposed  sixteen  years  ago  in  order 
that  the  nation  might  be  saved.  We  commend  its  perusal  to  all 
Republicans,  as  it  will  nerve  them  for  the  work  they  have  to  do; 
and  all  Democrats,  who  are  not  buried  in  the  mire  of  party 
fealty  and  are  capable  of  accepting  the  logic  of  an  irresistible 
argument,  can  read  it  with  profit."  , 

In  the  end  of  September  and  first  week  of  October,  Mr.  Storrs 
stumped  the  northern  part  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  addressing  large 
meetings  at  Cleveland,  Sandusky,  Toledo,  Mansfield,  and  Ashland. 
In  a  letter  to  Hon.  Zachariah  Chandler,  dated  October  5th,  he 
says: — "It  is  very  strange,  but  it  is  true,  that  my  speeches 
seemed  to  give  satisfaction.  I  was  at  three  meetings  with  Gen 
eral  Sheridan  of  New  Orleans,  an  excellent  speaker  and  a  very 
pleasant  man  to  speak  with.  I  am  head  over  heels  in  law  work, 
but  am  speaking  occasionally  evenings."  To  the  Chairman  of 
the  Ohio  State  Central  Committee,  Hon.  A.  T.  Wikoff,  he  sent 
the  following  account  of  his  tour: 

"  Since  my  return  from  Ohio  I  have  had  not  one  moment's 
time  to  write  you  concerning'  my  short  tour  in  your  State. 
Generally,  I  will  say  that  it  was  exceedingly  gratifying  to  me, 
and  the  meetings  were  all  substantial  successes.  \Ve  were  unfor 
tunate  at  Cleveland,  as  the  rain  interfered,  and  we  began  very 
late  at  Toledo ;  but  I  found  the  old  spirit,  and  at  every  point 
most  attentive  audiences.  I  am  very  partial  to  indoor  meetings, 
and  found  in  every  instance  such  a  degree  of  earnest,  zealous 
listening  as  is  rarely  witnessed  in  political  discussion." 

Returning  to  Chicago,  Mr.  Storrs  again  addressed  an  enthusi 
astic  mass  meeting  in  that  city.  Being  one  of  many  speakers  on 
this  occasion,  his  remarks  were  brief.  The  report  of  his  speech 
is  as  follows: 

"This  vast  and  magnificent  audience  assembled  here  to-night  is  a  com 
plete  demonstration,  if  any  were  required,  that  the  old  Republican  party 
which  has  fought  so  many  battles,  achieved  so  many  magnificent  victories 
in  the  interest  of  good  Government,  is  stronger  and  more  powerful  to-day 


528  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

than  it  has  ever  been  before  at  any  time  in  the  period  of  its  history. 
[Cheers.]  It  had  a  great  mission  during  the  war.  It  has  had  a  great 
mission  since  the  war.  Its  mission  since  the  war  has  been  to  convert  the 
Democratic  party.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  And  how  splendidly  it  has 
succeeded  is  evidenced  in  the  fact  that  in  their  last  platform  of  principles 
they  unhesitatingly  declare  that  they  are  opposed  to  stealing.  [Renewed 
laughter.]  Within  twenty-five  years  we  expect  to  get  them  to  ratify  the 
whole  Decalogue.  [Shouts  of  laughter  and  applause.]  Think  of  it!  The 
Democratic  party  opposed  to  larceny!  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  And  in 
favor  of  reform!  [Great  merriment.]  A  party  not  satisfied  with  stealing 
trivial  things,  but  that  runs  off  with  a  whole  State.  [Laughter.]  A  party 
that  undertook  to  force  the  nation  to  steal  the  Government,  opposed  to  lar 
ceny!  [Laughter.]  God  save  the  mark!  [Renewed  mirth.]  I  desire  to 
enlarge  the  proposition  of  the  next  Governor  of  this  State.  He  insists  that 
the  only  question  before  us  is,  'Who  are  the  best  men  for  President  and 
Vice-President  of  the  United  States?'  It  is  a  broader  question,  a  more 
serious  question.  The  question  is,  Which  of  the  two  parties  is  the  safest  to 
be  intrusted  with  the  management  of  our  national  affairs?  [Applause.]  If 
you  took  the  Blessed  Saviour  and  put  him  at  the  head  of  the  Democratic 
party,  elected  him  its  President,  with  its  feeling,  its  history,  its  traditions, 
its  spirit,  he  would  be  absolutely  helpless  for  the  accomplishment  of 
reform.  [Cheers.]  I  am  opposed  to  the  Democratic  party  because  it  has 
a  consistent,  unvarying  record,  injurious  to  the  best  interests  of  the  people, 
and  destructive  if  carried  out,  of  our  national  existence.  I  am  opposed  to 
the  Democratic  party  because  it  sought  the  destruction  of  our  cause,  and  I 
don't  believe  it  wise  to  intrust  the  affairs  of  a  great  empire  to  the  members 
of  a  political  organization  within  ten  years  after  they  sought  to  annihilate  it. 
[Applause.]  The  logic  is  short,  it  is  clear,  it  is  plain,  it  is  unmisunder- 
standable.  I  am  prepared  to  accept  with  certain  qualifications  their  protesta 
tions  of  repentance,  but  the  repentance  has  not  been  long  enough. 

"I  want  them  to  be  engaged  in  good  works  as  long  as  they  have  been 
engaged  in  bad  works  [laughter],  and  if  we  wait  for  the  expiration  of  that 
period  of  probation,  we  will  be  dead,  and  our  children  afterwards,  before 
the  Democratic  party  succeed  to  power.  [Laughter.]  Mr.  Tilden  is  in  favor 
of  reform.  Mr.  Tilden — bless  me — is  in  favor  of  an  undivided  nationality. 
The  Democratic  party  is  in  favor  of  purifying  the  civil  service  of  the  Gov 
ernment  How  do  they  propose  to  do  it?  Have  they  told  you?  They  are 
in  favor  of  an  honest  currency.  What  currency  do  they  propose  to  give 
you?  Have  they  told  you?  They  say  they  are  in  favor  of  the  resumption 
of  specie  payments.  How  are  they  to  resume?  Have  they  told  you?  Their 
platform  is  full  of  denunciations  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  and  the  cur 
ious  feature  of  the  platform  of  1876  is  that  it  denounces  every  Democratic 
measure  since  1860.  [Applause.]  They  insist  upon  it  that  the  Republican 
party  which  they  arraign  has  impeded  that  desired  result.  What  financial 
policy  has  the  Democratic  party  had  since  1860?  None  whatever,  except 
in  1868  they  did  invent  a  platform  and  put  forth  a  principle  insisting  upon 
it  that  the  national  debt  should  be  paid  in  greenbacks,  a  policy  that  would 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  529 

have   resulted  in   the   repudiation   of  the   national  debt  and   the   destruction 
and  swamping  of  every  national  interest. 

"They  insist,  as  I  have  said,  that  the  civil  service  shall  be  purified. 
How?  By  putting  them  in  office?  I  ask  you  to  run  back  through  the  his 
tory  of  that  period,  not  while  they  have  been  in  power, — but  yet  their  lead 
ing  men  have  been  in  office, — and  give  me  the  name  of  a  single  leading 
man  belonging  to  the  Democratic  party  anywhere  who  at  any  time  has 
proposed  any  measure  for  the  reform  of  the  Civil  Service.  When  ?  Where  ? 
('Tilden,')  I  will  talk  about  him  presently.  You  cannot  guess  these  conun 
drums.  No  single  living  Democrat  occupying  a  prominent  political  position 
since  1860  has  proposed  a  scheme  for  the  reform  of  the  Civil  Service. 
They  have  had  the  power  this  winter  in  one  branch  of  the  National  Gov 
ernment.  How  have  they  reformed  the  service?  No  measure  has  been 
introduced  for  that  purpose.  They  have  had  control  over  the  appointments, 
and  such  a  raft  of  Confederates,  believing  that  the  Lost  Cause  was  finally 
won,  was  never  before  seen  as  gathered  in  that  City  of  Washington  to 
catch  the  crumbs  that  might  fall  from  the  Speaker's  table.  Tray,  Blanche, 
and  Sweetheart,  sutlers,  commissaries,  privates,  and  officers  in  the  Confed 
erate  service  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  knowing  that  their  victory'  had 
finally  been  achieved,  rushed  to  Washington  by  countless  hundreds  and 
made  night  hideous  by  their  howls  for  place,  demanding  the  reward  of  their 
services.  They  got  it.  They  got  it.  Fitzhugh  was  appointed  Door-keeper. 
He  is  '  a  bigger  man  than  old  Grant.'  [Laughter.]  Bounced  because  .his 
shameless  incapacity  became  so  conspicuous  that  no  one  could  overlook  it. 
What  became  of  his  subordinate  who  knocked  down  his  grocer  because  he 
presented  a  chivalric  Confederate  of  the  South  a  little  bill  of  which  he  had 
so  long  neglected  payment?  Take  the  entire  machinery  of  this  Confederate 
House  of  Representatives  and  see  how  they  have  reformed  it ;  and  to-day, 
as  I  am  assured,  the  nation  is  filled  with  tramps,  Confederate  applicants 
for  office,  hoofing  it  for  home  after  they  have  been  disappointed.  Now,  then, 
gentlemen,  suppose  that  instead  of  this  accession  to  power  being  confined  to 
one  branch,  it  had  taken  root  in  all.  Do  you  believe  for  one  moment 
that  the  personnel  of  our  civil  service  would  have  been  improved?.  I  am 
told  that  Tilden  has  improved  the  civil  service,  or  proposed  to.  When? 
Where?  Where,  during  the  most  trying  period  through  which  this  nation 
or  any  other  nation  ever  passed,  was  the  great  reformer  of  1876?  Filed  up 
in  a  safe,  secured  behind  barricades  of  law-books  and  railroad  bonds.  He 
peeped  out  from  the  corners  of  his  safe  and  returned,  singing  that  the 
result  of  the  war  was  a  failure,  and  humbly  beseeching  a  treaty  of  peace. 
Manton  Marble  says  that  Mr.  Tilden  is  not  responsible  for  that  peace  reso 
lution.  Manton  Marble  is  wrong.  In  1864  Mr.  Tilden  quietly  slid  out  of 
his  office,  and  joined  the  congregation  of  Confederates  that  met  here  in  the 
City  of  Chicago.  He  came  here,  preceded  by  Isaiah  Rynders  and  his  band 
of  New  York  Short-boy  Reformers,  marching  up  and  down  the  streets  of 
Chicago  with  their  ears  bit  off  and  their  noses  broken,  carrying  the  olive- 
branch,  without  clothes  enough  on  them  to  wad  a  gun,  and  bellowing 
against  oppression.  [Laughter.] 

34 


53O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"Samuel  slid  himself  into  the  Convention,  and  was  placed  upon  the  Com 
mittee  on  Resolutions.  While  the  Convention  became  restive  under  the  long 
period  of  time  that  they  were  waiting,  Mr.  Tilden,  as  the  records  of  that 
Convention  will  show,  rose  in  his  place  in  the  Convention,  and  as  a  mem 
ber  of  that  Committee  assured  the  Convention  that  the  Committee  had  all 
agreed  on  their  resolutions  and  that  they  had  simply  been  passed  over  to  a 
sub-committee  for  revision — the  peace  resolution  and  all,  the  most  infamous 
resolution  ever  flirted  in  the  faces  of  a  free  people.  That  resolution,  Mr. 
Tilden  said  in  this  city,  in  1864,  the  entire  Committee  had  unanimously 
agreed  upon,  and  that  language  stands  in  the  record  against  him,  Marble 
to  the  contrary  notwithstanding.  [Cheers.]  That  is  the  history.  They  ask 
us,  '  Will  you  shake  the  bloody  shirt  ?'  Who  is  responsible  for  the  blood 
on  the  shirt?  [Laughter.]  Whose  blood  is  it?  I  would  not  as  a  Republi 
can,  and,  as  I  think,  as  a  patriotic  citizen,  needlessly  engender  the  bitter 
ness  which  the  war  brought  about,  but  if  I  am  to  choose,  and  my  thous 
ands  of  fellow- citizens  who  surround  me  to-night,  if  you  are  to  choose — if 
the  choice  is  to  be  laid  between  the  boy  who  shed  his  blood  that  your 
nationality  might  be  preserved,  and  the  man  who  shed  his  that  it  might  be 
destroyed,  no  gushing  talk  about  shaking  hands  over  the  gaping  chasm  will 
make  you  hesitate  long  about  the  decision.  [Cheers.]  You  can  call  it  the 
bloody  shirt  or  not,  as  you  please.  First,  last,  and  all  the  while  !  As  long 
as  I  have  the  capacity  to  distinguish  the  difference  of  men  when  public 
benefactions  are  to  be  bestowed,  I  am,  thank  God,  in  favor  of  giving  them 
to  him  who  fought  that  the  nation  might  live,  rather  than  to  him  who 
fought  that  the  nation  might  be  destroyed.  [Cheers.] 

"The  Democratic  party  says  to  us,  Let  the  dead  past  bury  its  dead. 
They  have  an  extreme  reluctance  about  their  record.  If  we  had  a  record 
like  theirs,  great  God,  would  we  not  be  ashamed  of  it  as  they  are? 
[Laughter  and  cheers.]  If  they  had  a  record  like  ours,  written  with  all  its 
glories  by  the  finger  of  Almighty  God  in  letters  of  fire  against  the  sky,  that 
all  the  world  might  read  it,  would  not  they  combine  together  and  rejoice, 
and  be  justified  in  doing  so?  [Cheers.]  Take  the  glorious  old  party  of 
the  nation — the  old  party  of  freedom  which  when  it  first  came  into 
existence  crystalized  about  itself  the  hopes  and  loftiest  aspirations  of  the 
country.  See  how  it  made,  with  its  first  success,  a  Republic  unparalleled 
in  history!  See  how  it  sent  conquering  legions,  thousands  and  hundreds 
of  thousands  and  millions,  into  the  field!  See  how  it  saved  "its  great 
nationality,  the  sacred  custodian  and  the  priceless  treasure  of  free  gov 
ernment  for  all  the  world!  [Cheers.]  See  how  it  lifted  4.000,000  of 
human  beings  from  the  night  of  barbarism  and  slavery  into  the  pure 
atmosphere  of  American  freedom.  [Loud  cheers.]  And  see  how,  having 
made  them  free  men,  it  made  them  citizens  and  boldly  took  and  clothed 
them,  thank  God,  in  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship.  The  old 
party  four  years  ago  stood  a  perfect  storm  of  slander  and  calumny  such  as 
no  party  ever  before  encountered,  but  it  said,  'We  have  made  you  freemen, 
we  have  made  you  citizens;  we  will  clothe  you  with  all  the  privileges  which 
others  enjoy,  and  if  in  the  States  where  you  live  the  privileges  enjoyed 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 8/6.  531 

under  the  Constitution  are  denied  to  you,  this  great  nationality  that  to-day, 
thank-  God,  we  call  the  United  States  of  America,  coming  from  the  clouds 
where  its  head  has  been  among  the  stars,  will  with  its  strong  arm  do  for 
you,  the  poorest  and  meanest  citizen  of  the  soil,  what  your  State  refuses  to 
do  for  you.'  [Vociferous  cheering.]  That  is  the  record  of  this  party. 

"It  found  a  currency  almost  worthless ;  steadily,  gradually,  and  surely  all 
the  while  it  has  been  appreciating  its  value.  It  has  made  here  a  national 
ity  greater  and  more  powerful  than  the  world  ever  saw  before.  [Cheers.] 
Yet  we  are  told — told  by  Senator  Doolittle  last  night,  and  I  speak  of  him 
with  terms  of  the  highest  respect — that  the  party  has  been  ruined  because 
it  passed  a  legal-tender  act  and  pledged  the  faith  of  the  nation  that 
the  5-20  bonds  should  be  paid  in  gold !  They  pick  out  an  instance 
here  and  there  where  a  Secretary  has  fallen  from  grace,  and  they  say, 
'  Behold  our  Reformer,  Mr.  Tilden  ;  see  what  he  has  done.  Didn't  he  crush 
out  Tweed?"  Way  back  in  1864  the  cordial  relations  between  Tweed  and 
Tilden  could*  hardly  be  described.  Way  down  to  1865  they  were  like  broth 
ers.  In  the  election  of  1868,  as  Chairman  of  the  State  Central  Committee 
of  New  York,  Mr.  Tilden  devised  a  plan  by  which  the  votes  of  that  great 
State  were  wrested  from  Grant  by  the  most  gigantic  fraud  that  was  ever 
practiced  upon  a  people,  and  given  to  his  adversary.  This  Mr.  Tilden,  the 
Reformer,  after  having  for  years  and  years  come  at  the  beck  and  call  of 
Mr.  Tweed,  after  Tweed  had  been  exposed  by  the  Republican  press  and 
the  Republican  party,  jumps  on  to  the  carriage  when  it  is  all  ready  to  go 
and  the  streets  in  order  for  travel,  and  takes  a  ride  on  it  at  Republican 
expense.  [Loud  cheers  and  laughter.] 

"Who  tried  Tweed?  Let  us  have  it  out.  Tweed  was  tried  by  a  Repub 
lican  Judge,  before  a  Republican  jury,  prosecuted  by  a  Republican 
Attorney-General,  convicted  in  the  good  old  Republican  way,  sent  to  a 
Democratic  jail  [laughter],  in  charge  of  a  Democratic  jailer,  and  escaped  in  the 
old  Democratic  style.  [Renewed  laughter.]  Thus  ends  that  lesson  of  reform. 
[Cheers.]  Now,  gentlemen,  I  had  not  intended  to  speak  here  until  late 
this  afternoon,  and  I  am  going  to  talk  no  longer.  [Cries  of  '  Go  on.'] 
But  I  do  feel  magnificently  assured  by  this  magnificent  demonstration 
here  to-night — a  grander  one  Chicago  never  witnessed,  a  more  hopeful 
and  inspiring  one  this  people  never  saw.  It  is  a  sure  presage  of  victory. 
It  indicates  with  absolute  certainty  that  with  such  men  as  we  have  at 
the  head  of  our  ticket — our  candidate  for  President,  fighting  in  an  earn 
est  capable  way  the  battle  of  the  people  in  the  front,  while  Tilden  was 
back  in  the  rear, — with  such  leaders  we  deserve  success,  and  animated  and 
encouraged  by  the  old  spirit  I  believe  we  will  have  success.  [Cheers.] 
And  now,  gentlemen,  three  cheers  for  Hayes  and  Wheeler. 

"The  crowd  gave  an  enthusiastic  response,  and  Mr.  Storrs  retired." 


CHAPTER  XXV. 


"CONSTRUCTIVE  CONTEMPT"  AND  "TRIAL  BY  JURY." 

THE  CASE  OF  WILBUR  F.  STOREY  FOR  CRITICISING  A  GRAND  JURY — MR. 
STORRS*  VIEWS  UPON  THE  SUBJECT — HISTORY  OF  THE  LAW  OF  CONSTRUC 
TIVE  CONTEMPT — ILLUSTRATION  OF  POWER  OF  LUCID  YET  COMPREHENSIVE 
INTERPRETATION  OF  A  LAW  QUESTION — INFLUENCING  A  JUDGE — A  LECT 
URE  ON  THE  ORIGIN,  HISTORY,  AND  MERITS  OF  THE  JURY  SYSTEM. 

T  am  old-fashioned  enough  to  be  a  thorough  believer  in  the 
determination  of  all  questions  of  guilt  or  innocence  by  a 
jury.  Investigation  of  the  history  of  English  law-development, 
has  satisfied  me  that  judges  clothed  with  anything  like  arbitrary 
power  were  infinitely  more  dangerous  than  juries,  and  that  the 
doctrine  of  constructive  crimes  was  judge-made  law,  as  mere 
creations  of  judicial  invention."  These  words  were  uttered  by  Mr. 
Storrs  in  March  of  1875,  in  response  to  a  request  by  Wilbur  F. 
Storey,  the  famous,  but  now  deceased  editor  of  the  Chicago 
Times,  for  his  opinion  of  constructive  contempt. 

Judge  Williams  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Cook  County,  Illinois, 
had  taken  umbrage  at  some  severe  criticisms  which  had  appeared 
in  the  Times  directed  against  the  character  of  a  grand  jury,  by 
which  some  members  were  styled  "bummers"  and  "  vagabonds;" 
and  had  issued  a  rule  against  Mr.  Storey  to  show  cause  why  he 
should  not  be  punished  for  contempt.  The  proceedings,  novel  in 
modern  courts,  excited  much  comment  in  the  legal  fraternity  and' 
in  the  general  community.  The  press,  editorally  and  by  com 
ments  of  the  readers,  had  always  in  Chicago  expressed  in  the 
freest  manner  opinions  upon  jurymen,  indictments,  and  verdicts. 
If  a  representative  journal  was  to  be  punished  for  criticism  upon 
the  grand  jury,  if  such  criticism  was  made  with  an  honest  pur 
pose  to  expose  corrupt  practices,  to  what  degree  of  severity  could 
532 


"CONSTRUCTIVE    CONTEMPT"    AND    "TRIAL    BY    JURY."  533 

not  a  court  punish  anyone  who  in  private  or  public  might,  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  judge,  talk  boldly  upon  the  subject  of 
the  verdicts,  for  instance,  of  a  petit  jury;  for  the  duties  of  a 
petit  jury  are  much  more  important  and  serious  in  their 
character,  after  all,  than  those  of  a  grand  jury.  The  latter 
simply  presents  the  indictment,  the  former  tries  and  deter 
mines  the  question  of  guilt  or  innocence.  The  press  through 
out  the  West  took  the  ground  that  the  due  administration 
of  justice  is  promoted  by  exposing  corruption  either  in  judges  or 
in  juries,  that  there  was  no  means  of  exposure  equal  to  freedom 
of  comment  by  the  press,  and,  as  was  argued  before  Judge 
Williams  himself  "  to  shut  the  door  against  an  investigation  into 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  charges  would  be  to  throw  a  barrier 
about  corrupt  jurors,  and  to  protect  them  in  their  corruption.  If 
the  particular  juror  feels  aggrieved,  let  him  proceed  in  the  usual 
way  by  indictment  or  civil  suit  for  libel.  The  truth  then  will 
come  out.  If  he  is  innocent,  he  will  be  vindicated;  if  he  is 
guilty,  he  must  suffer  as  he  deserves."  As  was  usually  the  case, 
whenever  any  public  topic  arose,  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Storrs  was 
instantly  sought  for  publication,  and,  as  the  question  will  for 
many  years  to  come  be  of  fresh  importance,  Mr.  Storey's  report 
of  an  interview  published  the  morning  when  the  question  was  to 
adjudicated,  especially  as  the  interview  is  a  capital  illustration  of 
the  crisp  and  direct  power  Mr.  Storrs  possessed  to  review  and 
express  himself,  merits  copious  quotation.  In  reply  to  a  question 
as  to  where  the  doctrine  of  constructive  contempt  had  its  greatest 
growth,  he  said: 

"The  doctrine  flourished  amazingly  in  the  English  courts  for  hundreds  of 
years.  Thousands  of  victims,  innocent  of  any  actual  offense,  perished  at  the 
stake  and  on  the  scaffold  and  at  the  block  under  it.  An  effort  was  made 
to  transplant  this  species  of  judicial  barbarism  to  our  own  country,  and  in 
such  dread  was  the  doctrine  of  constructive  treason  held,  and  so  serious 
were  the  apprehensions  of  the  people  as  to  the  extent  to  which  judges  might 
be  inclined  to  carry  it,  that  an  end  was  put  to  this  question  of  purely  argu 
mentative  treason  by  incorporating  in  the  Constitution  the  solemn  declaration 
that  there  should  be  no  punishment  for  such  a  crime  as  that  of  constructive 
treason.  For  hundreds  of  years,  writers  and  speakers  were  subjected  to  pun 
ishment  under  informations  for  libel,  not  upon  the  ground  that  their  utter 
ances  or  that  their  writings  were  in  fact  libelous,  but  that  they  were  con 
structively  so,  and  hence  whether  they  were  libelous  or  not  depended  not 
upon  any  fixed  rule  of  law,  but  upon  the  freak  of  a  judge  to  carry  his  doc- 


534  LTFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

trine  of  construction  to  its  utmost  possible  limit.  ...  To  a  certain  extent 
this  relic  of  a  half  barbarous  age  still  exists  in  England.  It  is  happily  abol 
ished  in  this  country,  and.  no  man  can  be  convicted  of  the  crime  of  libel 
unless  he  has  actually  been  guilty  of  the  offense ;  in  other  words,  he  cannot 
be  construed  into  guilt.  Not  content  with  determining  questions  of  fraud 
upon  the  exact  facts  proven,  the  courts  adopted  the  ingenious  method  of 
finding  fraud  constructively,  and  though  a  man's  intentions  might  have  been 
never  so  pure,  and  his  purposes  never  so  honest,  yet  the  ingenious  judge 
would  make  an  absolutely  honest  line  of  conduct  fraud  by  construction. 
This  line  of  judical  mis-reasoning  is  also  rapidly  passing  away  with  the  torch 
and  the  thumb-screw,  and  in  but  a  few  years  we  shall  find  nothing  of  it 
except  what  we  see  in  museums  dedicated  to  the  preservation  of  unused 
and  worn-out  atrocities.  Judges  have  ever  been  particularly  anxious  to 
maintain  and  preserve  what  they  call  their  dignity.  Many  of  them  hav.e 
seemed  to  be  laboring  under  the  impression  that  the  respect  in  which  they 
were  held  by  the  public  depended  not  so  much  upon  the  manner  in  which 
they  conducted  themselves  as  judges,  as  upon  the  fear  which  they  might 
excite  sufficiently  to  restrain  any  criticism  upon  their  judicial  conduct. 
.  .  .  Out  of  these  mediaeval  theories  of  constructive  crime,  and  running 
along  in  parallel  lines  with  them,  has  grown  the  doctrine  of  constructive  con 
tempt.  No  exploded  legal  fiction  has  ever  fallen  into  such  utter  actual  con 
tempt  as  the  doctrine  of  constructive  contempt.  It  is  quite  as  dangerous 
as  any  of  the  other  species  of  constructive  crimes  to  which  I  have  referred. 
Indeed  it  is  more  so,  for  from  the  opinion  of  the  judge  who  thinks  that 
either  he  or  his  court  has  been  brought  into  contempt  by  a  criticism  upon 
it,  there  has  been  no  appeal ;  and  no  despot  ever  reigned  in  any  age  or  in 
any  country  whose  power  was  more  uncontrollably  absolute  than  the  power 
of  a  judge  when  called  to  pass  upon  the  correctness  or  the  integrity  of  his 
own  judicial  conduct.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  elaborate  upon  the  injustice 
of  this  rule  of  law." 

As  to  who  were  the  judges  first  to  apply  the  rule  of  con 
structive  contempt,  he  answered: 

"It  is  curious  to  note  the  source  from  which  the  doctrine  of  constructive 
contempt,  now  so  much  relied  upon,(proceeds.  It  found  its  origin,  not  among 
pure  judges,  but  among  corrupt  ones — among  the  most  corrupt  judges  of  a  cor 
rupt  age.  It  is  safe  now  to  tell  the  truth  of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Billing.  He  is 
dead  and  has  been  dead  for  three  or  four  hundred  years.  The  world  holds  him 
and  his  memory  in  utter  contempt.  The  contempt  is  not  constructive  but  actual, 
no  more  actual  than  the  contempt  which  fell  for  him  at  the  time  he 
occupied  the  bench.  But  Chief  Justice  Billing,  who  was  a  mere  elastic  tool 
to  a  corrupt  king  and  a  corrupt  court,  would  brook  no  criticism  upon  his 
conduct.  Whenever  it  was  brought  to  his  ears,  he  summarily  brought 
before  him  those  who  had  seen  fit  to  speak  in  terms  of  criticism  upon  his 
arbitrary  rulings,  and  punished  them  under  the  doctrine  of  constructive  con 
tempt,  without  a  why  or  a  wherefore.  He  is  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
law  of  constructive  contempt.  ...  It  is  safe  to  speak  of  Sir  Robert  Tresilian, 


"CONSTRUCTIVE    CONTEMPT"    AND    "TRIAL    BY    JURY."  53$ 

who  was  beheaded  for  his  crimes  in  1389.  He  had  been  for  many  years 
Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England.  His  biographer  says  of  him  that  he  was 
utterly  ignorant  of  law,  but  yet  he  had  the  most  supreme  opinion  of  his  own 
dignity  and  of  the  dignity  of  the  position  which  he  held. 

"Although  he  violated  every  idea  of  constitutional  liberty  in  Great  Brit 
ain,  he  would  brook  no  criticism  upon  the  corruption  of  his  official  conduct, 
but  summarily  punished  for  contempt  his  critics  wherever  he  could  find 
them.  We  credit  him  also  as  being  one  of  the  authors  of  the  doctrine  of 
constructive  contempt.  Many  of  those  distinguished  judges  who  infused 
into  the  doctrine  of  constructive  contempt  all  the  vigor  which  it  ever  pos 
sessed,  and  all  which  it  now  possesses,  were  beheaded  or  otherwise  summar 
ily  disposed  of.  The  people  would  at  last  get  the  upper  hand,  and,  how 
ever  much  they  might  have  been  punished  for  the  constructive  crime,  they 
finally  gave  an  actual  and  very  practical  exhibition  of  the  opinion  which 
they  entertained  of  the  judge  who  had  thus  punished  them."  .  .  .  "Chief 
Justice  Hyde  was  a  bright  and  shining  light  in  the  history  of  the  English 
judiciary !  He  was  absolutely  furious  in  his  efforts  to  suppress  what  he 
called  the  licentiousness  of  the  press.  He  was  as  fawning  and  suppliant  a 
creature  of  the  crown  and  his  royal  master  as  any  spaniel  that  ever  licked 
his  master's  boot.  Criticism  of  any  act  of  the  government  (whose  tool  he 
was),  even  of  the  mildest  character,  assumed  in  his  eyes  the  crime  of  con 
structive  high  treason,  and  he  punished  it  accordingly.  Criticism  of  his  own 
conduct  in  those  cases,  because  entirely  innocent,  he  called  'constructive 
contempt,'  and  he  punished  those  offenses  as  he  designated  them  accord 
ingly."  .  .  .  "Chief  Justice  Kelynge  has  probably  more  often  been  cited  in 
his  country  in  support  of  the  exercise  of  some  arbitrary  right  than  any 
other  of  the  English  judges.  A  more  truly  subservient  and  corrupt  judge 
never  lived.  He  compelled  jurors  to  convict  under  his  charges  of  construct 
ive  crimes,  and  if  they  did  not  convict  as  he  desired,  he  fined  and  impris 
oned  them,  holding  that,  in  the  not  following  his  charge,  they  were  guilty 
of  contempt — constructive  contempt.  On  one  occasion  he  fined  an  entire 
jury,  and  imprisoned  them  because  they  brought  in  a  verdict  against  his 
direction.  This,  he  argued  and  insisted,  was  a  constructive  contempt  of 
his  dignity  as  Lord  Chief  Justice  of  England.  The  list  is  a  long  one,  and 
I  need  not  pursue  it  further,  but  it  is  hardly  to  be  expected  that  from  a 
source  so  foul  any  very  clear  stream  could  flow." 

After  commenting  upon  the  fact  that  the  American  people 
would  not  tolerate  the  doctrine  of  constructive  crime  of  any 
nature  and  that  particularly  they  are  not  disposed  to  repose  in 
the  hands  of  any  one  man  the  arbitrary  and  uncontrolled  power  of 
himself  determining  whether  the  offense  of  which  the  party  brought 
before  him  is  charged  is  an  offense  or  not,  beyond  all  power  of 
redress  "or  appeal,  he  said  in  relation  to  the  right  of  newspapers 
to  criticise  grand  juries  and  the  action  of  judges  : 

"The   right  to   criticise    the   conduct   of  public   officers   of  any  character, 


536  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

judicial  or   otherwise,  is   now  as   thoroughly  settled    as  any  principle    of  law 
ever  was.     Judges   and   jurors    are    public    officers  in  this  sense.     Their  con 
duct  as   such   is   the   legitimate   subject   of  newspaper   remark  and  criticism. 
For  such  criticism  the  editor  is  not  liable,  is  not  holden   to   absolute   infalli 
bility  of  judgment.     The  law  requires  of  him    nothing   but   integrity  of  pur 
pose.       If  infallibility  of    judgment  was   required,  free   criticism  would  be  at 
an  end.     The  last  grand  jury  were  a  public  body,  and  while   their  sessions 
were    held   in   secret,  the    result   of  their   deliberations  was   made  public  the 
moment  the  indictments  which  they  had  found  were  presented  to  the   court. 
Upon   the  justice   or  injustice   of  the   course  which  they  pursued ;  upon  the 
integrity  of  the  motives  by  which  they  were  actuated  in  reaching  the  results 
which   they  did   reach  ;  upon    the   general   intelligence    and   judgment  which 
they  had  evinced  in  their  deliberations,  as  evidenced  by  those  results,  every 
citizen,    in    print   or   out   of  print,    had    a   right   to    comment.     If  in    finding 
certain   indictments   that  grand  jury  was   actuated   by  motives    personal    in 
their  character,  if  spite  influenced  their  deliberations  and  directed  their  con 
clusions,    the    public    should    know  the    facts,  and   through    no   other   agency 
than  that  of  the  newspaper  press  could   the   public  well   be   advised   of  the 
facts.     Grand  juries  have   been  in  this  city  summoned  and  organized  for  a 
specific    purpose,    for   the    purpose    of  finding   particular   indictments   against 
particular   individuals.     This   practice    should    not   be   tolerated.     It   subjects 
the    reputation    of  every    citizen   to   the    caprices   of  an    utterly    irresponsible 
body,  and  if  no  word  of  comment  or  criticism  can  be  passed  upon  them  or 
their  doings,  such  a  thing  as  freedom  of  speech  or  of  the  press  does  not  here 
exist.     The  question  is  not,  whether  the  criticisms  which  the  Chicago    Times 
passed    upon    this    conduct   of    the    grand  jury    referred   to   were   sound   or 
unsound.     With  that  question  Judge  Williams  has  no  business  to   deal.     He 
does  not  occupy  his  place  upon  the  bench  for  the  purpose  of  deciding   any 
such   questions.     He   would,  were   the    question   fairly  presented    to   him,  be 
driven  to  the  necessity  of  holding  that  the  conduct  of  the  grand  jury  might 
be  criticised,  and  holding    that   the    propriety  of  the    criticism   must   pass   to 
the    decision    of    another   tribunal.     If  the    criticism   were   malicious,    utterly 
unfounded,  without   ground   to   support   it,  the  critic  can  be  punished.     If  it 
should    turn    out    that   the    criticism   were    in   fact   unfounded,    but   that   the 
critic  had  a  right  to  believe  and  did  believe  at  the  time  he  passed  his   cen 
sure  that  they  were  well  founded,  then  is  the  critic  justified." 

.  .  .  "I  can  imagine  such  a  case  as  a  direct  interference  by  a  news- 
r  paper,  pending  a  trial,  with  the  trial  itself — an  attempt  by  malicious  attacks 
upon  either  court,  jury,  or  counsel  to  influence  the  verdict.  This  would 
probably  be  called  a  constructive  contempt.  It  would  in  fact  be  an  actual 
contempt,  although  not  committed  in  the  actual  presence  of  the  court.  But 
to  criticise  or  denounce  the  action  already  taken  of  either  a  grand  or  petit 
jury  may  be  libelous,  and  if  so  should  be  determined  by  a  jury.  It  is  not  a 
contempt  actual  or  constructive.  The  articles  complained  of  in  The  Times 
were,  as  I  understand,  all  published  after  the  indictments  had  been  found 
and  returned  into  court.  And  if  The  Times  maliciously  defamed  the  grand 
jury,  or  any  of  its  members,  it  can  be  punished  in  the  usual  way  by  a  full 


"CONSTRUCTIVE   CONTEMPT"    AND    "TRIAL   BY   JURY.  537 

examination  as  to  the  truth  or  falsity  of  its  charges.  The  trouble  and  the 
danger  is  that  in  proceedings  for  contempt  the  question  of  the  truth  of  the 
alleged  defamatory  matter  cannot  be  inquired  into,  and  a  journalist  may  be 
imprisoned  for  saying  of  a  jury  that  in  a  particular  case  it  rendered  a  cor 
rupt  verdict,  even  though  every  man  upon  the  jury  had  received  a  bribe. 
Under  such  a  rule  the  press  is  gagged  and  even  the  most  corrupt  jurors  are 
shielded  from  criticism,  exposure,  or  punishment..  Judge  Williams  cannot 
intend  to  decide  those  questions,  and  yet,  in  an  effort  to  punish  The  Times 
for  contempt  of  court,  that  very  question  he  must  decide.  It  is  idle  to  say 
that  the  articles  complained  of  were  an  interference  with  the  due  course  of 
the  administration  of  justice.  The  acts  of  which  complaint  was  made  were 
complete  when  The  Times  undertook  to  censure  them.  The  indictments 
had  been  found,  and  The  Times  expressed,  and  claims  that  it  had  the 
clear  right  to  do  so,  its  opinion  of  the  grand  jury,  and  of  its  action.  Pos 
sibly  Judge  Williams  may  deem  it  his  duty  to  punish  The  Times  for  a  con 
structive  contempt  of  his  court  and  its  proceedings.  Possibly  he  may  think 
that  this  expression  of  my  opinion  is  an  interference  with  his  judicial  func 
tions,  but  if  he  reaches  either  of  these  conclusions  he  will  place  himself 
alongside  of  and  in  company  with,  not  those  great  names  who  have  given 
character  to  the  administration  of  justice  by  their  learning  and  by  their  integ 
rity,  but  with  those  venal  and  corrupt  judges  who  have  left  an  indelible 
stain  upon  the  history  of  the  common  law.  He  cannot  prefer  the  society 
of  Kelynge  and  Hyde  and  Tresilian  and  Jeffreys  to  that  of  Holt  and  Ray 
mond  and  Hale  and  Mansfield.  The  selection  rests  with  him." 

The  result  of  the  issue  before  Judge  Williams  was  that  he 
at  last  saw  fit  not  to  inflict  punishment  upon  Mr.  Storey,  and 
afterwards  he  stated  that  had  "an  idea  that  Mr.  Storrs'  clear 
headed  talk  perused  after  breakfast"  before  going  upon  the  bench 
of  adjudication  "had  something  to  do  with  it."  The  law  school 
of  the  Northwestern  University,  immediately  after  this  public  agi 
tation,  solicited  Mr.  Storrs  to  lecture  upon  the  "Origin,  History, 
and  Merits  of  Trial  by  Jury."  He  complied,  and  early  in  Febru 
ary,  1876,  delivered  an  interesting  lecture  upon  this  subject.  After 
having  discussed  the  origin  and  history  of  jury  trials,  he  touched 
upon  the  merits  and  defects  of  the  system,  arguing  that,  while 
jurors  frequently  erred,  yet  that  no  better  system  for  the  trial  of 
questions  of  fact  had  ever,  as  experience  demonstrated,  been 
devised.  That  we  have  at  times  incompetent,  ignorant,  and,  per 
haps,  corrupt  jurors — he  claimed — proves  nothing  against  the  sys 
tem.  Precisely  the  same  line  of  reasoning  would  lead  to  the 
overthrow  of  our  entire  judicial  system,  for,  taking  the  country  at 
large,  there  can  be  found  many  ignorant  and  incompetent  and  a 
few  corrupt  judges. 


538  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"That  we  have    unfit   men    for  jurors,"    he    continued,    "falls  far  short  of 
proving  that  we  ought   to   dispense   with  jury  trials.     I    insist   that  if  proper 
care  were  taken  in   the    selection   of  our  jurors,  many    of  the  evils  of  which 
we   complain    would   be    removed,    and    that    the    fault   has   rested    in    some 
measure,  at  least,  upon  the   courts  who    are   frequently  too   ready  to   excuse 
from    service    upon  juries  competent    and    intelligent    men   who    have    been 
summoned    for     that     purpose."     .   .   "Our     system     of    delivering     to     the 
jury    written    instructions .  prepared    by   counsel    also   tends   to   mislead    and 
confuse    them.       These    instructions    are    in    the    nature    of    abstract    legal 
propositions.      All    taken    together    they    scarcely    if    ever    furnish    a    com 
plete   view   of  the   entire   case.     Prepared   by  counsel,  they   are  intended  to 
present  simply  so  much  of  the  law  as  will  be  advantageous   to   them.     The 
result   is   that   they  are    often   conflicting,  and   darken   rather   than  enlighten 
the  judgment,    and    furnish   no   solid    or   satisfactory    basis   upon   which    the 
jury  may  stand  in  endeavoring  to  reach  a  verdict."   ....   "That  even  good 
judges  do  under  the    present   absurd   system   give    conflicting    instructions   is 
too  well  known  to  every  practicing   lawyer   to    require  proof.     Cases  of  that 
character  abound  in  our  reports.     The  Supreme  Court  of  this  State,  in  a  case 
reported  in  the  63  Illinois  Reports,  commenting  upon  the   instructions   given    f 
by  the    Circuit   Judge,  say:     'These   instructions   are   in   direct   opposition — 
what  could  the  jury  do?     They  must  select  between   them,  and   they  prob 
ably  relied   upon   the    first   instruction.     This  was   not   the   law,  and   was   in 
violation    of  the    statute.'     Again   in   61    Illinois    Reports,    388,    the    Supreme 
Court,  criticising  the  instructions  by  the  Circuit  Judge,  say:     'But  even  had 
it     stated     the    rule    correctly    it    would    only    have    contradicted    the    first 
instruction,    and    it    would    not    have    appeared   which    the    jury    followed.' 
These    are  by  no   means   isolated    cases.     They  are  of  very  frequent   occur 
rence.     Either  of  the  Circuit  Judges  who  gave  in  the  cases  referred  to  these 
conflicting   instructions  was   quite    capable  of  writing  a  clear   and    consistent 
charge   to   the  jury.     Moreover,    were   this    duty    imposed    upon    me    Court 
where    it    belongs    instead    of    being    shifted    to   counsel   where   it   does    not 
belong,  the    Court  would   be  compelled  to  give  much  closer  attention  to  the 
trial   as   it   progressed   than   they  now   do,  and   would   understand   bcth   the 
facts  and  the  law  infinitely  better." 

The  question  of  abolishing  the  system  of  juries  is  so  grave 
and  existent  that,  now  as  then,  the  presentation  of  the  position, 
and  the  advanced  grounds  of  such  a  position,  of  so  successful  a 
lawyer,  both  with  jury  and  judge,  cannot  but  interest  all  classes. 
One  reference  in  this  lecture  to  the  groundlessness  of  the  state 
ment  that  the  larger  portion  of  appeals  from  jury  trials  in  the 
lower  courts  are  reversed  and  remanded  by  supreme  courts, 
with  consequent  increase  of  litigation  and  expense,  was  as  follows : 

"In  the  Sixty-first  Illinois  Reports  there  were  fifty-six  cases  reversed.  Of 
these,  three  were  reversed  on  the  ground  that  the  verdict  of  the  jury  was 
against  evidence ;  two  were  reversed  because  the  finding  of  the  Court  was 


"CONSTRUCTIVE    CONTEMPT"    AND    "TRIAL    BY    JURY."  539 

against  evidence;  and  fifty-one  were  reversed  because  the  Courts  erred  in 
rulings  upon  questions  of  law.  In  the  sixty-second  volume  there  are  reported 
eighty-two  reversals.  Of  these,  four  were  reversed  because  the  verdicts 
were  against  evidence  and  seventy-eight  on  the  ground  of  errors  committed 
by  the  Court.  In  the  sixty-third  (the  last)  volume  of  our  State  Reports, 
there  are  eighty-one  reversals.  Of  these,  ten  are  on  the  ground  that  the 
verdict  of  the  jury  was  against  evidence.  Eight  cases  tried  by  the  Court, 
a  jury  having  been  waived,  were  reversed  on  the  ground  that  the  findings 
were  against  evidence,  and  sixty-three  because  of  errors  committed  by  the 
courts  in  rulings  upon  questions  of  law.  Thus,  out  of  an  aggregate  of  219 
cases  reported  in  the  last  three  volumes  of  our  State  Reports,  202  were 
reversed  for  errors  made  by  the  Judges. 

"  The  record  certainly  does  not  furnish  very  strong  reasons  for  abolishing 
jury  trials  and  submitting  the  determination  of  questions  both  of  the  law  and 
of  fact  to  the  Courts.  It  would  rather  seem  to  indicate  that,  while  we  are 
engaged  in  the  work  of  reform,  it  is  barely  possible  that  the  Bench  may  be 
improved. 

"I  now  advocate  as  complete  a  severance  as  possible  of  the  functions  of 
Court  and  jury,  confining  the  jury  exclusively  to  the  determination  of  ques 
tions  of  fact  and  the  Court  to  the  divisions  of  questions  of  law.  I  am  well 
convinced  that  the  interests  of  justice  are  conserved  by  observing  these  dis 
tinctions,  and  that  in  the  long  run  nothing  but  harm  will  ensue  from 
either  Court  or  jury  trenching  upon  the  province  of  the  other." 

After  exhaustively  tracing  the  judicial  history  of  England 
through  a  period  of  three  hundred  years,  until  the  jury  stepped 
firmly  between  the  Crown,  represented  by  the  judges,  and  the 
rights  of  a  free  press  and  free  speech,  he  proceeded: 

"Our  own  country  furnishes  abundant  examples  of  appointments  to  judi 
cial  positions  as  a  reward  for  political  services  already  rendered,  or  with  a 
view  to  judicial  services  to  be  rendered.".  .  .  "It  may,  however,  now  be 
truthfully  said  that  our  Judges  are,  as  a  rule,  eminently  upright,  pure,  and 
incorruptible  men.  But  they  are  swayed  by  the  same  motives  which  influ 
ence  other  men.  The  possession  of  unlimited  power  would  render  them 
dangerous  and  despotic,  as  it  has  others;  and  if  we  would  continue  our 
judiciary  pure  and  upright  we  will  withhold  from  them  the  power  to  decide 
the  facts,  or  to  interfere  with  juries  in  the  decision  of  those  questions." 


CHAPTER  XXVI. 


SOME  GREAT  CRIMINAL  TRIALS. 

TRIAL    OF    RODOLPHUS    K.    TURNER    FOR   FORGERY — CONTENTS   OF   A   FORGER'S 
TRUNK — TRIAL     OF     FIVE     COUNTY     COMMISSIONERS     FOR     FRAUD — HOW    A 
YOUNG   CLERK    KEPT    CHECK    ON     HIS     EMPLOYER— AN   ARSON    CASE    GOTTEN, 
UP    BY   AN    INSURANCE    COMPANY   TURNS   OUT   TO    BE   A    MALICIOUS   PROSECU 
TION,    WITH    BLACKMAILING    FEATURES. 

THE  year  1877  was  a  busy  one  for  Mr.  Storrs.  In  addition 
to  his  labors  in  winding  up  the  Chicago  whisky  cases,  he 
was  engaged  in  the  trial  of  an  unusually  large  number  of  impor 
tant  criminal  cases,  which  attracted  much  interest  at  the  time, 
and  each  of  which  occupied  several  months  in  preparation.  So 
far  as  results  were  concerned,  he  worked  harder  that  year  than 
in  any  other  of  his  professional  life. 

The  first  case  was  that  of  a  young  Quincy  lawyer  named 
Rodolphus  K.  Turner,  accused  of  being  accessory  to,  and  having 
procured,  the  forgery  of  title  deeds  to  property.  The  title  to  this 
property  was  in  litigation  in  a  Chancery  Court  in  Chicago,  and 
was  claimed  by  a  lawyer  named  Hill.  Mr.  Turner  produced 
deeds  showing  a  conveyance  to  him  of  various  tracts  of  it,  and 
others  in  which  the  title  was  traced  through  his  grantors  as  far 
back  as  the  original  Government  patents.  Mr.  Hill  claimed  that 
these  were  forgeries,  and  Mr.  Turner  was  indicted  and  tried  in 
the  Cook  County  Criminal  Court.  The  prosecution  was  assisted 
by  Hon.  W.  H.  Barnum,  who  had  been  Mr.  Hill's  solicitor  in 
the  chancery  proceeding,  and  for  the  defence  Mr.  Storrs  appeared 
along  with  the  Hon.  O.  H.  Browning  of  Quincy.  The  testimony 
was  of  a  most  sensational  character,  and  proved  a  long  train  of 
forgeries  perpetrated  by  a  man  named  Reid,  in  whose  trunk  were 
540 


SOME    GREAT    CRIMINAL    TRIALS.  541 

found  implements  for  forgery,  including  bottles  of  different  shades 
of  ink  to  suit  the  pretended  age  of  the  document,  and  copies  of 
the  seals  of  the  different  States  in  which  the  alleged  conveyances 
were  made.  There  was  proof  that  Turner  had  been  in  consulta 
tion  with  this  man  Reid,  but  his  employment  of  Reid,  or  his 
guilty  knowledge  of  his  doings,  was  not  made  out  to  the  satis 
faction  of  the  jury.  The  proof  was  enough,  however,  to  create  a 
doubt  in  their  minds.  His  brother,  who  was  indicted  along  with  him, 
was  acquitted, — anything  that  he  had  done  having  been  done  at  the 
instance  of  Rodolphus;  as  to  the  latter,  the  jury  disagreed,  and 
no  further  proceedings  were  taken  against  him. 

The  next  was  the  trial  of  five  of  the  Commissioners  of  Cook 
County  on  the  charge  of  defrauding  the  county  in  the  matter  of 
contracts  for  supplies  for  the  county  institutions.  A  member  of 
the  Board  had  been  taking  contracts  in  the  names  of  his  clerks, 
with  the  connivance  of  other  Commissioners,  who  used  to  meet 
and  divide  the  profits  after  the  bills  had  been  audited  and  paid, 
and  who  were  known  as  the  "Bean  Club."  Their*  proceedings 
leaked  out  through  the  fear  of  discovery  on  the  part  of  the 
warden  of  the  poor-house,  and  four  or  five  weeks  were  consumed 
in  a  tedious  investigation,  involving  minute  book-keeping  details. 
Mr.  Storrs  was  retained  by  the  county  to  assist  the  State's 
Attorney,  and  the  trial  resulted  in  an  acquittal  of  the  implicated 
Commissioners,  who,  however,  were  soon  thereafter  retired  to 
private  life. 

Mr.  Storrs'  argument  in  this  case  was  a  splendid  effort,  and  it 
is  to  be  hoped  will  some  day  be  published  in  full.  Only  an 
outline  of  it  can  be  given  here.  He  first  addressed  himself  to 
the  exposition  of  the  law  of  conspiracy,  under  which  the  defen 
dants  were  indicted.  He  said  that  this  case  involved  directly  the 
question  whether  the  people  had  any  control  over  their  servants. 
A  conspiracy  among  public  servants  to  defraud  the  public  was, 
in  his  view,  infinitely  more  dangerous  than  an  isolated  case  of 
defrauding  the  public,  where  the  individual  must  take  his  chances 
of  detection.  Here  was  a  combination  formed  for  the  purpose  of 
regularly  and  systematically  defrauding  the  public;  and  a  most 
important  and  dangerous  feature  of  his  corrupt  arrangement  was 
to  provide  against  detection  at  the  outset,  by  including  within 
the  combination  those  whose  duty  it  was  to  detect  and  prevent 


542  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

it.  Judge  Smith,  who  was  one  of  the  counsel  for  the  defendants, 
had  made  an  appeal  to  the  common  law  on  this  point,  and  Mr. 
Storrs  said: 

"The  man  does  not  live  who  can  tell  you  exactly  what  the  common  law 
is  any  more  than  he  can  tell  you  what  the  English  Constitution  is.  It  is  in 
no  book.  It  is  in  no  number  of  books.  It  is  partly  tradition,  partly  statute^ 
partly  custom,  partly  decision,  and  the  balance  conjecture.  Under  this  old 
common  law,  they  used  to  try  cases  by  wager  of  battle,  and  yet  brother 
Smith  tells  you  that  the  common  law  was  the  perfection  of  reason.  This 
old  common  law  used  to  hang  people  for  larceny. 

"This  old  common  law  has  its  chief  element  of  wisdom  in  the  fact  that 
it  continually  changes  to  adapt  and  adjust  itself  to  the  growing  necessities 
of  the  age,  and  this  statute  is  right  in  the  line  of  the  spirit  of  the  common 
law,  for  if  there  is  anything  true  as  an  historical  fact  it  is  that  our  greatest 
danger  is  from  official  corruption.  We  are  a  tax-ridden  and  a  tax-robbed 
people.  We  are  tax-ridden  and  tax-robbed  because  the  politician,  the'politi- 
cal  adventurer,  the  contractor,  the  schemer,  combines  with  the  official  to  - 
rob  and  plunder  the  public.  There  is  not  a  department  of  the  public 
service,  National,  State,  or  City,  in  which  these  dangerous  conspirators  have 
not  entered  ;  and  if  there  is  any  one  great  cause  to  which  the  depression 
of  our  trade  and  of  the  legitimate  industries  of  our  country  may  be  traced,  it  is 
that,  entering  every  avenue  of  the  public  service,  alarming  and  dangerous  con 
spiracies  of  such  a  character  as  the  one  here  charged  have  corrupted  the 
very  springs  of  our  public  life.  That  burden,  rob,  plunder  the  public.  I 
dont  say  that  these  defendants  have  done  that.  I  am  speaking  of  the  gen 
eral  nature  of  this  charge,  because  I  desire  to  impress  upon  you  the  gra.v 
ity  and  importance  of  the  case  and  of  the  question." 

One  of  the  clerks  of  the  implicated  Commissioner  had  kept  a 
pass-book,  in  which  he  had  noted  down  the  orders  from  the 
county,  the  quantities  actually  supplied,  and  the  quantities 
charged  for.  Commenting  on  this  book,  Mr.  Storrs  discriminated 
between  the  young  man  who  had  allowed  himself  to  be  made  the 
tool  of  his  superior,  and  the  Commissioner  who  had  betrayed 
his  public  trust.  The  clerk  had  been  indicted  as  arr  accessory: 

"This  book  is  precisely  what  he  claimed  it  to  be  when  he  was  before 
that  Grand  Jury.  It  is  a  record  tremendously  telling  and  decisive  in  its 
character  of  the  great  and  awful  fact  for  the  first  time  displayed  with  abso 
lute  certainty,  that  during  these  years  this  County  was  plundered  right  and 
left  by  as  unscrupulous  and  as  wicked  a  ring  as  was  ever  organized.  They 
say  however  this  book  was  kept  for  his  own  protection.  Quite  possible  . 

"Now  the  knowledge  of  Carpenter  was  not  a  merely  passive  knowledge. 
It  was  not  such  a  knowledge  as  a  stranger  might  have  who  would  have 
blundered  into  that  store  and  seen  ten  barrels  of  sugar  brought  down, 
and  only  five  sent.  It  is  an  active  Darticipating  and  assisting  knowledge. 


SOME    GREAT    CRIMINAL    TRIALS.  543 

• 

It  is  an  indispensable  knowledge,  and  the  assistance  which  he  rendered  was 
absolutely  indispensable  in  order  that  the  scheme  might  succeed.  Nor  was 
this  merely  an  isolated  instance.  Why,  this  book  tells  a  fearful  story  when 
it  is  matched  with  this  testimony.  Beginning  on  the  ist  day  of  July,  it 
runs  straight  along  every  single  month,  without  a  single  exception  during  that 
entire  year.  Here  is  this  memorandum  of  the  goods  and  property  of  which 
the  County  of  Cook  was  plundered  :  not  an  isolated  case  of  robbery,  but  a 
consistent,  steady-going,  regular,  unintennitting  scheme  of  plunder.  Now, 
in  view  of  this  state  of  facts,  as  this  book  discloses  a  consistently  pursued, 
scheme,  what  have  you  to  say  about  the  crime  of  Conspiracy,  as  com 
pared  with  the  crime  of  an  independent  larceny  ?  A  man  who  steals  from 
one  man  commits  a  crime  ;  but  those  individuals  who  conspire  and  agree 
together  not  that  they  shall  steal  once,  but  that  they  shall  rob  continuously, 
having  organized  a  system  of  crime,  which  in  the  earlier  and  better  days 
would  have  defied  belief,  and  the  execution  of  which  in  cases  of  this  char 
acter  is  utterly  impossible  without  the  active  connivance  and  assistance  of 
the  officials. 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  do  you  think  that  the  statute  is  a  little  harsh? 
The  story  that  that  book  tells,  coupled  with  the  statement  of  Carpenter 
discloses  a  danger  and  peril  from  which  every  good  citizen  will  recoil  in 
terror,  and  for  protection  against  which  we  have  no  relief  except  in  the 
Courts  which  are  all  that  is  left,  that  is  pure  and  uncorrupted.  It  is  the 
history  of  these  great  combinations,  that  they  carry  their  operations,  not 
merely  into  the  administrative  parts  of  the  Government  but  elsewhere  they 
have  mounted  the  bench,  and  dragged  down  the  Judiciary  to  their  corrupt 
level.  Hence  it  is  that  here  this  case  possesses  the  transcendent  importance 
which  I  have  already  indicated.  Here  for  the  first  time  a  fair  trial  is  to  be 
.had  ;  here  for  the  first  time  has  a  gross,  a  corrupt,  an  organized  gang  of 
public  plunderers  been  brought  into  a  struggle  of  life  and  death  with  the 
public  whom  for  these  long  years  they  have  been  plundering,  and  it  is  a 
pretty  serious  question  what  the  result  of  such  a  contest  shall  be.  I  have 
no  sort  of  disposition  to  pursue  Mr.  Carpenter,  not  the  slightest,  feeling  of 
vindictiveness  against  him,  not  a  particle,  as  you  will  see  presently ;  but 
this  is  not  a  tribunal  of  sentiment.  This  is  not  an  eleemosynary  concern. 
We  are  here  engaged  in  a  very  manly  business,  that  of  administering  jus 
tice,  and  I  hope  that  we  have  finally  passed  through  this  unhealthy  and 
unnatural  period  of  sentimentalism  characteristic  more  of  the  school-girl, 
than  the  full  grown  man — a  jury  which  would  lament  the  sorrows  of  Cap 
tain  Kidd,  which  would  sigh  over  the  griefs  of  the  beautiful  bandit,  and 
which  would  mourn  over  the  sorrows  of  the  black-eyed  pirate. 

"Gentlemen  of  the  Jury,  it  is  high  time  for  the  exercise  of  some  mascu 
line  virtues.  Here  is  this  young  man,  guilty.  His  interests,  and  the  interests 
of  society  absolutely  demand  that  you  should  say  so;  but,  in  determining 
the  extent  and  measure  of  his  punishment,  I  think  that  your  regard  should 
be  had  to  the  consideration  that  he  was  the  weak  and  trembling,  and  help 
less  tool  of  Periolat. 


544  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

• 

"He  kept  this  book  for  his  own  protection  he  .says.  I  will  tell  you  what 
I  think  he  kept  it  for.  He  knew  the  reckless  character  of  that  gang  and 
of  its  head.  He  kept  this  memorandum  thinking  that  possibly  the  time 
might  come  when  by  means  of  that  little  book  he  might  put  his  thumb 
upon  Mr.  Periolat,  and  exercise  a  little  coercion  over  him.  Now  1  submit 
to  you  if  that  was  not  the  reason  he  kept  that  book?  Why  it  is  just  as 
clear,  and  just  as  plain  that  Carpenter,  assisting  in  these  great  crimes,  made 
up  his  mind  that  the  time  might  come  when  he  would  want  perhaps  to 
squeeze  Periolat. 

"He  made  his  memoranda  and  never  told  Mr.  Periolat  or  Mr.  Korsythe 
about  it.  He  took  it  home  and  kept  it  there,  as  you  would  keep  an  old 
family  tea-pot  that  had  come  down  through  generations  behind  you. 

"  He  is  a  young  man ;  I  want  to  see  him  detached  from  this  ring.  I 
want  to  see  Mr.  Carpenter,  who  has  something  of  a  future  before  him  I 
hope,  break  with  this  combination  and  make  some  new  associates ;  and  I 
want  to  see  him  do  it,  by  ranging  himself  on  the  side  of  the  people,  where 
he  belongs.  A  fine  within  the  limit  of  his  means  is  pretty  good  notice  to 
Mr.  Carpenter  and  to  all  other  young  men,  notice  sufficent  that  there  is  a 
higher  duty  than  that  which  an  employe  owes  to  any  one  man.  It  is  the 
supreme  duty  which  every  honest  man  owes  to  the  interest  of  the  great 
community  in  which  he  lives.  With  these  observations  on  Mr.  Carpenter, 
I  will  leave  him  in  your  hands." 

During  the  closing  arguments  in  the  case,  the  lawyers  got 
into  a  dispute  as  to  whether  certain  documents  had  been 
properly  put  in  evidence  or  not.  They  were  essential  to  the  case 
for  the  State,  and  the  failure  to  get  them  into  the  record  would 
have  been  of  great  service  to  the  defence.  Mr.  Smith  contended 
that  they  had  not  been  formally  offered  and  admitted;  and  Mr. 
Storrs,  with  equal  pertinacity,  insisted  that  they  had.  Finally 
Mr.  Smith,  drawing  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  exclaimed, 
"Well,  if  my  word  is  not  as  good  as  that  of  Mr.  Storrs  any  day, 
I  propose  to  leave  the  county."  It  was  laughable  to  see  Mr. 
Storrs  get  up,  in  his  dry,  cool  way,  and  at  once  respond, — 
"Good  bye,  Smith;"  and  then,  turning  to  the  jury,  say,  " Friend 
Smith  is  going  to  leave  the  county." 

The  jury  found  the  defendants  not  guilty,  but  this  did  not 
save  them  from  the  verdict  of  public  opinion,  which  was 
very  emphatically  pronounced  at  the  next  election. 

Another  case  which  excited  much  comment  was  the  trial  of 
several  prominent  citizens  of  Freeport,  Illinois,  on  the  charge  of 
burning  an  extensive  watch  factory  there  of  which  they  were 
proprietors,  with  intent  to  defraud  the  insurance  companies. 


SOME    GREAT    CRIMINAL    TRIALS.  545 

The  factory  was  established  by  a  company  organized  at  the 
instance  of  the  late  Eber  D.  Ward,  the  great  Michigan  capitalist, 
for  the  manufacture  of  what  was  known  as  the  Hoyt  watch. 
Among  the  stockholders  were  Loyal  L.  Munn  and  Lewis  K. 
Scofield  of  Freeport,  and  Professor  Allen  A.  Griffith  who  acted 
as  Mr.  Ward's  representative  in  organizing  a  joint  stock  company, 
and  securing  the  location  of  the  factory  at  Freeport.  In  orga 
nizing  the  joint-stock  company,  Professor  Griffith  met  with  the 
president  of  the  German  Insurance  Company  of  Freeport,  and  so 
impressed  him  with  the  importance  of  establishing  a  factory  for 
the  manufacture  of  watches  in  that  town  that  Mr.  Hettinger  also 
took  stock,  and  became  an  active  spirit  in  the  concern.  The 
factory  was  burned  down  on  the  night  of  the  2ist  of  October 
1875.  At  the  time  of  the  fire,  various  companies  had  polices  of 
insurance  upon  the  property,  to  the  amount  of  $30,000.  Of 
this  sum,  $10,000  was  upon  the  building,  and  $20,000  upon  the 
machinery,  tools,  and  fixtures.  The  companies  insuring  were  ten 
in  all.  It  was  proved  upon  the  trial  that  the  building  alone  cost 
$18,000,  and  the  value  of  the  tools,  fixtures,  and  machinery,  was 
estimated  by  appraisers  at  $35,000.  Nevertheless,  two  years  after 
the  fire  occurred,  owing  to  local  gossip,  a  grand  jury  of  the 
county,  on  which  were  several  officers  and  representatives  of  the 
German  Insurance  company,  found  an  indictment  against  Messrs. 
Munn,  Scofield,  and  Griffith  for  arson.  Mr  Leonard  Swett  of 
Chicago  was  engaged  by  the  companies  to  assist  the  prosecution, 
and  the  defence  was  conducted  by  Mr.  Storrs,  assisted  by  local 
attorneys. 

The  proof  abundantly  showed  that  the  charge  was  one  of  the 
most  scandalous  attacks  on  private  character  ever  brought  in  a 
court  of  justice  to  save  the  insurance  companies  from  paying 
their  just  risks.  It  was  not  only  proved,  as  already  stated,  that 
the  real  value  of  the  property  was  in  excess  of  the  insurance, 
but  that  the  company  had  just  purchased  new  machinery,  then 
in  transitu,  which  if  it  had  arrived  before  the  fire  would  have 
brought  the  value  of  the  property  up  to  nearly  $70,000.  In 
addition  to  this,  Judge  Bailey  of  Freeport,  now  an  honored 
member  of  the  Appellate  Court  for  the  First  District  of  Illinois, 
testified  that  about  the  1 7th  or  1 8th  of  October  1875,  Messrs. 
Griffith,  Fry,  Munn,  and  Scofield  came  to  his  office  to  consult 
35 


546  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

with  reference  to  giving  proper  securities  on  the  property  of 
the  factory  for  the  purpose  of  borrowing  money  to  pay  the 
existing  indebtedness  of  the  company  and  put  in  about  $10,000 
additional  working  capital.  The  Judge  told  them  that  a  schedule 
of  the  property  would  be  required,  and  that  the  old  schedule 
then  in  his  safe  was  not  sufficient  because  it  did  not  include  the 
new  machinery.  There  was  then  outstanding  a  note  of  $20,000 
upon  which  they  were  liable,  and  they  finally  agreed  to  endorse 
the  paper  of  the  company,  carry  the  existing  indebtedness,  and 
furnish  $10,000  additional  capital.  Judge  Bailey  was  called  out 
of  town  on  the  2Oth  of  October  by  professional  business,  othtr- 
wise  the  papers  would  have  been  executed  fixing  upon  these 
very  defendants  an  additional  responsibility  of  $io,OOO.  And  on 
the  very  next  day  the  fire  occurred. 

The  pretence  that  these  defendants  fired  the  building  to  defraud 
the  insurance  companies  was  thus  shown  by  incontestible  demon 
stration  to  be  utterly  untrue.  The  agents  of  the  Freeport  com 
pany  had  been  at  work  for  two  years  trying  to  get  up  evidence 
against  them,  and  even  wrote  Professor  Griffith,  holding  out 
valuable  inducements  to  him  to  turn  State's  evidence  against  his 
fellow-directors.  At  the  time  they  paid  the  loss  on  their  policy, 
they  took  a  bond  for  $3000  from  Mr.  Fry,  conditioned  to  refund 
the  money  to  them  in  the  event  it  should  be  discovered  that 
the  fire  was  a  fraudulent  one.  They  afterwards  proposed  to  Mr. 
Fry  to  withdraw  the  prosecution  provided  he  would  quietly  pay 
them  back  the  $3000.  This  infamous  proposition  was  rejected^ 
and  then  came  an  indictment  found  by  a  grand  jury  on  which 
were  several  officers  of  this  German  Insurance  Company,  for 
arson  committed  to  defraud  the  "American  Insurance  Company 
of  Philadelphia,"  which  had  had  nothing  to  do  with  their  pro 
ceedings. 

At  the  close  of  the  case  for  the  people,  Mr.  Swett  announced 
the  purpose  of  the  prosecution  to  proceed  no  further,  and  asked 
that  the  case  be  dismissed  for  want  of  evidence.  The  State's 
Attorney  agreed  with  Mr.  Swett  that  the  facts  in  the  case  were 
not  such  as  would  justify  a  conviction.  "Indeed,"  he  said,  "they 
fall  so  far  short  of  it  that  my  own  judgment  has  been,  and  is, 
that  they  are  not  sufficient  to  justify  us  in  prolonging  this  case 
further."  Judge  Brown  instructed  the  jury  that  there  was  no 


SOME   GREAT   CRIMINAL    TRIALS.  547 

evidence  to  convict  the  defendants,  or  either  of  them ;  whereupon 
they  immediately  rendered  a  verdict  of  not  guilty,  and  not  con 
tent  with  that,  after  consulting  in  their  jury  room,  returned  into 
court  with  a  resolution  censuring  the  grand  jury  for  finding  what 
they  called  ''this  blackmailing  indictment."  Judge  Brown  said, 
that  inasmuch  as  the  grand  jury  was  a  part  of  the  organization 
and  machinery  of  the  Court,  he  could  not  receive  any  report 
which  reflected  upon  them ;  but  so  far  as  the  resojution  expressed 
the  feelings  of  the  jury  as  to  the  character  of  the  proof  against 
the  defendants,  he  was  in  entire  accord  with  it. 

Thus  closed  this  case, — a  remarkable  one  in  many  particulars, 
and  most  of  all  as  illustrating  how  easy  it  is  to  elevate  idle 
gossip  and  personal  slanders  into  such  proportions  as  that  it 
should  receive  apparent  endorsement  by  a  grand  jury;  remark 
able  also  as  exhibiting  not  only  the  absolute  innocence  of  the 
defendants,  but  the  guilty  motives  of  those  who  conceived  and 
promoted  the  prosecution. 


CHAPTER  XXVII, 


THE  TRIAL  OF  ALEXANDER  SULLIVAN. 

THE  CASE  AS  VIEWED  BY  MR.  STORKS— THE  EVIDENCE  AND  ITS  TALE — 
.FORCED  WARFARES  OF  RELIGIONS — THE  TRIAL  SCENES — ACQUITTAL  OF 
THE  ACCUSED — SUBSEQUENT  HISTORY  OF  CHIEF  PARTICIPANTS. 

ONE  of  the  great  cases  in  which  the  remarkable  power  of 
Mr.  Storrs  as  a  lawyer  was  brought  into  conspicuous 
prominence  was  the  Sullivan  case.  The  case  was  tried  twice.  In 
the  first  trial  the  late  Mr.  W.  W.  O'Brien  was  the  leading  counsel 
for  the  defence.  In  the  second  trial  Mr.  Storrs  was  substi 
tuted  for  Mr.  O'Brien.  It  is  not  intended  in  this  notice  to  dis 
parage  the  ability  of  Mr.  O'Brien,  in  the  slightest  degree.  Mr. 
O'Brien  was  a  great  lawyer  and  a  bold,  courageous,  loyal  man ; 
but  his  manner  was  quite  the  opposite  of  that  of  Mr.  Storrs. 
Mr.  O'Brien  was  demonstrative,  belligerent.  Mr.  Storrs  was  keen, 
alert,  dignified,  quiet.  He  was  thorough  as  to  the  most  minor 
detail  of  fact  and  the  method  of  presenting  every  statement. 
Everything,  in  his  judgment,  that  had  any  place  in  a  case  was 
entitled  to  an  important  place.  Every  statement  that  had  to  be 
made,  no  matter  how  trivial  it  was,  he  believed  in  making  with 
precision  of  style  and  so  clearly  that  all  could  understand  it. 

When  he  entered  into  the  trial  of  the  Sullivan  case  he  found 
it  enveloped  in  prejudice.  The  public  had  not  been  permitted 
to  get  the  facts  in  an  orderly  manner.  A  more  disgraceful  dis 
play  of  partisan  clamor  and  religious  bigotry  has  not  been  seen 
in  this  country.  Never  was  a  case  more  grossly  misrepresented 
nor  more  uniformly  misunderstood. 

The  defendant,  Alexander  Sullivan,  was  indicted  for  murder  by 
the  Grand  Jury  of  Cook  County,  Illinois ;  on  the  7th  of  August, 
1876,  he  shot  Francis  Hanford  who  died  on  the  same  day. 
548 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  549 

Hanford,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was  principal  of  one  of  the 
divisions  of  the  high  school  in  Chicago.  He  had  been  assistant 
superintendent  of  schools  for  the  city,  but  resigned  from  that 
position  to  take  effect  August  31,  1875,  and  on  September  14, 
1875,  Duane  Doty,  formerly  superintendent  of  schools  in  Detroit, 
Michigan,  was  appointed  assistant  superintendent  of  schools  in 
Chicago  and  Hanford  on  July  14,  1875,  was  appointed  principal 
of  the  North  Division  high  school.  Hanford,  it  appears,  desired 
to  be  reinstated  in  the  position  of  assistant  superintendent  and 
thought  the  place  would  be  given  to  him  if  it  were  not  for 
Doty's  selection.  Mr.  Sullivan,  at  the  time  of  Doty's  election 
and  for  some  years  prior  thereto,  was  secretary  of  the  Board  of 
Public  Works,  and  he  and  his  wife  were  formerly  residents  of 
Detroit,  where  Mrs.  Sullivan  had  been  a  teacher  in  the  public 
schools  while  Doty  was  superintendent. 

Hanford  seems  to  have  become  infatuated  with  the  idea  that 
it  was  through  the  influence  of  the  Sullivans  that  Doty  was 
brought  from  their  old  home,  Detroit.  He  professed  to  believe 
that  the  bringing  of  Doty  to  Chicago  was  part  of  a  conspiracy 
to  secure  control  of  Chicago  public  schools  in  the  interest  of  the 
Catholic  church;  and  in  this  belief,  or,  in  professing  it,  a  number 
of  citizens,  who  ought  to  have  known  better,  made  the  case  the 
text  of  a  religious  war.  In  this  bigoted  spirit  a  number  of 
clergymen  preached  " sermons"  telling  the  court  and  the  jury,  in 
advance  of  the  hearing  of  the  evidence,  how  the  case  ought  to  be 
decided.  Hanford  was  at  once  made  a  harmless,  inoffensive,  law- 
abiding,  saintly  man;  Sullivan  became  a  devil,  and  some  of  the 
clergymen  demonstrated  to  their  own  satisfaction  that  Sullivan 
was  inspired  to  shoot  Hanford  by  the  Pope  at  Rome,  in  order 
to  secure  Duane  Doty's  appointment  at  the  head  of  the  Chicago 
schools  for  the  benefit  of  the  Catholic  church.  The  facts  as 
gathered  from  a  careful  analyzation  of  the  case  are  these: 

On  the  day  of  the  tragedy,  Mr.  Sullivan  was  informed  by  Mr. 
Thomas  Brenan,  then  assistant  city  treasurer  and,  at  date  of  this 
review,  assistant  county  treasurer  of  Cook  County,  Illinois,  that 
an  infamous  attack  had  been  made  on  his  wife  at  the  meeting 
of  the  common  council  of  the  City  of  Chicago.  He  inquired 
how  the  common  council  could  get  his  wife's  name  before  it  and 
was  informed  that  the  subject  came  up  in  reference  to  the  nomi- 


55O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

nation  of  certain  persons  to  serve  as  members  of  the  Board  of 
Education.  During  the  debate  concerning  the  nominees  it  became 
known  that  Alderman  Van  Osdel,  chairman  of  the  committee  of 
education,  had  a  communication  assailing  the  nominees.  When 
the  existence  of  the  letter  was  discovered  its  production  was 
demanded.  Van  Osdel  finally  produced  it  and  it  was  read. 
During  the  reading,  the  President  of  the  council,  a  leading  whole 
sale  merchant  and  subsequently  member  of  Congress',  Hon. 
William  Aldrich,  interrupted  the  clerk  and  declared  it  a  document 
unfit  to  be  read;  but  the  curiosity  of  the  Aldermen  was  aroused 
and  the  entire  letter  was  read.  It  was  anonymous  and  Van 
Osdel  refused  to  give  the  name  of  its  author  to  the  council. 
Mr.  Sullivan  reached  the  council  chamber  before  that  body  had 
adjourned  and  found  it  and  the  large  audience  of  spectators  in  a 
state  of  intense  excitement.  He  went  to  the  clerk's  desk  and 
copied  a  portion  of  the  letter;  then  he  demanded  of  Alderman  Van 
Osdel  the  name  of  the  author.  Van  Osdel  refused  several  times 
to  give  the  name,  but  finally,  upon  Mr.  Sullivan's  saying  to  him 
that  unless  he  did  he  would  assume  that  Van  Osdel  was  its 
author  and  would  so  treat  him,  said:  "It  was  written  by  Mr. 
Hanford."  "Who  is  Mr.  Hanford?"  inquired  Mr.  Sullivan. 
"Why,  don't  you  know  him?"  exclaimed  Van  Osdel,  in  surprise. 
"I  do  not,"  said  Mr.  Sullivan,  "Who  is  he?"  "Why  he  was 
assistant  superintendent  of  Schools." 

Mr.  Sullivan  thus  learned  who  \vas  the  author  of  the  letter.  He 
did  not  know  the  man  and.  had  no  recollection  of  ever  having 
heard  of  his  name.  He  went  to  his  home  and  the  testimony 
shows  that  he  inquired  of  his  wife  if  she  knew  Hanford  or  any 
of  his  family.  He  was  answered  in  the  negative  and  then  in 
formed  his  wife  and  his  brother  of  the  attack,  but  consoled  his 
wife  and  himself  with  the  belief  that  it  was  all  a  mistake  ;  that 
as  neither  of  them  knew  Hanford  or  his  family ;  as  there  could 
be  no  cause  for  ill  will  on  Hanford's  part ;  and,  as  the  charges 
in  the  anonymous  letter  were  utterly  unfounded,  Mrs.  Sullivan's 
name  must  have,  been  used  by  mistake  in  the  infamous  docu 
ment.  He,  therefore,  assumed  that  when  Hanford  was  shown 
his  mistake,  he  would  retract  his  false  statements  and  give  a 
note  to  be  shown  to  the  city  editors  of  the  daily  papers  which 
would  prevent  the  publication  of  the  letter.  Mrs.  Sullivan  was 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  551 

in  poor  health — having  shortly  prior  to  that  time  been  injured  in 
a  street  car  collision.  Mr.  Sullivan  suggested  that  his  wife  and 
brother  should  go  down  to  see  the  city  editors  of  two  of  the 
papers  to  which  she  had  been  a  contributor,  lest  the  letter  should 
get  into  early  editions  of  these  papers  before  he  could  arrive 
with  Hanford's  letter.  He  then  started  to  ascertain  from  a  city 
directory  where  Hanford  resided.  To  his  surprise,  he  discovered 
that  Hanford's  residence  was  on  the  same  street  as  his  own  into 
which  he  had  removed  shortly  prior  to  that  date,  and  that  it 
was  within  four  blocks  of  his  own  house.  Coming  out  of  the 
livery  stable,  where  he  had  found  the  directory,  he  met  the  car 
riage  with  his  wife  and  brother  :  he  stopped  the  vehicle  and  sug 
gested  to  his  wife  and  brother  that  since  Hanford's  residence  was 
so  near  it  would  be  as  well  for  all  to  drive  there.  He  would  go 
in  and  secure  the  note ;  then  all  could  drive  down  town  together. 
He  entered  the  carriage  and  it  was  driven  to  Hanford's  residence. 
Arriving  there,  Mr.  Sullivan  and  his  brother  stepped  out  of  the 
carriage  leaving  his  wife  in  it.  He  passed  two  men,  one  of 
whom  had  a  hose  in  his  hand  sprinkling  a  grass  plat,  ascended 
the  house  steps,  and  enquired  for  Mr.  Hanford.  The  lady,  who 
proved  to  be  Mrs.  Hanford,  pointed  out  Mr.  Hanford  who  was 
one  of  the  two  men  Mr.  Sullivan  had  passed.  Mr.  Sullivan 
stepped  down  to  the  street  and  was  met  by  Hanford.  No  one 
heard  the  conversation  between  the  deceased  and  Sullivan  except 
the  latter  and  his  brother.  They  both  testified  that,  in  response 
to  Mr.  Sullivan's  query  of  Hanford  .as  to  whether  or  not  he  was 
the  author  of  the  letter,  Hanford  refused  to  say ;  that,  when 
pressed,  he  said,  "  I  will  neither  deny  nor  admit ; "  and  that, 
finally,  when  Sullivan  said  he  was  informed  by  Alderman  Van  Osdel 
that  he  was  the  author,  Hanford  replied :  "  Well  if  you  know, 
you  know."  Then,  Sullivan  produced  the  paper  containing  the 
extracts  he  had  made  from  the  anonymous  letter  and  read  it  to 
Hanford.  Mrs.  Hanford  testified  that  she  saw  Mr.  Sullivan 
"  holding  a  paper  in  his  hand."  She  also  testified  :  "  I  only  heard 
Mr.  Sullivan  speak  his  wife's  name.  I  heard  him  say,  'Mrs.  Sul 
livan.'  Those  were  the  only  words  I  heard."  Mr.  Sullivan  and 
his  brother  both  testify  that  he  told  Hanford  that  the  letter,  in 
so  far  as  it  referred  to  Mrs.  Sullivan,  was  untruthful ;  that  he 
specially  referred  to  the  statement  that  Mrs.  Sullivan's  influence 


552  LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

with  Cohan  was  so  great  that  she  had  secured  her  husband's 
appointment  ;  told  Hanford  it  was  false,  that  he  was  not  married 
when  appointed ;  that  his  wife  did  not  then  know  Colvin ;  that 
the  language  concerning  Mrs.  Sullivan  had  "  an  infamous  impli 
cation;"  that  he  came  to  get  from  him  a  letter  retracting  the 
charges  so  that  he  could  take  it  to  the  newspapers  ancl  secure 
the  suppression  of  the  letter;  that  unless  Hanford  gave  such  a 
letter  the  charges  would  be  spread  before  the  world  in  the  morn 
ing  papers;  that  Hanford  refused;  that  Sullivan  asked  what  he 
(Hanford)  would  think  of  Sullivan  if  he  had  made  false  accusa 
tions  against  him,  much  less  his  wife,  and  refused  to  aid  in  their 
suppression;  that  Hanford  still  refused;  that  Sullivan  said:  "Then 
you  are  a  dirty  dog."  Thereupon  the  men  came  to  blows. 

There  is  a  dispute  in  the  testimony  as  to  who  struck  first. 
McMullen  did  not  see,  but  says  that  when  he  turned  from  the 
carriage  Hanford  was  on  the  ground  and  Sullivan  was  on  top 
of  him.  Mrs.  Hanford  says  Sullivan  struck  first,  and  knocked 
her  husband  down.  The  two  Sullivans  testified  that  when  Han 
ford  was  called  a  dirty  dog  he  raised  his  hands  to  strike;  and 
his  hands  and  Sullivan's  were  raised  almost  simultaneously;  that 
the  men  fell,  Sullivan  being  on  top,  on  the  wet  plat.  From  this 
point  there  is  substantially  no  disagreement  as  to  the  facts.. 

Indeed,  so  favorable  to  the  defense  was  the  testimony  of 
David  McMullen,  who  from  that  point  became  one  of  the  lead 
ing  parties  in  the  quarrel  and  who  was  a  friend  of  Hanford  and 
an  enemy  of  Sullivan,  that  McMullen's  cross  examination  in  the 
second  trial  was  limited  to  his  age  and  weight.  He  swore  he  was 
thirty  years  old,  weighed  "about  175  to  180  pounds,"  and  was 
in  perfect  health.  His  statement  as  to  his  own  conduct  was  cor 
roborated  by  all  who  saw  it.  He  swore  that  when  the  two  men 
were  down  he  seized  Sullivan,  and  continued  as  follows:  "I  put 
my  right  arm  around  Mr.  Sullivan's  neck  and  caught  him  this  way 
[indicating]  with  my  arm  and  took  hold  of  his  left  hand  with 
my  left  hand  and  jerked  him  away.  Mr.  Sullivan  resisted  some 
what — struggled.  He  didn't  offer  to  strike  me.  He  simply  strug 
gled  to  get  away.  I  had  hold  of  him  and  just  kind  of  threw 
him  around  that  way  [indicating]."  In  cross-examination  at 
the  first  trial,  McMullen  said,  "  Yes,  the  more  he  [Sullivan]  tried 
to  get  away  the  tighter  I  choked  him."  While  Sullivan  was 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  553 

thus  held  by  McMullen,  who  swore  that  he  never  saw  Sullivan 
before  and  they  did  not  know  each  other,  Hanford  arose.  Mr. 
G.  B.  Dunham,  a  ship  chandler,  a  neighbor  of  Hanford  and 
friend  of  McMullen,  swore  that  he  had  his  child  in  a  baby  car 
riage  on  the  street,  saw  the  quarrel,  put  the  child  safely  some 
distance  away  and  coming  over  asked:  "What  does  this  mean?" 
At  the  same  time  he  took  hold  of  Hanford's  left  hand.  Hanford 
was  knocked  down.  "  He  got  up  very  quickly  and  I  took  hold 
of  his  arm  again  and  he  made  a  pass  then  with  his  right  hand. 
He  struck  some  one.  Whom  he  struck  I  did  not  see.  The 
report  of  the  blow  I  heard  like  that,  [indicating  by  striking  the 
palm  of  his  left  hand  with  his  clenched  right  hand]  as  it  was 
made  by  striking  some  one's  flesh."  After  that  he  describes 
Hanford  as  being  "with  his  hand  raised  and  his  fist  clenched 
apparently  poising  himself  for  another  blow."  The  testimony  of 
all  the  witnesses  agrees  that  it  could  not  have  been  Mr.  Sullivan 
who  was  struck.  McMullen  standing  behind  him  was  holding 
him  by  the  neck  and  left  hand  and  they  were  about  six  feet 
away  from  Hanford.  He  was  not  struck.  Mrs.  Sullivan,  in  her 
statement  before  the  coroner's  jury,  stated  that  she  was  struck 
in  the  face  by  Hanford, having  got  out  of  the  carriage  as  soon  as 
she  saw  there  was  a  quarrel,  for  the  purpose  of  stopping  it, 
exclaiming  to  her  husband:  "Do  not  hurt  him,  Aleck.  Do 
not  get  into  a  street  quarrel."  Mrs.  Sullivan  was  offered  as  a 
witness  by  the  defence,  but  the  prosecution  objected  and,  under 
the  rules,  the  Court  refused  to  permit  her  to  testify.  Flor 
ence  Sullivan  swore  that  Hanford  struck  Mrs.  .Sullivan. 
Rudolph  Rissmann,  a  German,  who  was  passing  by  with  his 
wife  and  his  neice,  testified  that  he  saw  a  man  strike  a  lady 
and  exclaimed  to  his  wife:  "My  God,  they  are  striking  a 
lady!"  He  ran  to  the  scene  falling  over  a  fire  hydrant  on 
the  road.  Before  he  could  arise  he  heard  the  shot.  When 
he  arrived  he  saw  that  Mrs.  Sullivan  [whom  he  identified 
before  the  coroner's  jury]  was  the  person  who  had  been 
struck  and  that  it  was  Hanford  who  had  struck  her.  He 
helped  to  carry  Hanford  into  his  house.  None  of  the  parties 
knew  him.  He  was  directed  by  the  coroner  to  appear  at  the 
inquest.  George  Auer,  72  Goethe  Street,  Chicago,  private 
watchman  of  the  block  on  which  the  tragedy  occurred,  testi- 


554 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 


fied  that  Rissmann  helped  him  and  others  to  carry  Hanford 
in.  Mrs.  Mary  Rissmann  testified  that  her  husband  exclaimed 
that  some  one  was  striking  a  lady;  that  she  saw  the  clenched 
fist  falling,  but  could  not  see,  because  some  of  tlie  group 
obstructed  her  vision,  upon  whom  the  blow  fell.  Her  husband 
ran  to  the  place  and  on  the  road  fell  over  a  hydrant.  Miss 
Lillie  Marks  swore  that  she  was  with  the  Rissmanns,  her 
relatives;  that  from  where  she  stood  she  could  not  see  the 
striking;  but  she  saw  Rissmann  run  and  fall  over  the  hydrant. 
Dr.  W.  C.  Hunt,  testified  that  he  was  called  to  see  Mrs. 
Sullivan,  on  the  night  of  the  tragedy  and  found  a  bruise  on 
her  face  and  that  the  discoloration  following  it  lasted  several 
days.  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fernando  Jones,  Mrs.  Redmond  Prindi- 
ville,  Mrs.  Henry  Green,  Miss  Minerva  Green  and  others  tes 
tified,  that  they  saw  Mrs.  Sullivan  at  various  times  from 
within  an  hour  of  the  tragedy  until  four  or  five  days  there 
after  and  that  her  face  bore  the  marks  of  a  blow.  Those 
who  saw  her  the  first  night  described  the  mark  as  red  and 
swollen;  those  who  saw  her  later  described  it  as  being  discolored, 
as  a  bruise  following  a  blow  naturally  would  be. 

In  the  instructions  to  the  jury  prepared  by  the  State  in  the 
second  trial,  it  was  conceded  that  Hanford  had  struck  Mrs.  Sulli 
van,  but  the  State's  Attorney  said  Hanford  might  have  been 
dazed,  and  might  have  struck  her  unintentionally.  Mr.  Dunham's 
testimony  does  not  bear  out  the  accidental  theory,  but  if  it  were 
accidental,  the  impression  on  Sullivan's  mind  would  be  the  same. 
He  was  held  and  choked  by  a  man  'much  taller  than  himself, 
who  weighed  nearly  forty  pounds  more  than  he  then  did,  whom 
he  never  saw  before,  and  whom  he  found  with  Hanford.  His  sick 
wife,  the  victim  of  Hanford's  anonymous  slander,  exclaimed  that 
he  had  struck  her.  At  this  time  McMullen  testifies  that  Han 
ford  "turned  around  and  came  towards  us — Mr.  Sullivan  and 
myself.  He  was  reaching  towards  us.  He  got  loose  and  came 
around  like  this  [indicating];  Mr.  Sullivan  and  myself  stood  here 
[indicating.]  I  had  my  arm  still  around  his  [Sullivan's]  neck  and 
had  hold  of  him  with  my  left  hand;  and  just  as  Mr.  Hanford 
came  up  I  sort  of  threw  Sullivan  around  behind  me;  put  my 
left  hand  up  to  keep  them  apart,  and  just  as  I  did  that  the  pis 
tol  shot  was  fired."  If  McMullen  saw  that  it  was  necessary  to 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  555 

"keep  them  apart,"  who  was  the  aggressor?  Sullivan  was  held 
by  McMullen,  who  was  so  much  larger  and  stronger  than  Sulli 
van,  that  he  was  able,  as  he  swears,  to  'jerk'  and  'throw'  him 
around.  Sullivan's  position  compelled  the  termination  of  the 
struggle  so  far  as  he  was  concerned.  Hanford  'came  up'  and, 
'to  keep  them  apart,'  swears  McMullen,  'I  put  up  my  hand.' 

Mr.  Sullivan  testified  that  he  was  held,  precisely  as  McMullen 
admits;  that  McMullen  was  bending  him  back  and  choking  him; 
that  he  heard  his  wife  exclaim  that  she  was  struck  and  that 
Hanford  was  coming  towards  him  with  upraised  hand.  He  was 
helpless  to  protect  himself  in  any  other  way  and,  for  the  first 
time,  thought  of  his  revolver,  and,  with  his  right  hand, 
which  was  loose,  he  drew  it.  His  testimony  is  that  he  was 
so  held  that  he  could  not  and  did  not  take  aim  and  that  he 
had  no  distinct  recollection  of  even  cocking  it.  He  insisted, 
however,  that  McMullen  still  held  his  left  hand  and  was  choking 
him  with  his  right  arm.  The  manner  in  which  he  was  jerked 
and  thrown  around  by  McMullen  makes  it  extremely  difficult 
for  either  to  be  absolutely  accurate  as  to  the  second  when  Sulli 
van's  left  hand  was  released.  McMullen  says  'the  pistol  was 
fired,'  'just  as  I  did  that' — let  go  of  the  left  hand — and  sort  of 
threw  him  (Sullivan)  behind  me.  It  was  the  act  of  a  second  or 
less.  Whether  it  was  "just  as"  McMullen  let  go  of  the  left  hand  or 
just  after  is  not  very  material,  as  all  agree  that  McMullen 
continued  to  hold  Sullivan  by  the  neck  with  his  right  hand. 
Sullivan,  as  the  testimony  shows,  at  first  intended  to  go  to 
Hanford  alone.  It  was*  only  on  discovering  the  nearness  of 
Hanford's  residence  to  his  own  that  he  decided 'that  he  might 
as  well  ride  there  with  his  wife  and  brother  in  the  carriage 
which  they  had  procured  to  take  them  to  the  newspaper 
offices.  Had  he  intended  to  quarrel,  he  would  not  have  taken 
a  sick  wife  with  him.  Had  he  intended  to  shoot  Hanford,  he 
could  have  done  it  when  McMullen  stood  about  ten  feet  away 
from  them  with  his  back  towards  them.  But  why  had  he  a 
revolver?  Sullivan's  testimony  and  his  brother's  showed  that 
he  had  carried  the  revolver  since  he  lived  in  New  Mexico  and 
continued  the  habit  after  coming  to  Chicago,  where  he  was  for 
a  time  engaged  as  a  reporter  on  a  morning  paper.  R.  Par 
ish,  James  A.  Gates  and  Frank  Bronson  testified  that  they 


556  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

had  frequently  seen  the  revolver  on  his  person.  Dennis  K. 
Sullivan  (no  relative  of  Alexander)  testified  that  he  was  a 
detective  on  the  police  force  of  Detroit,  Mich.,  about 
twenty-four  years,  and  that  he  had  presented  the  revolver  to 
Alexander  Sullivan  twelve  or  thirteen  years  before  the  tragedy. 
The  following  instruction  was  given  on  this  subject. 

"The  jury  are  instructed  that  if  they  believe  from  the  evidence,  that 
Sullivan  had  a  pistol  upon  his  person  at  the  time  of  the  homicide,  and  it 
was  contrary  to  law  to  carry  such  pistol,  that  only  rendered  Sullivan  amen 
able  to  the  penalty  prescribed  by  the  statute  for  carrying  it,  and  if  the  jury 
believe  he  was  in  the  habit  of  carrying  a  pistol,  then  no  inference  of  mal 
ice  or  an  intention  to  kill  in  this  particular  case  can  be  drawn  from  the 
fact  that  at  the  time  of  the  homicide  he  had  the  pistol  upon  his  person." 

Extracts  from  the  anonymous  letter  mentioned  and  introduced 
were  as  follows: 

"The  rule  and  ruin  party  in  the  old  council  had  its  representative  ring 
in  the  bd.  Edn."  .  .  .  "That  this  ring  has  plotted  and  legislated  to  cripple 
the  schools  and  to  use  the  position  to  further  private  and  sectarian  [some 
word  intended  by  the  writer  to  be  inserted  here  was  apparently  omitted]  is 
a  matter  of  history."  .  .  .  "The  instigator  and  engineer-in-chief  of  all  devil 
try  connected  with  the  legislation  of  the  Board  is  Mrs.  Sullivan,  wife  of  the 
Sec.  of  Board  Pub.  Works.  Her  influence  with  Colvin  was  proven  by  her 
getting  Bailey  dismissed  and  her  husband  appointed  his  successor."  .  . 

"T.  J.  Bluthardt  has  shared  in  the  infamous  work  of  this  ring,  his  motive 
undoubtedly  being  to  aggrandize  himself  politically."  ....  "At  one  time  he 
planned  to  elect  a  male  Supt.  German,  but  was  warned  to  desist  by  Mrs. 
Sullivan  and  he  desisted."  .  .  .  "Bluthardt  by  his  voting  with  this  ring  in 
their  worst  schemes,  by  his  boasting  of  his  readiness  to  debauch  any  woman 
who  would  yield  to  him,  and  by  his  general  history  as  a  demagogue,  has 
proved  himself  entirely  unworthy  to  hold  any*  office  of  honor  or  trust,  cer 
tainly  for  an  office  which  involves  more  than  ever  need  to  be  surrounded 
with  purity  and  wisdom."  .  .  .  "Pitiable  spectacle  that  a  city  of  half  a  mil 
lion  people  cannot  find  enough  wise,  prudent,  hottest,  pure  men  who  need 
not  deliberate  in  a  closet,  or  with  one  particular  woman,  to  determine  what 
they  shall  do  or  not  do!" 

In  a  private  note  to  Van  Osdel,  accompanying  the  anonymous 
document,  Hanford  wrote:  "I  have  used  the  word  Catholic'  freely 
because  the  facts  demand  it — but  it  would  be  unwise  to  do  so 
in  canvassing  this  matter  in  Committee  or  council  because  the 
howl  of  persecution  would  be  heard  instantly.  Great  caution 
will  be  necessary  to  conceal  your  sources  of  information  if  there 
is  much  of  a  struggle." 

In  his  testimony  Mr.  Sullivan  made  an  explanation  concerning 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  557 

that  portion  of  the  anonymous  letter  which  falsely  alleges  that 
he  was  appointed  to  office  through  his  wife's  influence  with 
Mayor  Colvin.  The  publishers  think  it  should  be  given  for  the 
information  of  our  readers  outside  of  Chicago.  He  said  his  rea 
son  for  saying  to  Hanford  that  the  language  of  that  false  state 
ment  had  "an  infamous  implication,"  was  based  on  the  attacks 
which  had  been  made  in  the  public  press  concerning  Mayor 
Colvin.  The  newspapers  had  attacked  Mr.  Colvin  severely  and 
the  Chicago  Times  had  published  articles  assailing  his  private 
character.  One  of  these  articles  was  entitled,  "Our  Bummer 
Mayor."  The  Times  was  then  demanding  that  the  city  authori 
ties  close  certain  vile  saloons,  which  were  called  concert  halls  and 
in  which  indecent  theatrical  exhibitions  were  given  by  lewd 
women ;  it  charged  that  Colvin  visited  these  places  himself,  went 
behind  the  scenes,  drank  with  the  unfortunate  women  and  took 
them  on  his  knees.  He  testified  that  whether  the  charges  were 
true  or  false  as  to  Mayor  Colvin,  they  had  been  published  in  an 
influential,  widely-circulated  journal;  and  that  he  believed  the 
writer  of  the  anonymous  letter,  who  must  have  had  knowledge 
of  these  public  charges,  intended  to  convey  "an  infamous  impli 
cation,"  as  he  had  said  to  Hanford,  when  he  read  the  extract  to 
him  and  told  him  how  false  and  infamous  it  \vas.  With  this  fact 
in  mind  and  the  language  concerning  Bluthardt  and  Hanford's 
repetition  of  the  word  "purity,"  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the 
impression  made  on  Mr.  Sullivan  as  to  the  opinion  he  desired  to 
convey  concerning  Mrs.  Sullivan.  If  he  desired  to  make  some  pro 
per,  honorable  exposure  of  wrong,  why  did  he  write  anonymously? 
Why  did  he  write  to  Van  Osdel  that  "great  caution  will  be  neces 
sary  to  conceal  your  sources  of  information  if  there  is  much  of  a 
struggle?"  "This  case,"  said  Mr.  Storrs,  when  it  was  submitted 
to  him,  "is  not  the  case  the  public  have  heard  about.  I  have 
been  told  by  every  one  that  Hanford  was  a  peaceable,  law-abiding 
man.  I  heard  Sullivan  described  as  a  big,  coarse,  Irish  brute. 
The  public  believe  that  Sullivan  hunted  out  a  quiet,  peaceable 
man  and  began  a  quarrel.  The  truth  when  ascertained  shows 
that  Hanford  wras  a  criminal ;  that  he  was  the  slanderer  of  his 
neighbor's  wife;  and  that  he  hid  himself  behind  the  veil  and  the 
supposed  protection  of  an  anonymous  letter  when  issuing  his  vile 
accusations.  It  shows  that  Hanford  was  given  an  opportunity, 


558  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

I 

not  to  make  complete  reparation  for  his  crime — because  he 
could  not  do  that — but  to  prevent  the  publication  of  his 
attack  and  that  he  refused  to  do  so;  it  shows  that  the  creat 
ure  who  was  capable  of  assailing  a  woman's  character  was 
able  to  strike  her  a  brutal  blow  while  her  husband  was  being 
held  by  his  friend ;  it  shows  that  in  place  of  being  the  puny, 
helpless  man  he  has  been  described  he  had  the  strength  to 
break  away  from  the  grasp  of  his  neighbor,  Mr.  Dunham,  who 
played  the  part  of  a  gentleman  and  a  peace-maker ;  it  shows 
that  after  striking  the  victim  of  his  anonymous  slander,  he  was 
rushing  angrily  at  her  pinioned  and  choked  husband ;  it  shows 
that  Sullivan  with  most  wonderful  moderation  and  self-control, 
approached  Hanford's  house  in  so  calm  a  manner  and  spoke 
so  courteously  to  Mrs.  Hanford  that — notwithstanding  the  keen 
instinct  of  a  wife  to  detect  trouble — she  had  no  idea  that  any 
trouble  was  threatened  or  that  his  visit  was  an  unfriendly  one; 
it  shows  that  Mrs.  Hanford  on  her  oath,  admits  that  Sullivan 
conducted  his  conversation  with  her  husband  in  a  tone  so  far 
removed  from  noise  or  anger,  so  void  of  threatening  gesture, 
that  she,  although  within  ten  feet  of  them,  except  once  when 
she  heard  the  words  '  Mrs.  Sullivan,'  never  caught  a  word 
understandingly ;  it  shows  that  Sullivan  was  a  gentleman  by 
instinct  and  education;  that  he  never  drank  a  glass  of  liquor 
in  his  life;  that,  in  place  of  being  a  bigot,  he  was  a  broad- 
minded  man;  that,  beginning  work  for  himself  at  the  age  of 
twelve,  he  became  a  competent  journalist ;  was  declared  by  the 
Board  of  Public  Works  to  be  the  best  secretary  it  ever  had; 
that  he  was  a  man  who  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions 
and  was  one  who,  when  too  young  to  vote  himself,  was  an 
abolitionist  and  took  the  stump  in  Michigan  in  favor  of  a  con 
stitutional  amendment  giving  the  negroes  the  right  of  suffrage. 
It  shows  that  those  who  had  known  him  from  boyhood  flocked 
to  Chicago,  at  their  own  expense,  to  bear  testimony  to  his 
good  character."  These  witnesses  included  the  venerable  Detroit 
merchant  whose  store  Sulliv»an  entered  when  a  lad  of  twelve, 
and  the  banker,  the  merchant,  the  business  men,  the  profes 
sional  men  of  Chicago.  In  place  of  being  considered  a  bigot, 
it  appears  that  his  four  bondsmen,  representing  not  only  great 
wealth  but  commercial  honor  and  social  character,  were  all 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  559 

protestants.  One  was  Commissioner  Louis  Wahl  of  the  Board 
of  Public  Works,  who  had  been  associated  with  Mr.  Sullivan 
daily  for  nearly  three  years.  Mr.  Wahl  is  a  leading  Chicago 
manufacturer.  The  late  venerable  Doctor  Dyer,  whose  name 
will  always  be  remembered  in  history  in  connection  with  the 
underground  railway  established  to  aid  colored  slaves  in  escaping 
from  bondage  in  the  South  to  freedom  in  Canada,  was  another. 
Fernando  Jones,  one  of  Chicago's  oldest  settlers  and  most 
reputable  citizens,  was  the  third;  and  the  late  George  Taylor, 
the  banker,  was  the  fourth.  "What  a  bigot,"  said  Mr.  Storrs, 
"Sullivan  must  have  been  to  make  such  friends!"  Mrs.  Sullivan 
was  charged  with  being  an  enemy  of  the  public  schools  of 
Detroit.  She  graduated  from  the  high  school  in  that  city; 
enjoyed  the  highest  distinction  in  it.  She  afterwards  tanght  in 
the  Detroit  public  schools.  Since  the  trial  Mrs.  Sullivan  has 
continued  to  receive  the  most  notable  compliments  from  the 
Alumni  of  the  Detroit  High  School,  having  several  times  been 
given  the  place  of  honor  in  their  anniversary  celebrations  and 
other  public  exercises.  The  facts  show  that  Mr.  Sullivan  did 
not  aid  in  securing  Doty's  election;  they  also  show  that  the 
only  correspondence  that  passed  between  them  was  one  letter 
from  Doty  to  Sullivan  asking  his  opinion  and  informing  him 
that  some  friends  in  Chicago  urged  him  to  come,  and  one 
letter  in  reply  from  Sullivan  to  Doty  in  which  he  urged  Doty 
not  to  come  because  of  the  insecurity  of  tenure  of  the  office 
and  because  he  predicted  that  all  official  salaries  must  neces 
sarily  be  reduced,  owing  to  the  City's  financial  embarrassments. 
(The  City  was  then  paying  its  debts  with  scrip,  the  legality  of 
which  was  questioned,  and,  within  six  months,  the  prediction 
was  verified  and  all  City  salaries  were  reduced  about  twenty- 
five  per  cent.)  The  facts  show  that  Duane  Doty,  who  was 
called  a  catholic,  is  not  and  never  was  a  catholic.  On  the 
contrary  he  was  reared  and  educated  a  protestant  by  his  pro- 
testant  parents  and  for  some  years  has  been  an  avowed  believer 
in  what  may  be  called  Mr.  Robert  Ingersoll's  church.  If  Doty 
could  aid  any  pope  it  would  be  "Pope  Bob,"  as  the  friends  of 
that  orator  affectionately  call  him,  and  not  the  Pope  of  Rome. 
The  testimony  shows  that  although  Alexander  Sullivan  was 
secretary  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  for  nearly  three  years 


560  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

prior  to  the  Hanford  tragedy  and,  therefore,  could  easily  have 
become  acquainted  with  the  members  of  the  Board  of  Educa 
tion,  the  following  gentlemen  swore  that  they  did  not  even 
know  him:  John  P.  Olinger,  David  A.  Coan,  Theo.  J.  Blut- 
hardt,  Adolph  Schoeninger,  Thomas  Wilce,  D.  S.  Covert,  Perry 
H.  Smith,  C.  J.  Hambleton.  There  were  only  fifteen  members 
in  the  Board.  The  following  members  of  the  Board  of  Educa 
tion  swore  that  they  never  even  knew,  or  were  spoken  to,  or 
written  to  by  Mrs.  Sullivan  concerning  school  government1 
appointment,  or  any  other  subject:  Perry  H.  Smith,  John  P. 
Olinger,  David  A.  Coan,  Theo.  J.  Bluthardt,  Adolph  Schoen 
inger,  Thomas  Wilce,  D.  S.  Covert,  George  C.  Clarke,  C.  J. 
Hambleton,  Ingwell  Oleson. 

The    memorandum    used    in    argument   of  the    evidence,  reads: 

"  It  will  be  observed  that  this  list  includes  Doctor  Bluthardt  concerning 
whom  Hanford  wrote  the  following  : 

"  'T.  J.  Bluthardt  has  shared  in  the  infamous  work  of  this  ring,  his  motive 
undoubtedly  being  to  aggrandize  himself  politically."  .  .  "  At  one  time  he 
planned  to  elect  a  male  Supt.  German,  but  was  warned  to  desist  by  Mrs. 
Sullivan  and  he  desisted."  .  .  .  "Bluthardt,  by  his  voting  with  this  ring  in 
their  worst  schemes,  by  his  boas.ting  of  his  readiness  to  debauch  any  woman 
who  would  yield  to  him,  and  by  his  general  history  as  a  demagogue,  has 
proved  himself  entirely  unworthy  to  hold  any  office  of  honor  or  trust,  cer 
tainly  for  an  office  which  involves  more  than  ever  need  to  be  surrounded 
with  purity  and  wisdom.' 

"Mr.  Geo.  C.  Clarke  swore  that  though  he  had  known  Mr.  Sullivan,  who 
had  compiled  statistics  at  his  request  for  circulation  among  insurance  com 
panies,  showing  Chicago's  improved  resources  for  fighting  fire,  Sullivan 
had  never  spoken  to  him  about  school  affairs. 

"Mr.  P.  A.  Hoyne  swore  that  he  knew  Sullivan,  and  on  one  occasion 
met  Mrs.  Sullivan  with  her  husband,  but  that  neither  of  them  had  ever 
spoken  to  him  about  school  affairs. 

"  Ingwell  Oleson  swore  that  he  was  once  introduced  to  Mr.  Sullivan  but 
never  had  any  acquaintance  with  him  beyond  that  and  had  never  been 
spoken  or  written  to  by  him  about  school  business  or  appointments. 

"Mr.  W.  K.  Sullivan,  a  member  and  President  of  the  Board  [a  promi 
nent  journalist,  no  relation  of  defendant  and  a  protestant]  swore  that  he 
had  known  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sullivan  about  five  years,  but  had  never  heard 
either  of  them  say  a  word  concerning  school  affairs,  and  had  never 
received  a  letter  from  either  on  any  subject  directly  or  indirectly  relating 
to  schools. 

"Mr.  John  C.  Richberg,  a  member  and  Ex-President  of  the  Board, 
swore  that  he  knew  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sullivan ;  that  Mr.  Sullivan  never  spoke 
or  wrote  to  him  about  school  affairs ;  that  Mrs.  Sullivan  had  once  spoken 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  561 

to  him  about  the  gross  injustice  of  reducing  the  salaries  of  the  lowest  sala 
ried  lady  teachers  twenty-five  per  cent.  They  were  not  paid  as  well  as 
servant  girls  she  said.  [Their  salaries  were  £450.]  She  urged  that  in  order 
to  comply  with  the  council's  direction  to  reduce  expenses  25  per  cent.,  the 
Board  of  Education  should  make  a  greater  reduction  on  the  salaries  of 
those  holding  the  better  paid  positions  and  less  than  25  per  cent.,  or,  if 
possible,  no  reduction  on  those  getting  only  £450  per  annum. 

"James  Goggin,  an  ex-member  and  attorney  of  the  Board,  swore  that  he 
knew  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Sullivan  very  well:  that  Mr.  Sullivan  never  to  his 
knowledge  interested  himself  in  school  affairs:  that  Mrs.  Sullivan  had  never 
made  a  request  of  him  but  once,  that  was  a  request  to  secure  an  appoint 
ment  as  teacher  for  a  girl  and  that  he  was  unable  to  comply  with  that 
request. 

"\V.  J.  English,  a  member  of  the  Board,  swore  that  he  knew  Mr.  and 
Mrs.  Sullivan ;  that  neither  of  them  ever  attempted  to  his  knowledge  to 
influence  the  affairs  of  the  school  Board  in  any  manner  on  any  subject. 

"Mayor  Colvin  swore  that  he  never  saw  Mrs.  Sullivan  but  twice  in  his 
life.  On  both  of  these  occasions  she  was  with  her  husband.  Neither  Mr. 
or  Mrs.  Sullivan  ever  made  a  request  of  him  concerning  the  public  schools 
or  school  affairs  or  any  subject  pertaining  to  the  Board  of  Education.  He 
never  spoke  to  Mrs.  Sullivan,  except  on  these  two  occasions  or  communi 
cated  with  her  or  received  any  communication  from  her  on  any  subject 
whatever.  Mr.  Sullivan  was  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Public  Works  and 
had  official  relations  with  him  constantly  but  never  made  a  request  of  him 
concerning  the  Board  of  Education  or  sch'ool  affairs." 

Speaking  of  the  relative  sizes  of  the  two  men — Sullivan  and 
Hanford,  Mr.  Storrs  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  differ 
ence  was  nothing  like  what  the  public  had  been  led  to  believe. 
Hanford  was  described  as  a  puny,  sickly  man,  Sullivan  as  a 
giant.  At  the  time  of  the  tragedy  Sullivan  weighed  140  pounds. 
He  had  not  been  away  from  his  duties  as  secretary  of  the 
Board  of  Public  Works  for  a  day  during  the  entire  preceding 
year.  He  was  one  of  the  busiest  men  in  the  city  departments 
and  was  at  work  as  usual,  without  having  an  hour's  vacation 
during  the  hot  summer.  The  testimony  of  Mrs.  Hanford  was 
that  her  husband  weighed  "from  125  to  135  pounds  according 
to  the  season  of  the  year;  in  the  Winter  he  weighed  135." 
"  But,"  added  Mr.  Storrs,  "The  struggle  which  ended  in  the 
tragedy,  was  not  between  Sullivan  and  a  man  weighing  a  little 
less  than  he  did.  It  was  between  Sullivan,  on  the  one  side,  and 
one  man  [Hanford]  and  another  man  [McMullen],  who  weighed 
1/5  to  1 80  pounds  according  to  his  own  testimony,  and  who 
swore  he  was  able  to  4jerk'  Sullivan  around  as  he  pleased." 
36 


562  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Shepard  Johnson,  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Education,  testified 
that  during  the  year  preceding  the  tragedy  Hanford  had  not  lost 
a  day  because  of  sickness.  He  said  that  under  the  rules  of 
the  Board  he  [Hanford]  made  his  own  returns  of  his  attendance 
in  a  report  to  the  witness  ;  that  Hanford  would  have  been  com 
pelled  to  report  any  absence  for  sickness  or  any  other  cause 
which  amounted  to  as  much  as  a  half  a  day ;  that  there  was 
no  such  report,  and  no  loss  of  time  whatever  by  Hanford 
during  the  entire  year.  While  Hanford's  cowardice  and  moral 
turpitude  were  commented  on  by  other  counsel,  it  was  Mr. 
Storrs  who  insisted  that  he  must  be  pronounced  a  criminal 
under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  so  he  was.  "It 
must,"  said  Storrs,  "  go  on  the  judicial  records  of  this  State 
that  Francis  Hanford  was  not  an  innocent  man;  that  he  was 
a  criminal  when  he  was  shot;  and  that  he  was  guilty  of  a 
most  cowardly  and  detestable  crime." 

The  following  instruction  written  by  Mr.  Storrs — in  Illinois 
the  Courts  are  obliged  to  instruct  the  jury  in  writing  and  are 
not  permitted  to  deliver  oral  charges  as  in  some  other  States 
—was  given  by  the  Court,  without  the  change  of  a  letter: 

"If  the  jury  believe  from  the  evidence  that  Hanford  wrote  the  article 
offered  in  evidence  in  this  case,  in  which  he  made  a  false  and  malicious 
attack  upon  the  character  of  Mrs.  Sullivan,  and  afterwards  struck  Mrs. 
Sullivan,  the  jury  have  the  right  to  consider  the  feelings  of  malice  which 
actuated  Hanford,  and  Sullivan  had  a  right  to  consider  them  in  estimating 
the  degree  of  danger  in  which  either  he  or  his  wife  was  placed. 

"If  the  jury  believe  from  the  evidence  in  this  case,  that  the  charges  and 
statements  in  the  article  read  in  evidence  in  this  case,  so  far  as  the  same 
relate  to  Mrs.  Sullivan,  were  false,  then  the  law  presumes  them  to  have 
been  malicious.  The  jury  are  further  instructed  that  in  the  absence  of 
any  proof  showing,  or  tending  to  show  the  truth  of  the  charges,  they  are 
bound  to  find  them  both  false  and  malicious.  It  was  the  privilege  of  the 
prosecution,  as  tending  to  show  the  absence  of  malice  in  the  author  of 
that  article,  to  introduce  proof  that  it  was  based  upon  information  which 
he  had  received  from  others  and  in  the  absence  of  such  proof  the  jury  are 
bound  to  find,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  that  those  charges  were  manufactured, 
and  were  made  in  the  absence  of  any  proof  whatsoever,  or  of  any  infor 
mation  upon  which  to  base  them.  The  publication  of  such  charges  by 
sending  them  to  other  parties  to  be  read,  or  by  printing  them  in  the  news 
papers,  is  by  the  laws  of  this  state  a  criminal  offense :  and  if  the  jury 
believe,  from  the  evidence  in  this  case,  that  Hanford  was  the  author  of 
that  article,  and  he  sent  it  to  Van  Osdel  for  the  purpose  of  having  it  made 
public,  then  Hanford  was  guilty  of  an  offence  made  criminal  by  the  laws 


THE    TRIAL    OF    ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  563 

of  this  State.  It  was  the  clear  legal  right  and  it  was  the  duty  of  Sullivan 
to  defend  his  wife  against  those  charges:  it  was  his  right  and  it  was  his 
duty  to,  if  possible,  suppress  their  publication  and  to  demand  from  their 
author  an  explanation  or  a  retraction ;  and  if  the  jury  believe  from  all  the 
evidence  in  this  case,  that  Sullivan,  his  wife  and  brother  visited  Hanford 
for  the  purpose  of  convincing  him  that  he  was  mistaken  as  to  those  char 
ges,  and  of  procuring  from  him  such  a  retraction  as  would  secure  the  sup 
pression  of  their  publication  in  the  daily  papers,  then  the  jury  are  instructed 
that  such  purpose  was  not  only  lawful,  but  it  was  the  performance  of  a 
duty  which  Sullivan  owed  to  his  wife. 

"The  jury  are  further  instructed,  if  they  believe,  from  the  evidence  in 
this  case,  that,  upon  visiting  Hanford,  Sullivan  called  his  attention  to  a  por 
tion  of  the  objectionable  article  referred  to,  read  it  to  Hanford,  requested  a 
retraction  or  such  an  explanation  as  would  secure  its  suppression,  it  was 
the  duty  of  Hanford  to  make  the  retraction,  and  to  assist  in  the  suppression 
of  the  publication  of  the  article.  If  the  jury  believe  that,  after  being 
advised  of  the  facts,  Hanford  still  persisted  in  asserting  the  truth  of  those 
charges,  refused  to  give  any  retraction,  or  to  make  any  explanation  con 
cerning  them,  after  Sullivan  had  called  his  attention  to  an  alleged  infamous 
implication  against  his  wife,  contained  in  the  portion  of  the  article  read  to 
Hanford,  then  such  refusal  of  Hanford' s  was  a  reiteration  of  the  charge, 
and  was  an  admission  that  the  article  was  susceptible  of  the  infamous  impli 
cation  attached  to  it  by  Sullivan." 

On  the  night  of  Mr.  Sullivan's  acquittal,  the  jury  sent  word  by 
the  bailiff  in  charge  that  they  had  agreed — of  course,  no  message 
was  sent  as  to  what  was  the  verdict  while  waiting  for  the  Judge,  who 
had  gone  to  his  home  and  had  to  be  sent  for.  The  Times'  report 
of  this  anxious  interval  shows  how  clearly  Mr.  Storrs  divined  the 
result,  and  what  was  his  opinion  of  the  letter ;  said  the  Times  : 

"  Every  ear  was  strained  for  the  sound  of  the  Judge's  carriage,  and  at 
last  there  came  a  rumble  and  a  banging  of  doors,  which  caused  a  general 
turning  of  heads.  It  was  not  the  Judge,  but  Emery  A.  Storrs,  the  hero  of 
the  trial,  whose  reading  powers,  as  exhibited  in  the  reading  of  Hanford's 
letter  during  the  afternoon,  excel  those  of  any  professor  of  elocution  in  this 
city  or  elsewhere.  Mr.  Storrs  although  entirely  unacquainted  with  the 
result  of  the  agreement,  came  up  smiling  and  chaffed  away  with  that  happy 
mixture  of  wit  and  sarcasm  in  which  he  has  hardly  an  equal.  'The  man's 
acquitted,'  he  said  confidently.  'No  jury  of  decent  men  would  confine 
him  for  a  day  after  hearing  that  infamous  letter.'" 

After  another  half  hour,  the  judge  arrived  and  the  jury 
verified  the  brilliant  counsellor's  prediction.  They  returned  a  ver 
dict  of  not  guilty  and  it  soon  became  known  that  this  verdict 
was  reached  on  the  first  ballot. 


564  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

The  defendant,  Alexander  Sullivan,  immediately  after  his 
acquittal  continued  the  study  of  the  law — he  was  preparing  for 
admission  to  the  bar  when  the  tragedy  occured.  He  was  admit 
ted  in  1878.  He  has  been  for  nearly  seven  years  a  member  of 
the  law  firm  of  Windes  &  Sullivan,  Chicago.  His  partner  is  a 
Master  in  Chancery  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  Cook  County.  Mr. 
Sullivan  was  unanimously  elected  and  re-elected  President  of  the 
Irish-American  Council  of  Chicago,  a  body  composed  of  dele 
gates  from  the  forty-five  patriotic  and  benevolent  societies  of 
that  city.  He  made  the  arrangements  for  the  trip  of  the  Irish  leader, 
Mr.  Parnell,  through  the  Western  States,  when  Mr.  Parnell  visited 
this  country  in  company  with  the  Hon.  John  Dillon  and  the  Hon. 
Timothy  Healy,  and  he  accompanied  them  to  several  of  the  leading 
cities  they  visited.  In  1883,  at  Philadelphia,  he  was  elected  Presi 
dent  of  the  Irish  National  League  of  America.  He  was  unani 
mously  re-elected  at  Boston  in  1884,  but  declined  to  serve.  He  has 
spoken  in  behalf  of  the  League  in  nearly  all  the  large  cities  of  the 
Union.  During  the  last  presidential  election  he  was  a  very  active 
supporter  of  Mr.  Blaine  and  made  many  speeches  which  attracted 
national  attention.  Notable  among  these  wereohis  speeches  at  the 
Academy  of  Music  in  New  York  and  his  speech  in  Toledo,  Ohio. 

Mrs.  Sullivan,  the  wife,  wields  one  of  the  most  trenchant 
pens  in  the  land,  and  was  for  years  a  brilliant  Chicago 
journalist,  acting  for  the  daily  journals  both  as  an  editorial 
writer  and  as  literary  critic;  she  has  also  contributed  to  the 
magazines  and  is  the  author  of  many  special  articles  in  the 
American  reprint  of  the  Encyclopaedia  Brittanica. 

The  other  legal  participants  in  this  famous  trial,  included,  as 
has  been  stated,  Mr.  W.  W.  O'Brien,  who  was  well  known 
throughout  the  West,  having  run  once  for  congressman-at-large, 
for  Illinois,  in  opposition  to  John  A.  Logan.  Mr.  O'Brien 
departed  this  life  in  1885.  Charles  H.  Reid,  one  of  the  State's 
attorneys  at  the  first  trial — when  the  jury  stood  eleven  for, 
acquittal,  and  one  for  a  conviction  with  a  light  sentence  (in 
Illinois  the  jury  fix  the  sentence  and  could  have  made  it  as 
short  as  one  year),  is  a  practicing  lawyer  in  New  York 
City;  he  was  counsel  for  Guiteau,  the  assasin  of  President 
Garfield;  he  declared,  after  the  Sullivan  trial  that  he  would 
like  to  run  for  judge,  against  the  Hon.  W.  K.  McAllister, 


THE   TRIAL    OF   ALEXANDER    SULLIVAN.  565 

who  presided  at  the  trial,  and  against  whom  there  was  some 
clamor  at  the  time.  Mr.  Reid's  desire  was  gratified,  he  was 
nominated,  and  in  June,  1879,  when  the  votes  were  counted, 
it  \vas  found  that  Judge  McAllister's  majority  over  Mr.  Reid 
exceeded  eleven  thousand  votes.  In  1885,  Judge  McAllister 
was  re-elected  without  opposition,  and  for  nearly  six  years  has 
served  as  Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  State  of  Illinois. 
The  Appellate  Court  judges  in  Illinois  being  elected  by  the 
Supreme  Court  from  the  Judges  elected  by  the  people  to  the 
Circuit  bench.  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Moran,  who  was  one  of  Mr. 
Sullivan's  counsel,  was  elected  a  judge  of  the  Circuit  Court 
oi  Cook  County,  Illinois,  in  1879;  was  re-elected  in  1885, 
without  opposition;  is  now  an  associate  of  Judge  McAllister, 
in  the  First  District  of  the  Appellate  Court  of  Illinois,  having 
been  appointed,  by  the  Supreme  Court,  during  the  present  year. 
The  Hon.  Luthin  Laflin  Mills,  who  was  State's  Attorney  at 
the  second  trial,  is  now  practicing  at  the  Chicago  Bar,  rank 
ing  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  his  profession.  The  Hon. 
Leonard  Swett,  who  made  one  of  the  greatest  speeches  of  his 
life  in  opening  the  case,  on  behalf  of  the  defendant,  is  one 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Chicago  bar,  and  was  formerly  a  partner 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  at  Springfield.  Colonel  John  Van  Arman, 
has  practically  retired  from  practice  at  the  bar,  but  ranks  high 
for  great  ability  and  experience. 

Such   was   the   history   of  and   such   were    some   of    the    lead 
ing   participators    in   the   Sullivan   trial. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII. 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE. 

HISTORY  OF  THE  DOUGLAS-ROSE  TROUBLE — A  PLOT  AGAINST  AN  OLD  SOL 
DIER — DIVIDES  FIRST  A  SCHOOL,  THEN  A  STATE — THE  TRIAL  IN  THE 
COURTS — MR.  STORRS*  GREAT  ARGUMENT — A  SCIENTIFIC  FRAUD — THE 
RESULT. 

THERE  was  introduced  into  the  House  of  Representatives  of 
the  State  of  Michigan,   January    12,    1877,   and  concurred 
in    by  the   Senate,    one   week   later,   the   following   preamble  and 
resolutions  : 

"  Whereas,  A  defalcation,  extending  for  a  long  period  of  years,  and  em 
bracing  quite  a  large  sum  of  money,  has  been  discovered  in  the  manage 
ment  of  the  chemical  laboratory  of  the  State  University  ; 

"And  whereas,  The  Regents  of  the  University  in  their  "  statement  of  certain 
needs  of  the  University  of  Michigan,"  which  they  have  published  and 
placed  in  the  hands  of  the  members  of  the  Legislature,  have  invited,  and 
generously  offered  every  facility  for  the  most  thorough  and  exhaustive  in 
vestigation,  either  of  the  defalcation  itself,  or  of  their  mode  of  treating  it; 
therefore, 

"Resolved,  (the  Senate  concurring),  That  the  committees  on  the  Univer 
sity  of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  be  and  they  are  hereby 
instructed,  jointly  to  make  a  thorough  and  exhaustive  investigation  of  said 
defalcation  and  of  any  and  every  subject-matter  connected  therewith,  which 
in  their  judgment  may  require  investigation,  to  the  end  that  said  commit 
tees  may  report  to  their  respective  Houses  whether  any,  and  if  so  what  legis 
lation  is  needed,  and  that  said  committee  sit  with  open  doors ; 

"Resolved,  That  said  committees  have  leave  to  sit  during  the  sessions  of 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  and  be  empowered  to  administer 
oaths,  compel  the  attendance  of  persons  and  the  production  of  papers,  and  to 
employ  a  stenographer  to  take  and  transcribe  the  testimony  at  a  compensa 
tion  not  exceeding  ten  cents  per  folio;" 

The  joint   committee  entered    upon   the   task,    and  continued  in 
the  prosecution  of  it  for  more  than  two  months.     The  results  were 
grave  and   painful. 
566 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE.  567 

Dr.  Silas  H.  Douglass,  had  been  conspicuously  connected 
with  the  University  of  Michigan,  at  Ann  Arbor,  since  the  year 
1844;  he  was  reputed  wealthy,  and  figured  well  in  the  chief 
educational  circles  of  the  country.  The  chemical  laboratory  of 
the  university  was  established  in  1853,  and,  not  long  after,  the 
professor  of  chemistry  came  to  be  recognized  as  its  director. 
To  this  officer  was  committed,  either  tacitly  or  by  action  of 
the  Regents,  its  entire  management  subject  only  to  a  very  slight 
supervision.  To  him  was  entrusted  a  power  over  its  affairs 
with  which  even  the  Board  itself  did  not  seem  inclined  to  in 
terfere.  Director  Douglass  bought  and  sold  at  pleasure.  He 
sent  to  New  York,  or  Europe,  as  his  inclination  dictated.  He 
expended  money  in  traveling,  and  the  bill  was  never  challenged. 
He  would  make  a  report  in  June  or  October,  and  whether  ac 
curate  or  inaccurate,  it  passed  no  rigid  scrutiny.  In  some  cases, 
at  least,  the  reports  were  neither  examined  by  the  Regents  or 
passed  upon  at  all. 

It  was  to  avoid  such  dangers,  doubtless,  that  the  control  of 
the  University  was  at  a  very  early  day  placed  in  the  hands  of 
a  Board  of  Regents  which,  eventually,  was  made  elective  in 
1862.  Evidently,  the  intention  was  to  put  the  government  of 
what  has  rapidly  developed  into  a  great  educational  power  into 
the  control  of  skilled  minds  biased  by  no  other  official  relations ; 
and,  parenthetically  it  may  be  added,  that  the  acceptance  of  such 
high  trusts  has,  as  a  rule,  been  followed  by  faithful  performance 
of  every  duty,  though  rendered  gratuitously.  It  must  be  con 
fessed,  however,  that  for  years  grave  irregularities  were  permitted. 

Dr.  Douglass  undertook  important  work,  involving  the  expenditure 
of  thousands  of  dollars,  with  no  resolutions  of  the  Board  authoriz 
ing  him  so  to  do,  allowed  himself  a  certain  per  cent.,  and  took 
his  pay  out  of  such  funds  as  he  chose,  and  then  included  the' 
transactions  in  his  annual  report,  and  there  it  ended.  A  com 
mittee  was  appointed  by  the  Board  to  expend  a  large  appro 
priation  of  the  Legislature,  their  plans  were  made,  the  work 
contracted  for,  the  Director  pushed  all  aside,  expended  the  money, 
and  exceeded  the  appropriation  thousands  of  dollars,  and  the 
Board  did  not  even  protest.  The  laboratory  was  making  money, 
it  was  thought,  every  year,  and  yet  the  Director  was  charging 
interest  on  money  which  he  claimed  to  have  advanced,  and  the 


568  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Regents  quietly  paid  the  ten  per  cent,  interest  without  inquiring 
too  closely  whether  the  laboratory  was  always  in  funds  or  not. 
The  laboratory  was  always  in  funds.  A  surplus  was  on  hand 
every  year,  and  yet  the  Regents  allowed  during  years  covered 
by  this  investigating  committee  the  aggregate  amount  of  $926.88 
for  interest  on  what  was  claimed  as  advances  to  the  laboratory 
during  these  years.  The  Director  employed  assistants  from  time 
to  time,  who  were  responsible  to  him  alone,  except  so  far  as 
his  pay  by  the  Regents  established  relations  with  him.  In  this 
manner  was  Preston  B.  Rose  employed  the  third  day  of  April, 
1866.  The  Regents  did  not  employ  him  by  resolution,  as  their 
by-laws  required,  but  after  a  time  they  recognized  him  as  assist 
ant  in  the  chemical  laboratory.  The  Director,  however,  in  the 
meantime,  employed  him  as  clerk. 

For  many  years  no  account  book  of  any  kind  appears  to 
have  been  kept  in  the  laboratory.  Previous  to  1860  all  is 
unknown.  After  that  year  eacli  student  desiring  instruction  in 
the  chemical  laboratory  made  a  deposit  of  $10,  and  took  a 
ticket,  on  the  face  of  which  was  his  receipt  for  the  deposit. 
On  settling  his  account  at  the  close  of  his  term  in  the  labora 
tory,  the  student  placed  the  amount  paid  for  all  material  used 
on  the  back  of  the  card,  signed  his  name  and  turned  it  over 
to  the  Director,  to  be  used  as  a  voucher  in  his  settlement 
with  the  Regents.  A  ledger  was  also  used  in  which  the 
account  with  the  student  was  kept,  and  from  which  he  determined 
the  amount  to  be  entered  on  the  back  of  his  card,  which  he  turned 
over  to  the  Director. 

In  1866,  the  system  was  again  changed.  Stub-books  were 
substituted  for  cards  or  tickets.  These  provided  a  certificate 
and  a  stub  for  each  student.  Under  this  system  the  student 
made  his  deposit  of  $10,  which  was  entered  with  his  name 
'and  the  date  on  the  face  of  the  certificate  and  the  stub;  the 
certificate  was  torn  off,  signed  by  the  book-keeper,  and 
passed  over  to  the  student  as  his  receipt  for  the  deposit. 
The  stub  was  retained  in  the  book.  The  student  on  complet 
ing  his  course  settled  by  the  ledger,  certified  to  the  amount 
paid  on  the  back  of  his  certificate,  and  turned  it  over  to  be 
used  in  the  'same  manner  as  the  card  vouchers.  This  was  a 
full  settlement  with  the  student.  The  assistant  or  book-keeper 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE.  $69 

settled  with  the  Director  as  follows:  Once  a  month  or  oftener 
the  Director  and  assistant  would  examine  the  stub-book;  the 
assistant  would  turn  over  the  deposit  money  of  each  student, 
and  the  Director  would  mark  the  stub  with  his  name  or  one 
or  more  initials,  usually  only  a  letter  D.  The  vouchers  of 
students  who  had  finished  their  course  would  then  be  turned 
over  to  the  Director,  and  under  his  direction  a  red  line  would 
be  drawn  diagonally  across  the  stub  corresponding  to  the  cer 
tificate.  The  settlement  for  the  deposit  money  would  always 
precede  that  for  the  certificate.  The  final  settlement  would 
require  the  payment  to  the  Director  of  the  amount  on  the  back 
of  the  certificate,  made  less  by  the  deposit  on  its  face.  This 
and  other  improvements  in  the  system  of  accounting  in  the 
laboratory  were  introduced  by  recommendation  of  Mr.  Rose 
soon  after  entering  upon  his  duties  as  assistant. 

The  ledger  accounts  were  also  about  this  time  greatly  im 
proved.  Previous  to  1864  no  cash  payments  were  ever  entered 
in  the  ledger.  After  that,  the  first  deposit  was  frequently  en 
tered,  but  no  subsequent  payments  except  in  a  few  instances. 
But  after  Rose  assumed  charge  of  the  books,  the  accounts  were 
entered  in  full,  and  on  final  settlement  of  the  student  were 
properly  balanced.  The  system  was  lacking,  however,  and  at 
length  the  Regents  took  the  matter  in  hand,  and,  on  October 
15,  1875,  Passed  the  following  resolution: 

"  Resolved,  That  the  director  of  the  chemical  laboratory  shall,  in  future, 
present  quarterly  estimates  covering  all  probable  purchases,  that  all  moneys 
received  for  sale  of  chemicals  to  students  be  duly  accounted  for  and  paid 
quarterly  into  the  treasury ;  and  further,  that  duplicate  vouchers  be  pre 
sented,  as  in  all  other  departments,  covering  all  payments,  in  accordance 
with  the  existing  law." 

A  complete  revolution  was  thus  proposed  in  the  system  in 
vogue  in  the  laboratory.  All  vouchers  were  now  under  the 
scrutiny  of  many  persons,  and  each  transaction  was  reported  near 
the  time  of  its  occurrence.  No  moneys  were  left  in  the  hands 
of  the  Director,  except  for  a  brief  time,  and  irresponsible  pur 
chases  no  longer  tolerated.  The  whole  department  was  subjected 
to  rigid  scrutiny.  Only  three  days  from  the  passing  of  that  res 
olution,  Dr.  Douglas — as  he  testified — "  accidentally  found  "  a 
defalcation.  He  found  that  no  vouchers  had  been  turned  over  to 
him  by  Rose  for  students  who  had  finished  their  course.  His 


5/0  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

suspicions  being  aroused,  he  presented  Rose  with  four  names  of 
delinquent  students,  and  claimed  payment.  Three  of  these  were 
stubless  accounts,  and  one  had  a  corresponding  stub  signed  by 
himself  with  his  initial  D.  and  marked  with  a  red  line.  Protest 
ing  that  he  must  have  paid  these  accounts,  and  showing  Dr. 
Douglas  the  stub  thus  signed  and  marked,  Rose  weakly  paid 
then  again.  Thereupon,  Prof.  Prescott  and  President  Angell,  of 
the  University  faculty,  were  taken  to  the  private  residence  of 
Douglas,  and  told  that  Rose  had  virtually  acknowledged  his  guilt, 
had  made  out  and  certified  to  a  list  of  accounts  which  had  not  been 
rendered  to  him.  The  lists  were  placed  before  them  to  prove  it; 
the  ledger  was  also  produced,  showing  that  the  money  had  all 
gone  into  the  hands  of  Dr.  Rose ;  and  there  the  showing  ended. 
Then  came  the  calling  together  of  two  of  the  executive  committee 
of  the  Board,  who  entrusted  the  whole  matter  of  continuing  the 
investigation  to  those  who  had  thus  formed  an  opinion  of 
Rose's  guilt,  and  who,  guided  by  Dr.  Douglas,  conducted  it 
on  this  theory  until  a  defalcation  of  thousands  of  dollars  was 
traced,  as  they  alleged,  to  his  hands.  Acting  under  instructions 
of  his  attorney,  Rose  refused  any  such  investigation,  but  soon 
made  propositions  in  almost  every  possible  form  for  a  full  and 
final  investigation,  or  by  suit  in  the  court.  These  were  refused. 
The  exaction  of  a  payment  of  over  $600,  added  to  other  pay 
ments  amounting  to  $831.10,  besides  interest,  constitutes  another 
important  feature  of  these  proceedings.  Further  on,  a  deed  of 
all  the  property  Rose  possessed  was  demanded  and  given  at 
once.  Those  who  later  defended  him  pronounced  him  a  scoun 
drel,  and  those  who  formerly  honored  him  turned  away.  A 
few,  however,  still  doubted  his  guilt,  and  to  them  from  time  to 
time  he  confided  what  seemed  to  them  proof  of  innocence. 
They  commenced  a  complete  review  of  the  whole  case.  They 
appealed  to  the  Regents  for  a  full  and  final  hearing.  They  ap 
pealed  in  vain.  In  the  meantime  the  Board  of  Regents  had 
pursued  the  investigation.  A  committee  looked  over  the  work 
of  the  President,  Mr.  Bennett,  Mr.  Douglas,  and  Mr.  Knight, 
and  certified  to  its  correctness  in  the  Gilbert-Walker  report, 
made  December  21,  1875.  Against  the  conclusions  of  this  com 
mittee  Dr.  Rose  protested.  A  second  committee  was  appointed 
on  December  21,  1875,  immediately  after  a  vote  had  been 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE.  5/1 

taken  to  dismiss  Dr.  Rose  from  the  University,  to  "  investigate 
Dr.  Douglas'  accounts  with  the  University,"  who  made  a  report 
on  the  29th  of  March,  following.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that 
this  committee  employed  accomplished  accountants,  and  made 
the  most  searching  investigation  ever  made  by  the  Regents. 
Dr.  Douglas  was  with  this  committee  frequently, — Dr.  Rose 
never. 

The  defalcation  was  shown  by  this  committee  to  be  $3,000 
more  than  the  Gilbert-Walker  report. 

The  defalcation  not  being  traced  to  any  party  by  this 
examination,  it  was  left  to  another  committee  of  Regents,  who  re 
ported  June  19,  1876  holding  Dr.  Rose  responsible  for  $1,174,35. 
Rose,  and  his  friends,  offered  to  submit  his  case  to  the  Board,  but  it 
\vas  pushed  aside  and  friends  of  Douglas  suddenly  filed  a  bill  in  the 
Circuit  Court  in  Chancery  for  the  County  of  Washtenaw,  Michigan, 
which  alleged  (i)  that  from  June  28th,  1865,  to  December  2ist, 
1875,  "Rose  and  Douglas  were  both  salaried  agents  and 
employes  of  the  complainants  (the  Board  of  Regents),  each 
having  certain  duties  assigned  him  in  respect  to  the  laboratory, 
which  he  assumed  and  undertook  to  perform,"  and  that  "Rose 
was  by  a  like  appointment  as  Douglas  performing  certain 
duties;"  (2)  that  "Rose,  although  often  requested  so  to  do, 
has  hitherto  neglected  and  refused  to  account  with  the  com 
plainants  (Regents)  in  respect  to  the  laboratory  receipts  or  any 
of  the  matters  hereinbefore  mentioned,  and  although  the 
defendant  Douglas  has  been  at  all  times  ready  and  willing  to 
account,  and  has  accounted  with  respect  thereto  in  so  far  as 
it  has  been  in  his  power  so  to  do;  yet  no  complete  account 
has  been  found  practicable  without  an  accounting  with  the 
defendant  Rose  also;"  and  also  "that  the  said  Rose  fraudu 
lently  omitted  to  truly  credit  in  the  said  laboratory  ledger," 
etc.;  and  further,  "that  he  has  fraudulently  appropriated  the 
same  (certain  funds)  to  his  own  use;"  and  (3)  that  Rose  had  not 
only  fraudulently  appropriated  moneys,  but  "by  fraudulent  con 
trivances  and  misrepresentations"  had  induced  Douglas  to  pay 
over  and  account  to  the  Regents  moneys  which  he  has  fraudu 
lently  used.  The  bill  prayed  that  the  Court  find  what  amount 
Douglas  had  accounted  for  to  the  Regents,  which  he  had  not 
secured  from  defendant  Rose,  and  it  further  prayed  the  Court 


572  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

to  find  what  sum  might  be  in  Douglas'  hands  to  be  decreed 
an  orfset  against  what  the  University  owed  him.  The  whole 
theory  of  the  bill  being,  of  course,  that  Rose  was  a  rascal 
and  Douglas  an  innocent  man. 

It  was  at  this  point,  that  the  legislature  of  the  State  began 
the  investigation  of  what  had  gradually  spread  out  its  nastiness, 
and,  on  the  2/th  of  March,  1877,  the  joint  committee  sum 
marized  its  report  with  the  conclusions: 

"We  find  in  our  judgment  that  the  financial  affairs  of  the  University  were 
managed  in  a  very  unsystematic  manner  until  recently,  and  even  now  need 
some  improvements. 

"We  find  that  the  manner  in  which  the  business  of  the  chemical  laboratory 
was  conducted  was  faulty  and  irregular  to  a  surprising  degree. 

"Nor  can  we  withhold  the  opinion  that  the  Board  of  Regents  were  dere 
lict  in  the  important  obligation  of  carefully  watching  over  its  affairs  and 
guarding  it  from  fraud. 

"They  allowed  expenses  to  be  incurred  unreasonably  large  in  many 
instances,  and  expenditures  in  other  instances  utterly  preposterous  and 
uncalled  for. 

"They  permitted  dictation  and  control  almost  beyond  belief. 

"They  allowed  interest  on  money  which  could  never  have  been  advanced 
as  claimed  by  the  Director,  the  laboratory  having  always  been  in  funds. 

"Why  interest  was  ever  allowed  seems  a  profound  mystery. 

"They  allowed  the  Director  to  deceive  the  students  by  pretending  to  sell 
chemicals  and  apparatus  to  them  at  New  York  prices,  while  an  inspection 
of  the  ledger  shows  an  enormous  advance  on  such  prices. 

"It  was  assumed  that  the  laboratory  was  profitable  and  yielded  a  large 
income  to  the  University  without  foundation  in  fact. 

"The  accounts  rendered  by  the  Director  are  found  to  be  not  merely 
faulty,  but  incorrect  to  the  extent  of  thousands  of  dollars. 

"It  is  utterly  impossible  to  tell  whether  the  defalcation  traced  by  these 
investigations  is  the  only  one  that  has  occurred.  The  tables  herewith  pre 
sented  in  Exhibits  A,  B,  and  C,  appended  to  this  report,  are  highly  sug 
gestive  of  others,  to  say  the  least. 

"Your  committee  have  endeavored  to  trace  the  deficit  in  the  chemical 
laboratory  to  the  responsible  parties,  and  with  the  aid  of  the  accountant 
Tregaskis,  assisted  by  the  work  of  others,  we  reach  the  following:  The 
defalcation,  as  determined  by  the  books  and  papers  in  this  case,  is  15,797.17, 
to  which  should  be  added  the  accounts  of  Wells  and  Grant,  of  $30.65, 
which  was  paid  to  Rose  and  never  entered  upon  the  ledger,  making 
$5,827.82. 

"Of  this  amount  #3,349-73  is  made  up  of  missing  tickets  and  certificates 
having  a  corresponding  stub,  with  a  red  line  and  letter  D,  certified  by  Dr. 
Douglas  to  have  been  paid  to  him.  The  remaining  part  of  this  defalcation 
is  $2,478.09.  Of  thig  we  are  able  to  trace  to  our  satisfaction  $1,998.79  to 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE.  573 

the  same  hands  The  balance  of  $479.3°  }S  traced  to  the  hands  of  Dr. 
Rose.  Beyond  that  the  evidence  is  cloudy  and  conflicting.  It  is  claimed 
by  Rose  that  this  sum  coming  into  his  hands  during  a  period  of  eight  years 
was  paid  to  the  Director  in  the  following  manner: 

"i.  By  accounting  to  the  Director  for  moneys  received  from  students 
after  his  annual  reports  were  written,  and  which  he  never  reported. 

"2.  By  reporting  to  and  paying  over  to  the  Director  accounts  which  had 
been  settled  on  the  ledger,  but  which  had  been  overlooked  till  the  close  of 
the  year. 

"3.  By  paying  in  currency  dunng  two  years,  and  not  bank  checks,  thus 
having  no  means  of  showing  the  amounts  paid. 

"That  these  claims  of  Rose  have  great  plausibility  and  many  facts  also 
to  confirm  them,  is  plain.  The  testimony  of  Rose,  corroborated  as  it  is  by 
the  transactions  during  the  year  in  which  the  bank  checks  were  used,  and 
showing  that  the  accountings  of  Rose  to  the  Director  were  correct,  must 
certainly  have  great  weight. 

"No  effort  was  made  by  Dr.  Rose  to  explain  away  hie  responsibility  in 
the  accounts  of  Wells  and  Grant  except  by  explaining  that  these  accounts 
were  paid  at  his  house  in  connection  with  a  board  bill,  and  must  inadver 
tently  have  been  omitted  in  the  proper  accounting  next  made,  as  well  as 
from  the  ledger. 

"The  frank  manner  in  which  Rose  gave  his  testimony,  apparently  seeking 
to  cover  up  nothing,  powerfully  commends  his  statements  to  our  fullest 
credence. 

"On  the  other  hand,  the  vacillating,  disingenuous,  manner  of  Dr.  Doug 
las,  his  shameless  contradictions  and  prevarications,  as  well  as  his  contra 
dictions  of  proven  facts,  excited  in  us  no  little  pity  and  shame. 

"We  now  submit  the  testimony  in  this  case,  and  leave  to  this  Legisla 
ture  and  the  people  what  to  us  has  proved  a  source  of  great  anxiety,  care, 
and  labor. 

"In  conclusion,  we  may  be  allowed  to  express  the  firm  conviction  that 
this  unhappy  affair  will  be  properly  treated  by  those  who  have  the  care 
and  management  of  the  University  in  time  to  come,-  and  that,  taught  by 
this  unfortunate  experience,  they  will  exercise  all  needful  vigilance  in  the 
future. 

"We  also  firmly  trust  that  \v4ien  the  present  excitement  shall  have  passed 
away  and  this  matter  shall  be  fully  adjusted,  the  people  of  Michigan  will 
feel  no  less  regard  for  an  institution  which  in  one  generation  has  risen  to 
an  influence  so  commanding,  which  has  done  so  much  for  the  honor  of 
our  young  and  noble  State,  and  which  we  believe  will  still  go  on  in  its 
grand  and  noble  work  of  giving  the  broadest  culture,  the  noblest  enter 
prise  and  the  richest  benedictions  to  many  whom  it  may  attract  to  its 
instruction." 

Mr.  McArthur,  of  the  House  committee,  modified  this  report 
by  adding  for  himself: 

"I  concur  in  the  conclusions  generally  of  the  committee,  and  in  that 
portion  inculpating  Dr.  Douglas,  but  not  so  nearly  exonerating  Dr.  Rose." 


5/4  L1FE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

It  was  decided  to  prosecute  to  a  judgment  the  bill  named 
as  filed  in  the  court,  and,  having  been  properly  amended  and 
answered,  what  was  probably  one  of  the  most  intensely  con 
tested  trials  Michigan  courts  have  ever  experienced  began  on 
the  5th  of  July  and  ended  August  nth,  1877.  Mr.  Storrs  was 
retained  on  behalf  of  Preston  B.  Rose  by  Mr.  Rice  A.  Beal, 
a  wealthy  resident  of  Ann  Arbor,  to  whose  noble  aid,  finan 
cially  and  morally,  Rose  doubtless  owes  his  sweeping  victory 
and  Douglas  the  merited  conclusion  of  his  scheming. 

The  closing  argument,  given  by  Mr.  Storrs  through  the  days 
of  August  9,  10  and  11,  before  Judge  G.  M.  Huntington,  who 
presided,  cannot  be  well  shown  by  scanty  excerpts  such  as  its 
great  length  obliges.  He  himself  deemed  it  one  of  the  closest 
efforts  of  reason  he  ever  essayed.  Certainly,  it  can  no  more  be 
illustrated  by  bits  than  can  the  real  merits  of  this  complicated 
case  be  shown,  or  grasped,  by  a  compressed  statement.  A  cor 
respondent  of  the  Detroit  Post,  under  date  of  August  11,  1877, 
said: 

"To  say  that  Mr.  Storrs  made  a  fine  speech  does  not  do  him  justice. 
As  a  speech  it  was  grand;  as  a  plea  it  was  certainly  magnificent,  and  as 
an  argument  it  was  unanswerable,  and  carried  conviction  to  all  unbiased 
minds.  Nothing  short  of  a  verbatim  report  would  convey  an  adequate  idea 
of  its  force  and  beauty  and  finish." 

The  report  in  full  of  his  argument,  as  found  entire  among 
Mr.  Storrs'  literary  effects,  would  fill  a  good-sized  book.  It 
begins: 

"If  your  Honor  pleases,  after  the  great  length  of  time  which  the  trial  of 
this  case  has  already  consumed,  it  would,  perhaps,  be  deemed  in  order  to 
proffer  some  apologies  for  further  detaining  your  Honor  in  attempting  to 
discuss  the  immense  amount  of  details  in  the  presentation  of  which  we  have 
consumed  nearly  six  weeks.  But  the  magnitude  of  the  case — the  extreme 
seriousness  of  the  issues  which  it  involves  ;  the  widespread  interest  which 
attaches  to  it ;  the  fact  that  the  interests  of  a  great  University  are  more  or 
less  involved  in  it,  and  the  further  fact  that  the  reputations  of  two  men  are 
directly  involved  in  this  controversy,  admonish  me  that  apologies  on  such 
an  occasion  would  be  out  of  order.  I  therefore  have  no  apologies  to  make. 

"I  am  performing  simply  a  duty — a  duty  as  important  for  me  to  perform 
as  that  which  devolves  upon  your  Honor  ;  and  I  am  very  certain,  judging 
from  the  patient,  earnest  and  careful  attention  which  your  Honor  has  given 
this  complicated  case  through  these  long  weeks  past,  that  no  apology  from 
me  is  expected — none  is  required. 

"I  have  said  that  the  case  is  an  exceedingly  important  one.     The  amount 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE.  5/5 

of  money  which  is  involved  in  it,  if  that  were  all,  would  have  rendered  this 
great  consumption  of  public  and  private  time  inexcusable.  It  is  because 
there  are  deeper  and  broader  issues  inextricably  interwoven  in  it,  and  which 
will  not  be  put  down,  that  the  case  is  important.  It  is  because  an  attack 
most  solemn,  grave  and  serious  in  its  character  has  been  made  by  the 
pleadings  in  this  case  upon  the  reputation  of  one  whose  reputation  has  hith 
erto  stood  every  way  unsullied  and  unspotted.  It  is  because,  if  these 
charges  are  false  there  is  no  language  of  denunciation  sufficiently  vigorous 
fittingly  to  characterize  the  wickedness  and  atrocity  of  the  charge. 

"And  in  the  consideration  of  questions  of  this  class,  I  think  we,  as  law 
yers,  and  your  Honor,  as  Judge,  for  the  same  reason,  ought  to  be  proud 
of  that  noble  science  of  which  we  are  all  representatives.  Coming  before  a 
judge,  when  such  momentous  questions  are  presented,  no  matter  how  narrow 
and  limited  the  theater  seems  to  be,  it  seems  to  enlarge  with  the  magnitude 
of  the  great  subject  before  me  ;  the  judge,  himself,  no  matter  how  plain  in 
the  common  walks  of  life  he  may  be,  seems  clothed  with  the  sacred  attri 
butes  of  mercy  and  justice  at  the  same  time.  It  is  in  such  a  theater  and 
before  such  a  tribunal  that  the  lawyer  is  proud  to  practice.  I  propose  to 
undertake  to  convince  your  Honor  and  all  else  who  hear,  that  the  charge 
against  my  client  is  atrociously  wicked  and  false.  I  may  as  well  refer  here 
to  the  commentary  which  has  incessantly  been  made  through  this  case  with 
reference  to  public  opinion.  What  has  it  to  do  with  the  case?  and  where 
fore  have  any  allusions  been  made  to  it?  These  allusions  to  public  opinion 
are  made  for  a  purpose,  and  they  are  precisely  of  the  same  character  that 
they  would  be,  if  I  addressed  your  Honor  and  asked  you  to  give  credit  to 
the  story  which  Rose  told,  because  an  almost  unanimous  public  opinion  was 
in  his  favor.  Your  Honor  would  scout  and  repudiate  such  a  suggestion,  as 
you  ought.  Equally  unprofessional  and  equally  improper  is  the  statement 
so  persistently  made  by  the  counsel  for  Professor  Douglas  that  public  opinion 
stands  recorded  against  them,  in  order  that  your  Honor  may  not  go  with 
that  public  opinion,  but  may  be  brave  enough  to  defy  it,  and  reach  a  con 
clusion  favorable  to  their  client,  simply  because  universal  public  opinion 
has  condemned  and  convicted  him.  Allusion  has  been  made  again  and  again 
during  the  progress  of  this  case  to  the  large  number  of  people  who  have 
been  in  attendance  upon  this  trial.  Why  are  they  here?  Is  Rose  to  be 
punished  for  it?  Dr.  Rose  has  extended  no  invitations.  They  are  not  here 
as  his  guests.  And  I  say,  too,  that  when  courts  are  held  in  open  daylight; 
when  the  sunshine  streams  down  upon  their  every  proceeding,  it  is  all  the 
better  for  the  courts.  There  is  nothing  in  this  world  that  is  not  a  little 
better  for  being  watched ;  and  that  will  be  a  sad  and  a  sorry  day  for 
the  interests  of  purity  in  the  administration  of  justice  when  the  doors  of  the 
court-rooms  shall  be  closed,  and  its  proceedings  shall  be  in  secret,  behind 
the  door  or  in  a  corner." 

A  most  detailed  review  of  the  case  was  then  followed. 
The  counsel    for  Douglas  had  made    great  stress  upon  the  pay 
ment  of   money  by  Rose  to*  Douglas,  on  his  being    charged  with 


5/6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  failure  to  report  the  first  payments,  and  then  upon  his  execu 
tion  of  the  deed,  when  the  evidence  had  seemed  to  gather  about 
him.  Upon  this  point,  Mr.  Storrs  ably  remarked: 

"There  is  nothing  in  this  world  easier  than  afterthought.  There  is  nothing 
in  this  world  easier  than  that  supreme  judgment  that  looks  at  a  train  of 
circumstances  after  the  circumstances  have  all  occurred,  and  declares  '  I 
would  not  have  done  so  under  those  circumstances,  and  it  was  not  wise  to 
do  so  under  the  circumstances.'  There  is  nothing  easier,  and  nothing  which 
indicates  much  less  wisdom,  and  much  less  of  common  and  ordinary  jus 
tice,  not  to  say  humanity,  than  thus  to  take  any  portion  of  a  man's  career, 
and  judge  it  strictly  by  its  results,  and  apply  to  it  these  tests  and  circum 
stances  which  surround  us,  utterly  regardless  of  the  difference  between 
those  circumstances  and  those  in  which  the  party  was  situated  upon  whom 
we  are  passing  judgment.  It  is  very  easy  indeed  for  us  to  say,  and  for 
the  world  to  say — if  the  world  desires  to  say — that,  'had  we  been  innocent 
and  in  Rose's  place,  we  would  not  have  paid  that  £600  nor  have  executed 
the  deed.'  Let  us  not  be  too  sure  about  that.  As  a  lawyer  I  have  had  some 
experience  in  this  direction.  I  have  seen  brave  men,  and  pure  and  good 
men  pay  money  ;  I  have  known  them  to  pay  it  to  suppress  publicity  of  a 
charge  threatened  against  them,  for  which  there  was  no  earthly  foundation. 
There  is  not  a  lawyer  on  earth  who  has  ever  transacted  business  enough 
of  a  professional  character  to  entitle  him  to  the  name  of  a  lawyer,  whose 
experience  is  not  full  of  just  such  instances;  but  while  we  are  ready  with 
our  criticisms  of  Rose,  and  while  we  are  so  free  to  say  what  we  would 
have  done,  or  would  not  have  done  under  those  circumstances,  let  us 
remember  that  the  case  is  not  our  case  as  we  are  situated,  But  is  Rose  s 
case  as  he  was  situated.  It  is  a  wise  saying,  if  a  homely  one,  '  Put  your 
self  in  his  place.'  He  was  a  cripple;  his  little  home  was  all  he  had  in 
the  world,  and  that  he  had  paid  for,  giving  the  most  sacred  price  that  a 
man  ever  paid  for  anything  in  this  world — his  own  blood. 

"  He  had  been  carried  on  step  by  step,  not  knowing  whither  he  was 
going,  nor  why.  Paper  after  paper  had  been  extracted  from  him  ;  it  seemed 
to  him  when  this  demand  was  finally  made  that  he  was  absolutely  envi 
roned,  utterly  helpless,  and  without  proof.  He  was  ;  he  could  not  furnish 
a  scintilla  of  evidence  that  he  had  paid  a  dollar  of  these  moneys  demanded 
of  him.  Environed  in  the  web  which  had  artfully  been  woven  around  him, 
what  would  he  do?  In  the  name  of  Heaven  and  common  justice  what 
could  he  do?  To  refuse  was  to  lose  everything — reputation,  position,  all 
means  of  earning  a  living  for  those  who  were  dependent  upon  him.  To 
refuse,  the  future  was  as  black  as  night,  and  it  had  for  this  poor,  environed 
man  not  one  Single  ray  of  light  or  sunshine  in  it.  To  accede  was,  as  he 
reasoned,  and  he  did  not  reason  very  badly,  was  to  save  all  this.  And 
what  did  he  do?  Why,  he  acceded.  And  when  we  consider,  retracing 
our  steps  for  a  few  moments,  the  position  in  which  he  was  placed ;  when 
we  consider  that  days  and  weeks  had  been  devoted  to  the  purpose  of  trick 
ily  worming  evidences  from  him,  so  that  finally,  when  the  demand  was 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE.  577 

made,  a  refusal  of  the  demand  was  an  impossibility  ;  and  an  acceding  to 
the  demand  was  a  necessity.  All  the  evidence  which  is  sought  to  be  drawn 
from  the  fact  that  when  that  demand  was  finally  made  he  acceded  to  it, 
that  that  acceding  was  an  evidence  of  guilt,  falls  utterly  and  helplessly  to 
pieces,  and  if  it  proves  anything  in  this  world,  it  proves  nothing  more  nor 
less  than  the  wickedness  of  the  man  who  made  the  demand." 

That  portion  of  Mr.  Storrs'  argument  pertaining  to  the  ques 
tion  of  forgery  was  simply  masterful  reasoning  and  a  most  mag 
nificent  illustration  of  legal  logic.  It  consumed  the  whole  of  one 
day,  reveiwed  pro  and  con  every  scrap  of  evidence  relating  to 
Douglas'  denial  of  his  stub-signing,  and  evoked  at  times  breath 
less  silence,  only  to  be  broken  by  bursts  of  applause  which  the 
Court  did  not  seem  to  be  inclined  to  restrain.  One  of  the  coun 
sel  for  Douglas,  afterwards  spoke  of  it,  as  "unequaled  in  courts  of 
reason." 

Mr.  Storrs  closed  his  argument  by  a  review  of  Dr.  Douglas' 
connection  with  the  laboratory  case  from  the  beginning  to  the 
hour  of  trial,  showing  twenty-seven  instances  of  contradiction  in 
positions  he  had  assumed,  and  summing  up  as  follows: 

"  I  do  not  present  this  list  as  complete;  far  from  it.  But  under  such  a 
load  of  falsehood  as  this,  any  other  cause  would  have  long  ago  been  sunk 
far  out  of  sight.  And  could  the  counsel  for  Dr.  Douglas  have  piled  any 
thing  like  such  a  number  upon  Rose,  he  would  long  ago  have  been  driven 
from  the  country,  and  no  friend  could  have  been  found  so  close  that  he 
would  not  long  since  have  abandoned  him  and  his  defense.  His  evasions 
and  subterfuges,  his  statements  of  half  truths,  and  suppressions  of  truths,  it 
is  idle  to  attempt  to  set  forth,  for  they  would  fill  a  volume  and  sicken  the 
very  soul  in  their  rehearsal. 

"To  add  to  this  frightful  catalogue  still  other  evidences,  seems  useless 
labor;  but  awful  as  the  labor  is,  justice  and  truth  demand  that  it  should 
be  done.  Not  only  has  his  course  since  the  discovery  of  this  deficiency 
been  trailed  and  discolored  with  falsehood,  but  his  entire  career  with  the 
University,  which  so  long  trusted  him,  has  been  one  steady  and  unbroken 
history  of  deception  and  fraud. 

"Up  to  i868-'9  his  reports  had  all  been  itemized,  and  the  forfeited  accounts 
reported.  But  then  he  suddenly  ceased,  and  thenceforth  lumped  his  accounts, 
and  reports  in  aggregated  amounts,  and  omitted  to  report,  at  the  same  time, 
the  forfeited  accounts,  thus  rendering  the  way  for  fraud  easy,  and  thus 
involving  us  in  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  doubts  and  uncertainties  which  we  have 
been  compelled  to  meet,  and  which  we  have  found  it  so  difficult  to  solve.  Into 
these  dark  recesses  of  accounts  of  'sundry  persons'  does  he  run  all  questionable 
particulars  and  details,  and  under  the  convenient  cover  of  these  vague, 
unbusiness  like  and  dishonest  generalities  does  he  hide  himself  when  danger 
approaches.  There  is  no  better  rule  of  law  or  justice  than  the  one  which 

37 


5/8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

holds  the  party  responsible  for  all  uncertainties  which  he  has  himself  created. 

"Moreover,  it  was  during  these  years  that  the  largest  amount  of  these 
deficiencies  occurred,  and  it  is  a  curious  and  most  significant  commentary 
upon  his  course — a  course  which  he  upon  the  stand  confessed  himself  utterly 
unable  to  explain — that  when  he  ceased  to  report  in  detail,  and  began  to 
make  his  reports  in  lump,  he  ceased  to  report  forfeited  accounts  at  all. 

"  From  his  own  book,  now  in  evidence,  it  appears  that  his  balances  with 
the  University  were  forced  by  erasures  and  alterations,  by  general  and  con 
venient  sums  charged  as  commissions,  without  the  slightest  specification  of 
details ;  a  system  carrying  its  own  commentary  with  it ;  a  system  which  not 
only  permits  fraud,  but  invites  it;  a  system  so  full  of  suspicion  that  it  would 
not  be  tolerated  among  ordinary  business  men  an  hour. 

"  Holding  hundreds  and  thousands  of  dollars  in  his  hands,  belonging  to 
the  University,  which  he  used  as  his  own,  and  of  which  he  kept  no  separate 
account,  he  still,  as  his  books  show,  charges  the  University  hundreds  of 
dollars  as  interest  on  moneys  expended  by  him  for  the  University,  when  he 
held  at  the  very  time  its  funds  largely  in  excess  of  these  expenditures.  He 
seeks  to  excuse  and  explain  this  by  the  wretched  pretense  that  the  money 
thus  in  his  hands  was  held  subject  to  be  called  for  by  the  students,  when 
the  proof  now  is,  that  no  such  call  was  ever  made  on  him;  that,  of  the 
moneys  paid  to  him,  he  never  returned  a  dollar  to  the  student,  and  in  the 
course  of  the  business  could  not  possibly  have  been  called  upon  to  do  so. 

"  For  years  he  held  large  sums  of  moneys  as  forfeited  accounts  in  his 
hands,  which  he  never  reported  to  the  University,  and  which  he  never  yet 
has  reported ;  and  that  under  the  miserable  pretext  that  it  devolved  upon 
Rose  to  tell  him  when  the  proper  time  had  arrived  for  him  to  pay  the 
money  over,  and  admitting  that  if  Rose  had  never  told  him,  those  sums 
would  have  been  a  permanent  investment  in  his  hands. 

"His  reports  carry,  on  their  very  face,  the  evidence  of  his  manner  of 
dealing  with  the  University — altered  and  erased  until  they  are  hardly  recog 
nizable.  Many  of  them  now  show  no  footings,  or  only  incomplete  footings. 
Balances  have  not  been  struck,  and  they  are  to-day  in  a  condition  entirely 
inconsistent  with  honest  or  straightforward  transactions. 

"He  stands  convicted  of  having  changed  and  altered  his  own  books,  and 
of  having  mutilated  and  changed  the  records  of  the  University,  so  that  the 
evidence  which  they  furnished  against  him  should  be  destroyed.  His  own 
exhibits,  after  having  been  once  used  by  him  and  withdrawn,  are  presented 
on  another  occasion  mutilated  and  essentially  changed  ;  and  yet  he  asks  that 
the  records  which  he  now  presents  should  be  accepted  as  truth. 

"Never  was  destruction  more  signal  or  complete  than  Douglas  has  wrought 
upon  himself.  To  find  any  human  being  guilty  of  any  offense  on  the  testi 
mony  of  the  books  or  papers  of  a  man  whose  credibility  is  thus  ground  to 
powder,  would  not  be  injustice  ;  it  would  be  judicial  barbarism. 

"Against  Preston  B.  Rose  no  such  record  can  be  made.  From  a  most 
rigid  cross-examination,  covering  four  days,  he  came  out  absolutely  unscathed. 
Whenever  comparisons  were  made  between  his  testimony  on  former  occa 
sions  and  upon  this  trial,  the  agreement  between  them  was  perfect,  save  in 


THE  GREAT  ANN  ARBOR  CASE.  579 

a  single  instance,  where  the  testimony  delivered  by  him  before  the  Legisla 
tive  Committee  had,  as  was  shown  by  the  short-hand  reporter,  been  incor 
rectly  printed.  His  books  are  absolutely  correct,  and  challenge  and  defy 
criticism.  His  manner  upon  the  stand  was  admirable.  His  answers  were 
frank,  direct,  and  bore  the  impress  of  truth  with  them.  Is  it  to  be  won 
dered  at,  that  with  such  a  record  as  Silas  H.  Douglas  has  thus  made  for 
himself,  he  fears  to  be  tried  before  a  jury  in  the  county  or  in  the  State  in 
which  he  has  so  long  lived?  No  clamor  as  to  the  course  pursued  by  the 
defendant  Beal  will  avail  him;  and  it  is  but  common  justice  to  say  here 
and  now,  that  from  the  first  down  to  to-day,  the  course  pursued  by  Mr. 
Beal  in  this  controversy  has  been  such  as  to  challenge  and  it  will  receive, 
the  hearty  admiration  of  all  right-minded  and  justice-loving  men. 

"Those  graces  which  culture  gives  are  desirable,  it  is  true,  but  we  can 
well  spare  them,  rather  than  to  abate  one  jot  or  tittle  of  honest  admiration 
for  a  brave  deed,  such  as  the  championship  of  the  cause  of  the  poor 
against  the  rich,  of  the  weak  against  the  powerful,  assuredly  is. 

"  Public  opinion  may  indeed  be,  and  sometimes  is,  wrong,  but  it  is 
always  honest.  It  is  generally  nearer  the  truth,  and  always  more  honest, 
than  that  other  opinion,  organized  in  the  closet  or  in  the  drawing-room, 
whose  methods  are  devious,  whose  routes  are  subterranean,  and  whose  tri 
umphs  carry  no  laurels  with  them. 

"  I  feel  that  the  grave  duty  which  has  been  imposed  upon  me  as  counsel 
in  the  closing  of  this  case  has  not  been  performed  with  that  absolute  com 
pleteness  and  perfectness  which  the  seriousness  of  the  issue  demands;  but 
if  there  ever  was  a  case  where  I  have  reached  the  closing  scenes,  and 
have  felt  in  my  very  heart  that  the  interests  which  I  represent,  and  which 
I  stand  up  before  a  judge  to  present  as  an  advocate,  were  those  which 
conscience  sanctions,  and  which  justice  justifies — if  I  ever  had  such  a  case, 
that  case  is  this  case  ;  and  if  I  ever  had  such  a  client,  that  client  is  Pres 
ton  B.  Rose,  who  to-day  stands  at  the  bar  of  this  court,  asking  its  judg 
ment.  For  mercy,  your  Honor,  we  have  no  appeals  to  make.  We  deem 
it  necessary  to  make  no  appeals  to  anything  except  that  solid,  sound  judg 
ment,  which  acts  on  the  facts,  and  on  the  facts  alone.  We  appeal  ^simply 
to  that  judgment  which  is  the  'same  in  a  Chancellor  off  the  bench  that  it 
is  on  the  bench.  We  appeal  to  that  judgment  which,  in  the  ordinary 
affairs  of  life,  is  guided  by  the  teaching  of  human  experience,  and  is  some 
what  controlled  by  considerations  of  human  probabilities.  We  appeal  to 
these  same  tests  which  all  men  of  sound  judgment  and  proper  sense  of 
what  is  right  and  wrong  apply,  that  the  credibility  of  a  man  depends  upon 
the  naturalness  and  the  probability  of  the  story  which  he  relates. 

"There  is  nothing,  if  the  Court  pleases,  about  Dr.  Douglas,  or  his  case, 
there  is  nothing  about  the  counsel  who  surround  and  defend  him,  there  is 
nothing  about  the  friends  whom  he  has,  there  is  nothing  about  his  social 
position,  there  is  nothing  in  any  point  of  view  that  can  relieve  Dr.  Doug 
las  from  those  inexorable  rules  of  logic  and  law  that,  demonstrated  to  be 
wilfully  false  and  tricky  in  one  particular,  his  entire  case  shall  be  affected 
by  it.  It  is  on  this  evidence,  it  is  with  reference  to  it,  it  is  from  no  con- 


580  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

siderations  of  the  importance  of  this  case  as  the  public  may  deem  it  impor 
tant  that  we  make  our  appeal,  and  this  last  appeal  to  your  Honor  for  vin 
dication;  and  whatever  the  result  may  be,  come  weal  or  come  woe,  we  do  believe 
and  we  feel  that  it  is  so,  that  by  the  evidence  in  this  case,  Preston  B.  Rose  stands 
before  the  world,  so  far  as  the  effect  of  these  charges  is  concerned,  abso 
lutely  and  triumphantly  vindicated.  I  believe,  too,  that  as  he  takes  this, 
the  final  step  of  a  long  and  toilsome  journey  which  he  has  pursued,  that 
great  and  benign  figure  which  we  call  Justice  will  come  down  from  its 
serene  heights  and  its  glittering  eminences,  that  it  will  take  the  poor, 
frightened  subordinate  of  the  olden  times  by  the  hand,  it  will  cover  him 
with  its  shield,  and  it  will  protect  him  with  its  sword ;  it  will  lead  him 
safely  over  every  rocky  place,  past  every  difficult  defile,  and  when  those 
shining  gates  shall  at  last  open,  there  will  be  home,  and  wife,  and  chil 
dren,  thanking  God  for  his  sure  and  certain  deliverance." 

The  wish  expressed  in  this  splendid  peroration  was  realized. 


CHAPTER  XXIX. 


THE  LAW  OF  LIBEL. 

THE  GREAT  FIRE  OF  CHICAGO — MANUSCRIPT  OF  A  VALUABLE  TREATISE  DE 
STROYED — LECTURE  BASED  ON  THE  RECOLLECTIONS  OF  A  LOST]  BOOK — 
HISTORY  OF  THE  TRIUMPH  OF  JURIES  OVER  JUDGES— SOME  FAMOUS  LIBEL 
INSTANCES — MULTUM  IN  PARVO. 

THE  great  fire  of  Chicago  began  the  night  of  Sunday,  Oc 
tober  8,  1871.  Mr.  Storrs  had  been  trying  a  trespass 
case,  and  had  just  entered  upon  his  argument  for  the  defendant, 
which  he  expected  to  close  the  following  Monday.  Mrs.  Storrs 
was  in  New  York,  and  on  Saturday  received  a  telegram  from  her 
husband  in  something  like  these  words :  "  I  have  just  com 
menced  argument  in  the  Kimball  case.  Shall  close  Monday  and 
think  I  shall  be  able  to  start  Monday  or  Tuesday  night."  On 
Monday  morning,  at  the  breakfast  table,  she  was  informed  that 
Chicago  was  on  fire ;  and,  like  most  people  at  a  distance,  thought 
that  the  reports  were  exaggerated.  As  the  telegrams  came  in, 
"  Sherman  house  burned,"  "Court-house  burned,"  she  began  to 
realize  the  extent  of  the  calamity,  and  when  the  news  came  that 
the  Tribune  office  was  destroyed,  she  naturally  became  very  anx 
ious,  for  Mr.  Storrs'  office  was  as  that  time  across  the  street 
from  the  Tribune  office,  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Madison  and 
Dearborn  streets.  As  soon  as  Mr.  Storrs  could  get  a  message 
through  he  telegraphed  to  her,  "  Don't  come  home.  Office 
burned.  Fire  down  as  far  as  Van  Buren  street."  He  added  that 
General  Sheridan  was  blowing  up  buildings  to  stop  the  progress 
of  the  fire,  and  that  he  did  not  think  it  would  reach  as  far  as 
his  house.  He  afterwards  informed  her  that,  having  worked  late 
on  his  argument  in  the  Kimball  case,  he  had  slept  soundly  through 
the  night,  and  knew  nothing  about  the  alarming  extent  of  the 


582  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

fire  until  Monday  morning,  when  the  housemaid  informed  him 
that  the  fire,  which  he  had  heard  had  broken  out  on  the  west 
side  the  previous  evening,  had  now  spread  over  on  the  south 
side.  The  north  side  was  then  entirely  gone,  and  the  flames  were 
making  rapid  headway  in  a  southerly  direction.  Through  the 
energetic  measures  taken  by  General  Sheridan,  the  fire  was  stopped 
at  Van  Buren  street. 

Mr.  Storrs  did  not  sit  down  in  despondency,  but  the  morning 
after  the  burning  of  his  office,  he  turned  his  dining-room  on 
Michigan  Avenue  into  his  law  headquarters,  and  made  the  kitchen 
serve  the  purpose  of  a  dining-room  as  well;  and  from  the  base 
ment  window,  hung  out  a  board  with  his  name  on  it.  Not  long 
afterwards,  Colonel  John  Van  Arman,  who  had  a  large  house  in 
Park  Row,  where  he  yet  lives,  invited  Mr.  Storrs  to  join  him 
there,  as  being  nearer  the  business  centre,  and  they  continued  to 
practice  their  profession  there,  under  the  firm  name  of  Storrs  & 
Van  Arman,  until  the  Hawley  building  was  erected  on  the  same 
site  where  his  offices  had  stood  before,  opposite  the  Tribune.  He 
then  moved  back  there,  remaining  until  May,  1873,  when  he 
rented  the  offices  on  Washington  Street  which  he  continued  to 
occupy  for  twelve  years,  until  the  time  of  his  death. 

Mr.  Storrs  had  only  a  day  or  two  previous  to  the  great  fire 
taken  to  his  office  the  manuscript  of  an  elaborate  legal  treatise, 
arranged  for  publication  in  book  form  by  the  law-publishing 
house  of  Callaghan  &  Company,  upon  the  law  of  libel  and  slander. 
At  that  date,  there  was  no  really  good  American  text-work  on 
the  subject,  and,  taken  in  connection  with  the  author's  rising 
fame  and  forcible  style,  the  publishers  were  expecting  an  unusually 
saleable  book.  It  was  fully  written,  and  it  was  for  the  final 
revision  and  indexing  that  Mr.  Storrs  had  carried  the  manuscript 
to  his  office  where  it  perished  in  the  general  wreck.  Although  fre 
quently  urged  to  reconstruct  what  had  been  destroyed  he  never,  so  far 
as  is  known,  made  the  attempt,  but  in  a  lecture  before  the  Chicago 
Law  Institute,  March  24,  1877,  delivered  upon  very  sudden 
notice,  he  demonstrated  that  the  many  months  of  research  upon 
the  law  of  libel,  though  made  years  before,  were  not  wasted. 
The  lecture  illustrated,  also,  in  how  compact  and  clear  a  manner, 
he  could  trace  the  growth  and  workings  of  a  great  principle. 
The  lecture  was  as  follows: 


THE    LAW    OF    LIBEL.  583 

'•GENTLEMEN:  The  law  of  libel  as  it  is  now  understood  and  administered 
has  but  little  about  it  that  is  venerable.  In  its  present  condition  it  is  the 
result  of  a  long  and  bitter  contest  between  power  and  the  people,  between 
judges  and  juries.  The  people  and  the  juries  triumphed  in  that  contest, 
and  that  triumph  secured  the  freedom  of  the  press.  '  The  law  of  libel  as 
understood  and  administered  throughout  nearly  the  whole  of  the  eigh 
teenth  century  enabled  the  courts  of  law,  as  the  authorized  exponents  of 
morality  and  duty  to  the  government,  to  declare  any  writing  to  be  crimi 
nal.'  Viewing  this  question  in  an  exclusively  legal  point  of  view,  it  is  hardly 
possible  to  resist  the  inference  that  the  question  of  libel  or  no  libel  was  a 
question  for  the  court,  and  that  the  averment  of  the  malicious  intention  of 
the  publisher  was  an  averment  which  did  not  require  proof.  The  popular 
sentiment  which  found  its  expression  through  the  juries,  and  finally  through 
the  legislature,  was  undoubtedly  right  in  denouncing  the  existence  of  this 
power  in  the  courts  as  fatal  to  liberty. 

"Very  briefly  I  purpose  to  give  you  a  sketch  of  that  memorable  con 
test  between  juries  and  judges,  and  in  which  in  the  interests  of  civil  liberty 
and  the  freedom  of  the  press  the  former  so  signally  triumphed. 

"  From  its  begining  to  its  close  the  contest  was  one  between  the  govern 
ment  and  the  people.  The  first  notable  instance  of  this  conflict  occured 
during  the  administration  of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Hardwicke,  who  enunciated 
the  law  that  juries  in  cases  of  libel  were  merely  to  consider  questions  of 
fact  as  to  the  writing  or  the  inferences,  but  happily  the  juries  never  accepted 
Lord  Hardwicke's  reading  of  the  law. 

"The  presentation  of  this  great  issue  in  such  shape  as  to  attract  public 
attention  to  its  vital  consequence  was  reserved  for  Lord  Mansfield,  during 
the  reign  of  George  III.,  and  arose  in  the  prosecution  of  Woodfall,  for  the 
publication  of  a  letter  supposed  to  reflect  upon  his  majesty  the  king.  There 
was  in  that  case  no  doubt  as  to  the  publishing,  and  the  attempt  was  made 
to  persuade  the  jury  that  the  letter  was  not  libelous,  and  thus  the  great 
question  was  distinctly  presented,  whether  this  was  a  question  for  the  jury 
or  exclusively  for  the  court.  Lord  Mansfield  said :  '  All  the  jury  had  to 
consider  was  whether  the  defendant  had  published  the  letter  set  out  in  the 
information,  and  whether  the  innuendoes  imputing  a  particular  meaning  to 
particular  words,  as  that  'the  K.'  meant  his  majesty  King  George  III.,  but 
that  they  were  not  to  consider  whether  the  publication  was,  as  alleged  in 
the  information,  false  and  malicious,  these  being  mere  formal  words,  and 
that  whether  the  letter  -was  libelous  or  innocent  was  a  pure  question  of  law, 
upon  which  the  opinion  of  the  court  might  be  taken  by  a  demurrer  or  a 
motion  in  arrest  of  judgment.' 

"The  effect  of  this  decision  was  to  convict  the  accused,  and  then  compel 
him  to  take  his  chances  by  a  submission  of  the  real  question  of  libel  or 
no  libel  to  a  court  afterward. 

"The  jurors  were,  however,  disinclined  to  subscribe  to  Lord  Mansfield's 
rulings,  and  returned  a  verdict  'guilty  of  the  printing  aud  publishing  only* 
This  verdict  was  subsequently  set  aside,  and  Woodfall  was  secure. 

"An  information  had  also  been  filed  against  one  Miller  for  the    publication 


584  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

of  an  alleged  seditious  libel,  which  came  on  for  trial  before  Lord  Mansfield. 
In  that  case  he  very  solemnly  told  the  jury  that  the  question  for  their  de 
termination  was  whether  the  defendant  printed  and  published  a  paper  of  the 
tenor  and  meaning  charged  in  the  information,  and  that  they  had  nothing 
to  do  with  the  question  as  to  whether  the  paper  was  or  was  not  a  libel,  but 
that  if  they  believed  that  a  paper  of  the  tenor  and  meaning  charged  in  the 
information  had  in  part  been  published  by  the  defendant,  they  should  find 
a  verdict  of  guilty. 

"There  was  no  doubt  as  to  the  publication,  yet  so  strongly  did  public 
opinion  set  against  this  view  of  the  law,  that  the  jury  rendered  a  verdict  of 
not  guilty,  upon  which  many  thousand  people  in  a  procession  proceeded  to 
the  house  of  Lord  Mansfield,  proclaiming  the  verdict. 

"The  rulings  of  Lord  Mansfield  in  Woodfall's  case  were  made  the  topic  of 
discussion  in  the  House  of  Lords,  and  at  a  sitting  of  the  house  Lord  Camden 
presented  to  Lord  Mansfield  the  following  points  : 

"i.  Does  the  opinion  mean  to  declare  that  upon  the  general  issue  of  not 
guilty,  in  the  case  of  a  seditious  libel,  the  jury  have  no  right  by  law  to 
examine  the  innocence  or  criminality  of  the  paper  if  they  think  fit,  and  to 
form  their  verdict  upon  such  examination  ? 

"2.  Does  the  opinion  mean  to  declare  that  in  the  case  above  mentioned, 
where  the  jury  have  delivered  in  their  verdict  guilty,  this  verdict  has  found 
the  fact  only  and  not  the  law  ? 

"3.  Is  it  to  be  understood  by  this  opinion  that  if^the  jury  come  to  the  bar 
and  say  that  they  find  the  printing  and  publishing,  but  that  the  paper  is  no 
libel,  the  jury  are  to  be  taken  to  have  found  the  defendant  guilty  generally, 
and  the  verdict  must  be  so  entered  up? 

"4.  Whether  the  opinion  means  to  say  that  the  judge,  after  giving  his 
opinion  of  the  innocence  or  criminality  of  the  paper,  should  leave  the  con 
sideration  of  that  matter,  together  with  the  printing  and  publishing,  to  the 
jury,  such  a  discretion  would  be  contrary  to  law  ? 

"Lord  Mansfield  declined  the  discussion. 

"This  great  question  was  renewed  in  the  case  of  the  dean  of  St.  Asaph. 
Sir  William  Jones,  whose  loyalty  was  beyond  all  dispute,  and  who  stood 
intellectually  among  the  first  men  of  the  time,  had  written  a  tract  entitled 
'A  Dialogue  Between  a  Gentleman  and  a  Farmer,'  a  plea  in  very  mild 
terms  for  parliamentary  reform,  and  his  brother-in-law,  the  dean  of  St. 
Asaph,  had  recommended  it  to  a  Welsh  reform  society  and  caused  it  to  be 
reprinted. 

"Thereupon  an  indictment  was  preferred  against  the  dean  and  was  brought 
on  to  trial  before  Mr.  Justice  Briller.  The  defense  was  conducted  by  Erskine. 
The  court  said  to  the  jury  :  '  If  you  are  satisfied  that  the  defendant  did 
publish  this  pamphlet,  and  are  satisfied  as  to  the  truth  of  the  innuendoes,  you 
ought  in  point  of  law  to  find  him  guilty.'  Upon  the  return  of  the  jury  into 
court  the  following  remarkable  scene  occurred  (p.  165)  :  Erskine  moved  for 
a  new  trial,  referring  to  which  he  said  :  '  I  move  the  motion  from  no  hope 
of  success,  but  from  a  fixed  resolution  to  expose  to  public  contempt  the 
doctrines  fastened  upon  the  public  as  law  by  Lord  Chief  Justice  Mansfield, 


THE    LAW    OF    LIBEL.  $85 

and  to  excite  if  possible  the  attention  of  parliament  to  so  great  an  object 
of  national  freedom.' 

"The  motion  came  on  before  Lord  Mansfield  and  was  by  him  overruled, 
he  holding  that  the  question  of  libel  or  no  libel  was  exclusively  for  the 
court.  This  famous  cause  created  great  feeling  and  finally  resulted  in  the 
passage  of  what  has  since  been  known  as  Fox's  Libel  Bill,  declaring  that  on 
a  trial  for  libel  the  jury  in  their  verdict  should  have  the  right  to  take  into 
consideration  the  character  and  tendency  of  the  paper  alleged  to  be  libelous. 
This  famous  bill  became  a  law  in  1792,  eight  years  after  the  decision  in 
the  dean  of  St.  Asaph's  case  : 

"It  is  entitled.  'An  act  to  remove  doubts  suspecting  the  functions  of 
juries  in  cases  of  libel,'  and  it  enacts  that  the  jury  may  give  a  general 
verdict  of  guilty  or  not  guilty  upon  the  whole  matter  put  in  issue  upon  the 
indictment  or  information,  and  shall  not  be  required  or  directed  by  the 
court  or  judge  before  whom  it  shall  be  tried  to  find  the  defendant  guilty 
merely  on  the  proof  of  the  publication  of  the  paper  charged  to  be  a  libel 
and  of  the  sense  ascribed  to  the  same  in  the  indictment  or  information. 

"Provided  that  on  every  such  trial  the  court  or  judge  before  whom  it 
shall  be  tried  shall  according  to  their  discretion  give  their  opinion  and 
direction  to  the  jury  on  the  matter  in  issue  in  like  manner  as  in  other  crim 
inal  cases. 

"  But  the  victory  was  by  no  means  fully  won,  for  the  judges,  in  violation 
of  both  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  statute  found  methods  of  evading  it. 

"The  first  prominent  case  after  that  bill  became  a  law  was  a  prosecution 
for  libel  on  an  information  filed  against  the  proprietor  of  The  Morning 
Chronicle,  for  publishing  certain  resolutions  of  a  public  meeting  held  at 
Derby  in  favor  of  parliamentary  reform  and  against  abuses  in  the  govern 
ment.  The  case  was  tried  before  Lord  Chief  Justice  Kenyon,  and,  as  Lord 
Campbell  observes,  '  To  the  chief  justice's  shame,  it  must  be  recorded  that 
he  misconstrued  and  perverted  this  noble  law,  establishing  a  precedent  which 
was  followed  for  near  half  a  century,  to  the  manifest  grievance  of  the 
accused.'  Lord  Kenyon,  in  charging  the  jury,  said,  'I  am  bound  by  oath 
to  answer  that  I  think  this  paper  was  published  with  a  wicked,  malicious 
intent  to  vilify  the  government,  and  to  make  the  people  discontented  with 
the  constitution  under  which  they  live,'  and,  again,  'On  this  ground  I  con 
sider  it  a  gross  and  seditious  libel.' 

"But,  notwithstanding  all  this,  the  jury  found  a  verdict  of  'guilty  of 
publishing,  but  with  no  malicious  intent,'  and  being  told  that  this  verdict 
could  not  be  received,  after  sitting  up  all  night,  they  next  morning  returned 
a  verdict  of  'not  guilty.' 

"The  bad  precedent  thus  set  by  Lord  Kenyon  was  followed  by  much 
greater  men.  An  information  was  brought  in  the  year  1811  against  Leigh 
Hunt  for  publishing  an  article  against  the  excess  to  which  the  punishment 
of  flagellation  had  been  carried  in  the  army. 

"The  cause  was  tried  before  Lord  Ellenborough,  who  said  to  the  jury: 
'I  have  no  doubt  this  libel  has  been  published  with  the  intention  imputed 
to  it,  and  that  it  is  entitled  to  the  character  given  to  it  by  the  information.' 


586  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"Nevertheless,  to  the  unspeakable  mortification  of  the  judge,  the  jury 
found  a  verdict  of  'not  guilty.' 

"But  the  most  complete  triumph  of  the  juries  over  the  courts  was  witnessed 
in  the  famous  trials  of  Hone,  for  libel,  based  upon  parodies  of  a  political 
character. 

"Hone,  a  poor,  obscure,  and  threadbare  publisher,  defended  himself. 
His  first  trial  was  had  before  Mr.  Justice  Abbott,  and  resulted,  notwith 
standing  the  earnest  efforts  of  the  court  to  secure  a  conviction,  in  a  verdict 
of  not  guilty. 

"Lord  Ellenborough  determined  that  he  would  sit  upon  the  trial  of  the 
other  cases,  and  did  so,  and  nothing  in  the  whole  range  of  English  juris 
prudence  is  more  interesting  than  the  contest  between  the  obscure  book 
seller  and  the  great  judge,  at  whose  frown  the  entire  English  bar  would 
tremble. 

"  Daunted  but  not  altogether  discouraged,  Lord  Ellenborough  insisted  on 
putting  the  third  information  upon  trial,  which  resulted  in  a  verdict  of  'not 
guilty.'  The  poor  book-seller  had  triumphed,  and  here  ended  his  lordship's 
judicial  career. 

"Upon  the  second  trial  he  had  said  to  the  jury:  'I  will  deliver  to  you 
my  solemn  opinion,  as  I  am  required  by  act  of  parliament  to  do  under 
the  authority  of  that  act,  and  still  more  in  obedience  to  my  conscience 
and  my  God.  I  pronounce  it  to  be  a  most  impious  and  profane  libel' 

"  It  was  all  of' no  avail,  for  whatever  the  noble  lord's  solemn  opinion  might 
be,  the  jury  was  determined  that  there  should  be  in  England  free  expres 
sion  of  opinion  on  political  opinions,  and  they  manfully  met  the  chief  jus 
tice  with  their  verdict  of  'not  guilty.' 

"By  all  friends  of  a  free  press  everywhere  these  successive  verdicts  were 
regarded  as  great  victories. 

"As  complete  as  was  Hone's  triumph,  much  remained  to  be  done. 

"  The  doctrine  laid  down  by  Lord  Mansfield  in  Rex  vs.  Almon,  in  which 
he  held  that  a  sale  by  a  servant  was  prima  facie  evidence  of  a  publication 
by  the  master,  was,  during  the  reign  of  terror  upon  the  outbreak  of  the 
first  French  revolution,  grossly  perverted,  and  judges  refused  evidence  to 
prove  that  libelous  articles  had  been  inserted  in  newspapers  when  the  regis 
tered  proprietor  who  was  prima  facie  answerable,  was  not  only  lying  uncon 
sciously  sick  in  bed  at  the  time  of  the  publication  but  had  given  express 
orders  to  the  acting  editor  that  the  articles  should  not  be  admitted.  The 
occurrence  of  such  iniquity  is  forever  prevented  by  Lord  Campbell's  libel 
act,  which  saves  the  master  from  criminal  responsibility  for  an  unauthorized 
publication  by  the  servant. 

"Not  until  the  year  1845  could  the  truth  of  the  facts  stated  in  the  publi 
cation  be  inquired  into  in  the  English  courts,  which  was  expressly  permit 
ted  by  Lord  Campbell's  libel  bill  permitting  the  truth  to  be  given  in  evi 
dence  and  referring  it  to  the  jury  to  decide  whether  the  defendant  was  act 
uated  by  malice  or  by  a  desire  for  the  good  of  the  community. 

"  By  the  same  act, — and  this  I  submit  is  a  great  and  needed  improve 
ment  in  the  law — the  publisher  is  permitted  to  plead  that  the  libel  was 


THE    LAW    OF    LIBEL.  587 

published  without  actual  malice  or  gross  negligence,  and  that  at  the  earli 
est  opportunity,  and  before  action,  he  published  a  full  apology  in  his  own 
newspaper,  or  if  that  were  published  at  a  longer  interval  than  a  week,  in 
some  paper  selected  by  the  injured  person,  and  that  he  had  paid  into  court 
such  sums  as  secured  a  fair  compensation  for  the  injury. 

"I  venture  the  suggestion  that  a  statute  of  a  similar  character  would  be 
well  here.  It  would  protect  the  publisher  against  suits  brought  for  merely 
money  purposes,  and  prompted  by  mercenary  motives.  It  would  furnish  a 
sufficient  protection  to  those  injured  by  such  publications.  It  would  remove 
the  shame  of  inflicting  upon  a  publisher,  absolutely  guiltless  as  far  as  mali 
cious  intent  was  concerned,  of  any  offense  whatever,  a  penalty  amounting 
in  some  instances  to  a  fortune,  and  that  too  where  the  actual  injury  suffered 
had  been  trifling.  In  short,  such  a  law  would  protect  both  parties — the 
injured  party  to  the  extent  of  recompensing  him  for  the  damages  actually 
sustained  by  him;  the  publisher  to  the  extent  of  protecting  him  against 
vexatious  and  expensive  litigation.  Great  changes  and  modifications  in  the 
law  of  libel  other  than  those  I  have  indicated,  have  been  worked  by  the 
silent  but  most  effective  agency  of  public  opinion. 

"The  doctrine  of  privileged  co.mmunication  has  been  greatly  extended, 
and  now  embraces  not  only  such  necessary  statements  as  men  may  make 
with  reference  to  the  character  of  their  servants  and  agents  in  the  prosecu 
tion  of  and  for  the  protection  of  their  own  interests,  the  publication  of  the 
proceedings  of  courts  of  justice  and  of  legislative  and  other  public  bodies, 
but  criticism  although  erroneous,  upon  public  men  and  public  measures, 
upon  literary  performances,  books,  pictures,  public  speeches — in  fact,  upon 
all  such  enterprises  as  appeal  to  the  public  for  support.  The  law  of  privi 
leges  as  now  held  does  not  require  infallibility  of  judgment,  it  exacts  merely 
honesty  of  purpose. 

"Gentlemen,  we  are  all  as  lawyers  peculiarly  interested  in  a  free  press,  and 
also  interested  in  preventing  the  prostitution  to  unworthy  purposes  of  the 
great  power  which  the  press  wields. 

"The  freedom  which  the  press  to-day  enjoys  has  been  won  after  hard  and 
bitter  contests.  But  little  of  this  freedom  \vas  voluntarily  given  to  it,  but 
it  wrested  it  after  hard-fought  battles  from  the  stern  grip  of  power. 

"Hardwicke,  Mansfield,  Kenyon,  Butler,  Tenterden,  Ellenborough,  all 
great  judges,  and,  as  the  world  went,  good  men,  could  not  conceive  that 
the  government  which  smiled  upon  and  ennobled  them  could  be  improved. 
Such  a  government  to  them  seemed  perfect,  and  any  criticism  upon  it  a 
crime.  They  did  not  seem  to  know  that  although  the  sun  shone  upon  them, 
there  were  millions  whose  hearts  and  homes  its  rays  never  reached.  Thus 
they  leagued  themselves  with  power,  and  the  great  reform  worked  its  way 
upward  ;  it  did  not  come  from  the  great  and  powerful  down  to  the  weak 
and  the  lowly,  but  from  those  beneath  to  those  above. 

"The  freedom  of  the  press  is  no  glittering,  barren  theory.  It  is  a  great 
vital  principle,  which  we  must  guard,  no  part  of  which  can  ever  be  sur 
rendered." 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
RESUMPTION  OF  SPECIE  PAYMENTS. 

MR.  STORKS  AT  SYCAMORE,  ILLINOIS,  1 878— EXPLODED  THEORIES  OF  FINANCE 
— DOES  INFLATION  INFLATE? — HISTORY  OF  PAPER  CURRENCY  INFLATION  IN 
THE  PAST — THE  PANIC  OF  1873  NOT  BROUGHT  ABOUT  BY  A  LACK  OF  CUR 
RENCY — PROPOSITION  TO  "RESTORE  CONFIDENCE"  BY  AN  ACT  OF  CONGRESS 
— FIAT  MONEY  A  PROJECT  OF  REPUDIATION — THE  PHILOSOPHER'S  STONE  A 
RATIONAL  SCHEME  COMPARED  WITH  IT — MR.  GLADSTONE'S  TRIBUTE  TO 
THE4  ACHIEVEMENTS  OF  AMERICA  IN  PAYING  HER  DEBT. 

THOSE  who  have  followed  Mr.  Storrs'  political  utterances  up 
to  this  point  will  have  seen  that  he  was  earnestly  in  favor 
of  preserving  the  national  honor  and  credit  by  paying  the  war 
debt  dollar  for  dollar,  and  that  he  was  vehemently  opposed  to 
the  Pendleton  scheme  of  making  the  government  bonds,  contracted 
for  in  gold,  redeemable  in  greenbacks  of  depreciated  value. 
Equally  sound  and  practical  was  he  in  opposing  the  theories  of 
those  who  thought  that  the  pressure  of  hard  times  was  owing  to 
the  scarcity  of  currency,  and  that  the  government  could  at  will 
relieve  this  pressure  by  printing  off  an  indefinite  number  of  bills 
and  labelling  them  money.  The  fiat  money  men  were  rampant 
in  1878,  when  Mr.  Storrs  delivered  at  Sycamore,  Illinois,  one  of 
the  ablest,  and  most  convincing  arguments  against  these  delusions 
that  was  ever  made.  This  speech  was  printed  and  circulated, 
and  did  great  service  in  keeping  the  Illinois  merchants  and 
farmers  true  to  their  convictions  on  this  important  question.  The 
business  men  of  Illinois  were  nearly  all  hard  money  men, — or, 
as  Mr.  Storrs  put  it,  "honest  money"  men;  but  the  clamorers 
for  fiat  money  were  making  converts,  and  this  address  was  timely, 
and  salutary  in  its  effects. 

Having    received    a    copy    of    this   very    lucid   address,    Judge 
Porter,  of  New  York,  wrote  Mr.  Storrs  as  follows: 

588 


RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE   PAYMENTS.  589 

"New  York,   Nov.  7,   1878. 
•«MY  DEAR  STORKS  : 

"  I  have  just  finished  a  second  reading  of  your  speech  at  Sycamore.  It 
is  simply  superb.  I  don't  know  what  that  word  was  invented  for,  except  to 
apply  to  just  such  a  masterpiece.  It  is  not  merely  splendid  in  its  rhetoric, 
and  iron-clad  in  its  logic,  but  it  opens  through  a  valley  of  thick  darkness  a 
path  of  clear,  shining  and  blazing  light. 

"With  hearty  thanks  and  congratulations, 
"Your  friend, 

"JOHN  K.  PORTER." 

To  Judge  Blodgett  he  sent  a  copy  of  this  address  with  a 
characteristic  note,  which  may  here  find  a  fitting  place: 

"MY  DEAR  JUDGE  : 

"  Never  having  had   any  money    I   have   always  had   a   desire   to   read 
about  it,  as  the  only  means  of  ever  acquiring  any  knowledge  of  that  subject. 
"The    result    of   my    readings    and   my   meditations   is   embodied   in   the 
speech  of  which  I  send  you  herewith  a  printed  copy. 

"Please  to  compare  my  theoretical  knowledge  of  money  with,  your  prac 
tical  experience  with  it.  "Yours  very  respectfully, 

"  EMERY  A  STORRS." 

From  this  valuable,  discussion  of  the  money  question  the 
following  extracts  are  made. 

"It  is  persistently  urged  by  the  advocates  of  the  new  theories  of  finance 
that  the  currency  has  been  contracted,  and  that  all  business  interests  have 
seriously  suffered  by  this  alleged  contraction.  If  the  amount  of  currency 
in  circulation  is  to  be  determined  by  its  purchasing  power,  the  state 
ment  is  grossly  untrue.  The  volume  of  currency  necessary  for  the  legiti 
mate  wants  of  business  is  determined,  not  by  the  number  of  pieces,  nor  the 
denominations  of  metal  in  circulation,  but  by  the  value  and  purchasing 
power  of  the  metal.  If  in  the  exercise  of  that  fiat  power,  which  it  is  now 
claimed  that  Congress  possesses,  it  had  during  the  war  issued  five  hundred 
million  pieces  of  iron  of  the  size  of  the  Eagle,  and  stamped  each  piece  ten  dol 
lars,  making  it  a  legal  tender  to  that  amount,  we  should  have  had  an  immense 
nominal  circulation,  but  the  substitution  in  the  place  of  the  five  hundred 
millions  of  iron  fiat  Eagles  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  millions  of  gold  Eagles, 
would  not  have  been  a  contraction,  but  an  immense  inflation  of  the  circu 
lating  medium. 

"There  are  two  methods  of  'inflating'  the  currency:  One  is,  to  enhance 
and  continually  increase  the  value  and  purchasing  power  of  that  already  in 
circulation.  Another  is,  to  add  to  an  already  depreciated  currency  more 
depreciated  currency,  the  sure  result  of  which  is  the  swift  decline  of  both 
new  paper  currency  and  of  old,  until  all  is  buried  in  a  common  grave 
of  worthlessness. 

"No  legislative  enactment  has  yet  been  sufficiently  powerful  to  prevent 
the  measurement  of  the  value  of  the  paper  dollar  by  comparing  it  with  the 


59O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

gold  dollar.  On  the  3oth  day  of  June,  1864,  one  gold  dollar  would  buy 
very  nearly  three  times  as  much  labor,  or  anything  else  that  anyone  on 
this  earth  had  to  sell,  as  the  paper  dollar.  Hence,  in  1864,  one  gold 
dollar  would  do  three  times  as  much  business  as  the  paper  dollar,  would 
employ  three  times  as  many  people,  would  purchase  three  times  as  much 
food  or  clothing.  In  the  meantime,  the  value  of  the  gold  dollar  has  not 
depreciated,  but  the  value  of  the  paper  dollar  has  very  nearly  trebled,  so 
that  the  fanner  with  one  thousand  dollars  in  bank  to-day,  has  as  much 
actual  money  as  in  June,  1864,  he  had  with  three  thousand  dollars  in  bank 
to  his  credit. 

"The  inflation  of  paper  currency,  by  adding  to  its  volume  to  meet  the 
supposed  requirements  of  business,  universally  fails  of  its  purpose.  The 
value  or  purchasing  power  of  the  currency  depreciates  with  each  addition 
to  its  volume,  until  there  is  great  force  in  the  call  for  'more  money,'— 
because,  for  all  practical  purposes,  there  is  finally  '  no  money '  at  all.  All 
experiments  of  this  character  have  passed  through  the  same  dismal  experi 
ence  and  terminated  in  disaster. 

"The  history  of  paper  currency  inflations  in  the  past,  ought  to  furnish 
us  guides  for  our  present  policy,  and  to  the  wise,  that  history  will  not  pass 
unheeded.  As  far  back  in  our  history  as  the  year  1723,  the  scheme  of 
government  issues  of  paper  currency,  loaned  by  the  government  on  real- 
estate  security,  was  fully  tested  in  Pennsylvania.  Fifteen  thousand  pounds 
in  paper  currency  was  issued  and  put  in  the  hands  of  the  commissioners  of 
each  county,  according  to  the  taxable  assessment.  The  commissioners 
loaned  the  bills  at  five  per  cent,  on  mortgage  of  land.  The  scheme  was 
tested  to  the  bitter  end,  and  proved  a  calamitous  and  shameful  failure.  The 
same  scheme  was  adopted  in  New  England  as  early  as  the  year  1715, 
and  bank  after  bank  was  established,  for,  soon  after  each  issue,  money  mys 
teriously  became  'scarce,'  and  led  to  the  necessity  of  new  issues.  The 
historian  of  that  period  tells  us  that  '  all  who  had  received  loans  joined  as  a 
compact  body  in  favor  of  further  issues.  All  new  issues  to  others  depreci 
ated  the  currency  and  enabled  them  to  pay  back  more  easily.  However 
(he  says)  they  did  not  in  many  cases  pay  at  all  either  principal  or  interest. 
Having  accumulated  large  arrears,  they  decamped,  and  when  process  issued 
they  could  not  be  found.' 

"Speaking  of  the  paper  currency  of  that  time,  Hutchinson  says:  'The 
influence  which  a  bad  currency  has  on  the  morals  of  a  people  is  greater 
than  is  generally  imagined.'  But  mark  the  course  of  events,  and  observe 
how  history  repeats  itself.  In  1715  the  governor  recommended  the  assem 
bly  to  take  measures  to  revive  the  low  state  of  trade.  And  they  accordingly 
issued  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  of  bills,  '  because  bills  were  scarce.' 
These  were  issued  on  loan,  and  there  was  an  immediate  rise  in  prices — 
hence  bills  were  again  scarce.  In  1719  a  fiat  money  man  of  that  period 
declared  that  '  £50,000  ought  to  be  laid  out  for  building  a  bridge  over  Charles 
river,  so  that  workmen  might  be  employed  and  currency  enlarged,  as  well  as 
the  public  accommodated,  and  (he  says)  ruin  will  come  unless  more  bills  of 
credit  are  emitted.' 


RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE    PAYMENTS.  59 1 

"In  1720  trade  was  stagnant,  and  there  was  a  great  cry  for  more  bills. 
How  rapidly  even  in  those  early  days  the  country  -grew  up'  to  the 
absurdly  inflated  and  excessive  volume  of  currency. 

"For  the  purpose  of  bringing  about  issues  of  paper,  'expeditions  were 
favored  and  public  works  were  advocated.'  Listening  to  this  clamor  for 
'more  money,'  Massachusetts,  in  1721,  issued  ,£'100,000  and  forbade  buying 
and  selling  silver.  Money  again  became  '  scarce,'  and  in  1724  there  was 
an  additional  issue  of  £30,000. 

"In  1727  money  was  again  'scarce,'  trade  was  stagnant,  and  in  this  year  £50,- 
ooo  was  issued  to  redeem  in  part  the  old  issue;  and  on  the  same  basis,  and  '  be 
cause  bills  were  scarce,'  £60,000  more  was  issued  in  1728. 

"  At  this  point  the  Colony  was  no  longer  allowed  to  issue  paper  currency, 
and  bank  projects  were  revived.  Notwithstanding  the  immense  volume  of 
currency  outstanding,  the  year  1733  was  one  of  great  distress  in  New 
England.  'Trade  was  stagnant  and  money  scarce.'  Rhode  Island  issued 
£100,000.  The  Boston  merchants  issued  £110,000.  Silver  rose  enormously. 
In  1737  'new  tenor'  bills  were  issued  at  the  rate  of  one  for  three  of  the 
old.  In  1739  the  Land  Bank  Scheme  was  revived,  and  the  preamble  of 
the  bank  schedule  recited, — that  it  is  organized  '  in  order  to  redress  the 
existing  circumstances  which  the  trade  of  this  province  labors  under  for 
want  of  a  medium.'  The  large  merchants  refused  its  notes,  but  in  the 
hands  of  the  small  dealers  there  was  over  £35,000. 

.  "  Another  bank  was  also  organized,  called  the  specie  bank,  which  was  to 
issue  £120,000  in  notes  redeemable  in  silver.  At  every  new  issue  the  cur 
rency  depreciated,  carrying  old  and  new  with  it.  In  1749,  Massachusetts 
had  out  the  enormous  circulation  of  £2,466,712,  and  at  that  time  exchange 
on  London  stood  at  1,100!  Trade  was  then  at  its  lowest  ebb.  Ship  build 
ing  and  fisheries  had  declined — people  were  moving  away — and  by  what 
means,  think  you,  was  prosperity  restored  ?  The  people  had  tried  during 
the  period  of  thirty-four  years  every  scheme  for  relief  which  is  recommended 
by  the  Nationals,  Greenbackers,  and  Fiatists  of  the  present  day.  They  had, 
finally,  for  Massachusetts  alone,  a  paper  currency  barely  one  million  pounds 
less  than  the  circulation  of  the  Bank  of  England  at  that  time. 

"Money  was  scarce — trade  was  stagnant — all  business  enterprises  were 
drooping.  They  had  tried  all  these  experiments  which  are  recommended 
to  us  to-day,  and  all  miserably  failed.  The  inflexible  laws  of  trade,  as 
inflexible  as  those  great  natural  laws  by  which  the  universe  is  governed 
stubbornly  refused  to  be  coerced. 

"  But  one  experiment  was  left — that  was  finally  tried,  and  that  experiment 
was  resumption.  It  worked  almost  instantly  and  marvelously.  Massachu 
setts  devoted  her  share  of  the  ransom  of  Louisburg,  which  came  to  her 
from  the  mother  country  in  specie,  to  the  cancellation  of  this  outstanding 
paper,  eleven  to  one.  Prices  were  at  once  adjusted  to  this  new  measure, 
and  the  coin  remained  with  them  when  it  had  no  meaner  competitor. 
Rhode  Island  and  New  Hampshire,  adhering  to  their  old  ways,  found  their 
trade  transferred  to  the  coin  colony.  The  trade  of  Newport  was  at  once 
transferred  to  Salem  and  Newport  and  nothing,  more  was  heard  in  Massachu 
setts  of  the  scarcity  of  money  until  she  repeated  her  old  errors. 


592  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

• 

"  Perhaps  the  most  striking  illustration  of  an  inflated  currency,  and  the 
evils  attending  it,  which  our  history  furnishes,  is  to  be  found  in  the  Conti 
nental  money.  The  Continental  Congress  had  issued  paper  for  £9,000,000 
before  the  depreciation  began,  and  at  every  successive  addition  to  that 
volume,  the  whole  mass  sank.  Congress  did  its  best  to  sustain  the  bills, 
but  all  was  of  no  avail.  In  1780,  #200,000,000  of  bills  were  out.  They 
were  then  worth  two  cents  on  the  dollar,  and  then  sank  to  rise  no  more. 
So  that  while  £9,000,000  of  currency  were  worth  in  1776,  £9,000,000,  in  1780, 
only  four  years  afterwards,  £200,000,000  bills  were  worth  only  £4,000,000. 
History  repeated  itself  during  the  rebellion,  for  during  the  earlier  years  of 
the  war,  the  addition  to  the  volume  of  the  currency  reduced  the  purchasing 
power  of  the  entire  mass  to  a  point  below  the  original  volume. 

"The  difference  between  coin  and  every  other  commodity  is  clear,  and 
is  this,  that  specific  quantities  of  other  things  are  needed,  'whilst  of  gold 
it  is  specific  values'  A  definite  piece  of  cloth  of  a  given  size  is  needed 
for  the  coat ;  a  definite  piece  of  leather  of  a  given  size  for  the  shoe ;  a  defi 
nite  piece  of  iron  or  steel  of  a  given  weight  for  the  railway  track.  If  iron 
and  cloth  and  leather  were  all  cheapened,  no  more  iron,  or  cloth  or  leather 
would  be  issued  for  the  specific  coat,  boots  or  railway  track — although  more 
coats,  boots  and  railway  tracks  might  be  manufactured.  No  man  wrould 
wear  a  larger  coat,  or  increase  the  size  of  his  boots,  because  of  a  sudden 
decline  in  the  price  of  cloth  and  leather.  Whereas,  if  gold  were  cheapened 
we  should  be  compelled  for  the  purposes  of  coin  to  use  more  gold. 

"Prominent  among  the  remedies  suggested  by  the  Greenbackers  for  our 
present  financial  difficulties,  is  the  demand  made  by  them,  perhaps  more 
persistently  than  any  other,  for  the  Destruction  of  the  National  Banks. 
The  objections  urged  against  the  National  Banks  are  numerous,  and  these 
I  will  consider  *in  detail.  It  is  claimed,  I.  That  they  are  Monopolies. 
There  can  be  no  mistake  as  to  the  meaning  of  the  word  'monopolize.'  It 
is  '  to  buy  up  so  as  to  be  the  only  purchaser  and  seller ;  to  obtain  the 
monopoly  or  the  whole  of,'  and  'monopoly'  signifies  'the  exclusive  posses 
sion  of  anything;  sole  right  of  selling.'  The  basis  of  the  National  Banks  is 
the  government  bonds.  The  banks  have  not  bought  up  all  these  bonds. 
Any  one  can  readily  buy  all  the  bonds  that  he  has  the  money  to  pay  for. 
Nor  is  the  right  to  use  the  government  bonds  as  a  banking  capital,  and  as 
a  basis  for  circulation  conferred  upon  any  men  or  class  of  men.  That 
right  is  absolutely  open  and  free  to  all ;  the  farmer,  the  mechanic,  in  fact 
everybody  is  invited  to  join  this  monopoly,  to  participate  in  its  benefits, 
profits,  and  advantages. 

"There  is  no  more  monopoly  in  banking  than  there  is  in  farming.  True 
it  is  that  everybody  has  not  the  money  to  buy  government  bonds,  and 
true  it  also  is,  that  everybody  has  not  the  money  to  pay  for  a  farm,  or  the 
credit  to  buy  one  on  time.  I  assume  that  it  is  not  asked  that  the  govern 
ment  shall  give  these  bonds  to  needy  people,  who  have  not  the  money  to 
buy  them,  in  order  to  enable  those  needy  people  to  go  into  the  banking 
business.  That  enterprise  would  certainly  not  be  profitable.  As  well  might 
you  ask  the  government  to  give  every  unemployed  Greenbacker  a  farm,  as 
to  give  him  a  bond. 


RESUMPTION    OF   SPECIE    PAYMENTS.  593 

"In  these  particulars,  at  least,  the  National  Banks  are  not  monopolies. 
How  then  are  they  so?  Certainly  it  is  not  for  the  reason  that  the  owner 
ship  of  the  capital  of  the  National  Banks  is  in  few  hands.  There  are  208, 
486  owners  of  National  Bank  shares.  An  alarming  number  of  monopolists. 
Of  this  army  of  shareholders,  only  767  own  over  50x3  shares.  In  the  State 
of  New  York  there  are  1,482,746  shares  of  National  Bank  stock  owned  by 
34,181  persons,  an  average  of  43  shares  to  each  person. 

"Pennsylvania  National  Banks  have  884,539  shares  owned  by  29,895 
persons,  or  an  average  of  29  shares  to  each  person.  The  Massachusetts 
banks  have  988,700  shares,  owned  by  51,726  persons,  an  average  of  19 
shares  to  each  person  ;  and  of  these  shareholders,  32,235  persons  own  ten 
shares  or  less.  How  utterly  in  the  face  of  these  figures,  all  this  denuncia 
tion  of  the  National  Banks  as  great  monopolists,  appears.  A  great  army  of 
over  208,000  men,  women  and  children,  whose  savings  and  whose  little 
fortunes  are  invested  in  these  bank  shares,  are  the  bloated  monopolists 
against  whom  the  wrath  of  the  noisy  demagogue  is  directed. 

"2.  The  second  objection  made  to  the  National  Banks  is,  that  they 
receive  interest  on  their  bonds  deposited  as  security  for  their  circulation, 
and  also  upon  the  circulation  itself.  This  is  objected  to,  and  it  is  claimed 
that  the  people  are  thus  compelled  to  pay  about  fifteen  millions  of  dollars 
per  year  as  one  of  the  expenses  of  maintaining  the  National  Banking,  from 
which  they  would  be  relieved  if  that  system  were  abolished.  The  present 
National  Bank  circulation  may  be  stated  in  round  numbers  at  $291,000,000. 
This  circulation  is  secured  by  deposits  of  £343, 000,000  on  government 
bonds.  The  account  between  the  National  Banks  and  the  people,  so  far  as 
the  question  of  interest  is  concerned,  may  be  thus  briefly  stated: 
"Paid  to  the  Banks  as  interest  on  $291,000,000  government  bonds.  $14,595,000 
"But  the  Banks  pay— 

"United  States  taxes  paid  last  year $7,076,087 

"State,  county  and  municipal  taxes 9,701,732 

—$16,777,819 

"In  other  words,  the  people  have  received  and  been  benefited  by  taxes 
paid  by  the  National  Banks,  $2,182,819  more  than  the  interest  they  have 
received  from  the  government. 

"But  let  us  pursue  this  investigation  still  further.  Suppose  that  the 
National  Banks  are  wiped  out  of  existence,  what  relief,  so  far  as  this 
question  of  interest  is  concerned,  does  that  give  ?  Do  we  get  rid  of  paying 
that  interest?  By  no  means,  for  upon  the  surrender  of  the  circulation,  the 
bonds  must  be  returned  to  the  owners,  and  the  government  still  continues 
to  pay  the  interest  on  those  identical  bonds. 

"  If  greenbacks  are  substituted  in  place  of  the  National  Bank  notes,  they 
will  be  loaned  out  to  the  borrower  on  interest  but  will  pay  no  taxes  to 
the  government.  What  do  you  gain,  then,  by  abolishing  the  National 
Banks  ?  Clearly  if  you  substitute  greenbacks  you  lose  over  $7,000.000  of 
annual  taxes  which  the  National  Banks  now  pay,  and  your  greenback  is 
no  more  secure  than  the  National  Bank  note.  . 

"  Finally,    it   is   urged    against   the    National    Banks    that    during    all    the 

38 


594  UFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

time  which  has  intervened  since  the  panic  of  1873,  they  have  continually 
prospered,  and  that  this  prosperity  has  been  at  the  expense  of  the  people. 
The  difficulty  with  this  suggestion  is  that  the  facts  do  not  seem  to  sus 
tain  it. 

"The  banking  capital  of  New  York  city  in  1873  was  ....  $88,051,800 
"Surplus  was 38,867,100 


"Total $126,918,900 

"  In    1878    the   banking   capital   was #67,072,800 

"  Surplus 28,093,600 

"Total $95,166,400 

"Showing   a  total   reduction   of  $31,752,500. 

"It  is  certainly  very  curious  that  these  banks  should  in  five  years 
voluntarily  reduce  their  capital  $21,000,000,  if  the  business  in  which  they 
were  engaged  was  so  prosperous,  and  the  circulation  of  their  notes  so 
desirable  as  the  Greenbackers  claim. 

"The  more  conservative  of  those  who  seek  financial  reforms,  and  insist 
upon  the  discontinuance  of  the  National  Banks,  would  not  probably  favor 
a  re-establishment  of  the  State  banks,  but  rather  a  substitution  of  green 
backs  in  place  of  the  National  Bank  note  circulation.  Upon  this  point 
there  may  be  honest  differences  of  opinion,  but  it  is  clear  that  there  are  so 
many  difficulties  attending  the  emission  of  a  circulating  medium  by  the 
Government,  that  the  plan  ought  never  to  be  pursued  save  under  the 
stress  of  some  great  and  overriding  emergency.  The  history  of  the  Green 
back  and  its  origin  shows  very  clearly  that  it  was  not  intended  as  a  per 
manent  policy  of  the  nation,  but  in  the  presence  of  a  great  rebellion  the 
Government  under  the  pressure  of  a  supposed  necessity,  resorted  to  its  own 
promises,  to  which  they  attached  the  legal-tender  characteristics  for  the 
purpose  of  enabling  them  to  meet  the  enormous  expenditures  suddenly 
forced  upon  them.  Under  the  peculiar  circumstances  then  existing,  no 
difficulties  were  encountered  in  finding  avenues  for  circulation,  for  the  Gov 
ernment  was  itself  an  immense  buyer  in  the  markets,  and  paid  for  its  pur 
chases  in  its  own  promises  to  pay  in  the  future.  Thus  easily  enough  the 
Greenback  found  a  circulation,  but  after  a  certain  point  had  been  reached, 
prices  began  steadily  to  advance  and  continued  as  steadily  to  advance  with 
each  new  issue,  until  finally  the  purchasing  power  of  the  Greenback,  as  I 
have  already  shown,  was  reduced  to  nearly  one-third  the  gold  dollar. 

"The  first  issues  of  Greenbacks  were  in  April,  1862,  and  by  August  of 
that  year  specie  was  entirely  driven  out  of  circulation.  The  advance  of 
prices  necessarily  led  to  a  vast  increase  in  the  expenditures,  and  it  would 
be  idle  to  estimate  how  much  of  our  national  debt  is  the  legitimate  result 
of  paper  inflation.  The  advance  in  the  price  of  gold  was  constant.  In 
1863  it  reached  $1.40-50,  thus  reducing  the  paper  dollar  to  65  or  75  cents. 
As  inflation  was  continued  this  depreciation  of  the  Greenback  kept  steady 
pace  with  it  until  June  17,  1864,  congress  interposed  its  fiat  and  forbade 
time  rates  for  gold.  The  effect  of  this  was  immediate,  but  not  at  all  what 


RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE    PAYMENTS.  595 

was  anticipated.  Gold  advanced  in  face  of  the  fiat,  and  on  the  3Oth  of 
June,  1864,  had  reached  $2.85.  On  the  2d  of  July,  1864,  the  law  was 
repealed,  and  gold  declined. 

"The  war  had  closed.  The  Government  had  gone  out  of  the  markets. 
Its  enormous  demand  had  ceased,  and  all  saw  that  there  was  and  could 
by  no  possibility  be  any  legitimate  employment  for  all  the  currency  which 
the  Government  had  put  into  circulation.  Hence  with  almost  universa 
approbation  the  country  resolved  upon  contraction  as  the  first  step  toward 
resumption.  In  December,  1865,  the  House  voted  144  to  6,  to  authorize  a 
contraction  of  $10,000,000,  in  the  then  next  six  months,  and  of  $4,000,000 
per  month  after  that.  This  went  on  until  January,  1868,  'but  in  the  mean 
time  the  National  Banks  were  going  into  operation,  being  allowed  $300, 
000,000  of  circulation,  and  their  notes  more  than  compensated  for  the 
greenbacks  withdrawn.  There  was  therefore  practically  but  little  reduction 
of  the  currency,'  and  in  1867  speculation  began  to  spring  up,  stimulated  by 
the  excess  of  circulating  medium,  and  these  speculations,  wild  and  reckless 
as  they  now  appear  to  be,  absorbed  the  redundant  currency  until  again  in 
1873  'money  was  scarce." 

"As  a  measure  of  great  overriding  public  necessity,  the  Government 
during  the  war  made  its  promises  to  pay  a  legal  tender  for  the  payment 
of  debts  ;  thus  changing  the  terms  of  every  contract  for  the  payment  of  money 
thereafter  to  be  performed,  and  confiscating  at  one  blow,  at  least  one-half 
the  outstanding  credits  of  the  nation.  Such  a  policy  is  never  resorted  to 
save  in  the  direst  extremity  and  under  the  pressure  of  a  necessity  no  less 
than  the  preservation  of  the  national  existence.  There  are  those  who 
believe  that  it  can  never  be  justified,  for  they  argue  that  it  never  can 
be  necessary.  But  however  that  may  be,  nothing  but  the  supposed  pres 
ence  of  this  great  emergency  ever  justified  the  Government  in  the  exercise 
of  this  most  dangerous  power. 

"To-day  no  such  necessity  exists.  The  greenbacks  having  been  made  a 
legal  tender  as  a  war  measure,  we  can  with  no  more  propriety  continue  to 
make  them  legal  tenders,  after  peace  has  been  fully  restored,  than  Govern 
ment  could  to-day  declare  martial  law  in  Chicago,  or  make  military  arrests 
here,  when  we  are  menaced  by  no  enemy,  when  peace  is  profound,  when 
the  courts  are  in  the  complete,  perfect  and  undisturbed  enjoyment  of  all 
their  functipns. 

"I  have  still  failed  to  touch  upon  what  has  been  in  many  quarters  of 
the  country  regarded  as  the  strongest  ground  upon  which  those  disaffected 
with  the  present  condition  and  management  of  our  financial  affairs  stand. 
I  mean  the  demand  for  Fiat  Money.  I  certainly  do  not  wish  to  misstate 
the  positions  held  by  those  who  advocate  and  proclaim  this  theory,  and, 
in  a  very  general  way,  it  seems  to  be  that  the  Government  should  issue, 
for  the  payment  of  its  bonds  and  in  unlimited  quantities,  a  paper  cur 
rency  irredeemable  in  its  character,  to  which  no  obligation  of  the  Govern 
ment,  either  at  present  or  in  the  future,  is  to  be  attached,  which  shall  be  a 
legal  tender  for  the  payment  of  all  debts,  which  shall  be  accepted  in 
payment  of  revenues,  and  which  shall  be  declared  by  act  of  Congress 
Jo  be  money. 


596  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"The  difficulty  in  reasoning  upon  this  proposition  arises,  in  a  great 
measure,  from  its  utter  disregard  of  what  up  to  the  present  time  we  had  all 
considered  as  fundamental  ideas  in  government.  We  have  hitherto  supposed 
that  any  scheme  of  finance  which  could  be  shown  to  be  injurious  to  the 
national  credit,  in  any  degree  a  violation  of  the  public  faith  or  of  public 
engagements,  would  be,  upon  such  a  showing,  at  once  rejected.  But  here 
is  a  scheme  which  openly  proclaims  a  violation  and  repudiation  of  national 
obligations  as  the  very  end  sought  for.  Such  a  proposition  stuns  one. 
It  is  as  embarrassing  as  it  would  be  in  the  discussion  of  a  mathematical 
question  for  one  of  the  parties  to  dispute  the  multiplication  table  and 
call  for  its  immediate  repeal. 

"This  new  money  starts  without  a  foundation  and  ends  without  sub 
stance.  The  old  pursuit  of  the  philosopher's  stone,  the  efforts  of  the 
alchemists  to  transmute,  by  some  mysterious  agencies,  a  base  metal  into 
a  better  one,  lead  into  gold,  was  rational  compared  with  the  fiat  money 
project.  For  the  alchemist  did  start  with  something  substantial,  and  pro 
posed  to  wind  up  with  something  better  ;  he  started  with  lead  or  iron  and 
proposed  to  close  with  gold,  while  the  fiatists  start  with  nothing,  and  end 
with  what  they  started  with.  A  legislative  body,  howsoever  powerful 
and  able  it  may  be  in  the  adjustment  of  political  problems,  has  no 
more  power  to  change  the  nature  of  things,  or  to  create  something  out 
of  nothing,  than  the  old  alchemist  possessed.  The  attempt  is  pure  sor 
cery,  and  will  be  as  ineffectual  and  as  unavailing  as  would  the  effort 
by  act  of  Congress  to  make  grass  grow  on  barren  rocks  and  without 
seed,  or  to  change  the  course  of  the  seasons. 

"Not  only  are  all  natural  laws  in  conflict  with  this  wild  and  ruinous 
scheme,  but  it  is  in  the  teeth  of  all  human  experience,  past  and  present. 
It  is  claimed  that  the  stamp  of  the  Government  gives  value  to  the  gold 
Eagle,  and  the  same  stamp  would  be  sufficiently  efficacious  to  give  an 
equal  value  to  a  paper  Eagle.  Assuredly  this  is  not  true.  Passing  the 
consideration  of  the  question  as  to  the  inherent  and  intrinsic  value  of 
gold,  let  us  take  a  simple  illustration.  Suppose  that  a  twenty-dollar  gold 
piece,  fresh  from  the  Mint,  with  the  Government  stamp  clear  and  bright 
upon  it,  were  subjected  to  a  hammering  process  so  severe  that  every  mark 
of  the  stamp  were  effaced,  that  neither  letter,  figures,  nor  symbol  of  any 
kind  was  visible  upon  it ;  let  its  shape  be  changed,  roll  into  a  sphere,  pound 
it  into  any  shape  you  please,  leave  the  quantity  of  the  metal  unimpaired, 
and  you  still  have  substantially  twenty  dollars  in  value.  On  the  other  hand 
take  your  fiat  piece  of  paper  upon  which  the  Government  has  stamped  or 
printed  'This  is  twenty  dollars.'  Rub  out  that  inscription,  roll  into  a  sphere, 
and  it  is  a  paper  wad,  of  the  value  of  a  paper  wad,  no  more,  no  less. 

"It  is  quite  clear,  therefore,  that  there  is  between  the  paper  and  the  coin 
an  inherent  and  essential  difference  in  their  intrinsic  value.  Paper  money 
dies  with  the  Government  which  issued  it,  and  becomes  valueless.  Gold 
coin  endures  when  the  Government  which  stamped  it  has  passed  out  of 
recorded  history,  and  is  removed  into  the  dim  periods  of  tradition.  Should 
there  be  found  in  the  tomb  of  a  mummy  thousands  of  years  old  a  gold 


RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE    PAYMENTS.  597 

coin,  its  purchasing  power — its  value — inheres  in  it,  and  the  currents  of 
ages  have  not  worn  it  away.  But  the  Confederate  note  found  its  grave 
before  the  last  ditch  of  the  Confederacy  itself  was  reached. 

"  If  the  use  of  fiat  money  could  be  limited  to  its  legitimate  range  of 
operations,  there  would  possibly  be  no  very  serious  objections  to  it.  If  fiat 
money  were  used  only  in  exchange  for  fiat  things,  no  great  harm  would 
be  done,  except  the  loss  of  time  involved  in  a  transaction  so  utterly  idle. 
No  serious  calamity  would  follow  the  trading  of  fiat  dollars  for  fiat  bread 
or  fiat  clothes,  but  the  difficulty  would  be  that  ultimately  some  one  would 
get  hungry  or  cold,  would  clamor  for  the  real  article,  and  then  the  trouble 
would  begin.  Any  association  of  gentlemen  who  desire  it  may  legally 
engage  day  after  day,  and  for  as  long  a  period  of  time  as  they  can  hold 
out,  in  trading  shadows  and  exchanging  fictions,  but  nothing  but  shadows 
and  fictions  will  remain  at  the  end  of  the  transaction.  The  stamp  of  the 
Government  upon  a  piece  of  paper,  'This  is  a  dollar,'  is  pure  fiction,  known 
by  the  whole  civilized  world  to  be  a  fiction,  and  spurned  and  rejected  as 
any  other  impudent  fiction  would  be.  It  is  utterly  impossible  to  attach  any 
value  to  such  a  fraudulent  and  lying  pretense.  The  Government  may 
undertake  to  force  the  creditor  to  accept  such  a  fiction  for  the  reality,  but 
that  is  simply  adding  to  the  crime  of  falsehood  the  additional  and  higher 
crime  of  robbery ;  and  all  those  who  clamor  for  such  a  scheme  of  public 
robbery,  for  the  purpose  of  availing  themselves  of  its  benefits,  are  guilty  of 
the  same  crime. 

"This  scheme  also  has  in  view  professedly  the  interests  of  the  farmer 
and  the  laboring  man.  It  is  impossible  to  discover  how  either  can  be 
benefited  by  this  policy.  The  Government,  acting  through  Congress,  may 
declare  that  fiat  money  shall  be  legal  tender  for  the  payment  of  all 
debts,  and  may  compel  the  creditor  to  accept  it  in  satisfaction  of  the 
debt,  but  it  cannot  compel  the  sale  of  a  single  thing  for  such  money. 
It  may  rob  the  citizen  of  his  rights  under  contracts  already  existing,  but 
it  can  never  compel  the  citizen  to  make  a  contract.  I  venture  the  asser 
tion  that  the  needy  farmer  or  laboring  man  would  never  use  this  money 
but  once,  and  that  would  be  in  the  payment  of  some  debt.  No  tanner 
would  make  a  contract  for  the  sale  of  his  products,  to  be  paid  at  a  future 
time  in  fiat  money.  No  sane  man  would  enter  into  any  business  engage 
ment  for  the  future,  nor  make  any  investments  where  the  returns  were 
to  be  reaped  in  fiat  money.  The  proposition  is,  as  I  understand  it,  to 
force  this  money  upon  the  bondholder.  Suppose  the  scheme  succeeds 
that  far;  every  bondholder  thus  swindled  would  understand  perfectly  well 
the  valuelessness  of  such  a  currency. 

"  You  may  rest  assured  he  would  not  hold  it  long.  Trade  for  a  time  would 
be. very  active,  for  the  holder  of  the  currency  would  convert  it  at  the 
earliest  posible  moment  into  something  tangible  and  real.  Houses  and 
lots,  farms,  property  of  all  kinds,  anything  real  and  tangible,  and  at  almost 
any  price,  would  be  received  in  exchange  for  these  deceptive  and  value 
less  fiats.  Through  the  various  classes  of  society  would  this  currency  pass, 
getting  nearer  and  nearer  the  needy  man  every  day  until  reaching  the 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

laboring  man,  who  has  nothing  but  his  labor  to  sell,  and  is  obliged  to 
sell  that  for  any  price,  and  payable  in  any  money  he  could  get  or  starve, 
this  worthless  money  would  finally  be  lodged  with  him.  Be  assured  the 
capitalist  would  have  none  of  it.  Be  assured  that  the  '  bloated  bond 
holder'  would  have  none  of  it.  But  capitalist  and  bondholder  would 
have  the  real  and  tangible,  the  houses,  farms,  factories,  etc.,  and  the 
poor  farmer  and  the  laboring  man  would  have  all  the  fiat  money  they 
wanted. 

"It  is  sufficiently  obvious  to  any  man  who  will  pause  to  think  even  one 
moment,  that  all  business  prosperity  at  all  permanent  in  its  character  must 
depend,  as  a  first  condition,  upon  a  fixed  and  stable  currency.  This  cur 
rency,  being  the  medium  by  which  all  exchanges  are  made  and  all  values 
or  prices  are  determined,  must  be  stable  and  certain,  else  business  becomes 
a  mere  game  of  chance,  the  success  of  which  will  depend  not  upon  the 
skill  of  those  engaged  in  it,  but  upon  what  the  value  of  the  currency  in 
the  future  may  happen  to  be.  No  sane  business  man  would  feel  like 
entering  upon  any  enterprise  which  required  from  him  the  expenditures  of 
large  sums  of  money  in  the  future,  if  the  actual  value  of  that  money  might 
be  very  much  greater  when  he  was  called  upon  for  the  payment  of  the 
money  than  it  was  at  the  time  he  contracted  to  pay  it.  No  one  would 
feel  safe  to  contract  for  the  sale  or  delivery  of  property  in  the  future  at 
any  fixed  number  of  dollars,  if  it  were  at  all  probable  that  the  dollar  in 
which  he  would  be  paid  would  be  worth  much  less  than  the  dollar  in  cir 
culation  at  the  time  the  contract  was  made. 

"Should  the  laboring  man  who  is  now  shouting  lustily  for  fiat  money 
enter  into  a  contract  for  service  for  one  year  on  the  basis  of  one  dollar 
worth  99^  cents,  he  would  forget  his  politics  and  his  absurd  schemes 
of  finance,  and  clamorously  and  noisily  proclaim  the  wickedness  of  the 
bloated  capitalist  who  at  the  end  of  the  year  would  pay  him  in  legal- 
tender  fiats,  worth  fifty  cents  on  the  dollar.  Business  never  has  been 
for  any  great  length  of  time  successfully  prosecuted  on  the  basis  of  a 
shifting  and  uncertain  currency,  and  one  of  the  most  important  lessons  that 
we  have  to  learn  is  that,  whether  we  are  well  or  ill  paid  for  our  work, 
depends  not  upon  the  number  of  dollars  which  we  receive,  but  upon  their 
value. 

"It  might,  perhaps,  be  deemed  desirable  by  the  new-light  economists 
to  furnish  to  the  laboring  man  more  yards  of  cloth  for  a  dollar  than  he 
is  now  able  to  procure,  and  a  convenient  way  to  bring  this  about  would 
be  to  shorten  the  yard  stick — to  reduce  it  from  thirty-six  inches  to  twenty- 
four.  Under  such  an  arrangement,  the  dollar  would  buy  more  yards  of 
cloth  than  before,  but  I  very  much  doubt  whether  the  purchaser  would 
have1  more  cloth.  Let  him  try  the  experiment.  I  assume  that  three  yards 
of  satinet  will  make  for  the  able  bodied  and  rotund  fiatist  a  pair  of 
trousers.  I  assume  that  the  cloth  will  cost  him  three  dollars.  But  under 
the  new  dispensation  of  twenty-four  inches  to  the  yard,  he  buys  three 
yards  for  two  dollars.  His  trousers  are  made,  and  the  first  chilling  blast 
that  he  encounters  whistles  through  gaping  spaces  in  those  fiat  trousers 


RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE    PAYMENTS.  599 

and  teach  him,  as  no  speeches  can  teach  him,  that  the  actual  amount 
of  cloth  required  to  cover  and  protect  him  against  the  cold  is  determined 
not  by  the  number  of  inches  in  a  yard,  but  is  inexorably  fixed  by  the 
length  and  size  of  his  legs,  the  swelling  proportions  of  his  hips,  and  that 
no  act  of  Congress  can  change  that  great  physical  fact. 

"You  might  as  well  keep  your  bushel  measure  constantly  fluctuating, 
first  shrinking  and  then  expanding,  and  look  for  a  perfect  state  of  con 
fidence  in  the  purchase  and  sale  of  those  articles  measured  by  the 
bushel  as  to  look  for  confidence  when  money,  the  universal  measurer,  is 
constantly  changing. 

"I  can  hardly  believe  that  there  is  any  large  portion  of  our  people  com 
mitted  to  this  dishonest  scheme.  Those  who  favor  it,  be  assured,  are  in  the 
main  those  whose  interest  it  is  to  see  a  general  tearing  down  of  all  restraints, 
a  general  denial  and  destruction  of  all  rights  of  property,  who  wish  to  see, 
and  would  have,  could  they  bring  it  about,  universal  anarchy  and  chaos  in 
place  of  order,  civil  and  religious  liberty,  well  ordered  and  decent  homes, 
the  quiet  and  well  ordered  provisions  for  the  future,  the  fireside,  the  church 
and  the  school-house. 

"These  men  are  political  tramps,  communists  and  desperadoes — their 
argument  is  the  torch,  their  policy  is  destruction  and  waste.  They  are  the 
enemies  of  society,  their  creed  is  pillage.  To  the  thousands  who  have  been 
deceived  and  misled  by  the  pretended  friendship  of  these  political  highway 
men,  the  order-loving  people  of  the  nation  offer  patient  reasoning  and  words 
of  advice  and  counsel,  but  to  the  trader  in  public  peace  and  order,  who 
would  imperil  for  his  own  base  purposes  the  best  and  most  sacred  interests 
of  our  civilization,  there  is  and  can  be  no  conciliation.  If  he  confronts  the 
law  and  defies  it,  the  law  will  surely  crush  him,  and  .his  political  future  is 
political  outlawry. 

"The  celebrated  divinity  student,  the  profound  theological  scholar,  and 
eminent  moralist,  and  unselfish  friend  of  the  laboring  man,  Benjamin  F. 
Butler,  has  adduced  a  scriptural  argument  in  favor  of  fiat  money.  He 
reads  to  a  fiat  audience  in  Indianapolis,  who  probably  then  heard  the  narra 
tive  for  the  first  time,  the  story  of  the  creation  as  told  in  the  first  chapter 
of  the  book  of  Genesis.  He  draws  from  the  fiat  of  Omnipotence,  '  Let  there 
be  light,'  and  the  result,  'there  was  light,'  an  argument  in  favor  of  a  con 
gressional  fiat,  '  Let  this  be  money,'  and  concludes  that  the  result  will  follow 
that  'it  is  money.' 

"Fresh  from  the  reading  of  this  chapter,  I  cannot  fail  to  note  serious 
difficulties  which  this  illustration  encounters  at  the  outset.  There  is,  I 
respectfully  submit,  a  difference  between  the  power  of  the  Almighty  and 
the  power  of  Congress.  This,  I  think,  will  not  be  disputed.  One  is  omni 
potent,  the  other  falls,  in  many  respects,  far  short  of  omnipotence.  The 
Lord  can  do  and  has  done  many  things  which  Congress  never  has  done, 
and  never  can  succeed  in  doing.  It  is  deemed  unnecessary  to  recapitulate 
the  particulars  wherein  the  power  of  Congress  falls  short  of  omnipotence. 
Congress  would  not  attempt  to  hold  the  planets  in  their  places,  nor  direct 
the  rotation  of  the  seasons,  nor  make  the  grass  grow,  nor  cause  the  tides  to 


6(DO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

ebb  and  flow,  by  joint  resolution  or  otherwise.  Hence  it  is,  that  even  had 
the  Almighty  in  looking  upon  the  dense  darkness  in  which  the  earth  was 
enveloped,  by  a  simple  declaration,  'Let  there  be  light,'  evolved  light  from 
this  darkness,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  Congress  could,  under  the  same 
circumstances,  by  the  same  fiat,  have  produced  the  same  miraculous  result ; 
and  it  falls  very  far  short  of  proving  that  Congress,  by  simply  looking  at  a 
pile  of  paper  and  a  quantity  of  ink,  and  issuing  its  fiat,  'This  is  money,' 
can  make  the  paper  and  ink  money.  The  difficulty  with  such  an  experiment 
is,  that  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  material  operated  upon  remains  and  continues 
to  be  paper  and  ink  after  the  windy  fiat  has  been  issued.  Congress  effects 
no  change  in  the  material  operated  upon  by  its  fiat.  The  Almighty,  looking 
upon  our  planet  covered  by  thick  darkness,  did  not  say  'This  is  light,'  but 
he  said  '  Let  there  be  light,'  and  he  set  at  work  those  mysterious  agencies 
which  he  alone  controls,  and  'there  was  light.'  A  great  change  had  been 
effected,  and  that  fiat  preceded  a  fact,  while  the  .proposed  Congressional  fiat 
merely  blunderingly  asserts  a  falsehood. 

"Back  to  the  inquiry  must  we  come  at  last — Shall  We  Resume?  To 
those  who  are  earnestly  solicitous  for  the  preservation  and  vindication  of 
the  national  honor  and  integrity  there  can  be  but  one  answer. 

"Great  as  our  distresses  have  been,  we  have  not  been  exceptional 
sufferers.  All  over  the  world  has  trade  been  dull,  and  all  industries 
depressed.  England,  Germany,  France,  the  South  American  States,  even 
far  off  China  and  Japan,  have  felt,  and  are  still  feeling,  the  pressure  of 
hard  times.  Surely  this  widespread  depression  cannot  be  attributed  to  the 
scarcity  of  greenbacks  nor  to  the  National  Banking  system.  Some  other 
influences  and  agencies  have  been  at  work,  much  more  general  than  any 
local  operations  of  our  national  currency,  to  produce  these  results.  Every 
where  has  there  been  over-production  of  all  kinds,  and  everywhere  are  the 
results  now  being  seen. 

"  Despite  our  hard  lot  to-day,  look  back  to  1 861-2  and  see  how  great  our 
progress  has  been  since  that  time.  Our  currency  was  then  in  such  frightful 
condition  that  the  rate  of  exchange  between  Chicago  and  New  York  was 
ten  cents  on  the  dollar.  Laboring  men  were  paid  off  in  this  worthless 
currency.  Your  labor  to-day  is  more  remunerative  than  it  then  was.  Every 
product  of  your  farms  finds  an  easier,  better  market,  and  commands  a  higher 
price  than  it  then  did.  You  live  in  better  homes,  you  are  better  fed  and  better 
clothed  than  you  then  were.  Your  schools  are  better  and  there  are  more  of 
them,  and  to  secure  such  a  future  as  every  honest  man,  who  relies  for  his  suc 
cess  upon  his  own  exertions,  desires,  you  need  but  a  stable,  steady  currency 
at  all  times,  and  at  any  time  convertible  into  coin  at  the  option  of  the  holder,  so 
that  your  calculations  for  the  future  may  be  founded  upon  a  substantial  basis, 
and  not  be  made  the  playthings  of  selfish  political  demagogues.  My  good 
friends,  who  are  certain  that  your  condition  is  grievously  bad,  and  who 
are  sure  that  your  own  country  is  the  worst  governed  upon  the  face  of 
the  earth,  and  that  no  other  peoples  suffer  as  you  think  you  do,  when 
you  go  home  to-night,  take  down  the  map  of  the  world  and  select  some 


RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE    PAYMENTS.  OOI 

spot  upon  it  for  which  you  would  wish  to  exchange  your  homes  of  to-day. 
You  will  find  no  such  place.  You  have,  I  am  sure,  that  honorable  pride 
which  all  good  men  have  in  the  good  name  of  the  land  you  live  in. 
Think  how  wonderful  have  been  its  achievements  within  less  than  twenty 
years.  No  slave  now  breathes  upon  our  soil.  Equal  rights  are  guaranteed 
to  every  citizen.  Our  immense  indebtedness  has  up  to  this  time  been 
met  with  a  heroism  which  challenges  the  admiration  of  the  world.  By 
hundreds  of  millions  has  it  been  paid,  by  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars 
have  the  burdens  of  taxation  been  lifted  from  the  shoulders  of  the  people. 
Steadily  has  the  credit  of  the  nation  advanced  and  strengthened,  and  as 
its  credit  has  advanced,  has  the  interest  upon  its  debt  been  reduced,  and 
its  bonds  are  sought  for  in  every  money  market  in  the  world. 

"Observing  our  wonderful  achievements  in  this  direction,  that  great 
Englishman,  Mr.  Gladstone,  says,  in  speaking  of  our  achievements  since 
the  close  of  the  war :  '  More  remarkable  still  was  the  financial  sequel 
to  this  great  conflict.  The  internal  taxation  for  federal  purposes,  which 
before  its  commencement  had  been  unknown,  was  raised  in  obedience  to 
an  exigency  of  life,  so  as  to  exceed  every  present  and  every  past  exam 
ple.  It  pursued  and  adorned  all  the  transactions  of  life.  The  interest 
of  the  American  debt  grew  to  be  the  highest  in  the  world,  and  the 
capital  touched  £560,000,000.  Here  was  provided  for  the  faith  and  patience 
of  the  people  a  touchstone  of  extreme  severity.  In  England,  at  the  close 
of  the  great  French  war,  the  propertied  classes,  who  were  supreme  in 
parliament,  at  once  rebelled  against  the  tory  government,  and  refused  to 
prolong  the  income  tax  even  for  a  single  year.  We  talked  big,  both 
then  and  now,  about  the  payment  of  our  national  debt,  but  sixty-three 
years  have  now  elapsed,  all  of  them  except  two  called  years  of  peace, 
and  we  have  reduced  the  huge  total  by  about  one-ninth;  that  is  to  say, 
by  little  over  £100,000,000,  or  scarcely  more  than  £1,500,000  per  year. 
This  is  the  conduct  of  a  state  elaborately  digested  into  orders  and  degrees 
famed  for  wisdom  and  forethought,  and  consolidated  by  a  long  experience. 
But  America  continued  long  to  bear  on  her  unaccustomed  and  still  smart 
ing  shoulders  the  burden  of  the  war  taxation.  In  twelve  years  she  has 
reduced  her  debt  £158,000,000,  or  at  the  rate  of  £13,000,000  for  every 
year.  In  each  twelve  months  she  has  done  what  we  did  in  eight  years ; 
her  self-command,  self3denial  and  wise  forethought  for  the  future  have 
been,  to  say  the  least,  eight-fold  ours.  These  are  facts  which  redound 
greatly  to  her  honor,  and  the  historian  will  record  with  surprise  that  an 
enfranchised  nation  tolerated  burdens  which  in  this  country  a  selected 
class,  possessed  of  the  representation,  did  not  dare  to  face,  and  that  the 
most  unmitigated  democracy  known  to  the  annals  of  the  world  resolutely 
reduced,  at  its  own  cost,  prospective  liabilities  of  the  state  which  the  aris 
tocratic  and  plutocratic  and  monarchial  government  of  the  United  Kingdom 
has  been  contented  ignobly  to  hand  over  to  posterity.' 

"Are  you  not,  as  citizens,  proud  to  hear  such  words  as  these,  coining 
from  such  an  exalted  source,  spoken  of  your  country?  Are  you  not 
prouder  still  to  know  that  they  are  true,  and  prouder  still  in  the  con- 


6O2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

sciousness  that  your  patience,  your  self-denial,  your  wise  forethought,  have 
made  them  true?  You  would  not,  by  an  act  of  dishonor,  dim  the  bright 
ness  of  this  shining  record.  Greater  than  all  our  material  achievements 
are  such  triumphs  as  these,  for  they  prove  that  the  men  of  the  country 
are  'greater  than  the  mere  things  that  they  produce.'  How  wild  the 
efforts  to  repeal  the  resumption  law  are,  must  be  apparent  at  a  glance. 
All  efforts  in  that  direction  will  prove  unavailing;  for  by  the  first  day 
of  January,  1879,  specie  payments  will  be  resumed  ;  the  fact  will  be  ac 
complished  and  the  fact  cannot  well  be  repealed.  Time  runs  too  fast. 
No  bill  repealing  the  resumption  law  can  possibly  ripen  into  law  before 
January  I,  1879.  Should  such  a  bill  pass  both  Houses  of  Congress, 
which  it  cannot  do,  it  would  be  sure  to  encounter  the  Presidential  veto, 
and  there  it  would  die. 

"  The  most  that  can  be  accomplished  is,  by  these  wild  threats  of 
agrarian  legislation  to  so  seriously  disturb  all  confidence  in  the  future  as 
to  paralyze  all  business  undertakings.  To-day  we  are  within  half  a  cent 
of  gold.  That  narrow  isthmus  once  passed,  and  there  comes  into  circu 
lation  these  millions  of  dollars  in  coin,  which  a  depreciated  currency  has 
for  so  many  years  forced  and  driven  out  of  circulation.  Our  journey 
through  this  wilderness  has  been  long  and  wearisome,  and  full  of  suffer 
ing.  Many  have  despaired  on  the  way — have  longed  for  the  flesh-pots 
of  the  old  times — have  worshiped  the  old  images  of  the  days  of  slavery. 
But  the  great  body  of  the  nation  have  not  despaired.  They  stand  now 
on  Pisgah's  heights  and  see  the  glorious  landscape  of  the  promised  land 
spread  out  before  them.  Its  verdurous  and  smiling  fields  beckon  them 
on,  and  although  the  heights  on  which  they  stand  may  be  rocky  and 
barren,  they  know  that  the  fields  of  plenty  are  but  a  few  days  from 
them.  Who  would  return  ?  Who  propose  to  retraverse  the  deserts  across 
which  they  have  so  toilsomely  traveled,  to  find  at  the  end  of  their  re 
turning  journey,  should  they  ever  live  to  reach  it,  the  lice  and  frogs  of 
Egypt.  No  pillars  of  cloud  by  day,  and  of  fire  by  night,  will  guide 
them  on  their  backward  course.  No  manna  is  furnished  the  starving 
multitudes  upon  a  return  trip.  No,  my  friends.  The  journey  must  be 
finished,  and  girding  ourselves  for  one  more  effort,  losing  nothing  of  the 
heroic  patience  and  fortitude  which  for  these  long  years  you  have  exhibited, 
we  shall  reach  the  promised  land  at  last. 

"  In  this  emergency  the  duty  of  the  Republican  party  is  plain,  its  course 
is  clear.  As  dearly  as  we  love  the  banner  which  has  floated  over  it,  as 
sacred  as  are  the  associations  clustered  about  it,  we  would  tear  that  banner 
into  shreds,  rather  than  upon  its  stainless  folds  there  should  be  one  spot  of 
dishonor. 

"Whatever  others  may  do,  or  however  high  the  tide  may  rise,  when  the 
honor  and  good  faith  of  the  nation  are  imperiled  as  they  are  to-day,  we 
must  stand  firm.  We  lower  our  standard  never  an  inch.  We  conciliate  no 
enemies  of  the  national  faith.  We  make  no  bargains  or  compromises  with 
those  who  would  repudiate  our  national  obligations. 

"  Whatever  of  defeats  we  may  suffer  by  a  resolute  adherence  to  the   right, 


RESUMPTION    OF    SPECIE    PAYMENTS.  603 

all  such  disasters  will  be  temporary,  but  our  triumph  when  it  does  come  will 
be  enduring. 

"We  shall  not  fail.  The  sober  second  thought  of  the  people  will  not  fail 
us.  The  instructed  and  enlightened  judgment  of  the  country  will  be  with 
us ;  and  however  dark  and  gloomy  the  skies  may  now  look,  they  will  as 
surely  brighten,  as  the  sun  succeeds  the  night." 

For  historical  research,  keen  penetration  into  the  underlying 
facts  of  political  economy,  and  logical  arrangement  of  the  princi 
ple  involved,  this  production  of  Mr.  Storrs  has  justly  been  assigned 
a  very  high  rank. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 


VARIOUS  PUBLIC  UTTERANCES. 

LETTER  TO  SENATOR  M'PHERSON  ON  THE  SILVER  BILL — AMERICAN  COM 
MERCE,  1878 — THE  GROWTH  OF  CHICAGO — THE  PURITY  OF  THE  BENCH 
AND  BAR— THE  BLODGETT  INVESTIGATION— LAWYERS  AS  LEGISLATORS- 
GRANT  FOR  A  THIRD  TERM— MR.  STORRS*  OPINION  OF  PRESIDENT  HAYES 
— A  BRIC-A-BRAC  CABINET. 

WE  have  seen  that  Mr.  Storrs  was  strenuously  opposed  to 
the  inflation  of  the  currency,  and  he  was  equally  op 
posed  to  the  proposition  then  before  Congress  for  an  unlimited 
coinage  of  silver  dollars.  On  this  subject  he.  wrote  to  Senator 
M'Pherson  of  New  Jersey,  between  whom  and  himself  there  had 
existed  for  some  years  a  close  personal  friendship. 

"  February  21,  1878. 
"MY  DEAR  SENATOR, 

"I  have  read  with  a  great  deal  of  pleasure  the  synopsis  of  your  speech 
in  the  Senate  on  the  silver  bill,  and  only  regretted  that  I  could  not  have 
the  speech  complete. 

"The  West  is  very  far  from  being  unanimously  in  favor  of  that  bill,  and 
although  it  would  probably  be  fair  to  say  that  a  very  decided  majority 
favors  it,  yet  the  minority  has  hardly  been  heard  from,  and  is  much  more 
numerous  and  powerful  than  one  might  suspect. 

"  However,  I  suppose  we  are  bound  to  have  it  as  a  law,  and  then  we 
shall  all  be  compelled  to  learn,  once  more,  the  bitter  but  very  useful 
lesson,  that  debts  cannot  be  paid  and  wealth  cannot  be  created  by  an 
Act  of  Congress.  .  .  "Yours  very  truly, 

"  EMERY  A.- STORRS." 

In  November    1878,  Mr.  Storrs  was    chosen  as  the    representa 
tive  speaker  of  the  city  of  Chicago  to  welcome  a  great   national 
and  international  commercial    convention,  which    held  its  sessions 
in  Farwell  hall,  and  which  was   attended  by  the  most   prominent 
604 


VARIOUS    PUBLIC    UTTERANCES.  605 

business  men  of  the  United  States  and  Canada.  In  delivering 
the  address  of  welcome  on  behalf  of  the  citizens  of  Chicago,  Mr. 
Storrs  said: 

"This  convention  possesses  a  profound  significance,  from  the  character 
of  the  delegates  who  are  here  assembled,  and  from  the  commanding 
importance  of  the  subject  which  you  are  convened  to  discuss  and  consider, 
— '  The  promotion  of  American  commerce,  and  to  suggest  the  best  means 
of  extending  our  trade  with  foreign  countries  in  North  and  South 
America.' 

"It  would  be  bold  and  presumptuous  in  me,  speaking  to  men  whose 
names  have  for  years  been  closely  identified  with  great  commercial 
enterprises,  to  attempt  to  forecast  the  line  which  your  discussions  will 
take,  or  to  suggest  the  methods  by  which  our  trade  may  be  extended. 
I  may,  however,  be  justified  in  saying  that  both  the  time  when  and  the 
place  where  this  convention  assembles  are  eminently  favorable  to  the 
intelligent  discussion  of  these  great  topics. 

"We  stand,  as  a  people,  I  firmly  believe,  upon  the  threshold  of 
returning  prosperity.  We  have  practically  emerged  from  the  embarrass 
ments  and  troubles  which  beset  all  business  enterprises  conducted  by  a 
depreciated  fluctuating  currency.  The  burdens  of  our  annual  taxation 
have  been  lessened  by  millions  of  dollars.  We  have  paid  in  full  the 
severe  penalties  of  fictitious  prices,  unreal  values,  and  an  unnaturally, 
stimulated  production.  The  severe  training  to  which  we  have  been 
subjected  has  reduced  us  in  flesh,  but  strengthened  us  in  muscle  and 
endurance;  and  looking  to  the  future,  seeing  promise  in  it,  we  are  pre 
pared  to  lift  to  its  feet  the  nearly  prostrate  form  of  American  commerce, 
and  carry  it  to  that  high  position  that  its  sails  shall  whiten  every  sea, 
and  its  flag  shall  float,  and  the  product  of  our  industry  be  found,  in 
every  port. 

"The  time  has  long  since  passed  when  a  nation  whose  pursuits  are  ex 
clusively  agricultural  can  long  sustain  itself.  To-day  a  market  is  as 
necessary  to  the  farmer  as  his  farm,  and  without  the  one  the  other  is 
worthless.  Every  new  market  is  a  positive  addition  to  his  wealth,  and 
every  shortening  of  lines  to  reach  those  markets  benefits  directly  every 
conceivable  form  of  industry.  We  have  learned  that  it  quite  impossible 
for  us  to  cut  ourselves  off  from  the  -rest  of  the  world,  or  to  regard  them 
as  enemies.  It  is  much  more  profitable  and  infinitely  more  pleasant  to 
trade  with  them  than  to  fight  with  them  ;  and  by  what  methods  new- 
customers  are  to  be  secured,  and  new  markets  gained,  will  form  one  of 
the  leading  topics  for  your  deliberations.  Your  purpose  is  not,  as  I  un 
derstand  it,  to  overcome  natural  disadvantages,  but  to  avail  yourselves  of 
those  great  natural  and  geographical  advantages  which  we  clearly  possess. 
You  prefer  to  ship  your  goods  to  Rio  Janeiro  by  some  more  direct  route 
than  via  Liverpool,  and  when  your  butter  or  cheese  reaches  a  South 
American  port  you  prefer  that  it  should  carry  the  brand  of  the  eagle 
rather  than  the  trade  mark  of  the  lion  and  the  unicorn.  It  is  ordained 


606  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

that  we  are  to  possess  this  continent,  and  we  will  not  fully  and  com 
pletely  do  this  unless  from  ocean  to  ocean  we  bind  it  together  with  bands 
of  steel  and  iron.  From  the  Golden  Gate,  on  the  Pacific  slope,  we  look 
across  that  peaceful  sea  to  the  far-off  China,  opening  her  gates  to  our 
commerce.  We  cannot  stretch  out  bands  of  iron  across  these  waters,  but 
we  may  surely  devise  some  means  by  which  our  ships,  sailing  under  our 
own  flag,  shall  traverse  them. 

"Thirty  years  ago  a  great  convention  assembled  in  this  city  to  discuss 
the  question  of  river  and  harbor  improvements.  Chicago  was  then  scarcely 
more  than  a  village,  but  the  influence  of  that  convention  was  felt  through 
out  the  whole  country.  Since  that  time  the  village  has  become  a  great 
metropolis,  the  very  heart  and  centre  of  a  colossal  commerce.  Commerce 
knows  no  sects,  and  is  limited  to  no  narrow  neighborhoods.  It  goes  wher 
ever  a  human  want  is  to  be  supplied  or  a  taste  gratified,  and  civilizes  as 
it  goes.  A  commercial  people  are  of  necessity  a  liberal  people,  and  no 
agency  converts  enemies  into  friends  so  surely  as  the  potent  agencies  of 
commercial  intercourse.  It  is  the  great  reconciler  and  conciliator,  for  where 
commercial  interests  are  identical,  there  can  be  no  differences  which  may 
not  be  reconciled.  You  are  met  in  a  great  city  of  the  mighty  Northwest. 
Its  crowded  streets,  its  palatial  business  houses,  its  busy  marts,  its  cease 
less  and  unwearied  activity  and  enterprise,  its  vast  and  far-reaching  rail 
road  interests,  the  chain  of  inland  seas  on  whose  bosom  floats  a  v'ast  com 
merce,  and  at  the  head  of  which  this  city  sits  like  a  queen,  all  presage  for 
it  a  future  which  shall  be  the  marvel  of  the  world.  To  this  city,  its  hos 
pitalities,  its  homes,  and  to  all  the  lessons  which  its  rapid  growth  teaches, 
you  are  as  the  representatives  of  not  only  a  national  but  a  world-wide 
commerce,  most  heartily  welcomed." 

About  this  time  the  New  York  GrapJiic  was  publishing  a 
series  of  articles  on  the  leading  cities  of  the  West,  illustrated 
with  pictures  of  the  principal  public  buildings;  and  in  March  1879 
Mr.  Storrs  was  requested  to  contribute  an  article  on  the  growth 
of  the  Chicago  live-stock  trade,  to  accompany  a  sketch  of  the 
Union  stock  yards.  He  did  so  in  a  very  readable  and  interest 
ing  article,  of  which  the  following  are  the  introductory  and  con 
cluding  portions: 

"Chicago  is  not  an  art  centre;  it  has  no  great  picture  galleries,  no  great 
public  libraries.  Perhaps  it  would  be  safe  to  say  it  has  no  great  pictures. 
It  has  no  great  public  buildings  ;  it  has  not  even  a  restaurant,  it  has  no 
opera  house,  it  has  hardly  a  first-class  public  hall ;  but  it  has  miles  and 
miles  of  magnificent  business  buildings  ;  it  has  an  inland  sea  lying  to  the 
east  of  it,  whose  shining  waters  are  before  me  now  ;  it  has  running  up  into 
the  heart  of  the  city  a  muddy,  wretched  stream  which  its  people  call  a 
river,  but  on  whose  stagnant  waters  floats  a  vast  commerce;  it  is  the  very 
kingdom  of  the  practical ;  it  is  an  elysium  for  results ;  it  is  the  empire  of 
corn,  and  wheat,  and  steers,  and  hogs,  and  lumber, — not  very  beautiful  nor 


VARIOUS    PUBLIC    UTTERANCES.  6O/ 

very  poetic  creations,  but  exceedingly  useful  to  the  natural  man.  I  have 
been  here  long  enough  to  rather  take  on  some  of  the  characteristics  of 
Chicago.  I  like  a  big  thing — a  power — no  matter  how  crude  or  raw  it  may 
be  in  its  exhibition.  Indeed,  so  saturated  am  I  with  the  Chicago  spirit  that 
I  would  be  glad  to  shake  hands  with  the  force  of  gravity  if  it  could  take 
material  form.  I  would  go  farther  to  see  the  force  of  gravity  than  I  would 
to  see  Hayes'  or  Evarts,  or  any  other  artist. 

"These  qualities  of  Chicago  which  I  have  mentioned  are  after  all  more 
worthy  of  admiration  than  the  more  pretentious  clatter  of  smaller  cities 
about  what  they  call  their  culture.  I  am  not  saying  that  there  are  not  literary 
men  and  women  in  Chicago, — indeed,  the  city  abounds  with  them, — but 
their  literature  and  their  art  and  their  music  are  secondary.  They  are  kept 
well  in  hand,  and  are  attended  to  after  business  hours.  I  venture  to  say 
that  such  a  thing  as  a  man  of  leisure  cannot  be  found  in  Chicago.  It 
would  be  considered  discreditable  to  be  a  man  of  leisure.  There  are  no 
bloated  bondholders  in  Chicago,  although  there  are  very  rich  men  ;  but  the 
hardest  working  men  I  ever  met  anywhere  are  the  rich  men  of  the  city  of 
Chicago.  They  know  no  leisure  ;  they  seek  no  leisure.  .  . 

"No  one  can  long  remain  in  this  Western  metropolis  without  actually 
feeling  its  growth.  The  time  is  not  far  distant  when  its  steers  and  hogs,  its 
corn  and  wheat  and  lumber  shall  return  to  it  in  rather  finer  and  more 
aesthetic  forms;  and  from  the' stockyards  and  pork-packing  establishments 
there  are  sure  to  come  some  day  great  libraries  and  splendid  galleries,  and 
music  and  the  drama  will  find  from  these  exceedingly  practical  and  unro- 
mantic  sources  their  best  temples  furnished,  and  shall  draw  from  them  their 
largest  and  most  liberal  encouragement.  The  men  of  Chicago  are  to-day 
engaged  in  rearing  a  colossal  commerce  and  in  transferring  to  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  the  seat  of  empire.  Its  palatial  homes  can  now  be  counted 
by  hundreds,  and  from  the  ashes  of  the  great  fire  has  risen,  so  far  as  its 
business  buildings  and  private  residences  are  concerned,  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  cities  on  the  continent." 

For  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  Illinois,  one  of  its  Judges 
was  the  subject  of  a  Congressional  investigation  in  the  spring  of 
1879.  Some  of  the  younger  members  of  the  bar  practising 
before  him  in  the  United  States  Court  for  the  Northern  District 
of  Illinois  complained  of  what  they  regarded  as  partiality  on  the 
part  of  Judge  Blodgett  towards  older  and  more  influential  lawyers, 
and  his  aggressive  bearing  toward  themselves.  A  feeling  of 
hostility  to  the  Judge  had  been  growing  for  some  time  in  the 
breasts  of  these  gentlemen,  and  in  the  fall  of  1878  one  of  them, 
in  excepting  to  the  Judge's  charge,  used  language  in  the  presence 
of  the  jury  which  Judge  Blodgett  regarded  as  disrespectful,  and 
as  amounting  to  contempt  of  court.  He  fined  the  offending 
attorney  $100,  and  committed  him  to  custody  until  it  was  paid. 


608  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Later  in  the  day  the  senior  partner  of  the  firm  apologized  and 
obtained  the  attorney's  discharge.  This  action  of  Judge  Blodgett 
fanned  the  smouldering  flame,  which  broke  out  in  communications 
to  the  press  reflecting  upon  the  Judge.  He  thereupon  demanded 
an  investigation  of  his  judicial  conduct,  and  a  committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  consisting  of  Messrs.  Proctor  Knott 
Culberson,  and  Lapham,  was  sent  to  Chicago  to  hear  evidence, 
the  inquiry  resulting  in  a  vindication  of  the  Judge,  his  accusers 
failing  to  show  anything  to  impeach  his  integrity,  and  the  witnesses* 
on  Judge  Blodgett's  behalf  preponderating  overwhelmingly,  both 
in  numbers  and  standing  at  the  Chicago  bar. 

Mr.  Storrs  was  in  New  York  while  the  investigation  was  pend 
ing,  and  a  representative  of  the  Graphic  interviewed  him  on  the 
subject.  Mr.  Storrs  was  at  all  times  accessible  to  the  gentlemen 
of  the  press,  and  except  when  he  saw-  occasion  for  reticence, 
always  communicated  freely  any  information  in  his  power  to 
give.  The  published  reports  of  interviews  with  Storrs  were  inva 
riably  read  with  attention,  for  he  was  regarded  as  an  oracle  on 
political  affairs,  and  on  all  questions  stated  his  views  clearly  and 
incisively,  and  often  in  a  witty  and  epigrammatic  way.  His 
opinion  of  the  Blodgett  case  was  thus  stated: 

"I  am  expressing  the  opinion  of  at  least  nineteen-twentieths  of  the  mem 
bers  of  the  Western  bar  when  I  say  that  no  case  will  be  made  against 
Judge  Blodgett  which  will  impeach  his  integrity  and  uprightness  as  a  judge, 
or  come  within  gunshot  of  being  sustained.  He  is  a  man  of  great  ability, 
of  remarkable  clearness  and  quickness  of  perception,  of  very  positive  opin 
ions,  of  a  somewhat  aggressive  character,  but  I  think  of  perfect  rectitude. 

"1  have  no  idea  that  the  result  of  an  investigation  of  Judge  Blodgett  will 
be  other  than  highly  beneficial  to  himself  and  satisfactory  to  his  friends. 

"The  air  has  been  filled  with  these  vague  charges  for  some  time.  The 
course  which  Judge  Blodgett  has  finally  determined  to  pursue  is  by  all 
odds  the  wisest.  I  think  that  left  to  himself  he  would  have  taken  that 
course  a  month  ago.  Indeed,  I  may  say  that  after  these  charges  had 
once  been  proclaimed  through  the  press,  an  investigation  was  inevitable — 
the  sooner  it  came  the  better.  The  purity  of  a  judge  cannot  be  vicariously 
defended.  The  party  assailed  must  do  the  defending,  and  that  instantly 
and  vigorously;  and  we  were  all  delighted  when  Judge  Blodgett  demanded 
the  investigation,  and  his  best  friends  are  insisting  that  it  be  most  search 
ing  and  exhausting. 

"Judge  Blodgett  does  not  possess  all  the  virtues.  You  must  remember 
that  he  is  burdened  with  an  immense  and  trying  business.  He  performs 
more  duties  than  any  other  two  District  Judges  in  the  United  States.  He  is 
a  man  of  somewhat  feeble  constitution.  He  travels  between  eighty  and 


VARIOUS    PUBLIC    UTTERANCES.  609 

ninety  miles  every  day  in  going  to  and  returning  from  court.  He  works 
every  night  from  eleven  to  twelve  o'clock.  The  profession  of  law  is  a  very 
noble  one,  but  it  is  the  last  in  the  world  that  a  naturally  stupid  or 
careless  man  should  follow,  and  I  hope  no  census  will  be  taken  of  that 
class  of  lawyers.  Judge  Blodgett  is  exceedingly  quick  and  clear,  and  with 
his  strong,  sound  judgment  he  has  no  patience  with  a  blundering  prac 
titioner.  He  has  suppressed  large  numbers  of  such  men  and  takes  but 
little  time  to  do  it.  The  natural  man,  although  he  be  a  lawyer,  does  not 
like  to  be  suppressed.  When  he  gets  out  of  doors  he  makes  a  noise, 
and  if  he  has  been  pretty  badly  beaten  takes  his  case  before  a  somewhat 
easier  judge  on  the  sidewalk.  Many  cases  have  been  appealed  from 
judge  Blodgett  to  the  sidewalk,  and  the  gentlemen  appealing  them  had 
better  luck  there  than  in  the  courts.  Judge  Blodgett  has  some  infirmities 
of  temper,  of  which  he  is  as  conscious  as  any  one.  He  is  a  very  kind- 
hearted  man.  But  in  the  morning  after  being  badgered  in  Chambers, 
bothered  with  a  bad  digestion,  meeting  the  crowd  of  lawyers  as  he  comes 
upon  the  bench  with  a  docket  before  him  which  seems  interminable,  it 
is  not  very  surprising  that  he  should  be  unstrung  at  times.  But  the  ma 
jority  of  those  who  have  been  brought  into  relations  with  Judge  Blodgett 
have  sense  enough  to  know  that  while  such  incivility  may  have  annoyed 
them  at  the  time,  behind  it  all  was  the  able  and  upright  judge  and  the 
honorable  man.  The  feeling  entertained  by  them  is  one  of  sympathy  for 
the  physical  infirmities  of  the  man  coupled  with  admiration  of  his  mind. 
I  wish  to  note  right  here  another  test  which,  among  lawyers,  is  regarded 
as  very  decisive  as  to  the  fairness  of  a  judge — the  preparation  of  bills 
of  exceptions  for  appeals  to  the  Supreme  Court.  I  have  had  some  ex 
perience  in  that  matter  with  Judge  Blodgett.  There  never  was  a  fairer 
man.  He  will  give  the  complaining  lawyer  as  fair  a  bill  of  exceptions 
as  any  one  can  ask  for.  As  far  as  my  experience  goes  he  is  entirely 
willing  to  furnish  every  facility  for  a  very  complete  review  of  his  opinions  and 
abundant  chance  to  reverse  them  if  they  are  wrong.  He  decides  against 
you  positively.  When  you  go  up  he  treats  you  fairly  and  accepts  his  defeat 
gracefully." 

The  conversation  broadened  out  into  a  discussion  of  lawyers  in 
general.  "From  an  experience  with  the  Chicago  bar  of  nearly 
twenty  years,"  he  said,  "it  would  be  difficult,  in  my  judgment,  to 
find  a  superior  lot  of  men  to  deal  with,  and  I  am  pretty  well 
acquainted  with  lawyers  throughout  the  United  States.  It  is  an 
industrious  bar,  a  painstaking  bar,  as  a  whole.  Of  course  some 
fellows  jumped  in  when  the  fences  were  down,  but  few  men  who 
are  members  of  the  Chicago  bar  can  be  called  disreputable." 

As  to  the  Chicago  practice  in  divorce  cases,  he  said: — "The 
divorce  business  in  the  city  of  Chicago  is  conducted  in  as  legiti 
mate  a  way  and  as  carefully  as  in  any  State  in  the  Union.  The 
39 


6lO  LIFE    OF    EME-R-Y    A.    STORKS. 

witnesses  must  be  heard  in  open  court  and  testimony  cannot  be 
taken  before  a  Master  in  Chancery,  or  a  referee.  The  Judges 
themselves  are  exceedingly  jealous  in  hearing  the  evidence,  and 
in  many  instances  after  the  counsel  had  dropped  the  witnesses 
have  examined  them  again  most  searchingly  themselves.  Of 
course  it  is  very  difficult  to  guard  against  perjury;  but  a  fraudu 
lent  divorce  cannot  be  procured  in  Illinois  without  deliberate, 
wilful,  corrupt  perjury  committed  in  open  court.  We  are  there 
fore  very  little  troubled  with  divorce  'shysters.' 

The  interviewer  asked  Mr.  Storrs'  opinion  as  to  the  undue 
preponderance  of  lawyers  in  the  State  Legislatures  and  in  Con 
gress. 

"  I  suppose  that  these  lawyers  were  elected  by  majorities,  and  I  think 
the  majority  should  rule." 

"That   is  an   ingenious   but   scarcely    a   candid    answer." 

"I  will  be  entirely  candid  with  you.  I  believe  that,  taken  all  in  all, 
the  lawyer  makes  a  better  legislator  than  the  merchant,  the  banker  or 
the  farmer.  I  think  he  has  fewer  prejudices  and  more  knowledge.  I  am 
no  believer  in  our  reaching  the  millennium  through  the  predominance  of 
the  business  man  in  politics.  You  hear  a  good  deal  nowadays  of  putting 
the  Treasury  Department  and  other  Governmental  offices  under  the  charge 
of  business  men  who  have  accumulated  money.  You  cannot  put  your 
finger  on  the  name  of  any  great  national  financier  in  this  country  who 
has  been  a  man  of  wealth.  Alexander  Hamilton  stands  at  the  head  of 
all  that  class  of  men,  and  while  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  he  sent  on 
one  day  letters  to  various  parties  asking  for  the  loan  of  $20.  Gallatin 
was  not  a  rich  man.  Hamilton  was  a  lawyer;  Salmon  P.  Chase  was  a 
lawyer ;  he  never  sold  any  dry  goods,  nor  did  he  epgage  in  any  mer 
cantile  business.  It  is  almost  proverbial  that  our  greatest  national  finan 
ciers  have  been  the  poorest  men.  A  national  financier  differs  from  the 
private  merchant,  whose  essential  quality  is  profitable  management  of  his 
money  and  who  must  accumulate  to  meet  the  requirements  of  his  busi 
ness.  A  government  has  no  business  to  accumulate  any  larger  sums  of 
money  than  it  needs  to  pay  its  expenses.  Accumulation  by  the  govern 
ment  means  just  that  amount  of  additional  taxation  upon  the  people.  1 
think  the  trouble  with  the  lawyers  is  that  in  many  instances  they  do  not 
know  enough  law  to  be  good  lawyers  and  know  a  little  too  much  law 
to  be  good  business  men.  I  hope  you  will  consider  this  as  candid. 

"It  is  alleged  in  support  of  this  opposition  to  a  predominance  of  lawyers 
in  legislative  bodies  that  the  natural  tendency  of  the  legal  mind  is  not 
towards  clearness  and  accuracy  of  legislation,  and  that,  whether  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  they  are  inclined  to  frame  laws  which  admit  of  two  inter 
pretations,  so  that  litigation  is  provoked.  Is  this  true?" 

"  No,  it  is  not  true  ;  no  lawyer  worthy  of  the  name  would    ever  frame  a 


VARIOUS    PUBLIC    UTTERANCES.  6 1  I 

statute  with  a  view  to  provoke  future  litigation  any  more  than  he  would  try 
to  involve  his  client  in  further  litigation.  I  can  hardly  conceive  that  possi 
ble.  There  may  be  some  difficulty  such  as  you  suggest.  We  find,  for 
instance,  a  good  deal  of  difficulty  in  redundant  forms  of  pleading,  but  those 
that  blunder  through*  ignorance  of  correct  modes  of  pleading  do  not  make 
money  by  it.  This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  law,  which  cannot  be  held  res 
ponsible  for  the  dunces  that  fail  to  follow  it.  Clear  heads  in  any  profession 
in  this  world  are  the  exception,  and  such  a  facility  of  expression  as  will 
exclude  every  other  meaning  excepting  the  one  intended  is  a  faculty  pos 
sessed  by  few  mortals.  I  do  not  expect  to  live  long  enough  to  see  the  day 
when  there  will  be  such  general  accuracy  of  statement  in  editorials, 
speeches,  legal  opinions  or  statutes  as  to  avoid  all  chance  of  misunder 
standing  or  misconstruction  ;  yet  I  think  the  tendency  of  legal  training  is 
towards  accuracy  of  statement,  and  I  believe  that  the  good  lawyer  can  put 
an  idea  upon  paper  mort  clearly  and  precisely  than  a  good  mechanic, 
good  merchant,  or  good  farmer.  But  a  clear-headed  farmer  is  by  all  means 
preferable  to  a  fuddled-headed  lawyer." 

"  Was  the  convention  which  framed  the  present  new  Constitution  of  Illi 
nois  largely  composed  of  lawyers  ?  ' ' 

"Very  largely.  I  am  not  able  to  give  the  exact  proportion,  save  that 
there  was  a  preponderating  legal  element." 

"Has  the   practical   working  of   that   Constitution   been   successful?" 

"  It  has  ;  indeed,  I  may  say  almost  entirely  so.  There  is  perhaps  a 
little  too  much  legislation  in  that  Constitution.  That  is  the  fault  of  nearly 
all  our  constitutions;  they  deal  rather  too  minutely  with  details." 

"  Do  you  not  think  that  as  a  rule  justice  is  more  speedy  and  that  the 
general  welfare  is  better  protected  in  a  country  like  England,  where 
there  is  no  written  constitution,  than  here  where  we  are  hampered  by 
cast-iron  organic  laws?" 

"You  submit  to  me  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  all  questions.  I  think 
I  am  rather  inclined  to  uphold  the  superiority  of  justice  in  this  country 
over  that  in  England.  But  I  very  much  doubt  what  the  final  outcome 
of  written  constitutions  will  be.  We  are  growing  out  of  them  and  adding 
to  them  constantly,  while  the  English  Constitution  is  made  by  the  people 
every  day  they  live.  Our  Constitution,  however,  although  written,  is  made 
and  altered  by  the  people.  The  first  thing  we  did  with  it  was  to  violate 
it  by  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  and  Florida.  Hence  the  absurdity  of 
placing  a  strict  construction  on  it." 

"Is   there    not    an    undue   multiplicity  of  tribunals?" 

"I  think  so,  especially  in  New  York.  But  it  is  different  in  Illinois; 
no  Circuit  Judge  there  interferes  with  another.  I  think  that  the  writ  of 
injunction  is  much  more  carefully  respected  in  Illinois  than  in  New  York. 
Such  a  thing  as  one  Judge  granting  a  stay  of  proceedings  in  matters 
pending  before  another  Judge  would  not  be  tolerated  there." 

Finally  the  conversation  drifted  round  to  politics,  and  Mr. 
Storrs  pronounced  emphatically  for  General  Grant  for  a  third 


6l2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

term,  and  expressed  with  entire  openness  and  frankness  his  opin 
ion  of  President  Hayes: 

"Mr  Storrs,  in  the  course  of  our  conversation  you  have  incidentally 
mentioned  General  Grant.  What- is  the  feeling  in  Illinois  in  regard  to  the 
third  term?" 

"  If  a  convention  of  the  Republicans  were  to  be  held  to-morrow  for  the 
purpose  of  selecting  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency  in  1880,  I  think  Gen 
eral  Grant  would  receive  forty-nine  out  of  every  fifty  votes.  This  feeling 
extends  throughout  Illinois  and  the  entire  West." 

"To  what  do  you  attribute  this  feeling?" 

"To  Grant's  character  and  the  confidence  that  under  his  administration 
every  citizen  will  be  protected  in  his  rights." 

"The  accusations  which  have  so  freely  been  made  against  him  have,  I 
suppose,  worn  themselves  out?" 

"Yes." 

"Is  there  not  a  feeling  of  disappointment  in  the  Republican  party  with 
respect  to  President  Hayes?" 

"  Yes  ;  decidedly." 

"What  is  the  reason  for  it?" 

"  The  impression  is  that  there  is  a  general  lack  of  firmness — a  general 
tenderfootedness  and  goody-goodiness  without  anything  specific  about  it  one 
way  or  the  other,  a  disposition  to  swap  old  friends  for  old  enemies:  an  idea 
that  he  is  not  wholly  sincere  ;  that  he  will  blunder  and  founder — in  other 
words,  that  you  can't  always  tell." 

"And  as  respects  the  Cabinet,  Mr.  Storrs?" 

"  The  Cabinet  is  regarded  among  Republicans  as  a  collection  something 
like  those  which  are  gathered  together  by  the  societies  for  the  cultivation 
of  decorative  art,  some  things  passably  tolerable,  some  things  curious,  but 
among  the  bric-a-brac  a  good  deal  of  rubbish.  I  think  Sherman  is  regarded 
as  a  strong  man  by  the  Republicans,  McCrary  is  certainly  a  good  Repub 
lican.  Fifty  years  ago  Secretary  Thompson  was  a  well-known  man.  As 
to  Mr.  Schurz  I  refer  you  to  General  Sheridan." 

"What  is  the  opinion  as  to  the  legality  of  Mr.  Hayes'  election?" 

"I  think  the  Republicans  believe  that  he  was  fairly  elected  President. 
They  believe  that  with  a  fair  election  in  those  States  which  were  decisive 
there  never  would  have  been  a  question  or  the  necessity  for  a  count.  The 
Republicans  of  the  West  believe  in  the  Constitutional  amendments  and  in 
civil  rights ;  and  I  think  they  believe  there  were  at  least  five  States  in  which 
majorities  were  disfranchised.  They  are  in  favor  of  making  a  hot  fight 
until  this  state  of  things  shall  cease  ;  and  for  that  purpose  a  stalwart,  mas 
culine  man  is  needed,  marching  to  music  that  shall  not  come  from  flutes 
and  to  old  tunes  which  do  not  include  'The  Shining  Shore.'  We  shall 
certainly  succeed  with  such  a  man.  I  believe  that  with  a  President  in 
dead  earnest  the  Constitutional  amendments  and  the  laws  in  furtherance  of 
them  will  be  carried  out  to  the  letter  in  both  the  North  and  the  South." 

"Is  it   not   possible   that  the   former   Republican   majorities  in   the   South 


VARIOUS    PUBLIC    UTTERANCES.  613 

have  been  gained  over  to  the  side  of  the  Democrats  by  motives  of  self 
interest  ?' ' 

"  I  don't  think  that  is  possible.  Think  of  South  Carolina  being  Demo 
cratic  !  All  the  evidence  is  the  other  way.  I  don't  think  that  Tilden's 
Literary  Bureau  has  sufficient  ability  to  convert  the  colored  people.  The 
negro  is  a  Republican  to-day.  He  can  never  forget  that  he  owes  his 
emancipation  to  the  Republican  party." 

"You  said  that  the  platform  of  the  Republican  party  in  1880  is  to  be 
composed  of  two  principles — honest  money  and  an  honest  ballot — do  you 
mean  by  honest  money  what  we  have  now  ? ' ' 

"Yes;  I  mean  a  currency  redeemable  in  coin  at  the  option  of  the 
holder,  in  other  words  such  a  currency  as  the  majorities  in  New  York 
and  Illinois  voted  for  at  the  last  election." 

"Within  the  last  few  days  several  Western  gentlemen  of  prominence 
and  high  intelligence,  in  conversation  with  me,  have  insisted  that  the 
fiat  money  cause,  so  far  from  showing  any  weakness  was  stronger  than 
ever,  was  making  demonstrations  of  its  strength  and  was  certain  of  finally 
winning  its  way  to  supremacy." 

"I  don't  think  there  is  a  particle  of  foundation  for  these  assertions.  I 
think  I  can  speak  for  Illinois  with  confidence,  and  for  Michigan  with  some 
knowledge  of  its  people,  and  also  of  Iowa  and  Wisconsin.  You  never  will 
live  to  %ee  the  day  when  fiat  money  will  be  as  strong  as  it  showed  itself 
when  so  overwhelmingly  defeated  last  fall.  I  think  there  is  a  strange  mis 
take  about  these  financial  heresies,  and  I  believe  that  we  are  now  on  the 
road,  with  the  aid  of  a  fixed  and  stable  currency,  to  unexampled  prosperity. 
Fiat  money  is  a  craze.  I  think  it  is  dead  at  least  for  this  generation." 

"  Resumption  being  assured  and  successful,  as  you  believe  it  will  be,  will 
not  Secretary  Sherman  receive  the  credit  for  it,  and  will  not  that  make  him 
a  very  formidable  candidate  for  the  Republican  nomination  even  as  against 
Grant?" 

"Secretary  Sherman  will  undoubtedly  receive  very  great  credit,  but 
that  will  not  make  him  President  and  it  won't  even  make  him  a  candi 
date  in  the  convention.  I  believe  the  renomination  of  Grant  in  1880  is 
fore-ordained.  Grant  combines  so  many  qualities  that  the  people  admire. 
His  achievements  are  so  positive  and  real,  and  he  has  carried  himself 
while  abroad  with  such  perfect  poise,  has  shown  a  judgment  under  very- 
trying  circumstances  so  much  wiser  than  even  his  best  friends  expected, 
that  he  will  come  back  here  with  a  power  which  will  make  him  Presi 
dent  for  a  third  term  in  spite  of  all  attempted  opposition." 

"  Having  re-elected  him  in  1880  what  will  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
people  reinstating  him  indefinitely?" 

"  I  know  of  no  law  which  would  prevent  the  people  of  the  United 
States  from  re-electing  a  President  as  many  times  as  they  choose.  But 
there  is  plenty  of  time  to  talk  about  that  when  he  shall  have  served  his 
third  term." 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 


CHICAGO   CITY   MISGOVERNMENT. 

THE  CHICAGO  MUNICIPAL  ELECTION  OF  1879— MR.  STORKS  AT  A  MASS- 
MEETING  OF  REPUBLICANS  IN  FARWELL  HALL  OPPOSES  HANDING  OVER 
THE  CITY  GOVERNMENT  TO  THE  DEMOCRATS — COMPARISON  OF  REPUBLICAN 
AND  DEMOCRATIC  MUNICIPAL  GOVERNMENT — THE  ELECTION  LAWS,  WHICH 
THE  BRIGADIERS  IN  CONGRESS  SOUGHT  TO  REPEAL — CARTER  HARRISON 
ELECTED. 

THE  misgovernment  of  the  municipal  affairs  of  the  city  of 
Chicago,  which  it  was  fondly  hoped  would  be  cured  by 
the  reorganization  of  the  city  government  under  the  general  law 
in  1875,  was  not  corrected  by  that  measure.  The  Constitution 
of  the  State  of  Illinois,  adopted  in  1870,  provided  that  all  cities 
in  the  State  might  organize  under  a  general  charter  or  law,  and 
that  if  any  city  so  decided,  an  election  should  take  place  on  the 
1 8th  of  April.  Mr.  Colvin  had  been  elected  Mayor  of  Chicago 
on  the  Democratic  ticket  in  1873,  for  two  years,  his  term  expir 
ing  in  December  1875.  The  new  charter  was  adopted  at  the 
election  held  in  April  1875,  of  which  mention  has  already  been 
made.  Under  it  the  Mayor  was  to  hold  office  two  years,  and  a 
new  set  of  aldermen  were  to  be  chosen  at  the  next  election.  A 
conspiracy  was  formed  by  Mayor  Colvin  and  the  existing  Coun 
cil  to  extend  the  power  of  the  sitting  aldermen  one  year  and 
that  of  Colvin  for  two  years;  and  the  simple  device  by  which 
this  was  done  was  the  calling  of  the  election  at  which  the  adop 
tion  of  the  new  charter  was  to  be  voted  upon  for  the  230!  of 
April,  or  five  days  after  the  election  should  have  been  held  if 
the  charter  had  been  in  force.  To  ensure  this  end  the  existing 
registration  law  was  repealed  by  a  bill  smuggled  through  the 
Illinois  legislature,  and  then,  all  safeguards  being  removed,  the 
614 


CHICAGO    CITY    MISGOVERNMENT.  615 

election  adopting  the  new  charter  was  carried  by  ballot-box 
stuffing  and  fraud. 

On  the  1 8th  of  April,  1876,  there  was  an  election  for  alder 
men,  and  the  old  leeches  \vere  shaken  off;  but,  in  order  to  give 
Colvin  still  another  year  of  the  Mayoralty,  the  call  for  the  election 
designedly  omitted  to  state  that  a  vote  would  be  taken  for 
Mayor  as  well;  and  Mr.  Colvin  proposed  to  "hold  over"  in 
spite  of  the  people.  The  citizens  of  Chicago,  indignant  at  this 
outrageous  piece  of  usurpation,  cast  30,000  votes  out  of  a  total 
vote  of  33,000  for  Hon.  Thomas  Moyne  as  Mayor.  For  some 
days  the  extraordinary  spectacle  was  witnessed  in  Chicago  of 
a  city  government  with  two  heads,  each  having  officers  of  his 
own  appointing,  and  each  seeking  to  thwart  and  circumvent  the 
other.  The  courts  soon  put  an  end  to  the  muddle  by  deciding 
that  the  new  Council  must  call  a  new  election,  giving  the 
notice  which  the  law  required,  and  in  July  1876  Hon.  Monroe 
Heath  was  elected,  and  held  the  office  down  to  April  1879. 

Mr.  Heath  was  a  Republican,  and  under  his  administration, 
the  yearly  appropriation  for  municipal  purposes,  which  under 
Colvin  in  1875  was  over  ^ve  millions  of  dollars,  in  1878  had 
been  reduced  to  three  millions  and  a  half.  The  credit  of  the 
city,  which  had  been  at  a  disgracefully  low  ebb  through  Demo 
cratic  peculation  and  extravagance,  was  restored  in  every  com 
mercial  centre  in  the  world.  The  Democratic  supervisor  of  the 
southern  division  of  the  city  had  been  counted  in  by  ballot- 
box  frauds,  but  the  opposition  of  the  citizens  was  so  great  that 
he  was  obliged  to  retire,  and  Hon. '  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  afterwards 
Secretary  of  War  in  President  Garfield's  cabinet,  was  elected  in 
his  place. 

Under  a  Republican  municipal  government,  the  city  of  Chi 
cago  had  been  prospering,  and  but  for  the  supineness  of  the 
Republican  citizens  might  have  still  continued  to  prosper.  But 
in  1879  the  Democrats  made  another  determined  effort  to  cap 
ture  the  city  administration,  and  put  forward  as  their  candidate 
Carter  H.  Harrison,  who  had  for  two  years  previously  been  repre 
senting  a  district  of  the  city  in  Congress.  The  Republicans 
nominated  Mr.  A.  H.  Wright,  a  member  of  the  Chicago  Board 
of  Trade.  A  large  mass-meeting  was  held  in  Farwell  hall,  at 
which  Hr.  Storrs  delivered  a  stirring  speech,  reminding  his  aud- 


6l6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

ience  of  the  danger  of  handing  over  to  the  Democrats  the  muni 
cipal  power  of  Chicago,  especially  in  view  of  the  attempts  being 
made  by  a  Democratic  Congress  to  repeal  the  election  laws, 
which  had  been  passed  as  a  necessary  safeguard  of  Republicans 
at  the  South,  and  of  decent  citizens  everywhere,  to  prevent  their 
being  driven  away  from  the  polls.  He  spoke  substantially  as 
follows : 

"The  old  call  is  made  upon  the  old  Puritan  element  of  this  great  city 
of  Illinois,  which  has  been  reared  on  the  shores  of  this  lake, — probably  the 
grandest  achievement  in  the  way  of  a  commercial  city  that  this  world  has 
ever  witnessed.  This  City  of  Chicago  is,  above  all  things,  and  beyond  all 
things,  a  free  city,  and  it  is  the  outgrowth  of  the  spirit  of  free  men.  To-day 
the  free'  men  of  the  City  of  Chicago  are  coolly  asked  to  surrender  its  in 
terests  ;  to  transfer  them  from  the  hands  of  •  the  Republican  party,  in 
whose  custody  for  the  last  three  years  they  have  been,  into  the 
hands  of  the  Democracy.  I  decline  to  accept  the  invitation  and  I 
am  constrained  to  think  that  this  vast  audience  that  face  me  to-night 
are  quite  prepared  to  agree  with  me  in  that  declaration.  The  magnifi 
cent  results  in  the  administration  of  the  last  three  years  are  not  the  work 
of  any  Reform  Common  Council,  gentlemen.  They  are  the  work  of  a 
Republican  Mayor  and  a  Republican  Common  Council.  [Applause.]  I 
know  of  but  one  reform  party  in  the  country.  It  is  the  Republican 
party.  [Applause.]  I  know  of  but  one  party  anywhere  on  the  face  of 
the  habitable  globe  that  is  the  incarnation  of  wickedness  and  all  that  is 
infernal  in  politics,  and  it  is  the  Democratic  party.  [Laughter  and  ap 
plause.]  There  are  other  bad  parties,  but  the  Democratic  party  is  bad 
ness  itself.  There  is  the  same  difference  between  the  Democratic  party 
and  a  bad  party  that  there  is  between  having  the  small-pox  and  being  the 
small-pox.  Many  a  very  decent  fellow  has  had  the  small-pox  and  has 
been  pitied  for  it.  [Laughter.]  The  small-pox  is  indescribably  and  unan 
imously  bad.  [Renewed  laughter.]  This  party,  which  has  had  a  univer 
sity  for  training  in  political  heresies  and  demagogism  for  the  last  thirty 
years ;  this  party  which  is  '  an  organized  appetite ; '  this  party  which  is 
an  embodied  hunger,  comes  to  the  front  and  looks  to  a  well-supplied 
table,  and,  with  dry  juices  from  all  the  corners  of  its  mouth,  says  it 
wants  no  food,  but  it  would  like  to  appropriate  the  table.  [Great  laugh 
ter.]  I  don't  wish  to  speak,  and  I  think  I  have  not  spoken,  disrespect 
fully  of  the  Democratic  party.  I  am  resolved  that  I  shall  say  nothing 
uncivil  of  its  candidate,  Mr.  Harrison, — probably  one  of  the  most  distin 
guished  orators  on  the  continent.  In  his  rhetoric  there  is  nothing  mere 
tricious.  It  is  hard,  solid,  relentless  logic, — is  n't  it?  [Derisive  laughter.] 
He  is  a  politician  without  ambition,  and  a  citizen  without  guile,  is  Carter 
Harrison.  [More  laughter.] 

"They  have  announced  an  exceedingly  curious  programme.  They  have 
declared  that  in  this  canvass  they  are  not  going  to  discuss  politics  of 


CHICAGO    CITY    MISGOVERNMENT.  6i; 

any  kind  ;  they  shall  have  nothing  to  say  about  national  rights  and  noth 
ing  to  say  about  municipal  affairs.  If  I  were  a  member  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  I  should  feel  the  same  way.  [Laughter.]  If  1  belonged  to 
a  political  organization  whose  past  was  as  foul  and  leprous  as  its,  I  would 
say  'For  God's  sake,  fellow-citizens,  keep  your  eyes  to  the  front;  let 
us  say  nothing  about  its  past  career,  but  bury  it  as  soon  as  possible 
out  of  existence.'  [Laughter.]  Carter  Harrison  proposes  to  conduct  the 
campaign  upon  merely  personal  issues.  I  desire  to  announce  here  and  now 
that  I  am  as  much  in  favor  of  A.  M.  Wright  because  of  the  men  opposed 
to  him  as  for  any  other  consideration  ;  and  I  am  as  much  opposed  to 
Carter  Harrison  because  of  the  men  that  are  for  him  as  for  anything  else. 
[Laughter.] 

"  From  the  course  which  this  canvass  has  taken  thus  far,  it  has  become  very 
evident  that  a  defence  of  the  Republican  administration  of  the  affairs  of 
this  city  since  Monroe  Heath  assumed  the  office  of  Mayor  is  entirely  unnec 
essary  ;  for,  as  eagerly  as  the  Democratic  party  covet  the  possession  of 
political  power  in  this  city,  as  important  as  they  deem  it  with  reference  to 
the  great  contest  upon  which  we  are  to  enter  in  1880,  as  unscrupulous  as 
they  have  been  and  would  be  in  the  use  of  means  to  secure  the  political 
power  of  this  city,  I  have  yet  to  learn  that  any  attack  has  been  made  upon 
the  Republican  administration  of  our  municipal  affairs.  This  leaves  our 
municipal  history,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned  as  a  body,  unquestioned  and 
unchallenged.  So  satisfactory  has  it  been,  and  so  gratifying  have  its  results 
been,  that  the  approval  and  indorsement  which  it  meets  is  well-nigh  unan 
imous.  Nevertheless,  as  the  people  of  the  City  of  Chicago  are  now  asked 
to  change  that  administration  from  one  party  to  another, — from  the  party 
whose  administration  has  been  so  successful  that  no  one  challenges  or  ques 
tions  it, — it  is  well  for  us  to  remember,  before  we  answer  that  request,  pre 
cisely  what  the  Republican  party  has  done  for  the  City  of  Chicago  within 
the  last  four  years.  It  found  our  city  grievously  burdened  with  debt  and 
with  a  shattered  credit,  with  its  paper  under  protest,  with  millions  of  its 
taxes  uncollected,  with  its  police  force  demoralized,  and  with  crime  running 
rampant.  It  has  changed  all  this ;  it  has  reduced  its  appropriations  to  such 
an  extent  that  for  1878  they  were  $1,345,048.49  less  than  they  were  in 
1875- 

"During  that  time  our  bonded  debt  has  been  reduced  $400,000.  The 
revenue  warrants  issued  by  the  Republican  administration  in  1876  are  paid 
in  full ;  those  issued  in  1877  are  all  paid  but  a  triflmg  sum.  Our  police 
force  was  never  in  better  shape;  our  Fire  Department  is  nearly  perfect  in 
organization  and  efficiency  ;  the  laws  are  efficiently  administered  ;  our  credit 
stands  second  to  that  of  no  city  in  the  nation;  and  under  the  wise  adminis 
tration  of  Mayor  Heath  we  have  reached  a  condition  of  solid  prosperity 
which  challenges  the  admiration  and  the  gratitude  of  every  good  citizen. 
There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  policy,  so  fruitful  of  good  and  flat 
tering  results,  will  be  changed  if  the  Republican  party  is  continued,  even 
though  A.  M.  Wright  fill  the  place  which  has  been  so  worthily  occupied  by 
Monroe  Heath.  It  is  but  fair  that  we  should  expect  the  Republican  party 


6l8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

in  the  future  to  pursue  the  same  line  of  policy  which  it  has  adopted  and 
pursued  in  the  past ;  and  there  is  no  ordinarily  sane  or  intelligent  man  who, 
confining  his  observations  to  our  city  boundaries,  can  look  upon  the  transfer 
of  this  power  from  the  Republican  party  to  the  Democratic  party,  with  its 
recognized  hunger  and  greed  for  plunder,  without  the  greatest  and  most 
serious  apprehensions.  I  trust  that  our  people  will  pause  very  long  before 
they  decide  to  make  such  a  change  ;  for  no  man  can  state  an  intelligent 
reason  affecting  the  local  interests  of  this  city  why  such  a  change  should  be 
made. 

"Carter  Harrison  knows  very  well  that  he  asks  to  be  elected  Mayor  of 
Chicago  for  a  purpose  ;  and  for  a  purpose  reaching  far  beyond  the  mere 
gratification  of  his  personal  vanity  in  holding  that  high  office.  He  asks  to 
be  elected  Mayor  of  Chicago  in  order  that  his  past  political  record  may  be 
approved  by  the  people  of  the  great  city  in  which  he  lives ;  and  you  may 
reason  and  refine  upon  it  as  you  will,  his  election  as  Mayor  of  Chicago  is 
an  indorsement  and  ratification  of  his  political  course,  What,  then,  are  the 
objections  to  Carter  Harrison,  so  far  as  the  indorsement  of  his  political  opin 
ions,  policy  and  conduct  is  concerned  ?  They  are  so  numerous  that  the  time 
alloted  to  me  to-night  would  hardly  enable  me  to  state  them.  He  is,  first 
and  foremost,  a  Democrat;  and  at  this  time,  in  the  midst  of  the  perils 
which  now  surround  us,  that,  to  any  patriotic  citizen,  Republican  or  otherwise, 
ought  to  be  sufficient.  But  he  is  a  Bourbon  Democrat,  who  has  drawn  his  polit 
ical  lessons  from  sectional  fountains,  and  in  whom  the  belief  of  State  Rights  and 
State  Sovereignty  is  so  thoroughly  ingrained  that  nothing  on  earth  can  ever 
eradicate  it  from  him.  He  opposed  the  war  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union,  and  remained  with  and  was  an  active  member  of  the  party  which 
opposed  it.  He  denied  the  right  of  this  Union  to  save  itself  by  a  forcible 
putting  down  of  armed  rebellion  against  its  rightful  power  and  authority  ; 
and  he  was  a  consistent,  and  vigorous  member  of  the  party  which  com 
mitted  itself  to  that  doctrine.  He  denied  the  right  of  coercion;  he  opposed 
the  organization  of  armies  for  the  salvation  of  the  Union;  he  opposed  the 
conscription  law ;  he  opposed  the  draft ;  he  opposed  during  the  war,  and  so 
did  the  party  to  which  he  belonged,  every  single  measure  which  looked  to 
its  successful  prosecution;  he  opposed,  and  so  did  the  party  of  which  he 
was  a  member,  the  creation  'of  our  national  currency ;  he  opposed  the 
greenback  ;  he  opposed  the  National  bank  note  ;  indeed  down  to  the  close 
of  the  war,  Carter  Harrison  individually,  and  as  one  of  the  Democratic  party, 
opposed  every  measure  which  the  people  of  this  country  succeeded  in 
triumphantly  adopting.  He  was  a  member  of  that  party,  active,  zealous ; 
and  himself  believed,  as  the  party  declared  in  1864,  that  the  War  was  a 
failure  ;  and  had  it  been  left  to  Carter  Harrison  he  would  have  called  our 
armies  home,  with  their  banners  trailing  in  defeat.  Carter  Harrison  had 
the  right  to  all  these  opinions ;  he  had  a  perfect  right  to  the  expression  of 
those  opinions ;  but  the  stern  logic  of  this  world  in  political  affairs,  and  the 
necessities  of  .this  world  in  political  affairs,  have  made  men  responsible  for 
the  correctness  of  the  political  opinions  which  they  advocated  and  enter 
tained  ;  and  in  all  other  times,  and  in  all  other  countries,  a  steady  persis- 


CHICAGO    CITY    MISGOVEKNMENT. 

tence  in  political  heresis  of  so  serious  a  character  as  finally  to  lead  to  civil 
\\ar,  has  consigned  those  who  believed  in  them  to  political  exile  and  out 
lawry.  So  universal  has  this  rule  been  in  its  application,  that  until  quite 
recently  even  the  parties  subjected  to  this  rigorous  measure  of  punishment 
have  made  no  complaint. 

"His  course  since  the  war  has  been  just  as  steadily  and  persistently 
wrong.  During  all  that  time  he  has  been  an  active  and  zealous  member 
of  that  party  which  in  1868  declared  the  reconstruction  measures  revolu 
tionary,  unconstitutional,  and  void  ;  and  I  am  entirely  justified  in  saying 
that  in  the  opinion  of  Carter  Harrison  these  measures  included  all  the  con 
stitutional  amendments, — that  which  gave  freedom  to  the  votes, — that  which 
made  him  a  citizen  and  secured  him  in  the  privileges  of  citizenship, — and 
that  which  gave  him  the  right  to  vote,  were  revolutionary,  unconstitutional, 
and  void ;  and  I  have  yet  to  learn  that  he  has  recanted  those  opinions. 

"That  is  not  all.  In  1868  he  and  the  party  to  which  he  belonged 
favored  the  practical  repudiation  of  the  National  debt ;  and  as  they  had 
previously  sought  the  destruction  of  the  National  life,  they  then  sought 
the  destruction  of  the  National  honor  and  integrity.  He  and  the 
party  to  which  he  belonged  advocated  the  payment  of  the  debt  in 
greenbacks.  His  whole  course  has  been  one  of  reaction,  and  politically  of 
obstinate  and  persistent  opposition  to  every  great  measure  of  public  policy 
which  has  made  us  a  nation, — which  has  elevated  us  from  a  mere  jangling 
combination  of  jarring  States  into  one  and  indivisible  Union.  Carter  Harri 
son,  as  a  Democrat,  has  opposed  every  great  measure  in  Congress  which 
looked  to  putting  into  practical  operation  the  constitutional  amendments  to 
which  I  have  referred. 

"We  are,  however,  constantly  reminded  that  the  pending  election  is  a 
merely  local  one.  In  one  sense  this  is  true;  but  in  its  larger  and  broader 
sense  it  is  not  true.  What  answer  does  the  heart  of  this  great  city  make 
to  that  suggestion?  With  how  much  patience  would  you  listen  to-night  to 
an  orator,  however  eloquent  he  might  be,  who  would  declaim  to  you  exclu 
sively  upon  the  questions  of  finance  and  mere  local  legislation?  Your  hearts 
tell  you  that  the  issue  is  a  vastly  broader  one  than  that ;  and  that  the  result 
of  the  contest  now  so  close  upon  us  must  be  mightily  significant  to  the 
position  which  we  are  to  hold  in  the  great  national  issues  which  we  will 
meet  in  1880.  There  are,  my  fellow-citizens,  questions  that  arise  away 
above  taxes.  The  considerations  to  which  I  have  referred,  which  involve 
the  national  honor  and  the  keeping  and  execution  of  the  plighted  faith  of 
the  nation,  swallow  up  entirely  all  these  merely  financial  considerations.  It 
is,  indeed,  important  as  to  how  much  your  property  shall  be  assessed,  and 
how  frequently  it  shall  be  assessed ;  but  vastly  more  important  is  it  that  the 
property  itself  should  be  secure,  and  that  you  should  be  protected  in  your 
enjoyment.  More  important  is  it  that  wherever  the  flag  floats  you  should 
think  as  you  pleased,  speak  what  you  thought,  and  vote  with  no  one  to 
molest  or  make  you  afraid.  I  am  so  much  a  believer  in  the  existence  of 
this  country  as  a  nation  that  I  believe  that  all  its  parts  are  indissolubly 
welded  together.  Chicago  cannot  be  separated  from  the  United  States  of 


62O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

America.  It  is  a  great,  thriving,  active  portion  of  this  great  Union;  the 
pulse  that  beats  here  beats  to  the  remotest  confines  of  the  whole  country. 
Chicago  is  affected  by  every  measure  of  policy  which  has  national  concern. 
Its  commercial  interests  run  to  the  extremest  boundaries  of  the  Continent. 
It  is  the  child  of  good  Government.  It  thrives  with  peace  and  order.  It 
will  have  peace  and  order  if  it  fights  for  it.  We  must  realize  the  situation. 
We  meet  to-day  a  united  and  solid  South ;  we  are  bound  to  take  the  situation 
as  we  find  it ;  we  may  extricate  ourselves  from  the  difficulties  of  the  situation  in 
one  way,  and  in  but  one  way.  A  divided  North  will  not  suffice  to  confront  a 
solid  South ;  a  divided  North  means  a  universal  South ;  a  solid  North  means 
salvation  ;  without  a  solid  North  we  have  a  divided  Union.  Moreover, 
when  I  am  assured  that  this  contest  is  local,  I  am  constrained  to  ask  whether 
the  gentlemen  ever  considered  how  important  is  the  locality.  This  city  is 
the  heart  of  the  Northwest.  Again,  and  again,  and  again  has  the  voice 
that  it  has  uttered  given  courage  and  character  to  the  whole  Northwest.  I 
would  have  this  great  metropolitan  city  lose  nothing  of  this  proud  position. 
The  man  who  dies  of  a  disease  of  the  heart  dies  of  a  local  disease,  but 
it  is  the  poorest  and  most  unsatisfactory  consolation  to  his  friends  to  be 
assured  that  the  disease  of  which  he  perished  was  a  local  one.  For  some 
sins  or  other  that  we  have  committed,  the  Almighty  may  in  His  wrath  visit 
upon  us  a  Democratic  party  in  this  city;  it  is  a  local  triumph,  but  it  is  a 
blow  at  the  heart  of  an  Empire. 

"This  Democratic  party  that  we  meet  to-day  is  the  same  that  we  met 
and  defeated  in  the  field.  Its  methods  are  devious :  its  successes  are 
achieved  not  like  ours.  This  great  loyal  party  of  the  nation  flies  to  its  vic 
tories  like  an  eagle ;  the  Democracy  crawls  to  its  victories  like  the  worm. 
Just  as  sure  as  God  reigns,  the  time  for  sentiment,  the  time  for  comprom 
ise,  the  time  for  conciliation,  is  past.  [Applause.]  We  have  gone  even  to 
the  very  verge  of  the  last  dishonor  ;  we  can  degrade  ourselves  no  more. 
There  are  better  things  than  peace :  I  want  to  see  this  great  party  once 
more  awake,  as  in  the  olden  time,  taking  on  its  form  of  glory,  with  its 
sword  and  with  its  shield  and  spear,  taking  the  poorest  of  its  citizens  by 
the  hand,  leading  him  through  the  serried  ranks  of  the  enemy,  and  saying, 
'By  the  living  God,  you  shall  cast  an  unrestrained  ballot!'  [Loud 
applause.]  I  have  no  more  occasion  for  political  courtesies,  nor  have  you. 
Let  there  go  out  from  this  great  city  such  a  word  as  our  President  shall 
hear  and  shall  heed.  Let  it  roll  like  thunder  over  these  prairies,  and  tell 
him  that  he  must  not  falter  now.  The  spirit  of  the  people  is  awake,  and 
the  old  feeling  is  in  the  air.  One  by  one  the  stalwarts  go  to  the  Senate 
and  the  House, — Chandler,  Logan,  Carpenter,  Conkling, — all  the  old  braves, 
with  masculine  virtues;  loyal  to  the  heart's  core.  Let  us  encourage  them. 

"And  now,  in  conclusion,  gentlemen,  I  desire  to  offer  to  this  meeting  a 
resolution  : 

"The  citizens  of  Chicago,  in  mass-meeting  assembled,  appreciating  the 
dangers  that  threaten  the  public  peace  and  order, 

"  Resolved,  That  it  is  the  will  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  West  that  all 
revolutionary  attempts  of  whatever  character  that  may  assume  to  interfere 


CHICAGO    CITY    MISGOVERNMENT.  621 

with  the  purity  of  the  ballot-box  on  a  free  vote  by  the  overthrow  of  legis 
lation  calculated  to  secure  that  end  must  be  met  and  must  be  defeated  at 
any  hazard  and  at  all  cost.  [Applause.] 

"Resolved,  That  the  time  for  further  parley  or  compromise  has  passed, 
and  that  we  confidently  trust  and  earnestly  hope  that  wherever  the  occa 
sion  presents  itself  and  the  necessity  arises,  all  revolutionary  efforts  of  this 
character  shall  encounter- the  Presidential  veto.  [Great  applause.] 

"Resolved,  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  at  once  forwarded  by  the 
President  of  this  meeting  to  the  President  of  the  United  States. 

"And  I  move  the  adoption  of  these  resolutions." 

They  were  adopted  amidst  the  loudest  applause. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII. 

NATIONAL  POLITICS  IN  1879. 

A  POLITICAL  TOUR  IN  NEW  YORK  STATE — AT  SYRACUSE — CONSERVATIVE 
AND  RADICAL  REPUBLICANISM — DEMOCRATIC  HYPOCRISY — ATTEMPT  TO 
REPEAL  THE  ELECTION  LAWS — THE  MURDER  OF  CHISHOLM  AND  DIXON — 
SOUTHERN  IDEA  OF  "CONCILIATION" — HONEST  GOVERNMENT,  NATIONAL 
PROSPERITY,  AND  NO  SECTIONALISM — SUDDEN  DEATH  OF  HON-  ZACHARIAH 
CHANDLER. 

IN  October  1879,  Mr.  Storrs  was  called  upon  to  make  another 
political  pilgrimage  through  New  York  state,  and  was  absent 
two  weeks,  during  which  time  he  made  six  speeches  at  impor 
tant  points  on  behalf  of  the  Republican  party.  The  canvass 
was  conducted  with  great  warmth  on  both  sides,  in  view  of 
the  Presidential  election  to  take  place  the  following  year.  Mr. 
Storrs  spoke  at  Elmira,  Cortland,  Ithaca,  Auburn,  Syracuse,  and 
Norwich.  He  was  also  advertised  to  speak  at  other  towns, 
but  business  engagements  rendered  it  impossible  to  fill  these 
appointments.  The  largest  demonstration  was  at  Syracuse, 
where  a  mass-meeting  of  the  Republicans  of  Onondaga  county 
was  held.  Mr.  Storrs  discussed  three  leading  topics, — conserva 
tive  and  radical  Republicanism,  the  Democratic  platform,  and 
the  doctrine  of  State  rights.  The  impression  produced  is  graphi 
cally  described  by  the  Syracuse  Daily  Journal:* 

"Looking  over  the  great  audience  that  filled  the  hall,  it  was  noticeable 
that  all  the  elements  of  the  Republican  party,  and  all  shades  of  opinion 
were  represented.  It  was  a  sore  disappointment  that  illness  detained  Hon. 
Eugene  Hale,  of  Maine,  but  the  disappointment  was  dispelled  as  soon  as 
the  speaker  of  the  evening,  Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs,  of  Illinois,  took  the 
platform.  His  easy  bearing,  polished  utterance,  and  fluent  speech  soon 
captivated  his  audience,  and  prepared  them  for  one  of  the  most  convincing 
political  addresses  ever  delivered  in  Syracuse.  His  comparison  of  the 
records  of  the  Republican  and  Democratic  parties,  elicited  repeated  applause 
'622 


NATIONAL    POLITICS    IN    1 8/9.  623 

and  made  every  Republican  feel  that  he  had  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of, 
but  everything  to  be  proud  of,  in  that  he  belonged  to  the  party  that  had 
saved  the  Union,  which  was  the  only  custodian  of  free  government. 

"Mr.  Storrs'  address  abounded  in  telling  illustrations,  in  the  pointed  applica 
tion  of  parables,  in  keen  satire,  and  unsparing  exhibition  of  Democratic  faith 
lessness  all  of  which  were  quickly  appreciated  and  heartily  applauded." 

Mr.    Storrs   spoke    as   follows: 

"  I  prefer  to  speak,  not  as  a  Conservative  Republican,  nor  as  a  Radical 
Republican.  I  confess  an  inability  to  understand  precisely  what  those 
distinctions  mean.  I  am  simply  a  Republican,  and  in  the  present  situation 
of  our  affairs,  cannot  comprehend,  how  my  Republicanism  can  be  classified 
or  qualified. 

"Republicanism  means  among  other  things,  and  principally  to-day,  the 
equal  and  impartial  execution  of  the  laws  throughout  the  whole  country,  and 
the  full  and  complete  performance  by  the  nation  of  all  its  guarantees.  If 
Conservative  Republicanism  means  that  national  obligations  shall  be  moder 
ately  performed,  and  national  engagements  shall  only  be  partially 
kept,  then  I  am  not  a  Conservative  Republican,  and  have  no  hesi 
tancy  in  repudiating  any  such  attempted  distinctions  as  utterly  unsound 
and  fallacious.  Republicanism  means,  that  the  nation  shall  enforce  all  its 
laws,  and  shall  faithfully  keep  all  its  engagements  with  all  its  citizens. 

"  It  means  this,  because  the  nation  has  solemnly  agreed  that  every  citi 
zen  shall  have  a  free  ballot,  and  you  might  as  well  justify  exceptions  to 
that  agreement,  by  giving  only  a  portion  of  the  citizens  such  a  ballot,  as  to 
justify  yourselves  in  paying  a  part  of  your  national  debt  when  you  had 
agreed  to  pay  it  all. 

"The  failure  to  pay  a  portion  of  the  debt  at  the  time  and  in  the  manner 
stipulated  because  it  should  prove  to  be  troublesome  and  inconvenient 
would  be  repudiation.  And  so  the  failure  to  secure  to  a  portion  of  our  citi 
zens  the  full  measure  of  a  free  ballot,  because  it  would  be  troublesome  or 
inconvenient  would  also  be  repudiation.  The  talk  of  keeping  an  agreement 
moderately,  or  of  being  conservative  in  the  performance  of  solemn  duties 
and  obligations  is,  it  seems  to  me,  absurd.  No  man  can  be  too  radical  in 
the  performance  of  his  duties,  nor  can  he  be  too  conservative  in  evading 
or  shirking  them.  If  an  engagement  is  to  be  broken  at  all,  it  should  cer 
tainly  be  done  very  conservatively. 

"  If  the  Republican  party  was  ever  a  unit,  it  is  one  to-day.  This  is  so 
mainly  because  the  great  issues  now  before  the  people  admit  of  no  com 
promise.  Under  the  delusive  and  pestilential  heresy  of  State  Rights,  the 
power  and  authority  of  the  General  Government  to  prevent  frauds  and  to 
keep  the  peace  at  the  polls  at  elections  of  Congressional  Representatives,  is 
denied  by  the  Democratic  party.  The  existence  of  this  power  and  author 
ity  in  the  nation  is  as  emphatically  asserted  by  the  Republican  party. 

"On  such  a  question  no  middle  ground  is  possible.  It  is  yea,  or  nay, 
without  compromise,  concession,  limitation  or  qualification.  Upon  this  ques 
tion  it  is  idle  to  assail  the  administration,  for  the  President  and  his  Cab- 


624  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

inet  affirm  the  right,  duty  and  power  of  the  Government  to  prevent  frauds 
and  suppress  violence  at  the  polls. 

"It  is  enough  for  us  to-day  to  know  that  the  Republican  party,  from 
the  administration  down  to  the  most  obscure  private  in  the  ranks,  regard 
all  further  efforts  at  conciliation  as  unavailing,  and  demand  with  one  voice, 
absolute  justice  to  all  citizens,  the  faithful  performance  of  every  national 
duty  and  obligation,  an  honest  ballot,  a  free  vote  for  every  citizen  at  any 
cost  and  at  all  hazards,  and  the  utter  extirpation,  root  and  branch,  of  the 
doctrine  of  State  sovereignty  as  now  taught  by  the  Democratic  party. 

"Are  the  issues  of  the  times  of  Washington  and  Jefferson  any  more  fresh 
and  living  than  those  of  the  times  of  Buchanan,  Lincoln — the  rebellion — 
Grant,  Tweed,  and  the  last  Confederate  Congress? 

"Will  not  the  Democratic  Orators  be  good  enough  in  lucidating  their 
platform  to  explain  to  an  anxious  public  what  principles  of  Washington  and 
Jefferson  they  re-assert.  Do  they  re-assert  Washington's  principle  of  the 
right  of  the  Government  to  put  down  by  force  of  arms  forcible  resistance  to 
the  execution  of  the  national  statutes;  as  was  the  case  in  the  suppression  of 
the  Whisky  rebellion,  in  which  Washington  invoked  the  military  power  of 
the  nation  to  enforce  the  collection  of  a  whisky  tax  ?  If  so,  why  complain 
if,  acting  on  precisely  the  same  principle,  the  Government  to-day  calls  upon 
the  military  power  to  enforce  a  statute  enacted  for  the  prevention  of  frauds 
and  violence  at  the  polls?  Or  do  they  re-assert  the  supposed  principles  of 
Jefferson,  as  announced  in  the  Kentucky  resolutions,  practically  asserting  the 
right  of  secession?'  These  were  never  Washington's  principles — it  has  been 
claimed  that  they  were  Jefferson's. 

"Coming  down  to  times  within  the  memory  of  men  still  living,  the  plat 
form,  speaking  for  the  party,  says:  'We  hold  to  the  Constitution  with  all 
its  amendments,  sacredly  maintained  and  enforced,  and  to  the  rights  of 
States  under  the  Constitution.'  It  is  comforting  to  be  now  assured  that  the 
Democratic  party  of  the  State  of  New  York  finally  holds  to  the  Constitution 
with  all  its  amendments.  They  have  certainly  taken  a  great  step  in  advance. 
In  1868  the  Democratic  party  of  the  nation  denounced  the  constitutional 
amendments  as  revolutionary,  unconstitutional  and  void.  It  is  within  the 
memory  of  living  men,  when  a  Democratic  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New 
York  sought  to  repudiate  and  set  aside  the  ratification  by  a  previous  Legis 
lature  of  the  I4th  constitutional  amendment. 

"The  I4th  amendment  provides  that  all  persons  born  or  naturalized  in 
the  United  States  and  subject  to  the  jurisdiction  thereof,  are  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  Does  the  Democratic  party  hold  to  and  maintain  this?  Will 
that  party  favor  such  congressional  legislation  as  will  protect  all  the  rights 
of  all  the  citizens?  Has  the  Democratic  party  heard  that  the  privileges  and 
immunities  of  thousands  of  citizens  of  the  South  have  been  abridged?  Is  it 
in  favor  of  legislation  by  Congress  to  prevent  such  abridgment? 

"If  so,  why  not  say  so?  It  is  of  but  little  satisfaction  to  'hold  to  and 
maintain  the  Constitution,'  without  also  holding  to  and  maintaining  the  rights 
which  the  Constitution  guarantees. 

"The  Constitution  does  not  enforce  itself.     Is  not  the  Democratic  party  in 


NATIONAL   POLITICS    IN    1879.  625 

the  somewhat  absurd  condition  of  being  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  the 
Constitution,  and  also  enthusiastically  opposed  to  all  measures  to  put  it  into 
operation  ?  No  portion  of  the  Constitution  is  efficacious  without  the  aid  of 
legislation.  The  Democratic  party  is  in  favor  of  the  Constitution,  but  opposes 
the  legislation  necessary  to  enforce  it.  It  holds  to  and  maintains  the  guar 
anty  of  equal  privileges  to  all  citizens,  but  it  opposes  all  legislation  by 
which  the  guaranty  can  be  carried  out.  We  are  a  practical  people,  and 
are  not  accustomed  to  confound  the  shadow  with  the  substance.  We  desire 
a  Constitution  which  guarantees  equal  rights  and  privileges  to  all  citizens. 
But  we  must  insist  that  the  guaranty  be  kept.  What  we  finally  demand  is 
not  the  promise  of  freedom,  but  freedom  itself;  not  merely  a  solemn  assur 
ance  of  equality  of  political  privileges,  but  actual  equality ;  not  the  promise, 
merely,  but  the  thing  promised.  We  insist  that  the  promise  shall  ripen  into 
performance. 

"  During  the  war  the  Democratic  party  opposed  secession,  but  opposed 
the  coercion  of  a  State  which  seceded.  It  opposed  rebellion,  but  opposed 
the  employment  of  force  to  suppress  it.  It  favored  the  vigorous  prosecution 
of  the  war,*  but  denied  the  right  of  the  Government  to  raise  armies.  The 
Democratic  party  of  the  State  of  New  York  evidently  believes  that  diseases 
are  cured  by  the  physician's  prescription  and  that  it  is  quite  unnecessary 
for  the  patient  to  take  the  remedies  prescribed. 

"The  Democratic  party  of  the  State  of  New  York,  in  common  with  its 
brethren  in  Yazoo  county,  is  exceedingly  nervous  concerning  centralization. 
This  is  the  language  of  the  platform  :  '  The  tendencies  of  the  Republican 
party  to  centralization  and  consolidation  are  contrary  to  the  principles  of 
our  institutions.'  The  charge  lacks  defmiteness  and  we  call  for  a  bill  of 
particulars. 

"What  are  the  evidences  of  these  tendencies? 

"First,  The  nation  crushed  a  rebellion  of  Democratic  States.  Second, 
The  nation  made  freedom  national  and  universal  and  consolidated  a  Gov 
ernment  strong  enough  to  defend  itself.  Third,  The  nation  incurred  a 
national  debt  and  bound  the  nation  to  its  payment.  Fourth,  The  nation 
provided  a  national  currency — securing  its  holder  against  loss,  making  its 
value  uniform  throughout  the  nation  and  redeeming  it  in  coin.  Fifth,  The 
nation  made  all  persons  born  or  naturalized  within  its  limits  citizens  of  the 
United  States.  It  guaranteed  them  against  any  abridgement  of  their  privi 
leges  or  immunities  by  any  State.  It  deprives  any  State  of  the  power  to 
deprive  any  person  of  life,  liberty  or  property  without  due  .process  of  law. 
It  prohibits  any  State  from  denying  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws.  Sixth,  The  nation  has  declared  that  the 
rights  of  its  citizens  to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged  by  the  United 
States  or  by  any  State,  on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous  condition 
of  servitude.  It  has  conferred  upon  Congress  the  power  to  enforce 
all  these  provisions  by  appropriate  legislation.  The  nation  has  by  appropri 
ate  legislation,  sought  the  enforcement  of  these  fundamental  laws.  This  is 
centralization,  and  this  the  Democratic  party  opposes  and  denounces  it  'as 
contrary  to  the  principles  of  our  institutions.' 
40 


626  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"The  noisy  vigor  with  which  the  Democratic  party  demands  unity  is 
something  very  beautiful  to  contemplate.  'Tis  thus  they  make  their  plea 
in  their  platform:  'We  insist  on  unity,  fraternity,  concord,  and  that  the 
issues  settled  by  the  war  shall  not  be  revived.  We  deprecate  the  efforts 
of  the  Republican  managers  to  revive  sectional  feuds  and  to  rekindle  the 
passions  of  the'  past.'  Did  the  Democratic  party  thus  insist  in  perfectly 
good  faith,  we  might  look  for  the  speedy  return  of  unity,  fraternity  and 
concord.  Did  the  Democratic  party  of  the  State  of  New  York  demand  of  % 
the  gentle  brigadiers  of  the  South  that  they  must  henceforth  cease  burning 
school-houses,  slaughtering  negro  voters  because  they  were  negroes  and 
because  they  voted  the  Republican  ticket,  that  they  should  regard  all  citi 
zens  as  possessing  equal  rights,  they  might  possibly  possess  sufficient  influ 
ence  to  induce  their  Democratic  brethren  to  cease  for  a  while  the  vigorous 
propagandism  of  pure  Democratic  doctrine,  by  the  persuasive  agents  of  the 
torch  and  the  shot-gun.  It  seems  hard  indeed  that  weak  protests  against 
being  murdered  for  opinion's  sake,  should  be  treated  as  a  disturbance  of 
that  unity,  fraternity  and  concord  which  the  armed  and  masked  ruffians  of 
the  South  so  persistently  and  so  prayerfully  seek. 

"Pray  what  were  the  issues  settled  by  the  war?  First  and  foremost  was 
the  issue  of  State  sovereignty.  The  war  settled  our  right  to  be  as  a  nation. 
It  settled  the  right  of  the  nation  to  protect  all  its  citizens.  It  settled  the 
right  of  the  Government  to  execute  its  own  laws  by  the  employment  of 
force,  whenever  its  officers  were  opposed  by  force.  It  settled  the  right  of 
the  nation  to  utterly  demolish  any  State  or  aggregation  of  States  which  set 
the  national  will  at  defiance.  It  settled  the  power  of  the  nation  to  conquer 
and  beat  down  any  organization  of  individuals  or  States  arrayed  against  it. 
The  Democratic  party  now  disputes  all  these  well  settled  propositions,  and 
it  will  be  well  for  the  Democratic  party  if  it  does  not  tempt  the  nation  to 
settle  these  questions  again,  for  they  will  be  assuredly  settled  in  the  same 
way,  but  with  added  emphasis." 

Mr.  Storrs  then  reviewed  the  record  of  the  Republican"  party 
since  its  organization,  and  rejoiced  that  \ve  were  members  of 
that  party,  which  has  done  more  to  advance  the  interests  of 
the  human  race  than  all  the  parties  that  ever  existed  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  He  also  reviewed  the  history  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  and  its  achievements,  and  brought  down  the  house 
by  the  remark*  that  Tammany  was  powerful  while  Tilden,  the 
greatest  scoundrel  of  the  age  was  at  its  head,  but  according  to 
the  Democratic  papers,  Tammany  had  lost  its  influence  since 
a  man  of  spotless  life  and  character  like  Kelly  had  taken  the 
leadership. 

"Under  the  circumstances  that  exist  at  the  South  the  question  may  well 
be  asked  what  was  surrendered?  \Vas  it  the  guns  only,  or  the  principles 
of  disunion  and  State  Rights  and  other  dangerous  heresies  that  came  near 
destroying  the  Union?  The  Democratic  party  in  their  platform  say  they 


NATIONAL    POLITICS    IN    18/9.  627 

want  peace,  fraternity  and  concord.  If  the  Democratic  party  should  say  to 
the  gentle  brigadiers  you  must  cease  your  murderous  acts  and  allow  the 
Union  people  of  the  South  to  vote  and  think  and  speak  as  they  wish  ;  peace, 
fraternity  and  concord  will  soon  follow.  But  the  peace  they  desire  is  the 
peace  of  the  graveyard.  That  is  that  peace  that  exists  between  the  Demo 
crats  of  the  South  and  the  murdered  Chisholm  and  Dixon. 

"But  the  most  surprising  feature  of  this  extraordinary  document  is  the 
demand  for  honest  elections,  which  is  couched  in  this  language :  '  We 
demand  honest  elections  and  an  honest  count  of  votes.  Never  again  by 
fraud  or  force,  shall  the  popular  will  be  set  aside  to  gratify  unscrupulous 
partisans.'  Proceeding  from  such  a  quarter  this  demand  dizzies  one.  It  is 
as  if  Lucifer  elevated  on  his  brimstone  throne  should  shout  for  a  rigid 
adherence  to  the  ten  commandments. 

"The  first  answer  to  be  made  to  this  demand  is,  that  if  it  is  granted 
just  once  more,  the  Democratic  party  will  not  have  vitality  enough  left  to 
demand  even  a  burial.  By  the  act  of  Congress  of  1870,  an  honest  election 
is  precisely  what  we  intended  to  secure,  and  this  law  the  Democratic  party 
seeks  to  repeal  by  a  resort  to  revolutionary  measures.  The  Democratic 
party  never  favored  the  passage  of  a  law,  national  or  State  for  the  preven 
tion  of  frauds  at  elections.  No  law  of  that  character  has  ever  been  enacted, 
of  which  it  has  not  sought  the  repeal. 

"This  series  of  'elegant  extracts'  must  close  with  one  of  the  most  touch 
ing  passages  in  all  literature,  and  stony  indeed  must  be  that  heart  which 
can  listen  to  the  passage  which  I  am  about  to  read,  without  being  moved 
to  its  deepest  recesses.  David  mourning  for  his  Absalom,  and  Rachel 
mourning  for  her  children  refusing  to  be  comforted,  present  no  picture  of 
grief  and  sorrow  more  bitter  than  this.  '  We  look  with  shame  and  sorrow 
on  the  disgraceful  repudiation  of  all  their  professions  of  civil  service  reform 
by  the  executive  and  his  supporters.  Federal  offices  have  been  freely  given 
for  despicable  partisan  services.  The  leading  officers  of  the  government 
are  making  partisan  speeches,  managing  political  campaigns  and  requiring 
their  subordinates  to  contribute  to  the  campaign  funds  in  derogation  of 
every  principle  and  promise  of  honest  civil  service.'  This  sounds  like  the 
wail  of  a  lost  spirit. 

"In  the  midst  of  our  sobs  and  our  tears  may  we  be  permitted  to  inquire 
who  'we'  are,  that  'look  with  shame  and  sorrow,'  etc.  No  Democratic 
office-holder  takes  his  weary  pilgrimage  up  and  down  the  State  in  behalf 
of  his  candidate.  No  Democratic  office-holder  is  asked  to  contribute  a 
dollar  of  money  for  political  purposes.  The  Sage  of  Gramercy  Park  him 
self  scorns  lucre,  and  refuses  to  employ  it. 

"But  I  will  not  lacerate  your  feelings  by  pursuing  this  distressing  topic 
further.  Let  us  drop  the  curtain  upon  the  tearful  scene. 

He  then  proceeded  to  discuss  the  question  of  State  Rights  and 
other  heresies  at  length. 

"At  the  foundation  of  our  present  political  differences  is  the  old,  old  con 
troversy  of  State  Rights.  The  doctrine  asserted  to-day  by  the  Democratic 
party  is  precisely  that  which  led  them  into  rebellion  in  1861.  There  is  no 


628  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

change  whatever  in  the  political  principles  which  they  maintain  between 
the  Democratic  party  of  1879  an<3  1861;  the  only  change  is  in  the  circum 
stances  and  conditions  to  which  their  old  heresy  is  applied. 

"In  1 86 1  the  Democratic  party  south  asserted  the  right  of  the  state 
to  secede  from  the  Union,  and  the  Democratic  party  north  denied  the 
power  of  the  general  government  to  execute  and  enforce  the  laws, 
denied  the  right  of  the  government  to  coerce  what  they  called  a  •  sovereign 
state.'  Their  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  state  is  now  precisely  the 
same,  applied  only  to  different  conditions.  To-day  the  questions  are,  first, 
Has  the  general  government  power  by  law  to  regulate  the  elections 
of  its  representatives  and  to  enforce  such  regulations?  Second,  Has  the 
general  government  power  by  law  to  enforce  the  constitutional  amend 
ments,  and  in  case  laws  made  for  that  purpose  shall  be  practically 
nullified  by  force,  shall  the  government  put  down  by  force  resistance  to 
such  legislation?  .  .  . 

"Our  first  inquiry  then  is  'Has  the  general  government  the  right  to 
enact  such  laws?'  Congress  has,  from  the  express  language  of  the  Con 
stitution  power  by  law  to  enact  and  alter  regulations  as  to  the  time, 
manner  and  place  of  holding  elections  for  representatives.  This  language 
is  so  specific,  that  it  is  impossible  to  gainsay,  or  deny  it;  yet  leading 
Democratic  orators  in  the  House  and  in  the  Senate,  proceeded  upon  the 
idea,  that,  notwithstanding  this  plain  provision  of  the  Constitution,  the 
general  government  has  no  right  to  keep  the  peace  at  the  polls.  It  of 
course  occurs  to  us  that  it  is  very  extraordinary  that  the  Government  of 
the  United  States,  is  competent  to  enact  a  law,  but  is  helpless  and 
incompetent  to  carry  it  into  execution,  providing  the  enforcement  of  that 
law  is  resisted  by  force?  In  other  words,  if  an  attempt  at  the  violation 
of  a  national  statute,  takes  form  so  serious  as  to  result  in  the  breach 
of  the  peace,  then  the  government  is  helpless,  and  the  peace  must  be 
maintained,  not  by  the  government  whose  express  laws  have  been  violated, 
but  by  the  state  wherein  the  violations  have  occurred. 

"How  utterly  absurd,  indeed  how  criminally  absurd  such  a  proposition 
is,  as  a  matter  of  statesmanship  and  law,  would  be  obvious  from  a  mom 
ent's  consideration.  The  general  government  has  provided  for  the  transpor 
tation  of  mails,  carrying  them  into  the  remotest  quarters  of  every  state  in 
the  Union.  Yet  while  the  Democracy  will  not  question  the  right  of  the 
government  to  enact  such  laws,  and  while  they  will  avail  themselves  of  all 
the  privileges  which  result  from  the  transportation  of  the  mails,  they  insist, 
if  the  transportation  of  mails  be  resisted  by  force,  the  army  cannot  interfere 
and  secure  the  transportation  of  the  mails.  If  a  breach  of  the  peace 
results  from  such  armed  interference  with  the  government,  then  peace  must 
be  restored,  the  Democracy  claim,  not  by  the  nation  whose  laws  have  been 
insulted,  but  by  the  state  wherein  the  insult  was  committed.  So  too,  it  is 
unquestionable  that  the  government  may  levy  tax,  for  revenue  purposes,  on 
whisky  and  tobacco :  but  the  doctrine  of  the  modern  Democracy  is  if 
the  collection  of  those  taxes  be  resisted  by  force  and  the  peace  be 
broken,  that  peace  must  be  restored  by  the  state  and  the  government 


NATIONAL    POLITICS    IN    18/9.  629 

must  stand  idle,  until  it  sees  its  own  laws  enforced  by  an  authority 
which  had  no  hand  in  their  creation,  which  has  no  power  to  suspend 
them,  and  no  right  to  interpose  an  obstacle  to  their  execution. 

"  But  this  question  assumes  a  much  broader  significance  in  view  of  the 
clear  duties  and  privileges  of  the  government  under  the  constitutional 
amendment.  The  real  solid  question  of  the  hour,  after  all,  is,  'Shall  the 
constitutional  amendments  be  practically  abolished?'  An  unexecuted  law 
is  much  worse  than  no  law  and  the  extremity  to  which  we  are  now  driven 
is,  that  having  placed  in  our  fundamental  law  certain  guarantees,  the  gov 
ernment  which  has  placed  them  there  has  no  power  to  perform  its  engage 
ments  or  to  enforce  obedience  to  the  fundamental  la\vs  which  it  has  enacted. 

"When  we  consider  the  dangers  that  now  threaten  us,  it  would  be  diffi 
cult  to  imagine  a  state  of  facts  more  alarming  in  their  character.  Stated 
in  a  single  sentence  the  condition  of  affairs  is  this :  The  majorities  in  at 
least  four  great  states  are  disfranchised  by  force,  fraud  and  murder.  Take 
it  upon  an  honest  vote  and  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina  are  as  clearly 
and  unmistakably  Republican  as  are  the  states  of  Vermont  and  Iowa. 
Louisiana  and  Mississippi,  South  Carolina  and  Florida  are  Republican 
states ;  but  the  Republican  voter  is  not  permitted  to  cast  a  ballot. 

"In  certain  parishes  in  the  South  which  in  one  year  showed  by  the 
registration  three  thousand  Republican  votes,  a  few  months  thereafter  when 
the  election  occurred,  showed  no  Republican  votes  whatever.  Such  a  state 
of  things  can  not  be  explained  upon  any  ordinary  hypothesis  consistent  with 
innocence.  The  facts  sufficiently  explain  it.  The  Ku-Klux,  the  White  Liner, 
the  Rifle  Clubs,  the  raids  by  night,  the  burning  homes — all  these  are  the 
efficient  causes  for  the  defranchisement  of  the  majorities  in  these  states. 

"Pressed  for  an  explanation  for  this  condition  of  affairs,  the  Democracy 
who,  but  a  few  years  ago,  unanimously  and  noisily  asserted  that  it  was 
impossible  to  teach  the  negro  anything,  now  claim  that  this  tremendous  and 
sudden  falling  off  in  the  negro  vote  is  the  result  of  the  conversion  to 
Democracy,  which  has  been  in  the  main,  effected  through  the  miraculous 
agency  of  Tilden's  Literary  Bureau. 

"I  must  decline  to  believe  that  within  a  period  of  about  ninety  days, 
this  great  literary  bureau  has  been  so  efficacious  a  worker  as  to  con 
vert  tens  of  thousands  of  white  and  black  Republicans  of  the  South  from 
the  Republican  doctrines,  into  the  subtle  and  mysterious  complications  of 
the  Democratic  creed.  The  fact  is  the  pretence  is  absurd.  Stated  very 
briefly,  therefore,  the  condition  of  affairs  is  a  steady,  persistent  and  forcible 
violation  of  the  laws  of  the  land.  The  inquiry  is,  what  is  the  remedy? 

"I  shall  now  spend  but  little  time  in  discussing  the  powers  of  the 
government  and  its  duty  in  the  enforcement  of  the  amendments.  I  think 
I  should  not  be  justified  in  pursuing  the  inquiry  as  to  whether  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States  is  constitutional.  In  reference  to  the  ques 
tion  of  the  power  of  the  government,  I  would  say  nothing  were  it  not 
for  the  fact  that  in  most  unexpected  quarters  that  power  seems  to  have 
been  overlooked.  You  will  readily  understand  that  I  can  have  no  knowledge 
sufficiently  definite  or  accurate  to  justify  me  in  forming  or  expressing  an 


630  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  individual  controversies  in  this  state.  I  can 
have  no  knowledge  which  will  justify  me  in  expressing  an  opinion  as 
to  the  motives  which  seem  to  have  constrained  so  distinguished  a  man  as 
Mr.  George  W.  Curtis  to  advocate  the  scratching  of  the  Republican  ticket  at 
this  campaign.  I  only  know  of  Mr.  Curtis  that  he  is  a  man  of  wide 
celebrity,  of  splendid  culture,  of  the  highest  order  of  literary  attainments, 
and  I  suppose  of  the  most  blameless  life  and  private  spotless  character. 

"On  this  great  question  the  power  of  the  government  to  enforce  its  own 
laws — the  views  of  Mr.  Curtis  are  not  those  of  any  other  known  Republican 
in  the  United  States.  In  a  leading  article  of  Harper  s  Weekly,  published 
September  I4th,  1878,  Mr.  Curtis,  in  discussing  these  questions  generally > 
employs  this  very  extraordinary  language :  '  Even  if  abuses  of  the  colored 
citizens  were  much  more  universal  and  flagrant  than  they  are,  they  are  of  a  kind 
which  can  not  be  brought  into  national  politics.  Personal  protection  is  under 
local  laws.'  And  again  in  the  same  article  he  says:  'A  national  party  can 
be  maintained  only  upon  national  issues  and  the  personal  protection  of  a 
citizen  in  his  state  is  not  such  an  issue.'  May  I  be  permitted  to  inquire, 
in  view  of  the  constitutional  amendments  which  I  have  just  read  to  you, 
why  it  is  that  abuses  of  colored  citizens  can  not  be  brought  into 
national  politics?  The  abuses  which  they  suffer  are  in  direct  violation  of 
the  guarantees  or  protection  which  the  nation  has  made  with  them.  Is 
it  possible  that  the  enforcement  of  a  national  guaranty  is  not  a  national 
question?  And  is  it  possible  that  when  the  steady  and  persistent  viola 
tions  of  national  guaranties  cover  so  broad  an  extent  of  territory  that 
four  to  five  states  are  disfranchised  these  violations  can  not  be  brought 
into  national  politics? 

"'Personal  protection,'  Mr.  Curtis  says,  'is  under  local  laws.1  This 
is  true  of  some  kinds  of  personal  protection,  but  it  is  glaringly  untrue 
and  unsound  as  to  the  personal  protection  which  is  claimed  for  the  negro 
of  the  South  ;  for  the  personal  protection  claimed  for  him  is  explicitly 
that  which  the  constitutional  amendments  guarantee  and  promise  he  shall 
have.  In  other  words,  the  breach  of  a  national  engagement  presents  a 
national  issue.  The  nation  has  agreed  to  pay  the  national  debt.  The 
question  as  to  whether  we  shall  pay  the  debt  or  not  as  we  have  agreed,  is, 
I  apprehend,  clearly  enough  a  national  question.  The  nation  has  agreed 
to  protect  all  its  citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  their  privileges  and  immu 
nities.  Whether  it  shall  thus  protect  them  as  it  has  promised,  is  as  much  a 
national  question  as  is  the  question  whether  it  shall  pay  its  debts.  The 
doctrine  thus  declared  by  Mr.  Curtis  leaves  us  absolutely  helpless,  for  as 
to  the  amendments  prohibiting  the  state  from  abridging  the  privilege  of  the 
citizen,  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Curtis  would  turn  over  to  the  state  the  entire 
question  as  to  whether  the  privileges  should  be  abridged  or  not.  Holding 
such  doctrines  he  could  hardly  vote  for  Mr.  Cornell,  for  he  and  the  Repub 
licans  of  the  state  of  New  York  and  in  every  state  and  hamlet  in  the  nation, 
hold  directly  the  opposite  doctrine. 

"The    next   inquiry   is    'Have    we    any    remedy  for   the  evils  of  which  we 
complain?'      And    I    trust   that    I  will   be    excused  if  the    remedies  which   I 


NATIONAL    POLITICS    IN     1 8/9.  63 1 

propose  are  of  an  eminently  practical  character,  for  the  danger  is  imminent 
and  the  injury  is  practical.  You  have  observed  that  at  the  end  of  each  of 
the  amendments  which  I  have  read  to  you  it  is  provided  that  Congress  shall 
have  power  to  enforce  this  article  by  appropriate  legislation.  The  articles 
provide  for  the  protection  of  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  the  citvzen, 
securing  to  them  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws  and  the  right  of  suffrage. 
What  would  you  suppose  that  appropriate  legislation  would  mean  in  cases 
where  those  privileges  and  immunities  were  denied  by  force  and  arms,  by 
violence  and  by  fraud.  It  is  well  also  to  remember  here  that  the  Constitu 
tion  of  the  United  States  is  not  self-operating.  It  does  not  put  itself  into 
motion.  The  Constitution  provides  in  a  general  way  for  the  transportation 
of  the  mail.  The  Democracy  is  in  favor  of  the  Constitution,  but  applying 
to  that  portion  the  same  line  of  reason  that  he  applies  to  the  I4th  and  I5th 
amendments,  he  would  be  opposed  to  legislation  by  which  the  postal  system 
was  created.  Hence  we  would  have  the  Constitution  and  no  mails.  The 
Constitution  also  provides  for  the  creation 'of  federal  courts.  The  Constitu 
tion-loving  Democrat  is  enthusiastically  in  favor  of  the  Constitution.  But  to 
pursue  the  same  line  of  reason  he  employs  to-day,  he  would  be  opposed  to 
any  legislation  by  which  courts  were  organized  ;  hence  he  would  be  in  favor 
of  the  Constitution,  but  we  would  have  no  courts.  The  Constitution-loving 
Democrat  declares  that  he  is  in  favor  of  the  amendments ;  he  is  in  favor  of 
extending  to  all  citizens  of  the  United  States  equal  privileges  and  immunities, 
and  protecting  them ;  but  he  is  utterly  opposed  to  any  legislation  by  which 
those  privileges  and  immunities  shall  be  secured.  We  are  a  practical  party, 
and  what  we  want  is  not  so  much  a  Constitution  that  promises  freedom  as 
freedom. 

"I  repeat  now  the  inquiry,  What  is  appropriate  legislation,  and  have  we 
a  remedy  ?  If,  as  the  case  now  is,  these  privileges  and  immunities  and  equal 
protection  of  the  law  are  denied  the  citizens  by  force,  would  you  execute 
the  law  by  a  song,  or  a  sermon,  or  a  platform?  Would  under  such  an 
emergency,  the  legislation  that  provided  school  books  and  school  teachers, 
be  regarded  as  an  appropriate  legislation?  So  unpoetic  am  I  that  I  think 
it  would  be  grossly  inappropriate  legislation.  I  think  that  where  a  right  is 
denied  by  force,  that  kind  of  legislation  which  will  protect  a  party  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  rights,  proper  for  the  emergency,  is  that  which  provides  for 
more  force.  I  think  in  other  words,  that  if  a  right  of  a  citizen  to  vote  is 
interfered  with  by  guns,  his  right  should  be  asserted  by  more  guns.  If 
armies  interfere  with  a  citizen  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  immunities  and  priv 
ileges  guaranteed  under  the  Constitution,  I  would  carry  out  and  execute  the 
promise  in  the  Constitution  by  larger  armies.  I  know  of  no  other  kind  of 
medicine  adequate  to  that  emergency.  Again,  what  is  the  remedy  ?  First, 
hat  kind  of  legislation  that  will  clothe  the  Executive  with  the  power  to  meet 
force  with  force  ;  with  the  power  to  put  down  all  breaches  of  the  peace  ; 
with  the  power  to  keep  its  engagements  by  force,  if  necessary.  That  kind 
of  legislation  first,  and  next  a  President  with  such  rigidity  of  back-bone  and 
rigor  of  Republicanism  that  he  will  have  no  hesitancy  to  enforce  the  law  to 
its  uttermost  letter  in  the  interests  of  justice.  I  know  no  remedy  for  violated 


632  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

laws  which  can  be  considered  as  entering  into  sound  and  wise  statesmanship, 
short  of  the  enforcement  of  the  laws.  It  would  be  well,  if  by  kind  treatment, 
patient  pleading,  intellectual  and  moral  training,  all  people  should  be  brought 
tto  that  high  standard  where  none  would  violate  and  all  would  obey  the 
law.  We  have  not  reached  that  high  condition,  and  while  we  are  toiling 
towards  it,  the  enforcement  of  the  laws  and  the  punishment  of  those  who 
violate  the  laws,  must  go  on,  and  can  not  in  the  meantime  be  suspended. 
"I  confess  that  standing  in  the  presence  of  great  national  guarantees 
disregarded,  national  promises  unperformed,  laws  shamelessly  violated ;  of 
speech  throttled  and  thought  suppressed,  my  sympathy  is  for  the  outraged 
victim  of  these  crimes,  and  for  the  criminals  who  perpetrate  them,  I  can 
wish  only — justice.  I  am  not  ungenerous  nor  unkind  to  the  murderer  when 
I  stay  his  hand.  I  am  not  cruel  to  the  house-burner  when  I  extinguish  his 
torch  before  he  has  applied  it.  I  ask,  first  of  all,  that  the  insulted  majesty 
of  a  great  nation  be  vindicated,  and  its  violated  laws  be  lifted  up  and 
enforced.  Toward  all  our  fellow  citizens,  South  and  North,  I  ask  the  equal 
enforcement  of  all  the  laws.  I  ask  that  crime  shall  be  punished  first.  After 
which,  patient  pleading  with  the  criminal  may  be  in  order." 

The  following  despatch  to  Hon.  Chester  A.  Arthur,  written  on 
the  3 1st  of  October,  1879,  explains  itself: 

"Senator  Chandler  addressed  last  evening  one  of  the  largest  Republican 
meetings  ever  held  in  Chicago,  and  made,  without  question,  the  greatest 
effort  of  his  life.  In  apparently  perfect  health  when  he  retired,  he  was 
found  dead  in  his  bed  this  morning,  having  evidently  died  without  a  struggle. 
He  died  with  his  harness  on,  and  his  last  utterances  apply  even  more 
thoroughly  to  the  Republicans  of  New  York  than  Chicago.  He  said,  'By 
your  verdict  you  are  to  send  forth  greeting  to  the  people  of  the  United 
States,  saying  either  that  you  are  in  favor  of  honest  men,  honest  money, 
patriotism,  and  a  national  government,  or  that  you  are  in  favor  of  soft 
money,  repudiation,  and  rebel  rule.  You  cannot  afford  to  turn  this  govern 
ment  over  to  the  hands  of  the  repudiating  rebels.  Shut  up  your  stores. 
Shut  up  your  manufactories.  Go  to  work  for  country.'  Will  not  the  Repub 
licans  of  New  York  regard  this  appeal  as  almost  sacred,  addressed  to  them  ? 

EMERY  A.  STORKS." 

"Hon.  Chester  A.  Arthur,  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel,  New  York." 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 


EMOTIONAL  INSANITY  IN  MURDER   CASES. 

TRIAL  OF  PETER  STEVENS  AT  CHICAGO  FOR  THE  MURDER  OF  HIS  WIFE — A 
SAD  STORY  OF  CONJUGAL  MISERY — THE  TEMPTATIONS  OF  A  GREAT  CITY — 
THE  PLEA  OF  EMOTIONAL  INSANITY  SET  UP  FOR  THE  DEFENCE — MR. 
STORRS  MAKES  A  POWERFUL  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  DEFENDANT — THE  VER 
DICT. 

In  the  fall  of  1878,  the  community  of  Chicago  were  again 
startled  and  shocked  by  what  at  first  appeared  to  be  a  mur 
der  of  an  atrocious  character.  The  victim  was  a  young  mar 
ried  woman  not  yet  twenty  years  of  age,  and  her  slayer  was 
her  own  husband,  from  whom  she  had  separated.  The  scene 
of  the  homicide  was  close  by  one  of  the  beautiful  little  parks 
of  the  city,  and  the  time  was  a  quiet  Sunday  afternoon,  when 
the  park  and  the  adjacent  streets  were  full  of  people.  Popu 
lar  indignation  was  aroused  against  the  slayer  both  on  account 
of  the  sex  and  the  extreme  youth  ef  the  victim;  and  had  it 
not  been  for  the  prompt  arrival  of  the  police,  the  verdict  of 
the  excited  crowd  might  have  anticipated  that  of  a  legally 
organized  jury.  But  when  the  facts  came  out  in  evidence  on 
the  trial  which  followed,  there  was  a  considerable  abatement 
of  the  popular  feeling,  and  it  was  found,  as  not  infrequently 
happens,  that  the  provocation  the  injured  husband  had  received 
was  great,  and  that  had  he  directed  his  vengeance  against  the 
betrayers  of  his  wife  instead  of  against  herself,  his  act  would 
have  been  pronounced  a  justifiable  homicide  by  the  general 
voice  of  the  community,  and  by  the  law  of  the  State  of  Illi 
nois  as  well. 

It  was  the  old  story  of  a  wife's  infidelity  and  a  husband's 
wrath.  Peter  Stevens,  the  husband,  was  a  youth  not  much 

633 


634  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

older  than  his  child  wife,  and  was  employed  as  a  clerk  in 
one  of  the  courts.  He  added  to  his  income  by  working  in 
the  evenings  as  a  copyist  for  several  short-hand  reporters  of 
testimony  in  the  law  courts.  His  young  wife,  living  in  a 
boarding  house,  was  thus  left  far  too  much  to  her  own  devices, 
with  the  dangerous  independence  of  a  married  woman  while 
yet  littki  more  than  a  child,  in  a  city  where  temptations  to 
go  astray  are  peculiarly  abundant.  She  formed  bad  associa 
tions.  Her  personal  beauty  exposed  her  to  the  attentions  of 
a  set  of  disreputable  men,  known  as  "mashers,"  who  treated 
her  to  theatrical  matinees,  and  entertained  her  at  restaurants  of 
questionable  reputation.  Her  intimacy  with  these  men  soon 
became  known  to  Stevens,  and  the  quarrels  between  him  and 
his  wife  on  this  account  rendered  their  married  life  unhappy. 
Her  own  mother  does  not  seem  to  have  been  qualified  to 
give  her  judicious  counsel.  She  took  part  with  the  erring 
wife  against  the  angry  husband,  and  finally  Mrs.  Stevens  went 
back  to  her  mother's  home.  Stevens  was  forbidden  by  his 
mother-in-law  to  come  there  to  visit  his  wife,  and  under  her 
influence  his  wife  refused  to  see  him.  On  the  Sunday  morn 
ing  of  the  tragedy,  Stevens  was  met  by  an  acquaintance  who 
told  him  that  he  *had  seen  Mrs.  Stevens  the  night  before 
entering  a  hotel  with  a  real  estate  man  named  Boyd,  well 
known  around  town.  Stevens  had  before  forbidden  his  wife 
to  receive  this  man's  attentions  or  continue  his  acquaintance, 
and  this  information  stung  him  to  uncontrollable  fury.  He 
sought  out  his  wife,  and  in  the  afternoon  met  her  near 
Jefferson  park,  walking  with  another  woman.  He  went  to 
her  and  asked  her  to  speak  with  him  aside.  Her  answer  was 
defiant  and  repelling.  She  told  Stevens  she  wanted  nothing 
more  to  do  with  him;  and  he,  finding  remonstrance  vain,  and 
driven  out  of  himself  with  passion,  drew  a  revolver  and  shot 
her,  killing  her  instantly. 

The  shot  was  heard  by  a  policeman  close  by,  who  con 
veyed  Stevens  to  the  police  station.  He  was  indicted  for 
murder,  and  tried  in  the'  Criminal  Court  of  Cook  County  in 
April  1879,  Mr.  Storrs  appearing  for  the  defence. 

The  theory  of  the  prosecution,  which  was  very  ably  con 
ducted  by  Hon.  Luther  Laflin  Mills,  the  eloquent  State's 


EMOTIONAL    INSANITY    IN    MURDER    CASES.  635 

Attorney  of  the  county,  was  that  Stevens  was  a  jealous,  ill- 
tempered  fellow,  who  treated  his  young  wife  cruelly,  and  got 
into  an  unreasonable  rage  whenever  he  saw  or  heard  of  her 
speaking  to  a  male  acquaintance,  and  that  her  mother  had 
been  obliged  to  interfere  and  separate  them,  to  save  her 
daughter  from  his  brutality.  Mrs.  Young,  the  mother-in-law, 
came  upon  the  stand,  and  swore  in  positive  and  unmeasured 
terms  to  this  state  of  affairs;  and  Stevens'  landlady  and  her 
neighbors  also  testified  to  his  ugly  temper  and  rough  behavior 
to  his  Wife.  They  were  obliged  to  admit,  however,  on  cross- 
examination,  that  Mrs.  Stevens  frequently  went  out  at  night  to 
dances  with  other  men  while  her  husband  was  at  work  in  the 
city,  and  that  the  scenes  they  described  always  happened 
when  Stevens  came  home  and  found  her  absent,  and  learned 
that  she  was  in  company  of  which  he  disapproved. 

The  objective  point  of  the  defence  was  to  show  the  pro 
vocation  which  Stevens  had  received,,  as  illustrating  his  state 
of  mind  at  the  time  of  the  shooting,  and  supporting  the  plea 
of  emotional  insanity.  For  this  purpose  it  was  shown  that  in 
the  first  year  of  his  married  life,  he  had  obtained  a  situation 
in  Cincinnati,  and  taken  his  bride  with  him  to  that  city.  He 
had  night  work  to  do  there  also,  and  one  night,  on  coming 
home,  found  his  wife  absent,  and  learned  from  the  people  of 
the  house  in  which  he  boarded  that  she  had  gone  to  the 
theatre  with  a  man  whose  acquaintance  he  had  desired  her 
to  avoid.  His  jealousy  and  indignation  so  overcame  him  that 
he  had  an  epileptic  fit.  On  another  occasion,  in  her  absence, 
he  looked  into  her  trunk,  and  found  there  a  package  of 
letters  which  she  had  been  imprudent  enough  to  preserve. 
Reading  these,  he  discovered  that  they  contained  proposals  of 
assignation  from  some  of  the  fast  youth  of  Chicago, — one 
from  a  real  estate  man  of  the  name  of  Sampson.  In  one  of 
these  letters  there  was  an  invitation  to  Mrs.  Stevens  to  take 
a  moonlight  sail  across  Lake  Michigan  in  an  excursion 
steamer,  with  a  suggestion  that  the  writer  and  herself  should 
occupy  the  same  berth.  The  perusal  of  these  letters  threw 
Stevens  into  another  paroxysm,  and  a  terrible  scene  occurred 
berween  him  and  his  wife  on  her  return.  Stevens  threw  up 
his  employment  in  Cincinnati  and  returned  to  Chicago,  taking 


636  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

his  wife  with  him.  There  she  pursued  the  same  line  of  con 
duct,  and  the  tragedy  of  that  peaceful  Sunday  was  the  result. 

Several  of  the  poor  girl's  betrayers  were  put  upon  the  witness 
stand,  and  made  to  confess  their  own  infamy.  Mr.  Boyd  wrig 
gled  uneasily  on  the  chair,  and  seemed  to  feel  keenly  the  uncom- 
fortableness  of  his  position,  while  subjected  to  the  scornful  ques 
tioning  of  Mr.  Storrs.  He  denied  that  there  had  been  any  crim 
inality  in  his  intercourse  with  Mrs.  Stevens,  whose  acquaintance 
he  said  he  had  made  through  her  coming  to  his  office  seeking 
employment  as  an  amanuensis.  Sampson,  on  the  other  hand, 
when  confronted  with  his  own  letters,  treated  the  matter  with 
the  most  unfeeling  bravado,  as  an  exploit  of  which  he  seemed 
to  be  proud.  He  had  evidently  braced  himself  up  for  the  exco 
riation  he  received  from  Mr.  Storrs.  The  climax  of  this  branch 
of  the  defence  was  reached  when  Mr.  Storrs  put  in  evidence  sev 
eral  letters  from  Stevens'  mother-in-law  to  him  in  Cincinnati, 
showing  that  on  making  these  discoveries  of  his  wife's  unfaith 
fulness  Stevens  had  written  to  her,  and  in  her  replies  she  con 
demned  her  daughter's  conduct,  and  praised  Stevens  for  his  for 
bearance  and  kind  treatment  of  the  wayward  girl.  This  com 
pletely  destroyed  the  effect  of  Mrs.  Young's  testimony  and  that 
of  the  long  array  of  female  gossips  whom  the  State's  Attorney 
had  skillfully  marshaled  in  the  court-room,  and,  added  to  the 
testimony  which  Mr.  Storrs  had  forced  out.  of  the  mouths  of  the 
poor  girl's  seducers,  turned  the  scale  in  the  prisoner's  favor. 

Several  medical  experts  were  called,  to  whom  Mr.  Storrs  sub 
mitted  a  hypothetical  case  embodying  the  facts  as  claimed  for 
the  defence,  and  elicited  from  them  an  opinion  that  Stevens,  at 
the  time  of  the  shooting,  was  in  a  condition  of  mental  irrespon 
sibility.  On  the  part  of  the  State,  some  other  experts  who  had 
made  insanity  a  study  were  called,  and  to  them  Mr.  Mills  pro 
pounded  an  equally  ingenious  hypothetical  question,  setting  forth 
the  facts  as  he  claimed  them  to  be;  and  as  a  matter  of 
course  these  gentlemen  pronounced  Stevens  sane  at  the  time 
of  the  homicide.  Mr.  Storrs  put  the  State's  experts  through 
an  exceedingly  clever  and  adroit  cross-examination,  and  suc 
ceeded  in  confusing  some  of  them,  and  leaving  an  impression 
that  they  did  not  know  quite  so  well  what  they  were  talking 
about  as  did  the  experts  called  for  the  defence. 


EMOTIONAL    INSANITY    IN    MURDER    CASES.  637 

The  defence  of  emotional  insanity,  relied  on  in  the  Stevens 
case,  was  at  this  time  altogether  out  of  favor  with  juries  in 
our  criminal  courts.  It  had  been  successfully  resorted  to  in 
murder  cases  so  many  times  that  the  newspapers  denounced 
it,  and  a  public  opinion  had  been  created,  rightly  or  wrongly, 
that  this  plea  in  such  cases  was  "  too  thin,"  and  that  its 
successful  advocacy  was  equivalent  to  a  miscarriage  of  justice. 
It  was  clear  that  the  jury  in  this  case  were  more  impressed 
by  the  facts  brought  out  in  the  testimony  for  the  defence 
than  by  the  technical  plea.  In  an  able  argument,  Mr.  Storrs 
reviewed  these  facts,  and  spoke  pathetically  of  the  blighted 
married  life  of  the  defendant,  the  wreck  of  his  domestic 
peace,  and  the  mental  suffering  he  had  endured.  On  this 
point  he  appealed  not  only  to  the  testimony  of  Stevens'  Cin 
cinnati  landlady,  but  also  to  that  of  some  of  Stevens'  Chicago 
employers,  who  gave  a  striking  account  of  his  despondency 
and  distress  of  mind  for  weeks  before  the  shooting,  and  also 
spoke  highly  of  his  general  character.  He  commented  with 
withering  scorn  upon  the  conduct  of  the  scoundrels  who  had 
seduced  the  poor,  thoughtless  young  wife,  and  contrasted  Mrs. 
Young's  letters  to  Stevens  with  her  story  upon  the  witness  stand. 
He  read  a  large  number  of  extracts  from  authorities  on  medical 
jurisprudence,  and  from  the  works  of  distinguished  English  and 
American  doctors  on  the  subject  of  legal  responsibility  in  mental 
disease, — such  as  Maudsley,  Tuke,  and  Hammond, — and  claimed 
that  when  he  fired  the  fatal  shot,  Stevens  was  the  subject  of  what 
these  writers  call  an  "irresistible  impulse,"  and  could  not  be  held 
responsible  for  the  crime  of  murder  as  charged  in  the  indictment. 

The  jury  evidently  made  allowance  for  the  provocation  that 
Stevens  had  received,  and  absolved  him  from  the  supreme 
penalty;  but  they  were  not  convinced  of  his  legal  irresponsibility, 
for  they  sentenced  him  to  fourteen  years'  imprisonment. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 


AN  ADDRESS  TO  DOCTORS. 

A  SERIO-COMIC  ADDRESS  TO  A  GRADUATING  CLASS— EARLY  RECOLLECTIONS 
OF  HOME-MADE  REMEDIES — WHAT  HE  KNEW  ABOUT  DOCTORS — CHICAGO 
THE  GREATEST  MEDICAL  CENTRE  AND  DISTRIBUTOR  OF  DOCTORS  AND 
DISEASES — THE  FIELD  OF  MEDICAL  JURISPRUDENCE — MEDICAL  EXPERTS  AS 
OTHERS  SEE  THEM — INSANITY  AS  A  DEFENCE  IN  CRIMINAL  CASES. 

IN  a  lengthy  description  of  the  sixth  annual  commencement  of 
the  Chicago  Homeopathic  Medical  College,  a  journal  spoke 
of  Mr.  Storrs,  who  was  the  orator  of  the  occasion  as  follows : 
"Emery  A.  Storrs,  one  of  Chicago's  best  known  citizens,  is  a 
study.  His  greatness — for  he  may  be  said  to  be  great — does 
not  lie  in  any  one  exclusive  direction.  He  possesses  a  combina 
tion  of  qualities  in  more  than  an  ordinary  degree  of  excellence. 
And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that*  if  he  had  chosen  any  one  of 
the  three  paths  that  are  manifestly  open  to  him  as  his  exclusive 
line  of  life,  he  would  have  reached  a  foremost  place.  If  he  had 
chosen  the  profession  of  oratory,  he  would  have  left  Beecher, 
Gough,  and  Ingersoll,  far  behind.  If  he  had  confined  himself 
wholly  to  law,  he  might  have  stood  to-day  peerless  among  the 
legal  magnates  of  America.  If  he  had  made  politics  the  passion 
of  his  life,  heaven  only  knows  what  he  might  not  have  been  by 
this  time.  He  is  a  very  remarkable  man  as  a  speaker.  He  has 
the  unusual  faculty  of  knowing  exactly  what  to  say,  and  the  still 
more  remarkable  gift  of  knowing  what  not  to  say.  .  .  .  He  has 
the  skill  of  leaving  his  audience'  with  the  impression  that  there- 
are  about  five  hundred  and  eighty-four  good  things  which  hu 
was  going  to  say,  but  time  is  up  and  he  will  save  them  till 
next  time ;  and  so  it  comes  to  pass  his  audience  never  tires  of 
him.  As  a  lawyer,  he  holds  a  place  all  his  own  in  the  legal 
638 


AN    ADDRESS    TO    DOCTORS.  639 

profession.  ...  As  a  politician,  Emery  A.  Storrs  is  not  regarded 
as  an  aspirant  for  any  office.  .  .  .  On  Thursday,  the  2nd  of 
March,  the  sixth  annual  commencement  of  the  Chicago  Homeo 
pathic  Medical  College  took  place  at  Haverly's  theatre,  and 
Emery  A.  Storrs  was  appointed  orator  for  the  occasion.  The 
arrangement  was  a  great  joke;  but  Mr.  Storrs  was  equal  to  it, 
and  he  made  a  speech  writh  a  good  deal  more  of  genuine  wit 
than  Mark  Twain  would  have  uttered  under  similar  circumstances. 
The  oration,  however,  did  not  close  without  some  very  wise  and 
weighty  words.  There  was  a  distinct  moral  adorning  the  tale  so 
pleasantly  told.  The  affair  was  a  grand  success,  and  that  owing 
largely  to  the  fact  "Saul  was  among  the  prophets."  Chicago 
may  well  be  proud  of  Emery  A.  Storrs,  if  he  is  the  "mildest  pill 
in  the  box.''  The  speech,  in  full,  was  as  follows  : 

"MR.  CHAIRMAN  AND  FELLOW-CITIZENS:  During  my  absence  from 
home  this  whole  business,  so  far  as  I  am  connected  with  it,  was  arranged. 
I  was  appointed  and  advertised,  as  the  orator  on  the  occasion  of  a  medi 
cal  college  commencement,  by  my  clerk.  I  was  selected  probably  because 
of  my  large,  varied,  and  broadly  comprehensive  ignorance  of  all  the  topics 
involved  in  the  course  of  education  and  training.  [Laughter.]  I  probably 
know  less  about  medical  things  than  almost  any  man  in  this  community. 
I  not  only  lack  reading,  but  I  lack  practical  and  personal  experience  of  the 
medical  science.  And  I  was  probably  appointed  to  occupy  this  position  for 
the  reason  that  I  would  be  entirely  unembarrassed  by  the  facts,  and  unen 
cumbered  by  any  knowledge  of  the  subject,  so  that  in  my  speech  I  might 
wander  with  'maiden  meditation'  and  'fancy  free.'  [Laughter.]  That  is 
what  I  propose  to  do.  [Renewed  laughter.]  And  I  say  now  that  I  shall 
probably  deliver  to  you  the  most  discursive  address  you  ever  heard  on 
this  or  any  other  topic. 

"I  have  said  I  have  no  medical  reading  to  qualify  me  to  talk  to  medi 
cal  students  or  to  doctors.  I  have  but  very  little  experience  in  medical 
practice,  because  very  little  of  it  has  ever  been  bestowed  upon  me.  My 
recollections  date  back  many  years  ago,  when,  as  a  very  young  boy,  I 
first  discovered  that  there  was  a  bitter  to  every  sweet  and,  for  reasons 
which  my  mother  and  you  doubtless  understand,  I  never  could  appreciate 
the  virtue  of  spirits  of  turpentine  with  all  the  sugar  I  ever  had.  [Laugh 
ter.]  My  reminiscences  of  the  measles  I  will  not  now  undertake  to  recapit 
ulate.  I  look  back  upon  spirits  of  turpentine  expressly — upon  the  years 
when  I  took  senna  and  catnip,  and  regret  that  I  was  not  born  in  a  later 
generation,  when  the  size  of  the  pills  had  been  largely  reduced,  and 
the  nauseousness  of  the  doses  had  been  very  much  alleviated.  [Laughter] 
I  think  1  can  appear  here  to-day  as  counsel  for  the  great  body  of  our 
fellow-citizens,  deeply  interested  in  you  and  your  science — the  patients. 
I  propose  to  speak  for  them. 


640  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"They  have  my  sympathy.  [Laughter.]  I  very  much  doubt  whether  you 
have.  And  when  I  have  been  hurriedly  looking  over  the  statistics  and  find 
1,200  medical  students  in  this  town  in  one  year,  you  must  excuse  me  if 
such  a  table  of  figures  excites  in  my  mind  the  most  grave  and  serious,  and 
alarming  apprehensions.  [Laughter.]  I  am  assured  that  Chicago  is  a  great 
medical  centre.  Whether  that  is  something  that  the  great  body  of  its  peo 
ple  who  don't  administer  medicine  are  to  rejoice  over  I  don't  know;  I  am 
not  so  sure  about  it :  but  with  you,  gentlemen,  as  much  as  with  us,  time 
makes  all  things  even.  The  time  finally  comes  when  we  have  to  go  to  you. 
And  then  we  beg  of  you,  for  our  sakes  and  for  your  sakes,  use  your  sci 
ence,  but  go  slow.  [Laughter.]  Chicago  is  a  city  of  wonderful  growth, 
and  for  the  last  half  hour  I  have  been  meditating  upon  the  marvelous  equi 
librium  of  things  which  we  find  throughout  all  this  world,  and  that,  even 
in  the  creations  of  doctors,  that  great  economic  law  of  supply  and  demand 
is  enforced.  We  have  in  this  city,  I  am  told,  six  medical  colleges  and  one 
school  of  nurses.  Two  of  these  colleges  are  allopathic,  two  of  them  homeo 
pathic,  one  of  them  eclectic,  and  there  is  one  woman's  college,  also  allo 
pathic.  These  buildings  cost  $250,000.  The  number  of  students — I  wish 
my  patient  sympathizers  to  understand — last  year  was  1,200,  and  the  num 
ber  of  graduates  reached  the  astonishing  number  of  600.  Think  of  that! 
And  these  students  and  these  graduates  came  from  every  State  and  from 
pretty  much  every  country  of  the  habitable  civilized  globe.  These  young 
medical  students  spent  in  this  city,  in  one  way  or  another,  during  the  last 
year,  about  $300,000.  That  is  the  present  situation  of  this  great  science 
in  this  city  to-day,  The  future  promises  very  largely,  for  when  the 
Cook  County  Hospital  is  completed  it  will  be  the  largest  in  America,  Next 
year  a  new  college,  to  be  known  as  the  Chicago  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  will  be  completed.  It  is  to  be  directly  opposite  this  great  hos 
pital,  and  then  there  will  be  gathered  around  it  four  medical  colleges. 
This,  I  am  assured,  will  make  the  City  of  Chicago  the  greatest  medical 
centre  in  the  world.  There  is  something  eminently  fitting,  and  proper,  and 
natural,  that  these  colleges  should  gather  around  a  'nospital.  It  follows 
other  lines  of  development.  The  pork-packing  establishments  gather  around 
the  Stock-Yards.  [Laughter.]  There  is  nothing  funny  about  that.  [Renewed 
laughter.]  The  grain  dealers  gather  about  the  Board  of  Trade,  the  lawyers 
hover  about  the  Court-House,  and  the  medical  colleges  surround  the  hos 
pital.  The  past  of  the  history  of  medical  education  in  this  city  will  illus 
trate  how  remarkable  and  how  wonderful  its  growth  has  been.  Fifteen 
years  ago  there  were  thirty-five  homeopathic  students  in  this  city.  Ten 
years  ago  there  were  eighty-four.  Five  years  ago  there  were  only  eighty- 
six.  But  two  years  later,  after  the  establishment  of  the  Chicago  Homeo 
pathic  College,  the  number  had  increased  to  150,  and  this  year  the 
number  doubled  any  previous  year.  Thus,  as  you  see,  Chicago  in 
another  respect  has  become  a  great  distributing  centre.  It  distributes 
doctors  and  disease  probably  in  a  larger  measure  and  in  a  larger  var 
iety  than  any  other  city  on  the  face  of  the  habitable  globe.  We  have 
more  kinds  of  doctors,  and  we  have  more  kinds  of  disease,  and  we  ere- 


AX    ADDRESS    TO    DOCTORS.  64! 

ate  doctors  and  diseases  faster,  and  the  calls  for  both  are  larger,  and 
the  supply  is  more  nearly  regulated  by  the  demand  than  any  other  known 
commodity.  For  wherever,  from  our  infamous  system  of  drainage,  from 
the  universal  diffusion  of  sewer-gas,  a  new  and  complicated  form  of  dis 
ease  springs  up,  Chicago  furnishes  a  new  kind  of  doctor,  eminently  fit 
ted  and  adequate  to  treat  that  new  sort  of  disease.  [Laughter.]  In  this 
respect,  you  see,  I  am  speaking  of  it  as  an  economic  question,  regula 
ted  by  the  great  and  inflexible  law  of  supply  and  demand.  There  is  one 
favor  I  would  like  to  ask  of  this  graduating  class,  and  that  is  that  they 
won't  set  up  the  old-fashioned  job  on  us,  whenever  a  new  disease  pre 
sents  itself  with  which  they  are  not  able  to  deal,  and  call  it  the  mala 
ria,  as  if  that  meant  anything  specific.  That  is  what  I  know  about  doc 
tors. 

"There  is  something,  however,  which  I  desire,  in  a  rather  more  serious 
vein,  to  say  to  you,  and  that  is  that  your  profession  holds  very  near  and  close 
relations  to  my  own,  and  that  you  will  find,  before  you  have  finished  it, 
that  the  profession  of  medicine  has  very  much  to  do  with  the  administration 
of  justice,  particularly  with  the  administration  of  criminal  justice.  I  wish  to 
impress  upon  you  the  importance,  which  every  practicing  lawyer  has  dis 
covered  from  his  actual  observation,  of  the  development,  in  a  much  larger 
measure  than  we  have  heretofore  seen,  of  the  study  and  understanding  of 
that  science,  so  to  speak,  which  1  may  be  excused  for  calling  medical  juris 
prudence,  and  which,  freely  defined,  means  merely  the  application  of  your 
medical  science  to  the  administration  of  justice.  Physicians,  from  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  are  frequently  called  into  courts  as  experts,  their  qualifi 
cation  as  experts  being  based  upon  their  supposed  knowledge  of  the  science 
which  they  profess  to  and  do  practice.  I  may  be  excused  for  saying  at  the  out 
set  that  medical  experts,  as  a  rule,  have  within  the  last  few  years  fallen  into 
very  widely  extended  and  very  serious  disrepute.  Courts  are  inclined  to  disfa 
vor  and  discredit  them.  That  does  not  result  from  the  fact  that  there  is  any 
objection  they  have  to  calling  to  the  administration  of  justice  all  the 
aids  which  your  science  can  furnish  it,  but  rather  from  the  fact  that 
there  has  grown  up  a  class  which,  perhaps,  may  be  called  professional 
experts,  that  has  cast  discredit  not  only  upon  the  testimony  of  experts, 
but  upon  that  most  worthy  profession  to  which  they  profess  to  belong. 
The  distinguished  and  the  able  physician,  I  have  discovered,  as  a  wit 
ness,  is  among  the  plainest  and  most  undemonstrative,  and  simplest  of 
men.  I  find  words  of  thundering  length  and  sound,  technical  in  char 
acter,  employed  by  the  medical  expert  and  witness,  mostly  by  the  medi 
cal  gentleman  whose  medical  opinion  is  of  but  little  value  in  court  or 
elsewhere.  I  remember  a  case  which  illustrates  this,  occurring  almost  in 
an  adjoining  county,  which  shows  how  absurd  this  affectation  of  learning 
may  become,  and  how  liable  such  affectation  is  to  discredit  even  the 
profession  itself.  A  school-teacher  was  sued  for  whipping  a  boy  in 
school.  A  physician,  bursting  with  his  own  importance,  was  placed  on 
the  stand  to  describe  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  injury,  and  he  said 
that  he  examined  the  boy's  arm  and  found  upon  it  'a  discoloration 

41 


642  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

caused  by  the  extravasation  of  the  sanguinous  fluid  beneath  the  cuticle.' 
Called  upon  to  bring  himself  down  to  the  comprehension  of  the 
average  juror  and  the  average  natural  man,  he  was  fain  to  confess 
that  the  condition  in  which  he  found  the  boy's  arm  was  that  it  was 
black  and  blue.  [Laughter.]  Now  the  first  description,  of  course, 
was  rather  appalling  to  the  jury,  and  when  it  was  thundered  forth  1 
looked  for  a  very  large  verdict  against  my  client ;  but  when  it  was 
reduced  to  its  ultimate,  the  verdict  was  reduced  with  it.  [Laughter.]  A 
few  years  ago,  in  this  city,  we  had  a  very  famous  case,  which  involved 
a  discussion,  to  the  aid  of  which  we  were  compelled  to  call  physicians, 
as  to  the  effect  of  aconitene  when  externally  applied.  I  remember  [he 
was  not  of  your  school]  a  large,  bursting,  bumptious,  self-sufficient,  all- 
sufficient,  insufficient  man  [Laughter],  who  came  into  court  announcing 
that  the  variety,  and  magnitude,  and  tremendous  gravity  of  his  engage 
ments  required  that  he  should  be  immediately  placed  upon  the  stand 
and  released.  Other  distinguished  doctors  came  there — quietly  came  and 
went.  This  doctor  gave  us  the  views  of  Dioscorides  on  that  plant,  and, 
being  bothered  about  the  origin  and  history  of  Dioscorides  in  his  cross- 
examination,  I  learned  from  that  stiff  and  bumptious  physician,  that 
Dioscorides  was  a  contemporary  of  Peter  the  Hermit.  And  he  staid  all 
through  that  blessed  trial,  which  lasted  ten  days.  [Laughter.]  I  think 
he  is  attending  some  trial  to-day. 

"You  are  the  most  frequently  called  upon,  perhaps,  as  I  have  said,  in 
criminal  cases.  See  how  wide  your  field  is  going  to  be  in  the  future.  The 
validity  of  wills,  the  disposition  of  millions  of  money,  vast  estates,  the  inter 
ests  of  families — all  may  hinge  upon  the  intelligence  of  your  judgment  and 
the  intelligence  and  clearness  with  which  you  can  express  that  judgment 
with  reference  to  the  devising  capacity  of  the  testator.  Questions  arise  as 
to  whether  death  was  caused  by  accident  or  design.  Don't  let  your  science 
run  away  with  you,  for  the  books  are  full  of  cases  where  medical  witnesses, 
some  of  the  most  conspicuous  of  whom  were  in  that  famous  Baltimore 
case,  have  been  eager  to  find  traces  of  poison,  and  the  subsequent  develop 
ment  of  the  utter  uselessness  of  such  investigations  was  all  that  prevented 
the  hanging  of  one  who  turned  out  to  be  an  entirely  innocent  man. 

"The  larger  class  of  cases  involve  what  are  called  questions  of  insan 
ity.  And  here  I  think  you  will  excuse  me  if  I  give  you  a  few  words 
of  a  lawyer's  advice.  I  want  to  say  to  you  that  I  doubt  whether  you 
can,  any  of  you,  give  what  under  all  circumstances  would  be  regarded 
as  a  satisfactory  definition  of  that  word  insanity  ;  and  I  have  the  author 
ity  of  some  very  great  medical  men,  and  supplement  their  authority  merely, 
when  I  say  to  you  that  if  you  were  put  upon  the  stand  and  asked  to  give 
a  definition  of  insanity  which  is  to  be  at  all  points  correct,  and  which  is  to 
cover  every  conceivable  form  of  disease  of  the  brain  which  might  be 
classified  as  insanity,  I  think  you  will  find  it  safer  to  decline. 

"Moreover,  I  want  to  suggest  this:  That  insanity  with  the  courts  and 
with  lawyers  may  mean  one  thing,  and  insanity  with  you,  as  scientific 
gentlemen,  may  mean  another  thing.  The  courts  have  to  deal  with  the 


AN    ADDRESS    TO    DOCTORS.  643 

interests  of  society,  and  they  are  bound  to  protect  society,  against  the 
maraudings  of  any  man  and  every  man  capable  of  apprehending 
the  nature  of  his  own  conduct  and  capable  of  controlling  it.  Legal 
insanity  cannot  exist,  1  think,  wherever  the  party  setting  up  insanity 
as  a  defense  has  sufficient  of  mental  capacity  left  to  discriminate 
between  right  and  wrong — to  know  the  difference  between  guilt  and 
innocence — to  comprehend  the  consequences  of  the  act  with  the  com 
mission  of  which  he  is  charged,  and  able  to  control  his  own  conduct. 
Now,  in  my  judgment — and  I  want  to  suggest  that  to  you — I  don't 
care  how  crazy,  how  insane  you  may  conceive  a  man  to  be,  if  he 
comes  within  those  limitations  the  law  must  treat  him  as  responsi 
ble.  [Applause.]  That  is  all  there  is  about  it.  And  I  know  that, 
embarrassed  with  the  solemnity  of  the  position  which  you  hold  as  medi 
cal  experts  in  cases  of  that  character,  you  will  move  up  to  your  opin 
ions  very  cautiously — very  patiently ;  you  will  not  be  swift  to  tell  them, 
and  when  you  are  examining  the  symptoms  which  may  indicate  a  dis 
ease  of  the  brain  you  will  remember  that  it  is  not  a  mere  disease  of 
the  brain,  without  regard  to  its  extent,  which  excuses  from  the  commis 
sion  of  crime,  but  that  degree  of  disease  which  thus  excuses  must  be 
carried  to  that  extent  as  to  deprive  the  accused  of  legal  and  moral 
responsibility  by  placing  the  act  with  which  he  is  charged  beyond  the 
power  of  his  control  for  prevention  or  commission.  You  must  understand 
by  this  time  that  I  have  the  Guiteau  case  in  my  mind.  I  commend 
to  you  the  charge  to  the  jury  by  Judge  Cox  in  that  case  as  embody 
ing  what,  it  seems  to  me,  is  about  as  wise  and  satisfactory  a  solution 
of  this  very  difficult  problem  as  can  be  found  anywhere  in  the  books. 
On  the  other  hand,  so  far  as  questions  of  insanity  are  concerned, 
much  is  said  nowadays  about  insanity  of  an  emotional  character.  I  don't 
pretend  to  instruct  you.  It  would  be  absurd  for  me  to  attempt  to  do  so 
on  these  questions.  I  invite  your  consideration  to  them.  I  ask  you 
whether  there  is  such  a  thing  as  paroxysmal  insanity,  .and  to  think 
about  it  before  you  answer.  I  ask  you  whether  there  is  such  a  thing 
as  emotional  insanity,  and  to  think  about  that  before  you  answer.  I 
ask  you  to  consider  whether  illogical  freaks,  ill-reasoned  enterprises,  bad 
temper,  unfortunate  speculations — anything  a  little  out  of  the  rut  of  the 
natural — would  lead  your  mind  necessarily  to  a  conclusion  that  the  party 
thus  eccentric  was  insane.  Take  this  test  when  these  questions  are  put 
to  you ;  Take  any  man's  life — any  man  of  strong  vital,  moral,  and 
intellectual  forces — pick  put  in  the  strongest  and  best  man's  life  all  the 
absurd  things  he  has  done,  all  the  idle  and  ridiculous  words  he  has 
uttered,  all  the  illogical  enterprises — judged  by  hindsight — in  which  he 
has  been  engaged,  all  the  freaks  and  caprices  which  he  has  committed, 
and  pile  them  up  on  a  table,  dissociated  from  the  general  run  of  the 
man's  life,  before  any  jury.  I  beg  you  to  consider  what  havoc  such  a 
display  would  make  with  the  reputation  for  sanity  of  the  strongest  and 
best  men  in  our  community?  How  would  General  Strong  like  to  have  that 
test  applied  to  him?  I  would  not  like  k  myselfr  No  man  here  could 


644  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

stand  it.  I  suggest  that  because  these  hypothetical  questions  will  be  put 
to  you,  and  the  lawyer  addressing  the  question  to  you  will  pick  out 
from  the  career  of  his  client's  life  all  the  absurd  and  ridiculous  things, 
real  and  supposititious,  and  ask  you  what  you  think  of  such  a  man 
that  has  done  and  said  that  sort  of  thing. 

"You,  perhaps,  might  say,  if  that  indicated  the  general  current  of  the 
man's  life,  and  spoke  for  it,  and  fairly  illustrated  it — if  that  was  the 
man,  and  not  merely  a  part  of  the  man — perhaps  it  would  be  sufficient 
to  reach  the  conclusion  that  he  was  legally  and  morally  irresponsible 
for  anything  he  did  ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  you  would  quite  well  be 
justified  in  saying  that  you  would  hardly  undertake  to  determine  the 
question  of  any  man's  sanity  or  insanity  by  supposed  fragmentary  and 
isolated  instances  of  his  life,  presented  to  you  and  laid  before  you  for 
your  judgment.  In  other  words,  it  reaches  simply  this  result:  You  are 
asked  to  give  a  judgment  upon  a  most  grave  and  a  most  serious  ques 
tion,  whefe  you  are  not  placed  in  possession  of  all  the  facts  necessary 
to  enable  you  to  express  a  wise  and  intelligent  opinion.  You  have  not 
been  unmindful  of  the  fact  of  the  deep  interest  which  the  public  have  in 
all  these  questions.  And  1  look  to  this  young  class — this  graduating 
class  of  to-day  from  the  Chicago  Homeopathic  Medical  College — to 
illustrate  the  truth  of  this  proposition:  that  this  year  is  wiser  than  last 
year ;  that  you  are  not  merely  the  creatures  of  precedent ;  that  to-day 
you  known,  or  ought  to  know,  more  about  that  curious  piece  of  mechanism 
known  as  the  brain  than  you  knew  ten  years  ago ;  that  you  are  more 
able  to  interpret  it,  to  describe  its,  action;  and  that,  if  you  have  not 
reached  the  point,  you  mean  to  reach  the  point  where  you  will  be  able 
to  make  the  solution  of  the  question  of  insanity  of  a  legal  character 
one  of  degree — for  you  certainly  will  not  agree  with  the  experts  of  this 
city  that,  in  its  legal  sense,  four-fifths  of  mankind  are  insane.  It  may 
be — I  don't  know  but  that  it  is  so — that  of  all  the  brains  in  Chicago, 
four-fifths  are  more  or  less  diseased.  I  presume  that  is  so  with  the 
livers.  I  have  no  doubt  about  that.  I  am  told  that  four-fifths  of  the  people 
in  this  city  have  catarrh,  more  or  less.  Now,  so  long  as  catarrh  and 
the  liver  are  not  so  expressly  affected  as  to  impair  the  general  health 
of  the  men  we  make  no  special  count  of  it ;  but  so  far  as  the  human 
brain,  diseased  though  it  may  be,  is  not  sufficiently  diseased  as  to 
deprive  the  afflicted  patient  of  the  capacity  of  determining  between  right 
and  wrong — knowing  the  nature  of  his  action  and  controlling  his  conduct 
— I  think  that  he  must  be  held  responsible  for  it.  This  is  a  large  sub 
ject,  and  this  is  why  I  am  talking  about  it  so  long. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI.  9 

RECEPTION  OF  GENERAL  GRANT  IN  CHICAGO. 

GENERAL  GRANT'S  RETURN  FROM  HIS  TOUR  AROUND  THE  WORLD — RECEPTION 
IN  CHICAGO— THE  UNION  VETERAN  CLUB— WELCOME  BY  MR.  STORKS- 
NATIONAL  RIGHTS  SUBSTITUTED  FOR  STATE  RIGHTS — POLITICAL  EQUALITY 
OF  ALL  CITIZENS  MUST  BE  SECURED,  BY  FORCE  IF  NECESSARY — JUSTICE 
BETTER  THAN  PEACE— THE  OBLIGATIONS  OF  THE  GOVERNMENT  MUST  BE 
FULFILLED — THE  PRODIGAL  SON  IN  A  NEW  DRESS — BANQUET  OF  THE 
ARMY  OF  TENNESSEE — MR.  STORRS  SPEAKS  FOR  THE  PATRIOTIC  PEOPLE 
WHO  FED  AND  CLOTHED  OUR  ARMIES — CALUMET  CLUB  RECEPTION. 

ON  General  Grant's  return  from  his  trip  around  the  world, 
in  which  the  highest  honors  were  paid  him  in  every 
country,  he  was  received  in  America  with  a  welcome  such  as 
had  never  before  been  accorded  to  any  citizen,  and  nowhere  was 
there  a  more  cordial  demonstration  than  in  Chicago.  For  several 
days  the  thoroughfares  were  decorated  with  flags,  mottoes,  and 
emblems,  and  the  General  was  the  central  figure  at  various 
festivities.  TJie  whole  city  seemed  during  that  week  to  be  given 
up  to  a  general  holiday. 

A  gathering  of  old  soldiers,  members  of  the  Union  Veteran 
Club  of  Chicago,  assembled  at  M'Vicker's  theatre  on  the  morning 
of  Thursday,  the  I3th  of  November,  to  give  their  old  commander 
a  reception.  General  Grant  was  completely  taken  by  surprise  on 
being  brought  face  to  face  with  a  theatre  full  of  veterans,  and 
called  upon  for  a  speech.  "I  thought,"  said  he,  "I  was  merely 
coming  here  to  see  the  place  where  you  were  to  meet  this  even 
ing,  or  some  other  time.  I  was  not  aware  that  I  was  going  to 
meet  so  many  of  my  old  comrades."  The  back  of  the  stage  was 
occupied  by  a  triple  dais,  in  the  centre  of  which,  upon  an  elevated 
throne,  sat  the  goddess  of  Liberty,  while  at  her  feet  were  clustered 
five  little  girls,  who  represented  the  Territories  of  the  United 

645 


646  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

States.  On  either  side  of  these  stood  two  rows  of  young  ladies, 
representing  the  various  States  of  the  Union,  the  State  represented 
by  each  being  designated  by  a  handsome  blue  shield,  with  the 
name  of  the  State  in  gold  letters  diagonally  across  it.  The  god 
dess  of  Liberty  was  draped  in  a  regimental  flag,  and  bore  in  her 
right  hand  the  staff  to  which  clung  the  tattered  remains  of  the 
flag  of  the  2 1st  Illinois  infantry,  and  in  her  left  a  shield  bearing 
the  inscription,  "In  the  name  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Union 
you  saved,  I  welcome  you."  On  the  left  side  were  three  muskets 
stacked,  and  beside  them  a  flag  whose  inscription  showed  that 
it  had  been  the  standard  of  General  Thomas'  headquarters. 
Speeches  having  been  made  by  General  John  A.  Logan  and 
General  Grant,  and  "the  drummer  boy  of  the  Rappahannock," 
the  President  of  the  club  called  upon  Emery  A.  Storrs,  to  ^address 
the  meeting;  which  he  did  in  the  following  words: 

"If  there  are  any  ladies  or  gentlemen  present  in  this  vast  audience  who, 
during  the  war,  remained  at  home,  I  want  their  sympathy.  I  wish  to 
address  them  as  my  fellow-comrades.  [Laughter.]  It  makes  one  feel 
unanimously  lonesome  to  sit  up  here  among  soldiers.  I  sympathize  with 
those  who  protected  their  families,  as  I  did,  at  my  fireside.  And  General 
Grant  and  General  Logan,  having  told  you  what  they  know  about  peace,  I 
would  like  to  tell  you  what  I  know  about  war.  [Laughter.]  Being  a  law 
yer,  I  naturally  look  at  things  in  a  lawyer-like  way  ;  but  it  never  for  an 
instant  occurred  to  me  that  you  could  wage  a  campaign  by  Chitty's  tactics. 
I  never  wanted  to  see  a  court  run  either  on  Hardee's  tactics.  I  supposed 
that  battles  were  to  be  fought  in  a  military  way,  and  not  in  a  legal  way. 
I  had  no  more  idea  that  law-books  could  regulate  the  management  of  a 
campaign  than  you  could  determine  the  question  of  a  future  state  by  science, 
or  the  value  of  a  fertilizer  by  theology.  I  always  thought  that  war  meant 
something.  I  never  believed  in  a  conservative  battle.  I  never  sympathized 
with  that  great  constitutional  General,  who,  when  he  fired  his  guns,  fired 
them  with  a  bullet  that  went  slow,  so  that  there  could  be  a  chance  for 
capitulation  before  they  reached  their  destination.  [Laughter.]  I  never 
believed  in  that  kind  of  warfare.  I  thought, — and  now  I  am  addressing  the 
military  branch  of  the  audience,  I  thought  that  there  was  behind  our 
armies  a  great,  splendid,  magnificient,  gloriously  resplendent  cause.  I 
thought  you  fought  for  it.  I  thought  it  was  that  cause  which  armed  every 
man,  which  took  every  soldier  into  the  field.  I  thought  you  not  only  fought 
for  that  cause,  but  against  a  cause;  and  I  considered,  that  a  surren 
der  of  your  adversary  which  involved  merely  the  laying  down  of  his  arms 
and  an  acceptance  of  the  situation,  without  a  surrender  of  the  cause  for 
which  he  fought,  was  a  gigantic  and  stupendous  mockery.  Was  I  not  right 
about  it?  [Applause.] 


RECEPTION  OF  GENERAL  GRANT  IN  CHICAGO.          647 

"I  say  you  fought  for  a  cause.  I  am  not  very  emotional,  and  while  I 
am  not  blood-thirsty  on  these  great  topics  of  Government,  I  am  not  senti 
mental.  I  believe  that  the  capitulation  of  the  Rebel  armies  meant  some 
thing  more  than  the  capitulation  of  their  armies.  I  believe  that  at  Appo- 
mattox  Court-House  they  laid  down  the  doctrine  of  State  Rights  and  we  took 
it  up  ;  that  they  laid  down  this  infernal  doctrine  of  secession,  and  we  took 
it  up  and  pulverized  it ;  that  they  surrendered  human  slavery  and  we  took 
it,  and  I  say  that  man  is  a  flunkey  who  will  give  any  of  them  back. 
[Applause.] 

"  I  am  not  blood-thirsty,  but  I  mean  business.  I  don't  want  to  see 
another  war.  And  the  exact  way  to  see  it  is  to  conciliate  an  adversary 
whom  you  have  defeated,  by  giving  back  to  him  the  fruits  of  the  victories 
you  have  achieved. 

"I  am  talking  to  plain,  rational  people.  I  like  some  plain,  sensible  illus 
trations.  Suppose  that  a  couple  of  men  w^ere  fighting  about  the  possession 
of  a  farm.  Such  things  have  occurred.  Suppose  that  they  fought  with 
guns,  as  you  fought,  and  the  man  originally  in  possession  was  beaten. 
When  he  was  vanquished  he  said:  'I  accept  the  situation.  I  lay  down  my 
arms.  Is  there  anything  more  you  can  ask.  I  desire  to  be  conciliated.' 
The  other  man  says  :  '  That  is  all  right,  but  how  about  the  farm  ;  what  I 
want  is  the  farm.'  [Laughter.]  Isn't  that  exactly  our  position?  We  want 
what  we  established, — the  doctrine  of  National  instead  of  State  sovereignty. 
We  extirpated  human  slavery  from  every  foot  of  the  soil  of  the  Republic. 
Didn't  we  do  it?  We  declared  that  there  was  a  centralized  power  which  we 
call  a  nation,  and  by  the  Fourteenth  Constitutional  amendment  we  made 
everybody  beneath  the  flag  citizens  of  the  United  States.  [Applause.]  The 
most  splendid  declaration  that  any  Government  ever  made  since  the  world 
was  made.  We  made  some  promises  to  our  fellow-citizens  in  those  amend 
ments,  and  this  is  the  serious  question  addressed  to-day,  and  which  will  be 
addressed  for  the  years  to  come,  to  every  citizen  :  Shall  the  Nation  that 
has  power  to  make  a  promise  have  power  to  perform  its  engagement?  I 
say  it  shall.  And  the  doctrine  of  conciliation — has  it  ever  occurred  to  these 
battle-scarred  veterans  that  it  would  be  an  elegant  thing  if  somebody  sliould 
come  and  conciliate  them?  Has  anybody,  in  this  gush  of  sentiment  that 
has  pervaded  and  diluted  our  politics,  ever  proposed  to  conciliate  you?  We 
went  through  the  wrar  to  reconstruction,  and  gathered  into  our  Constitution 
the  fruits  of  these  great  victories — solid,  substantial  ideas. 

"We  guaranteed  to  every  citizen  beneath  the  flag  absolute  political  equality. 
Have  they  got  it?  You  know  they  have  not.  Why  haven't  they  got  it? 
Because  there  is  a  large  political  organization  in  this  country  evoking  the 
old  conquered  doctrine  of  State  Rights,  which  declares  that,  although  this 
Government  has  the  power  to  make  an  engagement,  it  has  not  the  power 
to  execute  its  agreement.  This  promise  is  interfered  with  how  ?  By  force. 
How  will  you  put  it  down?  I  say  by.  force.  These  engagements  are  written 
in  the  organic  law.  May  I  put  just  this  suggestion  to  you  ?  Of  what  earthly 
use  is  a  constitutional  provision  without  an  act  of  Congress  to  enforce  it  ? 
Not  a  particle.  It  don't  execute  itself  any  more  than  a  physician's  prescrip- 


648  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

tion  executes  itself;  not  a  bit.  You  might  as  well  go  to  your  doctor,  and 
get  your  prescription,  and  lay  it  on  the  table,  and  then  consider  that  your 
liver  would  be  in  proper  condition  thereafter  without  taking  the  medicine, 
as  to  have  no  statute  to  put  a  constitutional  provision  in  practice.  Now, 
this  is  practical  talk.  This  is  not  eloquence.  These  constitutional  provisions 
contain  a  little  clause  at  the  end  of  every  section:  'Congress,'  it  says, 
'shall  have  power  to  enforce  the  provisions  of  this  article  by  appropriate 
legislation.'  We  are  very  sensible  people.  What  is  appropriate  legislation? 
That  is  the  dividing  line  in  our  politics.  Suppose  the  guarantee  being  that 
the  citizen  shall  vote,  and  the  privilege  is  interfered  with  by  force,  what 
kind  of  legislation  would  you  have  to  execute  a  privilege  where  a  privilege 
is  denied  by  force?  I  think  you  should  have  some  legislation  which  would 
call  out  force  on  the  other  side. 

"  How  would  you  apply  a  remedy  where  a  man  came  up  and  drove  me 
away  from  the  polls?  Would  you  have  a  hymn  sung,  or  a  platform  read? 
I  would  have  legislation  that  would  call  for  more  armed  men,  wouldn't  you? 
I  would  have  gatherings  of  this  character  for  furnishing  the  Executive  with 
that  rigidity,  that  everlasting  stiffness  of  backbone,  that  he  would  stand  up 
and  say,  in  the  presence  of  the  living  God,  'This  statute  shall  be  executed, 
or  I  will  smash  the  whole  concern.'  [Laughter  and  applause.]  We  have 
come  right  to  that  pass  now.  Suppose  that  armies  are  organized  to  interfere 
with  the  enjoyment  of  these  guaranteed  privileges.  I  like  to  contemplate  the 
spectacle  of  a  great  Nation  making  a  solemn  promise,  and  then,  with  a 
guzzling,  drooling  sort  of  helplessness,  standing  up  before  48,000,000  of 
people  and  saying  that  it  would  create  a  great  disturbance  if  we  carried  out 
our  promise.  I  like  peace.  There  are  some  things  I  like  infinitely  better.  1 
like  justice  a  great  deal  better  than  I  like  peace,  and  I  would  have  ever 
lasting  and  eternal  uproar  until  I  had  justice.  Now,  wouldn't  you  ?  [Cries 
of  "Yes."]  The  Almighty,  my  friends,  don't  do  things  always  in  a  quiet 
way.  [Laughter.]  When  we  have  a  pestilential  and  malarious  atmosphere 
that  is  charged  all  through  with  poison  and  disease,  he  don't  send  quiet, 
still,  and  stealthy  agencies,  but  the  thunderstorm,  the  rain,  the  whirlwind, 
and  the  earthquake  come,  and,  in  the  conflict  of  the  elements  which  follows, 
the  air  is  cleansed  and  purified,  and  we  breath  again  with  safety. 
[Applause.]  The  kind  of  peace  that  this  people  desire  is  liberty,  calmly 
and  safely  enjoyed.  No  other  kind  of  peace  do  we  require.  I  have  said 
that  this  draws  the  dividing  line.  It  does.  There  is  no — I  am  going  to 
talk  politics  now.  I  can't  help  it.  This  great,  broad,  comprehensive, 
National  politics, — this  politics  that  reaches  from  sea  to  sea,  from  one  limit 
and  boundary  of  the  continent  to  the  other.  It  is  the  great  politics,  the 
noblest  of  all  human  science,  which  asserts  the  equality  of  mankind  and 
swears  by  the  living  God  it  will  enforce  it.  May  be  you  never  heard  it 
called  so  before.  It  ain't  Democracy.  It  is  politics.  [Laughter.]  Now, 
then,  we  have  made  these  engagements.  Who  made  them  ?  Here  is  a 
suggestion  I  want  you  to  take  with  you  when  somebody  talks  State-Rights 
to  you.  Take  down  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Constitutional  Amend 
ments,  and  the  more  you  read  them  the  more  absolutely  lustrous  and 


RECEPTION    OF    GENERAI,    GRANT    IN    CHICAGO.  649 

splendid  they  become.  There  is  no  such  literature  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Concentrated  in  twenty  lines  are  the  splendid  guarantees  that  make 
all  there  is  of  human  government, — the  absolute  equality  of  political  privi 
leges,  liberties,  and  immunities.  Not  only  that.  This  great  cause  of  ours 
embodied  in  the  Union  soldiery  that  is  here  to-day, — a  cause  as  broad  as 
humanity  itself, — declared  in  the  organic  law  that  no  man  should  be  inter 
fered  with  in  the  enjoyment  of  his  political  privileges  by  reason  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude.  These  engagements  have  been 
made  by  whom?  By  your  State?  No.  By  the  State  of  Illinois,  Indiana, 
or  Wisconsin?  No  State  has  made  that  contract  with  you.  It  is  this 
nation  that  has  made  it  with  you,  and  when  the  poorest  and  weakest  of 
our  citizens,  driven  from  the  polls,  takes  the  contract  that  his  Nation  has 
made  in  his  hands  and  goes  up  to  this  great,  puissant  body  that  I  call  the 
United  States  of  America  and  says:  'You  promised  that  I  should  have 
full  and  absolute  privilege  in  casting  an  unconstrained  ballot,  and  you 
haven't  kept  your  promise,'  what  is  the  Nation  going  to  do  about  it?  My 
friends,  you  had  better  repudiate  all  engagements  to  pay  money  than 
repudiate  an  engagement  of  that  character.  [Applause.]  Rising  right  out 
of  the  ground  and  the  soil  on  which  we  stand  is  the  splendid,  puissant 
spirit  of  our  institutions, — that  great,  majestic  form  whose  brow  is  clothed 
with  diamonds,  shining  with  light,  and  armed  with  a  sword  and  a  shield, 
taking  the  poor,  trembling  black  man  by  the  hand,  with  whom  she  has 
made  the  contract,  leading  him  through  the  files  of  his  enemies,  and,  with 
uplifted  hands,  saying:  'By  the  eternal  God,  in  whose  interest  I  speak, 
you  shall  cast  a  ballot  just  exactly  as  I  agreed.'  [Applause.] 

"  I  feel  that  it  is  exceedingly  well  for  us  to  be  here.  The  old  spirit  has 
come  over  all  the  people.  That  great  holy  wrath  that  comes  from  trifling 
with  a  splendid  generosity  is  aroused  throughout  all  the  land.  No  more 
can  we  be  deceived  by  appeals  to  magnanimity  until  every  man  votes  just 
exactly  as  he  wants  to;  and,  until  that  time  is  reached,  the  solemn  consid 
eration  as  to  what  shall  be  the  qualifications  of  a  clerk  in  the  Treasury 
Department  shall  be  indefinitely  postponed.  [Great  applause  and  laughter.] 

"I  say  all  that  this  country  has  to  give,  all  that  grateful  hearts  have 
to  render  up,  all  that  prayers,  all  that  high  and  elevated  devotion  have 
to  ask  for,  should  be  given  to  these  splendid  men  before  me  to-day. 
They  saved  this  nation  the  priceless  treasure  of  free  government  among 
men."  [Cheers.] 

In  closing  Mr.  Storrs  used  his  favorite  illustration  of  the  Prodi 
gal  Son,  applying  to  General  Grant  and  his  soldier  comrades,  the 
father's  words,  "All  that  I  have  is  thine,"  in  his  telling  way. 

General  Grant  spent  the  afternoon  at  the  Palmer  house  receiving 
visitors,  many  of  whom  had  come  from  the  country  towns  of 
Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  to  see  him  and  shake  hands 
with  him.  In  the  evening,  he  was  entertained  at  a  banquet  in 
the  Palmer  house  by  the  society  of  the  army  of  the  Tennessee. 


650  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

General  Sherman  presided,  and  speeches  were  made  by  General- 
Grant,  General  Logan,  Colonel  William  F.  Vilas,  General  Pope, 
Colonel  Robert  G.  Ingersoll,  Mark  Twain,  and  others.  Mr.  Storrs 
was  called  upon  to  respond  to  the  following  toast : 

"  The  Patriotic  People  of  the  United  States,  who  fed,  clothed, 
and  encouraged  our  Armies,  and  who  stood  by  us  in  defeat  as 
well  as  in  victory."  He  said  : 

"  iiR.  PRESIDENT  AND  GENTLEMEN:  Splendid  encomiums  have  been 
to-night  pronounced  upon  the  great  commanders  in  a  great  war.  Eloquent 
and  merited  tributes  have  been  paid  to  the  loyal  soldiers  of  that  war. 
Nothing  has  yet  been  said  in  behalf  of  that  great  body  of  the  loyal  people 
of  this  country,  who  were  neither  generals  nor  soldiers,  but  whose  steadfast 
patriotism  made  the  generals  a  possibility. 

"These  loyal  and  patriotic  citizens  never  failed  to  remember,  that  your 
victories  included  something  more  than  the  capture  of  armies ;  that  the 
issues  at  stake  were  vastly  greater  than  mere  questions  of  physical  prowess 
or  the  heroism  of  contending  armies.  They  never  so  far  forgot  themselves 
as  to  concede  for  an  instant,  that  the  cause  which  the  armies  of  the  Con 
federacy  represented  was,  in  merit,  equal  to  the  cause  of  the  Union.  The 
people  always  knew  that  the  final  success  of  the  Confederate  armies 
involved  the  dismemberment  of  a  great  Nation,  the  bondage  of  millions  of 
human  beings,  and  infinite  peril  to  the  success  of  the  experiment  of  self- 
government  inaugurated  upon  this  continent.  The  Confederacy  asserted  the 
right  of  secession — its  armies  were  defeated,  and  secession  was  surrendered 
with  its  armies.  They  fought  for  what  they  called  the  '  Sovereignty  of  the 
States,'  we,  for  the  integrity  and  indivisibility  of  the  Nation.  They  were 
defeated,  and  they  surrendered  the  doctrine  for  which  they  fought.  They 
took  up  arms  that  they  might  hold  millions  of  human  beings  as  chattels — 
we  for  universal  liberty  and  citizenship  and  these  great  results  were 
achieved,  not  solely  by  the  soldier  in  the  field,  but  the  steadfast  and  loyal 
citizen  who  remained  at  home  shares  the  glory  with  him. 

"These  loyal  and  patriotic  citizens  have  never  yet  been  and  are  not  now 
willing  to  restore  to  their  former  adversaries  any  one  of  the  political  here 
sies  which  they  surrendered.  Under  no  pretext  of  conciliation  will  they 
ever  consent  to  re-enslave  the  liberated  black  man,  to  deprive  him  of  the 
benefits  which  citizenship  confers,  or  to  re-open  the  questions  of  Secession 
and  State  Sovereignty,  as  opposed  to  the  idea  of  a  Nation.  We  are  a 
Nation,  and  though  as  States  we  may  be  '  distinct  like  the  billows,'  yet,  as 
a  Nation,  we  are  'one  like  the  sea.'  The  loyal  people  are  careful  to 
remember  the  sacred  nature  of  the  promises  which,  as  a  Nation,  we  have 
made  ;  they  know  what  the  guaranty  of  an  equality  of  political  privileges 
to  all  citizens  means,  and  while  boasting  that  the  shackles  have  been 
stricken  from  the  wrists  of  four  millions  of  slaves,  they  know  full  well  that 
nothing  has  been  gained  if  padlocks  have  been  placed  upon  the  lips  of 
four  millions  of  citizens. 


RECEPTION  OF  GENERAL  GRANT  IN  CHICAGO.          65 1 

"  May  I  not  speak  in  behalf  of  that  great  army  of  loyal  citizens  who 
volunteered  to  remain  at  home  ;  who  guarded  the  ballot-box  while  you 
carried  the  cartridge-box  ;  whose  ballots  were  as  effective  as  your  bullets  ? 
There  were  generals  at  home,  as  there  were  generals  at  the  front;  and 
he  who  encouraged  the  wavering,  who  cheered  the  despondent,  who 
convinced  the  doubting,  and  so  inspired  the  citizen  that  he  made  his 
convictions  felt  at  the  ballot-box;  who  rallied  the  voters  when  the  skies 
were  dark,  and  inspired  them  with  the  hope  of  final  success,  even  when 
the  tide  of  battle  went  against  us,  deserves  to  rank,  and  will  in  history 
rank  among  the  worthy  leaders  of  a  great  cause.  [Applause.] 

"The  theatre  of  the  war  was  not  confined  to  the  localities  where  armies 
were  actually  encamped,  and  battles  fought.  There  was  war,  not  merely 
at  Vicksburg  and  Gettysburg,  at  Richmond  and  at  Appomattox  Court- 
House,  but  war  also,  differing  in  kind  it  is  true,  but  war  nevertheless,  at 
Chicago  and  Pittsburg,  at  Philadelphia  and  New  York,  in  every  city  and 
in  every  village  where  an  arm  was  lifted  or  a  voice  was  raised,  to  discour 
age  and  dishearten  the  Union  Soldiers  in  the  field,  or  to  encourage  and 
strengthen  those  who  were  in  arms  against  them. 

"Those  public  enemies  who  made  war  against  the  nation  in  the  loyal 
North,  were  a  great  army,  none  the  less  dangerous  because  they  did 
not  carry  muskets.  An  army  of  patriotic  men  was  as  essential  to  meet 
them  here  as  were  the  hosts  of  Union  Soldiers  to  confront  the  armies 
of  the  rebellion  in  the  field.  Attacks  on  the  national  honor  must  be 
met  by  a  steady  vindication  of  the  national  honor.  Appeals  to  base 
motives  of  individual  gain,  must  be  met  by  stirring  appeals  to  patriotism. 
Doleful  predictions  of  disaster  and  defeat,  must  be  met  by  high-hearted 
assurances  of  ultimate  triumph.  Hypocritical  protestations  of  sympathy  for 
the  slain,  must  be  met  by  exhortations  to  remember  the  sacredness  of  the 
cause  in  which  they  died.  Prophecies  of  starvation,  were  belied  by  abun 
dant  harvests.  The  arts  of  the  demagogue  were  overcome  by  the  sturdy 
phalanx  of  loyal  men,  who  knew  what  freedom  meant  and  how  priceless  it 
was,  and  whose  votes  spoke  for  freedom.  Wherever  treason  lurked,  some 
loyal  eye  must  search  it  out.  Speech  must  be  met  by  speech;  argument 
by  argument;  disguised  treason  by  outspoken  and  undisguised  loyalty. 

"Who,  then,  were  the  Soldiers  in  this  great  conflict?  Not  merely  those 
who  went  to  the  field  of  battle,  but  all  those  as  well  who  tilled  the  fields, 
that  the  soldier  might  not  want,  who  comforted  the  mourning,  who  organ 
ized  vast  charities,  and  followed  every  battle  with  their  sacred  ministrations — 
who  never  lost  faith  in  the  future,  who  steadily  relied  and  taught  others  to 
rely  more  upon  the  power  and  goodness  of  God  than  upon  the  shrewdness 
and  dexterity  of  the  devil,  who  searched  out  and  defeated  the  schemes  of 
treason,  hatched  in  our  very  midst.  Cannons  and  muskets  were  not  the 
only  effective  weapons  used.  The  plow  and  the  hoe,  the  earnest  appeal, 
and  the  enlightened  argument,  were  equally  essential  and  effective.  The 
New  England  boy  was  fighting  his  country's  battles  when,  with  hoe  in 
hand,  he  struggled  to  extort  an  unwilling  harvest  from  the  reluctant  soil,  that 
his  brother  at  the  front  might  be  fed. 


652  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

| 

"  Battles  and  elections  acted  and  re-acted  upon  each  other.  The  election 
of  a  loyal  Governor  in  a  closely  contested  State,  was  the  sure  precursor  of 
a  victory  in  the  field,  and  a  well-timed  victory  in  the  field  carried  many 
an  election  at  home.  Not  alone  to  the  soldier  does  the  glory  of  the  great 
triumph  belong.  Every  single  citizen  who  cast  even  the  measure  of  his 
influence  on  the  right  side,  is  entitled  to  share  in  this  common  glory. 

"  History  will  inscribe,  in  making  up  her  final  and  impartial  judgments, 
on  parallel  lines,  the  solid  heroism  and  sturdy  sense  of  Grant,  and  the 
patient,  long-suffering  loyalty  of  Lincoln,  the  grand  strategy  of  Sherman, 
and  the  wise  counsels  of  Seward;  the  dashing  and  intrepid  valor  of  Sheri 
dan,  and  the  devoted  love  of  country  of  Richard  Yates;  the  fiery  energy 
and  splendid  generalship  of  Logan,  and  the  wise  statesmanship  of  Morton  ; 
the  dauntless  courage  of  fighting  Joe  Hooker,  and  the  resolute  and  uncom- 
prising  patriotism  and  sense  of  justice  of  Zachariah  Chandler.  Upon  these 
imperishable  records  there  will  be  inscribed  not  only  the  names  of  the 
great  leaders  in  the  great  cause,  but  the  humblest  worker  in  its  behalf  will 
find  his  name  upon  its  pages.  Bright  and  shining  on  those  resplendent 
annals  shall  appear  the  names  of  those  thousands  of  noble,  heroic  and  self- 
sacrificing  women,  who  organized  and  carried  forward  to  triumphant  success 
a  colossal  sanitary  aud  charitable  scheme,  the  like  of  which,  in  nobility  of 
conception  and  perfectness  of  execution,  the  world  had  never  before  wit 
nessed,  and  wrhich  carried  all  around  the  globe  the  fame  and  the  name  of 
the  women  of  America.  From  camp  to  camp,  from  battle-field  to  battle 
field,  through  the  long  and  toilsome  march,  by  day  and  by  night,  these 
sacred  charities  followed,  and  the  prayers  of  the  devoted  and  the  true  were 
ceaselessly  with  you.  Leagues  and  leagues  separated  you  from  home,  but 
the  blessings  there  invoked  upon  you,  hovered  over  and  around  you,  and 
sweetened  your  sleep  like  angel's  visits. 

"While  the  boy  soldier  slept  by  his  camp  fire  at  night  and  dreaming 
of  home,  and  what  his  valor  would  achieve  for  his  country,  uttered  even 
in  his  dreams  prayers  for  the  loved  ones  who  had  made  that  home  so 
dear  to  him,  the  mother  dreaming  of  her  son  breathed  at  the  same  time 
prayers  for  his  safety  and  for  the  triumph  of  his  cause.  The  prayers  and 
blessings  of  mother  and  son,  borne  heavenward,  met  in  the  bosom  of  their 
common  God  and  Father. 

"Art  unjust  war  is  a  crime,  but  peace  purchased  at  the  price  of  national 
honor  and  integrity  is  a  greater  crime.  The  peace  to  which  we  aspire  is 
'liberty  calmly  enjoyed.'  Injustice  is  not  peace.  A  dismembered  nation 
is  not  peace.  From  such  a  contest  as  that  through  which  we  have  passed 
are  developed  the  grandest  and  noblest  of  ^human  characters.  Great 
thoughts  are  to  be  ranked  with  great  deeds,  and  always  precede  them. 
The  smoke-grimed  and  battle-scarred  banners  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee 
are  radiant  with  glory,  and  lustrous  as  shining  planets,  for  the  great  cause 
in  which  they  were  unfurled  has  made  them  so.  Every  battle  which  you 
fought,  and  every  victory  which  you  achieved,  was  the  expression  of  the 
great  thoughts  of  self-government,  political  equality,  and  national  integrity. 
Behind  our  armies  were  countless  herds,  and  all  the  harvests  of  the  North. 


RECEPTION  OF  GENERAL  GRANT  IN  CHICAGO.         653 

Behind  them,  and  moving  as  the  armies  moved,  were  its  great  sanitary 
stores,  its  inexhaustible  wealth,  its  dauntless  spirit,  its  lofty  love  of  country, 
its  millions  of  patriotic  men  and  women  ;  floating  over  all,  our  country's 
flag,  which  symbolized  all  that  was  sacred  and  lofty  in  human  government, 
and  every  breeze  that  unfurled  its  ample  folds,  carried  the  glorious  message 
that  no  foot  of  soil  over  which  it  waved,  should  be  pressed  by  the  foot 
of  a  slave. 

"The  inevitable  end  came,  the  triumph  of  right  over  wrong,  of  justice 
over  injustice,  and  the  rebellion  fell  in  utter  wreck,  with  a  resounding  crash 
that  was  heard  by  all  nations.  The  great  cause  of  the  Union,  with 
spotless  robes  with  shining  face  and  majestic  form,  came  forth  to  meet  and 
receive  the  surrender  of  her  adversary.  From  murky  battle-cloud,  from 
stifling  slave-pen,  the  dark  spirit  of  secession  and  slavery  emerged ;  her 
garments  stained  with  the  blood  of  the  slave,  her  brow  in  gloom,  the  lust 
of  power  and  pride  of  empire  in  her  eyes.  Forth  she  came,  and  prostrat 
ing  herself  before  the  majestic  presence  in  which  she  stood,  surrendered 
herself,  the  guilty  cause  of  a  wicked  rebellion."  [Prolonged  applause.] 

The  clubs  of  Chicago  extended  their  hospitality  to  General 
Grant,  and  the  Calumet  club,  of  which  Mr.  Storrs  was  a  member, 
gave  him  a  brilliant  reception.  A  prominent  feature  of  the  dec 
orations  of  the  reception  hall  was  an  address  of  welcome,  beauti 
fully  painted  on  white  satin  in  old  English  text.  The  idea  of 
presenting  such  a  testimonial  to  General  Grant  was  first  suggested 
by  Mr.  Storrs.  By  common  consent,  he  was  entrusted  with  the 
duty  of  composing  the  address,  and  it  was  a  model  of  its  kind. 
The  Chicago  Tribune  very  justly  said  of  it, — "  There  was  no  flat 
adulation,  no  fulsome,  meaningless  expression  used;  simply  a 
plain  statement  of  patriotic  facts,  clothed  in  the  utmost  brevity 
and  simplicity  imaginable.  There  was  not  a  word  too  much,  nor 
a  word  too  little." 


CHAPTER  XXXVII. 

A  TRIP  TO  DEADWOOD. 

PROPOSITION  TO  NOMINATE  MR.  STORRS  FOR  CONGRESS — COMMENT  OF  THE 
PRESS — LETTER  TO  HON.  WILLIAM  ALDRICH — A  PROFESSIONAL  TRIP  TO 
THE  BLACK  HILLS— DISCOMFORTS  OF  THE  JOURNEY— HIS  IMPRESSIONS  OF 
DEADWOOD— TRIAL  OF  COUNTY  OFFICIALS  FOR  EMBEZZLEMENT— MINING 
INTERESTS  OF  DAKOTA — INVITATIONS  TO  TAKE  PART  IN  THE  CAMPAIGN. 

EARLY  in  the  year   1880,  and  before  the  assembling  of  the 
county   conventions,    there   was   talk    of    nominating     Mr. 
Storrs  for    Congress    as    representative    of  the    First  district,  then 
represented  by  Hon.  William  Aldrich.     The  Chicago   Times,  said: 

"The  popular,  choice  among  Republicans  for  this  important 
office  is  Mr.  Emery  A.  Storrs.  His  widespread  reputation  as  an 
orator,  and  the  consciousness  that,  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  he 
would  reflect  credit  on  his  constituency,  give  him  a  strength 
that  no  other  candidate  of  Republican  proclivities  can  hope  to 
equal.  The  gentleman  himself  is  not  desirous  of  running,  but 
such  pressure  may  be  brought  to  bear  upon  him  that  he  will  be 
compelled  to  enter  the  list,  especially  since  the  Republicans  feel  that 
they  must  place  their  strongest  man  in  the  field.  Chicago  has 
not  sent  a  brilliant  speaker  to  Congress  for  many  years.  Carter 
Harrison  was  the  nearest  approach  to  an  orator  that  hailed  from 
here  since  the  days  of  Douglas. 

"It  would  be  superfluous  to  give  a  sketch  of  Mr.  Storrs.  His 
reputation  is  national  as  an  orator  and  a  lawyer ;  and  in  the 
walks  of  statesmanship,  his  admirers  claim,  he  would  shine  with 
unsurpassed  lustre.  He  has  been  already  sounded  on  the  subject, 
but  declines  to  commit  himself  further  than  to  declare  he  is  at 
the  service  of  the  Republican  party." 

Mr.  Aldrich  wrote  to  him  offering    to    retire    in    his  favor;  and 
Mr.  Storrs  replied  as  follows  : 
654 


A    TRIP   TO    DEADWOOD.  655 

"April   1 2th,    1880. 

"  MY  DEAR  SIR: 

.  .  "As  to  the  congressional  branch  of  your  letter,  I  have  this  to  say,  that 
under  no  conceivable  circumstances  can  I  be  a  candidate  for  nomination 
for  Congress.  I  have  so  stated  repeatedly  to  every  person  making  the 
inquiry  of  me,  and  have  seen  no  reason  to  change  my  first  decision  ;  and 
my  resolution  in  that  respect  may  be  regarded  as  fixed  and  unalterable. 
I  go  still  further.  I  could  not,  and  would  not,  accept  the  nomination  if 
tendered  me  by  the  convention.  This  I  have  also  repeatedly  stated. 

"I  am  very  much  obliged  for  your  kind  suggestion,  and  am  flattered  by 
the  statement  that  you  would  support  me.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  com 
pliment  which  would  be  conveyed.  I  know  of  no  constituency  anywhere  in 
this  country  which  a  man  should  be  prouder  to  represent;  but  my  profes 
sional  obligations  are  of  such  a  character  that  I  could  not,  without  grossly 
neglecting  them,  withdraw  myself  for  the  length  of  time  which  the  discharge 
of  the  duties  of  a  Congressman  would  necessarily  involve.  In  short,  it  is 
absolutely  out  of  the  question.  .  .  . 

"I  see  no  reason  why  William  Aldrich  should  not  be  continued.  I  hear 
no  complaints,  worthy  of  the  name  of  complaints,  made  of  him.  He  is  a 
good  Republican,  a  man  of  excellent  good  sense,  perfect  integrity,  and  in 
all  things  a  gentleman.  I  am  for  him  against  the  field;  and  when  you  see 
him,  say  so  to  him." 

Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  National  Convention,  he 
had  to  go  on  a  trip  to  the  Black  Hills.  His  visit  was  of  a 
purely  professional  character,  the  business  which  took  him  there 
involving  questions  of  title  to  certain  mining  property.  As  soon 
as  he  returned  he  was  interviewed  by  a  reporter,  and  in  his 
accustomed  genial  way,  responded.  "  When  he  left,"  says  the 
reporter,  "he  anticipated  very  little,  if  any,  pleasure  from  the 
trip,  but  a  more  enthusiastic  Black  Hiller  probably  never  returned 
from  the  four-year-old  wonder  of  modern  civilization." 

"Every  one,  I  suppose,"  said  he,  "is  familiar  with  that  great  stretch  of 
country  between  St.  Paul  and  Bismarck,  the  famous  Red  River  country 
with  its  vast  wheat-fields.  It  seemed  to  me  to  be  one  limitless,  boundless 
plain  of  wheat  as  I  looked  upon  it.  Bismarck  is  a  very  active  pioneer 
place,  the  natural  scenery  around  it  is  very  beautiful,  but  in  the  trip  to 
Deadwood  and  the  Black  Hills  the  trouble  begins  at  Bismarck.  Those 
coaches  are  built  for  use,  and  not  for  ornament;  and,  while  no  complaint 
can  be  made  of  the  management  of  the  stage-line,  and  great  attention  is 
paid  to  securing,  not  the  comfort  of  the  passenger,  because  that  is  impossi 
ble,  but  to  reduce  the  discomforts,  yet  it  is  a  terribly  tedious  trip.  The 
distance  between  Bismarck  and  Deadwood  is  about  250  miles.  This  is 
ordinarily  made  in  about  fifty  hours,  traveling  day  and  night.  Changes  of 
horses  are  made  about  every  fifteen  miles.  After  leaving  Fort  Lincoln  all 
that  great  stretch  of  country  between  that  point  and  Fort  Meade  seemed 


656  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

to  me  an  utter  desolation,  although  gentlemen  who  were  with  me  said  that 
a  large  portion  of  it  would  be  good  wheat  country.  But  the  mosquitoes  are 
countless.  There  are  simply  millions  of  them.  They  are  not  in  spots,  but 
all  the  way  between  those  two  points,  say  about  200  miles.  It  was  impos 
sible  to  travel  without  nets  over  the  head  and  face.  The  Dakota  mosquito  is 
about  the  same  size  as  the  New  Jersey  type,  but  more  voracious,  and, 
vindictive.  Aside  from  the  stations,  which  are  ordinarily  sod  huts,  where 
our  horses  were  changed  and  we  took  our  meals,  there  isn't  a  human  habi 
tation  between  Fort  Lincoln  and  Belleforche, — not  a  cat,  nor  a  dog,  nor 
sheep,  nor  any  sign  of  any  living  thing  with  which  civilization  is  acquainted, 
— nothing  but  a  dreary  plain,  with  mosquitoes  and  prairie-dogs,  and  alkali 
water,  and  antelope,  with  now  and  then  the  skeleton  of  some  poor  mule. 
Common  prudence  requires  you  to  carry  water  such  as  you  will  need  for 
drinking.  Reaching  Belleforche,  however,  matters  began  to  change,  and  for 
the  better.  Fort  Meade,  which  is  about  thirty  miles  from  Dead  wood,  is 
situated  in  one  of  the  loveliest  valleys  in  the  world.  The  scenery  there 
and  all  about  it  is  surpassingly  beautiful,  and  from  there  forward  no  com 
plaint  can  be  made.  Fresher,  greener,  lovelier  valleys  were  never  seen. 
There  is  a  great  abundance  of  pure,  clear,  cold  water  in  the  swift-running 
streams.  The  Black  Hills,  most  unfortunately  named,  because  the  name 
conveys  an  erroneous  impression  of  their  character,  heavily  wooded  as  they 
are,  is  as  fine  an  agricultural  country  as  can  be  found  anywhere.  In  the 
valleys  enough  wheat  may  be  raised  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  community. 
That  portion  of  the  country,  I  think,  would  surprise  every  one  with  its 
beauty  and  its  fertility.  It  certainly  did  me.  The  hills  are  beautiful  in 
form  and  in  grouping,  the  valleys  fresh  and  green,  and  everything  bears 
the  marks  of  prosperity. 

"We  reached  Deadwood,  by  riding  over  what  is  there  modestly  called 
a  hill,  but  which  we  would  call  a  mountain.  The  scenery  is  certainly 
terrifying  enough  to  satisfy  any  one.  We  found  the  village  of  Dead- 
wood  in  a  narrow  gulch.  Utterly  destroyed  last  September  by  fire,  we 
found  it  entirely  rebuilt,  its  streets  thronged,  substantial  business  blocks 
on  its  main  thoroughfare,  and  charming  residences  on  its  hillsides. 
Everywhere  we're  seen  the  evidences  of  established  business  prosperity. 
Of  course  all  these  things  are  quite  remarkable  when  it  is  considered 
that  about  four  years  ago  this  entire  country  was  in  the  hand  of  the 
Indian.  The  Merchants'  Hotel  would  rank  well  anywhere.  The  business 
houses  are  well  built,  and  present  a  very  attractive  appearance.  There 
are  several  brick  blocks,  with  a  great  many  frame  buildings. 

"To  me  the  most  astonishing  feature  of  the  suddenness  with  which 
our  citizens  drop  into  regularly  organized  government  was  the  appear 
ance  of  their  courts.  Everything  was  quiet,  orderly,  and  decorous! 
Looking  about  over  the  Bar,  it  seemed  to  me  very  much  like  Chicago. 
While  there,  they  were  trying  several  of  their  county  officials  under 
indictments  for  plundering  the  public  funds,  and  seemed  determined  that 
they  should  not  escape  under  any  technical  pleas. 


A    TRIP    TO    DEADWOOD.  .657 

"Everything  seemed  to  be  well-ordered,  regular,  and  stable.  One  would 
look  in  vain  for  any  of  the  expected  indications  of  pioneer  life.  There  was 
no  violence  in  the  street,  business  seemed  to  be  running  along  regularly, 
and,  prosperously.  In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Deadwood  are  two  thriving 
mining  cities,  known  as  Lead  City  and  Central  City.  The  drive  to  each  of 
these  places  is  a  very  charming  one,  and  their  surroundings  as  romantic  as 
possible.  In  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Central  City  is  the  famous  Father  de 
Smet  Mine.  At  Lead  City  are  the  Homestake  No.  I  and  Homestake  No.  2. 
These  two  mines,  with  others,  the  Golden  Terra,  for  example,  are  the 
property  of  a  very  wealthy  combination  of  Californians,  and  are  operated  in 
a  manner  that  has  reduced  the  cost  of  the  actual  production  of  the  gold 
itself  to  the  smallest  possible  result.  Immense  stamping-mills  are  erected 
there.  There  has  been  no  effort  to  bull  these  mines.  Indeed,  there  seems 
to  have  been  a  steady  effort  by  their  friends  rather  to  depreciate  them. 
The  mines  themselves  seem  to  be  exhaustless,  and,  while  the  ore  is  of 
a  low  grade,  yet  it  is  not  in  pockets,  but  comprises  practically  an  entire 
mountain,  or  series  of  hills,  and  is  handled  so  cheaply  that  the  net  profits 
of  the  business  are  immense.  There  are  bright,  enterprising  daily  papers 
published  in  Ueadwood.  There  are  fifty  to  sixty  lawyers  there,  several 
churches,  and  a  regular  family  life.  Most  of  the  leading  men  hava  their 
families  with  them.  I  found  among  the  people  of  Deadwood  as  zealous 
and  interesting  politics  as  in  any  other  portion  of  the  country  I  have 
ever  visited." 

He  found  on  his  return  home  a  letter  awaiting  him  from  Hon. 
George  K.  Nash,  chairman  of  the  Republican  State  Committee 
of  Ohio,  inviting  him  to  address  some  political  meeting  in  that 
State.  The  Governor  of  the  State,  Hon.  Charles  Foster,  had 
previously  written  him  to  the  same  effect.  Invitations  to  address 
political  meetings  poured  in  upon  him  at  the  same  time  from 
Hon.  John  C.  New,  chairman  of  the  Indiana  State  Committee, 
and  from  various  towns  in  western  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Nebraska, 
as  soon  as  his  intention  to  speak  at  Burlington  was  known.  He 
was  also  invited  by  the  Illinois  State  Committee  to  address  several 
meetings  in  his  own  State.  The  chairman  of  the  Vermont  State 
Committee  also  wrote  to  him  in  urgent  terms.  He  said: — "We 
propose  to  render  the  present  Presidential  campaign  the  most 
aggressive,  thorough,  and  decisive  that  our  people  have  ever 
witnessed.  There  is  a  very  general  desire  among  our  people  that 
an  invitation  be  extended  to  you  to  visit  Vermont  during  the 
month  of  August,  and  render  us  such  service  as  you  may  find  it 
convenient."  He  accepted  the  invitations  from  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Vermont,  but  it  would  have  been  a  sheer  physical  impossi- 
42 


658  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

bility  for  him  to  have  attended  at   one-third    of  the   places    from 
which  he  received  anxious  calls  for  assistance. 

The  proposition  to  nominate  him  for  Congress  was  renewed 
during  his  absence  at  Deadwood,  and  this  time  the  pressure  seems 
to  have  been  sufficient  to  induce  him  to  allow  his  name  to  be 
used  as  a  candidate.  He  thus  announced  the  fact  to  Mr.  Aldrich : 

"July  24,   1880. 
"  HON.  WILLIAM  ALDRICH. 

"Mv  DEAR  SIR:  Some  days  since  I  told  you  that  under  no  circum 
stances  would  I  be  a  candidate  for  Congress.  Since  then,  however,  I  have 
been  induced  to  revise  my  decision,  and  am  after  a  fashion  a  candidate. 
I  have  said  to  some  of  my  friends  that  they  might  use  my  name ;  that  if 
nominated  I  would  stand,  and  make  the  best  canvass  I  knew  how.  I 
think  it  but  fair,  so  pleasant  have  our  relations  always  been,  that  I  should 
say  this  much  to  you.  "Yours  very  truly, 

"£MERY  A  STORRS." 

The  Chicago  Times,  in  announcing  Mr.  Storrs  as  a  candidate, 
said:  "Probably  the  most  important  political  occurrence  of  yes 
terday,  in  a  local  or  even  a  broader  than  local  sense,  was  the 
agreement  of  Emery  A.  Storrs  to  permit  the  use  of  his  name 
before  the  congressional  convention  in  the  First  district.  For  a 
long  time  past  Mr.  Storrs  has  been  urged  to  make  this  canvass. 
Up  to  yesterday  he  had  firmly  and  even  peremptorily  declined. 
Within  a  few  days  a  very  strong  pressure  has  been  brought  to 
bear  upon  him  from  quarters  where  he  had  reason  to  expect 
opposition.  After  several  long  consultations  held  since  Monday 
morning,  and  after  he  had  been  visited  by  representatives  of 
many  leading  business  interests,  Mr.  Storrs  yielded,  upon  condi 
tion  that  he  would  not  be  asked  to  take  any  active  part  in  the 
matter.  He  is  about  to  leave  the  city  for  the  summer.  In  Sep 
tember  he  must  be  in  California  to  meet  a  professional  engage 
ment.  Later  he  has  engagements  in  New  York,  Indiana,  and 
Ohio.  .  .  The  prospect  is  that  Mr.  Storrs  will  have  a  clear  field. 
His  personal  popularity  in  the  district  is  very  great.  His  candi 
dature  will  be  favored  by  almost  every  important  interest  in  the 
city,  and  no  other  gentleman  mentioned  in  connection  with  the 
place  will  offer  any  serious  obstacle  to  his  nomination. 

His  nomination  and  election  are  therefore  regarded  as  foregone 
conclusions.  It  was  a  subject  of  general  satisfaction,  when  the 
fact  became  known,  that  Chicago  is  at  last  to  have  adequate 


A    TRIP    TO    DEADWOOD.  659 

representation  in  something  more  than  a  merely  commercial 
sense." 

A  correspondent  of  the   Tribune  said: 

"The  city  press  has  made  allusion  to  Emery  A.  Storrs  as  a  probable 
candidate  for  Congress  in  the  First  district  in  the  coming  fall  election.  If 
this  is  so,  the  people  of  this  great  and  rapidly  growing  city  should  be 
congratulated  upon  their  good  fortune.  After  all,  material  is  scarce — for 
first  class  Congressmen.  A  real  live  man  of  genius,  a  scholar,  an  orator, 
a  man,  indeed,  of  national  reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  forensic  pleader 
second  to  none,  a  man  whose  services  are  in  request  from  the  great  cor 
porations  and  business  men  of  the  land, — to  secure  such  an  one  for  the 
position  of  Congressman  is  rare  good  fortune.  We  may  well  marvel  that  a 
professional  man,  upon  whose  time  a  constant  demand  is  made  at  vastly 
superior  pay  and  emoluments  to  that  of  Congressman,  should  be  self-sacri 
ficing  enough  to  permit  the  use  of  his  name  for  such  a  position.  Here  is 
an  instance  where  the  office  ought  to  seek  the  man,  and  do  it  in  such  a 
royal  way  as  to  make  it,  in  a  sense,  obligatory  upon  him  to  accept. 

"Here  is  a  gentleman  who  stands  alone  among  lawyers  and  orators  in 
the  great  Northwest,  who  is  the  pride  of  a  whole  city,  the  admired  even 
of  his  enemies ;  a  man  of  the  world  and  of  society,  a  Chesterfield  in  suav 
ity,  a  knight  before  the  fair,  a  man  who  has  not,  nor  does  not  assume  a 
false  dignity,  for  he  possesses  the  dignity  of  a  great  intellect  that  needs  no 
bolstering  by  any  of  the  pretty  artifices  of  the  demagogue  or  the  charlatan. 
No  parliamentary  law  point  would  ever  catch  him  '  off  his  feet '  or  out  of 
breath.  No  plausible  'rider'  could  ever  be  tacked  on  to  a  bill  which  he 
engineered.  No  sudden  debate  could  find  him  unprepared.  Alert,  active, 
quick  as  a  flash,  without  a  trace  of  dogmatism  or  buffoonery,  with  a  wealth 
of  epigram,  for  which  he  has  a  national  reputation,  a  courtly  manner,  ready 
wit,  polished  and  elegant  yet  vigorous  and  forcible  in  language,  having  a 
wide  acquaintance  with  public  men,  an  encyclopaedia  on  matters  of  current 
and  ancient  history,  a  man  thoroughly  versed  in  the  science  of  law  and  of 
government.  He  should  be  nominated  by  acclamation.  There  should  be  no 
contest  allowed  if  he  can  be  induced  to  let  his  name  be  used  for  that 
position.  He  would  be  among  the  very  few  men  in  Congress  whose  names 
glitter  as  stars  of  the  first  magnitude." 

All  this  negotiation,  however,  came  to  nothing.  It  does  not 
appear  that  Mr.  Storrs'  name  was  ever  presented  to  the  district 
convention.  His  avowed  reluctance  to  enter  Congress  at  the 
sacrifice  of  a  valuable  and  daily  increasing  professional  practice 
may  have  induced  another  change  of  mind  before  the  convention 
met.  It  was  no  secret,  moreover,  that  Mr.  Storrs'  ambition  was 
in  another  direction,  and  that  he  had  good  reason  to  expect  a 
Cabinet  position.  This  was  the  last  that  was  heard  of  him  as  a 
candidate  for  Congress. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

DISRUPTION  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  PARTY  IN  ILLINOIS. 

PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  l88o — ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  FRIENDS 
OF  GENERAL  GRANT — LETTER  OF  MR.  STORRS  ON  "OUR  SOUTHERN  FELLOW- 
CITIZENS  " — CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  HON.  E.  B.  WASHBURNE — CORRESPON 
DENCE  ON  THE  POLITICAL  SITUATION — MR.  STORRS*  TRIBUTE  TO  THE  OLD 
COMMANDER— "THE  INDEPENDENT  SCRATCHER,"  AND  HIS  RECORD— DEFEC 
TION  OF  MR.  WASHBURNE — TWO  RIVAL  COUNTY  CONVENTIONS  HELD  IN 
CHICAGO — MR.  FARWELL'S  RELIANCE  ON  LUNGS  AND  VERTEBRAE — THE 
ILLINOIS  STATE  CONVENTION — A  FACTION  FIGHT — ARGUMENT  OF  MR. 
STORRS  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE  GRANT  DELEGATES — MR.  WASHBURNE  DISCLAIMS 
DISLOYALTY  TO  GENERAL  GRANT — THE  STRUGGLE  IN  THE  NATIONAL  CON 
VENTION — THE  BOLTERS  WIN. 

THE  country  had  become  tired  of  the  uncertain  policy  of 
President  Hayes  administration,  and  many  friends  of  the 
Union  were  turning  once  more  to  the  great,  silent  soldier,  to 
lead  them  on  against  the  encroachments  of  the  rebel  Democracy. 
The  situation  seemed  so  full  of  peril  to  the  national  life  and 
honor  that  to  most  thinking  Republicans  there  was  but  one  way 
out  of  the  difficulty;  no  other  way  but  to  elect  the  "still,  strong 
man,"  who  had  been  tried  and  found  faithful,  to  call  him  once 
more  to  that  place  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  which  he  had 
filled  so  well,  and  to  trust  him  once  more  in  an  emergency 
which  to  some  looked  almost  as  threatening  as  in  the  days 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion.  Now  that  the  lately 
rebellious  South  had  been  beaten  in  the  field,  Mr.  Storrs  would 
have  had  the  government  dictate  terms  to  them  as  to  a  con 
quered  minority;  and  it  was  with  a  disgust  which  he  made  no 
attempt  to  conceal  that  he  saw  the  fruits  of  the  Union  victories 
in  the  field  gradually  being  snatched  away  through  the  weakness 
of  the  men  who  were  now  at  the  helm  of  the  ship  of  state.  The 
mischief  begun  under  Johnson  was  being  completed  under 
660 


DISRUPTION    OF   THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  66 1 

Hayes,  and  the  rebel  Brigadiers  were  again  in  Congress,  threat 
ening  to  undo  all  the  legislation  which  had  been  enacted  for  the 
purpose  of  enforcing  the  constitutional  amendments.  In  this 
emergency,  the  friends  of  General  Grant  were  organizing  in  New 
York,  and  other  Northern  States,  and  Mr.  Storrs  and  other  stal 
wart  Republicans  were  anxious  to  perfect  a  similar  organization 
in  Illinois.  A  campaign  paper,  called  The  Stalwart,  had  been 
established  in  Springfield  on  the  first  ot  January,  1880,  and  in 
acknowledging  receipt  of  a  copy  of  the  first  number  Mr.  Storrs 
wrote  to  the  editor  as  follows: 

"I  received  this  morning  the  first  number  of  The  Stalwart,  and  should 
have  written  something  for  it  had  it  been  possible  for  me  to  find  the  time 
I  put  my  general  views  in  as  compact  form  as  I  could  command  in  a 
speech  made  to  the  soldiers  at  M'Vicker's  theatre  during  the  Grant  boom 
here.  But  I  do  wish  to  say  a  few  words  on  the  topic  '  Our  fellow  citi 
zens  of  the  South.'  I  am  anxious  to  press  the  inquiry  whether  the  'niggers' 
and  the  'carpet-baggers'  are  not  quite  as  much  our  fellow-citizens  as  the 
bulldozer  and  the  unregenerate  brigadier.  I  am  a  little  tired  of  the  '  fellow 
citizen'  twaddle,  and  will  take  an  early  occasion  to  give  you  an  article 
on  that  point, — and  it  is  the  vital  point" 

In  February,  being  obliged  to  go  East  on  a  mission  in  relation 
to  the  tariff  on  steel  rails,  Mr.  Storrs  addressed  a  letter  to  his 
friend  the  Hon.  Elihu  B.  Washburne  on  the  political  situation. 
He  still  confided  implicitly  in  Mr.  Washburne's  fidelity  to  Gen 
eral  Grant;  but  remembering  that  he  himself  had  been  one  of 
the  first  to  put  the  "Presidential  bee"  in  Mr.  Washburne's  bon 
net,  he  discussed  Mr.  Washburne's  chances  with  manly  frankness 
and  candor.  The  "independent  scratchier,"  the  offspring  of  the 
"liberal"  of  1872  and  the  progenitor  of  the  "mugwump"  of  1884, 
was  again  a  factor  in  Republican  politics.  The  heterogeneous 
class  to  which  this  type  of  politician  belonged  had  begun  a 
movement  in  Chicago  to  select  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency 
on  the  old  plan  of  "anybody  to  beat  Grant."  Mr.  Storrs  gives 
Mr.  Washburne  his  opinion  of  them : 

'•CHICAGO,   February  22,   1880. 
"Mv  DEAR  MR.  WASHBURNE, 

"I  have  to  start  for  Philadelphia  to-night  on  a  very  unexpected  and  a 
very  sudden  call,  and  shall  not  be  back  on  the  25th.  This  I  regret  exceed 
ingly,  and  had  it  been  possible  to  have  postponed  my  business  at  Philadel 
phia  until  after  the  meeting  of  the  State  Committee  here,  I  should  certainly 
have  done  so. 


662  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"It  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  in  my  judgment,  that  before  this  Com 
mittee,  and  to  it,  there  should  be  a  full  and  fearless  analysis  of  the  ante 
cedents  of  the  gentlemen  who  are  moving  against  General  Grant.  It  is  a 
fact  worthy  of  observation  that  the  gentlemen  who  first  met  at  the  Tremont 
house  on  this  mission  were  among  themselves  unable  to  agree  upon  a  can 
didate  whom  they  could  name  in  his  place.  Some  were  for  you,  some  for 
Blaine,  and  others  for  somebody  else.  I  think  that  the  counsel  of  a  class 
of  men  who  arc  unable  to  agree  on  anything  except  their  antipathies,  and 
have  no  harmony  of  view  except  in  their  dislikes,  who  agree  upon  noth 
ing  but  opposition,  and  are  unable  to  agree  upon  any  affirmative  line  of 
policy,  is  not  of  a  character  which  would  be  likely  to  influence  our  State 
Committee,  nor  of  a  kind  very  desirable  for  the  regulation  of  the  policy  of 
a  great  party.  So  far  as  the  movement  in  your  behalf  is  concerned,  you 
can  settle  that.  If  you  are  nominated  for  President,  it  will  not  be  because 
you  are  opposed  to  General  Grant,  nor  will  it  be  because  your  friends  are 
opposed  to  General  Grant;  but  it  will  be  because  we  are  all  in  favor  of 
General  Grant. 

"Moreover,  many  of  these  gentlemen  were  'liberals,'  and  large  numbers 
of  them  have  voted  the  Republican  ticket  only  on  those  occasions  when  it 
suited  their  convenience.  Many  of  them,  whom  I  might  name,  have  been 
inckistrious  only  in  seeking  to  impair  the  influence  of  the  great  leaders  of 
the  party,  in  criticising  the  party  itself,  and  in  recklessly  throwing  away 
the  fruits  of  all  the  victories  which  the  party  has  achieved.  The  majority 
of  them  were  the  original  'conciliators,'  with  whom,  I  am  satisfied,  the 
mass  of  the  Republican  party  in  this  country  has  no  patience  whatever. 

"  I  shall  probably  be  back  Thursday  or  Friday,  and  shall  be  very  glad 
to  see  you  very  soon  after  my  return.  "  Very  respectfully  yours, 

"Hon.   Elihu  B.  Washburne.  "EMERY  A.   STORKS." 

Three  letters,  written  by  him  at  this  time,  throw  a  strong  light 
upon  the  political  situation  in  Illinois  as  viewed  from  the  stalwart 
standpoint.  They  are  all  dated  the  9th  of  March,  1880.  The 
first  is  to  Hon.  J.  K.  Edsall,  Attorney  General  of  the  State  of 
Illinois,  enclosing  a  stipulation  as  to  time  for  filing  arguments  in 
a  case  involving  the  question  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  game 
laws  of  Illinois.  He  says: 

"On  the  face  of  it  this  is  not  much  of  a  case,  but  the  lovers  of  good 
shooting,  and  the  lovers  of  good  eating,  and  that  great  outlying  party 
who  love  neither,  but  who  love  the  constitution,  are  profoundly  interested 
in  the  result.  You  are  as  well  aware  as  I  am  that  the  independent 
scratcher,  the  reformer,  the  Young  Men's  Republican  Club  of  Boston,  and 
the  conservative  in  politics,  have  no  stomach  nor  digestion,  but  a  great, 
big,  vague,  shadowy,  impracticable  and  unmanageable  conscience, — a  con 
science  so  curiously  adjusted  that  it  will  burst  the  Union  to  save  the 
constitution.  God  bless  all  such  asses,  and  bless  God  that  there  are  so 
few  of  them.  "Ever  thine,  EMERY  A.  STORRS." 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  663 

To  a  friend  in  Pittsburg  he  wrote,  on  the  same  date: 

"The  course  which  Elaine's  friends  are  pursuing  in  this  State  is  doing 
him  no  good.  They  are  making  their  warfare  on  General  Grant  a  personal 
one,  and  that  little  mob  known  as  the  independent  scratchers,  at  a  small 
meeting  which  they  had  at  the  Tremont  House,  in  this  city,  were  unable 
to  agree  upon  anything  affirmative,  could  not  decide  whom  they  were  for, 
and  simply  knew  whom  they  were  against.  Such  an  emasculated  lot  of 
statesmen,  who  cannot  agree  to  like  any  one  man,  but  find  some  o^e 
so  inevitably  their  superior  that  they  are  unanimous  in  hating  him,  cannot 
be  very  effective,  I  think,  in  politics. 

"I  see  that  the  young  Republicans  in  Boston  have  been  and  gone  and 
done  it.  They  recommend  as  a  ticket  Hayes  and  Chamberlain.  Governor 
Chamberlain  of  Maine  is  all  right,  but  I  am  satisfied  that  the  people  of 
this  country  have  had  enough  of  limber-backed  politicians,  and  hereafter 
want  a  President  of  the  United  States  who  has  for  backbone  something 
more  substantial  than  a  rubber  string. 

"  I  am  studiously  avoiding  the  abuse  of  anybody  liable  to  be  nominated. 
I  have  a  pretty  good  appetite,  but  do  of  all  things  dislike  eating  my 
own  conversation.  It  is  the  most  indigestible  food  in  this  world.  Some 
people  like  it  because  they  are  used  to  it ;  I  don't  like  it,  and  never  shall." 

While  in  Philadelphia  he  enjoyed  for  a  few  brief  hours  the 
society  of  his  friend,  the  Hon.  Benjamin  Harris  Brewster,  after 
wards  Attorney-General  of  the  United  States.  To  him  he  writes: 

"Mv  DEAR  MR.  BREWSTER, — I  received  your  very  pleasant  note  a  few 
days  since.  Very  soon  after  my  return  home  I  wrote  you,  enclosing  a 
copy  of  my  address  to  the  Irish  Republican  club  of  this  city.  That  address 
played  the  devil  among  the  Democratic  Irishmen,  and  large  and  noisy 
preparations  were  made  for  what  they  call  a  reply.  Several  office-seeking 
and  office-holding  Irishmen  are  advertised  to  reply  to  me,  and  our  acrobat 
ic  Mayor,  who  succeeded  in  making  himself  the  laughing  stock  of  Congress 
for  two  sessions,  and  has  succeeded  equally  well,  as  Mayor  of  the  city  of 
Chicago,  in  making  himself  the  laughing  stock  of  the  public  here, — who,  to 
express  his  veneration  for  the  Irish,  stated  to  them  sometime  since  that  he 
proposed  to  marry  his  daughter  to  an  Irishman, — is  also  anxious  to  join  in 
the  business  of  replying. 

"With  regard  to  the  office-seeking  and  office-holding  Irishmen,  ambitious 
thus  to  distinguish  themselves,  I  shall  have  but  a  word  to  say.  I  know 
why  they  vote  the  Democratic  ticket.  The  reason  for  their  course  lies  on 
the  surface.  They  vote  it  because  they  want  office  and  see  no  other  way 
to  get  it.  But  solving  the  difficulty  as  to  them  is  very  far  from  a  solution 
of  the  question  as  to  the  millions  of  Irishmen  throughout  the  country, 
working  men,  who  are  not  seeking  office,  and  who  would  have  no  chance 
to  get  it  if  they  were.  I  shall  probably  pay  my  respects  to  these  gentlemen 
in  due  season,  and  if  I  do,  shall  of  course  send  you  what  I  have  to  say 
by  way  of  rejoinder. 

"I  note  what  you   say  about   Grant   and  Washburne,  and   had  with   Mr. 


664  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Washburne  a  long  and  very  pleasant  interview  on  Saturday,  telling  him 
about  our  delightful  ride  to  Fairmount  Park  and  the  chat  we  had  going, 
coming,  and  resting.  I  shall  not  soon  forget  it,  and  Mr.  Washburne  was 
very  much  gratified  to  hear  the  very  pleasant  things  that  you  had  said  of 
him  and  of  his  great  leader  General  Grant.  Now,  Mr.  Washburne  is.  as 
unanimously,  as  positively  for  Grant,  as  I  am.  In  a  letter  to  some  of  his 
friends  in  the  northern  part  of  this  State,  who  are  anxious  to  organize  a 
Washburne  club,  he  said:  'I  am  for  General  Grant,  first,  last,  all  the  time.' 

"The  contingency  of  W7ashburne  being  a  candidate  cannot  arise,  nor  will 
he  permit  it  to  arise  so  long  as  General  Grant  remains  in  the  field.  If  I 
go  to  that  Convention,  I  shall  go  for  Grant.  I  shall  have  no  second  choice 
and  no  other  choice.  I  shall  go  precisely  as  Washburne  would  go,  but  if 
the  Fates  so  fix  it  that  General  Grant  cannot  be  nominated,  I  shall  then 
act  as  the  situation  requires ;  and  when  I  am  compelled  to  select  some 
other  candidate  that  other  candidate  will  not  be  Elaine,  nor  Sherman,  nor 
Edmunds,  but  will  be  Washburne.  He  is  not  now  my  second  choice.  Under 
such  contingency  as  I  have  named,  he  will  be  my  first  choice. 

"The  campaign  against  General  Grant,  in  the  manner  in  which  it  is  being 
waged  in  this  State,  has,  I  am  sure,  given  him  strength.  It  is  not  a  decent 
nor  an  honest  warfare,  and  it  will  contribute  nothing  to  the  strength  of  Mr. 
Elaine,  for  when  it  comes  to  a  comparison  of  characters,  and  when  we 
come  to  determine  the  question  -whether  Grant  or  Elaine  may  be  the  most 
easily  defended,  all  the  defence  required  for  General  Grant  is  to  say  that 
the  slanders  against  him  are  stale  and  worn  out;  that  since  he  left  office, 
his  has  been  a  continual  growth ;  he  has  grown  through  the  mists  and  the 
clouds  of  defamation,  and  while  those  fogs  may  envelope  his  feet,  his  head 
is  in  the  sunshine.  Clouds  and  mists  gather  around  the  base  of  the  moun 
tain,  but  the  summit  is  away  above  storm  and  cloud, — is  in  brightness  itself.* 

"  I  do  most  sincerely  hope  that  you  may  be  here  during  the  Convention. 
I  hope,  and  my  wife  joins  me  in  the  hope,  that  Mrs.  Brewster  may  accom 
pany  you,  and  we  will  try  to  make  your  stay  here  so  pleasant  that  you 
will  be  constrained  to  come  again." 

Mr.  Storrs  again  wrote  to  Mr.  Washburne,  who  was  staying 
at  the  Hot  Springs,  Arkansas,  for  the  benefit  of  his  health,  as 

follows : 

*  This  letter  is  one  of  the  rare   instances  of  unconscious   assimilation  and 
'  reproduction   on    Mr.    Storrs'   part  of  a  figure  familiar  to  every  reader.     He 
evidently   had   in   mind   the   beautiful    lines  which   Dr.    Johnson  contributed 
to   Goldsmith's    "Deserted   Village:" 

"As  some  tall  cliff  that  lifts  its  awful  form 
Swells  from  the  vale,  and  midway  leaves  the  storm, 
Though  round  its  breast  the  rolling  clouds  are  spread, 
Eternal  sunshine  settles  on  its  head." 

Yet  he  has  paraphrased  them  so  well,  and  applied  the  illustration  so 
happily  to  General  Grant's  political  career,  that  he  may  be  said  to  have 
fairly  made  it  his  own. 


DISRUPTION    OF   THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  665 

"April  6,    1880. 

"MY  DEAR  MR.  WASHBURNE:  Unless  I  am  very  greatly  mistaken,  the 
work  of  organizing  General  Grant's  friends  in  this  State  ought  not  to  be 
delayed  another  day.  We  are  going  to  have  pleasant  weather  here  now. 
Don't  you  think  you  have  had  enough  of  Hot  Springs?  I  am  merely  a 
private,  and  not  a  very  high  one  at  that.  I  am  looking  for  an  officer  to 
take  orders  from,  and  so  are  thousands  of  others  in  this  State. 

"Yours  very  truly,  "EMERY  A.  STORRS. 

"Hon.   E.   B.  Washburne,    Hot  Springs." 

He  wrote  the  same  day  to  Senator  Logan : 

"Mv  DEAR  SENATOR:  .  .  Can  you  tell  me  why  there  is  no  organization 
of  General  Grant's  friends  in  this  State.'  I  think  the  time  has  come  for  us 
o  be  doing  something,  and  doing  that  something  thoroughly.  Am  I  not 
right  about  this?" 

On  the  Qth,  Mr.  Storrs  wrote  a  jubilant  note  to  General  Stew 
art  L.  Woodford  of  New  York,  announcing  the  event : 

"April  9,  1880. 
"MY   DEAR  GENERAL: 

"Look  out  for  a  renewal  of  the  Grant  boom  in  this  city  next  week, 
which  will,  I  think,  put  an  end  to  all  doubts  in  all  quarters  as  to  the  atti 
tude  of  this  State.  We  shall  probably  have  next  week  one  of  the  finest 
demonstrations  for  General  Grant  that  have  ever  been  had  anywhere  for 
anybody.  How  about  the  Vice  Presidency?" 

The  meeting  in  Central  Music  Hall  was  admitted,  even  by  the 
Elaine  organs,  to  have  been  a  triumphant  success.  It  was  presi 
ded  over  by  Mr.  Robert  T.  Lincoln.  One  Elaine  paper  said  of 
it:  " Viewed  from  the  stage,  the  scene  was  a  brilliant  one.  The 
attendance  of  ladies  was  quite  large.  Many  of  the  best  seats  in 
the  dress  circle  and  first  balcony,  and  all  those  in  the  private 
boxes,  were  occupied  by  the  fair  sex,  who  were  attentive  listen 
ers,  and  waved  their  handkerchiefs  and  clapped  their  hands  at 
the  mention  of  their  particular  presidential  candidate."  General 
Logan  made  the  first  speech,  and  ably  answered  the  ingenious 
objections  which  had  been  trumped  up  by  the  Elaine  men 
against  the  nomination  of  General  Grant.  He  reminded  the 
audience  that  Grant's  personal  integrity  was  unquestioned;  that 
if  he  had  made  mistakes  in  the  appointment  of  some  of  his 
civil  officers,  he  would  not  be  so  liable  to  repeat  them  as  the 
man  who  had  never  been  tested  and  never  had  an  opportunity 
to  make  mistakes;  and  that  there  was  no  constitutional  bar  to 


666  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

prevent  the  people  from  trusting  him  with  the  highest  office  of 
the  republic  once  again,  as  they  had  trusted  him  when  the  life 
of  the  nation  was  in  peril.  It  was  not  a  question  of  the  term 
but  of  the  man.  Sometimes  the  American  people  had  elected  a 
President  but  once,  because  they  did  not  want  him  a  second 
time;  sometimes  they  did  not  elect  the  man  at  all,  because 
they  did  not  even  want  him  for  a  first  term.  There  was  but 
one  living  man  who  could  break  the  "  solid  South,"  and  that 
man  was  U.  S.  Grant.  He  had  already  beaten  them  in  the 
field;  and  every  soldier,  every  soldier's  widow,  every  soldier's 
orphan,  knew  Grant's  plume.  The  last  objection  which  he 
noticed  was  the  cry  of  Caesarism;  and  that  pitiful  sophism  he 
tore  to  shreds,  with  a  few  plain,  honest  words.  Mr.  Storrs 
was  next  called  upon,  and  spoke  as  follows : 

"I  can  say  without  the  slightest  degree  of  extravagance  that  it  has 
never  been  the  fortune  of  any  man  to  face,  on  a  political  occasion,  an 
audience  more  splendid  in  enthusiasm,  grander  in  its  tone  and  quality,  than 
the  vast  assemblage  gathered  here  to-night.  It  is  an  audience  called 
together  on  no  common  occasion  and  assembled  for  no  ordinary  purpose. 
It  is  an  audience  of  the  leading  men  and  women  of  the  chiefest  city  of  the 
great  Northwest.  It  is  an  audience  gathered  together  here  in  an  emergency 
to  protect  the  fair  escutcheon  of  the  great  State  of  Illinois  from  an  impend 
ing  stab  of  dishonor,  and,  God  knows,  it  will  protect  it.  It  is  an  audience 
gathered  to  celebrate  the  praises  of  no  common  man,  an  audience  met 
from  all  over  this  State,  merely  to  testify  what  all  the  world  has  testified, 
that  we  have  in  our  midst  the  chiefest  citizen  of  the  world.  And  the 
broad-browed  men  of  Chicago  that  have,  within  the  period  of  nine  years, 
lifted  it  from  ashes  and  made  it  the  proudest  city  of  the  world,  seated  like 
a  queen  enthroned  by  the  shore  of  her  great  lake,  have  no  apologies  to 
offer  because  they  are  here  to-night  demanding  the  nomination  of  U.  S. 
Grant.  The  city  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Chairman,  never  begged  a  favor ;  it 
never  won  a  fight  that  it  didn't  win  in  front,  and  it  never  yet  trembled  in 
the  presence  of  an  adversary.  The  city  of  Chicago  is  a  great  Republican 
city;  it  is  the  imperial  city  of  the  carpet-bagger  who  has  carved  out  in 
this  Western. world,  within  the  period  of  twenty-five  years,  an  empire  the 
most  splendid  that  the  sun  in  all  his  course  shines  upon,  an  empire  of  the 
light  of  which  the  independent  scratcher  never  dreamed.  [Great  applause.] 

"Who  is  this  man  that  has  called  this  vast  audience  together,  utterly 
untitled,  who  holds  no  office,  who  wields  no  patronage,  who  manages  no 
bureau?  He  is  a  great,  majestic  prince,  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  48,000,- 

000  of    people.       He    reigns    there    by    their   suffrages;    and    this   side   the 
Plutonian  region  of  Democracy,  this  side  the  Purgatorial  region  of  the  half 
way  house  of  independentism,  there  is  no  man  to  molest  or  make  him  afraid. 

1  speak  to-night  not  alone  of  this  hero.     I  cannot  speak  for  this  great  citizen 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  66/ 

without  speaking  of  the  Republican  party.  From  boyhood  up  to  manhood 
I  have  been  and  am  a  member  of  that  party,  stalwart  at  the  outset  and 
stalwart  now,  perpendicular  as  a  ramrod,  believing  in  its  faith  in  the  inner 
most  recesses  of  my  soul,  never  doubting  that  from  its  birth  down  to  this 
hour  its  supremacy  has  been  absolutely  essential  to  the  well-being  of  this 
country.  I  talk,  then,  of  that  grand  old  party  ;  I  talk  of  its  grand  leader, 
as  grand  as  the  party  and  as  great.  I  can  say,  that  when  I  look  back  on 
our  history  I  can  discern  a  great  party  which  has  for  a  quarter  of  a  century 
preserved  its  identity;  a  party  often  depressed,  never  extinguished;  a  party 
which,  though  often  tainted  with  the  faults  of  the  age,  has  always  been  in 
advance  of  the  age  ;  a  party  which,  though  guilty  of  some  errors,  has  the 
glory  of  having  established  our  liberties  on  a  firm  foundation ;  and  of  that 
party  I  am  proud  to  be  a  member.  It  was  that  party  which,  at  the  very 
threshhold  of  its  career,  confronted  the  shameful  doctrine  that  freedom  was 
sectional  and  slavery  was  national,  rescued  the  Territories  from  the  grasp  of 
slavery,  and  dedicated  them  forever  after  to  freedom — to  free  men,  free 
thought,  and  free  speech.  It  is  that  party  which,  in  vindication  of  its  ideas  of 
freedom,  elected  Lincoln  President  of  the  United  States;  which  found  treason  in 
every  department  of  the  government ;  which  found  its  fleet  scattered  over  every 
sea  ;  its  arsenals  plundered,  its  forts  in  the  hands  of  traitors,  its  little  army 
shivered  to  fragments ;  which  found  every  branch  of  the  public  service  par 
alyzed,  the  national  flag  dishonored  even  when  flying  over  its  own  forts  ;  which 
found  hostile  armies  arrayed  against  it;  which,  compelled  to  appeal  to  the 
patriotism  of  the  people  for  national  salvation,  made  the  appeal ;  which  met 
an  armed  rebellion  vast  in  extent  and  malignant  in  spirit ;  which  saved  this 
nation  to  be  the  custodian  of  free  government  among  men.  It  is  that. party 
which,  true  to  the  great  cause  which  it  represented,  made  the  promise  of 
freedom  to  the  slave  and  kept  that  promise  good.  It  is  that  party  which, 
when  the  war  for  national  preservation  closed  in  victory,  declared  that 
forever  after  slavery  should  be  extirpated  from  the  soil  of  the  republic ; 
which  declared  that  all  persons  born  beneath  the  flag,  or  naturalized  here, 
should  be  citizens ;  which  guaranteed  to  all  citizens  equality  of  civil  and 
political  privileges;  which  placed  beyond  the  possibility  of  repudiation  our 
national  debt,  and  made  firm  and  secure  the  national  credit.  It  is  that 
party  which  has  restored  our  currency/  and  made  every  paper  dollar  in  the 
pockets  of  the  laboring  man  worth  one  hundred  cents.  It  is  that  party 
which  compelled  the  British  Government  to  pay  to  our  own  people  millions 
of  money,  for  damages  inflicted  upon  our  commerce  by  rebel  cruisers  fitted 
out  in  their  ports.  It  is  that  party  which  by  wise  legislation  has  sought  the 
execution  of  all  our  constitutional  guarantees  to  the  citizen,  the  purity  of  the 
ballot-box,  and  the  protection  of  the  polls  against  violence,  terrorism,  and 
fraud.  It  is  that  party  which  has  ranked  among  its  leaders  the  purest 
patriotism,  the  stanchest  courage,  the  wisest  thought,  the  best  culture,  and 
the  loftiest  statesmanship  of  the  nation,  and  among  its  rank  and  file  that 
solid  citizenship  which  demands  just  and  honest  government,  and  will  be 
satisfied  with  nothing  less.  I  look  with  pride  on  all  that  the  Republican 
party  has  done  for  the  cause  of  human  freedom.  I  see  it  now  hard  pressed, 


668  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

struggling  with  difficulties,  but  still  fighting  the  good  fight.  At  its  head  I 
see  men  who  have  inherited  the  spirit  and  the  virtues,  as  well  as  the  blood, 
of  the  old  champions  and  martyrs  of  freedom.  I  see  presiding  here  to-night 
the  only  living  son  and  descendant  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  whose  name  and 
whose  memory  are  enshrined  in  every  patriotic  heart.  I  see  here  to-night 
the  son  of  that  great  patriot  statesman,  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who,  when 
treason  raised  its  hands,  cast  party  to  the  winds,  stood  like  a  rock  for  the 
Union,  and  died  with  patriotic  words  upon  his  lips.  I  look  at  the  call  in 
obedience  to  which  this  magnificent  audience  is  assembled,  and  see  at  its 
head  a  name  which  we  all  delight  to  honor  ;  one  steadfast  and  ever  reliable 
as  a  legislator,  wise  in  counsel,  prompt  in  action,  earnest  in  opinion,  daunt 
less  in  courage,  incorruptible  in  integrity ;  who  for  nearly  twenty  years 
maintained  the  honor  of  our  State  in  the  councils  of  the  nation,  always 
speaking  for  freedom  ;  who  for  eight  years  dignified  and  honored  the  Amer 
ican  name  and  character  abroad,  and  who,  as  Minister  to  France,  during 
the  terrible  siege  of  Paris,  when  every  other  foreign  representative  had  fled, 
remained  faithful  at  his  post,  gathering  in  safety  under  his  country's  flag 
the  citizens  of  every  land  who  sought  the  protection  of  its  sheltering  folds 
— Elihu  B.  Washburne.  To  the  same  call  I  see  the  name  of  the  peerless 
soldier,  the  ever-faithful  Republican,  the  true  man,  the  firm  friend,  the 
stalwart  Senator,  the  smiter  of  treason, — John  A.  Logan.  The  last  words  of 
the  great  Michigan  Senator,  Chandler,  patriotic  and  eloquent  words,  uttered 
the  languag^  of  this  call,  and  declared,  with  Lincoln  and  Douglas  and 
Logan  and  Washburne,  that  he,  too,  believed  that  the  success  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  would  be  best  promoted  by  the  nomination  and  election  of 
Ulysses  S.  Grant  as  President  of  the  United  States.  The  millions  of  oppressed, 
bullied,  and  terrorized  Republicans  of  the  South,  white  and  black,  speak 
the  same  sentiment.  To  this  party — to  these  men — I  propose  to  attach 
myself;  and,  while  one  shred  of  the  old  banner  is  left  flying,  by  that  ban 
ner  will  I  at  least  be  found. 

"I  confess  that  I  am  not  independent  of  these  considerations.  I  have 
not  scaled,  and  shall  not  attempt  to  scale,  those  dizzy  heights  from  which  I 
could  look  down  upon  them.  I  am  content  to  remain  in  the  valleys,  where 
I  find  such  company  as  I  have  named,  rather  than  to  seek  those  drearier 
and  colder,  if  loftier,  mountain  peaks  to  which  that  select  few  aspire  who 
profess  to  see  in  the  nomination  and  election  of  General  Grant  as  President 
of  the  United  States  dangers  which  the  wisdom  of  the  country  is  not  able 
to  perceive.  Who  am  I,  to  threaten  that  wisdom,  patriotism,  experience, 
and  intelligence,  that  unless  it  surrenders  its  opinions  for  mine  I  will  refuse 
obedience  to  orders,  and  bolt  the  ticket?  This  colossal  egotism  is  called 
'independence.'  The  man  who  parades  it  is  known  as  the  'independent 
scratchier,'  independent  of  the  party  to  which  he  belongs  save  when  the 
minority  to  which  he  is  attached  can  rule  ;  whose  ticket  he  votes,  whose 
principles  he  condescendingly  espouses,  and  whose  candidates  he  patroniz 
ingly  supports  at  spasmodic  intervals,  the  recurrence  of  which  it  is  given 
to  no  one  to  foretell.  I  do  not  include  among  the  'independent  scratchers' 
those  true  Republicans  who  honestly  prefer  the  nomination  by  the  forth-coming 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  669 

National  Republican  Convention  of  some  other  candidate  than  General 
Grant.  Those  true  and  earnest  Republicans  who  prefer  either  Mr.  Wash- 
burnc,  or  Mr.  Sherman,  or  Mr.  Blaine,  or  Mr.  Edmunds  will  surely  find 
the  claims  of  their  favorites  fairly  considered  by  that  convention,  and  will 
as  surely  support  its  nominee  as  I  am  sure  to  support  him,  not  haltingly, 
and  unwillingly,  but  with  whole  soul  and  in  dead  earnest.  The  friends  of 
General  Grant  do  not  bolt,  and  they  neither  boast  nor  threaten  ;  but  they 
do  better — they  succeed.  The  'independent  scratcher'  is  either  that  ambi 
tious  young  man  very  proud  of  knowing  what  older  and  wiser  men  have 
found  it  convenient  to  forget,  or  that  ambitious  man  of  any  age  who,  itching 
for  notoriety,  must  find  some  one  more  distinguished  and  greater  than  him 
self  to  scratch. 

"In  1864  the  'independent  scratcher'  in  the  State  of  Illinois  engaged  in  a 
scheme  to  force  the  withdrawal  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  attempted  to 
carry  through  our  State  convention  at  Springfield  a  resolution  condemning 
Lincoln  and  his  administration.  The  outraged  patriotism  and  good  sense 
of  the  people,  the  dangers  of  insurrection  in  our  very  midst,  frightened  the 
'independent  scratcher'  back  into  the  ranks  which  he  attempted  to  desert. 

"In  1872  the  'independent  scratchers,'  wretchedly  in  the  minority,  orga 
nized  a  free-trade  and  revenue  reform  party  at  Cincinnati,  but  at  its  head 
the  most  rabid  and  ultra  protectionist,  and  the  bitterest  hater  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  on  earth,  and  in  a  body  melted  into  the  Democratic  fold. 
[Laughter.]  The  combination  was  terribly  beaten.  Many  of  them  returned 
to  us  in  1876,  and  we  were  well  nigh  defeated;  and  but  for  the  fact  that 
there  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  government  a  man  with  whom  no  one 
could  either  trifle  or  trade,  surrounded  by  a  Cabinet  inspired  by  his  own 
courage  and  patriotism,  the  nation  would  have  been  involved  in  another 
rebellion.  From  this  coalition  thousands  of  honest,  earnest,  but  deceived, 
Republicans  have  withdrawn  themselves.  They  have  by  years  of  faithful 
service  expiated  their  offense.  They  are  with  us  now.  They  are  here 
to-night,  and  after  having  once  tested  the  bitter  fruits  of  bolting  experience, 
they  are  comfortably  back  in  the  old  mansion,  feeling  'themselves  again,' 
and  determined  to  never  wander  more. 

"General  Grant  is  to-day,  and  has  been  for  the  past  three  years,  a  pri 
vate  citizen,  out  of  office,  with  no  patronage  at  his  disposal,  resting  his 
claims  purely  upon  his  strength  with  the  people  as  a  man.  It  is  idle  to 
talk  of  the  precedents  of  our  history,  for  our  history  furnishes  no  precedent. 
There  is  no  instance  in  our  history  where  a  President,  after  holding  the 
office  for  two  successive  terms,  retires  to  the  ranks  of  private  citizenship, 
and  is  afterward  called  upon  to  again  fill  the  position.  Washington  retired 
after  serving  two  terms.  Jefferson  did  also,  and  declined  a  successive  nomi 
nation  for  a  third  term  after  it  became  clear  that  it  was  impossible  for  him 
to  secure  it.  Madison  held  the  office  two  terms,  and  no  renomination  was 
tendered  him.  Jackson  held  the  office  two  terms,  and  no  renomination  was 
tendered  him.  Grant  held  the  office  two  terms,  retired  at  the  close  of  his 
second  term.  After  an  interval  of  four  years,  a  nomination  is  again  ten 
dered  him,  for  which  our  history  furnishes  no  precedent  whatever.  Why 


6/O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

should  the  people  of  this  country,  after  having  had  four  years'  opportunity 
to  calmly  and  justly  judge  the  man,  be  deprived  by  a  sentimental  objection 
of  this  character  of  his  services,  through  another  trying  period  in  our  his 
tory  ?  Who  has  made  such  a  law  !  With  a  wider  experience  and  a  riper 
judgment  than  he  ever  before  possessed,  with  an  emergency  upon  us  through 
which  we  know  he  could  safely  carry  us,  who  is  there  to  say  the  majority 
of  this  people  shall  not  again  elevate  the  private  citizen  of  their  choice 
into  the  highest  place?  The  people  of  this  country  have  never  found  any 
difficulty  in  ridding  themselves  of  a  President  whom  they  did  not  like,  at 
the  end  of  his  first  term.  They  found  no  difficulty  in  retiring  both  the 
Adamses,  Van  Buren,  Polk,  Pierce,  Buchanan,  and  Johnson,  after  they 
had  served  one  term.  The  people  have  never  yet  made  a  mistake  in  elect 
ing  an  incumbent  to  the  second  term.  They  have  made  several  mistakes 
in  electing  a  man  to  the  first  term.  Quick  to  discover  such  a  mistake, 
however,  they  never  repeat  it.  The  people  of  this  country  are  better  judges 
of  the  fitness  of  their  public  servants  than  any  little  band  of  philosophers 
who  have  vexed  us  with  their  theories.  Conceding  that  there  is  no  Con 
stitutional  objection  to  the  election  of  General  Grant,  it  is  still  urged  that  it 
is  unduly  honoring  one  man  at  the  expense  of  all  the  others.  I  am  in 
favor  of  General  Grant's  nomination — not  to  honor  him  but  to  benefit  the 
country.  This  great  office  is  to  be  filled,  not  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
individual,  but  to  promote  the  public  interests.  It  is  not,  as  some  people 
seem  to  conceive,  an  office  to  be  passed  around  among  certain  invited 
guests  like  refreshments  at  a  picnic,  but  a  great  office,  to  be  filled  for  the 
public  good.  [Cheers.] 

"While  the  friends  of  General  Grant  sincerely  believe  that  there  is  before 
us  such  an  emergency  as  can  best  be  filled  by  him, — while  they  sincerely 
believe  that  his  election  will  do  more  to  insure  quiet  and  a  finally  just  solu 
tion  of  our  political  troubles  than  that  of  any  other  Republican, — while 
they  believe  that  he  possesses  the  confidence  of  the  people  North  and  South 
in  a  larger  measure  than  any  other  man  in  the  nation, — they  do  not  believe, 
and  they  are  very  far  from  saying,  that  he  is  the  only  man  whom  the 
Republican  party  can  elect.  But  it  nevertheless  is  true  that  the  most  seri 
ous  problem  in  our  politics  to-day  and  for  the  future  grows  out  of  the  con 
stant  menace  of  a  solid  South.  Who  can  divide  that  solid  South,  and  thus 
solve  the  problem  ?  I  do  say  that  General  Grant  is  the  only  man  in  all 
this  country  who  can  solve  the  problem  of  the  solid  South  by  dividing  the 
South,  so  that  it  shall  not  be  solid.  I  do  say  that  he  is  the  only  man  in 
all  this  country  whom  the  Republican  party  can  nominate  for  whom  the 
negro  will  risk  his  life  and  property  to  vote.  I  do  say  that  he  can  carry 
three  and  probably  five  Southern  States,  and  can  divide  the  vote  in  all  the 
others,  and  that  no  other  Republican  can  carry  one.  If  Grant  is  nomina 
ted,  the  negro  will  vote,  and  will  vote  for  him.  If  he  is  not  nominated, 
the  negro  will  not  vote  at  all.  If  Grant  is  nominated,  the  terrorized  and 
outraged  Southern  white  Republican  will  vote,  and  vote  for  him.  If  he  is 
not  nominated,  he  will  not  vote  at  all. 

"The    country  demands  for  its  leader  a  man  whose  very  name  stands  for 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  6/1 

peace,  whose  very  presence  is  a  restraint  upon  the  law-breaker.  Grant 
means  peace.  He  smote  secession  hip  and  thigh  in  open  warfare  ;  it  fears 
him  now  as  it  feared  him  then ;  it  respects  him  now  as  it  respected  him 
then.  I  am  doing  no  injustice  to  any  living  man  when  I  say  that  for  all 
such  emergencies  General  Grant  fills  the  requirements  of  the  occasion  in  a 
larger  measure  than  any  other  living  man.  It  is  idle  to  claim  that  all  our 
dangers  are  past,  because  during  the  present  session  of  Congress  the  Demo 
cratic  party  has  suspended  for  the  time  the  prosecution  of  its  revolutionary 
schemes.  The  very  fact  that  Grant  is  the  probable  candidate  of  the 
Republican  party,  and  that  the  complete  development  of  their  schemes 
would  render  his  nomination  a  certainty,  has  awed  them  into  silence,  and 
they  stand,  even  in  his  prospective  presence,  tongue-tied  and  dumb  before 
the  world. 

"This  great  character  stands  forth  to-day  bright  and  shining,  the  admira 
tion  of  the  world.  Palsied  be  the  hand  which  would  strike  it,  and  blistered 
the  tongue  which  would  defame  it!  It  is  not  merely  because  he  is  so  well 
worthy  of  this  great  honor,  but  because  we  sincerely  believe  that  more  than 
any  other  man  can  he  serve  his  country  and  promote  its  best  interests  in 
that  position.  From  first  to  last  he  has  never  known  defeat.  [Applause.] 
His  record  from  Belmont  to  Appomattox  is  one  unbroken  chain  of  victories 
which  honored  his  country  and  secured  for  himself  the  admiration  of  his 
foes.  He  never  left  a  duty  unperformed.  He  never  made  a  promise  which 
he  did  not  keep.  He  never  turned  his  back  upon  a  friend.  There  is  more 
wisdom  in  his  silence  than  in  the  speech  of  most  men.  There  is  not  a 
boast  in  all  his  long  and  splendid  career.  Bitterly  and  malignantly  as  he 
has  been  assailed,  no  word  of  slander  ever  escaped  his  lips.  Prudent  and 
cautious  in  counsel,  he  never  fails  to  act  when  a  conclusion  has  been 
reached,  and  is  as  prompt  in  action  as  he  is  prudent  in  preparation.  In 
his  first  inaugural  he  met  the  clamor  for  an  inflated  currency  by  a  demand 
for  the  payment  of  our  National  debt  in  coin,  and  by  his  veto  struck  a 
blow  at  all  schemes  for  a  depreciated  currency  from  which  they  never 
recovered.  He  inaugurated  and  carried  through  a  plan  of  peaceful  arbitra 
tion  by  which  grave  international  disputes  were  settled,  and  made  our  flag 
and  our  country  respected  throughout  the  world.  As  modest  as  he  was 
great,  he  never  set  his  individual  judgment  against  the  clearly  expressed 
public  will,  but  renouncing  his  desire  he  declared  that  he  had  no  policy 
opposed  to  the  will  of  the  people.  Leaving  his  high  office,  he  has  made 
the  circuit  of  the  globe,  and  has  been  received  under  every  flag  with  such 
honors  as  no  man  ever  received  before.  Unaffected  by  them,  he  never  for 
one  moment  lost  that  wonderful  pose  which  has  carried  him  through  so 
many  great  events.  Returning  home,  thus  honored  and  thus  laureled,  the 
brave,  the  honest,  the  patriotic,  the  modest  soldier,  statesman,  and  citizen, 
places  all  these  honors  in  the  hands  of  his  countrymen. 

"  There  is  no  elevation  so  high  that  he  is  dizzied  by  it.  There  is  no 
place  so  low  and  humble  which  he  may  fill  that  he  does  not  uncomplain 
ingly  and  faithfully  perform  all  its  duties. 


6/2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

'  Draw  him  strictly  so 
That  all  who  view  the  place  may  know 
He  needs  no  trappings  of  fictitious  fame.' 

"This  is  our  true  knight,  'without  fear,  without  reproach.'  and  without  a 
plume.  Here,  in  his  own  State, — here  in  the  chief  city  of  that  State,  have  the 
thousands  who  are  assembled  here  to-night  met,  not  to  place  fresh  laurels 
upon  his  brow,  not  to  add  an  additional  honor  to  his  long  roll  of  honors, 
by  uttering  the  voice  of  his  own  State  in  his  behalf  in  National  Convention, 
but  to  save  the  State  from  such  a  dishonor  as  any  halting  upon  our  part 
would  surely  reflect  upon  it.  [Applause.] 

"  He  has  enemies  here,  as  had  Lincoln  and  Douglas  before  him.  They  can 
and  they  will  be  silenced.  Joining  hands  with  the  other  States,  Illinois  shall 
stand  in  the  line  and  shall  utter  her  voice  for  her  honored  citizen.  Assailing 
no  competitor,  the  rank  and  file,  the  Old  Guard,  declare  that  they  are  for 
Grant,  because  again  and  again  have  they  marched  under  his  banners,  but 
never  to  defeat, — and  every  battlefield  over  which  his  flag  ever  floated  was 
a  field  of  victory.  The  work  of  our  great  leader  is  not  finished,  and  will 
not  be  until  he  has  led  the  hosts  of  freemen  to  that  future,  when  there 
shall  be  within  all  the  boundaries  of  the  Republic  not  one  foot  of  ground 
over  which  the  flag  floats  and  upon  which  a  citizen  stands  who  may  not 
speak,  and  think,  and  vote  as  he  pleases.  Prostrate  to-day  are  millions  of 
our  fellow-citizens,  our  equals  before  the  law,  but  shorn  of  that  equality. 
Under  the  banners  of  our  chosen  leader  shall  they  be  lifted  up  ? 

"  When  justice  reigns  throughout  all  our  borders,  and  every  citizen,  white 
and  black,  stands  equal  before  the  law,  when  North  and  South,  and  East 
and  West,  there  shall  be  found  no  privileged  class ;  then,  '  let  us  have 
,  peace;'  that  Peace  which  shall  come  to  us  with  her  silken  banners  floating 
in  every  breeze,  with  Justice  and  Mercy  bearing  her  train.  Justice  to  all, 
friend  and  foe.  Such  a  peace  leaves  no  traces  of  bitterness  behind  it,  and 
smiling  fields  and  the  roar  of  thriving  cities,  and  the  hum  of  busy  machin 
ery,  and  happy  homes,  and  a  prosperous  and  prospering  people  mark  its 
pathway,  and  better  than  all,  and  grander  than  all  else,  there  shall  be  in 
all  its  march  neither  shackled  wrists  nor  fettered  tongues."  [Great  cheering.] 

The  uncertainty  of  political  alliances  is  proverbial.  It  was  con 
spicuously  illustrated  in  the  campaign  of  1880.  There  were 
many  who  believed,  after  the  National  Convention,  that  Garfield 
.had  "sold  out"  John  Sherman.  There  are  not  a  few  who  still 
.  believe  that  if  Mr.  Washburne's  wiser  judgment  had  not  been 
upset  by  the  Presidential  bee  buzzing  in  his  bonnet,  and  if  he 
had  held  his  followers  in  Illinois  together  in  support  of  Grant, 
the  result  of  that  convention  would  have  been  very  different. 
The  "old  guard"  would  have  given  their  votes  for  him  in  the 
event  that  a  nomination  of  General  Grant  became  impossible ; 
but  his  followers  alienated  them  from  the  first  by  voting  all  the 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  673 

way  through  against  Grant,  and  found  themselves  at  last  an 
isolated  handful, — not  enough  even  to  hold  the  "balance  of 
power."  About  a  month  before  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Convention,  and  a  week  before  the  meeting  of  the  Cook  County 
convention  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  the  State  convention, 
there  were  whisperings  in  the  air  that  the  Washburne  men  were 
opposed  to  Grant.  In  the  first  week  of  May,  Mr.  Storrs  wrote 
to  a  friend  suggesting  that  Mr.  Washburne  should  be  induced 
to  make  a  speech  in  support  of  General  Grant's  nomination. 
In  that  letter  he  said: 

"We  are  having  trouble  here  with  Washburne.  While  he  professes 
great  friendship  for  General  Grant,  he  nevertheless  fails  to  control  his 
friends,  who  are  all  for  somebody  else.  Saturday  evening,  at  a  meeting 
of  the  Republican  club  of  the  i8th  ward,  where  Washburne  lives,  and 
of  which  club  his  son  is  secretary,  resolutions  were  adopted  presenting 
Washburne' s  name  for  the  Presidency.  We  are  naturally  tired  of  this 
nonsense,  and  mean  to  bring  him  to  a  head.  He  goes  to  Springfield 
with  General  Grant,  and  at  General  Grant's  request.  While  there  he 
must  make  a  speech.  .  .  Take  hold  of  this  matter,  see  that  it  is  done, 
and  you  will  have  'done  the  State  some  service.'  Don't  wait,  for  \Vash- 
burne  to  agree  to  speak,  but  call  him  out." 

The  gentleman  addressed  in  this  letter  was  a  warm  personal 
friend  of  General  Grant,  and  he  immediately  responded: 

"There  must  be  no  failure  to  carry  the  State  for  General  Grant  by  a 
decided  majority.  I  hope  you  will  carry  Cook  solid  for  the  'old  man.' 
It  would  be  an  infernal  disgrace  to  the  State  to  allow  the  '  Plumed 
Knight'  or  any  other  fellow  to  get  any  portion  of  the  delegation.  I  am 
more  for  Grant  than  ever  before.  As  —  would  say,  I  am  '  powerful  fond 
of  him.'  ' 

In  a  couple  of  days  afterwards,  Mr.  Storrs  received  from  the 
same  gentleman  a  piece  of  startling  information. 

"The  most  systematic  efforts,"  he  said,  "were  made  here  yesterday  to 
get  Mr.  \Vashburne  to  make  a  speech,  but  all  in  vain.  He  declined  to 
ride  from  the  Mansion  to  the  State  House  with  General  Grant.  He  and 
General  Smith  (State  Treasurer  Smith)  walked  over  to  the  State  House, 
and  mingled  in  the  crowd.  After  Grant  concluded  his  remarks,  we  made 
long  and  loud  calls  for  Washburne ;  but  no  response  from  the  said 
Washburne.  .  He  hurried  away  to  Boston  on  the  Wabash  train  at  9  p.  m." 

This  defection  on  the    part  of   Mr.  Washburne,  whom    he   had 

all  along  regarded  as  the  strongest  supporter  General    Grant  had 

in  the  State  of  Illinois,  was  always  a  sore  disappointment  to  Mr. 

Storrs.     On  the   loth  of   May,  the  Cook    County  convention   was 

43 


6/4  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

held  in  Farwell  Hall,  when  the  opposition  to  General  Grant 
materialized  in  an  unexpected  way.  After  being  called  to  order 
by  the  chairman  of  the  county  committee,  a  motion  to  nominate 
a  chairman  of  the  convention  was  made  by  a  man  not  a  dele 
gate,  seconded  by  another  who  was  not  a  delegate,  and  the  first 
step  was  thus  taken  to  capture  the  convention  in  the  interests  of 
the  "independent"  anti-Grant  faction.  The  chairman  was  hustled 
off  the  platform,  and  his  place  usurped  by  the  nominee  already 
mentioned, — Mr.  Anthony.  This  was  done  in  obedience  to  the 
advice  given  by  Mr.  Charles  B.  Farwell  to  a  caucus  of  malcon 
tents  held  early  in  the  morning.  He  told  the  caucus  that  the 
chairman  of  the  county  committee  would,  of  course,  in  accord 
ance  with  custom,  nominate  a  temporary  chairman,  and  the 
friends  of  no  other  candidate  but  General  Grant  would  have 
an  opportunity  to  put  forward  a  name  for  the  chairmanship. 
This  programme  was  duly  carried  out.  As  soon  as  Mr. 
Singer  called  the  convention  to  order,  and  nominated  a  tem 
porary  chairman,  he  was  at  once  interrupted,  was  unable  to  be 
heard,  and  a  scene  of  great  confusion  ensued.  The  proceedings 
being  so  tumultuous  that  no  business  could  be  conducted, 
Mr.  Singer  declared  the  convention  adjourned,  to  meet  at  the 
club-room  of  the  Palmer  House;  and  all  the  Grant  delegates  left 
the  hall  in  a  body.  The  party  whom  they  left  behind  finally 
selected  a  divided  delegation  pledged  in  favor  of  Elaine  and 
Washburne.  Meanwhile,  the  regular  body  assembled  at  the 
Palmer  House,  and  chose  a  full  delegation  pledged  for  Grant. 
Mr.  Storrs  was  not  present  at  the  disorderly  scenes  in  Farwell 
Hall,  but  attended  the  convention  at  the  Palmer  House,  and  in 
response  to  loud  calls,  made  a  stirring  speech,  which  was 
interrupted  by  loud  applause  at  every  sentence.  He  said: 

"I  learned  but  a  few  minutes  since  that  the  chronic  political  revolver, 
the  chronic  political  renegade,  the  bolter  of  1872,  and  of  all  other  years, — 
the  intermediate  and  preceding  years, — the  political  dyspeptic,  the 
Republican  hysteric,  the  man  who  is  with  the  party  in  the  sunshine, 
and  is  under  the  band-wagon  in  the  storm — [laughter,  and  "three 
cheers  for  Storrs"] — had  decided  that  thousands  of  the  Republicans, 
of  Cook  County  are  to  be  disfranchised,  and  in  order  to  accomplish 
that  purpose  has  resorted  to  schemes  which  the  reformer  in  politics  qnly 
adopts, — the  schemes  of  the  demagogue  and  the  revolutionary.  The 
Republican  party  of  this  city  has  been  threatened,  terrorized,  and  bullied 
steadily  for  the  past  three  months.  The  time  has  come  when  the  true, 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  6/3 

steadfast  Republicans  of  Cook  County  perhaps  may  be  threatened  in  the 
future,  but  shall  be  bullied  no  longer.  I  have  never  bolted  a  Republican 
ticket,  and  I  probably  never  shall.  I  have  always  supported  its  candidates, 
and  I  probably  always  shall.  The  regular  convention  of  Cook  county, 
regularly  called,  has  been  driven  by  force  from  the  quarters  assigned 
to  it,  and  has  now  assembled  here.  The  gathering  at  Farwell  Hall  is 
in  no  sense  a  convention  ;  it  is  a  mob,  and  disputing  at  this  instant  as  to 
its  leadership,  and  the  dispute  carried  on  with  policemen  as  umpires. 
[A  voice:  "Fact!  They  haven't  got  a  chairman  yet."]  If  it  takes  a 
reformer  in  our  politics  four  solid  hours  to  determine  who  shall  be  chair 
man,  about  how  long  will  it  take  them  to  nominate  Elaine  to  the  Presidency 
of  the  United  States  ? 

"The  Cook  county  convention  is  here,  and  it  is  the  accredited  voice  of 
the  Republican  party  of  the  city  of  Chicago.  The  other  is  a  disorganized 
mob  at  Farwell  Hall.  They  have  unseated  the  regular  authority  by  force, 
fraud,  and  violence,  and  are  at  this  moment  disputing,  under  the  umpire- 
ship  of  the  police  force  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  who  shall  head  them.  They 
have  not  determined  this  question,  who  shall  head  us.  [Cheers.]  Now, 
we  shall  make  no  mistake  by  the  exercise  of  all  the  courage  which  we 
possibly  can  command.  When  we  act  directly  within  the  precedents  and 
traditions  of  our  party,  we  shall  make  no  mistake  at  all.  Just  so  long  as 
the  whole  rank  and  file  are  true  to  its  precedents  and  true  to  its  traditions, 
you  need  make  no  inquiries  what  the  result  will  be.  Do  what  your  judg 
ment  tells  you  is  right,  and  you  will  make  no  mistake.  Then,  when  you 
go  down  to  the  State  Convention  held  at  Springfield,  bring  with  you  the 
credentials  of  this,  the  only  regularly  organized  County  Convention  of  Cook 
County,  and  the  Republicans  of  this  great  State,  who  are  for  Grant  and 
are  against  fraud,  [applause]  will  pulverize  finer  than  powder  any  organi 
zation  headed  by  Charles  B.  Farwell.  [Applause.] 

"We  have  got  a  majority  in  this  State  ;  it  is  ours;  it  belongs  to  us,  and  I 
am  in  favor  of  using  that  majority  for  all  that  the  term  implies.  The  time 
has  not  yet  come  when  any  organization  of  revolvers,  and  disorganizers  can 
affix  a  stain  upon  the  escutcheon  of  Illinois  so  ineffaceable  as  that  would 
be,  to  repudiate  the  foremost  citizen  of  the  world,  who  is  our  citizen. 
(Applause.]  The  time  has  not  yet  come  when  a  Republican  convention 
assembled  as  this  is  shall  take  counsel  of  its  fears,  or  with  hesitating  judg 
ment,  trembling  lip,  and  shrinking  nerve,  hold  back  one  instant  from  the 
straight  line  that  is  open  before  it,  which  is,  to  give  its  expression  to  what 
is  known  to  be  the  will  of  the  State  and  of  the  nation  at  large,  and  act, 
as  it  is,  like  a  convention.  Select  your  delegates.  If  there  is  a  majority 
of  Grant  men  in  this  convention,  select  ninety -two  delegates  that  are  for 
Grant,  and  who  have  no  second  choice.  [Applause.]  I  would  not  give  a 
rye  straw  for  a  man  with  a  second  choice ;  the  man  with  a  second  choice 
is  worthless  for  his  first  choice.  Select  ninety -two  delegates  from  Cook 
County,  sent  by  the  only  convention  now  in  existence, — this  convention, — 
speaking  and  voting  for  Grant  first,  last,  and  all  the  time.  [Applause.] 
And  with  such  a  delegation  you  will  find  that  in  the  convention  that  assem- 


676  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

bles  here  in  Chicago  no  second  choice  will  ever  be  called  for.  All  there 
is  about  it,  then,  is  to  go  ahead  without  being  bullied,  safely  within  the 
precedents  of  the  party ;  do  as  we  have  done  in  the  days  that  have  passed ; 
stand  right  straight  up,  and  no  harm  will  come  to  you.  Imitate  the  exam 
ple  of  our  great  leader.  You  see  the  enemy  before  you — move  immediately 
upon  his  works."  [Laughter  and  applause.] 

The  State  Convention  assembled  at  Springfield  on  the  iQth 
of  May,  and  there  were  two  rival  delegations  from  Cook 
County,  each  claiming  to  be  the  only  authorized  and  only 
legitimate  representation  of  the  county.  Seats  were  given  them 
in  the  gallery  until  the  report  of  the  committee  on  credentials 
was  made.  That  committee  had  the  question  under  consideration 
for  nearly  a  day  and  a  half,  and  finally  presented  three  reports, 
one  recommending  the  seating  of  fifty-six  of  the  Farwell  Hall 
delegates  and  thirty-six  of  the  Palmer  House  delegation;  another 
recommending  the  seating  of  the  entire  Palmer  House  delegation, 
and  a  third  recommending  the  seating  of  the  entire  Farwell 
Hall  delegation.  Upon  the  presentation  of  these  reports  to 
the  State  Convention,  time  was  allotted  to  each  side  to  present 
its  case  through  its  own  chosen  representatives,  and  both  sides 
were  fully  and  thoroughly  heard.  The  adoption  of  the  report 
recommending  the  seating  of  the  entire  Farwell  Hall  delegation 
was  advocated  by  Mr.  Kirk  Hawes,  and  Mr.  Storrs  was  then 
introduced  to  state  the  case  on  behalf  of  the  Palmer  House  party. 
The  Illinois  State  Register,  a  Democratic  paper  published  at 
Springfield,  thus  describes  the  debate: 

"The  speech  of  Emery  A.  Storrs  was  an  extraordinary  effort.  It  lacked 
the  clinching  logic  of  Hawes'  arguments,  but  was  surpassingly  brilliant, 
burnished,  as  it  was,  by  the  genius  of  the  orator  and  of  the  poet.  Mr. 
Storrs  exhibited  his  gifts  to  the  best  advantage.  He  bore  down  upon  the 
rioters,  the  bribe-givers  and  bribe-takers  of  Chicago  with  all  the  blazonry 
of  his  unequalled  powers  of  denunciation,  of  ridicule,  of  sarcasm,  of  humor, 
leaping  the  difficult  places  in  his  pathway  by  a  glowing  appeal  for  Grant, 
an  apotheosis  of  Republican  stalwartism,  a  shining  tribute  to  the  flag  ;  and 
crowned  his  cause  with  a  trumpet-tongued  cry  for  harmony,  for  conciliation, 
for  peace,  that  won  his  audience,  and  supplied  an  ample  apology  for  the 
claim  which  he  so  fervently  espoused.  He  wanted  only  thirty-six  of  the 
ninety-two  delegates — wanted  them  in  the  name  of  justice,  in  the  name  of 
popular  rights,  and  above  all,  in  the  name  of  the  great  leader  who  had 
done  more  for  his  country  than  any  other  living  man,  and  whose  splendid 
form  towered  into  the  very  sunshine  of  eternal  fame.  The  orator  closed  his 
speech  with  a  peroration,  the  classic  finish  of  which,  though  capping  a 
faulty  argument,  was  worthy  of  Sheridan  in  the  British  Parliament,  or  of 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  6// 

Seargent  S.  Prentiss,  when,  pleading  for  his  contested  seat  as  a  representa 
tive,  he  electrified  the  American  Congress  forty  years  ago.  The  victory  was 
complete.  The  orator  had  swept  triumphantly  the  chords  of  human  passion, 
and  the  vote  then  promptly  taken  gave  Grant  all  that  had  been  claimed  for 
him  in  Cook  county.  This  episode  in  Illinois  politics  sets  a  notable  precedent 
in  party  organization,  and  illustrates  the  highest  ingenuity  of  party  leader 
ship." 

No  action  was  taken  upon  the  report  claiming  the  entire  Cook 
county  delegation  for  Grant.  The  Republican  State  Committee 
of  Illinois,  in  1876,  had  adopted  for  Cook  county  the  plan  of 
having  its  delegates  vote  in  the  State  convention,  not  as  a  county, 
but  by  senatorial  districts.  Cook  county  included  seven  senatorial 
districts,  three  of  which  were  carried  by  the  stalwarts,  and  they 
also  claimed  a  majority  in  the  second  district.  It  was  admitted 
that  the  others  had  been  carried  by  the  opponents  of  Grant,  and 
all  that  the  Palmer  House  party  wanted  was  fair  play  and  a  just 
representation. 

The  report  advocated  by  Mr.  Hawes  was  rejected  by  a  majority 
of  eighty  votes.  The  question  then  came  up  on  the  report 
recommending  the  admission  of  fifty-six  of  the  Farwell  Hall 
delegation,  and  thirty-six  of  the  Palmer  House  delegation,  which 
was  adopted  by  a  majority  of  eighty;  whereupon  the  admitted 
delegates  took  their  seats  in  the  convention.  The  same  evening, 
Senator  Logan  sent  the  following  telegram  to  Mrs.  Storrs  in 
Chicago : 

"  I  most  heartily  congratulate  you  on  the  magnificent  speech 
of  your  husband  in  favor  of  seating  the  Grant  delegates. 

"JoHN  A.  LOGAN." 

It  had  become  apparent  to  Mr.  Washburne  himself  by  this 
time  that  the  preference  of  the  Republican  party  of  Illinois  was 
overwhelmingly  for  General  Grant,  and  without  the  support  of 
his  own  State  Washburne  could  not  hope  to  win  the  Presidency. 
He  therefore  published  a  card  in  a  paper  at  Portland,  Maine, 
where  he  was  then  staying,  in  which  he  said:  "All  combinations 
alleged  to  have  been  made  by  my  friends  and  those  of  other 
candidates  have  been  entered  into  without  my  knowledge  or  appro 
bation."  Two  days  before  the  meeting  of  the  Illinois  State  con 
vention,  he  sent  the  following  telegram  to  a  friend  in  Galena: 

"Too  unwell  to  attend  to  anything,  but  express  to  all  my 
friends  my  earnest  hope  that  they  will  support  General  Grant." 


6/8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

The  Springfield  convention  having  been  organized,  a  resolution 
was  offered  that  the  delegates  to  the  National  Convention  be 
selected  by  a  committee  of  one  from  each  Congressional  district, 
to  be  appointed  by  the  chair.  This  motion  led  to  discussions, 
consuming  many  hours,  and  was  finally  adopted  by  a  majority. 
The  chairman  named  a  committee,  who  recommended  as  dele 
gates  to  the  National  Convention  forty-two  gentlemen,  whose 
names  were  approved  by  the  majority.  No  other  names  were 
submitted  to  the  State  convention,  but  protests  were  filed  from 
several  Congressional  districts  just  before  the  convention  closed. 
General  Logan  offered  a  resolution  declaring  U.  S.  Grant  to  be 
the  choice  of  the  Republican  party  of  Illinois  for  the  Presidency, 
and  instructing  the  delegates  to  use  all  honorable  means  to  secure 
his  nomination,  which  was  carried  amid  the  wildest  enthusiasm. 

The  national  Convention  met  in  Chicago  on  the  2nd  of  June. 
It  was  the  longest  and  most  exciting  convention  that  had  ever 
been  held  in  the  history  of  the  party.  There  were  contesting 
delegations  from  several  States.  The  most  important  contest 
was  that  for  the  representation  of  the  State  of  Illinois, — the  third 
State  in  the  Union,  so  far  as  her  numerical  representation  in  a 
National  political  convention  was  concerned.  A  committee  on 
credentials  was  appointed,  to  whom  all  questions  as  to  the  right 
of  delegates  to  their  seats  was  referred,  and  of  this  committee  a 
majority  did  not  favor  the  nomination  of  General  Grant.  The 
malcontents  at  Springfield  brought  their  protests  before  this 
committee,  and  sought  to  overturn  the  decision  of  the  Illinois 
State  convention.  The  committee  held  long  and  fatiguing  ses 
sions,  the  bolters  being  represented  before  them  by  Mr.  Hawes, 
and  the  straight  Republicans  by  Mr.  Storrs.  They  returned  a 
majority  and  minority  report.  The  former  was  in  favor  of  seat 
ing  the  delegates  named  by  private  caucuses  of  the  bolting  dis 
tricts,  outside  of  the  State  convention,  and  sustained  the  Grant 
delegates  for  the  second  district,  and  the  delegates  for  the  State 
at  large  chosen  by  the  State  convention,  against  the  objections 
made  to  them.  The  minority  report,  so  far  as  it  related  to  the 
State  of  Illinois,  was  prepared  by  Mr.  Storrs.  It  recited  all  the 
history  of  the  Farwell  Hall  usurpation,  the  frauds  perpetrated  at 
the  primary  elections  in  several  districts,  and  the  action  of  the 
State  convention,  and  thoroughly  reviewed  the  situation. 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  679 

When  these  reports  were  presented  in  the  National  Convention, 
a  lively  breeze  was  at  once  raised  by  General  Logan,  who 
demanded  to  know  by  what  right  the  majority  of  the  committee 
presumed  to  pass  upon  the  credentials  of  the  delegates  at  large 
from  Illinois,  of  whom  he  was  one  and  Mr.  Storrs  another.  He 
had  never  heard  that  there  was  any  question  as  to  them.  Mr. 
Conger  of  Michigan,  the  chairman  of  the  committee,  explained 
that  a  "  communication,"  had  been  sent  to  them  purporting  to 
contest  the  rights  of  the  delegates  at  large  from  the  State  of 
Illinois,  but  that  the  committee,  after  considering  it,  had  decided 
that  there  was  no  valid  contest,  and  that  the  gentlemen  chosen 
by  the  State  Convention  were  entitled  to  their  seats.  This 
would  not  satisfy  General  Logan.  He  and  his  brother  delegates 
claimed  their  seats  by  virtue  of  their  credentials  from  the  State 
convention,  and  would  not  accept  them  through  any  tolerance 
of  the  committee  on  credentials.  On  the  motion  of  General 
Sharpe  of  New  York,  the  paragraph  relating  to  the  Illinois  dele 
gates  at  large  was  expunged  as  superfluous.  Some  amusement 
was  created  during  the  discussion  of  the  question  by  a  member 
of  the  committee,  saying  that  the  committee  had  sat  up  til"} 
three  o'clock  in  the  morning  listening  to  Mr.  Storrs  on  that 
point.  "Why,"  he  said,  "my  venerable  friend  from  Pennsylvania 
[Mr.  Cessna],  and  several  others  of  the  members  of  that  com 
mittee,  whom  we  all  delight  to  love  and  honor,  sat  there  until 
t\vo  or  three  o'clock  in  the  morning, — and  those  gentlemen  have 
not  been  awake  at  that  hour  for  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years,  I 
am  informed, — kept  there  by  the  eloquence  of  the  gentleman 
who  was  pleading  the  cause  of  the  gentlemen  from  Illinois." 

The  obnoxious  paragraph  was  expunged,  and  all  question  as 
to  the  rights  of  the  delegates  at  large  to  their  seats  removed. 
On  the  motion  of  Mr.  Cessna  of  Pennsylvania,  the  report  was 
considered  in  detail.  After  the  Alabama  case  had  been  disposed 
of,  the  Illinois  contest  was  taken  up.  Mr.  Conger,  as  chairman 
of  the  committee  on  credentials,  made  an  explanation  of  the 
considerations  which  had  influenced  the  majority  to  report  as 
they  had  done.  General  Raum,  the  chairman  of  the  Illinois 
State  convention,  defended  the  action  of  that  body.  Mr.  Elliott 
Anthony  was  heard  on  behalf  of  Farwell  Hall,  and  Mr.  Storrs 
answered  him  as  the  authorized  representative  of  the  sitting  dele- 


68O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

gates.     The  argument  of  Mr.  Storrs  was  one  of  great  power  and 
appeared  in  full  in  the  official  report  of  the  Convention. 

Mr.  Storrs  was  interrupted  by  a  hurricane  of  applause  from 
the  stalwarts  in  the  galleries  as  he  drew  his  masterly  address  to 
its  conclusion.  The  Blame  men  responded  with  yells  and  cat 
calls.  The  stalwarts  cheered  again  with  renewed  vigor,  and  a  scene 
of  tumult  and  uproar  followed  such  as  has  never  before  or  since 
been  witnessed  in  a  great  National  Convention.  Senator  Conk- 
ling,  the  leader  of  the  New  York  delegation,  made  an  emphatic 
gesture  of  approval,  and  looked  delightedly  round  as  the  stal 
warts  began  to  strip  the  flags  from  the  front  of  the  galleries  and 
wave  them  wildly  about,  in  which  they  were  imitated  by  the 
Blaine  men  in  the  opposite  gallery.  Delegates  rushed  excitedly 
through  the  hall,  interchanging  jubilations  with  other  delegations, 
and  some  groups  started  singing  patriotic  songs.  The  Babel 
lasted  nearly  an  hour,  during  which  the  chairman's  gavel  was 
powerless  to  restore  order.  The  chairman  availed  himself  of  a 
lull  in  the  storm  to  say.  "The  question  is  on  the  adoption  of 
the  report.  The  gentleman  has  only  four  minutes  of  his  hour 
remaining."  Mr.  Storrs,  who  had  remained  standing  on  the 
elevated  platform,  looking  placidly  around  him  during  all  the 
excitement,  turned  to  the  chairman,  and  smilingly  said.  "  Please 
give  me  these  four  minutes.  I  think  I  need  but  three."  Permis 
sion  being  granted,  Mr.  Storrs  concluded  his  speech  by  saying: 

"Gentlemen,  give  the  grand  old  State  that  never  knew  a  draft,  and 
never  filled  up  a  regiment  with  paper  soldiers, — give  the  grand  old  State, 
the  home  of  Lincoln,  and  Douglas,  and  Grant,  a  fair  chance.  Put  no 
indignity  on  the  honor  of  her  sons.  Then,  if  you  can  nominate  the  worthy 
son  of  Ohio,  John  Sherman,  do  it  fairly  ;  and  when  the  hysterical  gentlemen 
who  are  afraid  that  he  is  not  popular  enough  to  carry  Illinois  are  inquiring 
their  way  to  the  polls,  the  grand  old  guard,  whose  representative  I  am, 
will  have  planted  the  banner  of  victory  on  the  citadels  of  the  enemy.  By 
all  means  let  us  be  free  and  absolutely  untrammelled ;  put  no  just  cause 
for  complaint  on  us;  have  no  hesitancy  in  a  candidate  who  exhibits  scars, 
provided  they  are  honorable  scars,  won  in  honorable  warfare.  Select  no 
man  without  a  record;  pull  no  skulker  from  under  the  ammunition  wagon, 
because  he  shows  not  upon  him  the  signs  of  battle ;  take  the  old  tried  hero, 
— let  us  take  him  if  we  can  get  him ;  and  then  I  believe,  with  the  old 
guard  behind  him,  who  have  never  kept  step  in  this  world  to  any  music 
but  the  music  of  the  Union,  and  with  the  friends  of  Blaine,  and  the  friends 
of  Sherman,  and  the  friends  of  all  good  men,  a  victory  will  be  achieved, 
the  like  of  which  has  never  been  recorded  in  the  annals  of  our  Nations  I 


DISRUPTION    OF    THE    REPUBLICAN    PARTY    IN    ILLINOIS.  68 1 

politics.  Citizens  of  one  country,  members  of  one  party,  let  us  remember 
that,  while  we  accept  no  indignities  from  our  enemies,  we  hope  and  trust 
and  pray  our  friends  will  put  none  upon  us.  Here,  in  the  midnight,  with 
the  storm  without,  and  these  assembled  Republicans  within,  we  are  first  to 
be  just,  first  to  be  fair,  and  victory  is  ours  as  sure  as  the  morning  comes." 

It  was  now  long  past  midnight,  and  a  motion  to  adjourn  was 
made,  which  the  friends  of  the  bolters  opposed,  hoping  to  rush 
the  majority  report  through.  The  motion  to  adjourn  was  lost ; 
and  then  the  question  came  up  on  the  adoption  of  the  majority 
report.  Mr.  Cessna  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  division  of  the 
question,  and  a  separate  consideration  of  the  contests  in  the 
disputed  districts.  The  majority  report  was  adopted  finally,  as 
to  all  the  contested  districts  of  Illinois,  and  thus  eighteen  of  the 
forty-two  delegates  chosen  by  the  State  convention  were  unseated, 
and  bolters  substituted  in  their  places.  The  Convention  then 
adjourned  at  twenty  minutes  past  two  o'clock  in  the  morning, 

Thus  was  inaugurated  a  new  method  of  selecting  delegates  to 
National  Conventions,  which  was  destined  to  bear  disastrous 
fruit  at  no  distant  day.  The  State  Conventions  were  practically 
abolished  by  the  decision  of  the  National  Convention  of  1880; 
Congressional  districts  were  substituted  in  their  stead ;  but  ere 
long  it  was  found  that  the  new  plan  did  not  stop  short  of  leav 
ing  each  individual  delegate  to  do  his  own  pleasure,  quite 
regardless  of  any  pledges  which  he  might  have  given.  The  seeds 
of  disruption  were  sown  in  the  Republican  party,  and  bore  fruit 
in  1884.  The  men  who  in  1880  stood  up  for  the  familiar 
methods  of  the  party .  have  remained  loyal  to  the  party  ever 
since,  in  prosperity  and  in  adversity;  the  bolters  of  1880  bred  a 
numerous  progeny  of  mugwumps  in  1884,  who  found  a  chilly 
resting  place  in  the  Democratic  party,  despised  alike  by  their 
new  allies  and  by  the  party  they  have  deserted. 

It  fe  needless  here  to  tell  over  again  the  story  of  the  "old 
guard,"  the  famous  306,  who  stood  firm  at  their  posts  through 
thirty-six  ballots,  voting  for  General  Grant  "first,  last,  and  all  the 
time."  The  Convention's  choice  fell  upon  General  James  A- 
Garfield,  of  Ohio.  Believing,  as  he  did,  religiously  in  the  rule 
of  the  majority,  Mr.  Storrs  accepted  their  decision,  and,  without  a 
murmur,  joined  with  other  Republicans  in  placing  his  services 
in  the  campaign  at  the  disposal  of  General  Garfield. 

A  few  days  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Convention,  a 
sympathetic  friend  in  Peoria,  Illinois,  wrote  to  him  as  follows: 


682  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"I  have  not  been  an  uninterested  spectator,  of  your  recent  fight  at  the 
pass  of  Thermopylae,  where  the  three  hundred  stpod  the  charge  of  hetero 
geneous  hosts  against  them,  and  stood  so  long  and  so  well.  No  one  was 
killed  in  your  column.  Grant  will  stand  stronger  in  the  hearts  of  his  coun 
trymen  than  ever,  and  so  will  the  rest  of  you;  while  there  have  been 
many  notable  deaths  on  the  other  side, — Washburne  for  one,  for  I  infer  he 
was  playing  his  own  little  game,  and  playing  it  badly.  I  infer  this  from 
the  fact  that  none  of  the  stalwart  three  hundred  seemed  to  give  him  any 
aid  or  comfort.  We  were  all  prepared  to  welcome  him  as  the  dark  horse 
whenever  it  became  apparent  neither  Grant  nor  Elaine  could  be  nominated. 
He  would  have  been  acceptable,  and  would  have  won  if  he  had  kept  out 
of  the  fight  his  little  self,  as  Garfield  did, — or  had  done  as  Sherman  did. 
He  played  poorly,  and  henceforth  is  'dead  as  a  ducat,'  though  he  may 
continue,  with  Elaine,  Sherman,  et.  at.,  to  walk  about  for  some  time  to 
save  funeral  expenses." 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1880.  » 

PREPARATIONS  FOR  THE  CAMPAIGN — ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  FRIENDS  OF 
GENERAL  GRANT — MR.  STORRS  ADDRESSES  THE  IRISH  REPUBLICANS  OF 
CHICAGO — WHY  IRISHMEN  SHOULD  VOTE  THE  REPUBLICAN  TICKET — WHY 
THEY  SHOULD  ABANDON  THE  DEMOCRACY — THE  COOK  COUNTY  CONVENTION 
— THE  STATE  CONVENTION  AT  SPRINGFIELD — MASS  MEETING  IN  CENTRAL 
MUSIC  HALL — THE  NATIONAL  CONVENTION — OPPOSITION  DELEGATES — MR. 
STORRS'  ARGUMENT  FOR  THE  ENFORCEMENT  OF  THE  UNIT  RULE — HIS 
GREAT  SPEECH  IN  THE  CONVENTION — DEFECTION  OF  MR.  WASHBURNE — 
THE  "OLD  GUARD" — MR.  STORRS  AT  BURLINGTON,  IOWA — SPEECH  IN  PHIL 
ADELPHIA — THE  DEMOCRATIC  PLATFORM  REVIEWED — WHAT  ITS  SUCCESS 
WOULD  MEAN — ITS  FINANCIAL  HERESIES — MR.  STORRS  ADDRESSES  THE  COL 
ORED  REPUBLICANS  OF  CHICAGO — AT  OAKLAND,  CALIFORNIA — AT  DENVER, 
COLORADO — MR.  STORRS  STUMPS  THE  STATE  OF  OHIO — GREAT  SPEECH  AT 
CLEVELAND— AT  THE  COOPER  INSTITUTE,  NEW  YORK— ARTICLE  IN  THE 
NORTH  AMERICAN  REVIEW. 

THE   stalwart   Grant    county    of  Iowa   opened   the   campaign 
with  an  enthusiastic  ratification    meeting  at  Burlington  on 
the    1 6th    of  July.       Mr.    Storrs   then    struck  the   keynote  of  the 
campaign  in  a  masterly  address. 

As  was  his  custom  in  every  campaign,  he  set  out  with  a  telling 
review  and  comparison  of  the  past  records  of  the  two  parties, 
which  need  not  be  here  repeated.  He  next  discussed  the 
Democratic  platform,  the  first  plank  of  which  was  as  follows: 

"We  pledge  ourselves  anew  to  the  constitutional  doctrines  and  traditions 
of  the  Democratic  party,  as  illustrated  by  the  teaching  and  example  of  a 
long  line  of  Democratic  statesmen  and  patriots,  and  embodied  in  the  plat 
form  of  the  last  national  convention  of  the  party." 

This  paragraph,  he  said,  rendered  it  absolutely  necessary  to 
re-discuss  all  those  old  issues  which  we  had  fondly  hoped  were 

683 


684  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

settled.  He  again  went  over  the  history  of  the  State  sovereignty 
heresy,  and  concluded  his  observations  on  this  first  plank  by 
saying : 

"They  pledge  themselves  anew  to  the  doctrine  of  state  sovereignty  ;  pledge 
themselves  anew  to  their  opposition  to  every  measure  of  the  war ;  pledge 
themselves  anew  to  their  opposition  to  the  constitutional  amendments ; 
pledge  themselves  anew  to  this  opposition  to  all  the  legislation  by  which 
they  can  be  enforced;  pledge  themselves  anew  to  the  declaration  of  1868 
that  they  regard  them  all  as  revolutionary,  as  usurpations,  as  unconstitutional 
and  void,  and  necessarily  pledge  themselves  to  erase  those  from  the  Consti 
tution  and  statute  book  the  first  moment  when  they  possess  sufficient  legis 
lation  and  executive  power  combined  so  to  do.  This  significant  declaration 
must  make  us  pause.  [Cheers.] 

"Their  second  plank  is  as  follows:  'Opposition  to  centralization,  and  to 
that  dangerous  spirit  of  encroachment  which  tends  to  consolidate  in  one,  and 
thus  to  create,  whatever  the  form  of  government,  a  real  despotism.'" 

He  answered  the  Democratic  objections  to  centralization  as  he 
had  done  in  previous  campaigns,  and  he  proceeded  with  his 
analysis  of  this  platform: 

"The  third  plank  of  their  platform  is  as  follows:  No  sumptuary  laws, 
separation  of  church  and  state  for  the  good  of  each,  and  common  schools 
fostered  and  protected.'  No  opposition  to  sumptuary  laws  and  no  legislation 
which  would  interfere  with  free  whisky,  is  entirely  consistent  with  the 
Democratic  party,  for  all  such  laws  would  be  clearly  opposed  to  the  doc 
trines  and  traditions  of  that  party.  The  division  of  church  and  state  is  a 
doctrine  stolen  from  the  Des  Moines  speech  of  General  Grant,  and  their 
declaration  that  common  schools  should  be  fostered  and  protected  in  view 
of  the  practice  of  the  states  from  which  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight 
electoral  votes  are  to  be  drawn,  is  an  absurdity.  After  the  war,  when 
having  clothed  the  negro  with  the  privileges  of 'a  citizen  we  sought  to  make 
him  capable  of  exercising  those  privileges  intelligently  by  establishing- 
schools  and  building  school  houses,  that  same  party  in  the  south  which 
to-day  fosters  and  declares  its  intention  of  fostering  schools,  flogged  or 
assassinated  the  school  teacher  and  burned  the  school-houses.  School-houses 
there  for  the  education  of  the  poor  whites  and  blacks  are  not  only  not 
fostered — they  are  not  tolerated,  and  this  declaration  carries  a  lie  upon  its 
face. 

"Their  fourth  plank  announces  this  doctrine:  'Home-rule,  honest  money 
consisting  of  gold  and  silver  and  paper  convertible  into  coin  on  demand, 
and  the  strict  maintainance  of  the  public  faith,  state  and  national,  and  a 
tariff  for  revenue  only.' 

"What  does  the  Democratic  party  mean  by  'home-rule?'  The  eviden 
ces  which  they  have  furnished  us  of  home-rule  in  these  states  from  which 
the  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  electoral  votes  are  to  be  derived  are  not 
encouraging.  From  the  practical  evidences  they  have  given  us,  home-rule 


THE  "CAMPAIGN  OF  1880.  685 

means  with  them  the  right  to  fetter  opinions,  to  stifle  speech,  to  terrorize  the 
voter  and  bully  the  courts  at  home.  It  means  the  White-Liner  and  the  Ku- 
Klux  at  home ;  it  means  the  argument  of  the  shot-gun  ;  it  means  the  per 
suasion  of  Chisholm  and  Dixon  and  hundreds  of  others  by  the  gentle  meth 
ods  of  assassination  ;  it  means  the  enlightment  of  the  negro  and  the  white 
Republican  voter,  by  midnight  raids,  by  burning  homes  and  indiscriminate 
slaughters.  This  is  the  practice  of  the  home-rulers  in  the  south,  and  this 
is  the  practice  which  this  platform  ratifies  and  endorses  and  the  right  which 
it  demands.  Nothing,  however,  more  impudent  in  politics  can  be  found 
than  the  declaration  of  this  plank  in  the  platform  for  honest  money,  let  us 
compare  the  practice  of  the  Democratic  party  in  the  past  with  its  present 
professions. 

"The  Democratic  platform  in  1868  called  for  the  payment  of  the  public 
debt  in  greenbacks,  which  had  it  been  adopted,  would  have  resulted  in  such 
an  inflation  of  our  currency  as  to  have  rendered  the  resumption  of  specie 
payments  an  absolute  impossibility,  which  would  have  been  the  dishonor  of 
not  only  the  public  debt  but  of  the  greenback  itself.  They  aimed  a  fatal 
blow  at  the  national  credit  for  they  demanded  '  equal  taxation  of  every  species 
of  property  according  to  its  real  value,  including  government  bonds  and  other 
public  securities.'  Had  this  policy  been  adopted,  my  fellow  citizens,  do  you 
suppose  that  it  would  have  been  within  the  range  of  possibility  for  us  to  have 
reduced  the  interest  upon  our  public  debt?  Would  not  the  national  honor 
have  been  so  shaken  that  resumption  would  have  been  an  impossibility, 
and  honest  money  something  in  a  distance  so  far  removed  that  we  could 
never  expect  to  live  to  reach  it?  In  1869  the  public  credit  bill,  which 
pledged  the  nation  to  the  payment  of  its  debt  in  coin,  was  opposed  in  con 
gress  by  the  almost  solid  vote  of  the  Democratic  party.  Clamoring  to-day 
for  honest  money,  they  opposed  the  resumption  bill  which  makes  the  green 
back  and  national  bank-note  honest  money.  Their  platform  in  1876  writ 
ten  by  a  shrewd  capitalist  who  had  an  eye  to  the  vote  of  the  state  of  New 
York  and  supposed  that  he  would  have  the  south  at  all  events,  for  the 
purpose  of  catching  the  capitalist  vote,  declared  for  honest  money  and 
denounced  the  Republican  party  for  hindering  resumption,  the  entire  Demo 
cracy  having  previously  opposed  the  scheme  of  resumption,  but  in  January, 
1876,  but  a  few  months  after  this  convention  met,  the  bill  to  repeal  the 
resumption  act  received  112  votes  in  the  house  of  representatives,  all  dem 
ocratic  but  one.  In  June,  1876,  as  a  rider  to  the  civil  appropriation  bill, 
an  amendment  repealing  the  resumption  act  received  solid  Democratic  sup 
port.  Does  this  look  like  honest  money?  The  party  was  not  converted  by 
its  platform,  for  the  party  understood  the  purpose  of  the  platform.  A  bill 
to  repeal  the  fixing  of  the  time  for  resumption  August  5th,  1876,  received 
in  the  house  176  votes,  all  Democratic  except  three,  more  than  a  year  after 
the  declaration  of  the  platform  of  1876.  In  October,  1877,  Mr.  Ewing 
reported  from  the  committee  on  banking  and  currency  a  bill  to  repeal  the 
resumption  act.  This  is  the  practice  of  the  party  as  against  its  profession. 
It  was  the  the  practice  of  the  party  not  only  in  our  national  congress  but 
throughout  the  states.  In  this  honest  state  of  Iowa  the  platform  of  the 


686  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

Democratic  party  for  1877,  declared  :  We  demand  the  immediate  repeal  of 
the  specie  resumption  act.'  In  1878,  still  unconverted,  the  Democracy  of 
the  state  of  Iowa  in  its  platform  declares  :  '  We  favor  the  immediate  repeal 
of  the  resumption  act.'  This  is  the  sentiment  of  the  party.  Its  constitu 
tional  doctrines  and  traditions  and  its  votes,  wherever  its  votes  would  tell, 
have  been  from  the  beginning  down  even  to  to-day  against  honest  money 
for  which  in  its  platform  to-day  it  lyingly  and  hypocritically  declares. 

"Their  fifth  plank  declares:  'The  subordination  of  the  military  to  the 
civil  power,  and  a  thorough  and  genuine  reform  of  the  civil  service.' 

"This  simply  means  that  the  military  power  shall  not  be  used  to  protect 
the  citizen  nor  to  put  down  armed  and  organized  resistance  to  the  enforce 
ment  of  the  laws.  It  means  that  the  moonshiner  shall  go  unpunished  ;  it 
means  that  wherever  an  independent  Democrat  determines  jthat  he  will  not 
pay  the  revenues  which  the  government  imposes  upon  the  business  which 
he  is  pursuing,  that  no  military  power  shall  be  employed  to  compel  such 
payment  ;  it  means  that  acts  of  congress  may  be  resisted  in  their  execution 
by  organized  bodies  of  armed  men ;  that  no  military  power  may  intervene 
to  enforce  these  acts  of  congress  nor  to  put  down  snch  armed  and  organized 
resistance  to  their  enforcement.  It  means  that  an  act  of  congress  providing 
for  an  honest  ballot,  and  for  a  peaceable  poll  shall  be  rendered  nugatory 
by  the  surrounding  of  polls  by  armed  and  organized  bands  of  ruffians,  and 
that  the  military  powers  of  the  nation  shall  not  be  invoked  to  protect  the 
citizens  in  the  enjoyment  of  their  privileges,  in  the  enjoyment  of  which  the 
constitutional  amendment  solemnly  guarantees  him.  [Applause.] 

"It  is  well  that  the  Democratic  party  was  exceedingly  brief  in  its  demand 
for  a  thorough  and  genuine  reform  of  the  civil  service.  It  states  no  plan 
— it  states  no  evil  that  it  seeks  to  remedy.  If  it  is  patriotic  men — men 
thoroughly  devoted  to  the  nation  and  to  its  preservation,  thoroughly  devoted 
to  the  support  of  the  great  guarantees  furnished  by  the  constitutional 
amendments  that  we  desire — shall  we  find  them  in  the  Democratic  party? 
Does  it  possess  more  of  the  intelligence  of  this  country  than  the  Republican 
party  ? 

"This  party  has  organized  in  itself  the  bulk  of  the  ignorance  the  vio 
lence  and  the  crime  of  the  country.  If  culture  and  superior  education 
are  desired  in  our  office-holders  is  there  even  a  Democrat  who  will  claim 
that  better  facilities  are  furnished  for  procuring  these  requisites  from  the 
Democratic  than  from  the  Republican  party  ?  Will  you,  with  the  experience 
of  the  organization  of  the  house  of  representatives  before  you,  contemplate 
what  kind  of  a  reform  that  will  be  which  will  result  from  the  election 
of  Hancock?  Not  only  would  the  triumph  of  the  Democratic  party  fail 
to  promote  any  genuine  reform  of  the  civil  service,  but  it  would  render 
such  reform  utterly  impossible.  No  one  expects  the  civil  service  to  be 
reformed  through  any  such  curious  and  extraordinary  channels. 

"By  their  sixth  plank  the  Democracy  declare  'the  right  of  a  free  ballot 
is  a  right  preservative  of  all  rights,  and  must  and  shall  be  maintained 
in  every  part  of  the  United  States.' 

"  From   reading  this    platform   one  would  almost   come  to  the    conclusion 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 88O.  68/ 

that  the  Democratic  party  had  decided  in  its  platform  to  state  great 
truths  which  it  had  always  opposed  and  to  assert  great  rights  which  it 
had  always  denied.  The  election  laws  of  congress,  so-called,  were 
passed  to  secure  a  free  and  honest  ballot,  and  to  prevent  fraud  and 
violence  at  the  polls.  At  the  time  they  were  passed  the  Democratic 
party  solidly  opposed  them,  and  denounced  them  as  unconstitutional,  and 
has  since  that  time  even  by  revolutionary  schemes,  steadily  sought  their 
repeal.  The  courts  have  sustained  their  constitutionality  of  those  laws  and 
yet  their  repeal  is  as  steadily  sought. 

"The  whole  current  of  Democratic  history  gives  the  lie  to  this  protesta 
tion  in  favor  of  a  free  and  honest  ballot. 

44  They  have  never  advocated  a  registry  law,  the  purpose  and  fair 
operation  of  which  where  they  have  been  in  power  would  be  to  secure 
a  free  or  an  honest  ballot.  No  law  for  the  registration  of  the  voter  and 
for  the  protection  of  the  purity  of  the  polls  has  ever  been  passed  that 
has  not  encountered  the  opposition  of  the  Democratic  party,  and  when 
it  has  been  in  power  such  laws  have  uniformily  fallen  under  their 
administration. 

"The  fraudulent  vote  of  the  city  of  New  York  for  years  and  years  is  a 
steady  commentary  upon  the  falsity  of  this  protestation.  In  1868,  as  was 
subsequently  demonstrated  upon  the  trial  of  Tweed'  and  the  examination  of 
his  affairs,  over  twenty  thousand  votes  were  cast,  or  at  least  a  fraudu 
lent  vote  of  twenty  thousand  in  but  very  few  wards  of  that  city.  In 
several  precincts  there  were  more  votes  counted — double  the  number  of 
votes  counted — than  the  entire  population.  This  was  under  a  Democratic 
administration.  They  opposed  every  registry  scheme  by  which  these  gross 
and  outrageous  frauds  might  be  prevented. 

"But  is  there  a  free  ballot  in  the  south?  Does  any  man  of  ordinary 
honesty  and  ordinary  intelligence  claim  such  a  thing?  Let  us  take  a 
few  examples.  In  1872  the  Republican  vote  of  Alabama  was  90,272,  the 
vote  in  1878  was  nothing;  and  yet  the  Democratic  vote  was  not 
increased  to  a  larger  extent  than  the  increase  of  population  would 
justify.  Is  that  a  free  ballot? 

"In  1872  the  Republican  vote  in  Arkansas  was  41,373;  in  1878  it 
was  115.  The  Democratic  vote  in  the  meantime  had  not  increased,  but 
this  Republican  vote  had  been  terrorized,  bulldozed  and  driven  from  the 
polls,  and  by  threats,  fraud  and  violence,  the  expression  of  public 
opinion  by  the  ballot  was  absolutely  and  utterly  stifled ;  and  yet  the 
party  guilty  of  this  most  stupendous  and  gigantic  crime,  sneakingly  and 
hypocritically,  in  its  platform,  protests  that  the  right  of  free  ballot  is  a 
right  preservative  of  all  rights  and  must,  they  say,  be  maintained  in  all 
parts  of  the  United  States. 

"In  1872  the  Republican  vote  of  Mississippi  was  82,175;  in  1878  it 
had  dwindled  down  to  1,168.  This  tremendous  change  cannot  be 
accounted  for  by  conversions.  It  is  simply  a  dropping  off  of  the  vote, 
not  an  accession  of  Democratic  strength  but  a  denial  of  the  right  of 
suffrage.  Is  this  a  free  ballot? 


688  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"In  their  tenth  plank  the  Democracy  say:  'We  congratulate  the  coun 
try  upon  the  honesty  and  thrift  of  a  Democratic  Congress,  which  has 
reduced  the  public  expenditures  forty  millions  a  year,  and  upon  the  con 
tinuation  of  prosperity  at  home  and  national  honor  abroad.' 

"The  first  commentary  upon  that  is  that  it  is  false;  but  this  glaringly 
false  pretense  of  economy  will  bear  examination.  How  has  this  economy 
been  exhibited?  Is  it  economy?  In  the  reduction  of  the  army  and  in 
cutting  down  the  pay  of  our  officers.  The  spectacle  of  a  crowd  of  rebel 
brigadiers  in  congress,  sitting  in  judgment  on  the  pay  of  Sheridan  and 
Sherman  and  union  soldiers  and  officers,  is  one  which  the  loyal  men  of 
this  country  do  not  contemplate  with  any  very  great  degree  of  pleasure 
or  satisfaction ;  but  we  have  been  compelled  to  witness  it.  Our  army  cut 
down  and  so  crippled  that  it  is  absolutely  inefficient  to  protect  our 
frontiers  or  indeed  to  protect  us  against  mobs  in  our  large  cities  through 
out  the  entire  country — is  that  economy?  I  regard  it  as  the  most  wasteful 
extravagance.  * 

"It  refuses  to  make  appropriations  for  the  payment  of  judgments  pro 
cured  in  the  court  of  claims  against  the  United  States,  and  proclaims 
this  as  economy.  It  refuses  to  make  appropriations  for  the  payment  of 
the  expense  of  our  courts,  and  has  left  the  federal  courts  throughout  the 
whole  country  so  crippled  that  there  has  been  no  money  to  pay  jury 
service,  and  in  numberless  instances  the  marshals  have  been  compelled 
from  their  private  funds,  to  pay  the  expenses  of  the  administration  of 
justice  in  the  federal  courts.  This  is  not  economy ;  this  is  a  shameful 
neglect  of  duty ;  a  shameful  denial  of  justice  to  the  citizen ;  a  shameful 
and  a  wasteful  extravagance. 

"It  refuses  to  make  appropriations  to  finish  uncompleted  public  build 
ings,  thereby  vastly  increasing  the  expense  when  completion  must  ulti 
mately  be  made.  It  has  cut  down  the  service  in  the  department  of 
the  interior  and  other  departments  to  such  an  extent  that  the  patent 
office  and  pension  bureau  have  been  almost  practically  closed.  It  has 
refused  to  make  sufficient  appropriations  for  the  revenue  cutter  service, 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  customs  revenue,  and  has  lost  tens  of  thousands 
of  dollars  from  revenue,  where  it  has  derived  one  from  its  niggardly 
appropriation  for  that  service.  It  has  refused  to  make  adequate  appropria 
tion  for  the  signal  service :  it  has  practically  refused  appropriations  for  the 
repair  and  protection  of  the  navy  yards,  stations,  armories  and  arsenals, 
suffering  these  great  properties  to  go  to  wasteful  and  ruinous  decay.  It 
has  refused  to  make  adequate  appropriations  for  the  increased  expenses 
devolved  upon  the  mint  and  assay  offices,  rendered  necessary  by  recent 
legislation,  thus  tending  to  defeat  the  object  of  legislation.  It  has  refused 
to  make  adequate  appropriations  for  the  survey  of  the  public  lands ;  it  has 
made  grossly  inadequate  appropriations  for  lighthouses,  beacons  and  fog 
stations,  thus  imperilling  the  safety  of  our  merchant  marine.  And,  finally 
by  one  great  effort,  it  cut  off  the  supply  of  lemonade  to  the  members  of 
the  house  of  representatives,  but,  as  history  tells  us,  the  supply  was 
sought  for  by  individual  members  from  the  senate  department. 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    l88O.  689 

"At  the  close  of  this  remarkable  plank  which  I  have  just  read  to 
you,  the  country  is  congratulated  by  the  Democratic  party  upon  the 
continuation  of  prosperity  at  home  and  national  honor  abroad.  But  how 
in  the'  light  of  history  has  this  prosperity  at  home  been  secured,  and 
this  honor  abroad  been  maintained?  But  for  the  large  reduction  of 
public  expenditures,  resulting  from  resumption  of  specie  payments  and 
strengthening  of  the  public  credit,  and  reduction  of  the  rate  of  interest 
on  the  public  debt,  the  thoroughness,  efficiency  and  honesty  with  which 
all  our  custom  duties  and  internal  revenues  have  been  collected  and 
paid  over,  the  country  is  indebted  to  a  Republican  administration. 
[Applause.]  " 

Appeals  of  the  most  urgent  kind  were  awaiting  him  when  he 
got  home  to  Chicago.  The  mail  was  superseded,  and  the  tele 
graph  put  in  active  requisition.  The  chairmen  of  the  Ohio  and 
Indiana  State  committees  were  both  competing  for  his  services, 
so  that  it  was  physically  impossible  for  him  to  accommodate 
both.  He  referred  the  dilemma  to  General  Garfield,  who  wrote 
him  as  follows: 

"  MENTOR,  OHIO,  October  2,  1880. 

"  MY  DEAR  STORRS, 

"Yours  of  yesterday  received,  and  since  that  your  telegram  that  you  will 
be  in  Toledo  on  Monday. 

"I  know  how  crowded  you  are,  with  work,  and  how  great  a  sacrifice  it 
is  to  leave  your  law  office  so  long,  but  these  are  days  of  destiny,  and  we 
must  have  all  the  help  you  can  give  us. 

"If  you  find  it  possible  to  call  on  me  while  in  Ohio,  I  hope  you  will  not 
fail  to  do  so.  "Very  truly  yours, 

"J.  A.  GARFIELD." 

On  the  4th  of  October,  Mr.  Storrs  made  his  first  appeal  in 
the  Ohio  campaign  at  Toledo.  Secretary  Carl  Schurz  had  been 
assigned  to  the  same  city  by  the  State  Committee,  and  the  two 
gentlemen  had  a  pleasant  interview,  being  for  some  hours  guests 
of  the  same  hotel.  Mr.  Schurz  was  averse  to  speaking  on  the 
same  platform  with  Mr.  Storrs,  regarding  it  as  a  waste  of  ammu 
nition  ;  and  at  his  suggestion  a  meeting  of  the  German  popula 
tion  of  Toledo  was  hastily  got  together  by  the  local  committee, 
which  Mr.  Schurz  addressed  in  his  native  tongue.  The  Toledo 
Blade  had  the  following  editorial  comment  on  the  occasion: 

"The  gatherings  last  night  were  the  most  significant  things  in  Toledo's 
political  history  since  the  stirring  days  of  1861.  That  at  the  Soenger 
Halle  was  the  best  representation  of  the  city's  intelligence,  education,  and 
character  that  has  been  gathered  together  at  least  in  this  decade.  To  see 
two  hundred  and  fifty  of  our  most  respected  citizens  of  advanced  age,  the 
44 


690  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

men  whose  wisdom  and  life  long  labors  have  brought  Toledo  forward  to 
where  she  is — men  of  the  highest  standing  in  the  community,  and 
respected  above  all  others  for  what  they  are  and  have  done— to  see 
these  arrayed  in  ranks  to  attest  their  deep  interest  in  the  momentous 
questions  of  the  occasion,  and  to  see  these  fathers  in  Israel  flanked  and 
supported  by  a  grand  battalion  of  the  men  whose  valor  was  conspicuous 
on  every  battle-field  of  the  late  war,  was  an  imposing  sight  that  the 
thousands  who  packed  the  immense  hall  in  front  of  them  never  before 
witnessed,  and  we  trust  will  never  again,  for  we  hope  that  never  again 
will  there  be  a  public  danger  calling  for  such  a  significant  demonstration. 
"The  orator  of  the  evening  was  worthy  of  his  magnificent  audience. 
Mr.  Emery  A.  Storrs  has  no  superior  in  the  art  of  reaching  the  popu 
lar  heart,  of  presenting  great  truths  in  a  way  that  will  at  once  charm 
and  convince  his  hearers.  He  is  a  magician  in  the  use  of  the  English 
language  to  convey  grand  thoughts  and  pregnant  facts.  No  wavering 
man  in  that  vast  assemblage  left  the  hall  unconvinced  that  the  salvation 
of  the  country  lay  in  Republican  success." 

After  the  meeting,  a  congratulatory  telegram  was  sent  to  Mrs. 
Storrs  by  Petroleum  V.  Nasby,  editor  of  the  Blade,  in  the  fol 
lowing  words: 

"Storrs  meeting  the  largest  ever  held  here.  Speech  a  most  brilliant  one. 
Intense  enthusiasm.  "D.  R.  LOCKE,  Editor  Blade" 

The  following  night  he  addressed  a  large  meeting  in  Sandusky, 
and  was  listened  to  by  many  who  had  been  addressed  in  the 
fair  grounds  the  same  afternoon  by  Mr.  Elaine.  Next  day  he 
addressed  an  open  air  gathering  at  Norwalk,  and  on  the  7th  at 
Elyria,  where  there  was  an  immense  demonstration,  the  town 
being  crowded  from  morning  till  night  by  people  from  the  sur 
rounding  country,  and  the  air  rent  all  day  long  by  their  cheer 
ing  and  by  the  music  of  brass  bands.  During  his  progress  in 
Ohio  he  had  received  daily  telegrams  from  the  chairman  of  the 
State  Committee,  asking  him  to  speak  at  various  places  outside 
of  his  proposed  limit  as  to  time,  and  these  were  reinforced  by 
communications  from  General  Garfield  and  Governor  Foster.  ]n 
one  telegram  from  Mentor,  General  Garfield  said — "We  greatly 
rely  upon  you."  Another,  dated  October  7th,  was  as  follows: 

"Our  people  are  crazy  over  you.  So  far  as  you  can,  consistently  with 
other  engagements,  keep  speaking.  "J.  A.  GARFIELD." 

Another,  of  the  same  date,  said: 

"  I  hope  you  will  speak  at  Elyria,  and  then  come  here  by  evening  train. 

"J.  A.  GARFIELD." 

While  he  was    being  urged  in  this  way  to    extend   his   tour  in 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    l88O.  69! 

Ohio,  Mr.    New  was   just  as  importunate    for  him  to  go  to  Indi 
ana.     The  following  telegram  explains  the  result : 

"  Kennard  House.  Come  and  see  me.  Have  wired  New,  as  you 
request,  that  your  health  and  voice  prevent  your  speaking  in  Indiana. 

"J.  A.  GARFIELD." 

In  addition  to  these,  he  received  at  Cleveland  the  following 
despatch  from  General  Arthur : 

"Can  you  not  speak  for  us  in  the  Cooper  Union,  Wednesday  evening, 
the  1 3th?  We  have  been  holding  great  mass  meetings  every  Wednesday 
evening.  Conkling,  Evarts,  and  Pierrepont  have  already  spoken,  and  now 
we  want  you.  "C.  A.  ARTHUR." 

The  Cleveland  Herald,  in  its  report  of  the  Elyria  meeting, 
said, — "Nothing  but  a  full  report  can  do  justice  to  'Mr.  Storrs' 
speech.  Though  we  have  had  two  fine  orators  here  already  this 
year,  his  was  decidedly  the  speech  of  the  campaign.  Mr.  Storrs 
was  serenaded  at  the  Beebe  house  in  the  evening  by  the  band 
and  a  large  concourse  of  citizens.  He  appeared  on  the  balcony, 
and  delivered  an  address  of  about  twenty  minutes'  length  upon 
the  general  prosperity,  reconciliation,  and  Order  No.  40.  Though 
brief,  the  address  was  eloquent  and  telling,  and  was  loudly 
cheered  at  its  close." 

He  took  a  night  train  to  Cleveland,  where  he  met  General 
Garfield,  and  spent  the  next  day,  which  was  Saturday,  quietly 
with  General  Garfield  in  the  seclusion  of  Mentor.  In  the  even 
ing  he  addressed  a  large  meeting  in  the  Cleveland  opera  house. 
The  Cleveland  Leader  announced  that  the  Republicans  of  that 
city  were  to  have  an  opportunity  of  listening  to  "the  Chrysostom 
of  Chicago."  The  whole  lower  floor  of  the  house  was  reserved 
for  ladies  accompanied  by  gentlemen.  "This  arrangement,"  said 
the  Leader,  "made  by  the  county  committee,  is  a  graceful  recog 
nition  of  the  fact  tersely  stated  by  one  of  our  best  women  con 
tributors,  that  'it  is  not  necessary  to  be  a  man  to  be  a  strong 
partisan  this  fall.'" 

After  an  eloquent  tribute  to  the  women  of  America,  Mr.  Storrs 
said: 

"  We  stand  in  the  midst  of  an  unrivaled  prosperity,  an  honorable  and  a 
deserved  prosperity.  Wise  legislation,  honest  fulfillment  of  National  engage 
ments,  even  through  years  of  suffering  self-denial;  good  Government,  with 
a  fruitful  soil  faithfully  tilled  ;  honest  business,  patiently  and  steadily  pursued  ; 
earnest  labor,  adequately  rewarded,  have  brought  us  this  great  prosperity. 


692  LIFE   OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

The  Republican  party  has  given  us  this  legislation ;  has  performed  these 
National  engagements;  has  governed  fairly;  has  protected  and  encouraged 
labor,  and  has  so  ordered  our  affairs  that  to-day  we  have  an  honest  day's 
wages  for  an  honest  day's  work,  paid  in  honest  money.  Shall  we  change 
all  this? 

"In  1880,  throughout  all  the  boundaries  of  the  Republic  there  is  not  a 
slave  ;  in  1860  there  were  4,000,000  of  slaves,  who  were  not  citizens,  who 
were  denied  the  rights  of  common  humanity,  who  were  chattels  merely.  In 
1860,  the  Democratic  party  being  in  power  and  the  country  being  disgraced  by 
the  presence  in  it  of  4,000,000  of  slaves,  that  party  was  opposed  to  a  change  ; 
in  1880,  when  slavery  has  been  extirpated  from  the  soil  of  the  Republic, 
the  same  party  demands  a  change.  In  1860  all  our  vast  Western  Territories 
were  threatened  with  slavery,  and  so  far  as  the  policy  of  the  party,  aided 
by  a  convenient  Supreme  Court,  could  effect  that  end,  slavery  was  declared 
to  be  national  and  freedom  sectional.  In  1880  all  these  imperiled  territories 
are  free  States,  populous,  powerful  and  prosperous.  In  1860  the  Democratic 
party  was  opposed  to  a  change  ;  in  1880  they  demand  a  change. 

"In  1860,  for  a  trivial  loan  of  a  very  few  millions,  the  bonds  of  the 
United  States  Government  would  fetch  but  eighty-eight  cents  in  the  market, 
those  bonds  drawing  six  per  cent,  interest;  in  1880  thousands  of  millions  of 
dollars  of  Government  bonds,  drawing  four  per  cent,  interest,  command  in 
every  money  market  of  the  world  a  premium  of  from  eight  to  ten  cents  on 
the  dollar.  In  1860  the  Democratic  party  was  opposed  to  a  change;  in 
1880  it  demands  a  change.  In  1860  we  were  afflicted  with  an  unstable, 
fluctuating  vicious  currency,  the  value  of  which  changed  every  time  its 
holder  crossed  a  county  line.  The  profits  of  the  merchant  and  the  producer 
were  swallowed  up  in  exchanges;  in  1880  we  have  as  stable,  fixed  and 
uniform  a  currency  as  any  government  ever  possessed ;  the  national  bank 
note  issued  in  the  extremest  corner  of  Maine  possesses  the  same  value  in 
the  remotest  corner  of  Texas,  and  is  good  everywhere.  .  .  .  Addressing  so 
many  representatives  of  the  business  interests  of  this  great  and  thriving  city, 
I  simply  put  the  question  to  them  whether  they,  on  the  whole,  demand  a 
change,  and  whether  the  change  which  they  demand  is  such  an  one  as  will 
result  in  the  reversal  of  the  policy  and  system  of  government  which  has 
produced  these  astounding  and  these  magnificent  results? 

"No  good  citizen  of  Cleveland,  anxious  for  its  growth  and  for  the  growth 
and  prosperity  of  the  country,  anxious  to  promote  the  success  and  prosper 
ity  of  its  business  interests,  can  ally  himself  with  the  Democratic  party  with 
out  grossly  stultifying  himself.  He  can  do  it  upon  no  other  hypothesis  thai? 
that  the  Democratic  party,  if  it  gains  power,  will  not  carry  out  the  doc 
trines  which  it  announces.  I  submit  that  it  is  too  much  to  expect  of  the 
average  citizen  that  he  will  vote  the  ticket  of  a  political  party  upon  the' 
assumption  that  if  it  succeeds  it  will  reverse  its  own  policy,  defeat  its  owri 
measures,  repudiate  its  own  history  and  do  precisely  the  things  it  declares 
it  will  not  do,  and  that  it  will  fail  to  do  precisely  the  things  which  it  sol 
emnly  and  positively  assures  us  that  it  will  do.  I  do  not  wish  to  talk 
extravagantly,  but  is  it  not  too  large  a  draught  upon  the  credulity  of  the 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    l88o.  693 

average  citizen  to  ask  him  to  assist  in  the  election  of  the  Democratic  ticket 
on  the  assumption  that  it  will  thoroughly  carry  out  Republican  doctrine? 
Is  it  not  placing  General  Hancock  in  a  most  disagreeable  dilemma  to  call 
upon  him  after  his  election  to  belie  the  platform  and  betray  the  express 
policy  of  the  party  which  nominated  and  elected  him?  We  are  to-night  to 
pray,  'Lead  us  not  into  temptation.'  I  would  save  General  Hancock  from 
that  great  temptation..  Without  asking  anything  extravagant  in  the  way  of 
credence  of  the  Republican  party,  am  I  not  sufficiently  reasonable  when  I 
insist  that  the  Republican  party  is  more  likely  to  carry  out  Republican  doer 
trine  than  any  other  party  ?  It  is  familiar  with  its  own  doctrine,  has  had 
the  handling  of  it  for  many  years,  thoroughly  understands  it,  is  accustomed 
to  no  other,  and  particularly  will  not  a  Republican  President,  like  Garfield, 
fall  into  the  rut  of  suggesting  and  carrying  out  measures  which  he  has 
always  been  in  favor  of,  much  more  readily  than  a  President  would  who 
had  always  been  opposed  to  them  ? 

"  Is  there  any  gentleman  in  this  audience  who  can  indicate  to  me  the 
great  interest  of  any  kind,  character  or  description  which  the  Demo 
cratic  party  represents?  It  does  not  represent  the  manufacturing  interest 
of  the  country.  To  claim  that  it  does  would  be  merely  ignorant  impu 
dence.  It  does  not  represent  the  banking  interests  of  the  country ;  it 
demands  their  destruction.  To  claim  otherwise  would  be  mere  effrontery. 
It  does  not  represent  nor  can  it  be  regarded  as  a  special  champion  of 
the  National  credit,  for  it  has  steadily  sought  to  depreciate  and  destroy 
it.  It  has  sought  the  repudiation  of  the  National  debt  and  the  dishonor 
of  the  National  name  by  the  taxation  of  Government  bonds.  It  does 
not  represent  the  educational  interests  of  the  country.  I  think  no  Demo 
crat  could  retire  to  his  room  alone  by  himself  and  keep  a  straight 
face  and  insist  that  the  party  to  which  he  belonged  did  represent  the 
educational  interests  of  this  country.  It  is  not  the  friend  of  free  schools, 
North  or  South.  The  solid  Democratic  party  of  the  South  burns  the 
school-house  and  bullies,  bludgeons  or  shoots  the  school-master.  Its 
rank  and  file  cannot  be  regarded  as  the  highest  rtype  of  American 
intelligence.  I  would  say  in  this  connection  nothing  unkind,  and  any 
gentleman  who  would  say  that  the  rank  and  file  of  the  Democratic 
party  represent  the  highest  education  and  culture  of  the  country  would,  I 
think,  be  showing  an  ignorance  so  broad  and  comprehensive  that  that 
very  assertion  would,  in  its  absurdity,  refute  his  statement.  I  venture  to 
suggest  that  it  does  not  represent  the  best  and  highest  moral  instincts 
of  the  country.  I  think  I  need  not  enlarge  upon  this.  Take  the  party 
as  it  stands,  it  does  not  exclusively  fill  our  churches  nor  our  Sunday- 
Schools.  It  has  not  an  overwhelming  majority  represented  in  our  Chris 
tian  associations  nor  in  our  religious  charities.  In  short  it  does  not,  as 
a  party,  represent  those  feelings;  and  whenever  an  excellent  Democrat 
drifts  into  those  moral  and  Christian  currents,  his  standing  in  his  party 
is  sure  to  be  impaired.  What  does  it  represent?  Merely  opposition  to 
every  measure  of  National  growth  and  freedom  of  which  we  have  had 
knowledge  or  experience  since  1856." 


694  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

But  the  most  telling  feature  of  the  Cleveland  speech  was  his 
exposure  of  General  Hancock's  ignorance  on  the  tariff  question. 
He  said: 

"I  have  said  that  the  party  has  always  opposed  protection.  In  its 
platform  to-day  it  declares  that  it  is  in  favor  of  a  tariff  for  revenue 
only,  and  a  tariff  for  revenue  only  means  the  encouragement  to  its 
largest  measure  and  its  fullest  extent  of  the  importation  of  the  foreign 
article.  How  does  General  Hancock  stand  upon  the  platform  ?  This 
declaration  against  a  protective  tariff  is  No.  4  in  the  Democratic  plat 
form,  and  Hancock  says,  'The  doctrines  enumerated  are  those  I  have 
always  cherished,  and  which  I  will  endeavor  to  maintain  in  the  future.' 
Yesterday,  however,  finding  an  indignant  public  sentiment  running 
against  his  party,  finding  the  laboring  interests  aroused  everywhere,  find 
ing  the  manufacturers  awake,  he  was  subjected  by  a  manufacturer  from 
New  Jersey  to  an  interview,  which  was  published  in  all  the  newspapers, 
and  which  is  the  most  remarkable  document,  I  think,  ever  vouchsafed 
to  man.  As  a  piece  of  raw,  crude  humor,  it  discounts  anything  that 
ever  Mark  Twain  undertook.  [Laughter.]  Now  let  me  read  you  what 
that  'superb  statesman  and  soldier'  said,  with  notes  historical  and 
explanatory,  after  the  manner  of  Plutarch.  The  interviewer  begins  the 
scene  with  and  after  the  following  manner,  that  is  to  say :  '  There  is 
one  thing  General,  I  desire  to  speak  about:  The  tariff  question  is  creating 
a  good  deal  of  talk  in  Paterson,  particularly  among  manufacturers  and  the 
working  classes.  Now,  how  is  that  going  to  work?'  And  the  superb 
soldier,  standing  erect,  with  Order  No.  40  in  one  hand  and  a  batch  of 
cipher  dispatches  in  the  other,  says:  'That  question,  the  tariff  question, 
cannot  affect  the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  country  in  the  least.' 
[Laughter.] 

"There  you  have  it.  That  is  wisdom  coming  right  down  in  boulders,  I 
don't  want  to  lose  that.  I  want  to  read  that  again.  'The  tariff  question, 
cannot  affect  the  manufacturing  interests  of  the  country  in  the  least.' 
If  it  cannot,  what*can?  The  doctrine  of  foreordination,  of  justificatio'n  by 
faith,  of  election,  works,  immersion,  sprinkling?  Anything  would  affect,  I 
suppose,  the  manufacturing  interests,  but  the  tariff  question  cannot. 
[Laughter.]  'My  election  would  make  no  difference  either  way,  one  way 
or  the  other.'  Why,  how  does  he  know?  'There  has  to  be  a  certain 
amount,  millions  of  dollars,  raised  by  a  tariff  that  can  be  got  in  no  other 
way.'  We  know  that,  General,  and  your  party  proposes  to  get  it  all 
that  way,  and  wants  a  tariff  for  revenue  only,  and  wants  to  encourage 
the  importations ;  for,  my  dear  General,  if  you  do  not  have  any  impor 
tations  you  do  not  have  any  revenue  out  of  a  tariff,  and  the  more  you 
have  of  importations  the  less  you  have  of  protection  and  the  more  you 
have  of  competition.  But  he  goes  on,  'The  election  of  a  Democratic 
President  or  the  election  of  a  Republican  President  cannot  interfere  with 
or  influence  that  in  the  least.'  Let  us  see,  General ;  suppose  that  the 
experiment  which  the  Democratic  party  inaugurated  last  winter,  in  defeat- 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF  *l88o.  695 

ing  which  I  took  a  hand  as  an  outsider,  had  been  carried  successfully 
into  operation.  Suppose  that  the  duty  on  iron  of  all  kinds,  steel  rails, 
paper,  cotton,  and  of  everything  else,  had  been  stricken  down.  The 
Democratic  party  undertook  to  do  it.  The  Solid  South  is  in  favor  of  it. 
Suppose,  my  good  friend  Townsend,  they  had  succeeded.  Would  not  the 
election  of  a  man  who  would  have  vetoed  legislation  of  that  character 
have  made  a  little  difference?  If  Garfield  had  been  President  the  legislation 
would  have  been  vetoed,  and  the  country  saved  from  that  calamity.  If 
the  'superb  soldier'  had  been  President  the  bill  would  have  been  signed, 
and  the  interests  extending  to  $30,000,000  in  the  city  of  Cleveland  wrecked 
in  a  day.  That  is  the  difference.  [Applause.]  It  is  the  difference  between 
a  projected  measure  becoming  a  law  and  not  becoming  a  law,  and  that 
is  a  very  great  difference,  I  assure  you.  Observe  he  does  not  say  that 
he  would  veto  free  trade  legislation.  He  makes  no  promise  of  the  kind. 
He  exhibits  merely  a  broad  and  comprehensive  ignorance  of  the  whole 
subject.  [Laughter.]  It  is  windy  declamation — it  is  discreditable  to  him 
as  a  citizen  in  the  very  last  degree. 

"But  I  go  further,  and  it  gets  worse  as  you  proceed.  'The  Paterson 
people  need  have  no  anxiety  whatever  that  I  will  ever  favor  anything  that 
interferes  with  the  manufacturing  or  industrial  interests  of  the  country. 
They  will  have  just  as  much  protection  under  Democratic  administration  as 
under  Republican  administration/  Was  ever  the  history  of  this  country  so 
absurdly  belied!  What  is  Groesbeck  of  Cincinnati?  Who  is  Blackburn 
that  has  been  talking  in  this  State,  denouncing  the  whole  system?  What  is 
the  whole  Solid  South?  Who  is  Fernando  WTood,  the  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  Ways  and  Means?  A  rabid  free-trader.  And  yet  this  man, 
in  his  dense,  chunky  ignorance  of  the  whole  subject,  declares  that  the 
party  hating  the  system  of  protection  will  defend  that  system  just  as 
zealously  as  the  party  which  has  always  favored  it! 

"I  want  to  ask  you  another  question:  Do  you  ever  remember  the 
instance  of  a  Democratic  administration  in  the  whole  history  of  this  country, 
where  they  had  all  branches  of  the  Government,  legislative  and  executive, 
that  ever  they  found  a  protective  tariff  they  did  not  destroy?  You  cannot 
point  to  an  instance.  Their  whole  scheme  last  winter  was  to  its  destruction. 
Hancock  don't  know  it!  He  has  not  found  it  out!  He  had  better  have 
been  hoarse  as  he  was  when  the  shipbuilders  called  on  him.  He  displays 
the  most  colossal  ignorance  of  the  whole  subject  by  the  paragraph  I  will 
now  read.  'The  tariff  question,'  what?  You  cannot  guess.  'The  tariff 
question,'  Mr.  President,  General  Hancock  says,  'is  a  local  question.'  Now, 
if  there  is  anything  in  all  our  politics  that  is  not  local,  that  is  the  one  thing. 
A  tariff  affects,  for  good  or  ill,  not  only  every  conceivable  interest  on  this 
continent,  but  all  over  the  world.  It  is  one  of  those  few  questions  with 
which  a  school  district  and  a  State  has  not  anything  under  God's  heavens 
to  do. 

"  But  he  gets  worse  as  he  proceeds.  '  The  same  question  was  once  brought  up 
in  my  native  State  of  Pennsylvania.'  [Great  laughter.]  That  same  question, 
he  says,  that  question  of  the  tariff,  which  is  a  local  question  was  once  brought 


696  LIFE    oV    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

up  in  Pennsylvania  [laughter];  a  State  in  which  they  have  not  talked  about 
anything  else  under  God's  heaven  for  the  last  twenty -five  years.  Why, 
he  is  laboring  under  the  impression  that  they  were  fixing  up  a  tariff 
system  at  Harrisburg,  and  adjusting  duties  and  a  scheme  of  protection 
by  the  Pennsylvania  State  Legislature.  He  finishes  up  in  this  manner; 
•It  is  a  matter  that  the  General  Government,'  hold  on,  'seldom  cares  to 
interfere  with.'  [Laughter.]  Who  else  would  interfere  with  it?  'It  is  a 
matter  that  th£  General  Government  seldom  cares  to  interfere  with.' 
States  generally  take  hold  of  it.  But  occasionally  the  General  Gov 
ernment  puts  its  hand  on  it.  [Laughter.]  'And  nothing  is  likely 
ever  to  be  done  that  will  interfere  with  the  industry  of  the  country.' 
Now  that  I  suppose,  is  an  authentic  report  of  that  interview.  I  commend 
it  to  General  Hancock's  attention  that  instead  of  cross-examining  General 
Grant  about  his  interview  (for  he  will  find  that  the  witness  will  bother 
him  on  cross-examination)  [applause]  he  had  better  set  himself  industri 
ously  at  work  contradicting  that,  and  get  some  small  book  on  the  sub 
ject  of  the  tariff,  or  else  be  afflicted  with  a  hoarseness  until  the  cam 
paign  closes. 

"Now,  my  fellow  citizens,  I  have  seen  the  workings,  in  a  narrow 
portion  of  the  country,  of  the  doctrines  of  free  trade.  I  visited  the 
State  of  California  two  or  three  weeks  ago.  I  am  familiar  with  the 
logic  of  free  tradfe  ;  I  used  to  believe  in  it.  There  is  no  literature  in 
the  world  so  captivating  to  a  young  man  as  that  of  free  trade,  but  a 
little  more  reading  and  a  little  more  thinking  on  my  own  account  and 
a  good  deal  more  of  experience,  demonstrated  to  me  that  it  would  not 
work.  I  remember  that  the  millennium  of  free  trade  doctrine  is  'a 
cheap  product,'  and  when  a  free  trader  argues  with  you  and  gets  so 
far  as  to  demonstrate  that  his  policy  will  result  in  a  cheap  product,  he 
thinks  the  debate  is  closed.  The  fact  is,  it  is  only  just  begun.  What 
this  government  was  organized  for  was  not  cheap  cotton,  but  was: 
intelligent,  industrious,  well-to-do  citizens.  I  am  probably  heterodox,  but 
I  think  a  great  deal  more  of  a  prosperous  laboring  man  than  I  do  of 
a  cheap  boot,  and  the  policy  of  protection  in  the  end  gives  us  both, 
and  everybody  is  benefited  by  it. 

"The  city  of  San  Francisco  ought  to  be  the  very  Elysium  of  free  trade. 
Boots  are  cheap;  the  Chinaman  makes  them.  Underwear  is  cheap;  the 
Chinaman  makes  it.  Ready  made  clothing  is  cheap;  the  Chinaman  makes 
it.  Cigars  are  cheap;  the  Chinaman  makes  them.  Tinware  is  very  cheap; 
the  Chinaman  makes  them.  Is  San  Francisco  prosperous?  Is  California 
prosperous?  California  is  the  only  State  in  all  this  Union  that  shows  a 
decrease  of  population  and  prosperity  in  the  last  two  years.  San  Francisco 
is  the  only  great  city  in  this  Union  that  has  reduced  its  capital,  its  business 
and  population  since  1876.  What  is  the  trouble?  You  have  a  cheap  pro 
duct.  It  is  the  result  of  a  degraded  and  pauperized  labor.  The  Chinaman 
under  the  cast-iron  habits  of  3,000  years  of  experience  in  famine  and  star 
vation  can  work  and  live  in  a  fashion  that  the  white  laborer  cannot  do, 
and  I  hope  to  God  he  may  never  be  called  upon  to  do.  [Applause.]  He 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 88O.  697 

can  live  on  rats  and  the  white  laborer  cannot.  He  pays  nothing  for  educa 
tion  and  the  white  laborer  does.  The  white  laborer  has  a  home,  and  the 
Chinaman  has  none.  With  all  these  advantages  in  his  favor,  if  a  white 
man  competes  with  him  he  must  accept  the  conditions  of  the  competition. 
He  must  live  and  breathe  and  move  and  have  his  being  as  his  competitor 
lives  and  moves  and  has  his  being. 

"Now  let  us  go  just  one  step  farther.  A  general  free  trade,  a  tariff 
for  revenue  only,  throws  down  every  barrier  agrinst  competition  with  the 
pauper  labor  of  the  old  world,  and  if  this  competition  with  15,000  or 
20,000  paupers  out  of  the  100,000,000  of  our  country  will  destroy  one 
city  and  ruin  a  State,  I  ask  you  what  will  be  the  result  when  the 
experiment  is  extended  over  the  whole  country,  the  barriers  against  that 
competition  are  thrown  down,  and  that  competition  is  waged,  not  in  a 
corner,  but  everywhere ;  not  against  a  fraction  of  one  pauper  nationality, 
but  against  all  the  paupers  of  all  the  globe  everywhere?  My  fellow 
citizens,  it  is  not  difficult  to  answer  the  question.  It  was  but  a  few 
years  ago  that  Mr.  Gladstone  was  at  the  head  of  the  English  Government. 

"He  is  a  great  free  trader ;  he  made  a  free  trade  treaty  with  France :  silks 
from  France  were  introduced  into  England  duty  free.  Within  a  month  the 
factories  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  silk  in  two  great  cities  of  Great 
Britain— Coventry  and  Macclesfield — were  closed,  and  they  remained 
closed  for  an  entire  year.  Their  character  was  changed  and  they  turned 
into  manufacturers  for  cotton.  The  industry  destroyed,  their  skilled 
laborers  were  driven  to  this  -country,  and  here  on  this  continent  the  skilled 
laborers  ,of  Great  Britain  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  silk,  driven  from 
their  own  shores  by  the  policy  of  free  trade,  protected  here,  have  built  up 
such  an  industry  as  will  in  five  years  drive  the  silk  article  out  of  competi 
tion  in  every  market  of  the  world.  [Applause.]  I  don't  care  how  much  you 
theorize,  there  are  these  great  facts,  and  what  I  have  said  is  true  of  every 
conceivable  form  of  industry.  It  is  true  of  every  manufacturing  industry, 
and  the  people  of  this  country  are  asked  to  surrender  these  vast  interests 
into  the  hands  of  a  party  which  threatens  and  is  determined  to  destroy  the 
policy  out  of  which  they  have  grown  and  by  which  they  have  been  created." 

In  conclusion  Mr.  Storrs  referred  to  the  Democratic  predic 
tions  in  1868,  when  it  was  stated  that  the  pillars  of  the  Govern 
ment  were  rocking  on  their  base.  Said  he: 

"Have  you  seen  any  trouble  with  the  pillars  of  the  Government?  The 
trouble  was  not  with  the  pillars  of  the  Government ;  they  did  not  rock ; 
the  trouble  was  with  the  gentlemen  who  were  looking  at  the  pillars  of  the 
Government.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  They  were  like  the  gentleman 
who  had  been  attending  a  lecture  on  astronomy.  Going  home  loaded  with 
a  great  deal  of  Democratic  logic  [Laughter],  with  a  step  weary  and 
uncertain,  with  the  earth  revolving  a  great  many  times  upon  its  axis,  he 
affectionately  clasped  a  lamp  post  and  said,  'Old  Galileo  was  right,  about 
it;  the  world  does  move.'  [Laughter.]  'And  should  it,  the  Republican 
party,  succeeded  in  November  next  and  inaugurate  the  President,  we 


698  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

will  meet  as  a  subdued  and  conquered  people  amid  the  ruins  of  liberty 
and  the  scattered  fragments  of  the  Constitution.'  I  have  been  from  the 
tempest-tossed  waters  of  the  Atlantic  to  the  peaceful  seas  of  the  Pacific, 
over  the  mountains,  along  great  rivers,  across  magnificent  plain  and 
prairie,  through  deserts,  down  into  caves,  and  I  have  not  seen  a  single 
ruin  of  liberty  nor  discovered  a  solitary  fragment  of  the  Constitution. 
[Laughter  and  applause.]  We  do  not  meet  as  a  subdued  and  a  con 
quered  people.  General  Grant  was  our  nominee  for  President,  and  he  was 
elected.  [Great  applause.]  He  being  the  candidate,  there  was  a  strong 
probability  that  he  would  be  inaugurated  if  elected.  [Applause.] 

"Forthwith  we  banded  this  great  continent  with  ribs  of  iron  and  steel. 
Forthwith  this  Republican  party  carried  the  gold  ore  across  those  seas 
back  to  the  lands  of  old  Egypt,  and  back  to  the  shadow  of  the  pyra 
mids,  back  to  old  Damascus,  and  bought  all  the  history  and  tradition, 
spices  and  gums,  incense  and  myrrh,  and  landed  them  in  this  fruitful 
west,  where  we  received  them  with  one  hand  and  distributed  them  all  over 
the  habitable  globe  with  the  other.  This  great  Republican  party  inter- 
ferred  with  no  pillars  of  the  Government.  It  found  in  that  edifice  the 
decaying  timbers  of  human  chattelhood.  Bless  God!  it  removed  them, 
and  replaced  them  with  the  everlasting  granite  of  universal  freedom. 
[Applause.]  It  broadened  out  that  splendid  edifice,  its  base  covered  the 
whole  continent,  each  ocean  washed  its  base.  It  reared  that  splendid 
dome,  decked  with  stars,  clean  above  the  clouds,  where,  thank  God!  it 
shines  and  shines  to-day,  bathed  in  the  glorious  sunshine  of  everlasting 
fame.  [Applause.]  It  has  taken  out  the  old,  foul  records  of  the  olden 
time,  the  old  pestilential  heresies,  State  Rights,  secession,  the  thumb 
screw,  the  faggot,  the  chain,  the  whip,  all  these ;  the  manacled  slave> 
the  padlock  for  the  lips,  the  throttled  thought,  all  these  ;  the  deep, 
damning  and  almost  ineffaceable  shame  of  National  dishonor,  all  these 
it  has  effaced  from  its  walls,  and  written  there,  shining  and  resplendent, 
living  forever,  the  grandest  record  of  achievements  that  the  history  of 
this  world  has  ever  inscribed." 

He  closed  by  reviewing  the  platform  of  the  Democratic  party, 
and  holding  up  its  sophistics,  one  by  one,  under  the  electric 
light  of  his  pitiless  logic,  to  the  scorn  and  ridicule  of  his 
auditors. 

Having  satisfactorily  finished  his  Ohio  tour,  he  paid  a  hur 
ried  visit  to  his  home  and  office  in  Chicago,  and  immediately 
started  off  again  to  fill  appointments  in  New  York  and  the 
Eastern  States.  On  the  I4th  of  October,  he  spoke  at  Boston, 
and  the  next  night  at  Newburyport,  Mass.  The  Boston  Herald 
said  of  the  latter: 

•'  It  was  the  ablest,  cleanest  cut,  and  most  impressive  campaign  speech 
that  has  been  heard  in  Newburyport  for  years,  many  old  residents  say- 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF     l88O.  699 

ing  they  have  heard  nothing  like  it  here  since  the  days  when  Robert 
Rantoul  was  in  his  glory.  In  the  audience  were  large  numbers  of 
working  men,  and  to  them  Mr.  Storrs  directed  a  searching  appeal  in 
behalf  of  a  protective  tariff.  The  gallery  was  packed  with  ladies.  This 
evening's  speech  was  Mr.  Storrs'  only  one  in  Massachusetts,  except 
that  at  Boston  last  evening." 

The  Massachusetts  State  Committee  gave  a  complimentary 
lunch  to  General  Grant  at  Boston,  on  the  i6th,  and  Mr.  Storrs 
was  one  of  the  invited  guests.  The  Boston  Gazette  said  : 

"The  banquet  to  Grant  was  one  of  those  occasions  on  which  our  city 
always  appears  at  her  best.  The  attendance  was  made  up  of  the  represen 
tative  men  of  Boston.  The  speech-making  was  eloquent  and  interesting. 
The  opening  speech  -of  Governor  Rice  was  exquisitely  appropriate.  It  had 
just  the  desired  spice  of  humor,  and  in  eloquence  and  finish  fully  met  the 
expectations  of  those  who  know  what  the  ex-Governor  is  on  such  occasions. 
Governor  Long  was  also  highly  felicitous  in  what  he  said.  Judge  Hoar's 
address  was  admired  by  everybody.  General  Grant  himself  thoroughly 
enjoyed  his  visit  with  us,  though  he  preserved  his  well-known  impassive 
manner  much  of  the  time,  and  was  modest  and  unobtrusive  in  his  demeanor 
always.  The  political  meetings  of  Thursday  evening  are  likely  long  to  be 
remembered.  The  news  from  the  West  brought  inspiration  to  the  hearts  of 
the  Republicans.  They  came  out  in  thousands  to  rejoice,  and  there  was  an 
enthusiasm  exhibited  such  as  has  not  been  before  evoked  in  the  cam 
paign.  The  feature  of  the  meetings  was  the  speech  of  Mr.  Emery  A. 
Storrs,  of  Chicago.  It  was  the  most  brilliant  piece  of  campaign  oratory 
that  has  been  heard  for  years  in  Boston — ardent,  aggressive,  and  slashing 
into  the  Democratic  lines  with  a  vigor  that  reminds  one  of 'a  dashing  cav 
alry  charge  on  the  field  of  battle." 

In  compliance  with  General  Arthur's  invitation,  he  addressed 
a  mass  meeting  at  the  Cooper  Union,  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
on  the  2Oth  of  October.  The  New  York  Times  said  that  his 
speech  on  that  occasion  "gave  the  Republicans  of  New  York  a 
taste  of  a  style  of  oratory  to  which  they  are  not  very  much 
accustomed,  and  which  has  many  other  attractions  than  that  of 
novelty.  It  was  direct,  pungent,  witty,  and  forcible.  Mr.  Storrs 
kept  the  attention  of  his  immense  audience  from  the  first  to  the 
last,  and  was  frequently  and  heartily  applauded.  If  any  Demo 
crat  imagines,"  said  the  Times,  "that  the  laughter  which  he  so 
frequently  elicited  was  produced  by  tickling  mere  partisan  preju 
dices,  he  will  be  undeceived  if  he  undertakes  to  candidly  explain 
away  the  points  of  Mr.  Storrs'  witticisms.  The  appearance  of 
General  Grant  at  the  meeting,  and  the  greeting  which  he  received, 
formed  a  striking  incident  in  the  evening's  proceedings." 


7OO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Mr..  Storrs  then  followed  with  a  scathing  review  of  the  Demo 
cratic  candidates,  especially  of  General  Hancock's  career  at  New- 
Orleans.  This  speech  was  printed  in  pamphlet  form  and  circu 
lated  as  a  campaign  document,  and  its  publication  brought  to 
Mr.  Storrs  a  host  of  letters  of  congratulation. 

But  specially  grateful  to  Mr.  Storrs  was  the  receipt  of  a  let 
ter  from  a  patriotic  American  resident  in  Paris,  who  wrote: 

"  I  must  say  it  is  many  a  long  year  since  my  eyes  have  fallen  upon  any 
thing  so  comprehensive,  so  searching,  and  so  forcible,  as  that  production, 
in  exposing  the  fallacies,  the  demerits,  and  iniquities  of  the  Democratic 
party.  I  think  this  wonderful  effort,  which  I  suppose  is  but  the  beginning 
of  your  labors  in  the  campaign  upon  which  the  people  have  just  entered, 
merits  for  you  the  gratitude  of  all  our  patriotic  citizens.  By  free  circulation 
of  the  copy  I  have  in  hand,  I  am  securing  for  the  speech  the  most  exten 
sive  reading  of  it  among  Americans  in  my  power.  I  hope  it  will  be  made 
a  campaign  document,  and  find  a  place  in  all  our  Republican  journals. 
During  a  recent  visit  in  England  I  heard  frequently  from  holders  of  Con 
federate  bonds  that  they  had  assurances  from  the  Southern  States  that 
could  the  Democracy  but  succeed  at  the  next  Presidential  election,  the 
debt  of  the  Confederacy  would  at  once  be  assumed  by  the  government  of 
the  United  States.  God  grant  that  no  such  calamity  may  befall  our 
beloved  country." 

From  Kansas,  Missouri,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Minnesota,  Michigan, 
Vermont,  New  York,  Nebraska,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
Massachusetts,  came  urgent  letters  inviting  him  to  speak  in  those 
States.  His  professional  business  required  him  to  go  to  Califor 
nia  in  September,  but  he  made  a  trip  East  before  going  there, 
and  spoke  in  Philadelphia,  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  and  in  Ver 
mont  during  the  month  of  August. 

On  the  3Oth  of  July  he  wrote  to  General  Garfield  saying: 

"  I  have  to-day  written  Mr.  Nash  that  he  might  advertise  me  in  Ohio 
from  and  including  September  28th  to  October  election,  and  possibly  that 
I  would  be  able  to  give  him  a  few  days  earlier  in  September.  .  .  The 
very  best  of  feeling  prevails  here,  and  Logan  is  full  of  his  old-time 
spirit.  In  fact,  everything  is  reconciled." 

He  spoke  at  New  Brunswick,  N.  J.,  on  the  26th  of  August, 
and  went  over  much  the  same  ground  as  in  his  Burlington 
speech. 

On  the  3Oth  of  August,  the  campaign  in  Pennsylvania  was 
opened  with  a  mass  meeting  in  Horticultural  Hall,  Philadelphia, 
presided  over  by  Hon.  William  D.  Kelley. 

He  spoke  at  Pittsburg  on  his  way  home    on   the    2nd  of  Sep- 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF     l88O.  /Ol 

• 

tembcr.  On  his  arrival  in  Chicago  he  found  an  invitation  awaiting 
him  from  the  Union  League  of  St.  Louis,  to  address  a  meeting 
in  that  city  on  the  evening  of  the  meeting  of  the  Republican 
State  Convention  of  Missouri.  He  also  received  telegrams  from 
Governor  Routt  of  Colorado  asking  him  to  address  the  people  of 
Denver,  and  letters  from  the  State  Committees  of  Nebraska  and 
California,  asking  him  to  speak  at  Omaha  and  San  Francisco. 
His  professional  business  in  California  now  required  his  immediate 
attention,  aud  enabled  him  to  comply  with  the  three  latter  invi 
tations,  but  obliged  him  to  decline  that  from  St.  Louis,  rather 
against  his  personal  inclination. 

Before  leaving  for  San  Francisco,  he  addressed  a  meeting  of  the 
colored  Republicans  of  Chicago,  impressing  upon  them  their  duty 
to  themselves  and  the  party  that  freed  them. 

On  his  arrival  in  San  Francisco,  he  was  promptly  interviewed 
by  the  reporters  for  the  daily  press.  Mr.  Storrs'  comparison  of 
the  two  Presidential  candidates  is  so  pithy  and  concise  that  we 
make  room  for  it: 

"If  you  ask  me  to  compare  them,  it  can't  be  done.  They  are  so 
totally  unlike  in  point  of  qualification  that  comparisons  are  impossible. 
You  might  as  well  compare  a  banker  with  an  opera  singer.  One  is  a 
statesman,  the  other  is  not.  One  has  political  experience,  the  other  has 
none.  One  is  largely  versed  in  civil  administration,  the  other  not  at  all. 
The  one  is  a  student  of  political  history,  the  other  knows  nothing  of  it, 
except  a  familiarity  with  a  few  windy  platitudes  concerning  the  division 
of  the  power  of  the  General  Government.  The  one  is  educated  to 
broad  and  comprehensive  national  sympathies,  the  other  has  always 
moved  in  the  narrow  orbit  of  mere  military  routine.  One  is  from  choice 
a  member  of,  and,  by  selection,  the  head  of  a  great  patriotic  party, 
which  has  saved  the  country  and  made  it  a  nation,  which  has  main 
tained  its  credit  and  given  a  universal  prosperity;  the  other  is  a  selected 
head  of  a  party,  which  he  fought  to  defeat  when  it  asserted  precisely 
the  same  doctrines  which  it  maintains  to-day,  One  votes  as  he  shot,  the 
other  votes  for  the  men  he  shot  at.  One  is  a  modest  and  conscientious 
citizen,  the  other,  a  vain  and  easily  flattered  soldier.  One  is  Garfield, 
and  the  other  is  Hancock." 

He  spoke  in  the  Grand  Opera  House  on  the  1 5th  of  Septem 
ber,  and  the  Chronicle,  in  presenting  next  day  a  full  report  of 
the  speech,  said: 

"It  is  risking  nothing  to  say  that  the  great  audience  which  crammed 
the  Grand  Opera  House  last  night  from  pit  to  gallery,  to  hear  the  famous 
orator  from  Illinois,  Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs,  has  not  been  surpassed  in 


7O2  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

San  Francisco  in  point  of  numbers,  intelligence  and  enthusiasm.  Long 
before  half-past  seven  o'clock,  half  an  hour  before  the  time  announced 
for  the  opening  of  the  meeting,  hundreds  reluctantly  turned  from  the 
doors,  unable  to  squeeze  their  way  into  the  immense  edifice.  There  were 
ladies  willing  to  brave  the  discomforts  of  standing  if  they  could  but  get 
within  the  theater,  men  so  anxious  to  hear  Mr.  Storrs  that  they  stood  in 
the  aisles  and  passage  ways  packed  like  sardines  in  boxes,  able  to  hear 
the  fine  voice  of  the  speaker  but  unable  to  catch  a  glimpse  of  him.  The 
enthusiasm,  as  might  be  expected,  was  unparalleled.  Every  telling  point 
made  by  the  speaker — and  his  speech  fairly  bristled  with  them — was 
applauded  to  the  echo." 

Mr.  Storrs  began  by  saying: 

"Leaving  that  wonderful  city  of  mine,  enthroned  on  the  edges  of  the 
great  inland  seas,  coming  away  across  2,000  miles  of  plain  and  mount 
ain  to  this  gem  on  the  Pacific  coast,  this  jewel  which  rests  upon  the 
edge  of  that  wonderful  ocean,  I  find  they  are  both  patriotic  cities,  both 
born  of  patriotism.  Will  you  allow  me  to  carry  back  to  my  fellow 
citizens  when  I  return  home  the  message  from  San  Francisco  to  Chicago 
that  this  wonderful  city  is  true  to  her  birth  which  made  her  a  free 
state,  and  is  true  to  that  great  party  which  made  us  a  nation.  I  come 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  and  one  flag  covers  us  ;  wherever  I  am 
I  am  a  citizen  of  the  United  States ;  and  when  I  think  of  all  these 
splendid  achievements  and  of  our  party,  we  did  it,  we  did  it  [applause], 
and  the  poorest  of  us,  however  little  we  may  have  of  other  worldly 
possessions,  these  splendid  achievements  are  our  patrimony,  and  with 
these  we  are  rich  indeed.  [Renewed  applause.]  This  great  party,  the 
pride  of  humanity  everywhere,  confronts  to-day  the  Democratic  party,  a 
party  that  asks  that  the  past  be  buried,  and  I  do  not  wonder  at  it ;  a 
party  that  insists  that  no  previous  record  shall  be  examined — I  am  not 
surprised  at  it;  a  party  that  wishes  to  look  to  the  future  only — I  am 
not  astonished  at  it,  for  if  the  record  of  the  party  to  which  I  belong 
and  you  belong  were  leprous  with  guilt  as  theirs  is,  and  were  stained 
all  over  with  crime  as  theirs  is ;  if  the  political  history  of  our  party- 
were  as  theirs  is,  not  merely  criminal  but  crime  itself,  I  would  ask,  as 
they  ask,  that  the  past  be  forgotten.  [Great  applause.]  Are  these  dead 
issues?  They  clairn  so;  I  think  not.  The  great  effort  of  the  Democratic 
party  of  to-day  is  to  unload  its  history,  to  run  away  from  its  reputation 
and  its  character.  [Laughter.]  It  is  a  hard  thing  to  do.  [Renewed 
laughter.]  They  discover  that  character  is  always  in  issue.  No  man 
asks  for  employment  without  he  puts  his  character  in  issue.  You  don't 
employ  men  on  their  platforms  nor  on  their  promises.  The  banker  would 
not  employ  the  pilfering  clerk  of  last  month  even  of  his  platform  of 
next  month  embodied  the  Ten  Commandments  and  Christ's  Sermon  on 
the  Mount. 

"You  perhaps  by  this  time  have  discovered  that  I  am  not  in  favor  of  a 
change,  except  in  the  better  and  qualified  sense.  I  am  in  favor  of  all 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF     I  S8O.  /O3 

changes  that  look  to  improvement.     I  would  be  in  favor  of  a  change   from 
hell  to  purgatory,  but  not  from  earth  to  purgatory.'" 

He  then  reviewed  their  platform  of  1880,  making  a  strong  point, — 
as  he  had  done  at  Burlington  and  at  Philadelphia,  after  his  dissection 
of  each  plank  in  that  platform,  and  of  the  action  of  the  party  in  rela 
tion  to  it, — of  their  declaration  that  the  party  '  pledged  themselves 
anew'  to  their  old  political  heresies. 

"You  can't  name  a  Democratic  state  in  the  Union  where,  if  there  was 
really  anything  to  protect  the  integrity  of  the  ballot  box  they  have  not 
repealed  it.  There  is  not  a  line  in  the  statute  looking  to  the  security  of 
the  ballot  box  against  fraud  and  a  fair,  free  and  full  ballot  that  that  party 
has  not  opposed.  There  is  not  a  single  measure  looking  to  the  return  of 
an  honest  dollar  for  an  honest  day's  work  that  that  party  has  not  opposed 
since  1860.  We  have  steadily  beaten  this  party  since  1860.  Have  we 
made  any  mistake  in  beating  it?  Where  would' we  have  been  if  they  had 
beaten  us  in  1860?  Free  labor  driven  from  one-half  of  the  nation,  the  ter 
ritories  dedicated  to  servile  labor  and  free  labor  driven  from  them,  credit 
prostrated,  public  faith  dishonored,  secession  the  accepted  doctrine  of  the 
nation.  That  is  where  we  would  have  been  had  they  succeeded  in  1860. 
Where  would  we  have  been  in  1864,  if  they  had  had  their  way,  when 
they  were  bawling  for  peace,  asking  that  hostilities  cease  at  once  ?  Our 
flag  brought  back  in  disgrace,  our  conquering  heroes  called  home  with 
the  ineffaceable  ignominy  of  defeat  for  which  they  were  not  responsible. 
Where  would  we  have  landed  had  they  beaten  us  in  1868?  Our  national 
debt  paid  in  greenbacks,  a  limitless  inflation  of  the  currency,  our  gov 
ernment  bonds  taxed,  our  reputation  and  our  credit  destroyed,  the  recon 
struction  measures  swept  from  the  statute  book,  the  constitutional  amend 
ments  falling  with  them,  chaos  and  confusion  come  again  and  the  splen 
did  victories  of  our  soldiers  in  the  field  basely,  meanly  and  abjectly  sur 
rendered  by  us  after  the  toils  and  terrors  of  battles  that  had  won  them." 

He  also  spoke  at  Oakland,  a  few  days  after  his  San  Francisco 
speech,  and  on  his  way  home  he  stopped  at  Denver,  in  fulfil 
ment  of  his  promise  to  address  the  Republicans  of  that  city. 
He  spoke  there  on  the  23d  of  September,  and  Governor  Routt 
of  Colorado  sent  the  following  telegram  to  Mrs.  Storrs: 

"  Mr.  Storrs  addressed  the  largest  and  most  intelligent  assem 
blage  of  Republicans'  ever  gathered  together  west  of  the  Missis 
sippi  to-night,  at  Republican  headquarters.  He  was  escorted 
from  his  hotel  by  five  hundred  boys  in  blue.  He  is  now 
receiving  a  serenade,  and  is  being  called  on  and  congratulated 
by  a  large  number  of  the  prominent  citizens  of  the  city  and  State- 
He  has  done  our  cause  great  good 

"JOHN  L.  ROUTT,  Chairman." 


704  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

The  hearty  reception  he  met  with  at  Denver  was  always  a 
pleasant  recollection  to  Mr.  Storrs.  An  elegant  and  valuable 
souvenir  of  the  occasion  was  shortly  afterwards  forwarded  to 
Mrs.  Storrs,  in  the  shape  of  a  beautiful  necklace  and  earrings 
made  of  smoky  topaz,  set  in  the  native  gold  of  the  State,  with 
a  handsome  locket  of  native  gold,  on  the  case  of  which  was 
inscribed, — "  Presented  to  Mrs.  Emery  A.  Storrs,  as  a  slight  tes 
timonial  of  their  admiration  of  her  husband,  by  his  Colorado 
friends." 

The  testimonial  was  honorable  both  to  the  givers  and  to  the 
recipient, — as  a  token  of  their  magnificent  liberality  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  the  deep  impression  made  upon  their  minds,  on 
the  other  hand,  by  the  eloquent  utterances  of  Mr.  Storrs. 


CHAPTER  XL. 
THREE  CELEBRATED  MURDER  TRIALS. 

THE  COCHRANE  CASE — THE  WISCONSIN  LAW  AS  TO  THE  PLEA  OF  INSANITY — 
THE  RANSOM  CASE — THE  ILLINOIS  LAW  OF  JUSTIFIABLE  HOMICIDE,  AND 
THE  DOCTRINE  OF  SELF-DEFENCE — THE  DUNN  CASE — PATENT  INSTRUC 
TIONS. 

THE  year  iSSi  was  a  busy  one  for  Mr.  Storrs  in  a  line  of 
cases  which  had  won  for  him  a  special  celebrity,  but 
which  he  always  entered  into  with  the  greatest  reluctance.  He 
disliked  criminal  practice,  and  had  set  his  heart  upon  building 
up  a  reputation  in  the  higher  courts  of  record  :  but  naturally 
the  fame  of  his  successes  in  great  criminal  trials,  reported 
at  length  in  the  newspapers,  spread  farther  among  the  mass 
of  the  people  than  that  of  his  no  less  brilliant  career  at 
the  common  law  and  chancery  bar.  The  campaign  which 
resulted  in  the  election  of  James  A.  Garfield  as  President  of 
the  United  States  was  hardly  over  when  Mr.  Storrs  was  con 
sulted  for  the  defence  in  a  murder  case  which  was  agitating  the 
State  of  Wisconsin,  and  which  has  taken  rank  among  the 
causes  celebres  of  the  United  States.  It  was  remarkable  not  only 
on  account  of  its  sensational  details,  but  also  on  account  of  the 
novel  legal  questions  put  in  issue.  It  was  a  story  of  domestic 
ruin,  culminating  in  the  shooting  of  the  seducer  by  the  wronged 
husband.  Mr.  Storrs  was  induced  to  take  up  the  defence,  not 
for  the  sake  of  the  fee,  for  a  large  arrear  of  that  remained 
unpaid  at  the  time  of  his  death,  but  chiefly  because  the  injury 
the  defendant  had  sustained  enlisted  Mr.  Storrs'  sympathies. 

William  H.    Cochrane,  the  defendant,  was    born  in  Cattaraugus 

county,  New  York,  in    1843,  and  when  the  Rebellion  broke    out, 

a  youth  of    18,  he  enlisted  in  the  Union  army.     He  served  until 

October,   1864,  and  on  his  discharge    obtained  a  clerkship  in  the 

45  705 


7O6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

War  Office,  which  he  held  for  about  two  years.  He  came  West 
in  April,  1867,  and  settled  in  Grand  Rapids,  Wis.,  where  he 
soon  became  Cashier  in  the  First  National  Bank,  a  position 
which  he  held  all  through  and  after  his  trial,  the  confidence  of 
his  employers  being  unbroken  by  the  tragical  occurrence  in 
which  he  was  concerned.  He  married  in  December,  1867,  a 
woman  six  years  younger  than  himself,  and  a  daughter,  his  only 
child,  was  born  in  March,  1870.  He  was  the  owner  of  his  own 
home,  and  it  was  a  domestic  paradise  unttf  there  came  to  Grand 
Rapids  a  young  lawyer  from  Missouri  named  Henry  Hayden,  a 
man  of  splendid  appearance,  brilliant  mental  faculties,  and  a 
plausible  address.  His  abilities  won  him  the  position  of  County 
Judge,  and  his  manners  established  him  quickly  in  the  good 
graces  of  the  fair  sex.  He  was  a  married  man,  with  an  accom 
plished  wife  and  a  family  of  three  children.  In  the  fall  of  1878 
he  began  making  advances  to  Mrs.  Cochrane,  first  by  raising  his 
hat  and  smiling  when  he  met  her,  and  then,  meeting  her  on  the 
county  fair-grounds,  he  introduced  himself  and  Mrs.  Hayden  to 
her.  The  acquaintance  thus  formed,  he  never  lost  an  opportun 
ity  of  meeting  Mrs.  Cochrane,  and  at  length  won  her  consent  to 
meet  him  on  a  lonely  road  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  Their 
meetings  after  this  were  frequent,  sometimes  as  often  as  thrice  a 
week,  always  after  dark,  and  alone. 

At  this  time  Cochrane  was  busy  in  other  ventures  besides  his 
occupation  at  the  bank.  He  was  running  a  shingle-mill,  and  was 
absent  from  early  morning  until  the  bank  opened,  and  from  sup 
per-time  until  after  midnight  in  the  woods  and  looking  after  his 
shingle-mill.  Gossip  soon  fastened  on  his  wife's  reputation,  and 
everybody  was  aware  of  her  shame  except  the  husband  himself. 
At  length,  in  June,  1879,  she  went  on  a  trip  to  Minnesota,  and 
while  she  was  gone  word  came  to  Mr.  Cochrane  that  a  clandes 
tine  correspondence  had  for  some  time  been  going  on  between 
his  wife  and*  Judge  Hayden.  He  was  able  to  intercept  a  letter 
from  his  wife  to  Hayden,  full  of  terms  of  endearment,  such  as 
could  only  pass  between  paramours.  He  at  once  telegraphed  to 
his  wife  to  come  home,  showed  the  letter  to  her  mother,  and  on 
his  wife's  return,  meeting  her  with  the  evidence  of  her  guilt, 
elicited  from  her  a  full  confession.  An  immediate  separation  fol 
lowed,  and  later  on  a  decree  of  divorce. 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS.  /O/ 

The  guilty  wife  took  up  her  abode  with  her  mother.  Her 
confession  was  hardly  made  before  it  was  known  to  the  whole 
town,  and  before  long  to  the  whole  State  of  Wisconsin. 

Hayden  at  once  set  to  work  to  break  the  force  of  the  confes 
sion.  He  sent  female  emissaries  to  Mrs.  Cochrane  urging  her  to 
deny  any  criminal  intimacy  either  to  Mrs.  Hayden,  or  to  the 
Masonic  committee  who  were  about  to  investigate  the  matter. 
He  threatened  her  through  his  agents  with  the  vengeance  of  his 
friends,  if  she  did  not  do  as  desired.  Her  mother  was  assured 
that  her  daughter  would  be  sent  to  the  penitentiary  for  adultery 
if  she  confessed  the  facts  to  either  Mrs.  Hayden  or  the  committee. 
Frightened  by  these  threats,  when  Mrs.  Cochrane  was  called 
upon  by  Mrs.  Hayden,  she  admitted  everything  but  the  criminal 
intimacy,  and  when  that  point  was  reached  by  the  Masonic  com 
mittee  in  its  investigation,  she  declined  to  answer. 

Hayden,  however,  did  not  seem  to  be  content  with  having 
ruined  Cochrane's  home,  but  seems  to  have  organized  a  scheme 
for  the  purpose  of  crying  down  Mrs.  Cochrane's  general  reputa 
tion.  The  remarks  used  in  this  campaign  of  scurrility  and 
defamation  came  to  Cochrane's  ears,  driving  him  nearly  wild. 
His  health  failed  under  the  mental  burden  and  his  brain  became 
diseased.  He  was  sleepless,  lost  appetite  and  flesh,  and  his 
changed  condition  was  noticed  by  all  his  friends.  Finally,  Hayden 
purchased  a  local  newspaper,  and  in  its  second  issue — on  the  9th 
of  October,  1879 — appeared  a  lampooning  article  on  Cochrane, 
charging  him  with  unfairness  in  accommodations  at  the  bank 
In  his  then  excited  state  this  seemed  to  Cochrane  to  fill  up  his 
cup  of  bitterness,  and  he  went  to  the  neighborhood  of  Hayden's 
office  with  a  shotgun,  met  Hayden  on  the  sidewalk,  and  killed 
him. 

The  popular  feeling  in  Grand  Rapids  was  so  strong  that  on  the 
suggestion  of  the  State  a  change  of  venue  was  taken  to  Neillsville, 
in  the  adjoining  district.  Parties  were  actively  interested,  some 
to  revenge  Hayden  and  some  to  defend  Cochrane,  but  the 
majority  of  respectable  people  in  the  place  were  emphatically  on 
Cochrane's  side.  In  Neillsville,  when  the  case  came  to  be  tried, 
popular  feeling  was  found  to  be  in  the  same  direction,  and  it 
was  greatly  promoted  by  the  eloquence  and  skill  with  which 
Mr.  Storrs  conducted  the  defense.  The  trial  lasted  ten  days 


JOS  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

commencing  on  the  6th  of  September,  1881.  For  the  prosecu 
tion  appeared  Mr.  George  L.  Williams,  the  District-Attorney  of 
Wood  county,  in  which  Grand  Rapids  is  situated,  Judge  Gate, 
of  Stevens  Point,  and  Mr.  J.  P.  C.  Cottrill  of  Milwaukee.  For 
the  defense  were  Mr.  Storrs,  and  Messrs.  Charles  M.  Webb  and 
G.  R.  Gardner,  of  Grand  Rapids. 

The  attorneys  for  the  State  contented  themselves  with  merely 
proving  the  shooting.  The  opening  for  the  defense  was  deferred 
until  the  close  of  the  case  for  the  prosecution,  when  Mr.  Storrs 
addressed  himself  to  the  task  before  him,  and  made  such  an 
effective  presentation  of  the  case  that  the  effect  was  noticeable 
at  every  moment  during  the  trial.  In  his  statement  he  recited 
all  the  evidences  of  Mrs.  Cochrane's  guilt  in  detail,  and  put  the 
issue  upon  the  broad  ground  that  jurors  treated  all  cases  of  this 
character  as  questions  of  conscience,  and  that  no  court  could 
very  well  prevent  them  from  so  doing.  Previous  to  this  time 
public  opinion  had  been  setting  toward  Cochrane,  but  this  gave 
it  a  great  impetus,  noticing  which  some  of  the  counsel  for  the 
prosecution  became  a  little  petulant.  As  a  matter  of  course, 
counsel  for  the  defense  took  due  advantage  of  this,  and  the  pub 
lic  feeling  increased  in  this  direction  until  it  was  nearly  unani 
mous. 

Mr.  Storrs  was  especially  severe  in  his  denunciation  of  the 
author  of  the  slanderous  article, — a  partner  of  Hayden's, — whom 
he  characterized  as  "the  purveyor  of  the  buzzard,  and  the  chore- 
boy  of  the  vulture."  Mr.  Cottrill,  in  his  opening  for  the  state, 
had  alluded  to  the  attempt  on  the  life  of  President  Garfield  as  a 
warning  to  jurors  to  be  strict  in  such  cases.  Commenting  on 
this,  Mr.  Storrs  said: 

"I  have  nothing  to  say  by  way  of  comment  upon  the  taste  of  such  a 
proceeding,  but  it  seems  to  me  that,  rather  than  thus  use  such  a  calamity 
— rather  than  stand  over  what  we  fear  may  be,  and  all  hope  may  not  be, 
the  dying  couch  of  our  good  President,  and  use  his  groans  and  his  suffer 
ings  to  promote  a  prosecution  of  this  character,  I  would  pluck  my  very 
tongue  from  my  mouth.  Bless  God,  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
sanctified  in  the  hearts  of  50,000,000  people,  with  his  magnificent  career 
and  illustrious  achievements  behind  him,  if  he  lives  a  glorious  career 
before  him,  and  if  he  dies  enshrined  a  pathetic,  and  tender,  and  sacred 
memory  in  our  hearts  for  all  generations  to  come,  was  the  head  of  a  sweet, 
a  pure,  and  almost  saintly  home.  Thank  God,  he  never  raided  the  sanc 
tity  of  the  home  of  a  friend  or  acquaintance.  Thank  God,  his  life  stands 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS 

out  in  such  bright  and  shining  contrast  to  the  life  of  Hayden,  that  it  seems 
as  if  in  his  person  the  glory  of  the  old  commandment  had  been  enshrined, 
and  the  beauty  of  a  sweet,  and  pure,  and  holy  home  had  been  embodied. 
And  if  the  attack  of  the  miscreant  upon  our  beloved  President  is  to  be  made 
the  occasion  of  a  justification  for  the  despoiling  and  outraging  of  homes  in 
Wisconsin,  God  only  can  measure  the  infinite  extent  of  that  calamity!" 

The  court-room  was  filled  with  ladies  during  Mr.  Storrs'  open 
ing.  The  eloquent  counsel  for  the  defense  was  warmly  applauded, 
and  the  Sheriff  rather  expostulated  with  the  authors  of  the  dis 
turbance  than  interposed  his  authority  to  stop  it.'  Several  wit 
nesses,  all  leading  citizens,  of  Grand  Rapids,  having  testified  to 
Cochrane's  excellent  character,  the  defendant  himself  was  examined, 
and  against  the  objections  of  the  prosecution  was  permitted  to 
detail  in  full  the  story  of  his  domestic  wrong.  His  testimony 
was  mainly  a  recital  of  the  confession  made  to  him  by  his  wife 
on  her  return  from  Minnesota,  of  the  investigation  by  the 
Masonic  lodge,  of  Hayden's  efforts  to  forestall  investigation  by 
sending  lady  friends  to  Mrs.  Cochrane  to  persuade,  and  threaten 
her  into  silence,  and  of  the  state  of  mind  into  which  he  was 
thrown  by  the  continued  reports  that  came  to  him  of  Hayden's 
sayings  and  doings,  and  by  the  publication  of  the  slanderous 
article  in  Hayden's  paper.  Mrs.  Darling,  the  mother  of  Mrs. 
Cochrane,  testified  to  her  daughter's  confession  of  guilt,  made  to 
Cochrane  in  her  presence.  His  brother  and  his  brother's  \vife 
both  described,  in  a  manner  that  drew  tears  from  the  ladies 
present,  the  scene  at  their  house  when  Mrs.  Cochrane  returned 
from  Minnesota,  and  how  she  and  her  mother  besought  them  to 
intercede  with  Cochrane  not  to  send  her  only  child  away  to  his 
own  family  in  New  York  State.  They  also  described  his  haggard 
appearance,  his  loss  of  appetite,  and  his  avoidance  of  social 
intercourse.  Similar  testimony  as  to  his  changed  condition  was 
given  by  his  associates  in  the  bank,  by  merchants  who  dealt 
with  him,  and  by  the  old  lady  who  acted  as  his  housekeeper 
after  the  separation.  Dr.  Witter,  who  attended  him  in  July, 
1879,  a  month  after  the  disclosure,  said  that  the  epileptoid  con 
dition  of  his  brain,  caused  by  excitement  and  sleeplessness, 
would  if  continued  greatly  impair  his  will-power. 

The  case  was  remarkable  on  account  of  the  legal  questions 
for  the  first  time  raised  during  its  progress.  The  law  of  the 
State  of  Wisconsin  requires  that,  when  the  defense  in  such  cases 


7IO  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

is  insanity,  it  must  be  set  up  by  a  special  plea.  That  issue 
must  first  be  tried  separately,  and,  if  the  jury  find  the  accused 
not  to  have  been  insane  at  the  time  of  the  commission  of  the 
offense,  the  trial  of  the  facts  under  the  general  plea  shall  then 
proceed  before  the  same  jury.  The  statue  further  provides  that 
if  the  defence  of  insanity  is  not  specially  pleaded,  no  evidence 
can  be  given  on  that  point  during  the  trial.  If  it  is  pleaded 
specially,  and  the  defendant  is  beaten  on  the  issue,  the  matters 
involved  in  the  plea  shall  not  again  be  considered.  The  defend 
ant's  counsel  did  not  deem  it  wise  to  set  up  this  defense  under 
such  circumstances,  and  were  allowed  to  show  facts  illustrating 
Cochrane's  condition  of  mind,  as  bearing  upon  the  question 
whether  or  not  he  was  able  to  form  a  premeditated  design  at  the 
time  of  the  shooting.  When  the  testimony  was  all  in,  however, 
Mr.  Storrs  addressed  a  lengthy  argument  to  the  Court  on  the 
unconstitutionally  of  the  Wisconsin  law,  and  asked  instructions 
favorable  to  his  view  on  that  point.  He  referred  to  the  Consti 
tution  of  the  State,  which  provided  that  the  right  of  trial  by 
jury  should  be  inviolate,  and  claimed  that  this  right  was  violated 
by  a  law  which  required  the  defendant  to  go  to  trial  first  on  an 
issue  where  the  presumption  of  law  is  against  him,  and  where 
he  has  to  affirmatively  prove  the  issue  raised  by  his  special  plea. 
The  burden  is  thus  shifted  from  the  State  to  the  defendant,  and 
Mr.  Storrs  cited  numerous  authorities  to  show  that  this  was  an 
invasion  of  the  defendant's  constitutional  rights.  He  also  asked 
that  the  Court  instruct  the  jury  that  they  were  the  judges  of  the 
law  as  well  as  of  the  facts.  On  both  points  the  Court  ruled 
against  him,  and  but  for  the  acquittal  of  the  defendant  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Wisconsin  would  have  been  called  upon  to 
pass  upon  this  statute  for  the  first  time — a  statute  which  Mr. 
Storrs  described  as  having  been  drawn  by  some  lawyer  "  crazy 
on  the  subject  of  craziness,  insane  on  the  question  of  insanity." 
In  Mr.  Cottrill's  closing  argument  to  the  jury,  and  also  in  that 
of  Judge  Cate,  the  fact  of  Hayden's  criminal  intercourse  with  Mrs. 
Cochrane  was  treated  as  not  proved,  and  Mr.  Cottrill  even  referred 
to  her  confession  as  testified  to  by  her  own  mother  as  a  story 
invented  for  the  purposes  of  the  defense.  This  was  effectively 
demolished  by  Mr.  Storrs  in  his  closing  argument,  and  the  Court 
at  his  request  instructed  the  jury  specially  that  the  fact  of  the 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS.  /I  I 

adultery  was  not  in  issue,  that  affirmative  testimony  in  regard  to 
it  would  not  have  been  received  if  offered,  and  that  Mrs.  Cochrane 
could  not  have  been  permitted  to  testify  on  her  husband's  behalf 
on  any  matter  involved  in  the  trial.  Mr.  Cottrill  took  occasion 
to  declaim  against  the  apparent  sympathy  of  the  bystanders  with 
the  defendant,  and  sneered  at  the  ladies  for  turning  out  in  such 
force  to  listen  to  the  developments  that  had  been  made.  This 
gave  Mr.  Storrs  a  capital  opportunity  to  improve  the  impression 
he  had  already  made  in  Cochrane's  behalf,  and  he  promptly" 
availed  himself  of  it.  In  his  closing  address  to  the  jury,  in  which 
he  impressively  recapitulated  the  story  of  the  defendant's  domestic 
wrong,  and  appealed  to  them  as  men,  and  as  husbands  to  put 
themselves  in  Cochrane's  place,  and  say  whether  they  would  not 
have  done  under  the  same  circumstances  just  what  Cochrane  had 
done,  he  referred  to  the  attack  on  the  ladies  present  in  the 
following  words: 

"It  is  provided  by  the  fundamental  law  of  our  land  that  the  trial  of  all 
cases  shall  be  public.  Civil  liberty,  and  the  protection  of  individual  rights, 
demand  that  these  trials  shall  be  public.  Not  only  are  the  proceedings  in 
courts  of  justice  public  and  private  educators,  but  the  sad  experiences  of 
hundreds  of  years  have  abundantly  taught  us  that  there  is  no  safety  to  the 
liberty  of  the  citizen  when  that  liberty,  or  his  rights,  shall  be  inquired  into 
in  a  corner  and  determined  in  secret.  The  public  are  here,  and  have-  been 
here.  These  proceedings  have  been  open  and  in  the  sunlight ;  it  is  well 
that  they  have  been  so.  This  defense  has  had  nothing  to  conceal ;  this 
distinguished  Judge  has  had  no  ruling  to  make  which  he  desired  to  make 
in  secret.  There  has  been  nothing  in  the  case,  so  far  as  we  are  con 
cerned,  that  we  would  wish  to  have  excluded  one  single  second  from  the 
public  gaze.  My  brother  Cottrill  has  seen  fit  to  criticise  and  comment 
upon  the  fact  that  the  wives,  and  the  mothers,  and  the  daughters  of 
Clark  County  have  been  present  during  this  trial.  Is  there  any  thing 
improper  in  that,  gentlemen  ?  Will  not  the  presence  of  your  wives,  and 
your  sisters,  and  your  daughters  in  court  during  the  pendency  of  judicial  inves 
tigations  smooth  down  the  rugged  features  of  the  trial,  and  bring  us  lawyers  to 
a  decenter  and  higher  regard  for  the  average  proprieties  of  life  than  we 
would  have  if  we  barbarized  among  our  own  sex  exclusively  ?  \Vhy  should 
they  not  be  here?  This  case  involves  questions  very  near  and  very  dear 
to  them.  In  this  case  are  involved  considerations  of  the  sanctity  of  the 
marriage  relation,  of  the  purity  of  home,  of  domestic  peace,  honor,  quiet, 
and  tranquillity,  and  of  the  right  to  repel  the  invader  of  either.  Who  of 
all  others  are  most  interested  in  questions  of  this  character?  I  make  no 
doubt  that  it  is  because  their  hearts  and  their  instincts,  truer  a  thousand 
fold  than  the  mere  abstractions  of  our  reasoning,  have  told  them  precisely 
and  surely  what  this  case  wmeant  and  the  solemn  issues  which  it  involved." 


712  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

Mr.  Storrs  urged  upon  the  jury  that  practically,  in  every  crim 
inal  case,  they  decided  the  law  as  well  as  the  facts  beyond  the 
power  of  reversal  or  appeal  when  they  found  a  verdict  of  not 
guilty,  and  that  in  every  case  they  would  find  it  exceedingly 
difficult  to  separate  law  from  fact.  Theirs  was  the  final  respon 
sibility,  and  no  human  being  could  interfere  with  them  in  dis 
charging  themselves  of  it.  He  claimed  that  the  State  had  utterly 
failed  to  show  a  premeditated  design  on  Cochrane's  part,  their 
witnesses  as  to  his  declarations  of  intent  being  impeached  by  the 
overwhelming  testimony  of  the  best  citizens  of  Grand  Rapids,  and 
the  evidence  of  these  witnesses  being  squarely  denied  by  the 
defendant  himself.  On  the  other  hand,  every  fact  which  the 
defense  had  proposed  to  prove  had  been  amply  and  conclusively 
established. 

The  popular  sentiment  being  so  strongly  in  favor  of  Cochrane, 
the  charge  of  Judge  Newman  was  somewhat  of  a  surprise  for  its 
severity  against  the  defendant.  It  was,  in  effect,  a  direct  charge 
for  a  conviction.  He  told  the  jury  that  there  was  no  evidence  to 
bring  the  shooting  of  Hayden  within  the  legal  definitions  of 
justifiable  or  excusable  homicide;  and,  replying  to  the  argu 
ment  of  Mr.  Storrs,  he  said  that  though  the  jury  had  the 
power  to  disregard  the  instructions  of  the  court  as  to  the  law, 
they  had  not  the  right  to  do  so.  The  law  had  provided  redress 
for  the  wrong  done  Cochrane,  and  he  could  not  be  permitted 
to  wreak  his  own  private  vengeance. 

The  jury  were  out  twenty-four  hours.  From  the  beginning 
of  their  deliberations,  they  stood  eleven  to  one  for  acquittal ;  and 
it  was  only  after  a  night  of  durance  in  which  beds  and  other 
comforts  were  denied  them  that  they  became  unanimous,  and 
returned  into  court  with  a  verdict  of  not  guilty. 

Their  verdict  had  been  anticipated  by  the  public.  As  soon  as 
it  was  delivered,  and  Cochrane  came  out  a  free  and  vindicated 
man,  the  people  of  Neillsville  thronged  the  streets  from  the 
court-house  to  the  hotel  to  congratulate  him  as  he  passed  along, 
and  surely  never  before  had  a  person  on  trial  for  murder  such  a 
triumphal  reception  on  his  deliverance.  The  ladies  of  Neillsville, 
who  had  sustained  him  by  their  presence  all  through  the  trial, 
improvised  an  elegant  lunch  in  honor  of  the  jury,  of  Cochrane, 
and  of  his  counsel.  The  ladies  themselves  acted  as  waiters,  and 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS.  /1 3 

congratulatory  speeches  were  made  by  Messrs.  Storrs  and  Webb, 
of  counsel  for  the  defense,  and  by  General  Dodge,  formerly 
United  States  Senator  from  Iowa,  who  hailed  the  verdict  as 
an  honor  to  human  nature.  Mr.  Storrs  in  his  speech  said 
that  the  result  showed  that  courts  and  Legislatures  in  vain 
opposed  themselves  to  the  instincts  of  our  common  humanity, 
and  praised  the  ladies  for  being  as  usual  on  the  right  side. 
At  Merrillon  the  defendant  and  his  counsel  were  greeted  with 
a  serenade  by  a  local  band;  a  torchlight  procession  at  Grand 
Rapids  demonstrated  the  satisfaction  with  which  his  fellow- 
citizens  there  received  the  news  of  Cochrane's  acquittal.  And 
so,  amid  flowers,  festivity,  music,  and  fireworks,  this  celebrated 
murder  trial  came  to  what  the  good  folks  of  Western  Wiscon 
sin  no  doubt  considered  a  fitting  termination. 

The  Chicago,  St.  Paul,  and  Milwaukee  papers  gave  full  reports 
of  the  trial,  and  the  Chicago  Times,  commenting  on  the  case, 
said: 

"The  acquittal,  under  the  circumstances,  is  without  a  parallel.  In  the 
Cole-Hiscock  case,  the  defense  of  insanity  was  in  for  all  it  was  worth, 
and  it  was  on  that  ground  alone  that  the  defendant  was  acquitted.  In 
the  Sickles  case  the  defense  of  insanity  was  in  for  all  it  was  worth.  In 
the  McFarland  case,  and  in  fact  in  all  three  of  those  cases,  by  the  law 
of  the  states  where  they  were  tried,  the  jury  were  made  the  judges  of 
the  law  and  the  facts.  But  in  this  case  all  evidence  tending  to  show 
insanity  was  excluded,  as  well  as  all  evidence  tending  to  show  a  diseased 
condition  of  the  brain,  whether  it  amounted  to  insanity  or  not;  and  there 
being  no  statutory  provision  making  the  jury  the  judges  of  the  law,  the 
court  assumed  absolutely  to  direct  them  as  to  the  law. 

"This  case  furnishes  about  the  only  case  on  record  of  a  square  deliver 
ance  without  any  insanity  dodge,  so-called.  It  was  a  direct  assertion  by 
the  jury  that  under  such  circumstances  as  appeared  in  this  case,  the 
slaying  of  the  seducer  of  a  man's  wife  is  justifiable  homicide. 

'  •  This  seems  to  be  human  nature,  and  while  the  courts  have  been 
butting  against  it  for  a  great  many  years,  nothing  has  been,  so  far,  hurt 
by  it  but  the  heads  of  the  courts." 

Hardly  had  he  had  time  to  settle  down  again  to  office  practice, 
after  taking  part  in  the  Chicago  obsequies  of  President  Garfield, 
of  whose  death  he  learned  while  journeying  homeward  from 
Neillsville,  before  he  was  called  upon  to  engage  in  another 
trial  of  a  similiar  character, — the  defence  of  a  man  accused 
of  murder, — in  which  the  details  were  also  of  a  very  painful 
character,  and  in  regard  to  which  local  feeling  ran  so  high 


714  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

that  Mr.  Storrs  ran  the  risk  of  actual  bodily  injury,  and 
possibly  death,  at  the  hands  of  the  deceased  man's  friends. 
The  case  was  similar  in  many  respects  to  the  Cochrane  case, 
but  widely  dissimilar  in  the  expressions  of  popular  feeling 
both  during  and  after  the  trial.  Instead  of  an  audience  of 
sympathetic  ladies,  he  had  now  to  encounter  a  mob  clamor 
ous  for  vengeance  on  the  defendant,  and  ready  to  enforce 
lynch  law. 

The  accused,  Porter  C.  Ransom,  had  been  twice  Mayor  of 
the  City  of  El  Paso,  in  Woodford  County  Illinois.  The  man 
he  killed  was  Henry  W.  Bullock,  a  lawyer  of  the  same  place. 
The  troubles  between  them  grew  out  of  political  differences. 
Both  were  Democrats,  but  Ransom  was  a  New  Yorker  and 
loyal  to  the  Union,  while  Bullock  was  a  Kentuckian  of  the 
"Copperhead"  stripe.  In  the  county  convention  in  1868  Ran 
som  and  his  friends  supported  one  nominee  for  a  local  office, 
while  Bullock  and  his  adherents  favored  another.  The  candi 
date  supported  by  Ransom  obtained  the  nomination,  and  from 
that  time  forward  Bullock  became  Ransom's  avowed  enemy, 
never  omitting  an  opportunity  from  day  to  day,  in  saloons 
on  the  streets,  and  in  all  public  places,  to  vilify  and  traduce 
the  man  to  whom  he  principally  owed  his  disappointment. 
Matters  ran  along  this  way  till  Ransom  was  elected  for  the 
second  time  Mayor  of  El  Paso,  in  1878.  Up  to  this  time  he 
had  been  highly  respected  in  the  community,  had  been  twice 
elected  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  a  rural  township,  and  had 
already  served  with  credit  one  term  as  Mayor.  But  now  a 
cloud  appeared  on  the  horizon  of  his  reputation.  In  his 
green  youth,  in  New  York  State,  he  had  married  a  woman 
nearly  twice  his  own  age,  and,  after  living  unhappily  with 
her  for  a  brief  period,  he  left  the  homestead  in  her  posses 
sion  and  came  West,  to  begin  life  anew  in  the  State  of  Illi 
nois.  His  New  York  wife  soon  consoled  herself  by  marrying 
another  man,  to  whom  she  bore  five  children.  Thirty  years 
had  elapsed  since  this  episode  of  his  youth,  and  Mr.  Ran 
som  was  again  married  and  had  a  family  in  El  Paso.  The 
second  husband  of  his  former  wife  having  died,  she  started 
inquiries  about  Ransom,  and  having  discovered  that  he  was 
the  chief  municipal  officer  of  a  thriving  Western  city,  she 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS.  /I  5 

began  proceedings  against  him  for  alimony  and  divorce.  It  was 
blackmail  that  was  wanted,  and  Bullock  was  hired  as  the  local 
attorney  to  carry  on  the  proceedings. 

Inspired  by  political  and  personal  hatred  of  the  man,  Bul 
lock  was  not  content  with  proceeding  against  him  in  court, 
but  made  use  of  the  knowledge  he  had  gained  through  this 
suit  to  vilify  and  abuse  Ransom  throughout  El  Paso.  He  suc 
ceeded  in  creating  such  a  reputation  for  his  opponent  that  when 
Ransom  came  forward  as  a  candidate  for  a  "third  term"  of  the 
Mayoralty,  in  the  spring  of  iSSi,  he  was  rejected  by  a  slight 
majority. 

Friends  interposed  to  persuade  Bullock  to  cease  his  attacks 
upon  Ransom.  An  old  gentleman,  one  of  the  first  proprietors 
of  the  land  on  which  El  Paso  was  built,  went  at  Ransom's 
request  to  ask  him  to  desist  from  his  public  abuse,  and,  as  he 
said  on  the  trial:  "He  requested  that  I  should  see  Mr.  Bul 
lock  and  reason  with  him  and  try  to  get  him  to  stop  the 
public  abuse  on  the  streets.  He  made  this  remark,  that  so  far 
as  being  the  attorney  on  the  opposite  side  in  the  case  for  ali 
mony  was  concerned,  that  was  all  right.  He  did  not  care  any 
thing  about  that,  but  the  public  abuse  on  the  streets  was 
what  he  objected  to.  He  told  me  to  say  to  Mr.  Bulluck  all 
that  was  past  he  would  forgive,  and  shake  hands  with  him  if 
he  would  let  him  alone.  I  saw  Mr.  Bullock  in  a  day  or  two 
afterwards  and  stated  what  Mr.  Ransom  had  requested  me  to 
do,  and  Mr.  Bullock's  reply  was:  'Gibson,  I  will  never  let  up 
as  long  as  I  live;  I  will  follow  him  to  the  penitentiary  or  to 
hell.'" 

The  failure  of  Mr.  Gibson's  mission  was  communicated  to 
Ransom,  and  he  then  knew  that  the  quarrel  must  go  on  to 
the  bitter  end.  In  the  meantime  his  second  wife  had  died, 
his  home  was  desolate,  and  he  was  preparing  to  sell  off  and 
leave  El  Paso,  when  the  fatal  altercation  came.  On  the  even-, 
ing  of  the  2d  of  May,  iSSi,  he  was  coming  down  to  keep 
an  appointment  with  the  lion.  T.  M.  Shaw,  of  Lacon,  his 
attorney  in  the  alimony  suit.  Passing  along  on  the  main  street 
of  El  Paso  he  found  Bullock  in  conversation  with  another  man, 
and  just  as  he  passed  Bullock  made  an  insulting  remark  in 
reference  to  him.  Ransom  turned  and  asked  for  a  retraction, 


/l6  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

and  Bullock  merely  retorted  by  saying  twice  over,  "I  never 
take  anything  back,  you  damned  old  thief."  Not  content  with 
these  opprobrious  words,  he  rushed  upon  Ransom,  seized  him 
by  the  throat,  and  pressed  him  up  against  the  wall.  Ransom 
fearing  for  his  own  life,  shot  his  assailant,  and  the  wound  was 
fatal.  Hardly  realizing  what  he  had  done,  Ransom  went  on  to 
the  hotel  in  El  Paso,  where  he  had  appointed  to  meet  Mr. 
Shaw.  Having  told  that  gentleman  what  had  occurred,  he  went 
out  and  surrendered  himself  to  the  Marshal. 

The  slain  man,  notwithstanding  his  roughness,  his  addiction  to 
drinking  and  vulgar  language,  had  made  himself  popular  with 
a  certain  class  in  that  community.  He  was  both  an  inveterate 
hater  and  an  enthusiastic  friend.  Consequently  his  death  excited 
strong  feeling  in  El  Paso,  and  throughout  the  adjoining  town 
ships  where  his  father's  family  had  been  settled  ever  since  the 
county  was  laid  out.  Two  of  his  brothers  had  held  the  office 
of  Sheriff  of  Woodford  County.  The  deceased  man  had  by 
his  freehandedness  and  liberality  in  saloons  and  elsewhere  won 
for  himself  a  large  following  among  the  lower  classes.  When 
Ransom  was  locked  up  in  the  caliboose  of  El  Paso  that  night 
it  was  deemed  necessary  to  place  a  guard  over  him  to  pre 
vent  mob  violence^  and  he  was  speedily  removed  after  the 
Coroner's  inquest  to  the  County  jail  at  Peoria,  whence  he  was 
removed  to  Lacon,  a  change  of  venue  from  Woodford  County 
having  been  taken. 

The  trial  commenced  at  Lacon  before  Judge  Burns  on  the 
1 6th  of  January,  1882,  and  extended  over  three  weeks.  Three 
entire  days  were  consumed  in  getting  a  jury.  The  prosecu 
ting  attorneys  of  Woodford  county,  where  the  shooting  took  place, 
and  of  Marshall  county,  of  which  Lacon  is  the  county  seat, 
were  reinforced  by  a  criminal  lawyer  who  in  his  day  had  con 
siderable  notoriety, — Mr.  W.  W.  O'Brien.  This  gentleman, 
down  to  the  last  few  years  of  his  life,  had  practised  law  in 
Peoria,  and  it  was  in  his  office  that  Henry  Bullock  had  read 
law  as  a  student.  He  had  been  so  long  accustomed  to  prior 
ity  at  the  Peoria  bar  that  his  manners  were  aggressive,  not  to 
say  belligerent;  he  had  drawn  a  pistol  on  a  country  attorney 
who  opposed  him  in  a  murder  case  in  an  adjoining  circuit; 
and  his  bullying  and  overbearing  ways  were  not  only  tolera- 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS. 

ted,  but  won  him  deference,  in  the  rural  courts  where  up  to 
this  time  he  had  been  chiefly  known.  But  in  Mr.  Storrs  he 
met  more  than  his  match.  It  was  amusing  to  see,  day  after 
day,  this  blustering  Hiberian  giant  attempt  to  lead  his  wit 
nesses  to  give  incompetent  answers  t^  improper  questions,  and 
the  slim,  wiry  little  advocate  for  the  defendant,  thoroughly  cool 
and  self-possessed,  promptly  check  the  words  on  the  ready  wit 
ness'  lips,  with  "Wait  a  moment,  sir;  I  object."  Thereupon  a 
duel  of  words, — it  could  hardly  be  called  a  debate,  for  the  logic 
and  the  law  were  all  in  the  quiet,  incisive  speeches  of  Mr. 
Storrs,  and  mere  noise  and  sophistry  on  the  other  side,— 
would  occupy  the  time  of  the  court  for  nearly  an  hour,  at 
the  end  of  which  Judge  Burns  would  try  to  throw  oil  on  the 
troubled  waters  by  suggesting  a  form  of  question  which  brought 
Mr.  O'Brien  a  little  nearer  to  his  object,  without  letting  in 
incompetent  testimony.  Mr.  O'Brien  generally  adopted  the  sug 
gestions  of  the  Court,  led  the  witness  as  far  as  he  could  by 
this  means  to  give  the  answer  he  desired,  and  then  coolly 
propounded  the  same  leading  question  over  again,  to  be  met 
with  Mr.  Storrs'  ever  ready  objection.  On  one  of  these  occa 
sions,  after  arguing  his  point  with  his  usual  persistence,  Mr. 
Storrs  said:  "I  do  not  wonder  that  the  learned  counsel  should 
disregard,  as  he  habitually  does,  the  admonitions  of  the  Court, 
for  in  his  practice  he  has  been  more  accustomed  to  address 
his  prayers  to  the  angel  of  mercy  than  to  the  goddess  of  jus 
tice."  Mr.  O'Brien's  practice  was  almost  entirely  in  the  defence 
of  criminals,  and  his  appearance  on  the  prosecuting  side  was  a 
rare  occurence,  his  services  on  such  occasions  being  generally 
secured  by  subscription  among  his  own  countrymen  for  vin 
dictive  purposes.  In  this  case  he  appeared  as  the  personal 
friend,  companion,  and  avenger  of  Bullock.  The  point  of  Mr. 
Storrs'  reference  to  the  angel  of  mercy,  and  Mr.  O'Brien's 
unfamiliarity  with  the  goddess  of  justice,  was  at  once  appre 
ciated.  Mr.  O'Brien  lost  temper,  and  endeavored  again  to  press 
a  question  which  had  been  repeatedly  ruled  out;  the  Judge 
again  attempted  to  dispose  of  the  objection  by  suggesting 
another  form  of  question.  After  allowing  this  to  go  on  sev 
eral  times,  Mr.  Storrs  at  last  found  it  necessary  to  insist  per 
emptorily  upon  his  objection.  Mr.  O'Brien  retorted  by  saying, 


/1 8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

—UI  see  an  organized  purpose  here  to  object  to  everything 
and  to  embarrass  me  in  everything  I  say."  Mr.  Storrs  replied, 
— "There  is  a  purpose,  growing  out  of  our  duty,  to  object 
to  every  question  that  Mr.  O'Brien  puts  to  any  witness  which 
we  think  is  improper  in  form  or  in  substance.  I  believe  Mr. 
O'Brien  is  entirely  conscious  that  a  great  number  of  the  ques 
tions  which  he  has  addressed  to  this  witness,  to  which  we 
have  objected,  and  the  objections  to  which  the  Court  has  sus 
tained,  are  improper  questions.  I  don't  believe  he  intends  to 
play  pranks  with  the  Court,  but  if  I  did  not  know  him  bet 
ter  I  should  think  that  was  his  object."  Whereupon  Mr 
O'Brien,  drawing  himself  up  to  his  full  height,  exclaimed,  "  Then 
you  put  it  upon  the  charitable  ground  that  I  don't  know  any 
better?"  To  which  Mr.  Storrs  responded,  "I  know  you  know, 
better,  but  I  think  you  woke  up  this  morning  in  excellent 
spirits,  and  are  working  them  off  in  that  way." 

Later  on,  Mr.  Storrs  objected  to  Mr.  O'Brien's  making  a 
post-mortem  argument  on  a  question  which  the  Court  had 
already  decided  against  him.  Getting  tired  of  pressing  objec 
tions  to  leading  questions,  he  said,  "The  only  thing  I  care 
for  is  that  the  jury  may  be  able  to  distinguish  between  the 
testimony  of  Mr.  O'Brien  and  that  of  the  witness."  The 
Court  having  again  suggested  a  form  of  question  which  would 
get  around  the  objection  raised,  Mr.  Storrs,  with  great  suavity, 
made  an  appeal  for  a  positive  ruling.  "There  is  one  thing," 
he  said,  "which  I  would  like  to  suggest  here,  with  great 
deference  to  your  Honor.  We  will  be  very  glad  to  avoid 
the  assistance  which  Mr.  O'Brien  derives  from  the  excellent 
suggestions  which  your  Honor  has  made  as  to  the  manner 
of  putting  questions.  It  is  very  kind  of  your  Honor;  they 
are  very  good  suggestions;  that  is  the  trouble  with  them. 
It  increases  the  number  of  counsel,  for  the  time  being,  for 
the  prosecution."  Judge  Burns,  coloring  a  little,  said,  "I  do 
not  mean  to  become  a  counsel."  Mr.  Storrs  replied.  "I  know 
you  do  not;  but  it  is  a  case  where  the  spirit  is  willing  and 
the  flesh  is  weak.  We  suggest,  with  the  utmost  deference, 
that  it  would  be  better  if  the  case  would  take  a  little  less 
educational  form,  and  not  be  quite  so  much  in  the  nature  of 
a  law  school,  but  more  in  the  character  of  a  law  suit." 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS. 

"Well,  sir,"  said  Judge  Burns,  "can  you  suggest  any  form?" 
"Yes,"  retorted  Mr.  Storrs;  "we  suggest  the  entire  abandon 
ment  of  this  question,  as  the  only  proper  way  to  dispose  of  it." 

It  is  impossible  to  convey  to  those  who  were  not  person 
ally  acquainted  with  both  these  lawyers,  the  ludicrous  contrast 
they  presented  in  this  strife  of  words.  "Billy"  O'Brien,  as 
he  was  familiarly  called,  was  over  six  feet  high,  and  weighed 
about  three  hundred  pounds ;  Emery  Storrs  was  not  above 
five  feet,  and  weighed  about  a  hundred  and  thirty.  The 
ladies  of  a  Methodist  church  had  gotten  up  a  bazaar  for 
church  purposes  in  Lacon,  and  sold  a  very  substantial  lunch 
every  day  about  the  hour  for  adjournment  of  the  court. 
They  had  not,  of  course,  an  opportunity  of  seeing  Mr.  Storrs 
in  court,  and  when  an  invitation  was  sent  him  to  take  his 
lunch  at  the  church  bazaar,  they  were  on  the  outlook  for  an 
athlete  of  the  proportions  of  Mr.  O'Brien.  One  day  during 
the  trial,  Mr.  Storrs  walked  quietly  in  with  one  of  the  asso 
ciate  counsel,  took  his  lunch,  and  retired  as  unobtrusively  as 
he  came.  The  church  ladies  were  sorely  disappointed  when 
they  learned  that  he  had  been  entertained  by  them  unawares, 
and  could  not  be  made  to  believe  for  some  time  that  "  the 
little  man  who  had  fooled  them"  was  holding  his  own  so 
bravely  up  at  the  court-house. 

Sometimes  the  encounter  of  wits  between  Mr.  O'Brien  and 
Mr.  Storrs  took  a  pleasanter  form.  One  witness  who  had  tes 
tified  to  Bullock's  threats  against  Ransom  was  being  cross- 
examined  by  Mr.  O'Brien,  who  put  to  him  the  question, 
"Did  he  say  he  was  going  to  send  him  to  the  penitentiary?" 

The  witness  answered,  "  He  said  he  was  going  to  send 
him  to  hell.  I  do  not  know  how  he  would  get  him  there." 
Mr.  Storrs  said,  "  The  penitentiary  holds  the  same  relation  to 
hell  that  the  Sunday-school  does  to  the  church ;  it  is  a  kind 
of  vestibule."  Another  witness  was  the  engineer  at  some 
works  at  El  Paso,  and  was  giving  his  testimony  in  a  very 
deliberate  and  cautious  manner.  Becoming  impatient  at  his 
slowness,  Mr.  O'Brien  said,  "Come,  sir,  you  say  you  drive 
an  engine;  can't  you  get  on  a  little  faster?"  Mr.  Storrs  was 
instantly  ready  with  a  repartee:  "You  forget,"  he  said,  "that 
this  witness  runs  a  stationary  engine." 


72O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Judge  Burns  conducted  the  trial  with  great  dignity,  but  it 
was  with  the  utmost  difficulty  that  order  could  be  preserved 
in  the  court-room,  owing  to  the  disorderly  behavior  of  the 
El  Paso  mob,  who  cheered  Mr.  O'Brien  and  kept  up  a  con 
tinual  clamor  while  Mr.  Storrs  was  speaking.  As  eye  witness, 
reporting  the  case  for  the  Chicago  Tribune  said: 

"  Rarely  has  such  a  scene  been  witnessed  in  any  civilized  part  of  the 
United  States  as  was  exhibited  in  the  Lacon  court-room.  In  the  wildest 
frontier  towns  of  Texas,  Arkansas,  or  New  Mexico,  no  more  savage  and  • 
belligerent  crowd  of  half-civilized  roughs  thirsting  for  blood  ever  congre 
gated  and  attempted  to  overawe  judicial  proceedings  by  their  indecent 
demonstrations.  While  the  State's  Attorney  of  Woodford  County  quietly 
and  impartial)'  played  his  little  part,  Mr.  O'Brien  was  turbulent  and 
aggressive,  brow-beating  the  Court,  appealing  to  the  sweet  voices  of  the 
mob,  and  nothing  but  the  calm  diplomacy  of  Mr.  Storrs  could  have  pre 
vented  an  outbreak  of  violence  in  the  court-room.  Threatening  letters  by 
anonymous  hands  were  sent  to  the  Judge  during  the  last  days  of  the  trial, 
and  a  conspiracy  to  do  bodily  violence  to  Mr.  Storrs  was  discovered  by  the 
Sheriff  of  Marshall  County  only  in  time  to  prevent  its  being  carried  into 
execution.  The  Court,  however,  carried  the  trial  to  its  close  with  immova- 
able  dignity.  The  case  was  given  to  the  jury  on  Friday  night,  after  a 
tedious  investigation  of  three  weeks,  and  on  Saturday  morning  on  the  com 
ing  in  of  the  court  the  jury  returned  a  verdict  of  not  guilty, 

"  From  the  time  the  jury  were  instructed  and  retired  there  was  no  serious 
disagreement  between  them.  Before  8  o'clock  in  the  morning  counsel  were 
notified  that  the  jury  had  agreed.  Having  been  advised  that  writs  had 
been  issued  on  trumped-up  charges  to  arrest  and  take  Ransom  back 
immediately  after  a  verdict  in  his.  favor,  he  was  not  discharged,  but 
returned  to  jail,  where  he  was  visited  by  a  great  many  of  the  leading  citi 
zens  of  Lacon. 

"It  is  only  just  to  say,  in  reference  to  the  scenes  of  disdurbance  in 
Court,  that  the  pretty  village  of  Lacon  contributed  nothing  towards  them, 
nor  can  these  tumults  be  ascribed  to  the  order-loving  portion  of  El  Paso  or 
Woodford  County.  It  is  also  but  just  to  say  that  it  was  owing  to  the 
prompt  and  most  positive  interference  of  Mr.  O'Brien  that  the  scheme  for 
arresting  Ransom  and  running  him  off  into  Woodford  County,  there  to  do 
him  violence,  was  not  carried  into  effect.  He  denounced  it  at  once,  and  it 
was  abandoned." 

As  was  the  case  at  Neillsville,  Mr.  Storrs  was  permitted  to 
reserve  his  opening  for  the  defence  until  after  the  State  had 
closed  their  case,  and  in  reciting  the  circumstances  of  the  homi 
cide  and  setting  forth  the  theory  of  self-defence,  he  took  the 
opportunity  to  review  the  evidence  for  the  prosecution.  Mr. 
O'Brien  indignantly  protested  against  Mr.  Storrs  being  thus 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS.  /2I 

allowed  the  privilege  of  two  replies  on  the  part  of  the  defence, 
and  animadverted  severely  upon  this  in  his  closing  argument. 
He  was  doubly  chagrined  when,  as  appears  to  be  the  practice 
in  the  circuit  to  which  Woodford  and  Marshall  counties  belong, 
the  instructions  to  the  jury,  after  being  passed  upon  by  the 
Judge,  were  read  by  counsel  on  either  side  instead  of  by  the 
Judge  himself.  This  afforded  Mr.  Storrs  another  splendid  oppor 
tunity,  of  which  he  seized  the  full  advantage.  The  instructions 
given  on  behalf  of  the  State  were  read  by  Mr.  Newell,  the 
State's  Attorney  of  Woodford  county.  Mr.»  Storrs  had  an  adroit 
way  of  incorporating  into  his  instructions  the  salient  facts  of 
the  case  on  which  he  relied  for  a  verdict,  and  had  marshaled 
his  instructions  in  their  logical  order,  so  that  when  he  came 
to  read  them  to  the  jury,  with  all  the  magical  power  of  his 
penetrating  voice  and  rhetorical  emphasis,  the  reading  had  all 
the  force  and  effect  of  a  closing  argument  for  the  defence. 
He  read  from  a  printed  copy.  Mr.  O'Brien  had  not  been  pre 
pared  for  this  procedure,  but  when  told  that  it  was  the  regu 
lar  practice,  was  obliged  to  submit,  and  listened  in  grim  silence 
to  Mr.  Storrs'  closing  declamation. 

The  conspiracy  to  assault  Mr.  Storrs  was  formed  among 
some  of  the  El  Paso  witnesses  for  the  State,  whom  he  had 
handled  severely  on  cross-examination,  and  castigated  unmerci 
fully  in  his  opening  argument.  For  some  days,  these  men 
watched  their  opportunity  to  waylay  him  as  he  walked  from 
the  office  of  his  colleague,  Mr.  Shaw,  to  his  lodgings  on  the 
outskirts  of  the  town.  As  they  patronized  the  saloons  of  Lacon 
pretty  freely,  their  conspiracy  leaked  out,  and  came  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  Sheriff,  who  appointed  a  number  of  special 
deputies  to  "shadow"  Mr.  Storrs,  and  see  that  he  came  to  no 
harm. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  Ransom's  acquittal  reached  El  Paso, 
an  indignation  meeting  was  held,  at  which  resolutions  were 
adopted  declaring  the  act  of  Ransom  to  have  been  "  a  delib 
erate,  cold-blooded,  and  cruel  murder,"  that  the  verdict  had 
been  secured  "by  a  manifest  and  conscienceless  distortion  of 
facts  by  his  lawyers  and  the  partial,  unfair,  and  unjust  rulings 
of  the  Court,  and  the  biased  and  most  extraordinary  instruct- 
tions  to  the  jury,"  declaring  Mr.  Storrs'  conduct,  and  that  of  his 
46 


/22  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

colleagues  on  the  trial,  "simply  infamous,"  and  calling  upon 
Judge  Burns  to  resign.  The  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  Trib 
une  was  also  denounced  for  his  description  of  the  mob  in  the 
court-room,  who  were  declared  to  be  "the  most  orderly  and 
law-abiding  citizens  of  this  community,  men  who  could  by  a 
word  have  had  Ransom  hanged  to  the  nearest  tree,  but  who 
counseled  moderation  and  the  invocation  of  the  law  for  his 
punishment."  After  this  flattering  account  of  themselves,  these 
moderate  men  resolved  that  lynch  law  was  after  all  the  pre 
ferable  way  of  disposing  of  such  cases.  The  meeting  was 
addressed  by  three  gentlemen  with  "Rev."  prefixed  to  their 
names,  presumably  ministers  of  the  gospel,  all  of  whom  advo 
cated  lynch  law,  and  passionately  denounced  Ransom,  his  attor 
neys,  and  Judge  Burns  especially,  in  not  overdecent  language. 
Some  of  the  attorneys  engaged  in  the  prosecution  were  present 
at  the  meeting,  but  they  very  properly  declined  to  take  any  part 
in  the  proceedings.  Judge  Burns  did  not  resign. 

Mr.  Storrs  soon  found  occasion  to  realize  the  advantage  of 
keeping  a  copy  of  every  paper,  and  a  transcript  of  every  argu 
ment  made  by  him  in  the  trial  of  a  case.  Changing  only  the 
names  and  dates,  he  used  the  selfsame  printed  copy  of  instruc 
tions  that  he  had  presented  in  the  Ransom  case,  in  another 
murder  trial  in  which  he  was  engaged  in  the  spring  of  1883. 
Two  notorious  sporting  characters,  Jerry  Dunn  and  Jim  Elliott, 
had  a  falling  out  in  the  beginning  of  that  year,  and  each  was 
goaded  on  to  enmity  against  the  other  by  the  manner  in  which 
the  sporting  reporters  of  the  Chicago  morning  papers  wrote  up 
their  "interviews."  Elliott  was  a  pugilist,  and  Dunn  figured  on 
the  turf  and  in  gambling  circles.  Elliott,  on  the  day  of  their 
fatal  encounter,  had  been  about  saloons  in  Chicago,  breathing  out 
threatenings  and  slaughter  against  Dunn;  and  Dunn,  when  cau 
tioned  to  avoid  him,  showed  a  pistol,  and  boasted  that  he  was 
quite  prepared  for  the  meeting.  On  the  evening  of  the  first  of 
March,  1883,  Dunn  went  into  a  restaurant  on  Dearborn  street 
kept  by  one  Langdon,  and  found  Elliott  sitting  there  with  a  pro 
fessional  oarsman  named  Plaisted.  He  at  once  drew -his  revolver, 
and  began  shooting  at  Elliott.  Whether  both  men  fired  at  each 
other  on  sight,  or  whether  Dunn  was  the  first  to  open  hostilities, 
could  not  be  determined  from  the  evidence,  for  on  both  sides 


THREE    CELEBRATED    MURDER    TRIALS.  723 

there  was  on  this  point  some  very  free  and  easy  swearing.  The 
two  ruffians  clinched  and  fell  on  the  floor  of  the  restaurant,  and 
while  scuffling  there,  Dunn  emptied  his  revolver  into  Elliott's 
body,  and  killed  him.  Dunn  was  arrested,  indicted  for  murder, 
and  his  trial  began  in  the  Criminal  Court  of  Cook  County,  before 
Judge  Smith,  on  the  /th  of  May  of  the  same  year.  The  State's 
attorney,  Mr.  L.  L.  Mills,  rather  took  Mr.  Storrs  by  surprise  by 
the  conciseness  and  brevity  of  his  opening.  He  merely  stated 
the  law  of  the  State  of  Illinois  as  to  murder,  manslaughter,  and 
justifiable  homicide,  taking  care  to  impress  upon  the  jury  that 
the  test  of  justifiable  homicide  was  not  what  the  defendant  might 
have  thought,  or  might  say  he  thought,  as  to  the  danger  of 
bodily  injury  to  himself,  but  what  a  reasonable  man  placed  in 
such  circumstances  would  think;  and  contending  that  in  order 
to  justify  the  homicide,  the  danger  must  be  imminent,  and  mani 
fested  by  some  overt  act  on  the  part  of  the  deceased.  Mr. 
Storrs,  in  accordance  with  the  Cook  County  practice,  made  an 
opening  speech  for  the  defendant,  following  Mr.  Mills.  He  cau 
tioned  the  jury  to  dismiss  from  their  minds  all  prejudice  that 
might  have  been  engendered  by  newspaper  reports. 

"I  recognize,"  he  said,  "as  thoroughly  as  it  is  possible  for  any  man  to 
recognize,  the  force  of  a  well  informed  and  intelligently  advised  public 
opinion.  I  believe  that  it  is  pretty  nearly  always  right  upon  the  premises 
upon  which  it  is  founded;  but  it  will  be  a  sad  day  in  the  history  of  our 
institutions,  and  for  the  preservation  of  any  interest  which  we  hold  dear, 
when  this  fictitious  and  frothy  public  opinion,  Tgenerated  from  malicious 
falsehood,  shall  enter  into  the  jury  box,  or  to  any  extent  usurp  justice  in 
the  performance  of  her  duties." 

He  then  gave  a  sketch  of  the  careers  of  the  two  men,  describ 
ing  Dunn  as  a  patriotic  soldier  of  the  Union,  but  failing  to  give 
any  satisfactory  account  of  him  since  the  close  of  the  war,  and 
hastily  dismissing  that  part  of  the  subject,  tracing  Elliott's  crimi 
nal  record,  and  characterizing  him  as  a  thief,  a  midnight  robber, 
and  an  assassin, — a  man  with  whom  the  decenter  kind  of  pro 
fessional  pugilists  refused  to  associate.  Next  he  spoke  of  the 
warnings  Dunn  had  received  that  Elliott  was  lying  in  wait  for 
him ;  claimed,  as  he  had  done  in  the  Sullivan  and  Ransom  cases, 
that  Dunn  had  a  right  to  arm  himself  for  his  own  protection.; 
and  cited  authorities  in  support  of  the  doctrine  of  self-defence, 
from  jurists  who,  he  said,  were  not  "judicial  eunuchs"  in  any 


724  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

sense,  but  were  masculine  and  manly  at  all  points.  He  appealed 
to  the  jury  to  say  whether  they  would  wait  for  an  overt  act 
before  putting  themselves  in  an  attitude  of  defence,  and  claimed 
that  the  mere  presence  of  Elliott,  after  the  threats  he  had  made, 
was  of  itself  an  overt  act,  justifying  Dunn  in  shooting,  as  much 
as  if  he  had  met  a  panther  in  his  path. 

The  testimony  as  to  the  commencement  of  the  duel  was 
conflicting,  but  Mr.  Storrs  had  an  abundance  of  witnesses  to 
prove  the  threats  that  Elliott  had  made,  and  also  the  danger 
ous  and  desperate  character  of  the  man.  State's  Attorney  Mills 
had  records  from  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  and  police 
officials  from  both  cities,  to  prove  Dunn's  record  since  the 
close  of  his  patriotic  services  in  the  field,  as  an  offset  to  the 
testimony  against  Elliott's  character;  but  Mr.  Storrs  very 
sagaciously  decided  not  to  put  Dunn  on  the  stand  to  tell  his 
own  story,  and  thus  an  interesting  cross-examination  was  cut 
off,  and  this  class  of  evidence  was  shut  out.  Judge  Smith 
approved  and  gave  all  of  Mr.  Storrs'  patent  instructions  on 
behalf  of  Dunn,  but  the  admittedly  bad  and  dangerous  char 
acter  of  Elliott  had  also  its  weight  with  the  jury,  and  Dunn 
was  acquitted. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 


HISTORICAL  CHICAGO. 

LECTURE  ON  BEHALF  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY— AN  EFFORT  OF  LASTING 
INTEREST — THE  HEART  OF  A  GREAT  EMPIRE — CHICAGO'S  FAMOUS  HIS 
TORIC  WIGWAM — THE  GREATEST  LOSS  SUFFERED  IN  THE  GREAT  FIRE  OF 
!8;i — THE  PAST,  THE  PRESENT,  AND  MR.  STORRS*  IDEAS  OF  THE  GARDEN- 
CITY — FACTS  AND  FANCIES. 

ONE  of  the  most  irreparable  losses  inflicted  upon  Chicago 
by  the  Great  Fire  was  the  destruction  of  the  Historical 
Society's  building.  Organized  in  1856,  the  purpose  of  the 
society  was  to  collect  and  preserve  all  writings  or  articles  which 
might  in  any  way  pertain  to  the  history  of  Chicago,  or  of  the 
North-west.  The  last  pamphlet  statement  of  the  condition  of  the 
organization  published  previous  to  the  Great  Fire,  namely  the 
statement  of  1868,  showed  that  in  the  modest  structure,  known 
as  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  building,  there  were  at  that 
date  more  than  15,000  bound  volumes  of  a  historical  nature,  1,700 
files  of  newspapers,  5,000  manuscripts,  1,200  maps  and  charts, 
and  an  excellent  collection  of  paintings  and  portraits ;  the  build 
ings  and  grounds  were  valued  at  about  $60,000.  It  was  claimed, 
also,  that  the  library  was  almost  complete  in  the  documents  and 
publications  of  the  United  States  government  in  every  depart 
ment,  from  the  date  of  the  Constitution.  Among  the  treasures 
were  such  priceless  documents  as  that  of  Lincoln's  original  manu 
script  copy  of  the  Emancipation  Proclamation,  but  they  were  de 
stroyed  by  the  holocaust.  In  addition,  a  debt  was  left  to  be  wiped 
out  by  such  men  as  the  late  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  Mark  Skinner,  the 
late  Thomas  Hoyne  and  the  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  a  debt  con 
tracted  in  completing  the  hall  which  had  been  burned;  but 
December,  1882,  found  this  sum  fully  paid,  the  organization  free 

725 


/26  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

from  debt,  the  owner  of  a  corner  lot  upon  which  to  erect  an 
appropriate  edifice,  and  with  bequests  for  books  and  other  pur 
poses  exceeding  in  value  $75,000;  it  also  found  the  organization 
trying  to  crowd  into  inadequate  quarters  a  rapidly  acquired  and 
rapidly  increasing  collection  of  valuables,  including  over  30,000 
volumes  relating  to  history,  biography,  and  statistics.  It  was, 
accordingly,  a  tribute  to  the  rare  powers  of  Mr.  Storrs — a  most 
direct  acknowledgment  of  an  almost  phenomenal  fact  in  life 
that  a  prophet  should  be  honored  at  home;  but  a  fact,  it  may 
be  added,  which  was  again  and  again  made  manifest  by  nearly 
every  organization,  whether  political,  religious,  or  otherwise,  in 
the  city  of  his  choice — that  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  one 
evening  of  November,  1882,  unanimously  adopted  the  following 
resolutions:  "Resolved,  that  the  President  and  Executive  Com 
mittee  of  this  society  be  requested  to  invite  the  Hon.  Emery  A. 
Storrs  to  deliver  a  lecture  before  this  society  at  his  convenience 
on  such  a  subject  as  he  may  select,  the  proceeds  of  which  shall 
be  appropriated  toward  the  erection  of  a  new  building  for  the 
society."  The  reply  of  Mr.  Storrs  was  as  follows: 

"CHICAGO,  Nov.  28,1882. 

"The   Honorable  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  President  of  Chicago  Historical  Society: 
"  MY  DEAR  SIR  : — Your  favor  announcing  the  resolution  of  the  Historical 
Society,  inviting  me  to  deliver  a  lecture  for  its  benefit  has  been  received. 

"I  certainly  esteem  it  a  very  great  privilege,  as  it  will  be  to  me  a  great 
pleasure,  to  contribute  in  any  degree  to  the  future  success  and  establish 
ment  on  a  broad  and  permanent  basis  of  so  useful  a  society. 

"It  needs  a  home,  and  a  fitting  home;  one  in  which  the  records  of  the 
great  and  rapidly  growing  city  may  be  safely  deposited  and  preserved  for 
the  present  and  for  all  the  future. 

"I  gladly  accept  the  invitation,  which,  on  behalf  of  your  society,  you  have 
extended  to  me,  and  would  suggest  Dec.  15,  proximo,  as  a  time  which 
would  entirely  suit  my  convenience. 

"I  would  name  as  the  subject,  'Historical  Chicago;  its  Past,  Present, 
and  Future:'  ' 

"Yours  most  respectfully, 

" EMERY  A.  STORRS." 

The  night  named  was  one  of  intense  cold,  but  a  large  and 
enthusiastic  audience  assembled  at  Central  Music  hall,  and,  in 
addition  to  door  receipts,  some  $25,000  was  subscribed  towards 
a  fund  of  $100,000  for  a  new  Historical  Hall.  The  lecture  was 
as  follows : 

"  Mr.  President,  Ladies,  and  Gentlemen :  In  no  city  in  the  world,  and  in 


HISTORICAL    CHICAGO.  /2/ 

no  city  of  which  history  gives  us  any  record,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  can 
such  a  spectacle  be  presented  as  is  witnessed  here  to-night — a  vast  me 
tropolitan  and  cosmopolitan  city  of  a  population  exceeding  600,000,  with  a 
commercial  magnitude  and  extent  even  beyond  its  population,  so  young  that 
scores  of  those  who  rocked  its  cradle  at  its  birth  are  still  living,  and  hale, 
hearty  men,  engaged  in  the  active  enterprises  of  the  day  and  hour.  Many 
of  the  founders  of  this  city  are  here  tc-night.  They  saw  the  fields  upon 
which  this  city  stands  when  they  were  merely  fields.  They  saw  the  stream 
upon  which  to-day  floats  a  vast  commerce  when  its  waters  were  unvexed. 
save  by  the  canoe  of  the  Indian.  They  have  seen  what  are  now  the  sites 
of  great  business  palaces  when  they  were  wild  prairie  fields.  They  saw  the 
fields  a  village,  the  village  a  young  and  struggling  city,  and  the  young 
and  struggling  city  finally  the  heart  of  a  great  empire. 

"Of  what  other  city  can  this  be  said?  And  the  marvel  of  this  is  not 
confined  to  the  city  alone,  but  its  growth  has  been  only  commensurate  with 
the  growth  of  the  great  country  about  it,  and  from  which  it  has  drawn  its 
prosperity  and  greatness.  Indeed,  the  story  of  a  growth  so  wonderful  must 
possess  an  interest  for  all  the  world:  and  whether  the  records  from  which 
that  story  is  to  be  intelligently  and  wisely  told  are*  to  be  preserved  by  the 
men  who  have  made  and  are  making  the  history  of  this  wonderful  city, 
whether  they  are  to  be  carefully  gathered  and  placed  in  a  fitting  home, 
secure  for  all  the  future,  is  the  question  of  the  moment,  and  to  consider 
and  determine  which  this  splendid  audience  has  been  gathered  in  this  beau 
tiful  temple. 

"Historical  Chicago  cuts  no  unimportant  figure,  and  fills  no  unimportant 
space  in  the  history  of  the  world  and  of  this  generation.  The  Chicago  of 
to-day  rests  upon  every  event,  great  and  small,  which  has  transpired  since 
1833,  whew  first  it  was  a  village  ;  since  1837,  when  first  it  dignified  itself 
by  the  name  of  city;  and  hence  it  is  true  that  what  the  Chicago  of  to-day 
really  is  cannot  be  determined  upon  an  observation  of  what  we  to-day  see, 
but  must  be  extended  back  over  those  periods,  beginning  with  its  birth  and 
tracing  the  history  of  its  men  and  its  events  down  to  the  present  moment. 

"The  great  events  in  the  history  of  this  wonderful  city  come  thronging 
upon  us,  and  hardly  need  to  be  recalled.  It  is  said  that  its  growth  has 
been  merely  physical  and  material;  that  no  poems  have  been  written  here, 
and  that  nothing  has  been  done  for  art,  but  I  think  that  those  men  who 
have  within  half  a  century  builded  an  empire,  who  have  within  half  a  cen 
tury,  from  a  malarial  swamp  and  a  tangled  wilderness,  reared  n  great  city, 
have  made,  in  the  empire  and  in  the  city,  in  its  larger  and  broader  sense, 
a  poem  as  grand  as  poet  ever  wrote.  It  would  astonish  the  old  settler  of 
Chicago  to  be  told  that  he  was  in  any  sense  a  poet ;  but  I  must  believe 
that,  however  hardy  and  rugged  and  matter  of  fact  his  life  may  have  been, 
the  man  who  fifty  years  ago  looked  upon  leagues  and  leagues  of  unbroken 
plain  and  prairie  and  saw  in  them  in  the  near  future  a  great  empire — that 
the  man  who  looked  upon  a  malarious  and  pestilential  swamp  and  bog, 
and  saw  in  it  in  the  near  future  a  great,  thriving,  splendid  and  prosperous 
city,  possessed,  although  he  knew  it  not,  the  true  poet's  imagination. 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

'The  forms  of  things  unknown, 
Turned  them  to  shapes,  and  gave  to  airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name.' 

"  Historical  Chicago  is  the  rude  village  of  1833.  It  is  earlier  than  that;  it 
is  the  strong,  brave  men  and  the  resolute  and  helpful  women  who  on  the 
very  frontier  made  that  village.  Historical  Chicago  is  that  growth,  through 
all  difficulties,  which  carried  the  village  forward  to  a  pushing  and  ambi- 
ous  little  city  in  1837.  It  is  that  same  resolute  spirit,  as  hopeful  as  it  was 
brave,  which  pushed,  through  difficulties  apparently  insurmountable,  the 
young  city,  with  its  huts  and  cabins,  resting  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Michi 
gan,  -at  the  head  of  the  chain  of  the  great  lakes,  into  a  position  so  con 
spicuous  that  in  1848  it  was  deemed  of  sufficient  consequence  to  hold  a 
great  national  convention,  where  the  improvement  of  our  rivers  and  our 
harbors  should  be  discussed  and  considered.  It  is  the  same  city,  pushed 
by  the  same  men,  backed  by  the  resolute  community  of  earnest  men  and 
women  filling  up  the  country  about  it,  which  went  forward  and  forward 
until  in  1854  and  1855  and  1856  it  began  to  be  known  as  a  great  grain 
market,  its  river  thronged  with  the  fleets  of  the  lakes,  and  finally  it 
anchored  itself  so  strongly  that  not  even  the  great  financial  panic  of  1857 
was  sufficient  to  destroy  it. 

"  Historical  Chicago  is  that  energy  and  forecast  which  from  small  begin 
nings  made  it  the  focal  point  for  mighty  railroad  enterprises  connecting  the 
great  lakes  and  the  great  Northwest  with  the  seaboard.  Its  fame  extended, 
because  the  men  of  Chicago  noised  its  fame  abroad.  It  was  the  home  of 
Douglas:  it  was  where  Lincoln  was  glad  to  be;  and  here,  in  1860,  twelve 
years  after  the  river  and  harbor  convention,  a  great  political  National  con 
vention  was  held,  which  brought  men  from  all  over  the  country,  and  in  its 
famous  historic  wigwam,  Abraham  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the  Presi 
dency  of  the  United  States. 

"  But  it  was  to  be  the  theatre  of  another  event,  most  startling  and  tragic 
in  character,  one  which  would  appall  the  world,  and  the  like  of  which  in 
the  extent  of  its  calamitous  consequences  the  world  had  never  before  wit 
nessed.  This  great  city,  pushed  forward  to  such  a  splendid  position  of 
material  and  physical  greatness,  striken  and  devastated  by  flame  and  fire, 
by  a  conflagration  so  vast  that  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  homes 
were  destroyed  in  a  night ;  hundreds  and  hundreds  of  the  business  build 
ings  swallowed  up  in  flame  and  smoke  ;  thousands  of  families  homeless  and 
houseless,  and  prostrated  in  the  ashes  of  her  desolation — the  great  city, 
then  even  historical,  losing  none  of  her  resolution,  received,  in  such  a 
fashion  as  makes  her  forevermore  the  debtor  of  all  peoples  and  of  all 
nations,  the  splendid  benefactions  and  charities  of  the  world.  How  the 
stricken  city  redeemed  itself — how  its  men  and  women  worked — with  what 
noble  heroism  they  toiled  to  rebuild  their  devastated  city,  and  to  restore 
their  shattered  fortunes,  history  will  never  weary  of  telling.  Unappalled  by 
this  disaster,  undismayed  where  it  seemed  that  courage  itself  would  have 
been  dismayed,  the  old  spirit  of  the  old  settler  was  in  historic  Chicago ; 
and  the  destroyed  city  of  brick  has  been  rebuildcd  a  city  of  marble. 


HISTORICAL   CHICAGO.  /2Q 

"It  is  in  no  spirit  of  boasting  that  I  recount  these  great  achievements  of 
Chicago.  The  commerce  of  Venice  and  of  Carthage  were  playthings  merely 
compared  with  the  vast  commerce  of  this  city.  Its  granaries  feed  all  the 
world ;  the  smoke  of  its  furnaces  obscures  the  sky :  its  trade  goes  every 
where  that  human  wants  are  to  be  supplied.  The  zeal  and  energy  of  its 
citizens  know  no  limits.  It  stands  midway  between  the  two  oceans, 
exchanging  the  products  of  the  Orient  for  those  of  the  Occident,  and  clasp 
ing  the  hands  of  the  peaceful  Pacific  with  those  of  the  stormy  and  turbu 
lent  Atlantic. 

"The  Chicago  of  to-day  is  made  up  of  all  the  events  of  the  Chicago  of 
the  past :  and  the  Chicago  of  the  future  will  be  in  kind  such  as  the,  Chi 
cago  of  the  present  is.  It  has  been  wisely  said  that  all  history  is  merely 
aggregated  biography,  and  there  is  no  great,  worthy  event  connected  with 
the  birth  and  with  the  growth  of  Chicago  which  has  not  entered  into  it  and 
makes  a  part  of  it.  Carlyle  has  profoundly  and  beautifully  said : 

"'Under  the  green  foliage  and  blossoming  fruit  trees  of  to-day,  there  lie 
rotting,  slower  or  faster,  the  forests  of  all  other  yews  and  bays.  Some 
have  rotted  fast,  plants  of  annual  growth,  and  are  long  since  quite  gone 
to  inorganic  mold :  others  are  like  the  aloe  ;  growths  that  last  a  thousand 
or  three  thousand  years.' 

"Historical  Chicago  has  from  the  beginning  been,  and  still  is  a  thor 
oughly  typical  and  representative  city.  Its  growth  and  development  result 
not  merely  from  the  resolution  and  energy  of  its  own  citizens,  but  the  spirit 
which  it  embodies  is  the  spirit  of  the  entire  North-west.  Nay  more  ;  it  is 
the  chosen  theatre  where  enterprise  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  finding 
abundant  opportunities,  exhibits  itself  in  its  largest  fields.  Chicago  repre 
sents  the  thrift  and  sagacity  of  Boston  and  of  New  England  :  it  represents 
and  has  incorporated  the  broad  commercial  characteristics  of  the  city  of 
New  York  and  of  the  Empire  State :  it  represents  the  industrial  energies  of 
the  old  Keystone,  and  the  personal  and  individual  independence  of  the  South. 
Chicago  is  business  enterprise  on  a  large  scale  embodied :  and  the  enter 
prising  man,  no  matter  where  he  may  be  born,  is  naturally  a  citizen  of 
Chicago,  for  the  spirit  of  enterprise  which  is  in  him  and  distinguishes  him 
finds  abundant  sympathy  in  the  spirit  of  the  great  city.  If  there  is  any  vir 
tue  which  our  city  especially  represents  and  stands  for,  it  is  that  of  active 
industry  and  honored  labor.  Large  and  rich  as  it  is,  it  is  one  of  the  few 
cities  in  the  world,  and  perhaps  the  only  city  in  the  world,  where  leisure 
is  not  quite  creditable.  No  amount  of  individual  wealth,  here  in  Chicago, 
excuses  from  personal  activity  of  some  kind  or  other;  and  so  thoroughly  is 
work  and  zeal  in  the  atmosphere,  that  the  indolent  man  may  be  born  and 
bred  here,  and  yet  he  is  out  of  joint  with  all  his  surroundings,  and  is  not 
in  its  true  sense  a  citizen  of  Chicago. 

"This  analysis  of  what  Chicago  really  is,  is  stranger  than  you  may  think, 
and  the  truthfulness  of  the  analysis,  I  am  sure,  is  recognized  the  instant  it 
is  stated.  But  Chicago  has  achieved  something  more,  and  I  think,  worthier, 
than  its  great  material  growth.  It  has,  as  a  city,  made  a  magnificent  char 
acter  for  sterling  and  masculine  probity. 


73O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

"Under  a  necessity  which  seemed  imperative,  it  was  deemed  wise  to 
issue,  many  years  since,  several  millions  of  dollars  of  what  were  called 
certificates  of  indebtedness,  and  these  certificates  passed  into  the  hands  of 
innocent  holders  for  value.  Subsequently  the  courts  declared  these  certifi 
cates  absolutely  illegal  and  void.  The  courts  declared  that  there  was  no 
binding  obligation  upon  the  city  of  Chicago  to  recognize  or  pay  them. 
These  evidences  of  indebtedness  bound  nothing  but  the  honor  of  Chicago ; 
but  that  was  enough;  and  forthwith  every  municipal  expenditure  was 
retrenched,  all  municipal  salaries  reduced,  and  with  an  accord  substantially 
unanimous,  the  people  of  Chicago  proceeded  to  pay,  long  before  its  maturity, 
in  order  that  there  might  be  no  stain  upon  its  good  name,  this  indebtedness 
which  bound  nothing  but  its  honor.  No  city  ever  made  a  finer  record  for 
itself  than  this  ;  and  I  insist  that  history  shall  preserve  this  record  as  among 
the  proudest  and  worthiest  of  its  achievements. 

"  The  night  might  be  spent  in  recounting  such  worthy  deeds.  Assuredly, 
it  would  be  a  shame  and  a  dishonor,  should  the  records  of  the  city  not  be 
kept,  and  should  the  materials  out  of  which  its  history  may  be  written  in 
the  future,  fail  to  be  preserved.  Assuredly,  it  would  be  a  shame  and  a 
dishonor  if  this  marvelous  growth  which  I  have  thus  hastily  outlined  took 
no  higher  form  than  that  of  bloated  commercial  and  business  growth. 
Assuredly,  it  would  be  unworthy  of  the  spirit  of  historical  Chicago,  that 
it  should  have  nothing  to  show  for  the  future  but  piles  of  boxes  and 
bales,  nothing  but  vast  granaries  of  wheat,  and  lowing  herds,  or  countless 
droves  of  swine.  Assuredly,  the  real  Chicago  of  which  we  are  proud, 
means  to  have  some  other  story  to  take  down  to  the  future.  It  will  omit 
none  of  these ;  but  it  does  mean  that  out  of  this  marvelous  physical  growth 
and  prosperity  there  shall  be  developed  a  culture  as  splendid  and  as  great 
as  the  material  prosperity  which  has  made  that  culture  possible. 

"The  custodian  for  all  these  priceless  treasures  of  this  worthy  history  is 
the  Historical  Society  of  Chicago ;  and  when  I  tell  you  how  it  began, 
how  strugglingly  it  has  grown,  and  how  bravely  it  has  maintained  itself 
against  disasters  that  would  have  dismayed  ordinary  men,  when  I  put 
this  society  by  the  side  of  great  achievements  dedicated  to  trade  and 
commerce,  I  think  that  we  will  be  agreed,  all  of  us,  that  Chicago,  in 
what  it  has  done  for  the  preservation  and  perpetuation  of  its  history,  has 
not  worthily  acted  up  to  the  standard  of  its  real  character  and  greatness. 

"The  Historical  Society  was  organized  in  the  year  1856,  its  purpose 
being  to  collect  and  preserve  all  matters  of  historical  interest,  not  only  with 
reference  to  the  city  of  Chicago,  but  the  entire  North-west.  There  has  been 
no  name  prominently  connected  or  identified  with  the  Historical  Society, 
from  its  commencement  down  to  to-day,  that  is  not,  itself,  so  far,  at  least, 
as  Chicago  and  the  North-west  are  concerned,  an  honored  and  historic 
name.  Its  first  president  was  William  H.  Brown. 

"Walter  L.  Newberry,  Edwin  H.  Sheldon,  and  Isaac  N.  Arnold,  have 
been  presidents  from  time  to  time  of  the  Historical  Society :  William  B. 
Ogden,  Mark  Skinner,  Thomas  Hoyne,  John  Wentworth,  and  scores  of 
other  good  citizens  have  been  prominently  connected  with  it.  Every  name 


HISTORICAL    CHICAGO.  731 

has  its  history  of  honest   achievements,  and   every  name  is  intimately  inter 
woven  with  the  history  of  Chicago. 

"In  1868,  the  Historical  Society  was  on  the  high  road  to,  as  it  seemed 
to  be,  a  great  prosperity.  It  had  erected  a  building,  modest  in  its  charac 
ter,  entirely  unpretentious,  but  which  was  commensurate,  it  was  deemed, 
with  its  then  present  wants. 

"The  honored  Presiden^  of  this  magnificent  meeting  (whose  name  has 
been  mentioned  with  distinction  by  England's  most  famous  writer  and  his 
torian,  William  H.  Lecky,)  delivered  an  address  on  the  occasion  of  the 
opening  of  that  new  hall,  in  which  he  briefly  and  modestly  recited  the  birth 
and  the  growth  up  to  that  time  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Chicago.  He 
boasted  then,  as  much  as  he  ever  boasts  of  anything,  that  in  1868  Chicago 
had  a  population  of  300,000,  and  the  showing  which  he  made  of  the  liter 
ary  and  historical  treasures  of  the  society  at  that  time  was  indeed  most 
gratifying.  It  then  had  over  15,000  bound  volumes,  over  1,700  files  of 
newspapers,  nearly  5,000  manuscripts,  1,200  maps  and  charts,  and  also,  in 
connection  with  it,  the  famous  Healy  gallery  of  paintings  and  portraits. 
Its  buildings  and  grounds  at  that  time  had  cost  about  $6o,coo.  The  library 
in  the  language  of  Mr.  Arnold,  was  '  nearly  complete  in  the  documents 
and  publications  of  the  United  States  Government  in  every  department,' 
from  its  organization  down  to  that  time.  The  value  of  this  collection  was 
incalculable.  All  this  has  been  swept  away. 

"The  new  building  was  completed  in  1867.  At  that  time  there  were 
703  bound  volumes,  and  834  unbound  volumes  and  pamphlets  in  the 
library.  The  society  has  at  present  over  30,000  volumes — historical, 
statistical,  and  biographical.  And  this,  in  brief,  marks  the  present  con 
dition  of  the  society. 

"Everything  with  the  society  went  on  prosperingly  until  the  great  fire 
came,  and  all  these  invaluable  treasures  were  destroyed.  Here  and  there, 
mere  historic  fragments  were  regathered.  They  were  furnished  a  tempor 
ary  home  through  the  munificence  and  liberality  of  Mr.  Scammon.  The 
society  had  again  started  on  its  way,  and  in  1874  was  again  destroyed 
by  fire.  This  second  calamity  would  have  dismayed  and  discouraged 
most  men,  but  the  promoters  and  the  friends  of  the  Historical  Society  of 
Chicago  were  too  thoroughly  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  the  great  city  to 
be  at  all  discouraged.  And  so  they  went  on,  laboring  under  a  load  of 
debt,  struggling  against  all  sorts  of  adversities,  but  struggling  wisely  and 
bravely,  until  they  finally  succeeded,  through  the  private  munificence  of 
some  gentlemen  connected  with  that  worthy  institution,  in  rearing  the^ 
present  building,  which  cost  the  munificent  sum  of  about  $26,000.  But 
a  few  days  since,  by  private  contributions,  every  dollar  of  indebtedness 
of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  was  lifted  from  its  shoulders,  and  there 
it  is  to-day,  with  its  present  treasures  invaluable,  full  of  fresh  energy, 
and  capable  of  splendid  achievements  in  the  future. 

"But,  fellow  citizens,  we  who  are  not  and  have  never  been  members 
of  the  Historical  Society,  are  we  not  a  little  ashamed  of  it,  that  in  this 
city,  with  its  palatial  places  of  business,  with  its  magnificent  homes,  with 


732  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  roar  of  its  traffic,  the  profits  of  which  run  up  into  the  millions,  the 
temple  in  which  the  records  of  our  achievements  up  to  to-day  and  for 
the  future  are  te  be  preserved,  has  not  involved  an  expenditure  equal 
to  that  of  the  ornamentation  and  furnishing  of  a  first-class  saloon  ?  Is 
there  any  citizen  of  Chicago  proud  of  it,  who  does  not  feel  a  certain 
sense  of  self-reproach  that  these  millions  of  wealth,  and  this  enterprise 
which  braves  the  dangers  of  all  climates,  and,  which  encounters  without 
reluctance  all  difficulties,  should  suffer  the  records  of  its  own  achieve 
ments  to  be  thus  tucked  into  an  obscure  corner,  to  be  the  sport  of  every 
accident  and  of  every  wind  that  blows?  Do  we  not  feel  that  the  time 
has  come  when  there  should  be  some  fitting  memorial,  in  no  way  con 
nected  with  trade,  in  no  way  associated  with  commerce,  which  shall  not 
be  touched  by  the  spirit  of  profit  or  dividend — a  memorial  coming  from 
the  hearts  of  this  great  people,  sufficiently  splendid  in  its  character  and 
worthy  in  its  purpose  to  mark  the  gratitude  of  our  hearts  for  the  chari 
ties  of  the  world  which  we  have  received?  And  what  more  fitting 
memorial  could  possibly  be  reared  than  a  building,  strong  and  enduring, 
complete  in  every  appointment,  in  which  all  the  records  of  this  great 
city,  and  of  the  great  North-western  empire  which  has  made  it,  should 
be  gathered  and  preserved  ?  What  worthier  memorial  than  that  such  a 
building  should  at  once  be  reared,  where  a  great  library  might  be 
gathered,  where  all  the  records  of  our  great  war,  and  the  part  which 
the  North-west  so  honorably  took  in  it,  should  be  sacredly  garnered  and 
preserved — where  the  history  of  every  worthy  citizen  should  be  recorded, 
and  where  each  step  of  the  marvelous  growth  which  the  city  of  Chicago 
made  should  leave  its.,  impress,  so  that  all  the  future  might  forever  be 
able  to  mark  and  distinguish  it? 

"  The  general  purpose  of  the  society  cannot  be  better  set  forth  than  in 
the  brief  statement  in  its  charter :  which  recites  in  forceful  language  that, 

"  '  It  is  conducive  to  the  public  good  of  a  State  to  encourage  such  insti 
tutions  as  have  for  their  object  to  collect  and  preserve  the  memorials 
of  its  founders  and  benefactors  as  well  as  the  historical  evidences  of 
its  progress  in  settlement  and  population,  and  in  the  arts,  improve 
ments,  and  institutions  which  distinguish  a  civilized  community,  and  to  trans 
mit  the  same 'for  the  'instruction  and  benefit  of  future  generations.' 

"We  are  'citizens  of  no  mean  city,'  and  it  is  inconceivable  that  an 
appeal  to  us  in  furtherance  of  purposes  so  worthy  as  these  should  pass 
unheeded.  No  man  who  has  led  a  useful  life  or  achieved  anything  wor 
thy  of  remembrance  can  lack  that  proper  regard  for  the  good  opinion  of 
those  who  are  to  come  after  him,  which  would  inspire  him  with  a  desire 
to  have  the  record  of  his  life  preserved  and  its  story  fittingly  told.  A 
city  which  does  not  care  to  have  its  records  preserved,  you  may  rest 
assured,  has  made  no  record  worthy  of  preservation. 

"The  Chicago  Historical  Society,  for  the  first  time  in  its  long  and 
honorable  career,  appeals  to  this  great  and  generous  public  to  ,aid  it  in 
establishing  itself  upon  a  broad  and  permanent  basis,  and  to  erect  such 
a  building  as  \\;11  be  suitable  for  its  uses,  and  worthy  of  this  city  and 


HISTORICAL   CHICAGO.  733 

of  this  people.  We  can  afford  to  stop  long  enough  in  the  rush  of  our 
daily  life  to  listen  to  and  appreciate  this  appeal.  The  society  has  at  its 
disposal  a  fund  known  as  the  Gilpin  fund,  which  now  amounts  to  over 
548,000.  By  the  provisions  of  Mr.  Gilpin' s  will,  the  income  accumulated 
after  ten  years  is  devoted  to  the  erection  of  a  fire-proof  library  build 
ing,  to  be  a  part  of  a  fire-proof  edifice  of  said  society  when  one  shall 
be  erected,  to  be  in  itself  fire-proof,  entirely  Distinct  from  any  other 
portion  of  said  edifice,  though  connected  with  it  and  forming  a  part  of 
it,  and  to  be  designated  the  Gilpin  Library  of  the  Historical  Society  of 
Chicago.  A  portion  of  this  income  will  become  available  for  building 
purposes  in  1884.  The  time  has  come  when  Chicago  must  in  this  direction 
do  something  worthy  of  itself.  We  can  no  longer  plead  infancy  nor  lack 
of  means.  We  must  not  forget  that  a  city  may  have  a  trade  so  extended 
that  its  fibers  shall  interlace  the  fate  of  kingdoms,  and  yet  not  be  great. 
What  seems  to  be  prosperity  is  not  always  prosperous.  What  seems  to  be 
very  great  is  sometimes  very  small  and  very  mean.  Business  is  not  the 
chief  end  of  man ;  nor  does  successful  trade  constitute  the  sum  of  human 
existence.  The  wonders  of  London  are  not  its  great  business  houses  ;  more 
visitors  throng  Westminster  Abbey,  where  lie  buried  the  great  of  England's 
history,  than  its  bank,  where  the  wealth  of  the  world  and  all  the  power 
of  that  wealth  are  found.  The  humble  home  in  the  quiet  village  where 
Shakespeare  was  bdrn  is  a  Mecca  to  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  the  name 
Stratford-on-Avon  is  known  wherever  the  English  language  is  spoken  or 
human  genius  finds  a  worshiper.  The  friezes  of  the  Parthenon  are  still 
preserved  to  tell  the  story  of  the  glory  of  Athens,  but  the  dust  and  ashes 
of  more  than  1,500  years  have  buried  from  human  observation  all  that 
ever  was  of  its  trade  and  commerce. 

"It  is  time  that  we  should  pause  long  enough  to  make  the  inquiry 
whether  our  growth  has  been  a  well  rounded,  well  proportioned  growth 
and  development ;  whether  it  has  not  been  excessively  in  one  direction, 
and  that ,  not  the  noblest  nor  the  best  direction.  What,  to  represent  the 
intellectual  and  artistic  progress  and  advancement  of  Chicago,  have  we 
to  place  beside  our  enormous  elevators  and  warehouses,  our  stock 
yards,  our  packing  houses,  our  great  wholesale  houses  and  places  of 
business,  our  splendid  private  residences  ?  Our  poverty  in  this  direction 
becomes  painfully  manifest  the  moment  we  undertake  to  answer  this 
question  ;  for  the  answer  must  be — nothing.  Our  Public  Library  is  in  the 
upper  stories  of  a  business  block,  far  from  being  fire-proof.  The 
Academy  of  Sciences  struggles  painfully  along,  and  leads  a  chilled  and 
neglected  life,  in  a  rented  home.  We  have  practically  no  public  Art 
Gallery.  Our  University,  uncompleted,  has  struggled  along  through  mani 
fold  difficulties,  and  barely  survives.  We  have  no  great  school,  of  art 
or  science  or  music.  How  many  in  this  pushing,  prosperous  city  can 
tell  me  where  the  building  of  the  Chicago  Historical  Society  is  located? 
Be  assured  that  we  shall  never  reach  the  full  stature  of  a  really  great 
city  until  we  have  enlarged  the  field  of  our  achievements,  and  made 
Chicago  not  only  a  point  from  which  grain  and  cattle  and  lumber  and 


734  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

merchandise  shall  be  distributed  over  half  a  continent,  but  also  a  center 
from  which  the  light  of  a  pure,  intellectual  and  moral  civilization  and 
culture  shall  be  disseminated. 

"Our  history,  brief  as  it  is,  is  studded  with  splendid  events;  but  the 
melancholy  truth  is  that  even  these  are,  for  the  lack  of  permanent 
preservation,  fast  passing  into  mere  tradition. 

"Let  me  turn  back  the  page  of  our  history  twenty-two  years.  In  those 
long  ago  days — long  ago  for  this  young  city — a  boy,  fired  with  military 
ardor  and  inspired  with  the  genius  of  military  drill  and  organization, 
gathered  together  a  few  young  men,  and  day  after  day,  week  after  week, 
month  after  month,  drilled  them  upon  the  lake  shore,  and  finally  we 
began  to  hear  of  Ellsworth's  Zouaves.  Almost  unnoticed,  even  at  home, 
this  small  military  organization  at  once  achieved  a  fame,  which  became 
world  wide,  and  carried  the  name  of  Chicago  with  it.  I  recall  with 
pride  the  triumphal  tour  which  they  made  through  the  great  cities  of 
the  Union,  the  wonder  and  admiration  which  their  marvelous  drill  and 
discipline  everywhere  excited;  and  who  that  lived  in  Chicago  at  that  time 
can  ever  forget  the  pride  with  which  they  were  received,  the  whole  city 
turning  out  to  meet  them  on  their  return?  At  their  head  marched  John 
Wentworth,  a  fitting  representative  of  the  young  and  tremendously  energetic 
city.  I  think  the  proudest  and  the  happiest  man  I  ever  saw  was  John 
Wentworth  that  night,  and  well  he  might  be  proud  and  happy.  The  city 
whose  honor  and  whose  good  name  he  held  as  dearly  as  his  own  had 
achieved  fresh  laurels  through  the  zeal  and  energy  of  her  comparatively 
unknown  boys.  To  the  famous  wigwam  they  marched,  where  thousands 
had  gathered  to  greet  and  welcome  them,  and  they  were  received  and  wel 
comed  as  they  deserved  to  be  received  and  welcomed,  and  as  the  large- 
hearted  citizens  of  Chicago  knew  so  well  how  to  receive  and  welcome  her 
sons  who  had  reflected  honor  upon  her.  Very  soon  was  this  famous  organ 
ization  to  pass  into  history.  Its  officers  and  its  privates  were  found  on  all 
the  great  battle-fields  of  the  rebellion,  and  the  military  spirit  which  it  kind 
led  spread  through  the  whole  North.  Its  boy  organizer  died  very  young,  at 
the  threshhold  of  the  rebellion,  one  of  the  first  to  die  for  his  country.  Col 
onel  Scott  nobly  fell  in  the  same  great  cause,  and  many  others  offered  their 
lives  for  their  imperiled  country. 

"One  would  suppose  that  a  record  so  glorious  Chicago  would  carefully 
gather  and  sacredly  preserve.  But  where  is  the  record  ?  But  a  few  days 
since  Colonel  Knox,  one  of  the  old  Ellsworth  Zouaves,  brought  to  my 
office  a  scrap-book  filled  with  the  records  of  the  Zouaves,  the  accounts 
published  in  the  papers  of  the  various  cities  through  which  they  passed 
on  their  famous  trip,  and  a  history  of  the  organization  itself.  In  my  esti 
mate  such  material  is  priceless  in  its  value.  But  where  shall  we  preserve 
it  ?  The  proper  custodian  is  the  Chicago  Historical  Society ;  but  it  must 
have  such  a  home  that  its  treasures  may  be  surely  preserved  from  harm  ; 
and  when  such  a  home  is  furnished,  as  it  will  be,  there  will  flow  to  it 
naturally  every  fragment  of  history  from  which  the  completed  storv  of  Chi 
cago  and  the  North-west  may  be  told. 


HISTORICAL   CHICAGO.  735 

"Surely,  one  of  the  grandest  events  in  our  history  was  President  Lincoln's 
Proclamation  of  Emancipation.  The  original  document  came  into  the  hands 
of  Mr.  Arnold,  and  was  by  him  deposited  with  the  Historical  Society. 
Who  now  would  undertake  to  estimate  the  value  of  that  document?  But 
in  the  great  fire  it  was  destroyed. 

"  In  connection  with  this  great  dccument,  I  recall  another  historic  event 
in  the  annals  of  our  city.  We  will  remember  how  the  minds  of  men  were 
divided  concerning  the  wisdom  of  the  proclamation.  Brave  words  must  at 
once  be  spoken.  The  hands  of  the  President  must  be  strengthened.  The 
legality  and  wisdom  of  that  great  measure  must  be  made  clear.  A  meet 
ing  was  at  once  called  at  Bryan  Hall,  and  such  a  gathering  Chicago  had 
rarely  seen.  Resolutions  were  prepared,  setting  forth  the  necessity  for  the 
proclamation,  the  authority  of  the  President  to  issue  it,  and  the  reasons  in 
support  of  it.  These  resolutions,  adopted  by  that  meeting,  struck  the  key 
note  for  the  entire  North-west  and  furnished  the  foundation  upon  which  argu 
ments  in  its  support  were  based.  I  believe  that  we  owe  it  to  ourselves  to 
preserve  the  records  of  that  splendid  meeting  of  Chicago's  best  men  and 
women ;  and  when  the  new  building  is  completed,  I  will  place  among  the 
treasures  of  the  Historical  Society  of  Chicago  that  record. 

"  No  city  in  the  country  achieved  a  more  honorable  distinction  for 
patriotic  and  practical  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  Union  during  the 
war  than  the  city  of  Chicago ;  and  recalling  those  stirring  periods  to  my  mind 
and  to  yours,  the  Union  Defense  Committee,  organized  from  among  our 
best  citizens,  occupies  and  should  occupy  in  history  a  most  distinguished 
and  honorable  prominence.  This  large  committee  of  practical,  patriotic,  and 
zealous  men  entered  with  an  enthusiasm  into  the  National  cause  which  was 
felt  throughout  the  whole  country.  It  organized  a  system  for  the  filling  up 
and  recruiting  of  our  armies,  for  the  procuring  of  arms,  for  furnishing  sup 
plies  to  soldiers  in  the  field,  for  encouraging  and  sustaining  those  who 
remained  at  home,  and  gave  the  President  such  assurances  as  he  could  not 
fail  to  appreciate  and  understand,  that  among  the  great  body  of  the  citizens 
of  Chicago  the  cause  of  the  government  would  find  at  all  times,  and  under 
all  circumstances,  tried  and  trusted  friends.  I  doubt  whether  the  history  of 
that  famous  committee  has  ever  been  collected  or  put  into  shape.  Scores 
of  its  members  are  still  living,  active  and  honored  citizens  among  us.  No 
one  who  has  the  honor  of  Chicago  at  heart  can  feel  otherwise  than  the 
necessity  of  rescuing  from  tradition  the  history  of  that  great  work,  and  sav 
ing  for  the  admiration  of  our  children  and  our  children's  children  that  story 
of  clear-headed,  high-hearted,  resolute,  and  practical  patriotism. 

"  In  those  eventful  periods  during  the  war,  all  distinctions  of  birth  or 
previous  nationality  were  obliterated.  The  name  of  Colonel  Mulligan 
stands  high  upon  the  list  of  those  who  fell  in  the  defence  of  an  imperiled 
country,  and  if  any  duty  is  sacred,  it  is  that  Chicago  shall  treasure  his 
among  her  honored  names,  and  give  the  story  of  his  noble  and  patriotic 
life  and  death  an  enduring  place  among  her  annals.  I  cannot  fail  to 
recall  another  notable  event  of  that  period.  Stirred  by  a  feeling  common 
to  all  our  countrymen,  the  Jewish  citizens  of  Chicago,  assembled  at  a  great 


LIFE    OF   EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

meeting  in  Bryan  Hall,  and  almost  at  the  very  threshold  of  the  war, 
raised  and  completely  armed  and  equipped  a  company  of  their  own  people, 
for  the  defense  of  our  common  country. 

"  But  to  recall  and  recount  all  the  worthy  achievements  of  Chicago  during 
that  period  would  be  the  work,  not  of  an  evening,  but  of  days  and  weeks. 
Each  one  of  us  grows  prouder  of  our  city  as  we  recount  the  great  deeds 
which  it  has  done  ;  and  we  are  all,  I  am  sure,  anxious  that  the  record  of 
these  deeds  shall  not  be  permitted  to  perish.  The  time  will  come,  if  the 
material  out  of  which  history  is  wrought  and  poems  are  made  is  preserved, 
that  a  history  whose  pages  shall  glisten  with  worthy  achievements,  and  the 
poem  which  shall  recount  heroic  exploits,  shall  be  written,  telling  what 
historic  Chicago  was. 

"The  brave  spirit  of  Chicago  during  the  war  had  not  left  us  in  1871.  I 
can  never  forget  how,  as  we  sat  in  the  ashes  and  desolation  of  the  city, 
resolute,  noble  men  gathered  where  shelter  could  be  found,  even  among 
smoking  ruins,  and  proceeded  to  the-  business  of  the  hour,  and  to  the 
maturing  of  some  scheme  by  which  Chicago  might  be  rebuilt.  All  the 
records  of  our  courts  had  been  destroyed  ;  the  evidences  of  title  to  property 
had  been  swept  away.  To  a  less  sturdy  and  less  practical  community  the  con 
dition  of  things  would  have  seemed  like  anarchy.  But  there  was  no  rioting  in 
our  streets.  From  the  first  moment  the  work  of  reconstruction  began,  liberal 
schemes  were  devised  by  which  the  machinery  of  the  courts  was  at  once 
set  to  work  ;  foundations  were  laid  for  the  restoration  of  our  titles,  and  so 
wisely  was  this  great  work  done  that,  looking  back  upon  it,  we  can  hardly 
perceive  that  there  was  a  jar  in  the  general  current  of  those  affairs.  This 
history  must  be  preserved.  It  is  not  only  due  to  ourselves,  but  to  the 
future,  that  it  should  be  preserved.  It  is  but  common  propriety  that  a 
people  who  have  achieved  so  nobly  and  so  largely  should,  when  fortune 
has  smiled  upon  them  as  she  has  smiled  upon  Chicago,  when  prosperity- 
has  been  enthroned  above  all  its  business,  remember  not  only  itself  but 
the  future  to  come  after  it,  which  has  the  right  to  know  that  history,  and 
take  hope  and  courage  from  it. 

"However  much  Chicago  may  have  failed  to  perform  the  full  measure 
of  her  duties  in  the  cultivation  and  encouragement  of  literature  and  the  arts, 
she  has  not  failed  in  her  charities.  For  charity's  sake,  Chicago  was  never 
appealed  to  in  vain.  Her  hospitals,  public  and  private,  are  an  honor  not 
only  to  the  city  but  to  human  nature ;  and  if  the  story  of  what  Chicago  has 
done  to  relieve  the  poor,  the  needy,  and  the  suffering,  the  homeless,  the 
friendless,  and  the  orphan,  could  be  half  told  it  would  reflect  a  lustre 
greater  than  was  ever  conferred  by  her  proudest  commercial  achievement. 

"Its  capacity  for  intelligent  self-government  has  been  repeatedly  demon 
strated  and  its  people  never  yet  undertook  to  correct  evils  of  municipal 
government,  or  frauds  of  administration,  that  they  did  not  abundantly  suc 
ceed.  There  is  to-day  an  awakened  interest  in  the  individual  responsibility 
of  the  citizen  for  good  government,  honorable  to  the  citizen  and  pointing  to 
results  the  most  beneficent  in  the  future. 

"The  imperial  city,  the  youngest  born  of  all  the  great  cities  of  the  world. 


HISTORICAL   CHICAGO.  737 

is  old  in  what  it  has  achieved.  The  sunshine  of  success  illuminates  its 
great  enterprises,,  and  prosperity  sits  enthroned,  presiding  over  its  marts  of 
trade.  The  wildest  dreams  of  its  founders  have  been  realized  tenfold.  In 
its  generous  rivalry  with  older  cities  it  has  again  and  again  crowned  itself 
with  the  wreaths  of  victory,  and  regnant  like  a  queen,  looking  across  the 
waters  of  the  great  lake,  taking  the  sun  full  in  its  front,  our  beloved  city 
sits,  so  young  but  so  great,  her  brow  decked  with  a  shining  crown,  studded 
and  jeweled  with  noble  deeds. 

"As  I  have  already  said,  all  these  events,  and  thousands  of  others,  to 
which  I  have  not  alluded,  make  the  Chicago  of  the  present.  What  shall 
the  future  Chicago  be?  In  no  worthy  particular,  less  in  any  respect  than 
the  Chicago  of  to-day  ;  in  many  worthy  particulars,  infinitely  greater  than 
the  Chicago  of  to-day.  My  fellow  citizens,  we  must  remember  that  we  are 
building  a  city,  and  making  for  it  a  character,  not  for  ourselves  alone,  but 
for  generations  to  tcome  after  us.  What  the  Chicago  of  the  next  generation 
shall  be  it  is  for  the  Chicago  of  the  present  generation  to  determine.  In 
what  sort  of  city  the  millions  who  shall  inhabit  Chicago  in  the  future  shall 
live,  the  650,000  people  who  inhabit  Chicago  to-day  must  decide.  It  is  for 
none  of  us  to  unveil  the  future,  nor  to  make  the  yet  dumb  days  that  are 
to  come  speak  to  us  ;  but  I  think  it  requires  no  great  gift  of  prophesy  or 
inspiration  to  unseal  those  closed  lips  and  have  them  tell  us  what  the  future 
of  Chicago  is  to  be.  Into  that  future  shall  be  projected  all  the  nobility,  all 
the  heroism,  all  the  self-sacrificing  hard  work,  all  the  zeal,  all  the  rugged, 
practical  good  sense  of  the  Chicago  of  all  the  days  that  are  past.  Every 
one  of  these  good  deeds  speak  to  all  the  future  ;  every  medal  which  recounts 
a  worthy  achievement,  every  monument  on  whose  bronze  or  marble  case  is 
recorded  the  story  of  a  noble  life,  is  a  message  from  the  past  to  all  the 
future.  There  is  not  a  fresco  brought  to  light  from  old  Pompeii,  buried 
i, 800  years  ago,  that  does  not  speak  with  manifold  voices  to  the  peoples  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  There  is  not  a  battered  banner  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion,  there  is  not  a  truthful  story  of  the  worthy  achievement  of  an  old 
settler  of  Chicago,  that  is  not  perpetual  in  its  influence,  and  is  not  addressed, 
voiceful  and  inspiring,  even  through  all  the  centuries.  We  do  not  look  far 
into  the  future  but  that  we  hear  the  tramp  of  millions  of  feet  coming  hither- 
ward  to  fill  up  and  occupy  the  fields  of  the  fruitful  Northwest.  We  hear 
in  every  breeze  that  blows,  in  the  generations  that  are  to  come  across  the 
Atlantic,  the  winds  that  bring  to  our  shores  the  countless  thousands  of  the 
old  world,  looking  for  more  prosperous  and  for  freer  homes.  If  we  but 
listen,  we  hear  the  tread  of  advancing  multitudes.  They  come  to  us,  and 
we  must  be  prepared  to  receive  them.  We  see  a  great  city  stretching  its 
arms  across  the  prairie,  with  its  streets  thronged  and  populous,  with  its 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands  of  contented  homes,  with  its  shops  filled 
with  busy  and  prosperous  artisans,  with  its  schools  giving  the  benefit  of  a 
liberal  and  a  free  education  to  all  who  may  desire  it,  its  courts  presided 
over  by  wise  and  just  judges,  its  business  centers  inspired  by  the  highest 
commercial  probity,  its  manufacturers  sending  their  products  all  round  the 
globe,  the  white  sails  of  its  commerce  glistening  upon  every  sea,  its  religion 
47 


738  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

absolutely  free,  its  patriotism  as  broad  as  the  republic ;  we  see  it  the  center 
of  sound  political  thought  and  action ;  and  we  shall,  I  am,  sure,  see,  rising 
in  the  presence  and  by  the  very  side  of  warehouses  and  great  business 
structures,  fitting  homes  for  music,  the  drama,  and  all  the  arts.  We  see  it 
the  resort,  not  merely  of  men  who  would  trade,  but  we  see  trade  itself 
inspired  with  the  loftiest  purposes.  The  scholar,  the  poet,  the  actor,  the 
painter,  the  sculptor — all  these  we  see  in  this  future,  and  not  so  very  far, 
seeking  Chicago  as  a  chosen  home,  because  in  the  great  city  their  music, 
their  sculpture,  their  painting,  are  all  welcomed,  and  all  find  ready  and 
worthy  appreciation. 

"The  Historical  Society  of  Chicago  is  not  only  the  proper,  but  I  speak  in 
no  invidious  sense  when  I  say  the  only  nucleus  which  we  now  have  for  this 
great  future.  The  men  who  have  spanned  continents  with  their  enterprise 
can  make  this  society  what  it  deserves  to  be,  and  they  will  make  it  what  it 
deserves  to  be. 

"My  fellow  citizens,  the  new  building  is  to  be  erected.  That  decision  is 
made  beyond  all  power  of  reversal.  The  simple  inquiry  now  is,  Who  shall 
have  the  honor  of  contributing  toward  it?  Who  shall  take  part  in  this 
great  revival  of  letters,  and  the  arts  and  sciences  in  Chicago?  I  answer, 
every  man  shall  take  a  part,  and  that  when  Chicago  is  appealed  to  for 
such  a  purpose,  and  in  such  a  cause,  the  response  shall  be  as  universal  as 
the  appeal  is  broad,  and  that  the  response  which  Chicago  will  make  will 
be  put  up  to  the  full  measure  of  the  merit  of  the  cause  to  promote  which 
they  are  asked  to  contribute.  And  when  this  splendid  record  finally  comes 
to  be  made,  not  the  smallest  among  the  great  events  of  its  history  will  be 
not  only  what  we  this  night  achieve,  but  the  influence  which  we  this  night 
put  into  active  operation.  Chicago  is  a  patriotic  city,  but  it  has  an  intelli 
gent  and  practical  patriotism.  We  love  our  city  not  merely  because  it  is 
busy  and  populous  ;  we  love  it  so  well  that  we  would  not  retain  its  blem 
ishes  nor  encourage  its  faults;  but  we  are  brave  enough  and  fair  enough, 
and  love  it  well  enough  to  remove  its  blemishes  and  correct  its  faults.  We 
shall  live  to  see  the  realization  of  our  fondest  dreams  and  our  highest  hopes 
for  this  great  city.  We  shall  live  to  see  it  the  center,  not  only  of  trade, 
but  of  the  purest  and  highest  intellectual  exertion.  We  shall  live  to  see 
monuments  of  the  arts,  great  libraries,  temples  where  history  may  be  pre 
served  all  about  us.  And  we  shall  live  to  see  the  day  when  every  one  who 
takes  part  in  this  movement  will  be  thankful  that  he  ever  had  such  an 
opportunity,  and  when  his  children  will  thank  him  for  what  he  did  for  the 
glory  of  this  imperial  city. 

"Let  the  new  building  rise,  worthy  of  its  purpose  and  worthy  of  Chicago, 
on  foundations  strong,  enduring,  and  it  shall  ere  long  gather  within  its  walls 
a  history  as  proud  and  as  worthy  as  was  ever  recorded  of  any  city  of  which 
historic  annals  furnish  us  a  record." 


EXECUTWE     MANSION. 

WASHINGTON 


^  «-^ 

<^!fyu^_s  ,A 


CHAPTER  XLII. 


THE  CAMPAIGN  OF  1884. 

SCENE  AT  THE  CLOSING  OF  THE  CHICAGO  REPUBLICAN  CONVENTION — AN 
ORATORICAL  ACHIEVEMENT — AN  ELOQUENT  SPEECH  INSPIRED  BY  A 
TUMULT — SPEECHES  ELSEWHERE  DURING  A  CAMPAIGN  OF  FIVE  MONTHS — 
BRISTLING  WIT  AT  BOSTON,  IN  TREMONT  TEMPLE — DEFENSE  OF  THE 
'  RIFF-RAFF  OF  THE  WEST — OUR  NATION'S  SHAME — THE  TARIFF  QUESTION 
AGAIN— RECORDS  OF  TWO  RIVAL  POLITICAL  ORGANIZATIONS— DEFEAT  OF 
HIS  PARTY,  BUT  FAITH  IN  THE  FUTURE. 

THE  political  campaign  of  1884,  though  ending  with  defeat  to 
his  party,  opened  with  an  oratorical  victory  for  Mr.  Storrs. 
He  had  been  an  earnest  advocate,  both  prior  to  the  Republican 
national  convention  and  as  a  delegate  during  its  session,  for  the 
renomination  of  Chester  A.  Arthur  whose  presidential  career  had 
reflected  dignity  and  honor  upon  the  party;  but  true  to  his  often- 
repeated  expression  that  the  will  of  the  majority  should  rule  in  poli 
tics,  when  Elaine  and  Logan  had  carried  the  convention,  he  did 
not  "sulk  in  camp"  but  at  once  joined  in  making  the  nomina 
tion  unanimous  and,  the  very  night  of  the  decision  as  to  who 
should  be  the  Republican  standard  bearers  for  1884,  began  pub 
lic  work  for  the  nominees.  It  was  Friday  night,  June  6,  the 
great  auditorium  in  the  Exposition  building,  in  which  the  con 
vention  had  been  held,  had  been  filled  by  a  restless  crowd 
assembled  in  the  expectation  of  having  some  of  the  eminent 
orators  in  attendance  speak  in  ratification  of  the  nominations  of 
the  day,  but  the  convention  devoted  itself  to  finishing  the  uncom 
pleted  routine  business  of  the  organization.  Late  in  the  evening, 
certain  speakers  arose  and  attempted  to  make  addresses,  but  the 
now  disappointed  audience  hissed  them  severally  to  their  seats. 
A  motion  to  adjourn  had  been  carried,  and  a  general  movement 

739 


74O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

started  for  the  doors,  when  a  loud  call  was  made  for  Robert  G. 
Ingersoll.  He  was  not  present;  and,  then,  there  arose  a  cry  for 
"Storrs!  Storrs!"  Said  the  Tribune  t  the  following  Sunday,  "He 
was  fairly  carried  to  the  platform,  and,  without  any  other  inspira 
tion  than  the  excitements  of  the  moment,  made  an  address  which 
will  rival  any  of  Ingersoll's  brilliant  efforts.  It  was  full  of  sar 
casm  and  humor,  and  as  sparkling  as  a  glass  of  champagne. 
His  characterization  of  Blaine  was  admirably  concise  and  to  the 
point,  and  his  arraignment  of  the  Democracy  was  the  most 
scathing  and  severe — and  all  the  more  severe  because  it  was 
studded  with  humor  and  satire — that  that  party  has  ever  been 
called  upon  to  face."  One  reference  to  the  Democratic  party 
was: 

"I  have  seen  in  one  of  their  platforms  that  they  propose  to  enter  on 
business  with  no  capital  except  the  purity  of  their  principles.  Was  there 
ever  such  a  bankrupt  concern  with  such  a  capital?  They  say  that  is  all 
that  they  have  to  offer  for  the  suffrages  of  the  people.  My  God !  my 
friends.  A  man  that  will  work  on  these  terms  will  work  for  nothing  and 
board  himself.  Won't  you  think  of  that  dear,  delightful  old  daisy,  if  she 
could  take  physical  form,  which  we  call  the  Democratic  party,  entering 
into  business  upon  the  purity  of  her  principles?  She  has  kept  a  house  of 
political  ill-fame  for  more  than  twenty  years.  She  has  entertained  every 
dishonest  political  notion  and  every  disreputable  political  tramp  on  the  con 
tinent  during  that  period  of  time.  I  think  I  see  her  marching  up  to  the 
ingenuous  American  citizen,  with  her  shawl  twisted  around  her  shoulders, 
with  brass  jewelry  in  her  ears,  out  at  the  toes,  with  a  drunken  leer  of  silly 
invitation  in  her  eye,  with  maiden  coyness ;  professing  to  do  business  on 
the  purity  of  her  principles.  I  would  not  for  the  world  say  anything  dis 
respectful  of  the  Democratic  party.  There  are  certain  things  about  it  that 
attract  me  ;  but  1  regard  it  a  little  as  I  do  a  waterspout,  which  I  like  to 
look  at  from  a  distance,  but  dislike  to  get  too  near  to ;  and  when  I  see  one 
of  its  processions — and  we  will  see  many  of  them  during  this  campaign — I 
feel  about  them  as  our  old  friend  Strode,  in  this  State,  did  when  he 
described  an  experience  of  his  own  in  the  Black  Hawk  War.  He  said : 
'By  the  dim  light  of  the  setting  sun,  on  a  distant  eminence,  I  saw  a  hostile 
band.  They  were  gentlemen  without  hats;  I  did  not  know  who  they  were, 
but  I  knew  d — d  well  they  were  no  friends  of  mine.'" 

The  following  description  of  the  triumphant  march  of  the 
Republican  party  aroused  overwhelming  enthusiasm,  pronounced 
as  it  was  amid  convention  excitement,  and  with  all  the  unusual 
elocutionary  powers  of  Mr.  Storrs: 

"The  night  is  closing  down  upon  us,  the  old  diabolism  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  is  not  yet  gone.  Another  convention  will  be  held  here  next 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  741 

month.  Tilden  will  probably  be  nominated.  It  is  possible  that  he  is 
already  dead,  but,  with  the  slyness  and  secretiveness  of  the  author  of  the 
cipher  dispatches,  he  might  be  dead  two  years  and  never  let  anybody- 
know  it.  We  will  run  substances  against  shadows.  We  will  run  living, 
breathing  men,  with  bone,  and  flesh,  and  muscle,  and  appetite,  against 
ghostly  reflections  such  as  he.  They  tell  us  that  he  may  carry  New  York. 
New  York  is  a  great,  practical,  splendid  business  State.  It  was  my  great 
good  fortune  to  be  born  there.  It  is  the  old  Empire  State.  It  stands  like 
the  angel  of  the  Apocalypse,  with  one  foot  resting  upon  the  sea  and  the 
other  upon  the  land,  the  mistress  of  both.  It  has  the  spirit  of  Elaine  and 
Logan  in  its  bosom.  The  old  Republicanism  of  that  State  which  challenged 
the  diabolism  of  Democracy  thirty  years  ago  has  still  within  its  heart  the 
old  undying  and  imperishable  faith.  It  will  carry  this  banner,  you  may 
rest  assured,  forward  through  the  storms  and  fires  of  the  conflict  upon  which 
»  we  are  about  to  enter  to  triumph  and  to  victory.  There  may  be  those  who 
will  hesitate  and  falter  by  the  roadside.  There  may  be  those  who  will 
weary  in  this  magnificent  march.  The  campaign  is  now  upon  us.  We 
have  no  time  for  liniments  or  poultices.  We  cannot  stop  to  heal  the  infirm. 
The  lame  men  must  fall  behind,  the  cripples  be  relegated  to  the  rear.  The 
great,  healthy,  splendid  marching  of  the  Republican  millions  taking  up  this 
banner  will  place  it,  you  may  be  sure,  upon  the  topmost  eminences  of  mag 
nificent  victory." 

He  told  of  his  love  for  political  warfare  in  the  words: 

"  Music  is  in  all  the  air.  I  feel  its  old  pulsings  in  my  very  veins  to-night. 
I  know  what  this  feels  like,  and  I  know  what  the  awakened  excitement  and 
enthusiasm  of  a  great  and  mighty  party  indicate.  I  hear  the  old  songs  of 
the  old  days.  I  see  the  old  flag,  with  every  star  glistening  like  a  planet, 
filling  all  the  skies.  I  see  the  old  procession  formed.  I  care  not  where  my 
place  in  that  procession  may  be — whether  it  be  up  in  the  front,  under  the 
light  of  the  blessed  old  banner,  or  down  near  the  rear — I  listen  to  the 
order  *  Forward,'  and  I  march,  as  you  will  march,  with  your  faces  toward 
the  flag." 

"Friday  night,"  said  the  Chicago  Times  editorialy,  "there  was  a 
demonstration  of  the  power  of  a  bright  and  adroit  orator  over  a 
vast  and  turbulent  multitude  such  as  is  rarely  witnessed.  All 
the  evening  the  convention  had  been  in  a  state  of  disorder.  The 
regular  speakers  who  arose  to  second  a  popular  nomination  were 
geeted  with  cat-calls  and  yells  of  'Time!'  that  were  calculated  to 
disconcert  anyone,  and  that  drove  one  or  two  speakers  to  their 
seats  with  their  speeches  unfinished.  All  the  business  of  the 
session  was  completed.  A  motion  to  adjourn  sine  die  had  been 
carried,  and  the  whole  concourse  was  in  motion  toward  the  doors, 
and  two  or  three  thousand  people  had  left  the  hall.  At  this 
time  Mr.  Emery  Storrs  was  brought  to  the  platform  and  commenced 


742  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

to  make  a  speech.  To  a  large  portion  of  the  people  present 
he  was  unknown.  He  caught  the  attention  of  the  people  nearest 
to  him  with  a  few  words,  and  the  outpour  was  checked.  Some 
degree  of  order  was  secured,  and  he  went  on.  The  throngs 
manifested  some  interest.  Presently  the  six  or  seven  thousand 
people  in  the  hall,  who  were  on  their  feet  to  go  out,  and  most 
of  whom  were  up  till  2  o'clock  the  previous  night,  and  who  had 
been  too  restless  to  listen  respectfully  to  the  regular  speakers  of 
the  evening,  sat  down.  For  more  than  half  an  hour  Mr.  Storrs 
went  on  with  one  of  his  characteristic  campaign  speeches,  full  of 
apt  illustrations  and  bright  points,  and  the  audience  sat  through 
it  with  the  utmost  order  and  attention,  and  the  only  calls  made 
by  Mr.  Storrs'  auditors  were  to  'Talk  this  way!'  when  he  turned 
toward  the  stage,  and  to  '  Go  on ! '  when  he  made  a  movement 
to  stop.  In  catching  a  large,  disorderly,  and  tired  crowd  on  the 
wing,  so  to  speak,  and  not  only  holding  its  attention  but  eliciting 
cries  for  more,  Mr.  Storrs  won  an  oratorical  success  that  is  not 
often  achieved." 

The  campaign  work  thus  taken  up,  Mr.  Storrs  found  it  impossible 
to  push  aside  until  the  months  which  intervened  between  that 
date  and  the  day  of  election  were  passed.  Elaine  wrote  "The 
boys  in  Maine  are  crazy  after  you.  You  must  come;"  Jewell 
urged,  "There  is  no -use  in  dodging  California,  for  they  clamor 
after  you;"  from  nearly  every  State  committee  came  letters  and 
telegrams  begging  for  a  speech.  Devotion  to  party,  love  of  pub 
lic  speaking,  did  the  rest.  Throwing  aside  his  own  interests,  sacri 
ficing  perhaps  more  than  any  other  man  in  the  country,  he 
responded  to  every  call  within  his  power.  The  week  following 
the  convention,  he  inaugurated  the  Ohio  campaign  by  a  speech 
in  the  Music  Hall  of  Cincinnati,  amid  scenes  which  seemed  to 
follow  his  voice  all  over  the  land.  The  Enquirer,  an  organ  bitterly 
opposed  to  Elaine,  said  of  the  meeting,  "  The  audience,  hundreds 
of  whom  were  ladies,  seemed  to  have  gone  daft  .  .  .  people  stood 
up  all  over  the  house  waving  arms  and  flags,  until  from  the 
stage  the  scene  presented  the  appearance  of  a  vast  field  of  grain 
violently  swayed  by  cross  currents  of  wind.  It  was  useless  to 
attempt  to  check  the  tumult."  The  same  paper  described  Mr. 
Storrs,  after  his  introduction,  as  follows;  "  Mr.  Storrs,  dapper  and 
wiry,  arrayed  in  a  faultlessly  fitting  dress  suit,  stepped  to  the 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  743 

front,  where  with  easy  self-possession  he  waited  for  a  cessation 
of  the  applause  before  he  spoke.  A  master  of  oratory,  his  voice, 
full,  deep  and  round,  rolled  out  in  perfect  utterance,  filling  every 
corner  of  the  hall.  It  was  oratory  without  effort.  Every  word, 
clearly  cut  and  distinct,  was  delivered  with  that  rare  quality,  an 
agreeable  sound." 

Without  attempting  to  give  the  speech  in  full,  two  or  three 
selections  will  show  its  strength.  He  referred  to  the  Republican 
convention  of  1884,  and  to  its  nominee,  in  the  following  words: 

"A  few  words  about  that  convention — in  some  respects  the  most  notable 
we  have  ever  had  in  this  country.  It  came  straight  from  the  body  of  the 
people  ;  every  Congressional  district  was  represented  ;  every  delegate  was 
responsible  to  his  constituents.  There  was  much  less  of  personal  bickering 
than  we  have  ever  before  witnessed.  There  was  no  chance  for  a  dark 
horse.  We  had  resolved  that  somebody's  first  choice  should  be  the  choice 
of  the  convention,  and  nobody  complains  except  the  followers  of  a  distin 
guished  man  who,  upon  the  final  test  of  his  strength,  received  as  a  vote 
less  than  one-twentieth  of  the  vote  of  the  convention.  Now,  gentlemen,  no 
complaint  can  be  made,  none  has  been  made,  none  will  be  made,  that  in 
the  result  which  you  are  to-night  ratifying  there  was  anything  else  or  other 
than  the  fairest  and  squarest  work.  It  is  needless  to  inquire  into  causes  ; 
there  is  no  mystery  about  it.  During  the  war,  you  remember,  there  was  a 
great  fight  between  the  Atlanta  and  the  Weehawken  in  Charleston  Harbor. 
The  Atlanta  went  down,  and  our  Democratic  Confederate  friends  busied 
themselves  with  furnishing  some  explanation  for  that  disastrous  result. 
Somebody  said  that  the  rudder  had  fouled ;  others  said  that  the  Captain 
was  drunk ;  others  said  that  the  water  *vas  too  deep  ;  others  said  that  the  water 
was  too  shallow  ;  and  by  and  by  some  plain  matter-of-fact  man  announced 
in  his  explanation  (possibly  political  conventions  suggested  that)  that  possibly 
a  three  hundred  pound  solid  shot  that  went  straight  through  the  sides  of 
the  Atlanta,  fired  from  the  Weehawken,  might  have  something  to  do  with 
the  sinking  of  the  ship. 

"So  was  Blaine  nominated,  simply  because  for  reasons  satisfactory  to 
themselves  the  people  of  this  country  had  so  willed  it,  and  there  was  no 
avoiding  the  result,  and  we  are  in  the  field  with  him  this  day.  What  are 
we  going  to  do  about  it:*  First  now,  gentlemen,  who  are  we  going  to  beat 
in  the  way  of  parties?  The  same  old  party  unanimously,  solidly,  unqualifi 
edly,  indescribably,  universally,  all  the  time,  every  time,  and  under  all  cir 
cumstances,  for  thirty  years  infernal,  develish." 

Upon  the  subject  of  our  navy,  he  said  what  every  thinking 
citizen  must  sometime  endorse: 

"The  history  of  James  G.  Blaine  is  known.  Slander  has  done  its  worst 
with  him.  This  is,  and  will  be,  no  defensive  campaign,  and  the  tattoos 
which  we  see  upon  him  are  inscripfons  of  splendid  achievements,  placed 


7/]/|  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

there  by  an  admiring  people,  who  have  lifted  him  away  above  the  slanders 
and  detractions  of  his  enemies,  and  placed  him  in  the  most  commanding 
position  of  the  nation  which  he  has  done  so  much  to  honor.  The  brokers 
of  Wall  street  are  afraid  of  Mr.  Elaine's  foreign  policy;  with  shuddering 
fear,  with  quivering  lips  and  with  trembling  hand  mention  a  foreign  policy 
and  they  instantly  hie  to  their  fortifications  and  their  earthworks.  What 
kind  of  a  foreign  policy  is  it  ?  \Vhat  kind  of  a  foreign  policy  does  our  plat 
form  demand?  What  kind  of  a  foreign  policy  do  you  require?  W7hat  kind 
of  a  foreign  policy  do  the  wants,  the  emergencies  and  necessities  of  the 
nation  imperatively  exact?  We  are  not  respected  abroad.  I  say  we  should 
be.  We  are  not  respected  at  home.  I  say  this  should  not  be.  I  want  no 
war;  I  want  only  the  summer  days  of  prosperous  peace.  I  know  of  but 
one  way  to  secure  it,  and  that  is  promptly  and  at  once  to  place  ourselves 
in  such  a  position  that  all  assault  can  be  so  readily  resented  that  none 
will  ever  be  made.  Without  a  navy,  the  sport  of  every  foreign  power, 
with  an  inadequate  coast  defense,  the  sport  of  every  foreign  power,  we 
invite  assault.  We  stand,  a  great,  big,  sturdy  nation,  with  our  hands  help 
lessly  by  our  sides,  utterly  unable,  not  only  to  protect  our  interests  elsewhere 
in  the  world,  but  utterly  unable  to  defend  ourselves  at  home. 

"The  condition  is  one  of  shame,  indignity  and  outrage  upon  ourselves 
that  every  spirited  American  will  see  is  at  once  corrected.  I  want  some 
thing  more  than  this.  Now  I  am  speaking  merely  for  myself:  I  am  bind 
ing  nobody.  The  time  has  come  when  the  old  notion  of  our  insularity  and 
freedom  from  attacks  by  foreign  powers  must  cease.  We  are  to-day  six 
days  from  Europe ;  nearer,  much  nearer,  than  Cincinnati  was  to  New  York 
fifty  years  ago.  We  have  trade  with  every  port ;  we  have  our  products  in 
every  civilized  land  beneath  the  sun.  Our  commercial  interests  are  extant 
everywhere ;  our  citizens  are  all  over  the  globe.  There  is  not  a  gun-boat 
over  which  the  flag  of  the  great  nation  floats,  adequate  to  protect  an  insulted 
American  in  the  meanest  seaport  of  the  smallest  nation  of  the  earth.  We 
are  interested  in  what  is  going  on  all  over  the  world.  Our  trade  must  be 
protected  and  cared  for  wherever  it  extends.  That  nation  is  unfit  to  be 
called  a  Nation  which  will  not  defend  the  imperiled  rights  of  its  citizens  at 
home  and  abroad  whenever  they  are  assailed.  I  give  to  my  country  allegi 
ance  ;  I  recognize  its  laws;  I  obey  loyally  and  willingly  in  all  cases  w^hen 
obedience  is  required  ;  I  pay  that  for  protection,  and  when  my  Government 
fails  to  give  it  to  me,  it  is  my  right  to  take  their  Constitution  in  my  hand 
and  say:  'You  blundering,  bullying,  bragging,  non-performing  fraud  of  a 
Government,  protect  me  as  you  have  agreed  to  do  or  quit  business.'" 

Perhaps  nowhere,  during  this  long  campaign,  which  was 
destined  to  be  the  last  for  his  participation,  was  Mr.  Storrs  more 
characteristically  witty,  nor  did  he  better  demonstrate  his  stump- 
speaking  powers,  than  at  Boston,  the  night  of  September  9th. 
The  gathering  was  at  Tremont  Temple.  The  Hon.  George  S. 
Boutwell  in  introducing  him,  said  "He  is  known  as  an  eminent 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  745 

lawyer,  a  sound  Republican,  and  in  politics  a  terror  to  evil  doers.' 
The  address  is  appended  as  reported  in  the  Boston  Herald,  of 
September  loth,  1884,  with  all  the  parentheses  and  interrogations 
as  in  that  journal  noted,  in  order  that  some  idea  may  be  con 
veyed  of  the  effect  of  those  rare  powers  of  expression  and  mimicry 
which  Mr.  Storrs  possessed.  The  report  ran : 

"Mr.  President,  Fellow-Citizens,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen — At  this  hour  of 
the  night,  it  would  be  presumptuous  for  me  to  make  anything  like  a  full 
and  elaborate  discussion  of  the  principles  involved  in  the  pending  presiden 
tial  campaign.  It  Seems  to  me,  since  I  have  read  the  papers  of  this  morn 
ing,  that  the  necessity  for  very  much  discussion  is  past,  and  that  political 
oratory  has  resolved  itself,  after  all,  pretty  much  into  a  howl  of  wild  delight 
on  one  side,  and  wailing  lamentations  on  the  other,  with  an  occasional 
bleak,  dismal  whistle  coming  from  the  brush  or  from  some  obscure  place 
intended,  no  doubt,  to  keep  up  the  courage  of  the  whistler.  I  am  not 
unmindful,  fellow-citizens,  whom  I  am  addressing.  [Applause.]  I  know  I 
am  in  Boston,  in  the  state  of  Massachusetts,  in  the  New  England  states. 
I  am  a  resident  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  I  am  a  citizen  of  the  United 
States.  [Applause.]  I  am,  with  you,  joint  proprietor  of  Bunker  Hill 
[applause],  made  so  by  the  I4th  and  I5th  constitutional  amendments. 
[Cheers  and  applause.]  I  have  a  common  interest  in  Paul  Revere  [cheers], 
and  in  that  remarkable  cargo  of  tea,  the  unshipping  of  which  led  to  such 
splendid  results  a  good  many  years  ago.  I  am  from  what  in  New  York 
has  been  characterized  the  'rowdy  West'  [renewed  applause] — what  one, 
at  least,  of  New  England's  famous  clergymen  has  denominated  as  the 
'riff  raff  of  the  West.'  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  May  I  say  to  you, 
because  I  know  it  will  be  soothing  [laughter],  that  this  characterization, 
Mr.  Chairman,  has  not  greatly  disturbed  us  in  the  West.  [Applause.]  It 
has  not  broken  our  rest;  not  disturbed  our  slumbers  [cheers],  nor  interfered 
with  the  quiet  and  usual  transactions  of  our  business.  [Renewed  applause.] 
Now,  as  Senator  Hawley  will  tell  you,  we  don't  lack  spirit  on  a  proper 
occasion.  We  have  an  abundance  of  it.  [Cheers.] 

"Our  state  was  the  only  state  in  the  Union,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  filled  its 
quota  without  a  draft.  [Renewed  cheers  and  applause.]  We  sent  over 
about  18,000  more  to  Missouri,  a  strong  Democratic  state,  which  will  cast 
its  electoral  vote  for  Cleveland.  We  give  40,000  Republican  majority.  [Tre 
mendous  applause  and  cheers.]  We  have  not  been  made  angry  by  this 
characterization.  May  I  tell  you  why?  [A  voice,  'Yes  tell  us.']  We  are 
the  sons  and  daughters  of  New  England.  [Cheers  and  applause.]  We 
have  left  these  old  fields  and  farms,  and  the  blessed  old  firesides  in  New- 
York  and  New  England,  many  of  us,  with  nothing  save  the  lessons  of 
splendid  thrift  and  frugality  which  we  have  learned  in  these  old  New  Eng 
land  homes.  A  thousand  miles  or  more  separate  us  from  those  old  fire 
sides.  Our  heartstrings  may  have  been  stretched ;  they  have  not  been 
broken.  [Cheers  and  applause.]  And  we  have  built  in  the  valley  of  the 


746  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

Mississippi  the  most  colossal,  the  most  splendid  empire  of  free  men,  free 
thought,  free  speech,  as  splendid  a  government  as  the  sun  in  all  his  course 
has  ever  shone  upon.  [Renewed  applause,]  It  does  not  make  much  differ 
ence  what  preacher  calls  us  the  riff  raff.  The  sons  and  daughters  of  New 
England  propose  to  turn  over  the  settlement  of  the  whole  question  to  their 
fathers  and  mothers  in  New  England.  They  will  settle  that  question. 
[Cheers.]  Well,  fellow-citizens,  there  is  no  man  living  in  the  West  that  is 
not  gratified  to  speak  in  Boston.  [Applause.]  And,  if  any  man  living  in 
the  West  pretends  to  say  he  does  not  like  to  speak  here  in  Boston,  he  is 
guilty  of  wilful  and  deliberate  hyperbole.  [Laughter.]  We  are  citizens  of 
a  common  country,  united  in  our  interests.  We  are  becoming  in  the  West 
great  manufacturers.  We  are  proud  of  this  country,  as  you  are  proud  of 
it.  [Cheers.]  W7e  give  Republican  majorities,  as  you  give  Republican 
majorities,  and  for  the  same  reason. 

"We  believe  that  the  glory  and  the  honor  of  the  American  name  are 
bound  up  in  the  success  of  this  Republican  party.  [Cheers.]  I  started  with 
that  great  party  when  I  was  a  boy.  The  first  ballot  I  ever  cast  was  for 
John  C.  Fremont,  many,  many  years  ago.  [Cheers.]  I  look  back  upon 
hat  time  and  that  standard  bearer,  and  it  looks  all  bright  and  radiant, 
shining  with  the  glory  of  the  birth  of  a  new  party — A  party  which  contains 
within  its  ranks  the  best  thought  and  the  loftiest  sentiment  and  the  most 
exalted  conscience  of  our  people.  [Loud  applause.]  I  have  been  with  that 
party  as  an  humble  follower,  a  private  in  its  ranks,  never  giving  orders 
myself,  but  always,  as  near  as  I  could  be,  under  the  folds  of  that  starry, 
blessed,  old  banner  [cheers],  taking  directions  from  our  magnificent  leaders, 
Lincoln  [cheers,]  and  Grant,  and  Hayes,  and  Garfield  [cheers],  and  Arthur, 
and  Blaine.  [Loud  applause.]  And,  fellow-citizens,  it  makes  very  little 
difference  to  me  where  in  that  splendid  procession  of  the  millions  of  the 
inhabitants  of  this  country  I  may  be  placed,  whether  I  am  up  near  the 
standard  bearer  under  the  stars,  or  down  near  the  foot  of  the  procession. 
I  march  to  the  old  music,  Mr.  Chairman,  and  it  is  the  music  of  the  Union. 
My  heart  beats  my  own  time.  [Applause.]  I  am  certain  of  one  thing — 
that  I  shall  always,  so  long  as  I  live,  march  with  my  face  toward  the  flag. 
[Tremendous  applause  and  cheers.]  I  am  not  an  independent  in  politics. 
[Cheers.]  I  recognize  no  purgatorial  politics  [cheers  and  laughter],  no  halt 
ing,  half-way  station  between  heaven  and  hell.  [Laughter  and  cheers.]  To 
me  it  is  the  heaven  of  good  Republican  government,  or  it  is  the  hell  of  that 
diabolical,  old,  infernal  party  [prolonged  laughter  and  cheers]  that  has 
never  in  all  its  long,  consistent,  bad,  criminal  career,  done  a  right  thing 
except  at  the  wrong  time.  [Laughter.] 

"  I  wish  to  say  of  the  Democratic  party  nothing  unkind  [cheers],  nothing 
ungentlemanly.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  Of  the  independents  it  is  my 
purpose  to  speak  in  terms  of  the  utmost  tenderness.  [Laughter.]  They 
have  left  us.  Why  should  we  mourn  departed  friends?  [Laughter.]  When 
I  read  the  announcement  a  few  days  ago,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  they  had 
gone  [laughter],  I  heard  the  news  with  a  great  deal  of  solid  comfort  [laugh 
ter  and  cheers] — a  great  deal  of  resignation.  But  when  I  read  along  a  lit- 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  747 

tie  further,  and  found  that  their  absence  was  to  be  only  temporary,  that 
they  intended  some  day  to  return,  I  confess — \vho  should  not  confess  it? — 
that  my  mind  was  filled  with  direst  apprehension.  [Cheers  and  laughter.] 
Our  party  has  made  some  mistakes.  If  you  will  allow  me  to  make  a  sug 
gestion,  it  has  grown  too  rapidly  at  the  top.  [Cheers  and  applause.]  I, 
for  one,  am  prepared  to  exchange  the  political  aesthetes  for  the  horny- 
handed,  hard-fisted,  workingmen.  [Applause.]  My  feelings  have  been  lac 
erated,  my  heart  has  been  wrung  many  times  by  the  departure  of  the  aes 
thetes.  [Laughter.]  They  have  played  too  many  farewell  engagements. 
[Cheers.]  I  recognize  the  first  rule  of  private  hospitality  in  their  treatment 
— I  'welcome  the  coming  and  speed  the  parting  guest.'  [Tremendous 
applause  and  laughter.]  We  have  heard  in  the  West  something  about  the 
better  element  of  the  party.  [Cheers.]  In  our  plain  way — because  we 
have  been  building  up  states,  cities  and  empires — we  have  not  had  time  to 
think  much  about  the  matter. 

"We  have  always  thought,  however,  that  the  better  element  was  the 
biggest  [cheers],  and  that  the  wisdom  of  this  great  party  of  ours  was  in 
the  majority.  Now  don't  you  think  so?  [A  voice,  "Yes,"  and  applause.] 
Every  time  I  have  read  an  announcement  in  the  West  (we  take  the  Atlan 
tic  Monthly  there  and  have  gospel  privileges).  [Laughter  and  cheers]  I 
have  read  that  these  gentlemen  are  exceedingly  solicitous  as  concerning  the 
question  of  the  purity  of  our  youth.  [Laughter.]  May  I  be  permitted  to 
suggest,  Senator  (turning  to  General  Hawley),  and  I  wish  you  would  tell 
them  so  in  Connecticut,  the  farmers  of*  Illinois,  of  the  great  West,  those 
strong,  splendid  broad-browed,  great,  big  hearted  men,  those  men  who 
buried  the  nasty  doctrine  of  fiat  money  under  a  majority  of  40,000,  those 
men  are  quite  capable  themselves  of  taking  care  of  the  morals  of  their  sons. 
[Cheers.]  At  least  they  don't  propose  to  turn  the  custody  of  those  morals 
over  to  an  assorted  lot  of  gentlemen,  one  half  of  whom  deny  the  existence 
of  a  God  and  the  other  half  of  whom  believe  that  mankind,  themselves 
included,  developed  from  an  ape.  Now,  just  what  does  it  mean  to  be  an 
independent  in  politics?  If  the  word  has  a  practical  significance  at  all,  it 
means  the  refusal  to  acknowledge  allegiance  to  either  of  the  great  political 
parties  of  the  country;  is  not  that  so?  [A  voice,  "Yes,"  and  cheers.] 
These  gentlemen  are  simply  independent  of  the  Republican  party,  to  which 
they  formerly  belonged — spasmodically,  occasionally  belonged.  [Laughter.] 
They  have  attached  themselves  to  the  Democratic  party.  They  are  not 
independent  of  that,  are  they,  when  they  acknowledge  allegiance  to.  it? 
How  absurd  it  is!  [Applause.]  If  a  refusal  to  vote  the  Republican  ticket, 
to  indorse  Republican  doctrines,  to  support  Republican  candidates  is  an 
evidence  of  independence,  then  the  Democrat  is  a  great  deal  more  inde 
pendent,  because  he  in  that  regard  has  been  at  it  a  great  deal  longer. 
[Cheers  and  applause.] 

"Will  some  astute  logician  tell  me  the  difference  between  a  genuine  old- 
fashioned  Democrat  and  the  new  article,  the  independents?  [Cheers  and 
applause].  They  support  the  same  men,  and  for  the  same  reasons.  The 
old  Democrat  and  his  ally  support  Grover  Cleveland  because  of  his  high 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

moral  character.  [Applause  and  cheers.]  Mr.  Chairman  [turning  to  the 
chairman],  I  cannot  understand  what  that  last  applause  was  for.  They 
support  him  because  he  vetoed  the  five-cent  fare  bill,  he  vetoed  the  bill 
shortening  the  hours  of  labor  for  street  car  conductors  and  drivers,  and 
because  he  vetoed  the  mechanics'  lien  law  in  the  state  of  New  York.  Now 
the  old  Democrat  and  independent  both  support  him  for  those  reasons, 
among  others.  Now,  they  refuse  to  support  Mr.  Elaine  for  the  same  reasons 
exactly.  There  is  no  difference  whatever.  Mr.  Curtis  and  Mr.  Schurz  both 
withhold  their  support  from  Mr.  Elaine  for  the  same  reasons  that  Hubert  O. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Davidson  withhold  theirs.  They  use  the  same  methods, 
work  through  the  same  channels  and  seek  to  accomplish  the  same  end  in 
exactly  the  same  way.  Eoth  mourn  when  they  are  defeated,  and  rejoice 
when  they  succeed,  and  both  will  be  buried  in  the  same  common  grave. 
[Applause  and  cheers.]  When  they  are  dead  and  their  skeletons  are 
bleached,  you  cannot  tell  the  skeleton  of  an  independent  from  that  of  a 
Democrat.  [Applause  and  cheers.]  This  is  a  very  extraordinary  party 
of  ours,  the  Republican  party.  It  never,  in  all  its  long,  splendid  and  illus 
trious  career,  has  allowed  a  leader  to  take  it  one  single  step  in  any  direc 
tion  it  did  not  want  to  go.  [A  voice:  'That's  so,'  and  applause.]  Never. 
I  want  you  to  think  of  that.  [Renewed  applause.]  Our  leaders  have  some 
times  left  us  by  wholesale.  So  much  the  worse  for  the  leaders,  and  so 
much  the  better  for  the  party. 

"  In  1872,  Governors,  ex-Governors,  senators,  and  ex-senators,  judges  and 
ex-judges  left  us,  because  the  party,  as  they  said,  was  corrupt.  And  yet, 
how  that  splendid  old  ship  did  righten  itself  up  after  they  had  gotten  off! 
[Laughter  and  applause.]  How  magnificently  it  made  for  the  harbor  of  a 
splendid  success!  How  desolate  and  discomfited  have  been  the  leaders 
who  jumped  overboard  ever  since?  [Applause  and  laughter.]  There  is 
another  very  remarkable  feature  about  our  party,  which  quite  distinguishes 
it  from  the  Democratic  party.  To  write  a  platform  for  the  Democratic 
party  requires  the  very  highest  degree  of  rhetorical  and  literary  ability.  I 
think  I  possess  some  ability  of  that  kind  myself  [laughter],  and  I  would 
not  try  it  under  any  circumstances.  [Applause  and  cheers.]  On  the  other 
hand,  there  is  not  a  Republican  in  all  the  55,000,000  of  people  upon  this 
continent  that  cannot  write  a  Republican  platform  that  is  not  good  Republi 
can  doctrine  everywhere.  Gentlemen,  did  you  ever  think  what  would  hap 
pen  to  a  Democratic  orator  if  he  put  his  platform  in  his  pocket  at  night 
and  got  on  a  train  which  landed  him  in  a  direction  that  he  did  not  sup 
pose  he  was  going.  Suppose,  for  instance,  he  started  from  Chicago  and 
was  going  to  Boston,  and  by  some  curious  freak  was  landed  at  Atlanta  or 
Savannah,  and,  thinking  he  was  in  Boston  ail  the  time,  began  to  clamor 
for  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  So  you  see 
that  it  is  a  thing  which  is  liable  to  spoil  with  a  change  of  weather. 
[Cheers.]  Suppose  that  a  patriotic  Democrat,  and  there  are  many  such, 
construing  the  platform,  after  days  and  nights  of  anxious,  hair-pulling  head 
ache,  has  made  up  his  mind  as  to  what  it  means  on  the  subject  of  the 
tariff,  and  he  starts  off  on  a  trip,  and  lands  at  Lancaster,  Pa.,  and  there 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1 884.  749 

begins  to  talk  about  a  platform  for  free  trade.  What  kind  of  a  funeral 
awaits  that  man?  [Cheers  and  applause.]  So  you  see  that  it  is  full  of 
difficulties.  They  say  we  are  all  the  time  talking  about  our  record.  'I  hey 
decline  to  talk  about  theirs,  and  I  don't  blame  them.  [Cheers  and  laughter.] 
In  the  few  words  that  I  shall  have  occasion  to  say  to  you  about  the  Dem 
ocratic  party,  remember  that  I  treat  of  it  as  a  party.  I  make  a  distinction 
between  the  party  and  the  member  of  the  party,  the  same  as  I  would 
between  a  corporation  and  a  stockholder  of  a  corporation. 

"For  instance,  I  know  stockholders  of  the  Standard  Oil  Company,  and 

they  are  excellent  gentlemen,  but  the  company ,  [Laughter.]  I  know 

Democrats  who  are  a  great  deal  better  than  their  party,  but  I  never  kne\v  any 
one  worse.  [Cheers  and  laughter.]  And  so  it  is  about  their  party  I  would 
like  to  talk.  And  it  is  the  party  to  which  the  conscientious  independent 
citizens  have  attached  themselves.  Let  me  say  here,  it  is  a  party  that  has 
shown  how  potent  the  silent  vote  is  in  Maine  [Laughter]  and  in  Vermont. 
But  we  are  told,  when  we  speak  about  the  record  of  the  Republican  party, 
that  we  are  discussing  old  issues.  To  be  sure,  that  is  very  bad,  but  it  is 
no  objection,  gentlemen,  to  an  issue  that  it  is  old,  if  that  issue  has  not  been 
settled.  [Cheers.]  The  preachers  of  the  gospel  for  a  great  many  hundreds 
of  years  have  been  denouncing  sin.  That  is  a  very  old  issue,  and  yet  I 
suppose  they  will  keep  up  their  denunciations  until  sin  quits.  [Laughter.] 
The  people  of  this  country  want  to  have  confidence  in  any  party  to  which 
they  propose  to  intrust  the  interests  of  the  country.  The  people  of  this 
country,  let  me  say,  are  pretty  intelligent  and  observing.  It  is  not  enough 
for  them  to  know  that  a  promise  is  made.  What  they  are  after  is  that  the 
promise  shall  be  kept,  and  they  have  to  depend  for  such  information  upon 
the  history  of  the  individual  or  party  to  which  they  propose  to  intrust  such 
interest.  Now,  is  not  that  the  best  kind  of  sense?  If  a*  party  promises  to 
uphold  the  public  credit,  that  party  always  having  undertaken  to  destroy  it, 
will  you  take  such  a  promise?  If  it  promises  to  protect  and  care  for  our 
American  industries,  when  for  30  years  it  has  sought  to  paralyze  and  destroy 
them,  will  you  accept  such  a  promise?  [A  voice — "No."]  Of  course  you 
won't.  If  it  professes  and  promises  to  take  care  of  our  financial  interests, 
while  it  has  for  years  sought  to  destroy  them,  will  you  accept  such  promises? 
I  take  it  not. 

"These  are  fair,  square  questions,  which  every  one  is  going  to  ask  for 
himself,  and  to  which  he  insists  upon  an  answer.  What  is  the  record  of 
that  old  party?  If  this  hall  was  filled  with  Democrats,  and  every  one  of 
them  solid  in  the  faith  and  firm  in  the  belief,  I  could  clear  the  hall  in 
three  minutes  by  reading  from  the  platform  of  1868  and  1872.  They  have 
never  made  a  promise  in  which  the  interest  of  the  country  has  been  invol 
ved  that  they  have  kept.  [Cheers.]  There  has  been  no  great  measure  of 
public  utility  that  the  party  has  ever  favored  in  all  its  career  of  30  years, 
and  there  is  no  good  measure  that  party  has  not  opposed  during  that  time. 
[Loud  applause.]  Is  there  any  one  in  this  large  and  splendid  audience,  in 
this  old  and  splendid  city  of  Boston,  memorable  for  its  history  and  sanc 
tified  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  by  the  recollection  of  the  revolution;  is 


75O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

there  one  of  you,  glorying  in  the  greatness  of  our  country  in  the  past,  and 
with  the  hope  and  promise  of  the  future  ;  is  there  one  of  you  who  can 
point  to  anything  in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  that  the  Democratic  party 
has  done,  or  attempted  to  do  from  which  you  draw  any  pride,  or  from 
which  the  country  would  have  drawn  any  honor?  Can  you  point  to  any 
great  event  in  history  which  makes  up  our  patrimony  and  heritage  that 
it  has  not  opposed?  [Loud  applause.]  That  is  a  dreadful  question,  and 
a  dreadful  fact.  Is  there  any  one  such  instance?  The  Republican  party, 
whose  advocate  in  a  simple  way  I  am,  has  never  made  any  great  prom 
ises  it  has  not  religiously  performed.  [Applause.]  The  promise  of  to-day 
is  the  statute  of  to-morrow,  and  ripens  into  the  fundamental  law  of  the  land. 
In  its  brief  career  of  twenty-five  years,  it  has  counted  by  its  achieve 
ments  1000  years  of  the  grandest  history.  [Cheers.]  It  made  our  terri 
tories  all  free,  and  elected  Lincoln.  [Great  applause.]  By  one  supreme 
effort,  it  lifted  4,000,000  people  from  the  position  of  African  cattle  to  that  of 
American  citizenship.  [Applause.]  It  placed  this  great  country  in  the  midst 
of  prosperity  unexampled  in  the  world.  [Cheers.] 

"Gentlemen,  I  can  never  tire  of  speaking  of  the  achievements,  or  the  non- 
achievements  of  the  Democratic  party.  I  make  one  honorable  exception. 
Governor  Hoadly  of  Ohio  visited  Maine,  where  he  spoke.  He  was  at  one 
time  a  Republican,  and,  finding  the  need  of  a  record,  he  furnished  one  to 
his  friends  there.  He  story  he  told  was  like  the  old  news  from  the  Po 
tomac — 'Important  if  true.'  [Loud  laughter.]  There  is  no  one  here  who 
will  mention  what  I  am  about  to  say.  [Laughter.]  Did  you  ever  see  a 
washed-out  Republican  that  had  fallen  into  the  Democratic  party  that  ever 
bragged  about  being  a  Democrat?  [Renewed  laughter.]  He  is  always 
proclaiming  that  he  has  been  something  better — a  Republican  ;  that  he  had 
seen  better  days,  like  some  of  the  gentlemen  in  the  old  states  [laughter  and 
applause],  a  little  ravelled  out  at  the  edge,  and  run  down  at  the  heel,  but 
with  here  and  there  marks  to  show  that  originally  the  goods  were  valuable. 
[General  laughter  and  applause.]  He  was  an  abolitionist,  he  says,  when 
Logan  was  voting  the  Democratic  ticket.  There  is  the  place  where  the 
Democrats  and  their  allies  agree.  [Applause.]  It  is  astonishing  that  they 
speak  about  Logan  voting  the  Democratic  ticket.  Hendricks  voted  that 
ticket  once.  [Laughter.]  But  is  it,  after  all,  the  real  question  when  a  man 
began  to  be  an  .apostle  half  as  much  as  how  long  he  holds  out? 
[Laughter  and  applause.]  Who  began  first?  Judas  or  Saul  of  Tarsus? 
Judas,  I  think.  But  think  about  him  running  around  in  that  Democratic 
region  of  his,  jingling  those  30  pieces  of  silver  he  got  from  the  Demo 
cratic  committee  of  that  day  as  his  price  for  his  joining  the  party  of 
purity  and  reform,  and  claiming  that  he  was  a  Christian  long  before  the 
scales  fell  from  the  eyes  of  Saul  of  Tarsus.  [Vociferous  applause  and 
laughter.]  Logan  did  vote  the  Democratic  ticket,  but  the  first  shot  at 
Fort  Sumter  drove  from  him  every  spark  of  the  Democratic  faith,  and 
in  the  flame  and  thunder  of  battle  he  made  himself  the  peerless  soldier 
of  the  war  for  the  Union.  [Renewed  applause.]  Take  from  the  history 
of  the  country  for  the  last  25  years  the  solid  achievements  of  John  A. 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  751 

Logan,  and  you  make  a  chasm  [applause]  ;  but  take  from  the  same  time 
the  achievements  of  his  detractors,  and  there  is  no  abrasion  on  the  su** 
face.  [Renewed  applause]. 

"The  hour  is  so  late,  however — [Voice — "Go  on."]  I  am  willing  to  go 
on.  [Loud  applause.]  I  was  about  to  say  the  hour  is  so  late,  it  seems  to  be 
an  outrage  on  the  understanding  of  so  fine  an  audience.  But  let's  be  fair 
about  it.  The  night  is  hot,  and  while  you  suffer  in  listening,  I  suffer  in 
talking,  and  so,  in  the  good,  old-fashioned  way,  let  us  bear  one  another's 
burdens.  [Applause.]  The  life  of  man  is  limited  to  about  seventy  years,  and 
you  cannot  expect  me  to  spend  all  of  it  in  going  into  the  crimes  and  follies 
of  the  Democratic  party.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  It  seems  to  me  a 
waste  of  time  and  timber.  I  was  reading  the  Chicago  Tribune  the  other 
day,  and  I  saw  a  missionary  had  been  sent  from  Boston  to  Chicago  to 
organize  the  independent  movement,  which  is  a  kind  of  '  go-as-you-please ' 
affair,  and  requires  a  good  deal  of  nursing.  [Laughter.]  There  was  a  grand 
rally,  and  the  whole  five  were  present,  some  with  Mr.  Gladstone's  last 
speeches,  others  with  essays  from  the  Cobden  Club,  others  carrying  their 
canes  in  the  middle,  and"  all  appearing  like  three-story-and-mansard-roof 
patriots.  [Laughter.]  They  were  at  the  Palmer  House,  and  one  said  Mas 
sachusetts  was  going  to  give  Cleveland  an  overwhelming  majority.  He 
was  an  independent,  and  one  of  the  better  class  of  that  party.  [Laughter.] 
Of  course,  the  statement  was  not  false,  was  it?  Not  an  extreme  economy 
of  the  truth?  [Laughter.]  I  have  to  be  a  little  delicate  about  my  language. 

• '  I  have  been  somewhat  dazed  at  what  seems  to  be  the  revolving  and 
somewhat  contradictory  position  the  independent  movement  has  taken.  It  is 
like  the  trip  of  the  blind  ass  in  a  park.  Very  much  walking  and  very 
little  getting  ahead.  [Laughter.]  They  say  to  the  Democrats:  'I  will 
support  your  candidate  on  moral  considerations  alone.  [Laughter.]  I 
will  vote  your  ticket ;  I  will  march  under  your  banner ;  wear  your  uni 
form  ;  take  orders  from  your  leaders  ;  I  will  discharge  my  guns  into  the 
faces  of  my  own  friends  from  your  ranks,  but  I  must  not  be  considered 
of  you.  I  still  claim  the  privilege  of  attending  the  councils  of  the  army 
I  have  just  deserted  [loud  applause]  as  well  as  yours,  and,  while  I  explode 
my  batteries  in  the  breasts  of  my  old  friends,  I  will,  with  a  magnanimity 
the  like  of  which  was  never  recorded  in  history,  consent  to  draw  rations 
from  both  armies.'  [Loud  laughter  and  applause.]  The  independent  move 
ment  may  have  a  basis  somewhere.  Can  you  see  it?  In  the  state  of 
Massachusetts  they  issued  a  ringing  address,  signed  by  sixteen  gentlemen, 
in  which  they  arraigned  the  party  for  the  misdeeds  committed  when  they 
were  members  of  that  body.  They  said  Vice-President  Colfax  had  been 
guilty  of  corrupt  practices,  as  well  as  Belknap  and  Ex-Attorney-General 
Williams,  and  that  Robeson  had  violated  his  trust.  They  then  referred 
to  the  whisky  ring  and  star  route  frauds,  but  the  Republican  party,  as  a 
party,  could  not  be  responsible  for  these,  if  there  were  such.  [Applause.] 
I  advise  these  gentlemen  not  to  go  to  Indiana,  where  Colfax  has  an 
honored  name,  and  where  thousands  respect  him,  and  tell  such  things. 
[Applause.]  It  would  not  be  prudent. 


752  LIFE   OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"But  Schuyler  Colfax  has  dropped  out  of  public  life.  Belknap  was 
impeached,  and  Robeson  investigated  by  a  hostile  committee,  while  ex-Attorney- 
General  Williams  dropped  from  office  and  has  never  been  honored 
since.  [Cheers.]  The  last  time  I  saw  him  was  at  the  Republican  conven 
tion  in  1880,  joining  with  these  independents  to  oppose  Gen.  Grant,  on  the 
ground  of  morals  in  politics.  [Loud  applause.]  What  was  done  in  the 
star  route  was  in  the  administration  of  President  Hayes,  and  was  brought 
to  light  in  the  first  weeks  of  Garfield,  and  both  administrations  these  people 
indorsed.  [Applause.]  The  star  route  was  brought  to  trial  under  Arthur 
[cheers],  prosecuted  by  Republican  officials,  backed  by  the  party,  but  theyj 
were  acquitted  by  a  Democratic  jury  [applause.],  at  the  head  of  which  was 
Dickson,  who  was  a  delegate  at  the  Democratic  convention,  and  voted  for 
Cleveland,  and  is  to-day  supporting  him  with  the  sixteen  gentlemen  who  signed 
that  address  on  the  ground  of  moral  consideration.  [Laughter  and 
applause.]  Now,  gentlemen,  as  to  the  personal  character  of  Mr.  Elaine,  it 
becomes  me  to  say  nothing.  The  people  of  the  state  where  he  lives  have 
passed  on  his  character.  [TreVnendous  applause.]  For  twenty-five  years  he 
has  stood  in  the  full  front  and  blaze  of  the  sun,  one  of  the  leading  and  most 
prominent  figures  in  American  history.  [Applause.]  We  don't  take  our 
leaders  from  obscurities  [laughter],  nor  from  men  conspicuous  to  the  extent 
that  they  are  not  known.  That  has  not  been  the  policy  of  our  party. 
[Cheers.]  The  Democrats  prefer  their  armies  shall'  be  led  by  a  skulker 
they  have  awakened  up  from  under  the  band-wagon,  because  he  shows  no 
scars.  [Laughter  and  applause.]  Mr.  Elaine  has  a  tattoo  of  16,000 
majority.  [Great  applause.] 

"There  is  only  one  other  question.  I  did  want  to  say  something 
about  the  tariff,  but,  as  I  sat  in  the  quiet  of  my  room  to-day,  I 
felt  I  might  subject  myself  in  this  vicinity  to  imminent  peril  by  doing 
so,  for,  when  such  a  man  as  Senator  Hoar,  who,  in  the  West  we  had 
supposed  was  an  honorable  man — fair  and  honest — is  crushed  down  by 
the  rhetoric  of  David  A.  Wells,  a  private  like  me  may  take  alarm. 
[Laughter.]  This  is  to  be  a  campaign,  as  I  understand,  where  decorous 
language  is  to  be  used,  and  the  practices  of  Fontenoy  are  to  be  observed. 
•Gentlemen,  please  fire  first!'  Mr.  WTells  says  Mr.  Hoar  knows  nothing 
about  the  tariff,  but  many  of  the  sophomores  of  Harvard  are  capable  to 
give  the  instruction  required.  We  are  much  obliged,  for  we  know  where 
to  go  for  information,  and  when  the  question  comes  up  as  to  the  duty 
on  scrap  iron,  we  will  leave  Mr.  Wells  and  go  to  Harvard.  When  we 
speak  of  steel  rails  we  will  go  to  Harvard.  [Laughter.]  In  the  club  I 
came  across  the  essay  of  the  Cobden  Club  for  1871  and  1872  and  it 
was  one  of  eighty  pages,  written  by  Mr.  David  A.  Wells,  who  was  elected 
an  honorary  member  in  1870.  I  wonder  whether  he  had  been  withhold 
ing  it  from  his  own  people  and  giving  it  to  the  Eritish  public.  At  page 
536,  he  says  '  so  excessive  and  costly  is  the  manufacture  of  steel  rails  that 
it  would  be  better  to  burn  up  the  shops.'  He  gives  as  a  reason  that 
steel  rails  could  then  be  bought  for  $62  a  ton.  Since  then  the  manu 
facture  has  increased  to  1,600,000  tons  per  annum,  and  the  price  has  de- 


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^ 


THE   CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  753 

creased  to  $26  or  527  per  ton,  and  that  much  better  than  the  British 
manufacturer  ever  dreamed  of.  This  is  the  class  of  men  who  now  sup 
port  Grover  Cleveland.  In  that  same  article  he  declared  that  before  1881 
we  should  have  no  protective  legislation.  The  fact  is  all  the  other  way. 

"In  Ohio,  there  will  be  a  majority  of  40,000  for  Elaine  because  of  his 
protective  policy.  In  closing,  I  will  say  that,  wherever  I  go,  I  find  the 
same  old  spirit,  and,  as  sure  as  you  live,  there  is  no  state  in  the  West  that 
does  not  believe  in  the  honor  and  ability  and  the  intense  Americanism  of 
James  G.  Elaine.  [Cheers.]  And  there  is  not  a  state  there  but  does  not 
mean  to  have  our  flag  all  over  the  world,  with  perpetual  peace  secured, 
with  a  manly  advocacy  of  all  that  is  our  own,  backed  by  the  people. 
[Applause.]  I  have  said  we  are  all  the  sons  and  daughters  of  New  Eng 
land,  and  we  are  proud  to  come  and  show  you  what  we  have  achieved 
while  we  loved  the  firesides  of  New  England,  God  bless  her!  [Cheers.] 
The  Republican  party  has  made  our  country  free.  [Applause.]  We  have 
effaced  the  inscriptions  of  the  bad  old  times,  and  the  Dred-Scott  decision 
no  longer  lives.  The  story  of  escaping  slaves  is  no  longer  heard,  but  radiant 
as  a  planet  is  the  story  of  a  republic,  beneath  whose  banner  every  human 
being  is  free  to  think  and  vote  as  he  pleases  [cheers],  and  we  have  the 
spirit  of  a  mighty  free  empire  caring  for  the  poorest  of  her  citizens,  and 
on  this  account  I  shall  vote  for  Elaine  and  Logan." 

In  a  long  and  carefully  prepared  speech  at  Cleveland,  delivered 
the  night  of  October  6,  immediately  before  the  State  election  of 
Ohio,  he  was  now  argumentative  and  mightly  in  his  style,  yet 
scarcely  less  interesting.  One  .portion  of  this  speech  was  as 
follows : 

"The  reforms  of  this  world  rarely  come  from  the  skies  down,  but  almost 
always  from  the  ground  up.  This  is  especially  true  of  reforms  which  are 
at  all  moral  in  their  nature.  The  bloody  pages  of  martyrdom  required  the 
self-sacrifice  for  opinion's  sake  of  but  few  scholars;  but  by  thousands  and 
by  tens  of  thousands  the  plain,  honest  people  have  willingly  perished  in 
dungeon,  on  the  scaffold  and  at  the  stake  for  opinion's  sake. 

"We  must  deal,  after  all,  with  the  great,  grave  questions  of  the  hour. 
The  two  great  parties  to-day  stand  confronting  each  other,  both  seeking  the 
indorsement  of  the  people,  both  making  promises  for  good  behavior  in  the 
future.  The  essential  inquiry  is  not  which  is  the  most  vehement  promise, 
but  which  of  the  parties  promising  is  the  most  likely  to  perform.  I  might 
admit,  for  thfe  purposes  of  the  argument,  that  the  Democratic  party  in  its 
platform  of  the  present  campaign  promise  all  that  we  can  ask,  and  yet 
refuse  to  act  upon  it,  for  the  simple  reason  that  its  history  renders  it  utterly 
impossible  that  it  will  perform  any  promise  looking  to  the  honor  or  prosper 
ity  of  the  country  which,  under  the  stress  of  a  great  emergency,  it  may  see 
fit  to  make.  For  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  the  war  it  sought 
not  only  the  degradation  but  the  practical  destruction  of  the  dignity  of  free 
labor  in  this  country,  and  why  should  I  take  its  promise  now  that  it  will 
promote  and  elevate  it?  It  refused  to  recognize  the  public  judgment  in  the 


754  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

election  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  sought  the  dismemberment  of  the  Nation 
for  that  reason.  Why  should  I  accept  to-day  its  promise  to  strengthen  and 
extend  our  National  integrity  ?  It  opposed  every  measure  to  which  our 
patriotic  people  were  compelled  to  resort  for  th£  prosecution  of  the  war  to 
save  the  Union.  Why  should  I  now  accept  its  assurances  that  it  was  all 
the  time  in  favor  of  the  preservation  of  the  Union?  It  denounced  as  uncon 
stitutional  and  void  all  schemes  for  the  establishment  of  a  National  cur 
rency,  and  why  should  I  now  place  the  custody  of  that  currency  in  its 
hands?  It  sought  to  prevent  the  enactment  of  all  laws  by  which  the 
ballot  throughout  the  boundaries  of  the  Republic  should  be  made  free 
and  fair  and  equal,  and  why  should  I  take  its  promise  to  make  that 
ballot  free  and  fair  and  equal  in  the  future?  It  has  steadily  opposed 
every  scheme  to  further  the  protection  of  American  industry,  down  even 
until  to-day,  and  why  should  I  accept  its  promise  to  care  for  and  pro 
tect  American  industries  in  the  future?  Its  history  is  opposed  to  its 
promises.  I  decline  to  place  the  Nation  in  the  hands  of  a  party  which 
sought  to  destroy  it.  I  decline  to  place  the  custody  of  our  currency  in 
the  hands  of  a  party  which  .believes  it  to  be  unconstitutional.  I  decline 
to  entrust  our  industries  to  a  party  which  has  steadily  and  consistently 
sought  their  overthrow. 

11  These  statements  of  the  position  of  the  Democratic  party  are  not  mere 
random  assertions.  There  is  not  a  line  of  legislation  in  our  history  for  the 
last  twenty-five  years  redounding  to  the  honor  or  prosperity  of  the  Nation 
which  the  Democratic  party  has  not  bitterly  opposed.  Why  should  I  entrust 
the  National  honor  to  the  party  which  sought  its  destruction  only  sixteen 
years  ago  by  a  declaration  in  National  Convention  demanding  the  practical 
repudiation  of  the  public  debt?  I  understand  the  anxiety  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  to  be  rid  of  its  history — its  anxiety  that  a  profound  silence 
should  be  maintained  as  to  its  past  record.  It  has  a  record  which  it  does 
not  dare  to  read;  it  has  a  candidate  whom  it  does  not  dare  to  exhibit;  and 
the  strongest  evidence  that  we  have  that  there  is  still  some  foundation  to 
work  upon  for  the  reform  of  that  party  is  that  it  is  so  profoundly  ashamed 
of  its  past  history,  for  where  there  is  no  shame  for  a  misdeed  there  can  be 
no  conversion. 

"Feeling  this  very  keenly,  patriotic  Democrats,  and  there  are  thousands 
and  tens  of  thousands  of  such — seek  to  claim  some  share  in  all  the  glories 
of  our  history  since  1861.  Mr.  Hynes,  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  a  most  esti 
mable  gentleman,  a  very  able  and  a  thoroughly  patriotic  man,  in  a  speech 
delivered  at  Fostoria  a  few  nights  since,  claims  that  the  Democratic  party 
is  entitled  to  as  much  credit  for  the  resumption  of  specie  payments  as  is 
the  Republican  party.  But  in  this  Mr.  Hynes  is  surely  mistaken.  Doubt 
less  Mr.  Hynes,  during  the  time  of  the  agitation  of  those  questions,  was  in 
favor  of  a  sound  and  honest  currency,  but  surely  his  party  was  not.  The 
trouble  with  Mr.  Hynes,  and  with  thousands  of  others  of  excellent  Demo 
crats,  is  that  they  have  been  wearing  for  many  years  the  wrong  label.  They 
have  been  carrying  around  a  Democratic  trademark  without  really  enter 
taining  a  single  Democratic  principle.  This  is  astonishing,  but  it  is  true. 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  755 

It  is  remarkable  that  a  man  should  mark  silk  goods  down  to  a  calico 
price,  but  this  Mr.  Hynes  and  others  have  done. 

41  Now,  what  are  the  facts  in  regard  to  our  currency  ?  The  Democratic 
platform  of  1868  called  for-  the  payment  of  the  public  debt  in  green 
backs,  and  demanded,  in  this  exact  language,  •  equal  taxation  of  every 
species  of  property  according  to  its  real  value,  including  government 
bonds  and  other  public  securities.'  It  was  deemed  necessary  in  1869, 
as  a  preliminary  to  bringing  our  currency  back  to  a  solid  basis,  to  assure 
the  whole  world  that  we  intended  honestly  to  pay  our  public  debt,  and 
therefore  the  public  credit  bill  was  originated  by  the  Republican  party, 
pledging  the  nation  to  the  payment  of  its  debt  in  coin,,  and  this  bill  was 
opposed  in  Congress,  as  Mr.  Hynes  will  find,  by  the  practically  solid 
vote  of  the  Democratic  party,  including  James  R.  Doolittle,  who  was  at 
that  time  wavering  between  the  lines.  The  Democratic  party  by  a  prac 
tically  solid  vote  opposed  the  resumption  bill.  Finding,  in  1876,  how 
ever,  that  it  was  necessary  to  nominate  Mr.  Tilden,  their  Jesuitical  plat 
form  declared  for  honest  money,  but,  to  satisfy  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
party,  denounced  the  Republican  party  for  hindering  resumption.  In  Jan 
uary,  1876,  the  bill  to  repeal  the  resumption  act  received  112  votes,  all 
Democrats  but  one.  In  June,  1876,  as  a  rider  to  the  civil  appropriation 
bill,  an  amendment  repealing  the  resumption  act  received  solid  Demo 
cratic  support.  The  party  was  not  converted  by  its  double-headed  plat 
form  ;  for  on  the  5th  of  August,  1876,  a  measure  to  repeal  the  fixing  of 
the  time  ior  resumption  received  in  the  House  106  votes,  all  Democratic 
but  three,  and  the  platforms  of  the  Democratic  party,  almost  throughout 
the  Union,  demanded  in  explicit  terms  the  immediate  repeal  of  the  specie 
resumption  act.  The  contest  was  not  closed  until  1878,  when  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  as  a  party  solidly  favored  the  heresy  of  fiat  money,  at  which 
time  James  G.  Elaine  visited  the  West  and  was  the  leader  in  the  great 
final  battle  for  honest  money ;  and  in  the  State  of  Illinois  that  heresy 
was  buried  under  a  majority  of  40,000.  That  for  the  time  closed  the 
contest.  Specie  payments  were  resumed,  and  the  efforts  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party  in  that  direction  ceased  only  because  they  could  not  repeal 
an  accomplished  fact,  any  more  than  they  could  repeal  yesterday's  sunrise. 

"Equally  hollow  is  it  for  Mr.  Hynes  or  other  Democratic  orators  to 
claim  that  the  Democratic  party  is  in  favor  of  a  free  ballot.  They  called 
for  it,  it  is  true,  in  1880,  and  they  demand  it  again  in  their  platform  of 
1884,  but  the  solid  Democracy  in  Congress  opposed  the  registry  laws,  and 
has  again  and  again  sought  their  repeal.  It  has  repealed  registry  legis 
lation  in  this  State  and  in  New  York,  and  the  party  which  professes  to 
be  in  favor  of  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count  shows  this  extraordinary 
record:  In  1872  the  Republican  vote  of  Alabama  was  90,272;  in  1878 
it  was  nothing.  In  1872  the  Republican  vote  of  Arkansas  was  41,373  ; 
in  1878  it  was  115.  In  1872  the  Republican  vote  of  Mississippi  was 
82,175  ;  in  1878  it  was  1,168.  These  instances,  in  the  main,  hold  good 
through  the  entire  South.  In  1876  the  Republican  vote  in  South  Caro 
lina  was  91,870;  in  1878  only  213  Republican  votes  were  counted.  In 


756  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

1876  the  Republican  majority  in  Louisiana  was  over  20,000:  two  years 
later  the  vote  disappeared  from  the  election  returns. 

"These  facts,  which  are  the  shame  of  our  present  history,  are  of  record. 
No  language  can  exaggerate  their  importance,  nor  the  stupendous  crime 
which  makes  such  a  condition  of  things  a  possibility. 

"While,  in  the  main,  the  people  of  this  country  do  not  require  a 
change,  in  these  respects  they  loudly  demand  a  change,  and  insist  upon 
it  that  the  guaranty  of  a  free  ballot  and  a  fair  count,  of  equality,  of 
political  privileges,  embodied  in  the  Constitution,  shall  be  religiously  per 
formed.  This  is  American  policy,  and  it  is  typified  in  the  persons  of 
Blaine  and  Logan. 

"  For  many  years  the  Democrats  have  been  vehement  in  demanding  a 
change,  but  for  just  what  reason  they  require  it  they  have  always  been 
and  still  are  unable  satisfactorily  to  state.  Certain  changes  we  will  have 
and  do  have.  We  will  have  a  change  from  one  Republican  administra 
tion  to  another.  We  had  a  change  from  Grant  to  Hayes,  and  from 
Hayes  to  Garfield,  whose  untimely  death  made  a  change  to  Arthur,  and 
we  are  about  to  have  a  change  from  the  cleanly  and  patriotic  and 
thoroughly  upright  administration  of  Chester  A.  Arthur  to  the  thorough 
and  cleanly  and  patriotic  administration  of  James  G.  Blaine.  [Cheers.] 
We  will  change  administrations,  but  we  decline  to  change  policies.  We 
are  willing  to  exchange  one  Union-saver  for  another  Union-saver,  one 
friend  of  American  industries  for  another  friend  of  American  industries ; 
but  the  poorest  Union-saver  is  better  than  the  best  Union-hater,  and  the 
commonest  friend  of  American  industries  is  better  than  the  most  thoroughly 
accomplished  enemy  of  our  labor  and  its  prosperity. 

"When  the  country  most  needed  a  change,  in  1860,  the  Democratic 
party  was  opposed  to  it.  In  1860  our  national  wealth  was  $14,000,000.  In 
1880,  under  the  influences  of  Republican  policy,  it  had  increased  to  544,000, 
000,000 — an  increase  of  over  $125,000,000  per  month,  equal  to  one-third 
the  daily  accumulations  of  mankind. 

"In  1860  our  manufactures  amounted  in  value  to  $1,885,000,000.  Then 
the  Democratic  party  did  not  desire  a  change.  In  1883  they  amounted  to 
$5,300,000,000,  and  now  it  demands  a  change.  In  1860  the  productions  of 
our  coal  mines  were  14,000,000  tons.  The  Democratic  party  was  satisfied. 

"  In  1883  the  production  of  our  coal  mines  was  96,000,000  tons,  and  now 
it  demands  a  change.  We  to-day  import  one-tenth  as  much  cotton  as  we 
imported  in  1860,  and  we  now  export  150,000,000  yards  per  year.  But  the 
Democratic  party,  dissatisfied  with  the  present  situation,  demands  a  change. 
We  import  no  more  silk  now  than  we  did  in  1860,  but  we  produce  six 
times  as  much ;  and  still  the  Democratic  party  demands  a  change.  Our 
wool  production  in  1880  was  four  times  as  large  as  in  1860,  and  the  prices 
were  higher  than  in  1860,  and  yet  the  Democratic  party  demands  a  change. 
In  1860  our  productions  of  iron  ore  were  900,000  tons.  This  satisfied  the 
Democratic  party.  But  in  1883  the  productions  were  over  8,000,000  tons, 
and  hence  it  demands  a  change.  [Laughter.]  In  1860  we  had  30,000 
miles  of  railroad.  This  suited  the  conservative  Democracy.  In  1884  we 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  757 

have  100,000  miles  of  railroad,  and  it  demands  a  change.  In  1868  our 
freight  charges  to  New  York  from  Chicago  were  42  cents  per  bushel.  In 
1883  they  were  16  cents  per  bushel.  And  Democracy  now  demands  a 
change.  Down  to  1861,  covering  the  entire  period  of  our  National  history, 
the  value  of  our  exports  had  been  £9,000,000,000 ;  with  this  the  conservative 
Democracy  was  content.  But  since  1861,  a  period  of  only  twenty-three 
years,  the  value  of  our  exports  has  been  $  12, 000,000,000.  This  is  not 
satisfactory,  and  the  conservative  Democrat  demands  a  change.  [Laughter.] 

"I  am  aware  that  Democratic  orators  claim  that  these  marvelous  exhib 
itions  of  prosperity  are  due  to  the  fertility  of  our  soil,  favoring  conditions 
of  climate,  and  our  great  territorial  extent.  But  the  satisfactory  answer 
to  this  is  that  the  skies  were  just  AS  blue,  the  soil  was  just  as  fertile,  before 
1861,  as  they  have  been  since,  and  that  this  colossal  development  has 
occurred  under  what  is  to-day  Republican  policy  in  government.  [Applause.] 
There  is  nothing  impossible  with  the  Almighty,  but  he  would  never  under 
take  to  make  this  country  prosperous,  even  if  the  skies  were  of  the  bluest, 
the  soil  the  most  fertile,  and  our  fields  groaning  under  harvests,  if  running 
alongside  them  were  a  debased  and  shifting  currency,  an  impaired  National 
credit,  and  an  unrestricted  competition  with  the  cheap  and  pauperized  labor 
of  the  old  world.  [Applause.] 

"  So  far  as  the  question  of  protection  to  our  industries  is  concerned, 
notwithstanding  the  asseverations  of  certain  Democratic  orators  to  the 
contrary,  the  policy  of  the  Democratic  party  has  been  steadily  against 
protection  and  in  favor  of  free-trade.  This  a  very  hurried  reference 
to  its  record  will  demonstrate.  In  1876  the  Democratic  platform  demanded 
that  all  custom  house  taxation  should  be  'for  revenue  only.'  The 
Democratic  platform  of  1880  demanded  a  'tariff  for  revenue  only.' 
The  policy  of  the  party  is  entirely  harmonious  with  that  of  the  South 
ern  Confederacy ;  for  by  the  Constitution  of  the  Southern  Confederacy 
it  was  provided,  'No  bounty  shall  be  granted  from  the  treasury,  nor 
shall  any  duties  be  laid  to  promote  or  foster  any  branch  of  industry.' 
The  attitude  of  the  Democratic  party,  therefore,  during  all  these  years, 
was  entirely  that  of  the  Southern  Confederacy.  A  fair  interpretation  of 
its  platform  of  1884  leads  to  precisely  the  same  result.  Its  language  is, 
4  We  therefore  denounce  the  abuses  of  the  existing  tariff.'  But  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  it  does  not  enumerate  these  abuses.  Further,  'We 
demand  that  Federal  taxation  shall  be  exclusively  for  public  purposes 
and  shall  not  exceed  the  needs  of  the  Government  economically  admin 
istered.'  This  is  somewhat  obscure,  but  its  meaning  is  not  difficult  to 
reach.  'Federal  taxation'  means  the  tariff;  'exclusively'  means  'only,' 
and  'public  purposes'  can  have  no  meaning  but  'revenue,'  and  there 
fore,  reduced  to  our  every -day  vernacular,  it  reads,  'We'  demand  that 
the  tariff  shall  be  only  for  revenue,'  So  that  its  present  position  is 
entirely  in  harmony  with  its  past. 

"In  what  I  have  thus  far  said  with  regard  to  the  record  of  the  Demo 
cratic  party,  it  is  entirely  fair  for  me  to  say  that  its  candidates  stand  upon 
its  records  so  far  as  we  are  able  to  ascertain.  In  his  letter  of  acceptance, 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

Governor  Cleveland  says,  '  I  have  carefully  considered  the  platform  adopted 
by  the  convention  and  cordially  approve  the  same.'  The  attitude  of  Mr. 
Hendricks  has  been  too  well  known  to  require  comment.  So  that  the  pos 
ition  of  the  Democratic  party  being  clearly  ascertained,  we  have  only  to 
inquire,  Are  we  in  favor  of  it? 

"There  is  no  abler  exponent  of  the  free-trade  Democratic  doctrine  in 
this  country,  perhaps,  than  Mr.  David  A.  Wells.  A  Democratic  philoso 
pher  and  a  philosophic  Democrat,  a  member  of  the  Cobden  Club,  he  looks 
upon  free-trade  as  the  means  by  which  a  millenium  among  the  nations  is 
to  be  secured,  and  the  estimate  in  which  he  holds  our  policy  of  protec 
tion  is  clearly  indicated  by  an  essay  written  by  him  for  the  Cobden  Club, 
and  published  in  its  collection  of  essays  in  1871,  in  which,  referring  to  the 
tariff  of  twenty-eight  dollars  per  ton  upon  steel  rails,  he  says  that  the  tar 
iff  is  '  so  excessive  and  costly  that  it  would  be  more  profitable  for  the  coun 
try  at  large  to  buy  and  burn  up  all  the  existing  establishments  and  pension 
all  the  workmen,  rather  than  continue  the  business  under  existing  arrange 
ments.'  Mr.  Wells  proceeds  to  state  in  the  same  essay  that  in  the  event 
this  tariff  had  not  been  imposed,  steel  rails  could  have  been  laid  down  in 
New  York  for  sixty-two  dollars  a  ton ;  and  he  cheers  and  gratifies  his  Eng 
lish  brethren  at  the  close  of  his  essay  by  saying :  '  It  is  safe  to  predict  that 
ten  years  will  not  elapse  before  every  vestige  of  restrictive  and  discrimina 
ting  legislation  will  be  struck  from  the  National  statute  book.' 

"The  advocates  of  protection  have  always  insisted  that  such  a  spirit  of 
competition  grows  up  from  it  as  not  to  enhance,  but  rather  to  cheapen  the 
product,  and  this  has  steadily  been  denied  by  the  free-trader.  How  greatly 
Mr.  Wells  was  at  fault  the  experience  of  the  years  since  1871,  when  this 
remarkable  essay  was  written,  has  demonstrated.  At  that  time  this  great 
industry  was  practically  in  its  infancy  in  this  country  ;  but  encouraged  and 
stimulated  by  protection,  it  has  developed  to  such  an  extent  that  our 
capacity  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  country  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
and  steel  rails  manufactured  by  our  own  people  are  to-day  for  sale  in  the 
American  market  at  the  rate  of  $27  per  ton.  Had  the  advice  of  Mr.  Wells 
been  followed  the  thousands  and  the  tens  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
men  engaged  in  these  establishments  would  have  found  no  employment; 
the  tens  of  thousands  of  men  engaged  in  the  various  branches  of  industry 
collateral  to  this  would  have  found  no  employment.  Our  own  steel  rail 
manufactories  would  have  been  destroyed  by  the  influx  of  the  English  pro 
duct,  and  the  instant  that  result  was  accomplished  prices  would  have  been 
advanced  and  the  transportation  interests  of  this  country  would  have  been 
chained  to  the  car  of  the  English  manufacturer. 

"  I  do  not  need  in  this  presence  to  descant  upon  nor  argue  the  case  of 
protection  as  against  free-trade.  It  is  enough  I  apprehend,  for  me  to  show 
what  the  attitude  of  our  parties  really  is.  The  figures  which  I  have  already 
given  demonstrate  that  every  interest  is  promoted  by  protection.  The  price 
of  labor  is  advanced  and  it  has  been  the  policy  of  the  Republican  party 
from  the  beginning  so  to  legislate  that  there  might  be  an  honest  day's 
wages  for  an  honest  day's  toil  paid  in  honest  money.  Mr.  Blaine  uses  this 


THE    CAMPAIGN    OF    1884.  759 

emphatic  language,  and  covers  not  only  the  ground  of  protecting  the  manu 
factured  article,  but  protecting  the  laborer  himself:  'The  Republican 
party  has  protected  the  free  labor  of  America  so  that  its  compensation  is 
larger  than  is  realized  in  any  other  country,  and  it  has  guarded  our  people 
against  the  unfair  competition  of  contract  labor  from  China,  and  may  be 
called  upon  to  prohibit  the  growth  of  a  similar  evil  from  Europe.  It  is 
obviously  unfair  to  permit  capitalists  to  make  contracts  for  cheap  labor  in 
foreign  countries  to  the  hurt  and  disparagement  of  the  labor  of  American 
citizens.'  This  is  the  doctrine  of  our  candidate.  It  covers  the  whole 
ground  of  the  controversy.  And  on  this  great,  vital  question,  in  which  the 
hearths  and  homes  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  industrious  citizens  through 
out  this  country  are  involved,  Grover  Cleveland  has  not  one  word  to  say, 
and,  so  far  as  we  know,  has  never  had  a  thought. 

"The  exhibit  that  I  have  made  of  the  wonderful  growth  of  our  coun 
try  since  1860  encounters  one  extraordinary  exception,  viz.,  our  shipping 
interests,  and  with  reference  to  those  Mr.  Hendricks  says  that  the  obituary 
of  our  merchant  marine  is  witten  in  our  tariff  and  shipping  laws.  If 
Mr.  Hendricks  does  not  know  that  this  statement  is  false  he  is  not 
nearly  so  well  versed  in  the  history  of  his  country  and  of  that  great 
interest  as  a  candidate  for  Vice  President  surely  ought  to  be.  Nowr 
what  are  the  facts,  and  where  shall  we  seek  the  explanation  of  this 
decline  in  our  shipping  interests?  First  it  is  important  to  mention  that 
from  1855  to  1861  there  was  a  relative  decrease,  for  reasons  surely  not 
attributable  to  the  Republican  party,  of  over  16  per  cent.  In  1848  the 
value  of  the  total  imports  and  exports  in  American  ships  was  about 
$240,000,000  against  about  $7 1 ,000,000  in  foreign  ships,  and  the  British 
Government  then  paid  $3,250,000  annually  as  subsidies.  From  that  time 
she  at  once  began  increasing  her  subsidies,  and  at  the  breaking  out  of 
the  war  in  1861  they  were  nearly  five  million  dollars,  while  our  tonnage 
had  run  down  from  five  hundred  millions  in  1860  to  three  hundred  and 
eighty-one  millions  in  1861.  In  the  years  1870  and  1871,  in  response  to 
the  Pacific  Mail  subsidy,  Great  Britain  ran  her  subsidies  up  to  over  six 
millions.  So  that  in  1882,  by  this  policy,  she  had  reduced  the  value  of 
our  imports  and  exports  under  our  flag  to  two  hundred  and  forty-two 
millions,  and  had  increased  hers  to  one  billion  three  hundred  millions.  It 
is  idle  to  talk  of  the  individual  shipbuilder  competing  not  only  against  the 
British  shipbuilder,  but  the  British  Government  as  well.  The  policy  pursued 
by  the  British  Government  has  been  wise.  The  value  of  the  English  fleet  is 
to-day  $1,000,000,000,  and  of  this  $900,000,000  has  been  expended  for  labor. 
This  policy  has  given  employment  to  240,000  men  regularly  and  220,000 
more  to  run  the  ships.  The  gross  earnings  of  this  fleet  have  been  $330,000,- 
ooo.  Our  country  pays  $100,000,000  for  the  service  of  these  ships,  and  now  the 
clamor  is  for  free  ships.  Free  ships  will  not  relieve  us.  Great  Britain  might 
present  to  us  five  hundred  vessels  free  of  charge,  and  yet,  as  the  case  now 
stands,  we  could  not  successfully  encounter  the  competition ;  for  behind  the 
English  ship-owner  and  builder  and  master  stands,  as  I  have  said,  the 
British  treasury,  and  until  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States,  which  has 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

granted  hundreds  of  millions  of  subsidies  to  railroads,  shall  hold  its  shield 
over  and  stand  behind  the  American  ship-owner  and  builder  it  is  idle  to 
look  for  a  change  in  the  present  condition  of  affairs.  Does  not  this  demon 
strate  that  we  need  an  American  policy?" 

The  defeat  of  the  Republican  party  at  the  polls  in  November 
did  not  lessen  his  belief  in  either  the  party,  for  which  he  had  so 
earnestly  and  never  more  ably  than  during  the  year  of  1884, 
battled,  nor  in  its  leaders.  He  was  a  thorough  party  spirit  even 
at  the  death.  There  was  something  splendid  in  the  way  he 
replied  to  the  question.  "Do  you  think  this  defeat  seriously 
affects  the  future  of  the  party?"  put  to  him  by  an  interviewer 
for  the  New  York  Tribune.  "On  the  contrary,  I  think  it  solidi 
fies  the  party.  We  are  now  a  compact,  powerful,  splendid 
political  organization,  identical  in  opinion  and  purpose.  It  is  a 
curious  feature  of  the  triumph  of  the  Democratic  party  at  this 
election  that  the  only  reason  that  the  country  will  not  be  greatly 
damaged  by  its  success  is  that  its  success  has  not  been  complete, 
and  the  only  hope  of  the  patriotic  Democrat  is,  not  that  his 
party  has  triumphed  but  that  1t  has  not  triumphed  completely. 
The  salvation  of  the  country  rests  on  the  fact,  not  that  Cleve 
land  is  elected — the  hope  of  success  on  the  part  of  all  our  great 
industries  rests  not  on  the  fact  that  he  is  to  be  our  next  Presi 
dent,  but  rather  in  the  fact  that,  being  our  next  President,  he 
and  the  House  of  Representatives  behind  him  will  be  unable  to 
carry  out  the  doctrine  which  he  represents,  because  of  the  inter 
position  of  the  Republican  senate;  and  so  again,  as  in  the  count 
less  instances  of  the  past,  the  Republican  party  saves  the  coun 
try.  I  look  for  a  strengthening  from  this  time  forward  of  the 
Republican  party,  and  within  two  years  I  expect  that  every 
Northern  State  will  wheel  into  line  under  its  banners."  The 
reason  of  the  defeat,  he  ascribed  solely  to  the  address  of  the 
New  York  Presbyterian  clergyman  who  made  use  of  the  unfortu 
nate  alliteration  "Rum,  Romanism,  and  Rebellion."  This  was 
an  insult  to  the  Catholic  priests  and  clergy  present,  and  to 
Catholic  sentiment  throughout  the  country.  The  Democrats  made 
ready  and  able  use  of  the  expression,  Every  dead-wall  was 
placarded  with  it,  and  the  pews  of  the  Catholic  churches  were 
filled  with  it  on  the  Sunday  which  immediately  preceded  the 
polling  of  votes.  To  correct  it  was  impossible. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 


LEGALITY  OF  "TRIAL  BY  INFORMATION." 
MR.    STORKS'    LAST    CASE — THE  ELECTION   FRAUD  IN  THE   i8TH  WARD  OF 

CHICAGO— JOSEPH  C.  MACKIN  AND  OTHERS  TRIED  BY  INFORMATION 
INSTEAD  OF  ON  INDICTMENT— MR.  STORRS  MOVES  FOR  A  WRIT  OF  ERROR 
— THE  SUPREME  COURT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  AFTER  HIS  DEATH,  SUS 
TAINS  HIS  POINTS — A  POSTHUMOUS  VICTORY. 

THE  last  case  upon  which  Mr.  Storrs  was  employed  was  one 
which  attracted  attention  and  excited  discussion  throughout 
the  country.  It  involved  a  more  than  usually  bold  and  daring 
outrage  upon  the  purity  of  the  ballot  box,  which  every  American 
looks  upon  as  the  palladium  of  liberty.  In  the  Presidential 
election  of  1884,  it  so  happened  that  an  equal  number  of  delegates 
to  the  State  Legislature  of  Illinois  were  elected  by  each  party, 
and  as  there  was  to  be  a  Senator  from  Illinois  chosen  to  succeed 
John  A.  Logan,  the  Democratic  managers  naturally  thought  it 
would  be  a  desirable  thing  if  a  Republican  Legislator  could  be 
counted  out,  and  a  Democrat  returned  to  Springfield  in  his  place. 
Mr.  Joseph  Chesterfield  Mackin,  secretary  of  all  the  Democratic 
committees,  undertook  to  accomplish  this  end,  and  unfortunately 
chose  the  second  precinct  of  the  i8th  ward  of  Chicago  for  his 
operations.  The  successful  Republican  ticket  bore  the  name  of 
Mr.  Henry  W.  Leman  as  State  Senator  for  that  district.  Mr. 
Leman  was  a  young  Chicago  lawyer,  the  son-in-law  of  a  wealthy 
merchant  living  on  Dearborn  Avenue,  and  his'  opponent  was  Mr. 
Rudolph  Brand,  a  brewer  of  lager  beer.  Mackin  undertook  to 
falsify  the  returns  for  the  second  precinct,  which  included  Dear 
born  Avenue,  and  give  Brand  a  majority  by  forging  the  tally- 
sheet  and  substituting  spurious  ballots,  fac-similes  of  the  genuine 
Republican  ticket  in  all  respects  except  that  Brand's  name  took 

761 


/62  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

the  place  of  Leman's,  in  place  of  the  regular  Republican  ballots 
cast.  For  this  purpose  he  had  to  win  over  to  his  wishes  some 
of  the  clerks  employed  in  the  office  of  the  County  Clerk,  so  as 
to  obtain  access  to  the  ballot  box  after  it  had  been  deposited  in 
the  County  Clerk's  office.  Next,  he  had  to  obtain  the  services 
of  a  skillful  penman,  expert  at  forgery.  He  found  no  difficulty 
in  securing  the  help  he  wanted.  When  the  County  Clerk  came 
to  canvass  the  vote  of  that  precinct,  it  was  found  that  by  some 
hocus-pocus  Brand  and  Leman  had  changed  places  on  the  tally- 
sheet,  the  exact  majority  actually  voted  for  the  one  being  recorded 
for  the  other.  There  were  erasures  and  alterations  on  the  sheet 
which  looked  suspicious,  and  the  District  Attorney  of  the  United 
States,  Colonel  R.  S.  Tuthill,  took  the  matter  up  and  brought  it 
before  the  Federal  grand  jury  then  in  session.  A  writ  was 
obtained  from  Judge  Blodgett  commanding  the  County  Clerk  to 
appear  before  the  Federal  grand  jury  with  the  ballots  and  return. 
This  was  served  on  the  2 1st  of  November  about  noon,  and  the 
same  night  Mackin  had  printed  a  sufficient  number  of  bogus 
ballots  to  take  the  place  of  the  genuine  ones,  got  them  placed  in 
the  ballot-box  by  the  aid  of  the  County  Clerk's  treacherous 
subordinate,  and  next  day  all  seemed  to  be  ready  for  the  inspec 
tion  of  the  grand  jury. 

We  have  said  that  Mackin  was  unfortunate  in  choosing  the 
second  precinct  of  the  i8th  ward  for  this  nefarious  operation.  In 
that  precinct  resided  not  only  Leman  himself,  the  State  Senator- 
elect,  but  also  his  wealthy  father-in-law,  and  a  large  and  influen 
tial  circle  of  friends.  Not  only  had  Mackin  allowed  the  ballot 
of  Mr.  Leman's  father-in-law  to  be  changed,  but  also  that  of 
Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne  and  other  prominent  Republican  citizens. 
So  clumsy  a  fraud  was  certain  to  be  detected  on  examination 
of  the  ballots,  but  Mackin  had  hoped  to  shield  himself  and  his 
confederates  by  the  declaration  of  the  County  Clerk  and  the 
other  members  of  the  canvassing  board  that  they  had  no  power 
to  ugo  behind  the  return."  Here,  however,  was  a  Federal  grand 
jury  who  'persisted  in  going  behind  the  return ;  who  came  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  return  itself  was  a  forgery,  and  who  speedily 
discovered  a  suspicious  newness  and  uniformity  of  appearance  in 
the  bogus  substituted  ballots.  Mr.  Washburne  and  other  well- 
known  Republicans,  among  them  Mr.  Leman's  own  father-in-law, 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION."  763 

were  returned  as  having  voted  for  Brand,  and  they  all  came  before 
the  grand  jury  and  testified,  some  by  affidavit  and  some  in  per 
son,  that  the  substituted  ballot  was  a  fraud,  and  that  they  had 
voted  the  straight  Republican  ticket,  which  included  Mr.  Leman's 
name. 

On  the  same  ticket,  along  with  the  names  of  the  Republican 
candidate  for  President  and  Vice  President  of  the  United.  States, 
and  the  names  of  State  officers,  was  the  name  of  the  Republican 
candidate  for  Congressman  from  that  district.  Upon  this  fact 
alone,  Judge  Blodgett  assumed  jurisdiction  under  the  Act  of 
Congress  in  ordering  the  ballots  to  be  brought  into  his  court  for 
inspection.  The  printers  whom  Mackin  had  hired  to  do  his 
disreputable  work  took  alarm  as  soon  as  they  learned  of  the 
discoveries  made  by  the  grand  jury,  and  they  went  before  that 
body  and  disclosed  Mackin's  agency  in  the  transaction.  Other 
evidence  fastened  the  guilt  of  the  forging  of  the  return  upon 
another  Democratic  worker  named  W.  J.  Gallagher,  and  the 
treacherous  connivance  from  within  the  County  Clerk's  office 
upon  two  of  his  deputies,  Arthur  Gleason  and  Henry  Biehl. 
District  Attorney  Tuthill,  on  the  2Oth  of  January,  1885,  moved 
for  leave  to  file  a  criminal  information  against  these  four  persons 
for  violating  section  5440  §>f  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United 
States,  which  was  granted,  and  the  defendants  were  taken  into 
custody  on  a  bench  warrant  and  admitted  to  bail  in  310,000 
each. 

The  section  under  which  they  were  put  upon  trial  is  one  pro 
viding  for  a  penalty  against  persons  conspiring  to  commit  an 
offence  against  the  United  States,  or  to  defraud  the  United  States. 
On  this  charge  of  conspiracy,  Mackin,  Gallagher,  Gleason,  and 
Biehl  were  tried  in  the  United  States  Court  before  Judge  Blod 
gett  and  a  jury,  the  trial  commencing  on  the  5th  of  February 
1885,  and  lasting  till  the  2ist  of  the  same  month,  when  the  jury 
returned  a  verdict  of  guilty  against  Mackin,  Gallagher,  and  Glea-i 
son,  and  acquitted  Biehl.  Before  the  trial,  a  motion  to  quash 
the  indictment  was  made,  on  the  ground  that  the  facts  set  forth 
in  the  information  merely  showed  a  design  to  change  the  vote 
for  State  Senator,  and  therefore  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  case 
belonged  to  the  State  Courts  only,  and  that  the  Federal  Court 
had  no  jurisdiction.  This  motion  was  overruled,  but  the  same 


764  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

line  of  argument  was  mainly  relied  upon  in  the  speeches  of  coun 
sel  for  the  defence  on  the  trial.  It  was  also  made  the  principal 
ground  for  the  motion  for  a  new  trial,  which  was  likewise  over 
ruled.  Mackin  and  Gallagher  were  sentenced  to  two  years  impris 
onment  in  Joliet  penitentiary,  and  to  pay  a  fine  of  $5000  each. 

It  was  at  the  stage  of  the  proceedings  that  Mr.  Storrs  came 
into  the  case.  Other  counsel  had  conducted  an  unavailing  defence 
on  the  trial  before  a  jury,  and  it  was  well-known  that  Mr.  Storrs' 
political  sympathies  were  rather  with  the  prosecution  than  with 
the  defendants.  But  it  was  hardly  a  surprise  to  the  community 
in  which  Mr.  Storrs'  reputation  as  a  lawyer  stood  so  high  that 
his  employment  as  a  last  resource  in  desperate  cases  had  come 
to  be  looked  for  as  a  matter  of  course,  when  he  appeared  on 
the  2 1st  of  March  before  Judge  Blodgett  to  apply  for  an  exten 
sion  of  the  time  for  removing  the  prisoners  from  the  county  jail 
to  Joliet.  Mr.  Storrs  was  at  first  exceedingly  reluctant  to  take 
up  the  case,  and  it  was  only  after  a  good  deal  of  pressure  exer 
cised  upon  him  privately  from  a  quarter  that  was  always  influ 
ential  with  him,  joined  to  the  entreaties  of  friends  and  near  con 
nections  of  Mackin,  as  well  as  of  Mackin  himself,  that  he  finally 
concluded  to  do  so.  Having  once  engaged  himself,  he  put  aside 
all  personal  feelings  and  political  prejudices,  and  viewed  the  case 
simply  from  the  standpoint  of  professional  duty.  As  was  his 
wont,  he  identified  himself  with  the  interests  of  his  client,  and 
devoted  all  the  resources  of  professional  learning,  skill,  and  exper 
ience  to  that  client's  service.  He  applied  to  Judge  Gresham  for 
a  writ  of  error  and  supersedeas,  and  argued  the  motion  before 
that  distinguished  Judge  on  the  same  day  on  which  he  had 
obtained  from  Judge  Blodgett  a  stay  of  proceedings. 

He  had  in  the  meantime  carefully  considered  the  case,  and 
saw  that  one  important  point  had  been  overlooked  by  counsel 
upon  the  trial, — namely,  the  question  whether  an  information 
would  lie  for  the  offence  with  which  Mackin  was  charged.  He 
concurred  with  their  view  as  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal 
court  in  the  case,  but  after  looking  through  the  authorities,  and 
especially  a  decision  recently  given  by  Mr.  Justice  Gray,  he  had 
reached  the  conclusion  that  the  course  pursued  by  the  District 
Attorney  was  wrong  from  the  beginning,  and  that,  even  suppo 
sing  the  Court  to  have  jurisdiction,  the  defendants  should  have 
been  tried  upon  presentment  by  the  grand  jury,  and  not  by 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION."  765 

information.  He  argued  these  points  before  Judge  Gresham  in 
their  logical  order.  First  he  took  up  the  point  of  jurisdiction. 
Xo  report  of  his  argument  having  been  published,  it  will  be  a 
source  of  enlightenment  to  a  great  many  people,  newspaper  wri 
ters  included,  who  at  the  time  were  so  impatient  of  technicalities 
in  view  of  the  plain  and  overwhelming  evidence  against  Mack  in 
that  they  regarded  the  counsel  who  raised  them  merely  as  an 
obstructor  of  justice,  if  we  reproduce  some  portions  of  it  here. 
At  the  very  outset,  Mr.  Storrs  made  a  clear  distinction  between 
the  vindication  of  a  constitutional  principle,  lying  at  the  founda 
tion  of  the  liberties  of  every  citizen,  and  the  mere  salvation  of 
an  individual  from  punishment.  He  began  by  saying : 

"I  think  it  perfectly  safe  to  assume  that  the  substance  of  all  the  argu 
ments  which  have  been  addressed  to  your  Honor  in  opposition  to  the  peti 
tion  made  in  this  case  for  a  writ  of  error  and  supersedeas,  is  embodied  in 
the  very  elaborate  charge  of  Judge  Blodgett  to  the  jury,  and  upon  which 
charge  the  verdict  was  rendered  against  three  of  the  defendants  on  trial. 
Upon  a  careful  reading  of  that  charge,  I  am  led  to  the  conclusion  that  it 
would  be  hardly  possible  that  a  more  able  and  adroit  argument  of  the  case 
on  behalf  of  the  government  could  have  been  or  can  be  made.  This  is 
true  particularly  as  to  so  much  of  the  charge  as  relates  to  one  of  the  pro 
positions  which  it  is  my  purpose  to  discuss  upon  this  petition,  namely,  the 
question  of  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  courts  over  this  case.  It 
will  suit  my  purpose  to  comment,  before  I  finish,  upon  that  charge  some 
what  in  detail,  for  if  I  succeed  in  establishing  in  the  mind  of  your  Honor 
a  doubt  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  legal  propositions  there  advanced,  so 
far  as  this  application  is  concerned,  my  purpose  is  achieved,  and  the  writ 
of  error  and  supersedeas  will  follow  from  that  doubt  as  a  matter  of  course. 
For,  as  I  understand  the  attitude  of  this  question,  it  is  not  necessary  that 
we  should  convince  the  court  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  positions  which 
we  maintain  to  the  extent  that  the  court  will  feel  justified  in  reversing  the 
judgment  entered  upon  this  verdict,  but  it  is  enough  for  us,  and  our  pur 
pose  is  accomplished,  if  we  establish  a  fair  ground  of  belief  that  the  tribu 
nal  before  whom  this  case  will  be  heard,  if  a  writ  of  error  were  issued, 
would  reach  a  conclusion  different  from  that  arrived  at  before  the  trial 
judge. 

"  Not  having  been  connected  with  the  case  at  all  until  a  very  recent  date, 
and  my  examination  of  the  case  having  had  no  necessary  connection  with 
the  inquiry  as  to  the  guilt  or  the  innocence  of  the  accused  of  the  charge 
preferred  against  them  in  the  information,  I  am  relieved  from  all  necessity 
of  discussing  those  matters  of  fact,  and  indeed,  they  can  with  propriety  be 
hardly  said  to  be  before  the  court  at  all;  for  in  such  a  discussion  as  that 
in  which  we  are  now  engaged  the  abstract  question  of  law  becomes  the 
real  question,  and  the  individual  in  whose  behalf  that  abstract  question  is 
presented,  does  not  enter  into  the  contemplation,  either  of  counsel  or  of 


766  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

court.  As  to  the  enormity  of  the  offense  of  which  it  is  alleged  these 
defendants  and  petitioners  have  been  guilty,  I  have  nothing  to  say  further 
than  that  I  am  quite  prepared  to  go  as  far  as  any  one  in  denunciation  of 
the  crime  of  stuffing  the  ballot-box,  or  in  any  way,  by  fraud,  violence  or 
other  methods,  intimidating  the  voter,  or  by  any  means  of  corruption  bring 
ing  about  a  different  result  than  the  voice  of  a  majority  of  the  citizens 
actually  accomplished." 

On  the  question  of  jurisdiction,  he  cited  a  Louisiana  case, 
U.  S.  v.  NicJiolson,  3  Woods,  215,  in  which  Judge  Woods  laid 
down  the  law  in  these  words:  "No  matter  how  much  it  affected 
the  results  of  the  election  for  ward  officers,  parish  officers  and 
members  of  the  state  legislature;  we  have  nothing  to  do  with 
that,  and  unless  the  purpose  of  the  defendants  was  to  affect  the 
election  of  members  of  Congress,  there  can  be  no  conviction  in 
this  case." 

He  proceeded  to  argue,  as  had  been  done  by  other  counsel  at 
a  former  stage,  that  as  the  act  of  the  defendants  affected  only 
the  election  of  a  State  officer,  no  offence  against  the  United 
States  had  been  committed.  Judge  Blodgett,  in  his  charge  to 
the  jury,  had  used  this  language: 

"It  is  charged  that  230  ballots  regularly  cast  at  said  election  were 
destroyed  or  removed  from  the  envelope  in  which  they  had  been  properly 
placed  and  sealed  up,  and  that  there  were  substituted  in  place  of  those  so 
removed  230  other  papers  like  those  destroyed  or  removed,  except  that 
Brand's  name  for  State  Senator  was  substituted  for  Leman's,  and,  as  the 
proof  tends  to  show,  all  these  ballots  were  for  George  E.  Adams  for  repre 
sentative  for  Congress.  This  fact  affects  the  vote  for  representative  to 
Congress,  because  there  is  no  means  of  determining  who  those  230  voters 
voted  for  for  representative.  They  may  not  have  voted  for  Adams  at  all,  or 
only  a  part  of  them  may  have  voted  for  him,  and  hence  the  removal  of 
those  ballots  is  an  offense  against  the  United  States." 

In  answer  to  this,  Mr.  Storrs  contended  that  the  real  inquiry 
was,  first,  whether  the  overt  acts  shown  upon  the  trial  did  affect 
the  election  of  a  member  of  congress,  and  second,  whether  they 
were  intended  to  affect  such  election. 

"And  here  it  is  proper  to  observe,  that  we  must  narrow  the  field  of 
inquiry  which  Judge  Blodgett  has  occupied.  We  cannot  float  out  into  the 
wide  ocean  of  conjecture  and  guess-work.  Our  inquiry  is  not  whether,  by 
some  remote  possibility  or  contingency,  these  acts  might  have  affected  the 
election.  For,  in  the  case  cited,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  courts  over 
state  officers,  is  asserted  on  no  such  dangerous  basis.  The  inquiry  is,  did 
those  acts  affect  such  election?  Whether  they  did  or  not  is  a  matter  sus 
ceptible  of  explicit  proof.  Whether  they  might,  under  a  certain  state  of 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION."  /6/ 

circumstances  which  may  be  imagined,  have  affected  an  election,  is  so 
difficult  of  proof,  and  so  dangerous  in  its  character,  as  not  legitimately  to  be 
made  the  subject  of  judicial  inquiry. 

"  Moreover,  unless  by  the  acts  complained  of,  the  defendants  intended  to 
affect  such  an  election,  there  can,  under  the  rulings  of  the  court  to  which 
1  have  referred,  be  no  legal  or  justifiable  conviction.  And  for  the  Federal 
courts  to  assume  and  maintain  jurisdiction  in  the  absence  of  any  such 
intent,  is  a  usurpation  of  power,  and  a  stretching  of  jurisdiction  not  perhaps 
as  dangerous  in  its  results  and  consequences  as  the  crime  complained  of, 
but  sufficiently  serious  and  grave  in  character  to  admonish  extreme  caution. 

"There  is  not  a  scintilla  of  evidence  that  any  or  either  of  the  acts  done 
did  affect  the  election  of  a  member  of  Congress,  nor  is  there  the  slightest 
evidence  on  record  that  any  person  on  trial  had  any  such  purpose  or  object 
in,  view,  or  ever  entertained  any  such  intention. 

"  I  may  go  further  and  say  that  the  case  and  public  history  since  that 
time  both  demonstrate  that  the  election  of  a  member  of  Congress  was  not 
affected,  and  that  the  specific  facts  offered  in  evidence  upon  trial,  so  far  as 
they  had  any  tendency  whatever  to  throw  light  on  the  question,  tend  to 
show  that  neither  of  these  defendants  ever  entertained  any  such  purpose. 

"It  is  barely  possible  that  an  act  of  Congress  might  have  been  so  framed 
as  to  have  made  Judge  Blodgett's  rulings  upon  this  branch  of  the  case 
good  law,  but  it  is  enough  to  say  that  there  is  no  such  act  of  Congress  in 
existence,  and  probably  never  will  be.  Congressional  legislation  upon  these 
subjects  has  reached  its  uttermost  limits,  and  the  current  of  public  and  con 
gressional  opinion  is  now  setting  strongly  the  other  way.  I  think  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  we  shall  never  see  upon  the  Federal  statute  books  an  enactment, 
that  any  act  done  by  a  state  officer  which  might  affect  the  ^election  of  a 
member  of  Congress  shall  be  punishable  in  the  Federal  court." 

Judge  Blodgett  had  instructed  the  jury  that  by  the  statutes  of 
Illinois,  the  duty  of  safely  keeping  all  the  poll  books,  etc.,  was 
imposed  upon  the  county  clerk  and  his  deputies.  To  this  Mr. 
Storrs  took  exception,  so  far  as  the  deputies,  of  whom  there 
were  then  sixteen  in  the  office,  were  concerned. 

"When  we  speak  of  an  officer  of  election,  everybody  knows  what  we  mean  ; 
and  if  the  meaning  and  significance  of  that  phrase  is  to  be  extended  beyond 
officers  who  officiated  at  the  election,  there  is  no  place  where  we  may 
stop.  If  it  includes  every  man  who  has  something  to  do  to  perfect  the  will 
of  the  people  as  expressed  at  the  election,  and  to  absolutely  induct  and 
clothe  the  person  elected  with  all  the  muniments  and  evidences  of  power, 
into  office,  there  is  no  end  to  it.  Everybody  almost  is  in  that  sense  an 
officer  of  election.  The  governor  puts  the  finishing  touch  here  in  this 
state.  He  is  not  an  officer  of  election  ;  but  until  he  acts,  the  election  so  far 
as  its  final  result  is  concerned  is  not  consummated.  Last  fall  I  was  engaged, 
not  as  an  officer  of  election  but  as  an  active  participant  in  an  election.  I 
came  home  from  it  a  madder  and  a  wiser  man.  A  great  many  millions  of 
people  voted,  and  finally  as  a  consummation  on  the  4th  day  of  March  last, 


76c8  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

there  stood  on  the  steps  of  the  capitol  at  Washington,  in  the  presence  of 
more  than  50,000  people,  Grover  Cleveland,  and  in  front  of  him  the  chief 
justice  of  the  United  States,  who  handed  to  him  a  Bible,  and  administered 
to  him  the  oath  of  office,  and  then,  and  not  until  then,  was  Grover  Cleveland 
the  president  of  the  United  States.  Was  Chief  Justice  Waite  an  officer  of 
election?  It  won't  do.  The  cake  is  much  too  large  for  the  platter;  the 
interpretation  is  altogether  too  big,  and  there  is  no  necessity  which  requires 
it." 

To  another  proposition  contained  in  Judge  Blodgett's  charge, 
Mr.  Storrs  made  an  effective  reply,  which  went  to  the  very  root 
of  this  question  of  Federal  jurisdiction.  He  said: 

"After  thus  sufficiently  misinterpreting  the  statutes,  the  court  proceeds  to 
misstate  the  effect  of  the  acts  complained  of,  and  for  the  purposes  of  this 
argument  it  may  be  assumed  proven.  He  says  :  'When  the  certificate  of  the 
result  of  an  election  for  a  member  of  Congress,  or  any  other  officer  for 
that  matter,  is  altered  in  any  material  particular,  such  certificate  is  legally 
destroyed,  and  is  no  longer  evidence  of  what  it  originally  stated.  It  is  no 
longer  the  document  which  the  judges  and  clerks  signed,  but  it  is  a 
different  document,  and  it  makes  a  different  statement.' 

"The  consequences  might  indeed  be  exceedingly  disastrous,  was  this 
extraordinary  doctrine  of  Judge  Blodgett  to  be  sustained.  It  would  be 
within  the  power,  where  great  numbers  of  officers  for  different  offices  were 
voted  for,  of  one  bad  man,  by  a  single  alteration  in  the  certificate  as  to  the 
vote  for  one  official,  even  of  the  most  insignificant  character,  to  defeat  the 
entire  popular  will  as  to  all  the  other  officers  voted  for  throughout  the  entire 
state,  indeed,  throughout  the  entire  nation.  Such  a  thing  can  be  conceived 
of  as  that  the  election  of  President  Cleveland  might  have  rested  entirely 
upon  the  electoral  vote  of  this  state,  and  that  electoral  vote  have  been 
determined  by  the  vote  cast  for  him  in  this  very  precinct,  and  yet,  we  are 
assured  that  the  public  will  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  would  have 
been  defeated,  had  some  officious  scoundrel  fraudulently  altered  a  certificate 
as  to  the  vote  cast  for  coroner  in  that  precinct. 

"Now,  if  I  am  correct  in  my  view  of  the  case,  that  the  balance  of  the 
certificate  stands,  notwithstanding  the  fraudulent  alteration  as  to  the  vote 
for  state  senator,  two  conclusions  are  inevitable  ;  first,  that  nothing  in  that 
direction  charged  in  the  information  did  in  point  of  fact  affect  the  election 
for  representative  to  Congress,  and,  second,  it  will  be  clear,  beyond  debate, 
that  all  the  evidence  in  this  case— and  it  is  the  great  volume  of  the  evidence 
in  this  case— showing  or  tending  to  show  the  fraudulent  change  in  the  vote 
for  state  senator  was  entirely  irrelevant  and  incompetent,  and  had  no  place 
before  the  jury  in  the  court  in  which  this  case  was  tried." 

After  citing  a  long  array  of  authorities  in  support  of  his  posi 
tion,  he  next  addressed  himself  to  the  right  of  the  District 
Attorney  to  file  an  information  in  such  a  case.  On  this  branch 
of  the  subject  he  began  by  saying : 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION."  769 

"The  right,  if  any  right  exists  at  all — which  I  do  not  deny — to  file  infor 
mations  in  the  Federal  courts,  is  not  derived  from  the  common  law,  for  the 
Federal  courts  have  no  common  law  powers  or  jurisdiction.  Their  powers 
come  from  Congress  and  from  Congress  alone,  and  by  section  1022  of  the 
United  States  statutes  at  large,  it  is  provided  as  follows :  •  All  crimes  and 
offenses  committed  against  the  provisions  of  chapter  7,  titled,  'Crimes' 
which  are  not  infamous  may  be  prosecuted  either  by  indictment  or  by 
information  filed  by  a  district  attorney.'  It  is  clear  that  Congress  supposed 
that  there  were  crimes  embodied  in  the  title  indicated,  and  in  which  are 
embraced  sections  5515,  5512  and  5511,  which  were  infamous,  and  as  to 
those  crimes,  no  information  would  lie. 

"My  objections  to  this  information  are  two-fold. 

1 '  First,  that  even  if  it  be  assumed  for  the  purposes  of  the  argument,  that 
an  information  could  be  filed,  this  particular  information  has  no  foundation 
upon  which  to  rest,  and  should  be  summarily  stricken  from  the  record  for 
that  reason. 

"It  is  not  my  purpose  to  detain  the  court  by  any  lengthy  or  protracted 
discussion  as  to  the  history  of  informations.  It  is  enough  to  say,  that  they 
are  regarded,  both  in  this  country  and  in  England,  with  the  greatest  dis 
favor  and  suspicion,  and  that  they  are,  even  in  cases  where  they  are 
allowed  at  all — so  high  is  the  regard  for  the  liberty  of  the  individual — not 
permitted  unless  the  proper  foundations  are  laid,  and  it  has  finally  become 
clearly  the  settled  law  that  no  information  will  be  entertained  and  fried  by 
the  district  attorney  where  leave  of  court  to  file  such  information  has  not 
first  been  secured.  Leave  of  court  in  this  case  has  been  obtained,  as  the 
record  shows;  but  it  is  equally  well  settled  law  that  leave  will  not  be 
granted  and  ought  not  to  be  granted  unless  a  proper  foundation  is  laid — 
that  proper  foundation  being  furnishing  to  the  court  to  whom  the  application 
for  such  leave  is  made,  legal  evidence  of  the  facts  upon  which  the  infor 
mation  itself  is  based.  That  in  this  case  has  not  been  done,  and  a  more 
shallow,  a  more  utterly  absurd,  a  more  weak  and  a  more  dangerous  foun 
dation  for  so  serious  a  proceeding  cannot  be  found  in  the  whole  record  of 
criminal  informations." 

He  showed,  from  a  review  of  the  record,  that  the  only  founda 
tion  for  the  District  Attorney's  information  was  the  affidavit  of 
one  Albert  M.  Day,  who  after  swearing  to  the  general  course  of 
the  election  and  the  fact  of  the  falsification  of  the  return,  added 
that  "this  affiant  is  informed  and  verily  believes"  that  the 
defendants  were  the  persons  guilty  of  the  fraud.  So  that  the 
sole  ground  for  the  trial  was  the  affidavit  of  a  man  who  did  not 
even  profess  to  know  the  facts  upon  which  the  charge  was 
brought,  and  Mr.  Storrs  claimed  that  to  arrest  any  man  upon 
such  an  affidavit  was  a  travesty  of  justice. 

"The  most  disgraceful  pages  in  English  history,  so  far  as  its  administra 
tion  of  justice  is  concerned,  are  those  which  record  the  interference  with  the 

49 


7/O  LIFE   OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

lives,  liberties  and  property  of  the  citizen  by  information,  and  wherever  the 
grand  jury  system  has  been  abolished  and  proceeding  by  information  sub 
stituted  in  its  place,  the  method  of  proceeding  by  information  has  been 
so  guarded  and  hedged  against  outrage  and  abuse  as  practically  to 
operate — although  the  name  has  been  changed — as  a  substitution  in  point 
of  fact  for  the  grand  jury  system  of  another  judicial  proceeding  where 
inquiry  was  openly  had  upon  the  facts  stated  on  oath,  and  no  action  was 
had  except  upon  evidence  legal  in  its  character  and  competent  to  convict. 
And  so  I  say,  even  if  we  stop  here,  this  whole  fabric  should  be  razed  to 
the  ground.  I  urge  this  because,  among  other  reasons,  I  desire  to  see  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  courts  sustained  and  maintained,  but  I  do  not 
believe,  that  if  the  powers  of  Federal  tribunals  are  thus  to  be  prostituted, 
they  can  long  stand  against  an  aroused  public  and  congressional  opinion 
which  such  a  policy  is  sure  to  excite. 

"But  next:  Could  in  this  case  an  information  under  any  circumstances 
have  been  filed?  And  this,  without  further  discussion,  I  suggest,  depends 
entirely  upon  the  consideration  as  to  whether  the  offense  of  which  these 
defendants  have  been  convicted  and  for  which  they  have  been  sentenced,  is 
infamous.  So  much  has  been  written  and  so  much  said  in  the  vain  effort 
to  determine  what  is  infamous,  and  the  authorities  are  so  far  apart,  and  so 
utterly  irreconcilable  upon  that  question,  that  I  will  not  attempt  to  discuss 
them  in  detail  nor  to  reconcile  them.  Judge  Blodgett  evidently  regarded 
the  offense  as  infamous,  for,  in  speaking  of  it  in  his  charge,  he  said:  'It 
is  conceded  that  a  great  crime  has  been  committed,  a  crime  in  comparison 
with  which  armed  and  open  treason  becomes  a  trivial  offense.'  Armed  and 
open  treason  against  the  government  of  the  United  States  is  a  capital  offense ; 
it  involves  the  wicked  sacrifice  of  countless  lives,  and  the  destruction,  and 
wasteful  destruction,  of  millions  of  property  ;  but,  compared  with  this  offense, 
it  is  trivial.  And  yet,  the  gentlemen  who  are  maintaining  and  endeavoring 
to  sustain  this  proceeding  say,  that  the  offense  which  the  judge,  whose  charge 
they  are  thus  supporting,  characterizes  as  so  gross  that  armed  and  open 
treason  becomes  beside  it  a  trivial  offense,  is  not  an  infamous  offense. 

"In  this  case,  as  we  have  already  seen,  the  punishment  may  be  and  will 
be,  if  the  sentence  is  enforced,  imprisonment  of  each  of  the  defendants 
upon  whom  sentence  has  been  passed,  in  the  penitentiary  for  a  period  of 
two  years.  The  effect  of  such  imprisonment  is  to  render,  under  the  laws 
of  the  State  of  Illinois,  the  party  suffering  it,  infamous.  It  may  operate  to 
sunder  his  domestic  relations,  for,  among  the  causes  for  divorce  enumerated 
in  our  statutes,  one  is  where  either  party  has  been  convicted  of  felony  or 
other  infamous  crime,  and,  under  the  well  settled  law  of  this  state,  an 
offense  followed  by  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary  is  a  felony.  Moreover, 
I  insist  that  the  yoth  section  of  our  election  laws  is  applicable  to  such  a 
case.  That  section  provides  that  no  person  who  has  been  legally  convicted 
of  any  crime,  the  punishment  of  which  is  confinement  in  the  penitentiary, 
shall  be  permitted  to  vote  at  any  election,  unless  he  be  restored  to  the 
right  to  vote  by  pardon.  There  is  no  territorial  limitation  under  this 
section.  There  is  no  exception  of  persons  in  this  section.  There  is  no  line 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION.  //I 

drawn  between  courts  in  which  the  conviction  has  been  had.  This  great 
state  proposes  to  keep,  so  far  as  it  can  by  legislative  enactment,  its  ballot 
unpolluted  from  the  hand  of  the  convicted  felon  ;  it  requires  only  that  the 
conviction  shall  be  legal,  and  is  quite  indifferent  as  to  the  court  in  which 
the  conviction  has  been  had,  or  the  state  or  place  where  it  has  been  had. 
"  I  suggest  most  respectfully  to  your  Honor  that  it  is  well  for  us  to  pause 
and  inquire  whether  the  infliction  of  the  sentence  imposed  by  the  court  in 
this  case  with  the  consequences  which  follow,  family  relations  sundered, 
civil  and  political  rights  destroyed,  does  not  affix  upon  the  convicted  a 
disgrace  so  indelible  that  the  mildest  form  of  language,  judging  the  crime 
for  which  they  have  suffered  by  the  consequences  following  from  its  com 
mission,  would  characterize  it  as  infamous." 

The  gravity  of  the  questions  thus  presented  was  sufficiently 
serious  in  the  mind  of  Judge  Gresham  to  induce  him  to  grant 
the  writ  of  error  and  supersedeas,  and  admit  the  defendants  to 
bail.  The  case  was  afterwards  reviewed  by  Mr.  Justice  Harlan 
and  Judge  Gresham,  to  whom  Mr.  Storrs  addressed  an  argument 
which,  in  the  opinion  of  many  who  heard  it,  was  the  crowning 
effort  of  his  professional  career.  The  court-room  was  crowded, 
and  as  we  so  often  hear  in  reports  of  public  entertainments, — as 
was  the  fact,  indeed,  wherever  Mr.  Storrs  was  announced  to 
speak  outside  of  Chicago, — hundreds  were  turned  away  for  want 
of  room.  In  his  argument  upon  this  occasion,  he  addressed  him 
self  exclusively  to  the  legality  of  trying  such  a  case  by  informa 
tion,  for  it  had  now  become  apparent  to  the  prosecution  them 
selves  that  the  constitutional  question  here  involved  was  the 
most  serious  one  they  had  to  grapple  with.  The  fifth  amend 
ment  to  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  says: 

"No  person  shall  be  held  to  answer  for  a  capital  or  otherwise 
infamous  crime  unless  on  the  presentment  or  indictment  of  a 
grand  jury,  except  in  cases  arising  in  the  land  or  naval  force  or  in 
the  militia,  when  in  actual  service  in  time  of  war  or  public 
danger."  The  main  question  to  be  considered,  therefore,  was 
whether  the  crime  charged  against  Mackin  and  his  accomplices 
was  an  "infamous"  crime.  Mr.  Storrs  quoted  from  Judge  Gray's 
opinion  the  language  of  Lord  Auckland:  "There  are  two  kinds 
of  infamy;  the  one  founded  in  the  opinions  of  the  people  respecting 
the  mode  of  punishment;  the  other  in  the  construction  of  law 
respecting  the  future  credibility  of  the  delinquent."  The  latter 
classification  was  not  claimed  in  this  case,  and  therefore  the  sole 
question  to  be  considered  in  determining  the  construction  to  be 


772  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

put  upon  the  word  "infamous"  was  the  opinion  of  the  people 
regarding  a  penitentiary  sentence,  and  its  consequences  to  the 
convict  himself.  The  counsel  for  the  government  had  labored 
hard  to  convince  the  Court  that  it  was  the  "hard  labor"  clause 
alone  that  made  the  punishment  infamous.  Mr.  Storrs  contended 
that  there  were  other  consequences  involved  in  the  sentence 
besides  hard  labor.  It  involved  the  cropping  of  the  hair,  the 
wearing  of  prison  garb,  coarse  food,  and  close  confinement,  as 
well  as  hard  labor.  It  might  also  involve  the  sundering  of  the 
marital  relations,  for  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary  is  made 
by  the  laws  of  Illinois  a  ground  for  divorce,  and  it  also  involved 
the  disfranchisement  of  the  convict  under  the  election  laws.  But 
as  to  the  matter  of  hard  labor,  Mr.  Storrs  showed  that,  by 
operation  of  law,  every  sentence  to  the  penitentiary  included  hard 
labor,  whether  the  words  were  inserted  in  the  mittimus  or  not. 
Judge  Gray  had  said,  in  the  case  already  referred  to,  "What 
punishment  shall  be  considered  as  infamous  may  be  affected 
by  the  changes  of  public  opinion  from  one  age  to  another.  In 
former  times  being  put  in  the  stocks  was  not  considered  as 
necessarily  infamous.  .  .  But  at  the  present  day  either  stocks  or 
whipping  might  be  thought  an  infamous  punishment."  Com 
menting  on  this  language,  Mr.  Storrs  said: 

"Now,  there  is  no  hard  labor  in  being  put  in  the  stocks,  and  whipping 
can  hardly  be  called  hard  labor,  except  to  the  party  who  administers  the 
punishment;  certainly  not  to  the  one  who  receives  it.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
entire  stress  of  the  opinion  is  rested  upon  the  nature  of  the  punishment,  and 
that  whether  that  punishment  is  or  is  not  infamous  is  to  be  determined  by 
no  fixed  rule,  but  by  public  opinion ;  and,  to  say  that  in  this  country  and 
at  this  time  public  opinion  does  not  regard  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary 
as  infamous — to  say  that  such  imprisonment  does  not  cover  the  person  who 
suffers  it  with  ignominy,  is  an  abuse  of  terms,  is  a  denial  of  a  condition  of 
things  which  every  open-eyed  and  fair-minded  man  knows  to  exist.  Every 
one  knows  perfectly  well  that  public  opinion  draws  a  wide  line  of  distinction 
between  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary  and  in  the  county  jail,  and  every 
one  knows  that  that  wide  distinction  is  based  not  upon  any  consideration  as 
to  whether  the  convict  works  in  one  place  and  is  idle  in  the  other,  but 
entirely  upon  the  place  where  the  imprisonment  is  had.  Does  it  ever  occur 
to  any  person  whose  impression  of  a  man  is  made  by  the  fact  that  he  is  or 
has  been  a  convict  in  the  penitentiary  to  inquire  whether  he  worked  or 
whether  he  idled  away  his  time  while  such  convict?.  The  basis  upon  which 
the  ignominious  character  of  such  a  man  is  placed  is  not  what  he  did  while 
in  the  penitentiary — nobody  stops  to  make  inquiry  about  that — but  it  is 
simply  upon  the  fact  that  he  was  there  as  a  convict  at  all.  Nor  does  public 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION.  7/3 

opinion  to-day  pause  to  inquire  whether  a  particular  convict  just  out  of  the 
penitentiary  had  coarse  food  or  fine  food,  whether  he  wore  striped  clothing, 
or  was  permitted  to  indulge  in  the  usual  garb  of  the  citizen.  Opinions  are 
not  based  upon  considerations  of  these  fine  details.  A  convict  may  be 
called  upon  to  do  labor  which  is  not  hard,  but  which  is  rather  agreeable 
than  otherwise.  Is  the  gifted  linguist  in  the  penitentiary,  whose  scholarly 
acquirements  are  put  to  use  by  the  warden,  less  infamous  in  point  of  law  or 
fact  than  the  unlearned  convict  who  pounds  stone  day  after  day,  or  who  is 
engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  shoes  under  contract  within  the  walls  of  the 
penitentiary  ?  And  hence,  we  insist  that  it  is  not  only  a  fair,  but  a  necessary- 
deduction  to  be  drawn  from  this  opinion,  that  imprisonment  in  the  peniten 
tiary  is  an  infamous  punishment,  and  that  an  infamous  punishment  can  only 
be  the  result  of  an  infamous  crime ;  that  public  opinion  regulates  the  ques 
tion,  and,  that  thus  regulated,  these  defendants  were  put  upon  trial  by 
information  for  an  infamous  offense,  in  violation  of  the  fundamental  law  of 
the  land. 

"  There  is  no  penitentiary  in  the  United  States,  I  believe,  where  the  con 
victs  are  not  subjected  to  hard  labor,  and,  in  the  case  of  those  statutes, 
where  by  express  terms  hard  labor  is  imposed  in  addition  to  the  imprison 
ment,  such  addition  is  merely  declaring  what  the  law  has  already  declared 
in  every  State  in  the  United  States  as  an  incident  to,  and  a  necessary  con 
sequence  of,  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary.  The  infamy  of  the  punish 
ment  consists  in  the  fact  that  the  doors  of  the  penitentiary  are  closed  upon 
the  man.  The  disgrace  in  public  esteem  and  opinion  is  then  indelibly  fixed. 
Such  a  disgrace,  unless  there  be  an  intervening  pardon,  is  perpetual;  it 
pursues  the  convict  like  a  shadow  through  life  ;  it  interferes  with  him  ever 
thereafter  in  all  business  pursuits ;  it  robs  him  of  the  confidence  of  his  fel 
low  men.  He  seeks  employment  with  hesitancy  ;  he  secures  it  with  diffi 
culty  ;  for,  let  the  convict,  after  his  term  has  expired,  even  animated  with 
the  purest  and  most  honest  intentions,  and  with  all  personal  appearances  in 
his  favor,  seek  employment,  the  mere  suggestion  in  the  quarter  where  he 
thus  seeks  it  that  he  has  been  a  convict  within  the  walls  of  a  penitentiary, 
determines  his  application,  and  no  man  yet,  it  is  safe  to  say,  has  ever  been 
discovered  who  has  qualified,  modified  or  reduced  his  ill  opinion  of  the 
character  of  a  man  thus  imprisoned  because  he  subsequently  ascertained 
that,  although  he  was  in  the  penitentiary  ten  years,  he  never  did  a  day's 
work  while  he  was  there.  The  cropping  of  the  hair  is  disagreeable ;  it  is 
ignominious  where  it  is  compulsory  ;  it  is  more  ignominious  than  the  hard 
labor.  Indeed,  about  hard  labor,  as  such,  there  is  nothing  which  is  not 
entirely  creditable,  and  all  the  ignominy  which  grows  out  of  it  or  which 
can  be  attached  to  it,  results,  as  I  have  already  said,  from  the  fact  that 
it  is  compulsorily  enforced  in  the  penitentiary." 

In  opposition  to  the  government  theory  that  hard  labor  alone 
made  the  punishment  infamous,  Mr.  Storrs  further  illustrated  his 
view  of  the  question  by  discussing  in  a  humorous  way  some  of 
the  other  accompaniments  of  penitentiary  discipline.  The  crop- 


774  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

ping  of  the  hair,  for  instance,  was  an  operation  to  which  large 
numbers  of  men  submitted  voluntarily;  the  ignominy  of  the  pen 
itentiary  cut  was  that  it  was  compulsory.  He  insisted,  amid 
greajt  laughter,  in  which  Justice  Harlan  heartily  joined,  that  if 
the  government  counsel's  theory  were  correct,  not  a  bald-headed 
man  in  the  community  could  ever  be  convicted  of  an  infamous 
crime,  because  to  that  extent  at  least  the  penitentiary  discipline 
could  have  no  terrors  for  him.  As  to  the  striped  suit,  he  said 
it  was  a  matter  of  taste  with  a  good  many  "dudes"  to  wear 
them,  and  the  louder  the  stripes  the  better  they  liked  them;  but 
it  made  all  the  difference  in  the  world  whether  the  striped  suit 
was  one  of  their  own  choosing,  and  worn  outside  of  the  peniten 
tiary,  or  was  the  penitentiary  uniform,  and  worn  compulsorily 
inside  the  penitentiary.  He  then  quoted  the  statutes  of  Illinois 
governing  the  management  of  Joliet  penitentiary,  and  referred  to 
a  correspondence  which  had  taken  place  between  the  District 
Attorney  and  the  warden  of  the  penitentiary  on  the  subject. 

"Let  courts,"  he  said,  "be  silent  while  the  warden  speaks.  This  warden, 
in  reply  to  the  letter  addressed  to  him  by  the  District  Attorney,  states  that, 
under  such  a  sentence  as  Mr.  Tuthill  has  copied  into  his  letter,  the 
prisoners  to  whom  it  refers  will  not  be  subjected  to  hard  labor  while  serving 
out  their  sentences.  We  are  fortunate  in  one  respect,  in  the  disclosure  of 
this  correspondence,  for  it  demonstrates  the  fact  that  the  period  has  arrived, 
and  the  time  is  full  upon  us,  when  the  warden  of  the  penitentiary  at  Joliet 
stands  greatly  in  need  of  discipline.  This  warden  has  no  right  whatever  to 
give  any  directions  as  to  the  discipline,  government,  reformatory  measures 
or  treatment  of  the  convicts  in  that  penitentiary.  All  those  questions  are 
determined  exclusively  by  the  commissioners,  and  the  only  duty  which  the 
warden  has  to  perform  in  that  connection  is  to  see  to  it  that  their  directions 
are  strictly  enforced,  and  his  opinions  have  not  the  slightest  weight  in  the 
matter.  It  is  astonishing  to  note  the  very  positive  conclusion  which  the 
District  Attorney  draws  from  this  extraordinary  correspondence.  To  his 
mind  the  warden  of  the  penitentiary  has  settled  this  grave  question  of  law. 
Had  the  warden  been  absent  the  deputy  warden  would  probably  have 
spoken  for  him,  and,  had  they  both  been  absent,  the  question  doubtless 
would  have  been  referred  to  the  chaplain.  I  do  not  need,  nor  is  this  court, 
I  venture  to  say,  especially  anxious  to  be  enlightened  by  the  opinion  of  the 
warden  of  the  penitentiary  upon  a  legal  question — one  which  involves  the 
interpretation  of  the  statutes  of  this  State.  It  is  'quite  possible  that  this 
warden  has  steadily  failed  in  the  performance  of  his  duties;  that  he  has 
failed  to  carry  out  the  rules  and  regulations  established  under  and  by  the 
authority  of  law.  As  to  what,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  his  conduct  has  been  in 
that  direction,  ^e  knows  better  than  I  know,  but  I  think  I  do  know,  that 
if  he  has  failed  to  enforce  these  rules  and  regulations,  he  has  been  exceed- 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION."  7/5 

ingly  remiss  in  the  performance  of  his  duties ;  has  violated  the  law  and 
deserves  immediate  correction.  He  tells  us  what  the  duty  of  the  authorities 
of  the  institution  is.  I  decline  to  seek  information  on  such  a  question  from 
such  a  quarter.  The  statutes  of  the  State  of  Illinois  define  the  duties  of  the 
authorities  of  that  institution,  which  this  court  is  quite  capable  of  reading 
and  abundantly  able  of  comprehending  and  interpreting  without  the  assis 
tance  of  a  jailer  or  a  warden,  a  bailiff  or  a  chaplain.  The  District  Attorney," 
he  continued,  "could  have  had  better  information  by  consulting  the  statutes 
of  the  State  of  Illinois.  He  did  not  need  to  write  a  letter  to  them ;  I  have 
no  doubt  he  has  them  in  his  own  office.  I  must  repeat  that  I  prefer  to 
take  my  law  from  some  source  more  authoritative  and  commanding  than 
the  warden  of  the  Joliet  penitentiary.  It  satisfies  the  District  Attorney,  but 
it  does  not  convince  me.  The  warden  has  decided  that  the  discipline  of 
the  Joliet  penitentiary  does  not  and  cannot  subject  convicts  from  the  United 
States  courts  in  cases  like  the  present  to  hard  labor.  With  due  submission 
I  think  it  can.  I  am  still  of  the  opinion,  that  should  the  commissioners  for 
the  specifically  declared  purpose  of  discipline  alone,  require  by  rule  and 
regulations  of  their  own  making,  that  every  convict  there  imprisoned  should 
be  employed  at  hard  labor  every  day,  Sunday  excepted,  that  such  rules  and 
regulations  would  be  within  the  range  of  their  legal  powers,  and  that  the 
warden  would  be  compelled  to  change  his  views  of  the  law,  and  diligently 
see  to  it  that  those  rules  and  regulations  were  faithfully  enforced." 

He  concluded  his  argument  on  this  point  by  saying  that  he 
considered  it  unnecessary  to  follow  counsel  into  the  regions  of 
lexicography,  although  it  would  be  safe  even  to  do  that.  Max 
Miiller  had  called  dictionaries  "the  grave  of  language." 

"The  meaning  which  is  generally  attached  to  the  word  'infamous'  is, 
under  our  modern  and  enlightened  system  of  jurisprudence,  precisely  the 
meaning  which  the  courts  will  attach  to  it,  and  that  an  offense  is  infamous 
which  renders  its  perpetrator  ignominious  in  the  eyes  of  mankind  is  so  clear 
a  proposition — so  wise  and  so  just,  that  we  can  safely  adopt  it,  and  no 
harm,  we  may  be  sure,  will  come  from  its  adoption.  The  beneficent  spirit 
of  our  laws — of  the  organic  laws  of  the  nation — subjects  a  man  to  no  trial 
and  to  no  punishment  which  blackens  his  name,  envelopes  his  character  in 
ignominy  and  degrades  his  family,  unless  the  charge  upon  which  he  is 
tried  has  been  based  upon  legal  evidence,  and  not  merely  upon  the  infor 
mation  which  any  officer  of  the  government  may  claim  to  possess.  No 
supposed  public  emergencies  are  sufficient  in  their  character  to  justify  us  in 
losing  sight  for  a  moment  of  these  substantial  safeguards  to  the  liberty  of 
the  citizen. 

"The  counsel  for  the  government  have  all  conveniently  overlooked 
another  most  important  feature  of  this  remarkable  prosecution, — that  the 
information  upon  which  it  proceeded  was  in  form  a  violation  of  every  prece 
dent  known  to  the  history  of  the  common  law.  This  information  stands 
alone — on  a  bad  eminence  of  information  and  belief.  Under  the  laws,  there 
is  in  all  this  country  no  man  so  humble,  none  so  degraded,  as  to  be  sub- 


776  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

jected  to  such  a  trial  as  that  through  which  these  defendants  have  passed, 
upon  a  charge  preferred  by  an  unofficial  citizen,  and  based  solely  and 
exclusively  upon  information  and  belief.  So  serious  are  these  questions  that 
the  offense  of  disregarding  a  solemn  mandate  of  the  constitution  is  as  great 
as  the  one  with  which  these  defendants  are  charged." 

Mr.  Storrs'  peroration  was  a  masterpiece  of  grave  and  impres 
sive  eloquence,  bringing  to  a  triumphant  close  one  of  the  ablest 
arguments  ever  heard  in  a  Chicago  court: 

"  It  is,  on  the  whole,  a  matter  of  solid  congratulation  that  the  government 
of  this  country  is  not  conducted  by  volunteer  organizations  of  citizens,  how 
ever  worthy  they  may  be.  It  is  a  matter  for  sincere  congratulation  that  the 
laws  are  not  enforced,  nor  declared,  nor  enacted,  nor  is  justice  administered 
by  committees.  These  committees  are  purely  volunteer  organizations,  and 
it  is  not  at  all  rarely  the  case  that  their  zeal  runs  away  with  their  discretion. 

"If  it  should  be  deemed  at  air  necessary  for  the  purposes  of  this  discus 
sion,  I  can  join  most  heartily  with  the  learned  counsel  for  the  government 
in  denunciation  of  crimes  and  offenses  against  the  purity  of  the  ballot.  I 
think  I  esteem  the  preservation  of  the  largest  liberty  of  the  suffrage  and  the 
purity  of  the  ballot  as  highly  as  they,  and  I  know  that  I  have  regarded 
wholesale  outrages  upon  the  right  of  suffrage,  involving  the  practical  dis- 
franchisement  of  majorities  in  entire  States  with  much  more  apprehension 
and  with  much  greater  abhorrence  than  has  been  entertained  by  many  of 
the  very  excellent  gentlemen  constituting  the  Chicago  committee  of  Public 
Safety.  But  of  whatever  crime  a  man  may  be  charged,  as  a  lawyer  and  as 
a  citizen  I  must  still  contend  that  he  be  tried  according  to  the  forms  of  law, 
and  I  am  not  so  hopeless  of  the  capacity  of  the  average  American  citizen 
for  self-government  as  to  believe  that  crimes  cannot  be  punished  except 
through  violation  of  fundamental  legal  principles.  I  believe  that  the  whole 
social  and  legal  edifice  may  be  maintained,  each  and  every  part  in  its 
integrity;  for  to  enforce  one  law  it  is  not  necessary  that  we  should  violate 
another.  The  laws  were  made  for  all,  to  benefit  all,  to  be  obeyed  by  all; 
to  be  obeyed  and  regarded  by  the  courts  as  well  as  by  the  humblest  citizen ; 
and  aggregations  of  citizens,  no  matter  how  numerous  nor  how  respectable 
nor  how  influential  they  may  be,  have  no  more  right  to  redress  one  wrong 
by  the  commission  of  another  than  has  the  humblest,  poorest  citizen  in  the 
land.  Believing  confidently  that  in  this  case  fundamental  principles  most 
"essential  to  the  protection  of  the  liberty  of  the  citizen  have  been  violated, — 
confidently  believing  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  in  one  of  its 
most  vital  features  has  been  disregarded, — I  insist  upon  it  that  the  dethroned 
Constitution  shall  be  enthroned,  and  that  to  do  this  no  crime  need  go 
unpunished,  and  no  substantial  right,  either  of  a  public  or  private  character, 
go  unvindicated." 

The  result  of  this  discussion  was  a  disagreement-  of  the  court, 
and  a  certification  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  of 
the  points  of  disagreement,  the  two  most  important  being  the 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION.  ?7/ 

jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  court  in  the  premises,  and  the  legality 
of  trial  in  such  a  case  by  way  of  information. 

In  the  meantime,  Mackin  had  been  investigated  by  a  special 
grand  jury  of  Cook  county,  for  an  offence  against  the  State  law, 
grounded  upon  the  same  facts  that  had  been  brought  out  in  evi 
dence  before  Judge  Blodgett.  He  was  subpoenaed  to  appear 
before  this  grand  jury,  and  instead  of  refusing  to  answer  the 
questions  put  to  him,  which  he  had  a  right  to  do,  gave  evasive 
and  tricky  answers,  whereupon  the  grand  jury  returned  an  indict 
ment  against  him  for  perjury.  Mr.  Storrs  was  retained  to  defend 
him  on  this  charge.  The  Chicago  newspapers  had  raised  such 
a  clamor  about  the  possibility  of  Mackin's  escape  from  punish 
ment  in  the  Federal  court,  that  the  State's  attorney,  although  a 
Democrat  himself,  felt  bound  to  use  his  utmost  efforts  to  satisfy 
public  clamor  by  securing  a  conviction  under  the  State  laws,  and 
with  this  end  in  view  a  special  grand  jury  was  organized,  all 
inspired  by  the  same  patriotic  feeling,  who  at  once  returned 
indictments  against  Mackin  not  only  for  his  offence  against  the 
ballot,  but  tripped  him  up  on  his  own  evidence  before  them, 
and  indicted  him  for  perjury.  The  State's  Attorney  proved 
two  sets  of  facts  on  the  trial  of  this  case.  The  official  steno 
grapher  read  over  his  notes  of  what  Mackin  had  actually 
testified  to  before  the  grand  jury.  Members  of  the  grand 
jury  were  called  to  swear  to  their  recollections  of  what  he  had 
sworn  to,  and  their  testimony  was  far  stronger,  being  colored 
by  their  impressions,  than  the  actual  record.  Mackin  had 
sworn  that  he  did  not  order  the  printing  of  the  bogus  ballots 
from  "the  Wrights."  The  two  brothers  Wright  were  placed 
on  the  witness  stand,  and  the  one  with  whom  Mackin  had 
had  his  negotiations  testified  to  that  fact,  while  the  other  tes 
tified  that  he  had  had  no  dealings  with  Mackin  at  all,  but 
took  his  orders  from  his  brother.  The  exasperated  state  of 
public  opinion,  goaded  on  by  the  fear  that  the  proceedings 
in  the  Federal  Court  might  ultimately  be  set  aside,  demanded 
Mackin's  conviction  on  the  perjury  charge,  and  he  was  duly 
convicted,  the  jury  awarding  him  the  severe  sentence  of  five 
year's  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary. 

It  now  became  Mr.  Storrs'  duty  to  use  all  efforts  to  save  his 
client  from  the  doom  to  which  the  pressure  of  outside  opinion 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

had  consigned  him;  and  no  lawyer  ever  devoted  himself  with 
more  thorough  earnestness  and  self-sacrifice  to  this  end  than  he 
did.  In  the  boiling  heat  of  the  dog-days,  he  journeyed  into 
Southern  Illinois  to  lay  the  case  before  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme 
Court  whom  he  hoped  to  find  uninfluenced  by  Chicago  news 
paper  clamor.  Judge  Shope  had  just  been  elected  to  fill  a  vacancy, 
and  being  the  youngest  Judge  on  the  Supreme  bench,  was  averse 
to  taking  the  sole  responsibility  of  the  hearing,  but  consented  to 
sit  with  Chief  Justice  Craig  at  Galesburg  to  hear  the  application 
for  a  supersedeas.  Accordingly,  the  hearing  of  the  motion  was 
had  at  Judge  Craig's  house.  Mr.  Starrs  presented  his  points 
with  his  usual  skill  and  ability,  and  the  Judges  came  to  a  com 
promise  decision,  granting  the  supersedeas,  but  declining  to  admit 
Mackin  to  bail. 

In  the  effort  to  save  Mackin  from  the  penitentiary,  Mr.  Storrs 
sacrificed  his  own  life.  The  appeal  was  argued  by  him  at  the 
September  term  of  the  Supreme  Court  held  at  Ottawa,  and  Mr. 
Storrs,  who  was  then  suffering  from  the  attack  of  pleurisy  which 
terminated  fatally,  said  in  the  course  of  his  opening  remarks  that 
this  was  probably  the  last  occasion  upon  which  he  would  deliver 
an  argument  before  that  court.  It  proved  to  be  the  last. 

Mr.  Storrs  took  exception  to  the  organization  of  the  special 
grand  jury  by  whom  the  indictments  against  Mackin  had  been 
found.  The  statute,  he  said,  contemplated  the  calling  of  special 
grand  juries  on  occasions  of  public  emergency  in  rural  counties, 
where  there  were  usually  not  more  than  two  terms  of  court  in  a 
year,  and  was  never  intended  to  supersede  the  ordinary  method 
of  calling  grand  juries.  At  the  time  this  special  grand  jury  was 
called,  a  regular  grand  jury  was  in  session,  and  no  public  emer 
gency  required  or  justified  the  calling  of  a  special  grand  jury  to 
deal  with  these  election  cases.  Again,  Mackin  had  been  compelled 
to  attend  before  this  grand  jury  on  a  subpoena,  so  that  he  might 
be  convicted  out  of  his  own  mouth.  He  was  present  before  them 
without  counsel,  and  the  direct  question  was  put  to  him  whether 
he  ordered  the  printing  of  the  spurious  ballots.  Wright,  Thomp 
son,  and  Fries  had  already  testified  that  he  did. 

"  His  situation,  it  must  be  remembered,  was  different  from  what  it  would 
have  been  before  a  petit  jury  in  a  trial  in  open  court.  He  would  there 
have  been  cautioned,  and,  moreover,  on  a  trial  before  a  petit  jury,  his 
presence  upon  the  stand  as  a  witness  against  himself,  even  by  silence  or 
by  direct  admission  could  not  have  been  enforced. 


LEGALITY    OF    "TRIAL    BY    INFORMATION. 

| 

"So,  the  situation  is  simply  this:  Compelled  to  appear,  examined  in 
secret — had  he  admitted  that  he  had  ordered  these  ballots  and  received 
them  after  they  were  pointed  and  engraved,  he  is  forthwith  indicted  upon 
his  own  testimony.  Does  he  refuse  to  answer  on  the  ground  that  it  crimi 
nates  himself — this  is  also  sufficient  ground  for  indicting  him,  from  his 
silence.  And,  does  he  deny  it,  then  he  is  indicted  for  perjury.  Thus  there 
is  no  escape,  and  there  is  no  doctrine  of  good  morals  and  common  justice 
to  which  the  principle  resorted  to  in  this  extraordinary  case  was  not 
obnoxious. 

"I  have  not  been  able  to  find  express  adjudications  upon  this  point,  but 
the  reasoning  is  so  strong  that  perhaps  express  adjudications  are  unnecessary. 
A  case  on  all  fours  with  the  present  one  occured  in  Chicago  a  few  years 
since,  and  was  decided  by  one  of  the  most  distinguished  judges  among  our 
local  judiciary — Judge  Gary. 

"A  special  grand  jury  were  investigating  the  general  subject  of  gambling 
houses,  as  they  claimed,  and  having  subpoenaed  some  parties  before  them, 
two  or  three  parties  testified  that  they  had  received  money  from  Michael  C. 
McDonald,  that  he  had  paid  the  rent  of  certain  premises,  etc.;  testimony 
sufficiently  cogent  to  show  that  McDonald  was  interested  in  the  gaming 
houses;  whereupon,  in  order  to  make  matters  doubly  sure,  this  sapient 
special  grand  jury  summoned  McDonald  and  called  his  attention  to  the 
testimony  of  those  witnesses,  and  McDonald  denied  them  point  blank. 
Whereupon,  the  grand  jury,  failing  to  have  convicted  McDonald  out  of  his 
own  mouth,  indicted  him  for  perjury,  and  called  the  witnesses  who  had 
appeared  before  them  upon  the  trial  of  the  indictment  for  perjury,  as  wit 
nesses  against  him.  The  case  had  proceeded  far  enough  to  show  its  exact 
situation,  when  Judge  Gary  cut  all  argument  and  debate  short  by  refusing 
to  entertain  it,  and  instructed  the  petit  jury  before  whom  the  case  was  on 
trial  that  no  man  could  be  subjected  to  a  trial  under  those  conditions,  and 
he  would  not  permit  it  and  that  they  must  return  a  verdict  for  the  defend 
ant,  which  they  did. 

"The  case  has  not  been  reported,  but  it  is  a  ruling  by  one  of  the  most 
able  and  one  of  the  most  fearless  of  our  judges.  It  is  in  point,  and  is 
entitled  to  fully  as  much  weight  as  the  ruling  of  Judge  Moran  in  the  present 
case  in  refusing  the  instruction  presenting  that  precise  question." 

On  the  trial  before  Judge  Moran,  Mr.  Storrs  had  offered  an 
instruction  to  the  effect  that  if  Mackin's  testimony  was  different 
from  that  set  forth  in  the  indictment,  even  though  such  testimony 
were  false,  he  could  not  be  convicted  under  that  indictment. 
This  instruction  was  refused,  and  Mr.  Storrs  elaborated  the  point 
before  the  Supreme  Court  that  the  variance  between  the  state 
ments  set  forth  in  the  indictment  and  the  statements  actually 
proved  by  the  evidence  was  fatal  to  a  conviction.  Several  other 
instructions  for  the  defendant  were  refused,  which  Mr.  Storrs  con 
tended  ought  to  have  been  given.  A  juror  named  Gray  was 


/8O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

found,  after  the  trial  and  conviction  of  Mackin  for  perjury,  to 
have  been  eccentric  in  his  conduct,  so  much  so  that  some  of  his 
neighbors  thought  him  insane,  and  this  was  also  presented  by 
Mr.  Storrs  as  a  reason  for  granting  a  new  trial. 

The  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  was  not  given  until  several 
months  after  Mr.  Storrs'  death,  and  it  was,  as  everybody  expected, 
adverse  to  Mackin.  He  was  at  once  removed  to  Joliet  peniten 
tiary  to  serve  out  his  sentence,  and  he  is  there  now,  not  in 
vindication  of  the  purity  of  the  ballot  box,  but  for  .constructive 
perjury. 

The  point  made  by  Mr.  Storrs  as  to  the  legality  of  trial 
by  information  in  the  case  of  an  infamous  crime  was  sustained 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  spring  of 
1886,  and  thus  the  accomplices  of  Mackin  in  the  great  fraud 
in  the  1 8th  ward  are  to-day  free  men,  no  further  steps  having 
been  taken  against  them,  and  Colonel  Tuthill  having  resigned 
his  office  has  been  succeeded  by  a  Democrat.  Gleason  was 
never  called  up  for  sentence,  and  has  profited  by  the  exertions 
of  Mackin's  counsel  to  the  extent  of  escaping  punishment 
altogether.  The  purity  of  the  ballot-box  has  not  been  vindi 
cated,  but  so  long  as  the  arch-conspirator  has  met  with 
punishment,  and  been  laid  aside  for  a  time  from  further 
interference  in  Chicago  elections,  the  community  seems  for  the 
present  content. 


?^/#frz. 


&T^          ^L. 


^£. 


*^-»— ~, 


-Jr~ 


7 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 


THREE  MONTHS  IN  EUROPE. 

ROSY  DESCRIPTIONS  OF  EXPERIENCES  ABROAD — MODEL  LETTERS  FROM  A 
TRAVELER — IMPRESSIONS  OF  LIVERPOOL,  LONDON,  EDINBURGH,  AND  OTHER 
POINTS  OF  INTEREST— FEATURES  OF  FOREIGN  CHARACTER  NOT  USUALLY 
NOTICED — A  BIT  OF  BUSINESS  WITH  PLEASURE. 

IN  the  summer  of  1882,  ^r.  Storrs  gratified  a  desire  which 
had  been  carried  in  his  heart  since  boyhood,  to  see  the  Old 
World.  It  was  no  easy  matter  to  lay  down  the  burden  of  home 
duties,  but  he  was  in  absolute  need  of  rest,  his  physicians 
advised  it,  and,  then,  an  element  of  wealthy  packers  of  the  West 
urged  him  to  go  in  the  belief  that  he  might,  if  only  by  personal 
advocacy,  secure  more  earnest  effort  on  the  part  of  the  American 
representatives  abroad  to  remove  the  restrictions  imposed  by  cer 
tain  foreign  governments  upon  the  shipments  of  American  live 
stock  and  the  importation  of  American  meats.  With  this  excuse 
of  business,  Mr.  Storrs  indulged  in  the  pleasure,  and,  equipped 
with  letters  from  General  Grant,  President  Arthur,  Secretary  of 
State  Frelinghuysen,  and  from  various  influential,  social,  loyal 
and  mercantile  representatives,  his  journey  was  a  notable  one. 
In  after  days,  Mr.  Storrs  was  wont  to  speak  of  his  limited  trip 
abroad  as  a  dream,  without  a  single  sorrow  to  alloy.  During 
his  absence,  he  contributed  occasional  letters  to  the  Chicago 
Tribune  in  which  he  told  in  a  graphic  and  breezy  way  of  his 
experiences  and  impressions.  He  possessed  a  natural  power  for 
vivid  pen  pictures,  and  as  an  editorial  allusion  to  one  of  his 
letters  remarked  "  from  the  flood  of  tender  recollections  called  up 
by  the  ivy-clad  battlements  of  Windsor  castle,  Mr.  Storrs  skips 
with  delightful  airiness  to  some  reflections  becoming  the  admi- 


/82  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

rably  developed  ankles  of  a  young  lady  who  appeared  upon  the 
stage  of  a  London  theatre;  and  amid  the  solemnity  of  Shakes 
peare's  burial-place  he  does  not  forget  to  mention  that  the  tree 
under  which  the  Bard  of  Avon  once  slept  off  the  effects  of  too 
much  wine  is  still  shown  to  visitors."  The  practical  remarks 
upon  persons  and  places,  the  vein  of  humor,  and  the  beauties  of 
many  of  his  reflections,  are  delightfully  commingled  in  these 
newspaper  dashings.  To  any  reader  they  must  be  interesting, 
and  to  the  one  who  may  have  grown  familiar  with  most  of  the 
spots  described,  these  samples  of  his  letters  will  be  welcome. 

"I  have  deferred  the  fulfillment  of  my  promise,"  he  wrote,  from  the 
Grand  Hotel,  London,  July  31,  "to  write  back  my  impression  received 
from  this  my  first  trip  across  the  ocean — a  promise  to  record  things,  not 
necessarily  as  they  had  before  been  recorded,  but  precisely  as  they 
appeared  to  me,  until  my  stay  in  England  was  completed. 

"I  have  been  in  England  now  three  weeks,  leaving  to-morrow  morning 
for  Scotland,  and  while  I  am  aware  of  the  fact  that  in  so  short  a  time  no 
observations  except  those  of  a  most  superficial  character  could  possibly  be 
made,  yet  some  impressions  have  been  teft  upon  my  mind  during  this  visit 
so  pleasurably  clear  and  distinct  that  I  doubt  much  whether  the  most  pro 
tracted  stay  would  change  them.  Our  voyage  in  the  good  ship  Baltic, 
leaving  New  York  on  the  1st  of  July  at  5  o'clock  in  the  morning,  was  a 
delightfully  pleasant  but  otherwise  uneventful  one.  I  apprehended  for 
myself  all  the  horrors  of  seasickness  during  the  entire  voyage.  I  had  made 
ample  preparations  for  it.  A  very  hearty  dinner  the  night  before  starting 
followed  by  a  supper  at  11  o'clock,  then  the  start  for  the  steamer  about  half- 
past  3  in  the  morning  and  a  cigar  before  breakfast.  It  seemed  to  me  to 
insure  seasickness  and  make  any  other  result  impossible. 

"A  nasty  drizzling  fog  hung  over  the  ship  as  we  reached  it;  a  feeling 
of  discomfort  seemed  to  pervade  all  around.  Promptly  at  5  o'clock  we  left 
the  docks,  and  I  at  once  called  together  all  the  stewards  of  high  and  low 
degree  about  the  ship,  whom  the  guide-books  had  instructed  me  it  was 
necessary  to  fee,  and  told  them  I  desired  to  fee  them  at  once,  as  in  thirty 
minutes  I  should  be  utterly  useless  and  prostrate.  I  admonished  them  all 
that  whatever  attention  a  sick  and  thoroughly  wretched  man  might  need  I 
desired,  for  I  anticipated  seeing  nothing  of  the  ocean  or  decks  for  myself. 
I  invoked  for  myself  their  kindest  and  most  sympathetic  attention.  The 
fees  thus  paid  in  advance  seemed  satisfactory,  and  I  received  the  most 
hearty  assurance  that  everything  would  be  done  that  could  be  done,  not  to 
make  me  comfortable,  for  that  we  all  supposed  would  be  impossible,  but 
to  reduce  my  discomfort  to  the  lowest  possible  minimum.  I  remained  on 
deck,,  watched  the  fog  and  the  receding  shores  of  the  bar  and  lower  bay, 
watched  the  shores  as  we  passed  Sandy  Hook,  watched  the  waters  carefully 
and  narrowly  as  we  passed  on  into  the  open  sea  ;  saw  the  pilot  leave  the 
ship  and  turn  back  in  the  pilot  boat  homewards ;  made  anxious  inquiries 


THREE   MONTHS    IN    EUROPE.  783 

of  old  navigators  as  to  the  exact  time  when  the  sea  might  be  expected  to 
be  rough,  and  patiently  awaited  the  dreadful  nausea  of  seasickness,  which 
thirty  years  ago  I  had  experienced  on  Lake  Erie. 

"The  minutes  went  by  and  the  hours  passed,  and  the  ship  rolled  some 
what  and  my  disappointment  grew  and  grew,  and  continued  to  grow.  I 
was  not  seasick. 

"  Presently,  about  six  hours  after  our  departure,  the  unmistakable  signs 
came,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  discussion  on  Pennsylvania  politics — a  subject 
in  itself  sufficient  to  make  any  one  seasick — I  withdrew  from  the  deck, 
made  an  instantaneous  settlement  with  Neptune,  experienced  a  sudden 
relief,  and  returned  'clothed  and  in  my  right  mind,1  not  having  been  absent 
from  the  deck  five  minutes,  and  from  that  time  forward  throughout  every 
hour  of  the  day  was  perhaps  one  of  the  most  able-bodied  and  one  of  the 
hungriest  men  on  that  ship.  I  am  satisfied  that  I  am  a  navigator,  and 
shall  be  satisfied  that  I  am  one  until  I  cross  the  channel,  which  I  propose 
doing  next  week,  or  until  I  start  for  home,  which  I  intend  doing  on  the 
7th  of  October. 

"We  had  been  assured  that  on  our  arrival  at  Liverpool  that  city 
would  present  a  most  disappointing  appearance ;  that  it  was  dirty,  gloomy, 
and  forbidding  ;  that  the  hotels  were  execrable,  and  that  we  should  be 
anxious  to  hurry  straight  through  it;  that  its  streets  were  narrow  and  dark, 
and  that  everything  about  it  was  unfavorable. 

"It  is  possible  that  we  reached  Liverpool  under  most  fortunate  circum 
stances,  but  all  along  from  the  pier  beside  which  our  ship  anchored  the 
shores  were  lined  with  beautiful  cottages,  the  fields  were  green  and  charm 
ing,  and  Liverpool  itself  quite  a  different  city  from  that  which  it  had  been 
represented  to  be.  I  have  omitted  to  mention  the  eagerness  and  delight 
with  which  we  first  saw  the  Irish  coast.  My  vision  failed  me,  however, 
and  while  the  coast  is  very  beautiful  it  was  not  to  my  eyes  green.  Every 
body  said  it  was  green,  and  when  I  began  to  reason  that  it  did  not  look 
so,  I  was  told  that  it  was  really  green,  but  did  not  appear  so  because  the 
sun  was  not  shining  upon  it  from  the  proper  direction.  I  presume  there 
fore  it  is  green,  and  that  at  a  season  when  the  sun  is  doing  proper  duty  to 
the  Irish  coast  it  would  appear  the  proper  color  to  me.  We  reached  Liver 
pool,  having  no  trouble  whatever  with  our  luggage,  and  drove  directly  to 
our  hotel,  the  Adelphi.  The  streets  were  broad  and  clean,  the  buildings 
fine,  the  day  bright,  the  rooms  at  the  Adelphi  large  and  comfortable,  the 
service  all  that  could  be  desired,  and  the  attendance  excellent,  everything 
home-like  and  most  cheering  to  one  who  had  just  closed  a  voyage  across 
the  Atlantic.  That  afternoon  we  drove  about  the  city  and  found  its  sur 
roundings  very  beautiful.  Prince's  Park  is  a  series  of  most  lovely  land 
scape  pictures,  and  we  have  nothing  finer  in  our  country. 

"A  few  of  the  public  buildings  are  extremely  fine.  St.  George's  Hall  is 
a  magnificent  structure  both  inside  and  out,  and  the  great  lions  cast  in 
bronze  and  the  collossal  statues  of  the  Queen  and  the  Prince  Consort,  the 
monument  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  the  public  buildings  surround 
ing  that  square  are  very  handsome. 


784  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

"We  decided  not  to  hurry  through  Liverpool,  but  to  remain  a  night,  and 
took  train  the  next  day  to  the  old,  old  city  of  Chester,  reaching  there  about 
midday  and  stopping  at  an  elegant  hotel  built  by,  and  the  property  of,  the 
Duke  of  Westminster.  I  cannot  take  the  time  to  describe  Chester,  which 
has  already  been  done  again  and  again,  and  to  much  better  advantage 
than  I  could  possibly  do  it.  There  are  old  buildings  way  back  into  Queen 
Anne's  time,  quaint,  curious,  and  in  their  way  beautiful.  There  are  the 
narrow,  winding  streets  of  the  olden  time.  There  are  portions,  and  quite 
large  portions,  of  the  old  Roman  wall,  1,800  years  old.  There  are  still 
standing  old  towers  which  run  way  back  centuries,  covered  with  moss  and 
ivy.  There  is  a  beautiful  river,  and  the  Castle  of  the  Duke  of  Edinburgh 
which  is  used  as  a  military  depot. 

"Thence  we  drove  to  Eaton  Hall,  one  of  the  seats  of  the  .Duke  of  West 
minster,  through  magnificent  grounds,  the  like  of  which,  as  private  grounds, 
cannot  be  seen  in  America.  The  hall  itself  is  a  splendid  structure,  and  the 
view  from  it,  over  the  smooth,  velvet  lawns,  through  the  great  clumps  of 
trees  and  the  river  shining  just  beyond,  is  most  beautiful.  The  next  morn 
ing  we  started  for  London,  but  in  the  meantime  I  had  the  pleasure  of  meeting 
the  American  Consul  at  Liverpool,  Governor  Packard,  and  General  Merritt,  the 
Consul-General  at  London,  who  was  there  awaiting  the  arrival  of  his  son 
on  the  Alaska.  On  all  hands  I  heard  the  highest  encomiums  of  Governor 
Packard,  and  the  fidelity  with  which  he  watches  and  guards  the  interests  of 
our  people.  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  secure  what  the  English  call  a  car 
riage  for  my  little  party,  consisting  of  my  wife,  Miss  Brittan,  and  myself, 
over  the  Northwestern  Road  to  London,  and  under  such  favorable  circum 
stances,  having  the  carriage  exclusively  to  ourselves,  I  cannot  imagine  a 
railway  trip  more  enjoyable.  All  along  through  that  200  miles  were  the 
most  delightful  landscapes,  smiling  fields,  and  forests  of  the  deepest  and 
richest  green — cabinet-pictures  of  landscape  which  to  the  American  eye  are 
very  captivating. 

"Leaving  Liverpool  at  10  a.  m.,  we  reached  London  at  4  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon,  drove  at  once  to  the  hotel  Continental,  where  we  had  temporarily 
secured  rooms  (the  Grand  Hotel  being  then  crowded),  and  so  soon  as  it 
was  possible  hastened  to  see  what  we  could  that  afternoon  of  London, 
driving  in  Hyde  Park,  the  beauties  of  which  I  shall  refer  to  more  fully 
hereafter.  Returning  to  the  hotel,  and  still  anxious  to  see  something  more 
with  the  eagerness  of  a  first  visit,  we  went  to  the  St.  James'  Theatre,  where 
a  charming  little  play,  'The  Squire,'  was  being  performed  for  the  hundred 
and  something  time.  I  am  sure  that  when  Mrs.  Kendall,  the  leading  lady 
in  the  piece,  visits  America  our  people  will  be  delighted  with  her,  her  act 
ing  is  so  smooth,  easy,  and  natural.  Her  reading  is  perfect.  The  next 
day  we  visited  the  Tower.  I  was  not  disappointed  in  the  Tower,  but  it 
was  quite  different  from  what  I  had  expected  to  see.  I  had  carried  in  my 
mind,  though  I  had  no  reason  for  so  doing,  the  idea  of  a  great,  lofty,  single 
tower;  such  is  not  however  the  Tower  of  London.  It  is  a  series  of  not 
very  lofty  towers,  occupying  different  portions  of  what  in  its  time  was  a 
very  extended  fortification  or  citadel.  I  had  not  thought  of  it  as  a  fort, 


THREE  MONTHS  IN  EUROPE. 

* 

which  it  in  fact  is — useless  to-day,  certainly,  as  such,  but  at  the  time  it 
was  built  practically  impregnable  doubtless,  but  it  is  full  of  history  of  the 
saddest  and  most  tragic  character.  Portions  of  it  run  way  back  to  the 
earliest  days  of  English  history.  We  saw  the  tower  in  which  Anne  Boleyn, 
Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  Essex,  and  Lady  Jane  Grey,  and  countless  other 
unfortunates  of  such  times,  were  imprisoned.  We  saw  the  passages,  gloomy 
and  dark,  through  which  Anne  Boleyn  was  conveyed  to  the  place  of  her 
execution  ;  we  saw  the  dark  and  frowning  entrance  called  the  Traitor's  Gate, 
through  which  State  prisoners  were  brought  by  way  of  the  river ;  we  saw 
and  trod  upon  the  stairs  under  which  the  Princes  were  murdered  ;  we  saw 
a  collection  of  armor  worn  by  the  old  Knights  of  warlike  and  bloody- 
times  ;  we  walked  over  passage-ways  which  English  Princes  and  noblemen 
had  trod  many  a  weary  hour,  and  we  could  not  feel  otherwise  than  impressed 
with  the  sombre,  savage,  cruel  gloom  of  the  place  and  its  surroundings. 

"  But  a  little  distance  from  the  Tower  itself  is  Tower  Hill,  where  State 
prisoners  were  gibbeted  and  beheaded,  and  all  around,  could  the  ground 
speak,  it  would  be  eloquent  with  the  history  of  those  bloody  and  cruel 
times  we  sometimes  hear  spoken  of  as  the  'good  old  days' — happily  long 
since  passed  away.  In  some  respects  the  so-called  Jewel-Room  is  the  most 
attractive  part  of  the  Tower,  for  there  are  kept  the  crown  jewels  of  Great 
Britain — the  crowns  worn  by  Kings  hundreds  of  years  ago,  gold  and  ivory 
staves  and  sceptres  which  they  had  borne ;  golden  cups  out  of  which  they 
drank,  and  huge  golden  bowls  in  which  their  punch  was  brewed ;  their 
spears  and  their  shields ;  the  golden  maces  and  wands  borne  before  the 
Kings  and  Queens — all  these  in  glass  cases  are  displayed  in  glittering 
bewilderment. 

"I  think  no  one  can  visit  the  Tower  of  London,  who  is  at  all  familiar 
with  English  history,  without  leaving  it  with  a  certain  feeling  of  depression. 
There  is  so  much  of  tragedy  and  pathos  in  its  annals  that  it  seems  to  be 
in  the  very  air  of  the  Tower  and  the  surrounding  neighborhood.  You  take 
that  feeling  as  you  would  a  disease  in  the  malarious  atmosphere,  and  you 
drive  away  still  and  sad,  and  wondering  that  such  things  could  ever  be. 
Reaching  our  hotel  it  was  evident  something  must  be  done  to  change  the 
mood  in  which  the  Tower  had  left  us.  No  change  could  be  greater  than 
that  from  the  Tower  to  Rotten  Row  and  Hyde  Park ;  the  former  of  which 
was  in  the  afternoon  crowded  with  splendid  equipages,  among  which  we 
drove  up  and  down,  around  and  about  the  park,  and  to  the  memorial 
statue  to  the  Prince  Consort,  erected  by  the  Queen,  a  glittering,  gilded, 
splendid  tribute.  In  the  evening  we  saw  'Patience'  at  the  Savoy  Theatre, 
where  this  opera  was  first  presented  and  is  still  running. 

"The  next  day  we  visited  Westminster  Abbey,  and  that  exceeded  our 
highest  expectations  of  it.  Something  of  this  was  due  doubtless  to  the 
fortunate  time  we  visited  it.  The  chorus  of  boys  was  chanting  the  service, 
and  their  smooth,  sweet  voices  seemed  to  float  through  the  great  abbey, 
and  was  a  most  fitting  prelude  to  our  visit.  The  service  finished,  we  spent 
these  delightful  hours  in  the  abbey,  and  such  a  multitude  of  magnificent 
monuments  of  the  great  and  small,  good  and  bad  of  England's  history. 

50 


786  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

* 

"The  Poet's  Corner  has  been  written  threadbare,  but  he  must  be  very 
dull  indeed  who  visiting  it  would  not  feel  deeply  impressed  by  all  that  he 
saw  above,  beneath,  and  about  him.  Perhaps  the  most  attractive  portion 
of  the  abbey  is  the  old  chapel  of  Henry  VII.,  and  before  we  enter  it,  on 
the  right  side  and  on  the  left  respectively,  were  little  rooms  containing  the 
monuments  or  marble  effigies  of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots.  The  face  of  Mary  has  a  pinched,  narrow  look,  but  that  of  Eliza 
beth  is  wonderfully  effective  ;  it  has  all  the  hard,  strong-willed,  cruel  lines 
characteristic  of  her  race,  and  as  one  gazes  upon  it  one  cannot  fail  to  read 
the  history  of  that  marvelous  woman.  The  chapel  itself  is  famed  for  its 
wonderful  roof — so  light,  so  exquisitely  airy  that  it  seems  impossible  to  carve 
in  stone,  lines  and  threads  so  delicate  as  those  which  seem  to  float  above 
us. 

"  Leaving  this  wonderful  chapel  we  find  the  old  tombs  of  England's 
Kings,  and  as  our  journey  is  nearly  finished  come  to  the  tomb  of  Edward 
the  Confessor,  more  than  800  years  old,  and  the  old  worn  clumsy  chair  in 
which  England's  monarchs  for  hundreds  of  years  have  sat  during  the  cere 
mony  of  their  coronation. 

"One  visit  to  Westminster  Abbey  is  very  unsatisfying — portions  of  it  are 
so  old,  some  being  at  least  a  thousand  years  of  age.  Outside  and  in  it  is 
so  curious,  so  beautiful,  that  to  visit  it  once  is  simply  to  create  a  desire  to 
pay  another  visit,  which  we  did  again,  and  again,  and  again.  .  .  . 

"The  vastness  of  London,  the  multitude  of  places  which  one  desires  to 
visit,  oppresses  any  one  whose  time  is  limited.  After  having  visited  the 
Tower,  Westminster  Abbey,  and  the  Parliament  Houses,  we  spent  a  few- 
hours  in  the  national  art  gallery.  I  make  no  pretensions  to  being  a  judge 
of  pictures,  but  was  delighted  with  the  Turner  collection  exhibited  there, 
at  the  great  pictures  of  Claude,  and  impressed  with  the  sumptuous  splendor 
of  some  of  the  old  paintings  of  Paul  Veronisi.  It  seemed  to  me  that  it 
would  be  difficult  to  gather  a  more  complete  representation  of  all  schools 
of  art  than  can  there  be  found,  and  I,  feeling  myself  quite  incompetent  to 
pass  an  opinion  of  the  general  merits  of  the  collection,  inquired  of  our  Min 
ister,  Mr.  Lowell,  who  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  nowhere  in  Europe  was 
there  a  more  valuable  collection  of  pictures,  one  more  comprehensive  and 
thoroughly  representative  in  its  character,  than  in  the  National  Art  Gallery. 
There  are  at  least  half  a  dozen,  of  Turner's  pictures  which  I  think  would 
impress  any  one — two  great  landscapes  which  he  contributed  to  the  gallery 
on  the  stipulation  that  they  should  be  hung  side  by  side  with  two  celebrated 
pictures  of  Claude,  of  wonderful  atmospheric  effects.  '  The  Fighting  Temer- 
aire'  seemed  to  me  all  that  was  claimed  for  it,  and  at  least  one  of  his 
'Venetian  Sunsets'  was  splendor  itself. 

"We  next  visited  the  British  Museum.  Its  wonders  I  will  not  attempt 
to  describe ;  they  are  endless  and  bewildering.  Its  collection  of  autographs 
and  letters  of  almost  every  distinguished  man  and  woman  who  has  figured 
in  either  English  or  Continental  history  for  the  last  500  years  seems  to  be 
complete.  The  last  letter  poor  Dickens  wrote  is  there.  Milton,  Oliver 
Cromwell,  the  genuine  signature  of  Shakspeare,  the  contract  for  the  sale 


THREE    MONTHS    IN    EUROPE.  787 

of  'Paradise  Lost,'  Henry  VIII. 's  autograph,  Queen  Elizabeth's,  Cranmer's, 
and  multitudes  of  names  that  stand  out  in  this  world's  history  are  there. 
In  this  museum  are  collected  the  Elgin  marbles,  friezes  taken  from  the 
Parthenon  at  Athens,  a  splendid  collection  of  Greek,  Roman,  and  Egyptian 
sculpture,  which  it  would  require  months  to  critically  examine  and  thor 
oughly  appreciate,  but  at  which  we  could  merely  glance.  The  jewel-room 
contains  a  wonderful  collection  of  all  forms  of  art  in  bronze  and  other  met 
als,  and  the  famous  Portland  vase,  of  the  beauty  of  which  no  engraving 
could  give  any  adequate  idea.  The  reading-room  is  said  to  be  the  finest 
room  in  the  world.  The  library  is  simply  huge.  The  wonders  of  this  place 
are  so  vast  that  it  is  impossible  for  me  even  to  attempt  to  describe  them. 
The  criticism  to  be  passed  is  that  it  is  comprehensive  in  its  extent  and  in 
its  variety. 

"One  day  of  sight-seeing  was  devoted  to  what  is  called  the  City,  and 
this  included  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  the  Bank  of  England,  the  Guildhall,  the 
Mansion  House,  and  the  General  Post-Office,  all  in  their  way  magnificent 
structures. 

"  From  no  point,  however,  can  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  be  seen  to  advant 
age.  Its  interior  is  described  in  the  guide-books  as  cold,  dark,  and  cheer 
less,  but  to  me  it  appeared  quite  othenvise.  Looking  up  the  wonderful 
dome  it  seemed  so  airy,  and  springing,  and  light  in  its  character,  the  whole 
interior  so  beautifully  graceful  in  design  and  proportions,  that  I  do  not 
wonder  that  it  is  ranked  second  among  the  great  cathedrals  of  the  world. 
About  the  cathedral  are  distributed  monuments  of  England's  departed 
heroes.  Here  lies  buried  Oliver  Goldsmith,  and  in  a  crypt  below  is  the 
sarcophagus  of  Wellington,  the  enormous  hearse  in  which  were  borne  his 
remains.  The  wheels  of  this  hearse  were  made  from  cannon  captured  by 
him  in  battle,  and  it  is  a  massive  structure  in  all,  solid  and  impressive 
looking,  like  the  military  idol  of  the  English  people,  the  Iron  Duke  himself. 
Here,  too,  is  the  sarcophagus  of  Nelson,  whose  monuments,  by  the  way, 
adorn  many  a  square  in  London.  Old  banners  bearing  the  marks  of  many 
battles,  smeared  with  smoke  and  the  dust  of  many  years,  all  these  are 
gathered  in  England's  great  cathedral. 

"It  seemed  our  duty  to  visit  Windsor  Castle,  which  we  did,  and  upon 
reaching  it  we  found  we  had  formed  altogether  a  wrong  impression  as  to 
what  Windsor  Castle  really  was.  It  is  not  only  a  residence  of  royalty,  but 
a  huge  fortress,  portions  of  which  run  way  back  before  the  Conquest  by  the 
Normans.  Great  towers  frown  on  high  steeps  surrounded  by  deep  moats ; 
the  main  tower,  elevated  on  its  rocky  height,  clothed  with  ivy,  stands  there 
in  such  grand  repose  and  solidity  and  splendor  as  to  fittingly  represent  the 
greatness  and  power  of  Old  England.  The  various  towers  I  shall  not  under 
take  to  describe.  Some  of  them  run  back  more  than  700  years  ago,  and, 
as  I  stood  in  the  stone-paved  gateway  o'f  one  of  these  towers  built  before 
the  Conquest,  up  among  its  ivy-clad  battlements  the  birds  were  singing ; 
around  the  old  gates,  which  aforetime  were  closed  against  the  invader, 
flowers  were  growing.  Here  were  old  walls  which  had  seen  the  strifes  of 
more  than  500  years  ago,  silent  and  passed  into  history,  clad  with  smiling 


\ 
788  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

verdure  and  made  vocal  with  the  music  of  singing  birds.  Here  for  a  por 
tion  of  the  year  the  Queen  resides.  She  had  left  but  a  few  days  before 
our  visit,  and  her  private  apartments  were  closed,  but  here  was  the  old 
chapel,  built  many  years  ago,  in  which  royal  marriages  have  been  solemn 
ized.  This  chapel  has  been  restored  and  decorated  by  the  Queen,  a  mem 
orial  part  of  which  is  dedicated  to  the  memory  of  the  Prince  Consort.  This 
memorial  chapel  is  surpassingly  beautiful.  Its  walls  are  made  of  many- 
colored  marbles  exceedingly  rich  in  design.  At  the  end  is  a  reclining  statue 
of  the  Prince  Consort,  splendid  in  marbles  and  gilding,  in  painted  glass 
and  stained  windows.  This  chapel  furnishes  another  evidence  of  the 
Queen's  loyal  devotion  to  her  wise  and  patriotic  husband.  There  was  in 
the  character  of  the  Prince  Consort  nothing  we  would  call  brilliant,  but  the 
position  which  he  occupied  was  a  most  delicate  one.  The  English  people 
were  most  sensitive  of  any  interference  by  him  with  their  politics,  and  he 
conducted  himself  so  wisely  and  becomingly,  was  such  a  considerate  patron 
of  arts  and  sciences,  contributed  so  much  to  their  cultivation  and  that  of 
all  worthy  peaceful  pursuits  in  England  that  his  memory  is  held  in  affect 
ionate  regard  by  all  Englishmen. 

"The  portion  of  the  castle  occupied  by  the  Queen  is  cold  and  sombre  in 
appearance,  but  it  looks  out  upon  the  most  beautiful  landscape.  In  front 
of  her  windows  is  the  'Long  Walk,'  a  splendid  drive  three  miles  in  length, 
lined  on  either  side  by  great  elms,  and  which  goes  along  straight  to  the 
splendid  statue  of  George  III.  Driving  down  this  long  avenue,  and  reach 
ing  the  end,  we  turned  to  the  left,  and  passing  through  lovely  wooded 
landscapes  until  we  reached  the  point  in  these  wonderfully  extensive  grounds 
so  justly  celebrated,  known  as  Virginia  Water.  This  is  an  artificial  lake 
conceived  by  George  the  Fourth,' and  many  miles  in  extent;  the  shores  are 
most  charming,  about  them  are  many  villas,  and  these  shores  on  holidays 
are  thronged  with  thousands  of  visitors.  We  passed  there  on  our  return  to 
Windsor.  Our  guide  points  out  to  us  an  old  propped-up  tree,  as  the  fam 
ous  Herne's  oak.  This  is  over  700  years  old  and  is  rapidly  falling  to  decay. 
Herds  of  deer  are  in  the  park  and  wild  flowers  blossom  on  the  roadway. 
Every  turn  in  the  road  furnished  fresh  views  of  the  wonderfully  beautiful 
country  about  us,  until  we  returned  to  the  old  town  and  the  castle  was 
again  before  us. 

"But  the  real  Mecca  of  the  American  in  England  we  had  not  visited — 
Leamington,  Warwick  Castle,  Stratford-on-Avon,  Kenilworth,  Coventry,  and 
Guy's  Cliff.  Taking  the  morning  train  we  reached  beautiful  Leamingion  a 
little  after  midday,  stopping  at  the  Manor  House  Hotel — unlike  anything  of 
the  kind  I  have  ever  seen  in  America.  A  beautiful  house  far  back  from 
the  road,  surrounded  by  gravel  walks,  beds  of  flowers,  and  by  a  beautiful 
park  many  acres  in  extent,  lakes  and  woodlands.  This  was  the  Manor 
House  Hotel  to  which  Mr.  Gillig  had  been  good  enough  to  recommend  me. 
We  were  met  by  the  hostess,  as  all  the  visitors  there  are  met,  as  if  we 
were  private  guests — a  smiling,  pleasant-faced  Englishwoman,  and  after  a 
hearty  luncheon,  for  which  our  ride  had  fitted  us,  we  took  an  open  car 
riage  and  started  for  our  evening's  tour — and  such  a  tour!  But  a  few  min- 


THREE    MONTHS    IN    EUROPE.  789 

utes'  drive  from  the  Manor  House  we  came  to  the  River  Avon,  and  stop 
ping  midway  on  the  bridge  which  crosses  it,  directly  in  front  of  us  rising 
on  its  rocky  steeps  was  the  famous  Warwick  Castle.  We  have  all  seen 
engravings  of  this  wonderful  building  and  ruin  from  every  point  of  view, 
but  no  engraving  does  it  justice,  nor  is  it  possible  for  an  engraving  to  do 
it  justice.  Vast  in  its  extent,  beautiful  in  its  architecture,  old  and  moss- 
grown,  and  battlemented,  it  is  as  if  the  old  feudal  times,  armored  and 
helmeted,  had  stepped  boldly  out  of  history  and  stood  before  us.  Reaching 
the  castle  we  were  shown  through  its  rooms,  wonderfully  rich  in  art  and 
historical  treasures,  with  its  armor  worn  by  old  Knights,  its  windows  look 
ing  out  upon  the  peaceful  Avon,  in  which  stand  the  remains  of  old  bridges 
built  by  the  Romans.  Its  towers  clasped  in  the  arms  of  huge  cedars  of 
Lebanon  painted  by  the  Crusaders,  its  frowning  battlements  covered  with 
ivy  and  moss,  here  indeed  was  a  fit  place  for  the  stout  old  Earl.  Its 
treasures  of  buhl,  tables  of  precious  stones,  and  Limoges-ware,  all  the  world 
is  familiar  with. 

"One  little  plate  was  shown  to  us  which  was  valued  at  $20,000.  Three 
small  cabinets  of  this  ware,  containing  not  twenty  pieces  in  all,  were  said 
to  be  worth  at  least  $150,000.  The  rooms  were  hung  with  pictures  by 
Veronisi,  Claude,  Rubens,  Teniers,  Titian,  Raphael,  Canoletti,  and  Vandyck, 
and  at  the  end  of  one  of  the  passage  ways  made  through  these  enormous 
walls  of  stone,  nearly  ten  feet  in  thickness,  hung  one  of  the  three  famous 
original  portraits  of  Charles  I.  on  horseback,  painted  by  Vandyck. 

"The  whole  country  about  the  castle  is  a  'garden.  Leaving  it  because 
we  could  not  do  anything  more,  we  proceeded  towards  Stratford-on-Avon, 
and  reaching  there  drove  direct  through  the  town  to  Anne  Hathaway 's 
cottage  ;  and  there  the  cottage  was,  made  sacred  and  so  pathetic  because 
the  simple  girl  lived  there  whom  Shakspeare  for  a  short  time  loved.  This 
humble  little  cottage  is  covered  all  over  with  vines  and  flowering  shrubs. 
A  delightful  old  lady  has  charge  of  it — said  to  be  a  descendant  of  poor 
Anne  Hathaway.  She  showed  us  by  the  great  fire-place  the  settle,  as  she 
called  it,  now  so  old  and  worn,  upon  which  Shakspeare  and  Anne 
sat  those  long  years  ago.  The  room  which  Anne  Hathaway  occupied, 
the  windows  out  of  which  she  looked,  the  door  through  which  Shakspeare 
entered  when  he  called  to  see  her,  all  these  are  there.  It  is  so  tender  in 
all  its  suggestions,  so  gentle,  so  pathetic  in  the  impressions  which  it  leaves, 
that  we  asked  the  good  old  dame  to  give  us  a  drink  of  water  from  the 
well  from  the  garden  where  Anne  Hathaway  once  plucked  flowers,  and  to 
give  us  as  souvenirs  of  our  visit  some  flowers  from  the  shrubs  that  were 
clinging  to  the  walls  of  the  old  cottage.  These  we  bore  away  with  us  and 
returned  to  Stratford;  visited  the  old  church  where  the  great  poet  is  buried, 
and  thence  to  the  house  where  he  was  born.  The  barbarian  Smiths, 
Joneses,  and  Robinsons  had  in  years  gone  by  disfigured  the  walls  by 
scribbling  their  names  upon  them,  but  there  the  old  house  stands,  and 
there  was  the  room  in  which  Shakspeare  was  born.  Two  old  maiden 
ladies,  apparently  thoroughly  posted  in  Shakspearean  literature,  were  there 
as  custodians  of  this  sacred  spot.  The  room  in  which  Shakspeare  was 


79O  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

born  is  not  much  of  a  room  to  look  at.  The  old  beams  are  there  still,  the 
old  walls  are  there,  and  the  old  stone  floor  is  there.  It  is  not,  as  I  have 
said,  much  of  a  room  to  look  at,  but  I  defy  any  one  to  remain  there  long 
without  being  greatly  impressed  by  the  sacredness  of  the  spot  in  which  he 
is.  Connected  with  the  house  is  a  museum,  and  among  its  curiosities  are 
some  features  at  last  betraying  something  human.  They  showed  us  the 
picture  of  the  place  where  Shakspeare  got  drunk — as  a  natural  sequence 
they  showed  us  the  picture  of  the  apple-tree  under  which  he  fell  asleep  and 
slept  off  his  debauch,  and  to  complete  the  sequence  they  then  showed 
a  piece  of  the  tree  itself.  This  was  so  natural,  so  human,  that  it 
seemed  as  if  I  knew  Shakspeare  better  than  ever  I  had  known  him 
before.  *  In  the  house  is  the  famous  portrait  recently  discovered  and 
bearing  unmistakable  marks  of  genuineness.  The  costume  is  the  same 
as  that  of  his  bust  over  his  grave  in  the  church;  the  features  were  the 
same,  and  the  gentleman  in  charge,  who  had  none  of  the  garrulity  of 
the  guide  about  him,  but  appeared  to  be  a  thorough  Shakspearean 
scholar,  said  that  although  the  genuineness  of  this  portrait  as  a  con 
temporaneous  portrait  of  Shakspeare  cannot  be  established,  yet  the  evi 
dence  in  its  favor  is  so  strong  as  to  satisfy  even  the  most  doubting 
mind.  This  portrait  is,  to  my  mind,  nearer  like  the  Chandos  than  any 
other  I  have  seen.  It  is  the  portrait  of  the  Shakspeare  whom  we  have 
all  carried  in  our  mind's  eye,  inspired,  but  human,  the  portrait  of  just 
such  a  man  as  all  lovers  of  Shakspeare  believe  their  Shakspeare  to  have 
been." 

Later,  he  wrote  from  Paris,  under  date  of  September   18: 

"Having  seen  nearly  all  that  I  shall  see,  and  intending  to  devote  the  time 
that  remains  of  my  absence  from  home  to  a  leisurely  contemplation  of 
what  I  have  already  seen,  the  time  seems  to  have  arrived  for  the  fulfillment 
of  a  promise  made  in  my  former  letter  to  The  Tribune,  to  narrate  my 
experiences  and  the  impressions  which  I  have  received  from  my  visit  to  the 
Continent. 

"It  suits  my  purpose  to  pursue  in  this  narrative  what  I  may  appropriately 
call  the  chronological  method  ;  and,  pursuing  that  method,  I  have  to  say 
that  nothing  has  occurred  since  my  former  letter  to  change  my  opinion  of 
England,  its  cities,  its  scenery,  and  its  men  so  far  as  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
meeting  them.  My  admiration  of  all  these  has  rather  increased  by  what  I 
have  since  seen ;  and  in  no  country  which  I  have  visited  have  I  found  a 
healthier  manhood  and  more  genial  courtesy  to  strangers,  a  kindlier  or 
more  intelligent  appreciation  of  our  country,  its  institutions,  and  its  people, 
than  in  Great  Britain. 

"Immediately  after  writing  The  Tribune,  I  made  a  flying  visit  to  Scot 
land.  One  great  regret  accompanies  that  tour,  and  will  always  in  my  mind 
mark  it.  It  was  all  too  brief,  and  I  had  but  glimpses  where  I  desired 
extended  views.  I  saw  enough  of  Scotland,  however,  its  scenery,  its  people, 
its  beautiful  City  of  Edinburgh,  and  many  of  its  famed  historic  places,  to 
strengthen  the  admiration  which  in  some  way  or  other  had  become  deeply 
fixed  in  my  mind  of  old  Scotland. 


THREE    MONTHS    IN    EUROPE.  791 

"  The  ride  from  London  to  Edinburgh  is  for  Great  Britain  a  long  one.  It 
is  about  twelve  hours  ;  but  so  favorably  were  we  situated  with  reference  to 
our  railway  accommodations  over  the  Great  Northern  route,  and  so  varied 
and  so  beautiful  was  the  scenery  through  which  we  passed,  that  the  time 
seemed  brief  enough.  Reaching  Edinburgh  quite  late,  although  not  too  late 
in  those  northern  latitudes  to  see  the  crags  which  seem  to  environ  that  pic 
turesque  city,  we  drove  immediately  to  our  hotel — the  Windsor — where 
exceedingly  pleasant  apartments  had  been  reserved  for  us,  fronting  upon 
Prince's  street,  with  the  old  historic  castle,  planted  upon  its  craggy  and 
rocky  front,  directly  before  us.  When  the  morning  came  and  we  saw 
clearly  in  the  broad  daylight  that  famed  and  beautiful  city  we  did  not  won 
der  that  for  picturesque  beauty  it  had  attracted  the  admiration  of  all  the 
world.  Edinburgh  would  be  beautiful  even  without  the  splendid  halo  of  his 
tory,  poetry,  tragedy,  and  romance  which  surrounds  it.  Crowning  rocky 
steeps,  the  old  city  sits  enthroned — every  foot  of  its  soil,  and  every  crag 
and  peak,  made  famous  in  story  and  in  song. 

"4We  first  visited  Holyrood  Palace.  It  is  a  quaint,  intensely  interest 
ing,  and  curious  old  fortress.  Portions  of  it  run  back  hundreds  of  years  ; 
and  many  of  its  gateways,  arches,  and  windows  are  most  curious  and  in 
teresting,  as  exhibiting  architectural  features  now  very  rare,  even  in  old 
England  or  Scotland.  Here  Queen  Mary  lived  ;  here  for  a  time  was  her 
home ;  here  were  plots  and  counterplots ;  here  were  dark  and  foul  con 
spiracies  hatched ;  here  was  unlicensed  love-making ;  and  here  bloody 
assassinations.  We  saw  Mary's  rooms — her  dressing-room,  sleeping-room, 
her  so-calle.d  state-apartments,  her  reception-room,  and  the  cramped, 
wretched  little  supper-room,  so  called,  from  which  Rizzio  was  dragged  to 
meet  his  death.  The  guide  pointed  out  to  us  the  stony,  narrow,  winding 
secret  stairway  up  which  Darnley  and  his  associate  conspirators  passed,  and 
found  the  wretched  Italian,  the  worthless  tramp,,  upon  whom  the  much- 
lamented  Queen  had  bestowed  her  affections,  or  rather  her  rapid,  transient 
passion,  supping  with  the  Queen  of  Scots.  The  wretched  little  room  is 
hardly  large  enough  for  two — it  is  not  large  enough  to  accommodate  a 
supper  for  an  able-bodied  man — and,  suddenly  putting  the  arras  aside,  the 
conspirators  seized  this  poor  creature,  to  save  whom  the  Queen  at  once  in 
terposed,  but  vainly,  to  whose  skirts  the  wretch  clutched  to  save  himself; 
but,  dragged  by  these  strong  and  cruel  men  into  the  adjoining  sleeping- 
room,  grasping  the  bedstead  he  was  stabbed  again  and  again.  Dragged 
through  that  room  into  a  still  larger  one,  he  was  left  just  at  the  head  of 
another  stone  stairway,  and  there  bled  to  death.  We  were  shown  a  great, 
sombre,  dark  spot  on  the  floor,  which  they  told  us  was  made  by  the  blood 
pouring  from  Rizzio' s  wounds  as  he  lay  there  dying.  It  may  be  so.  But 
again  and  again  we  passed  over  the  route  that  he  was  dragged,  and,  if 
concerning  those  old  times  there  is  any  truth  in  the  details  of  history,  it  is 
that  in  that  spot  this  fearful  tragedy  was  enacted. 

"There  is  but  little  that  is  attractive  in  Holyrood  as  a  residence.  Its 
general  appearance  is  gloomy,  grizzly,  and  forbidding.  In  these  days  no 
well-regulated  woman  of  my  aquaintance  would  consent  to  be  a  Queen  on 


79-  I-IFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORRS. 

such  terms  as  the  occupancy  of  Holyrood  Palace.  We  of  course  saw  the 
old  court-yard,  and  the  large  hall  in  which  are  hung  the  large  portraits  of 
Scottish  Kings — poor  portraits,  but  no  poorer  than  the  Kings.  The  record 
is  a  dreadful  one  of  assassinations,  deaths  by  violence,  by  poison  ;  it  makes 
a  fearfully  gloomy  history.  And  all  those  cloud-aspiring  crags  and  peaks, 
looking  so  solemnly  down  upon  you — beautiful,  but  bare  and  savage  in 
their  beauty — carry  within  their  rocky  bosoms  the  stories  of  tragedies  which 
make  early  Scottish  history  almost  an  unbroken  record  of  violence  and 
bloodshed. 

"Connected  with  Holyrood  Palace,  and  almost  forming  a  part  of  it,  is 
the  old,  decayed,  ruined  chapel  so  widely  renowned  for  its  beauty.  Even 
what  is  left  of  it  shows  the  beauty  of  its  proportions,  the  delicate  traceries 
of  its  stonework  and  carvings;  and  its  arch,  its  leading  feature,  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  in  all  Europe. 

' '  There  is  no  portion  of  the  old  town  which  is  not  worth  while  to  visit 
and  see.  Through  choked,  narrow  passage-ways,  called  streets,  we  drove ; 
saw  the  house  where  John  Knox  lived,  and  the  church  where  he  preached  ; 
saw  the  wretched  rooms  in  which  Burns  lodged,  and  the  house  where  Allan 
Ramsey  lived;  visited  the  Parliament  House,  plain  and  quite  unpretending 
in  its  style  ;  saw  the  stone  which  marks  the  exact  spot  of  the  Heart  of  Mid- 
Lothian;  visited  the  sacred  old  cemetery,  where  the  bones  of  the  resolute, 
high-hearted,  and  God-fearing  old  Covenanters  who  suffered  death  in  those 
savage  old  times  for  opinion's  sake,  are  entombed.  We  drove  all  about 
that  splendid  drive  called  Queen's  Drive,  escorted  on  our  way  by  a  driver 
who  had  evidently  missed  his  vocation — whom  Nature  had  designed  for  an 
orator,  but  whom  the  hard  lines  of  fate  had  made  a  garrulous,  cock-eyed, 
and  canny  hack-driver.  I  call  him  canny.  • 

"  He  was  driving  us  by  the  hour,  and  at  three  shillings  per  hour,  and 
under  those  conditions  speed  was  impossible ;  and,  as  we  reached  any 
interesting  point,  our  lecturing  jehu  would  descend  from  his  box,  and,  hold 
ing  the  lines  in  one  hand,  would  extend  the  other  after  the  approved  fashion 
of  the  Columbian  orator,  and  discourse  at  length  upon  Arthur's  Seat,  Scot 
tish  nobility,  the  general  loveliness  of  the  valley  at  our  feet ;  and  in  every 
instance  mixed  up  with  a  discourse  on  John  Knox. 

"The  dirtiest  street  I  have  ever  seen  is  Cowgate.  For  its  broad  and 
comprehensive  filth,  its  infinite  variety  of  nastiness,  it  stands  peerless  among 
all  the  streets  of  all  the  cities  of  the  world.  But  the  days  of  Cowgate  are 
numbered ;  the  old  narrow  passage  dignified  by  the  name  of  street  is  about 
closed,  and  ere  long  it  will  be  but  a  'putrid  reminiscence.' 

"One  is  constantly  surprised,  visiting  the  old  town,  at  the  enormous 
height  of  its  buildings.  We  saw  them  eleven  and  twelve  stories  high.  The 
blocks  are  pierced  with  curious  entrances  called  'closes,'  where  apparently 
the  refuse  of  each  block  is  gathered,  from  which  emerge  bare-footed,  red 
headed,  and  dirty  children,  destined,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  Scottish 
character  of  the  past,  to  flower  out  ultimately  into  learned  professors,  well 
clad,  well  fe^d,  and  graciously  sweet-mannered.  In  the  times  past,  Scotland 
has  been  the  land  of  oats,  itch,  sulphur,  scenery,  and  scholars:  it  has 


THREE    MONTHS    IN    EUROPE.  793 

dropped  its  oats,  itch,  and  sulphur,  and  in  all  Europe  no  more  delightful 
people — men  and  uomen — can  be  found  than  in  Auld  Reekie,  the  pictur 
esque  and  beautiful  capital.  There  is  such  an  abundance  of  tough  fibre  in 
the  Scotch  character  that  it  takes  the  polish  of  culture  superbly.  It  is,  and 
always  has  been,  a  dead-earnest  character — tremendously  firm  in  its  opin 
ions — willing  to  fight  for  them,  and  to  die  for  them. 

"  Everyone  who  visits  Edinburgh  visits  the  old  castle — the  home  of  old 
Scottish  Kings.  It  is  a  powerful  looking  fortress,  intrenched  and  anchored 
on  rocks  almost  precipitous  on  three  of  its  sides,  and  looking  formidable 
enough.  Here  are  other  of  Queen  Mary's  apartments,  and  very  few  pic 
tures  possessing  some  interest  and  some  merit.  Here  is  a  beautiful  little 
chapel — very,  very  old — exquisite  in  its  architecture,  recently  restored,  and 
to  which  the  British  Queen  has  contributed  a  beautiful  painted  window. 

"We  saw  the  window,  a  way  up  hundreds  of  feet  above  the  valley 
beneath,  from  which  the  miserable  creature,  King  James,  when  a  mere 
babe,  was  let  down  in  a  basket,  and  to  the  great  injury  of  mankind  his 
descent  was  safe.  In  one  of  these  rooms  he  was  born,  and  it  was  deemed 
judicious  that  he  should  be  quietly  and  most  secretly  transferred  to  other 
quarters,  and  at  the  end  of  a  long  rope  a  basket  was  tied,  in  this  basket 
the  babe  was  placed,  and  from  that  window  he  was  let  carefully  down  to 
careful  hands  receiving  him  hundreds  of  feet  below." 

In  this  breezey  style  Mr.  Storrs  continued  his  newspaper  nar 
ratives  over  his  journeyings  on  the  continent  and  the  entire  story 
would  make  a  most  readable  account,  did  space  allow  it  to  be  fully 
given.  On  his  return  home  he  was  enthusiastically  welcomed  by 
his  many  friends,  and  soon  after  he  plunged  into  his  usual  busy 
round  of  work. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 


THE  CONCLUSION. 

SOME  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MR.  STORKS*  WIT— ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  REPAR 
TEE — HIS  STYLE  OF  ORATORY — CONTRASTED  WITH  BURKE — A  DRAMATIC 
INCIDENT — LAST  SCENES  AND  DEATH  AT  OTTAWA — THE  END  OF  ALL  MOR 
TAL. 

TNPULSATING  ink  cannot  adequately  give  expression  to 
^_J  the  humor  of  Mr.  Storrs'  sayings.  The  piquancy  of  the 
occasion,  the  peculiar  glow  of  the  heated  brain,  the  laugh  of  the 
eye,  the  rise  and  fall  of  the  voice — untranslatable,  unrepeatable, 
never-to-be-well-understood  save  to  the  actual  listening,  watching 
enjoyer,  are  needed.  Running,  too,  as  it  does  through  all  his 
utterances,  whether  in  the  political  or  in  the  forensic  efforts  from 
which  selections  have  hereinbefore  been  made,  it  cannot  be  nec 
essary,  in  conclusion,  to  attempt  to  preserve  many  of  the  bright, 
original  sayings  of  the  man  whose  death  rid  the  bar  and  the 
world  at  large  of  much  sunshine.  There  was,  however,  some 
thing  majestically  splendid  in  his  overflow  of  humor.  It  mattered 
not,  whether  ill  or  hale,  whether  at  the  social  board  or  in  the 
presence  of  the  supreme  bench,  the  fire  would  flash.  A  gentle 
man  who  slept  in  the  same  room  with  him,  in  the  crowded 
hotel  at  Ottawa,  the  night  before  the  death  of  Mr.  Storrs,  relates 
how  in  the  night  between  paroxysms  of  anguish,  the  great  law 
yer  would  make  remarks  or  hurry  off  some  funny  story  which 
convulsed  the  listener  even  though  tears  stood  in  his  eyes  on 
account  of  the  lawyer-humorist's  recent  agonies.  "Storrs'  say," 
became  a  national  mot,  and  the  mention  of  his  name,  months 
after  his  death,  was  but  to  call  up  story  after  story. 

It  will    be    a   long   time   before   his  well-known    description   of 
Ex-President    Hayes,    whom    he    never    liked,    will    be   forgotten. 
794 


THE    CONCLUSION.  795 

"There  stood  R.  B.  Hayes,"  he  said  while  talking  about  Garfield's 
funeral,  "clad  in  a  long,  linen  duster,  with  a  straw  hat  on  the 
back  of  his  head,  holding  in  his  right  hand  a  yellow,  worsted 
bag  with  the  letters  '  R.  B.  H.,'  worked  in  purple  by  Lucy; 
and  no  one  spoke  to  him  except  a  policeman  and  he  told  him 
to  keep  off  the  grass."  At  another  time,  he  said  in  public, 
"  Hayes  went  into  office  chuck  full  of  the  milk  of  human  kind 
ness,  anxious  for  an  opportunity  to  shake  hands  with  somebody 
who  had  attempted  the  destruction  of  the  Union."  In  the 
memorable  Rose-Douglas  case,  at  Ann  Arbor,  in  the  midst  of  a 
powerful  argument  as  to  whether  or  not  a  jury  should  be 
empaneled,  Mr.  Storrs  was  interrupted  by  an  opposing  counsel's 
remark:  "How  would  it  do  to  try  it  in  Freedom  Township,  the 
town  of  six  nations  over  by  Manchester,  where  the  Germans  are 
all  Democrats?"  "German  Democrats,"  said  Storrs,  "a  jury  of 
that  description  wouldn't  know  whether  the  Saviour  was  crucified 
on  Calvary  or  shot  at  Bunker  Hill."  In  a  similar  vein  was  his 
excoriation  of  a  witness  who  had  evidently  perjured  himself  on 
the  stand.  "Why,  gentlemen  of  the  jury,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Storrs, 
"this  man  with  a  soul,  compressed  to  the  size  of  an  internal 
wart,  reminds  me  of  what  a  great  Kentuckian  said  of  a  similar 
being,  who  was  advised  to  repent  hard  for  many  years  in  order  that 
Omnipotence  might  get  jurisdiction  to  damn  him."  A  young 
man  once  approached  him  with,  "  Mr.  Storrs,  pardon  me,  but 
you  are  a  man  who  has  thought  much  upon  all  topics.  I  wish 
to  ask  you  for  your  opinion  of  Heaven  and  Hell."  Fixing  his 
keen  eyes  on  the  enquirer,  Mr.  Storrs  answered  "When  I  think 
of  the  beauteous  descriptions  of  the  abode  of  the  saints,  and 
when  I  recollect  that  many  noble,  witty,  genial  souls  have  died 
'  unregenerate,'  I  must  answer  you,  sir,  that,  while,  doubtless, 
Heaven  has  the  best  climate,  Hell  has  the  best  society." 

The  incident  of  a  sheriff  arranging  to  levy  upon  the  dinner 
which  Mr.  Storrs  was  about  to  give  Lord  Coleridge  during  the. 
latter's  visit  to  this  country  is  well  known.  To  a  friend  who 
bantered  him  about  it,  he  made  the  reply  that  he  had  the 
honor  of  giving  the  first  Lord's  supper  the  world  ever  saw 
which  was  attended  by  a  representative  of  government.  Apropos 
to  this  Coleridge  story  is  the  one  that  while  Storrs  was  in 
London,  he  was  dined  by  Lord  Coleridge.  Among  the  after- 


LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

dinner  speakers  was  one  gentleman  who,  while  frankly  confess 
ing  'his  admiration  for  the  remarkable  growth  of  the  interior  city 
of  the  States,  at  the  same  time  expressed  regret  to  learn  that 
the  city  from  which  the  guest  of  the  evening  hailed  was  one 
where  commercial  honor  was  at  so  low  an  ebb  that  hundreds  of 
merchants  failed  in  the  course  of  a  year,  always  with  large  liabil 
ities  and  small  assets,  and,  that  after  the  storm  had  passed, 
these  same  merchants  would  reappear  in  the  mart  richer  than 
before  and  with  head  as  high  as  ever.  This  was  an  aspersion 
upon  his  home  city  that  Mr.  Storrs  would  not  permit  to  go 
unanswered.  "I  assure  you,  gentleman,"  said  he  a  few  minutes 
later,  "the  gentleman  has  been  misinformed.  I  am  glad  to  be 
able  to  correct  his  error,  and  how  shamefully  he  has  been 
imposed  upon  by  his  informants  will  appear  when  I  declare  to 
you  that  during  the  twenty  years  I  have  lived  in  Chicago  not 
one  business  failure  has  occured  there  involving  a  sum  exceed 
ing  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  Not  one,  sir,  in  twenty  years! 
Failures  in  Chicago?  Why,  gentlemen,  our  glorious  young 
giant  of  the  West  has  but  one  language — that  of  grand  old 
Mother  England — and  the  word  'fail'  never  found  a  place  in 
its  lexicon."  The  Englishmen,  both  astonished  and  delighted, 
cried  "Hear,  hear!"  Is  was  a  remarkable  showing,  and  none 
knew  enough  about  the  distant  city  to  refute  the  statement. 

Later  in  the  evening,  however,*  an  inquisitive  Englishman  cor 
nered  Mr.  Storrs  and  inquired  :  "  Wasn't  that  statement  of  yours 
about  there  being  no  important  failures  in  Chicago  for  twenty 
years  slightly  exaggerated,  Mr.  Storrs?"  "Exaggerated!  Not  in 
the  least,  sir.  Not  a  particle,  sir.  It  was  simply  a  magnificent 
lie!"  Once  in  court,  Mr.  Storrs  made  an  objection  to  the  testi 
mony  of  a  witness,  whereupon  the  opposing  counsel  remarked, 
"It  hurts  you  to  meet  the  truth."  "Oh,  no,"  was  Mr.  Storrs' 
quick  rejoinder.  "I  never  meet  the  truth — it  and  I  always  travel 
in  the  same  direction,"  Similar  in  kind  was  his  remark  to  a 
friend  who,  when  in  the  witness  chair,  declined  to  make  a  state 
ment  just  as  he  was  evidently  wished.  "  I  should  like  to  favor 
you,  Mr.  Storrs,"  said  the  witness,  "but  I  have  even  more  regard 
for  the  truth  than  for  you."  ''Oh,  very  well,"  came  the  reply, 
"but  a  man  at  your  age  ought  not  to  desert  old  friends  and 
take  up  with  strangers."  Of  a  well-known  lawyer  who  possessed 


THE    CONCLUSION.  797 

a  propensity  for  talking  for  publication  and  who  was  always 
hunting  around  for  interviews,  Mr.  Storrs  observed,  "He  reminds 
me  of  a  jackass  we  had  on  the  farm  down  East.  He  used  to 
come  around  to  the  empty  rain  barrel,  stick  .his  head  in  it  and 
bray,  and  from  the  mighty  roar  that  followed  he  thought  he  was 
talking  to  the  universe."  A  characteristic  anecdote  is  told  as  to 
how  one  day  at  Saratoga,  sitting  in  a  group  of  millionaires  he- 
was  chaffed  by  them  about  his  lack  of  prudence  in  money  mat-; 
ters.  Suddenly  turning  upon  his  tormentors,  he  hurled :  "  You 
rich  fellows  appear  to  think  that  money-making  is  an  intellectual 
process,  and  that  the  wealth  acquired  by  you  proves  you  are  a 
very  superior  kind  of  men.  You  are  much  mistaken.  Acquisi 
tiveness  is  not  intellectual.  It  is  merely  an  animal  trait.  It  is 
less  highly  developed  in  you  gentlemen  than  it  is  in  the  chip 
munk.  The  beaver  is  much  your  superior  in  this  regard.  Where 
are  the  rich  men  in  history?  There  are  two  only  who  live  in  the 
legends  of  literature — Dives,  who  survives  on  account  of  his  for 
tunate  connections  with  a  pauper,  and  Croesus,  because  his  name 
has  been  used  by  poets  merely  as  a  synonym.  Gentlemen,  where 
are  the  stock-holders  who  built  the  Parthenon?  Doubtless  they 
sat  around  in  Athens  and  spoke  of  the  fine  work  that  Phidias  was 
doing  for  them;  but,  gentlemen,  where  are  the  stock-holders  to 
day  and  where  is  Phidias?"  On  another  occasion,  his  reckless 
ness  with  money  being  reverted  to,  he  retorted.  "Money!  if  I 
should  try  to  save  it  I  should  become  its  slave.  Now,  it  is  my 
weapon.  When  I  fling  it  at  people  they  become  slaves  of  mine." 
"  Oh,  yes,"  he  once  said  of  an  eminent  and  rich  Chicago  man 
"  He's  a  nice  man,  a  very  nice  man.  I  never  observed  but  one 
thing  objectionable  in  him  and  that  is  that  he  is  insufferable." 

Of  a  man  who  talked  much  but  said  little,  he  said  "He  is  a 
fellow  reminding  me  of  a  suddenness,  such  as  if  you  opened 
what  looked  like  the  parlor  door  and  found  all  back-yard."  One 
day,  General  Martin  Beem  had  Mr.  Storrs  in  court  to  testify 
in  an  assessment  of  damages  for  the"  dissolution  of  an  in 
junction,  and  when  the  opposite  counsel  asked  him  if  his  pro 
fessional  charges  were  not  usually  very  high,  he  responded  in  an 
assumed  solemnity  of  voice  which  amused  even  the  court,  "I  do 
not  propose  that  the  inadequacy  of  my  charges  shall  ever  be  a 
disgrace  to  my  profession."  Ever  ready  with  a  happy  retort, 


Ml  MI.KV    A.    STORRS. 

ready    with    an    original    anecdote,    and,    at   the    same    time, 

ever  ready   with   some  hit  of   wisdom,  there  was  ground  for  Jane 

Swisshelm    writing,   "  Kmery  A.    Storrs  calls  up  the  idea  of 

a    I)amascus  Made..    Small,  compact,  alert,  keen,  incisive;  with    a 

1  like  a  box  of  pigeon-holes,  every  one  full,  and  none  crowded; 

.tiling   in  its  appointed  place,  labeled,  indexed,  docketed,  and 

ready    lor    use    on  the    instant.     What  he    knows,  he    knows  just 

when  he    needs    it;    and    is    not   troubled    with    after   wit    or   any 

lumber.     He    would   be  an  expert  wrestler  who  would  trip 

ra  with  quirks  and  quiddities,  or  unlocked  for  tactics  of  any 
kind." 

\(\^  wit,  sparkling  under  the  slightest  provocation  in  social 
life;  his  sense  of  the  ridiculous,  liable  to  emit  epigrams  under 
all  circumstances;  his  Irank  derision  of  sham  men  and  tinsel 
appearances  breaking  into  raillery  and  jest,  might  have  led  those 
who  did  not  know  him  as  a  lawyer  into  the  belief  that  he 
lacked  gravity  of  spirit  and  might  want  thoroughness  in  the 
handling  of  solemn  trusts.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the 
truth.  He  showed  to  least  advantage  in  the  playful  light  of  his 
trifling  moods.  His  real  temper  was  profoundly  earnest.  As 
was  well  known  to  a  veteran  bench  and  to  his  most  formidable 
opponents  at  the  bar,  his  intellectual  method  in  the  analysis  and 
presentation  of  cases  was  relentlessly  thorough.  It  has  been  said 
of  Kdmund  Burke  by  an  eminent  living  writer  that  to  the  easy 
masters-  of  facts,  lie  added  the  far  rarer  art  of  lighting  them 
up  by  broad  principles.  This  was  true  of  Mr.  Storrs.  His  suc- 

was  not  due  to  fascinating  devices,  blinding  eloquence,  nor  to 
chance  or  fortuitous  advantages.  He  won  by  the  thoroughness 
with  which  he  i  ts  and  by  the  surpassing  skill  with 

which  he  applied  great  principles  to  them.  Burke,  in  a  stilted 
*ty!i  Ins  appeals  to  men  walled  in  by  self-interest 

and  hereditary  prejudice;  the  great  advocate  became  the  admira- 
ot    the    world    and    oi    posterity,    but    measurably    failed    to 
convince     hi  >r    persuade    his    country.      Storrs,    following 

the  same  modfe,  by  the  instinct  of  genius  as  well  as  by  the 
instruction  of  logic,  had  the  more  restricted,  but  not  less  respon 
sible  function  of  addressing  courts  constituted  on  equity  and 
juries  bound  to  do  simple  justice.  He  adapted  his  style  with 
unerring  instinct  to  its  purpose. 


THE    CONCLUSION.  799 

To  demonstrate  the  soundness  of  his  legal  proposition,  to  estab 
lish  the  moral  correctness  of  a  client's  conduct,  was  his  sole  aim. 
His  diction,  therefore,  was  simple,  clear  and  direct.  Ornament, 
in  political  speaking,  he  did  not  despise  and  the  graces  of  imag 
ination  he  was  wont,  on  appropriate  themes,  to  employ  for  their 
embellishment,  but  as  an  advocate  before  new  dealing  with  facts 
and  law,  he  adhered  to  the  simplest  and  plainest  speech,  aiming 
always  to  secure  not  only  the  approval  of  accomplished  jurists, 
but  to  enlighten  and  convince  the  reason  of  every  man.  Although 
physically  weak,  he  had  so  cultivated  a  naturally  pleasing  organ 
that  his  voice  was  as  distinct  in  a  small  chamber  as  it  was  far 
carrying  in  vast  halls.  He  was  totally  devoid  of  theatricalism  in 
elocution,  gesture  and  personal  bearing,-  but  would  sometimes 
resort  to  dramatic  effects  when  they  were  calculated  to  make  an 
important  matter  .clearer  to  a  jury.  For  instance,  in  the  Sullivan 
case,  he  suddenly  required  the  powerful  McMullen  to  seize,  pinion 
and  choke  him  before  the  jury,  precisely  as  he  had  seized,  pin 
ioned  and  choked  Sullivan  into  helplessness  for  Hanford.  Again 
he  objected  to  the  reading  of  a  single  passage  of  Hanford's  let 
ter  by  the  counsel  who  made  the  closing  speech  for  the  prosecu 
tion  and  insisted  upon  stating  exactly  what  was  objectionable  in 
the  letter.  His  adversary  impatiently  said:  "Very  well,  read  the 
whole  letter  if  you  like."  "Thank  you,  I  will,"  said  Mr.  Storrs. 
After  the  closing  speech  was  made,  Mr.  Storrs  arose  in  his  most 
bland  manner  and  proceeded  to  read  the  whole  letter  to  the  jury. 
All  three  of  counsel  for  state  were  on  their  feet  objecting,  but  as 
one  of  them  had  consented  that  Mr.  Storrs  might  read  it,  he  was 
allowed  to  do  so.  That  consent  was  probably  given  to  prevent 
Mr.  Storrs  from  interrupting  and  correcting  counsel,  but  it  was 
not  supposed  he  would  read  it  after  the  closing  speech!  He  did 
read  it,  and  often  afterwards  said,  the  reading  of  that  anonymous 
letter  was  the  very  best  speech  for  the  defence  that  could  possi 
bly  be  made  to  the  jury  before  that  body  retired  for  deliberation. 

"Let  me  burn  out;  not  rust  out,"  he  was  often  heard  saying. 
The  prayer  was  granted.  The  city  of  Ottawa,  where  sat  the 
Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  before  which  Mr.  Storrs  had  been 
arguing  "the  legality  of  trial  by  information,"  was  stirred  into 
excitement  Saturday  morning,  September  12,  1885,  by  ^ie 
announcement  that  the  Mr.  Storrs  was  dead.  He  had  complained 


800  LIFE    OF    EMERY    A.    STORKS. 

for  several  days  of  pleuratic  pains  in  his  left  side,  but  as  he  con 
tinued  in  his  professional  engagements,  no  one  had  regarded  him 
as  seriously  ill.  He  himself  seemed  to  feel  forebodings  of  death. 
Two  days  before,  he  had  said  casually,  in  the  midst  of  an  argu 
ment,  that  it  was  probably  the  last  time  he  should  appear  in 
such  a  place,  and  the  Friday,  preceding  the  night  of  his  death, 
he  said,  "  My  heart  pains  me  sadly — I  am  going  to  send  for  my 
wife,"  and  it  was  in  response  to  his  telegram  that  Mrs.  Storrs 
left  Chicago  for  Ottawa  and  was  with  him  when  he  quietly,  in 
an  unexpected  paroxysm  of  the  heart,  entered  into  the  Unknown. 
It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  news  of  his  death  produced 
sadness  throughout  the  English-speaking  world.  Wherever  wit 
and  oratory  stretch  out  the  sword  of  flame,  wherever  the  plat 
form  and  the  press  find  their  vast  audiences,  there  flashed  the 
intelligence  "Emery  A.  Storrs,  of  Chicago,  is  dead."  Among 
his  home  friends,  in  the  metropolis  which  he  had,  in  his  love 
and  admiration,  so  often  termed  "the  city  of  my  soul,"  through 
out  the  breadth  of  the  land  which  he  had  so  often  delighted,  the 
fact  that  his  life's  work  was  ended  seemed  impossible.  Said^ 
Professor  David  Swing,  at  the  Unity  Church,  Chicago,  four  days  > 
later  when  a  great  and  mourning  audience  was  solemnizing  the 
last  sad  rites,  "  Emery  A.  Storrs  was  a  man  of  such  intellectual 
life  that  we  could  never  associate  his  name  with  death.  We  who 
have  known  him  for  a  score  of  years  have  known  him  only  as 
speaking,  acting,  moving  other  minds  by  wit  and  logic.  When  . 
we  remember  the  almost  unequalled  power  of  expression  and  the  y 
boldness  Mr.  Storrs  possessed,  we  may  regret  that  he  could  not  ' 
have  seen  his  death  a  few  days  or  hours  in  advance,  for  we 
should  have  had  from  him  his  best  summing  up  of  the  argu 
ments  of  religion.  He  would  have  presented  to  wife  and  friends 
the  evidence  of  immortal  life." 

He  needs  no  eulogy.     The  social  circle,  the  attentive  jury,  the 
respectful    court,  the   waiting   audience,  the   admiring   press,  miss 
him.     The  flowers  of  Graceland   bloom    and   fade   over   that  epi 
tome  of  all  mortal,  engraven  upon  the  plate  of  the  sombre  casket: 
"EMERY  A.  STORRS; 

Born   Aug.   12,   1835; 

Died  Sept.    12,   1885." 


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